"The Slow Child " (Season Three)

[PracTz]

A fairly good episode and quite thought provoking for L&S. It was good to see Mrs. Babish being so tender towards her daughter, also good to see Lenny help bring Amy out of her shell even if others leaped to bad conclusions. Also, it was an interesting character development to see Lenny get so riled as to actually shove Squiggy hard enough to knock over a table instead of the usual comedic deal of Lenny being a lumbering goof easily and contentedly being the much smaller man's sidekick . And I liked that, as literally outgunned as Squiggy had been, he didn't suddenly become a scaredy-cat re Lenny but got good and mad before the two reconciled. Good touch for Frank to be protective of her in a fatherly way the way he also was of Shirley And it was touching that Mrs. Babish was willing to see her child as not being totally a baby at the end.
Still, as touching as it was, it was a bit disturbing that not only had there never been any previous mention of Amy but that there wouldn't be any further mention of her. I know that having a mentally challenged character as a regular wouldn't have worked that well in the long run for L&S's genre but what would have been the harm to have her make appearances at Frank & Edna's wedding or visiting Burbank even have Edna mention her having settled in a nice 'group home' after this episode [ granted that was rare if not unheard of for the time period but still. . ]. And Amy mentioned having only kissed her father prior to Lenny- so was he currently involved in his daughter's life even though the marriage to Edna didn't work out?

[PennyMarshallFan]

This is one of my favorite episodes! It was very deep for L&S for sure. Lenny and Amy are too sweet.