by Ted Davis

Original Air Date: October 25, 1963

Directed by: Frank Pierson (who also takes the blame for writing the script)

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains spoilers for this episode!

Synopsis: Restless wanderers Todd Styles (Martin Milner) and Linc Case (Glenn Corbett) have prime summer jobs working for fisherman Thayer Faxon (Pat Hingle), a man with a strong moral and ethical code, but that idyll is destroyed when highly-strung prodigal son Mememsha (William Shatner) returns home to plague the Faxon family.

Kitty Cameos: Thayer’s wife Abigail (Audra Lindley) has a code of her own, which is to prevent anyone from dozing in the daytime, and that includes the family tabby and white cat, which seems to be living the good life nonetheless and sports a diamond (presumably faux diamond) collar.

True to form, Abigail wakes up the cat and hoists him to her shoulder, only to set him down a moment later, just before calling the family to table for the mid-day meal, which is ruined by Mememsha and his bratty wife Ella (Louise Sorel).

At the end of the episode, Abigail is rocking listlessly in her rocking chair, with another darker tabby cat in her lap, and rises to answer a knock at the front door, releasing the kitty to the floor.

Final Mewsings: The cat decided that the trade-off was worth it: all the fish he can eat, but nap time during the evening hours only.

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