"Match of the Day"

The only first-series plot of MatH that didn't get Americanized is episode 6, "Match of the Day."  It aired on 19 September 1973.


Remedy:  Robin is going to be playing on the football team for his technical college, South Kent Tech.  They're seventh in a league of eight, but he just barely made it as a replacement player, edging out a pregnant woman.  This episode has loads of references to various professional football players, none of whom I've heard of.  (I could at least name off Joe Namath and a few other 1970s American football players, if you twisted my arm.)

The trio go to the pub, where they encounter the Ropers, and it turns out that Mr. Roper gives Robin his cold.  Chrissy, who for some reason has the day off when Jo doesn't, ends up taking care of Robin the next day. 
Chrissy:  (using the nurse's first person plural) We must look after ourselves, mustn't we?  We must get better.  We must go to bed.
Robin:  We?
Chrissy:  Optimist!

She also tells him, "I'll get you better, even if it kills you."

She makes a folk remedy, to rub on Robin's chest.  While Mr. Roper is sitting on the bed with them, Chrissy has Robin open up his pyjama top so she can rub it on.  Robin shrieks because the remedy is so hot.
Chrissy:  Don't be a baby.  I'd quite enjoy it if it was me.
Robin:  Yeah, I'd quite enjoy it if it was you.

It starts to tickle.  Mr. Roper, feeling like this is getting too intimate, says, "Would you like me to leave?"


Dr. MacLeod:  When Jo comes home, she says that all the typing today made her ears sore.  Chrissy figures out that this has to do with the Dictaphone. 

Jo asks after Robin.  Chrissy says, "He's taking it like a man:  moaning, groaning, and feeling sorry for himself."

When the girls look in on him, Robin says he once read a book that said when an Eskimo gets a cold, all the young women of the tribe strip off and get into bed with him, to sweat it out together.
Jo:  Does it work?
Robin:  No, but it doesn't seem to bother them.

They go to the living room because the doctor is going to make a house call.  (Flat call?) 
Robin:  I feel like an old man.
Chrissy:  You're out of luck, we haven't got one.

Dr. MacLeod comes by and tells Robin to lower his pyjama trousers and bend over for a vitamin injection.  The girls don't leave, and Chrissy even beams.  Robin tells them to push off.  In the kitchen, Chrissy says to Jo, "As if we'd be interested in seeing him with his pyjamas down."

Robin gets his injection offscreen.  He and the doctor were discussing professional football teams, and Robin now admits to being a Southampton supporter.  The doctor thinks he's feverish.


Match of the Day:  Robin is well Saturday morning.  His "sap is rising" and he grabs Jo into his lap and says he'll have her on toast.

But the team captain calls and says Robin is off the team.  Barry's bruised toe has healed.  Robin pretends to the girls that he's not upset, but then he says he'll go out and cut his throat.

Instead, the trio go to the pub, where Mr. Roper makes fun of Robin.  So Mrs. Roper lets the kids borrow their car to go to the away match, at Catford Polytechnic.  (Catford is in South London but apparently would take too long to get to by bus, especially at this point.)

We get a lot of outdoor shots now, including of Robin trying to park the car.  Barry starts out helping the girls direct him, but then he starts flirting a bit.  Robin accidentally runs over Barry's foot, so Robin will play after all.

It turns out to be rugby football, which according to Wikipedia is "frequently cited as the toughest, most physically demanding of team sports."  I think Robin was thinking of "Association football," which is not as rough.  Apparently, he's never watched his team play before, or asked important questions.

He's injured offscreen and out of the game in five minutes.  Chrissy says, "Don't worry, we'll look after you."


Commentary:  Could this have been Americanized?  To begin with, although Jack boxed in the Navy and is generally athletic, he doesn't seem to play any sport, unless pratfalls count.  I suppose they could've had him missing out on something else because of a cold.  It might've been a cooking competition, or something else that they could do on a set, since 3'sC never did location shooting.

I can't see the folk remedy scene playing out the way it does.  Amer-Chrissy might've rubbed it on Jack's chest, but she wouldn't be sitting on the bed with him, and Mr. Roper definitely wouldn't have been there.  I suppose he could've been eavesdropping from out in the living room.

I like that we pretty much have it confirmed now that Jo is a secretary, because of the typing and the Dictaphone.  Maybe her schedule is different than Brit-Chrissy's, since she was working later one night and she has to go in on Chrissy's day off.  I suppose they could've had Janet going in to the flower shop, wanting to stay home but not having a replacement, while Amer-Chrissy uses a sick day.  I can definitely imagine Jack telling the Eskimo story.

Would they have had a doctor make a house call?  Maybe, but it was pretty rare even on TV by then.  When doctors would show up on The Brady Bunch a few years earlier, it was usually remarked on.