MovieChat Forums > Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. (1964) Discussion > The Welsh Rarebit episode

The Welsh Rarebit episode

posted 16 years ago by gargantuaboy
19 replies | jump to latest

I saw the Welsh Rarebit episode when I was a kid and I thought it was fantastic how Gomer and Sargeant Carter would walk in their sleep and do all sorts of nutty things after they would have some for dinner. I made my mom buy some. Stoffers actually makes it really well. It's frozen and you can put the frozen pouch in boiling water and then when it's all bubbly and hot you can spread it over toast or English muffins. It's like a aged chedder cheese sauce. It is so good! Anyway I would eat it and then hope that I would walk in my sleep that night and do weird things, but it never did happen. Not even once. I think about that time in my life every time I happen to see that episode.

Did anyone else try this?

[–] trblee 16 years ago

I have never tried welsh rarebit. This is one of my favorite episodes of GP.

[–] AndMan433 16 years ago

Hillarious you should mention this episode. I remember being a little boy and watchin this episode of Gomer. My sister kept saying she was gonna buy some of the stouffers welsh rarebit and eat it and walk in her sleep and I remember Begging her not to and actually crying when she said she was. I was afraid she was gonna walk outside and fall off a bridge or sumthin. LOL! Ahh Memories...

[–] saginaw1 16 years ago

Gargantuaboy, this is also one of my favorite 'Gomer Pyle' episodes.

I actually made some Welsh Rarebit from scratch many, many years ago, minus the ale or beer. It turned out okay, but I think I went a little too heavy on the Worcestershire sauce, and the cheddar cheese didn't melt to a creamy enough consistency. I didn't know Stouffer's makes Welsh Rarebit. I'll have to try it. Thanks for the info!

Here are a couple of links about Welsh Rarebit. The second one briefly touches on the nightmare legend:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_rabbit

http://www.eatoutzone.com/WelshRabbit.htm

Since the weather's getting colder, it seems like the perfect time for eating Welsh Rarebit. Any ideas on how you would garnish or enhance it? The pic from the second link looks appetizing (since I like tomatoes).

[–] gargantuaboy 16 years ago

Thanks for that article. It made me want to try it again. I hope Stouffers still makes it, I am going to look tomorrow!

[–] city5705boy 16 years ago

Yes I tried it to after watching the episode. Stouffers does still make it. I like another poster here, made my own from scratch too, and it was courser, but I thought it was better. I made it with shredded cheese, worechestershire sauce, beer, tomato soup, and it seems something else, I can't think of.

[–] MrPie7 16 years ago

I think you wrote this post after eating Welsh Rarebit and typing it in your sleep. You probably don't even know it's here!

[–] jimbo97-1 16 years ago

This thread is as funny as the episode! :-)

Yes, I once tried the Stouffer's. No, it didn't "work". :-)

It was OK, but I'd rather have some good S.O.S. on my bread. At least I can say I've tried Welch Rarebit (Rabbit) now.

[–] gdd55 14 years ago

The rarebit episode is one which stands out in my memory. Growing up in the 1960s, money in our family was in short supply and Welsh rarebit was often served, as cheese was inexpensive in those days. I also asked my Mom to make it more often and was kind of hoping I'd do weird things in my sleep, as opposed to the weird things I already did while I was awake. Stouffer's does indeed still make Welsh rarebit and I buy it from time to time. It's not as good as my Mom's but better than I can make.

[–] ridgerunner72160-609-362419 14 years ago

I remember when the Welsh rarebit episode came on prime time. I thought the stuff was Welsh 'rabbit' and wondered why it was yellow. I thought the stuff was cooked rabbit meat...lol. Well, I was only 7 years old. But then one day at the grocery store I saw some of Stouffer's Welsh 'rarebit' on the shelf and it occurred to me that this was the stuff giving Gomer and Sgt. Carter weird dreams in that long ago episode. Anyway, I tried some, but it didn't give me any weird dreams. However, when I stopped smoking three years ago I took some stuff called Chantix that was prescribed to help me kick the tobacco habit and it gave me crazy dreams. Maybe the lady who owned the tea shop in the Welsh rarebit episode was spiking Gomer and Sarge's Welsh rarebit with Chantix...LOL.

[–] holbrookp 12 years ago

In those days, I always thought it was called Welsh Rabbit. In fact, years later when I heard the correct pronunciation, I thought the speaker had made a bad mistake!

Can't remember ever eating it, though.

That episode is one of my personal most memorable, too. Today, would the woman who made it be subject to an investigation? Surely any such dish that makes people do weird, potentially dangerous things must have something wrong with it.

"Truth is its own evidence." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

[–] ridgerunner72160-609-362419 12 years ago

It's actually pretty good. It's a melted cheese dish. I don't know where the old wives tale about it giving people bad dreams comes from. But I remember in the episode of Gomer Pyle, first the little old lady who owned the tearoom told Gomer about her husband sleepwalking and painting the kitchen while in his pajamas in the middle of the night and then later on in the episode Cpl. Boyle starts laughing and tells Sgt. Carter about how he always heard Welsh Rarebit is supposed to make you dream like crazy. But you're right about it being subject to an investigation. The feds always have their stupid noses in ordinary people's business and they love to waste taxpayers' money. I wouldn't be surprised to see that they'd thrown away a few billion on an "indepth study of the effects of Welsh Rarebit on sleeping humans".

[–] sbrady53 9 years ago

Apparently it was originally called Welsh rabbit, but was later corrupted to Welsh rarebit to explain the absence of rabbit.

Maybe the term Welsh rabbit was deemed to be an ethnic insult--it supposedly alludes to the Welsh fondness for cheese.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_rarebit

I always though they called it Welsh rabbit on the show. I'd never heard of the dish in any other context.

[–] goldenpet 9 years ago

My brother said he had a crazy dream after eating something spicy, can't remember what it was... I mentioned this Gomer Pyle episode to him and he laughed, but he checked it out. He said, yeah, that was exactly what it was like. Something in the spices maybe affects the brain chemistry.

I'd put a stupid saying here but I won't.

[–] trollomatic 12 years ago

<<<Maybe the lady who owned the tea shop in the Welsh rarebit episode was spiking Gomer and Sarge's Welsh rarebit with Chantix...LOL.

Not Chantix. It was the 1960's. She was probably spiking it with a certain other drug. Or drugs.

Other tv shows in the 1960's:

The very first episode of Green Acres shows and mentions Oliver Wendell Douglas growing bad mushrooms in his office desk drawer. Just take a look at how wild the episodes are after the first half of the first season.

The early episodes show Lisa as the sane one and Oliver as the crazy one growing bad mushrooms in a desk drawer in his office. And are pretty normal sitcim episodes. The later episodes show Oliver as the sane one and Lisa as the craxy one along with everyone else in Hooterville also being crazy (even though the very same characters are completely sane on "Petticoat Junction" and the samee storylines cross over both shows). And totally impossible absurd things happening.

Then for the kiddies, there was "H.R. Pufnstuf"

[–] holbrookp 12 years ago

Yes, I noticed that. I was thinking somebody might post a comment pointing that out. I happened to catch an early episode of GREEN ACRES the other night and was surprised at how sane Lisa was.

Then later episodes have her totally crazy, believing anything she hears, thinking animals have the same concerns as humans in child bearing and marriage/romantic relationships, happy to give any amount of money to anybody who had the most harebrained reasons for wanting it, believing Eb is her son, etc. My wife doesn't like the show because of this. "Too stupid" she says. And I'm beginning to think Lisa's zaniness is becoming too predictable and not sustainably funny. It gets old.

Anyway, I know it was because her character needed to evolve into someone funnier but within the context of her life on the farm, we have to wonder what happened. something in the water? Too much exposure to lead paint? Or something more sinister?

"Truth is its own evidence." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

[–] trollomatic 12 years ago

<<<Anyway, I know it was because her character needed to evolve into someone funnier but within the context of her life on the farm, we have to wonder what happened. something in the water? Too much exposure to lead paint? Or something more sinister?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3A9tPw8LeM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIuXv7Y8QA4

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] crlnrgbrght5 9 years ago

They made it sound like it was some kind of drug, it's only food.

[–] rndgurl-971-654277 9 years ago

I had the Stouffers Welsh Rarebit last night for dinner.. It was very good, next time on a cold and/or rainy or snowy day this winter, I will have some tomato soup with it.. yum.. This is one of my fav episodes of this show... No crazy dreams yet though..