I know it silly to throw logic into a silly show like, but there are few problems.
1.the house wouldnt look like that, oliver had plenty of money and there are many fine carpenters out in the country.
2.knowing how lawyers love lawsuits,mr. haney would have been sued many times for the junk he sold to mr. douglas and oliver would have wised up very quickly.
To paraphrase Roger Ebert, your brain's insisting on applying logic where it's clearly not welcome.
"You liked Rashomon."share
"That's not how I remember it."
The show addressed many of these. It would do no good to sue Haney, as just about every person who works in the court is related to Haney. The one time Oliver was successful in getting a judgement from Haney (for $250) his clients were the Ziffels, and Lisa was conned into buying $800 worth of junk from Haney so he could pay the judgement.
As for the house, the problems of dealing with county inspectors and the other nepotistic agencies meant that his bedroom and other rehab work done by the Monroe Brothers were officially chicken coup rehab for permit and inspection purposes. When they tried to paint it, the house would suck up the paint, and when they developed a paint that would stick, the house couldn't breath, surreal stuff that made the show great.
Then there are the various completely divergent stories that get put into episodes which completely contradict the previous stories. How the Douglas's met and got married is a story that completely changes from one episode dealing with it to another.
The way the show treats every newer episode as if the previous episodes never happened is on the quirky things that IMHO give the show such staying power and keep it from getting dated.
Man without relatives is man without troubles. Charlie Chan
Cannot say you are wrong on what you write hifijohn, but...
The basic problem with your solutions is that they would ruin, or at least weaken, one of the funniest shows in history. Part of what we laughed at was the way the house never really got fixed up-except for the bedroom being enlarged. Good carpenters finishing the repairs in fewer than six years would have kept us from enjoying the Monroe Bros.
And, of course, if Oliver had simply been wiser, he would never again have done business with Haney after buying that ramshackle house, and we would never again have had all the laughs that the visits from Mr. Haney provided.
In recalling this great series, I think you could have applied logic into many other recurring themes that provided the laughs and totally ruined the show. Of course, you wouldn't want to do that, I'm sure.