Help Finding an Episode

It's from Season 2. I copied this from a website that has episode guides:


037--Fat, Fat, The Water Rat

Aired: 10/23/67. Written by: Phil Davis. Directed by: Charles Barton.

Synopsis: The story opens with a slighly lonely looking Buffy waiting for French to pick her up at dance school. While she waits outside, a rag-tag group of city kids marches by, playing a game. ("Fat, fat, the water rat/fifty bullets in his hat," Mike, the leader, sings.) They invite Buffy, who's casually clad in jeans and a jersey, to join them, and she has a wonderful, messy time playing and learning about the joys of "bread and buttah" and (later) "bread and sugah." She learns, however, that Mike and the others hate "fancy kids" and are unaware that Buffy comes from an affluent background. French is appalled to find her in a filthy state and discourages her from playing with the kids again. But when Buffy confides in Uncle Bill, he agrees to join in a seemingly harmless conspiracy to let Buffy play with her friends without letting French know. Bill dons work clothes and buys Buffy rummage sale clothes and the two venture into Mike's neighborhood. While the kids play, Bill talks to Mr. Callahan, the father of Mike and Katie. Things become awkward when Callahan wants to give Buffy some of Katie's dresses. Meanwhile, French receives an important phone call for Bill and tracks him down. French is disappointed that he's been tricked and Mr. Callahan is understandably humiliated and angry. ("Slumming is such a good sport," he sneers, "sort of like polo.") Bill gets French to understand that Buffy can be a "gentlewoman" no matter what kind of clothes she wears. Together, Bill and Buffy go to the Callahan's rent party, and Bill calls Callahan on his reverse snobbism. Bill also sees that Callahan gets a construction job. When the episode ends, Jody has joined Buffy in playing with Mike's group, and even French is learning to appreciate bread and sugar.

Commentary: This is without a doubt my favorite episode. Everything about it is perfection--even Mike's slightly over-the-top depiction of a street urchin works. Anissa Jones is absolutely wonderful at conveying Buffy's delight with her newfound world; she just beams, especially in the sweet bathtub scene. It's wonderful to see her hair in different styles--here we see it down, piled up on top of her head and pulled back in a ponytail. This is the ultimate example of Family Affair's continued preoccupation with confronting the various cultures of the big city. And, if you're inclined to overanalyze, you can also see Buffy's dilemma as "fancy kid" as a parallel for the difficulties child actors face in being cut off from normal childhood activities. One quibble: Though French commands much respect in the household, Uncle Bill should have final say about the kids' behavior. He shouldn't have needed to sneak around.

Guest Cast: Tim Callahan: Jackie Coogan. Mrs. Callahan: Marcia Mae Jones. Mike: Todd Baron. Miss Brown: Sandra Wirth. Woman: Lovyss Bradley. Katie: Sheila Duffy. The child actor spin on this episode is made more interesting by the presence of Coogan, himself a prolific child actor in the early days of film. Most memorably, he played the title role in Charlie Chaplin's The Kid. His experiences led to the law that protects the earnings of child actors. Coogan's later career as a character actor reached it's apex when he played Uncle Fester on The Addams Family. He also appeared on many TV shows, including The Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family, Perry Mason and Gunsmoke. Jones began acting at a young age, also, and appeared in the Shirley Temple films Heidi and The Little Princess, William Wyler's These Three and The Champ--with Jackie Cooper, not Coogan. Wirth was in the Family Affair pilot.