City Boy

Sandy (Luke Halpin) is feeding Flipper when "City Boy" Phil Vandervort (as Mike Beldon) walks up the dock; he teases both Flipper and "Redneck" Sandy, prompting a wet brawl. The battling teens are stopped by Ricks (Brian Kelly). Turns out, the troubled young Vandervort is going to be staying with the Ricks family for a spell. Soon, Vandervort has replaced Bud (Tommy Norden) as Sandy's companion. He takes Sandy to the town carnival looking for some "action" and takes a boat out hotrodding for "kicks". Ricks decides the New York lad has been a bad influence on Sandy; so, he seeks to re-channel their energies. He takes the teens scuba diving. Later, Vandervort coaxes Sandy to return to a sunken ship, where the two face unexpected danger…

This is an interesting episode focusing on Luke Halpin's character Sandy, and the "juvenile delinquency" offered by guest star Vandervort. It is interesting to see Sandy with a "City Boy" friend other than young Bud. However, Vandervort seems a little too soft-spoken to pose any real threat. Watch for the bathing suit modeling - Halpin in yellow trunks, and Vandervort in red - and, both with black belts! And, don't miss the wink Ricks gives Sandy when he takes them out scuba-diving. Note: Vandervort was Lucie Arnaz' boyfriend, then husband.

****** City Boy (10/17/64) Herman Hoffman ~ Luke Halpin, Brian Kelly, Phil Vandervort

This episode reasonably accurately portrays how adolescent boys behave - the thrill seeking behavior with a fast boat, the rivalry and oneupmanship and the tendency for the wilder boy (Mike) to try and tempt the more straight laced kid (Sandy) into breaking family rules. A typical scene was how quickly the tension between Mike and Sandy boiled over into a fight but also how quickly they made up and became friends. The script writers obviously had teen aged boys. I enjoyed the realism of this episode even down the addressing the emotional impact of the death of a father and how destabilizing it is for the mother to remarry so quickly. All good stuff.

After nearly killing himself racing a boat someone left at the Ricks', Sandy teaches Mike how to scuba dive. This seems to calm Mike down and enables he and Sandy to bond. However in persuading Sandy to do one last dive to a wreck in pursuit of possible treasure leads to both boys being trapped and, thanks to Flipper's guidance to the site, both Porter and Mike's step-father (Sam) with whom Mike has struggled to like, affect the rescue. Sam has no prior diving experience and so the courage it took to dive to rescue his stepson ends up breaking the ice and enabling them to bond.

A bit of trivia - the opening credits from Episode 5 onwards of Season 1 now feature footage of the 3 main actors filmed that same year (1964) whereas the first 4 episodes in Season 1 had credits with footage filmed in 1963 for the pilot (which became Episode 3 SOS Dolphin).

City slicker meets country lover - Bayside style!

This episode focuses more on Sandy then Bud. Sandy gets in a fight with a family friend who Porter agreed to watch while his mother and her new husband go away. The boy has a lot of hurt feelings - upset that his mother replaced his father so quickly. He's a no it all who doesn't believe in following the rules.

I think that his influence on Sandy is what got Porter the most worked up. He kept Sandy out all day instead of doing his chores (and besides a bit of a talking to, Sandy wasn't punished for this), he wrecks a friend's boat, then he talks Sandy into going out on a dive after Porter told them not to. They find themselves in a lot of trouble underwater.

Another good episode, though nothing original really in this story. Just bayside version...