"Sham Pooh" |
|
|---|---|
| Season 3, Episode 2a | |
 | |
| Production Information | |
| Director |
Terence Harrison Jamie Mitchell Ken Kessel (Supervising Director) |
| Writer |
Eric Lewald (Story and Teleplay) Bruce Talkington (Story) Ken Kessel (Story) |
| Prod code | 302a |
| Airdate | August 25, 1990 |
| Episode Chronology | |
| Previous | Owl in the Family |
| Next | Rock-a-Bye Pooh Bear |
Sham Pooh is the first segment of the second episode of the third season of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. It originally aired on ABC on August 25, 1990.
Synopsis[]
When Pooh loses his appetite, it’s up to Tigger, Private Ear to solve the case of the mistaken identity.
Plot[]
One morning, Winnie the Pooh is at his home (Mr. Sanders’ Treehouse) and has just finished his breakfast: pots among pots worth of honey – so much that Pooh stacks the emptied honey pots up to the ceiling. Pooh says to himself, “It’s always nice to start off the day with a well balanced breakfast” and throws his recently emptied honey pot on the stack of pots he emptied earlier.
But the stack of pots becomes unbalanced and they all fall on top of Pooh. As Pooh digs himself out, he says to himself that “Perhaps breakfast wasn’t as balanced as [he] thought”. Then Pooh spots another full pot of honey in a high up cabinet and figures that the reason was because he didn’t have “desert” and then proceeds to eat even more honey. Pooh climbs on a stool, reaches into the honey pot, scoops some honey up with his paw and attempts to eat it. But – and presumably for the very first time – as Pooh attempts to put the honey in his mouth to ingest it, he has an involuntary reaction in which his body holds back his paw and prevents him from ingesting any more honey. Pooh has apparently eaten so much honey earlier that his body won’t let him eat any more, even if he tries.
Not fully understanding this, a surprised Pooh figures to himself: “Why, my paw seems to have forgotten its way to my mouth.” Then Pooh hears a knock at his door and wonders who it could be. Pooh sees that it’s his friends Rabbit, Piglet, Tigger and Gopher who – not knowing about all the honey Pooh ate earlier – decided to join him for breakfast and have each brought a pot of honey to share with him. Tigger brings over his pot of honey and offers some to Pooh. Pooh scoops some of the honey in both his paws and thanks everyone for the honey, but suggests that they’ll need to find someone else to eat it. Everyone looks at each other concerned, and – after a brief moment – Pooh tells them that he “can’t seem to eat honey anymore”. Tigger gasps in shock and Rabbit, Piglet and Gopher reply in a shocked tone: “Can’t eat honey?!”
Tigger adds in, “That’s ridicurous (ridiculous mispronounced), Pooh-bears always have room for honey” and sticks the pot of honey in Pooh’s face and holds it so that Pooh can take some more; but Pooh has another involuntary reaction which stops him from reaching into Tigger’s pot as he tries and he tells everyone, “See what I mean?” – and Tigger puts on a worried face. Still not knowing that Pooh stuffed himself full of honey earlier, Rabbit states: “This is serious! Pooh has never lost his appetite before.” Pooh replies, “I suppose that a lost appetite should be very easy to find” and Tigger adds in (as he pokes at his friend’s belly) “…especially one as big as yours [followed by a small take of his trademarked laughter]. All we have to know is where you left it.” Pooh suggests that perhaps Owl will know where he left his appetite, and Tigger agrees – adding in that he is “always getting lost in thought.” Everyone heads to Owl’s house and explains what happened to Owl; Owl is just as surprised as everyone else and states that it doesn’t sound like the Pooh-bear he knows. Then he turns to Tigger, Rabbit, Piglet and Gopher and asks them: “Are you absolutely certain that this is in fact Winnie The Pooh? A slightly confused Pooh interjects: “Well-uh.. I think I’m me.” Tigger adds in: “Hmm… Pooh-bear is missing and so’s his appetite. [gasp], it’s a regular crime wave, and somebody’s gotta ‘wave back’! This looks likes job for Tigger dashes offscreen for a costume change into his alter ego..] ‘Tigger, Private Ear’!”.
Then everyone sets up a courtroom in the middle of the forest; Gopher plays judge, Pooh is at the stand, Owl, Rabbit and Piglet play the jurors, and “Tigger, Private Ear” prosecutes. Tigger proceeds to question Pooh: “Are you now or have you ever been any Pooh-bear generally known, and publicly ‘recokanized’ as ‘Winnie the Pooh’?” Pooh however wasn’t paying attention and replies: “Oh; were you speaking to me?” Tigger sticks his face in Pooh’s and rebuttals: “Not sure, eh? Alright, whoever you are, spill the beans!” Pooh, who’s apparently not familiar with the figure of speech, “spill the beans”, replies: “Why, I haven’t got any beans, Tigger. Um, perhaps Rabbit has some in his garden.” Tigger turns to Rabbit, sticks his face in Rabbit’s, and demands: “What have you got to say about that, long ears?” A surprised Rabbit stutters for a brief moment and replies: “Yes, I have beans in my garden, but I’d never spill them” Then Gopher slams his gavel on his bench to interrupt Tigger and remind him that Rabbit isn’t the one on trial. Tigger replies: “Oh yeah, [chuckles and turns to Rabbit] I was just testing ya’.” Then Tigger turns back to Pooh, points at him and demands: “What did you do without pal Pooh, Pooh!?” A slightly pressured Pooh begins to look around and he states: “Well I-I’m sure I’m around here somewhere.” Rabbit interjects that Pooh definitely looks like the real Pooh, but Gopher adds in the possibility that the Pooh at the bench is someone else in disguise. Owl looks at Pooh closely though magnifying glass and adds in that he feel that the Pooh at the bench looks a bit larger than the Pooh he knows. Then Tigger states that it’s time for “some ‘scientifical’ private-earing” and pulls out a honey pot from inside his trench-coat; Tigger figures that the real Pooh-Bear could never resist “a smackeral of something sweet” and proceeds to test everybody by asking if they want any honey and seeing if they can resist it.
Tigger tests Rabbit first, and Rabbit checks out as he states that he already had breakfast and effortlessly declines the honey; Tigger briefly grabs Rabbit by his right ear and examines him just to make sure, and is certain that he’s not the real Pooh. Then Tigger tests Piglet and aggressively pushes the honey (sticking it near his face), and he also checks out as he states that he brushed his teeth earlier and also declines the honey effortlessly. Then Tigger figures that Pooh is hiding “where you’d least expect it” and decides to test Pooh; but as he turns toward in a sudden move, he unintentionally turns the honey pot sideways and gravity spills its contents out, but Tigger doesn’t immediately take notice of this. As Tigger sticks the now empty honey pot in Pooh’s face, Pooh declines his offer as there’s nothing in the pot that he wants. Then Pooh and Tigger turn to Owl and see that he is covered in the honey that Tigger unwittingly spilled. Tigger states: “A-ha! It’s Owl; I mean, it’s Pooh! I mean, [stutters for a brief moment], you know what I mean.” Owl stutters in confusion and Gopher adds in, “I would have never guessed Owl was Pooh”; Owl however agrees with the false reasoning and points out that he appears to have an “attraction” for honey and that he must be Pooh (he even states, “Oh bother” to himself). Then the true Pooh asks: “But then where’s Owl? There’s certainly not room for both of us in there?” Rabbit states that he’s not Owl, and Piglet adds in that he can’t be Owl either as he’s afraid of heights. Gopher interrupts everyone and states that he never heard of anything so silly, and points out that he and his family have always been gophers. Gopher goes on, “Why that reminds me of the time…” but then hushes himself in shock when he realizes that he just sounded like Owl: “Aah! I’m talking just like Owl!”.
Pooh states that it’s getting very confusing and questions “If I’m in Owl and Owl is in Gopher, then, uh.. the-then” and Rabbit finishes, “Where’s Gopher?” Tigger approaches Rabbit and states: “He’s gonna he hard to find, on the count of because he’s so small.” Piglet, since he’s about the same height as Gopher, reasons out loud that he must be Gopher and apologizes (stating that he didn’t mean to be). Then Tigger asks who’s next and everyone turns to Rabbit, feeling he might be Piglet since he’s the only one left. Rabbit replies: “Don’t be ridiculous, I can’t be Piglet. What would happen to my garden? [gasp] Oh d-d-d-dear!” Rabbit says “Oh-no” in shock as he just involuntarily uttered Piglet’s catchphrase and agrees that he’s become Piglet (“I have a very large feeling I’m a very small animal.”). Then Pooh loudly sums it all up: “Now let me see: I lost my appetite, and then I lost me, and now my friends are lost, sort of; what should I – whoever I am – do?” Tigger suggests that if Pooh finds his appetite, everyone will be back to normal; Rabbit tells Pooh (whom he refers to as “whoever you are”) to hurry as he finds it scary to have become a small animal the likes of Piglet. Piglet, who puts on a helmet and takes on Gopher’s accent and mannerisms, tells everyone “No time for fiddle-fiddle s-s-sonny [Piglet is unable to fully take on Gopher’s trademarked tooth-whistling speech impediment and is only able to hiss], let’s get m-m-moving.” Owl (taking on Pooh) agrees and also points out that it must be almost time for something to eat. Then Tigger asks where “Gopher, du’ I mean Owl” is, and Gopher (taking on Owl) states that it’s “time to flap the fight-fantastic” and tries to fly by jumping in the air and flapping, but of course only falls to the ground; Gopher lands in the mud and (further taking on Owl) states: “This reminds me of the time my Uncle Torbit mistook a plum pudding for a birdbath.” Pooh and Tigger look onward with a slightly puzzled look on their faces, then Tigger turns to Pooh and tells him, “Come on ‘stranger’, we better find that appetite of yours before this gets so confusing, even I can’t figure it out” and they both head off into the forest to search for Pooh’s appetite.
Later on, we see Tigger and Pooh tiptoeing somewhere in the forest, and Pooh is unaware that he’s about to tiptoe right into one of the entrances to Gopher’s tunnels and fall in; as they both tiptoe, Pooh comments: “Tiptoeing would be a great deal easier if you knew what it is you’re trying not to step [Pooh falls into Gopher’s entrance and shouts on the way down] iiiiiiiiin!” Tigger bounces over and Pooh is lifted out of the tunnel by Piglet, who (playing Gopher) says to Pooh: “D-d-d-dag nabbit! What’s-s going on here s-s-sonny!? How am I s-supposed to find a missing appetite when folks are always ‘dropping’ in unexpectedly!?” Then Piglet drops back into Gopher’s tunnels and tunnels himself away (leaving behind a trail in the ground); Pooh looks onward and comments to Tigger that “Gopher” doesn’t seem like himself. Tigger suddenly hears someone eating nearby and tells Pooh to listen; they both listen closely (we hear Owl’s voice say: “Just another smackeral, if you please”) and Tigger concurs, “That’s a Pooh-bear’s appetite if I ever ‘private-eared’ one.” We find that Tigger and Pooh happen to be very close to Mr. Sanders’ Treehouse, and Owl voice is coming from inside. Tigger and Pooh tiptoe over to the side window and Tigger pops through and shouts to no one in particular, “Okay appetite! Hands up!” before losing his balance and falling into a pile of empty honey pots - Also Pooh scrambles though the window and follows Tigger inside and says to no one in particular, “Your tummy has come to get you.” We find that Owl is indeed there and is playing Pooh and has been eating Pooh’s honey in the same way that Pooh normally would. Rabbit is also there and is playing Piglet, and he cowers (“Yikes!”) and hides under Pooh’s bed (something Piglet would likely do when frightened) as soon as he notices Pooh and Tigger come in. Owl says to Tigger and Pooh, “Ah company, and you’re just in time for breakfast” and then turns to Rabbit under the bed and says to him, “Don’t be afraid, Piglet, it’s just our friends Tigger and... um... ‘me’.” Rabbit pokes his head out from under Pooh’s bed for a brief moment, but then ducks back under when he and everyone else hear Gopher screaming as if he’s falling (Owl, Tigger and Pooh also put on frightened faces as they look offscreen and see Gopher falling toward the treehouse), and then “CRASH!”
We see that Gopher, playing Owl, has apparently just tried to fly like Owl (and has fastened window shutters to his arms as a pair of wings and a pillow to his torso for safety), and he’s just crash landed into Pooh’s front door and knocked said door clean off its hinges; fortunately, Gopher isn’t seriously injured, but he complains: “If that door had been open, if would have been a perfect landing!” Then Gopher gets Pooh’s attention, both he and Owl reply, “Yes?” before looking at each other. Gopher goes on to say that he found a place where Pooh’s appetite might be. Tigger excitedly interjects, “Whoo-whoo-whoo! A clue! Take us to it so I can get you all back to ‘abnormal’.” Gopher takes Tigger and Pooh over to a tall but hollow tree with a large hole near the top leading inside and a thick limb sticking out from under the hole; Tigger, Pooh and Gopher have climbed onto said limb and Gopher says, “Well, here you are.” Pooh replies: “Thank you Gopher for being Owl and taking me to wherever my appetite is; where is it?” Gopher points Pooh through the hole in the tree and claims it’s “where Pooh would be, if he was Pooh", but doesn't give many other details. Then Gopher states that he must be going - claiming “lots of things to do you know” – and then jumps into the air and tries to fly again by flapping his window shutter wings, but of course he only falls to the ground and crashes (and he also smashes his window shutters all to pieces). As Gopher rubs his head and picks himself up, he says to himself (talking like Owl would): “That reminds me of one of the things I didn’t wanna do again.” We focus back on Tigger and Pooh; they walk over to the hole in the tree, and Pooh sticks his head inside and shouts, “Helloooooooooo?”, but doesn’t get an answer. Pooh turns to Tigger and asks, “Do you think my appetite’s really down there, Tigger?” and Tigger replies, “There’s only one way to find out” and gives Pooh a nudge on the chest; but Tigger’s nudge causes Pooh to lose his balance and fall backwards though the hole and into the tree (“Oh botherrrrrrrrr!”). We cut to a view inside the tree and see Pooh land in an unusual pool of honey (giving him something of a soft, wet landing). Pooh swims to the surface and licks the honey off of his face - and he says to himself: “Oh, my! I certainly hope my appetite is nearby; it would be a shame to have found all this honey and not be able to enjoy it.”
Suddenly, Piglet (who’s still playing Gopher) emerges from under the honey, and Pooh says hello and asks him what he’s doing there. Piglet explains that he tunneled into the tree from below to see what was going on: “I was just tunneling by see what all the brew-ha-ha was about”; Pooh rebuttals “Tunneling by?” as they both realize that Piglet just unwittingly created a drain in the floor for all the trees honey to flow out of, and they are both violently washed down below in a massive whirlpool of honey (Pooh: “Oh botherrrrrrrrr!”). All the honey from inside the tree completely floods Gopher’s tunnels and carries Pooh and Piglet with it; and the honey eventually has nowhere else to go but out of one of Gopher’s entrances in the ground and it begins to flow out like water shooting from a geyser, and Pooh and Piglet are carried to the top of this honey geyser. Pooh begins to absentmindedly eat the honey around him (as his body has apparently digested all the honey he ate earlier and no longer has to resist anymore) and thanks Piglet for unwittingly getting him out of the tree, but he also wishes that he could have found his appetite. Piglet points out: “You know s-s-sonny, for a someone with no appetite, you’re sure eating a lot of honey.” In relief and in utmost glee, Pooh realizes that he’s regained his appetite: “My appetite! It must have been in the honey tree all along, just like Gopher, uh-I mean Owl said.” Then Piglet asks of this means that he’s himself again (and no longer has to play Gopher), and Pooh replies: “Yes Piglet, everyone is who they weren’t, but are really. All we have to do now is find a way down from this [the honey holding Pooh and Piglet up stops flowing and Pooh screams on the way down, honeeeeyyyyyy!”
Later on, everyone except for Gopher is back at Mr. Sanders’ Treehouse, and everyone is also back to being themselves again; and Tigger states to everyone: “Yet another mystical-type-mystery solved by the defender of the weakly, the champion of the undercooked, that’s ‘sleuther’ of the ‘unsleuthable’, and general all around nice guy: Tigger, Private Ear!” Everyone applauds for Tigger and Piglet says: “It certainly is nice to have everybody back to being.. [chuckles] everybody.” Tigger interjects: “Aw, shucks, it was kinda fun when anybody was nobody, and everybody was who they thought they weren’t.” Rabbit adds in: “That’s easy for you to say, Tigger, you didn’t have to be anybody.” Pooh adds in that he’s glad to have his appetite back as he was starting to get very hungry, but also points out that he feels as if they all forgot something. right on cue, we find that it’s Gopher, who doesn’t yet know that he no longer has to play Owl and is still trying to fly. Everyone hears Gopher screaming from outside as he’s falling from above again, and they all shrivel up as soon as Gopher crashes again. The screen fades to black and we hear Gopher shout, “Dag-nabbit!” just as the episode comes to an end.
Characters[]
Locations[]
- Hundred Acre Wood
- Pooh's House
- Owl's House
- Hundred Acre Wood Court
- Honey Tree
Interval Title Card[]
Cast[]
| Voice actor | Character |
|---|---|
| Jim Cummings | Winnie the Pooh and Tigger |
| John Fiedler | Piglet |
| Ken Sansom | Rabbit |
| Michael Gough | Gopher |
| Hal Smith | Owl |
Trivia[]
- This is the third and final time Tigger dressed up as his alter ego: Tigger, Private Ear.
- This is a role reversal episode. Owl becomes Pooh, Gopher becomes Owl, Piglet becomes Gopher, and Rabbit becomes Piglet. Tigger and Pooh were the only ones that didn’t swap roles with anyone.
- While it is presumed that Gopher eventually finds out Pooh has regained his appetite and he no longer has to be Owl, it’s left a mystery as to what Gopher will do about all the honey in his tunnels.
- Post Production Supervisor Joseph Hathaway is still Credited on the Ending Credits.
- Gopher reveals that he has an uncle Torbit.
Goofs[]
- When Pooh, Gopher and Tigger are first seen on the tree branch, Gopher is not wearing his pillow. In the next scene, it appears.
- When Tigger, Piglet, Rabbit and Gopher arrive at Pooh Bear’s house, all of them are holding honey pots. This is most unusual. The reason this is unusual is because in the episode Tigger, Private Ear, Tigger references his first appearance, which was Winnie-the-Pooh and the Blustery Day, which was also part of The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh.
- In the scene when the honey pot is seen in Pooh's cupboard, it is brown, but when Pooh takes it out, it is green, and then again when it is in the cupboard, it is brown.