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The Slumber Caper is the third episode of Season 2 of The Brady Bunch, and the 28th overall episode of the series. Written by Tam Spiva and directed by Oscar Rudolph, it first aired 9 October 1970 on ABC.

Short Summary[]

Marcia's first house party almost doesn't happen after she is accused of scrawling an unflattering picture of her teacher in class.

Summary[]

The girls are excited that their parents are allowing Marcia to host her first slumber party. The boys are less excited about the prospect of a bunch of Marcia's girlfriends invading their house for the night, until Greg comes up with a plan for the boys to have some fun of their own at the girls' expense. It may be a moot point as Mrs. Denton, one of Marcia's teachers, passes along a doodle that was found in Marcia's desk and that has Marcia's name on it to the school principal, Mr. Randolph. After Mrs. Denton turns the picture in to Mr. Randolph (and she --Mrs. Denton-- tells Mr. Randolph that Marcia did the doodle and wrote the caption), Mr. Randolph makes Marcia report to his office.

In Mr. Randolph's office, Mr. Randolph hands Marcia the picture (after telling her that Mrs. Denton found it in her desk) and tells her to take a look at it. The doodle itself is a drawing of a face with the caption "MRS. DENTON? OR A HIPPOPOTAMUS?". Marcia admits to having done the doodle, but that the face is supposed to be that of George Washington. (True to the caption --under the drawing-- the drawing --on the sheet of paper-- is a picture of either George Washington, Mrs. Denton, or a hippopotamus.) Going only by what he (Mr. Randolph) sees as the overwhelming evidence against her, Mr. Randolph decides to punish Marcia.

The viewers then see Marcia in the family room with Mike and Carol. Carol says to Marcia that as much as she hates to do it, Marcia is not able to have her sleepover that night. Marcia, however, vows that she did not write the caption. As an extra punishment, Mike and Carol disallow Marcia to have her sleepover. Marcia is more disappointed in her parents not believing her than she is about not having the sleepover. Regardless of Mr. Randolph or her parents's actions, Marcia still wants to find out who wrote the caption. She becomes convinced her best friend Jenny was the guilty party and "uninvites" her. Greg and his brothers (Peter and Bobby) conspire to disrupt the party. So he (Greg) pranks the girls by putting itching powder in the girls's pajamas, underpants, and sleeping bags. Greg's prank is the itching powder, Peter's is the Halloween equipment (scary mask, spooky noisemakers, and one of those plastic skeletons), and Bobby's is the rubber spider.

While the girls are upstairs --in the bath and washing off the itching powder-- Paula (one of Marcia's friends) admits she took the drawing and added the insulting remark. Marcia (after knowing it was her brother Greg who pranked her, Jan, Cindy, and the other girls with the itching powder) says that her brother Greg is going to regret this. But before she can get revenge on him, she hears --from Paula-- that it was Paula who made the doodle picture (the picture of George Washington, Mrs. Denton, or hippopotamus) and wrote the caption. And Marcia --forgetting about the revenge on Greg (who caused the itching powder prank)-- blames Paula for making her (Marcia) miss her sleepover and do her after-school detention. Marcia re-invites Jenny to the party.

Gallery[]



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