The WORST episodes of Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em
Every episode of Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em!
Join Frank Spencer - the most hapless, clumsy and downright irritating man you could meet! Together with his long-suffering wife, Betty (who looked on the verge of a nervous breakdown), he got himself into all sorts of trouble which included situations such as hanging from a car suspended over a cliff! What's more, Michael Crawford did all his own stunts!
#1 - Australia House
Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 12/16/1978
Frank is takeing elocution lessons so that he'll be able to communicate with all of the ""upper crust types"" he thinks he'll meet when he starts taking flying lessons. Frank has to go to Australia House to discuss his emigration application. The emigration officer, Mr Lawrence, finally approves Frank's application in order to get rid of him. Frank has put a card in a shop window advertising his services as a gas fitter. He gets a phone call asking him to look at a gas boiler. He goes round and blows up the cutomer's house.
#2 - Wendy House
Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/18/1978
Frank is followed home by a stray dog. He talks Betty into letting him keep it. Mr Harris, from the insurance company, comes to assess the damage done to the Spencers' furniture during the move. He offers them 40 pounds for the lot. The instructor at Frank's woodwork class is horrified when he learns that Frank has been using superglue to stick a chair together. He tells Frank to take the chair home. At the bus stop, an old lady feels faint and sits down on Frank's chair. She gets stuck to the seat. Frank and a bus conductor get stuck to the arms trying to release her. They end up at the hospital, where Frank causes a great deal of damage before he's eventually freed. Frank has made a Wendy House for Jessica. It's too big to go through the door of the woodwork room, so it's lowered from the window using a block and tackle. Frank ends up being hoisted up in the air and dropped back to the ground.
#3 - Love Thy Neighbour
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 3/1/1973
Betty's mother turns up at the Spencer household unexpectedly, suitcase in hand, after leaving her husband and collapses on their couch. Betty feels that Dr Smedley should be contacted, and Frank is the one left to do it, but with the phone box out of action, he pays a visit to his new neighbour, Mr Faraday. Frank calls Dr Smedley but gives him Mr Faraday's address rather his own, and causes a misunderstanding. After all the confusion, Frank locks himself out of the house, and once again has to trouble Mr Faraday, this time for the use of his ladder.
#4 - King of the Road
Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 12/9/1978
Frank has a new job as a motorbike dispatch rider. He has to take a motorbike test. The examiner tells him to drive around the block and stop when he gets the signal. Frank takes a wrong turning and the examiner steps out in front of the wrong motorcycle. He ends up in hospital, while Frank rides around for hours looking for him. Frank's new boss tells him to collect a parcel from one address and deliver it to another. The parcel contains pornographic photographs and the police have been tipped off. The delivery firm's office is raided. Frank's motorbike goes out of control and he begins a nightmare ride through the streets and around the countryside. He ends up back at the delivery firm's office and crashes through the window. Frank is arrested and has to appear in court. He brings along a string of character witnesses and is found not guilty. Cycling home, he encounters the magistrate and causes his car to crash.
#5 - Men as Women
Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 12/2/1978
Frank, working on a demolition gang, nearly gets flattened by a falling chimney. A letter arrives from Frank's grandfather, saying that he's coming over from Australia. He wants Frank and Betty to move to Australia to help him to run his sheep farm. Frank thinks that Jessica has swallowed a coin, so he sends for Doctor Mender. The doctor doesn't find anything wrong with Jessica. He's on his way to appear as a dame in a hospital pantomime. He's running late, so he asks Betty if he can change in the Spencers' spare bedroom. Frank is horrified when he sees Doctor Mender dressed up as a woman. He thinks he's a transvestite. Then Doctor Mender's colleague, Doctor Hutchings, turns up dressed as another of the ugly sisters. Hearing that the third ugly sister is too ill to appear, Frank offers his services as a stand-in. He goes off and reappears dressed as a Swiss peasant girl. Frank's grandfather arrives unexpectedly....
#6 - The Hospital Visit
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 3/15/1973
Betty is ill in hospital and Frank intends visiting her. He stops off at the greengrocer's to buy her some fruit. After much confusion with money, the shop assistant gives Frank the fruit free of charge in order to get rid of him, although he manages to cause an avalanche of oranges before he finally leaves the shop. Returning home, Frank finds the back door is stuck and has to climb in through the window. Magically, the back door finally opens and hits Frank's head, as he is crouching by the side of it! Frank then cooks his dinner - pudding. Even Frank gets this wrong and makes it explode, bringing down most of the kitchen shelves with it. At the hospital, Frank manages to spill some fruit squash on Betty's bedspread. He tries to swap this with another one in the same ward, but is mistaken by a doctor as the uncaring husband of another woman patient who has not been visited for many weeks. The doctor gives Frank a stern talking to and crossly tells him to take ""his"" wife home and care
#7 - The Baby Arrives
Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 12/27/1973
After a few false alarms, the great day has arrived and Betty and Frank's baby is due. Betty wakes during the night and Frank must follow his 'routine' to get her to hospital on time. Frank is present at the birth and encourages Betty as only he can!
#8 - Fathers' Class
Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 12/20/1973
When Frank goes to the Fathers' Clinic, his usual bad luck causes absolute mayhem!!
#9 - George's House
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 2/22/1973
Frank and Betty have moved out of Betty's mother's house and are now staying with Betty's brother, George. George is a very futuristic designer who has filled his house with weird remote-control gadgetry. They are expecting an important visit from Mr Fletcher, the head of a large building firm, who is interested in a demonstration of the mechanical devices in the house, so Frank is ordered to be on his best behaviour!
#10 - The Employment Exchange
Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 3/29/1973
Frank's Job Centre (Where it seems he spends a lot of time) is under new management. Mr Bradshaw, the new manager, is told by his staff about the difficulty of finding Spencer a job that he can keep. Bradshaw doesn't believe anybody can be that bad but begins to change his mind when Frank comes in reporting that he has lost his job as a window cleaner - the first day's work ending with Frank and his workmate hanging from a rope halfway down a tower block. Frank also tells of another recent job where he had a job as a security guard - the factory was robbed whilst Frank was out looking for his guard dog which had ran off. Bradshaw sends Frank out on a new job as a removal man. However, on the first morning, Frank backs the removal lorry over the furniture and antiques being unloaded and soon finds himself back at the job centre. Without any other options and with hesitation, Mr. Bradshaw gives Frank a job at the labour exchange itself. Frank accidentally leaves the contents of a teapot
#11 - Getting a Job
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 2/15/1973
Frank is newly married and is living with his mother-in-law who is frustrated by him constantly breaking things. His latest attempt to ""help"" involves losing the door to the coal shed. Betty buys him a new briefcase and Frank attends an interview for a sales rep of a wholesale ironmongers. Before he even enters the building he causes chaos by giving a frightening bug-eyed grin to an assistant setting up a window display, causing the assistant to fall over and destroy the display. Frank then gets stuck in the lift for several hours. Once released, the interview with the manager of the company proceeds with Spencer breaking an expensive bathroom thermometer by demonstrating his door-knocking technique and causing a heavy metal cupboard to collapse with him under it. His patience worn thin, the manager gets short-tempered and shouts at his staff and they resign in protest. Frank leaves, confident of the outcome of the interview, only to get stuck in the lift for a second time!
#12 - The RAF Reunion
Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/29/1973
Today, Frank attends his RAF reunion & the hidden story of his short but eventful spell in the service unfolds in flashback - of how the massed forces of the RAF were mobilized to get him out!
#13 - Cliffhanger
Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/22/1973
Disaster-prone Frank manages to find a job as salesman for farm products, and with the job goes a car...and when they go for a picnic on a seaside cliff-top...
#14 - Have A Break, Take A Husband
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 3/8/1973
Frank and Betty are going on a second honeymoon. Frank is in the station toilet and (as you'd expect) manages to miss the train. He ends up running for it and grabbing hold of the back of the train. After being dragged along the platform for several minutes, he is eventually pulled inside by an angry guard and returned to Betty. After arriving at their somewhat run-down guest-house, Frank manages to tear the flimsy bedroom lino whilst moving the bed. While trying to disguise this, he manages to destroy most of the contents of his room. He decides to swap his broken wardrobe, dirty bedspread and torn mat with those in the opposite room. The room is occupied by a somewhat effeminate psychic who is convinced the strange disappearance of the contents of his room are an attempt by his dead grandfather to contact him! After a long struggle, Frank and Betty are eventually ready to go to bed. However, the floorboards under the bed are rotten and the bed collapses.
#15 - Frank and Marvin
Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 12/13/1973
Betty reveals that she's pregnant. Frank goes off to a holiday camp for an interview as a ""bluecoat."" Frank runs through his act as a ventriloquist, using a dummy called Marvin the Monkey. Unfortunately, Marvin's head gets damaged, so Frank replaces it with a doll's head. The manager wants a singer, so Frank gives him an awful rendition of ""Early One Morning"". He finishes his act (and his chance of getting the job) by accidentally setting off a firewaorks display from the back of his coat.
#16 - Scottish Dancing
Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/25/1978
Frank and Betty now belong to a local Scottish dancing group. One of them has to stay at home to babysit Jessica, so they take it in turns to attend. Mr Quincy, the lodger from next door, is the organiser of the group. He is organising a display in honour of a visit by the local Liberal Party candidate, Mr MacDougall. He wants Betty to appear, but doesn't have a place for Frank. Frank is part of the welcoming committee which goes to meet Mr MacDougall at the railway station. Mr MacDougall leaves his briefcase on the train. Frank volunteers to go and fetch it. He seems to be taking a long time, so Mr Quincy gets on the train to look for him. Frank gets off the train with the briefcase as the train pulls away. Mr Quincy jumps off and breaks both of his legs. Frank has to take his place in the Scottish dancing display. He loses his kilt at the end of the display and reveals all.
#17 - The Psychiatrist
Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 3/22/1973
Frank has once again lost his job - this time as a fireman after continually missing the fire engine. He is depressed about this and convinced that he is a failure so Betty suggests that he goes to see a psychiatrist, where Frank relays the story of his life.
#18 - The Public Relations Course
Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 12/6/1973
Frank loses another job, this time he was working in the sewers. Betty encourages him to go back to work at the prison but he doesn't think they will take him back after he was fired for assisting a prison breakout. A search of the newspaper comes up with a Public Relations course that will lead to a high paying career. Frank goes away to attend the 5-day course. On the first night Frank accidentally starts a fight in the cafeteria. A leaking water bottle causes friction between Frank and one of his roommates which leads to a brawl among all of the roommates but Frank. While role playing in class Frank causes the instructor to blow his stack which causes the entire class to leave.
#19 - Moving House
Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/11/1978
The Spencers are moving, as the council sees no other hope for the house Frank has been wrecking with his repairs for years, as dramatically proven when they leave.