What happens
Gildersleeve buys a new dill pickle green suit and believes it makes him look young and trim, but his family and housekeeper Birdie are less convinced. At home his nephew Leroy and his niece Margie tease him about his waistline, and his young brother-in-law Bronco tries to outdo him with a chinning and chair-balancing trick. Stung by the teasing, Gildersleeve decides to slim down quickly and turns to a diet, and his efforts soon go badly wrong. The Great Gildersleeve, starring Harold Peary, aired on NBC on August 13, 1952.
Summerfield, the town where Gildersleeve lives, including a department store, the Gildersleeve house, and the judge's home.
Characters: Gildersleeve, Leroy, Margie, Bronco, Birdie, Judge Hooker, Peavy
Listen for: Gildersleeve's attempts to shed weight and the family's reactions to his new suit and diet.
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.