🧾📚 John opens Season 3 with a classic Bundy cringe-comedy: Al discovers a library copy of The Little Engine That Could he borrowed decades ago — it’s been overdue since 1957, and returning it means facing the same stern librarian who humiliated him as a kid.
When Al tries to make good on his long-buried mistake, he learns the overdue fine has ballooned into a serious debt, and his attempts to fix things only dig him in deeper—sparking the embarrassment, schemes, and social fallout that the show mines for laughs.
John breaks down the episode’s strengths: Ed O’Neill’s comic timing as Al’s pride collapses, the way the writers turn a small, absurd premise into family-sized humiliation, and how the story reflects the show’s knack for turning shame into sitcom gold. Tune in to hear where “He Thought He Could” lands on his Sitcom Rankings.
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Music Credits:
Achilles by Kevin MacLeod http://incompetech.com
Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0
Free Download / Stream: http://bit.ly/_achilles
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/hEy-ljZB9N4