Ben hears from an old friend named Bruce (at 1 in the morning), who tells him that he and some others will be in town over the long weekend. Ben decides to throw a party, and when Katz threatens to bring his guitar, Ben tells him he's not invited. He invites Laura, though, and Todd, both of whom decline. Laura tells Ben that charging people for the food and beverages is not normal. Katz looks for other plans that night with Stan and Julie (Julie: "Ben has friends?"), but they're busy, too. Katz says that Ben had these friends in high school and college, but "they went to graduate school and Ben went into his room and locked the door." Katz tries to get Ben to let him come to the party as a chaperone, even offering to be Pierre the French cousin, or Johnny the wacky neighbor ("Who wants a ride on Johnny's knee?!"). He winds up hanging out at the bookstore, where he runs into Laura. Meanwhile, as of 9 p.m. no one has shown up yet, and then Todd arrives: "This is turning into me just coming over to your house," he says. Todd notices the two VCRs and discovers that Ben has been copying tapes from the video store. Finally, all of Todd's theater friends show up, and it turns into a madhouse. Katz calls from the mall: "What's that glass I hear breaking?" "That's glass breaking." The cops are downstairs. Ben's locked out on the fire escape. He's not having fun. NOTES: Todd's first venture outside the video store.

• Al Lubel: Sings a song for Laura ("I'm Al Lubel, I'm standing here, I'm irritating, I'm annoying"); when he was getting sick, Mom's voice was a combination of angry and fearful; as an only child, he got too much attention from Mom, not enough from Dad; might think too much, but he's not sure how to tell; saw a guy talking to himself; wonders about people who own change machines ("I broke even again?"); does a Jimmy Stewart impression that sounds more like a crazed foreign-speaker.
• Tom Hertz: Wedding presents ("you unwrap it and it's a bunch of crap"); the Louisville Slugger pepper mill; when you're married, you can only be as happy as the other person in the marriage; uses puppets to demonstrate that; Hitler ruined the "Hitler moustache" for everyone; wonders what if he had had sideburns instead -- would Elvis have grown the little moustache?

Review:

Ben is truly one of the most pathetic characters in all of television, and we love him for it. Still, his patheticness isn't always very funny, as in this episode. Katz has a great moment as Johnny the wacky neighbor, but that's about it. Even the patients don't add much to this lackluster episode.GRADE: C+

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