Diff'rent Strokes: Mother's Last Visit

Diff'rent Strokes: Mother's Last Visit
NBC
November 17, 1978
Sitcom
DVD
C+

This is the only DS episode written by William Raynor and Myles Wilder, who had co-written one for Wait Till Your Father Gets Home, three for The Brady Bunch, and one for Welcome Back, Kotter.  Mr. Drummond's 73-year-old mother visits for the first time in about a year.  He has neglected to tell her that he's adopted two poor black boys and she does not react well when she finds out.  I find her turnaround at the end a bit much even for a sitcom, and the idea that Kimberly would twice refer to her developing chest in front of both her grandmother and her father completely implausible even in the late '70s.  Note that this must be the weekend, since Kimberly isn't off at her boarding school.  And we find out that the boys' late father was a janitor at the UN.