the first dish, a Ronald Colman gravy boat, though she accumulates more as Doppler announces the other dishes are unavailable due to 'misshipment'. The frustration of accumulating the gravy boats combined with the events throughout the movie get Mrs. Parker over the edge, resulting her in throwing the gravy boat she won at the theater in Doppler's head. All other housewives, encouraged by Mrs. Parker's act, also start raining down the surplus gravy boats towards Doppler, enraged at the frustration and the apparent fraudulent scheme. Mrs. Parker is arrested for the act, though with a relieved smile on her face. Mr. Parker's plot Mr. Parker's plot revolves around his odds with the Parker's hillbilly neighbors, the Bumpuses (or Bumpi, as the Parkers tend to refer them in plural), especially due to their loud overplaying of hillbilly music, obnoxious behavior and the constant harassment on Mr. Parker by the Bumpuses' forty-three Bloodhounds named Big Red. The escalation turns into war when the Bumpuses inaugurate an outhouse bathroom, which Parker clearly perceives as a health code violation. When Mr. Parker attempts forcing the Bumpuses to demolish the outhouse, they respond by having Big Dickie, the largest of the Bumpus family, destroy their house's porch as a show of force. Parker attempts unsuccessfully to torment the Bumpuses with music, which they mistake for Parker calling a night party, prompting him to hurriedly escape to the fishing trip with Ralphie. Mr. Parker does a second attempt, this time with a sound effects record disk simulating a federal bust, but by the time he unleashes the sound disk, the Bumpuses have long moved away. Mr. Parker interprets this as a defeat, and the act earns the ire of the woken-up neighborhood, who strongly suggest to bring the Bumpuses back and be rid of Parker. Cast Charles Grodin as Mr. Parker, the Old Man Mary Steenburgen as Mrs. Parker Kieran Culkin as Ralph "Ralphie" Parker Jean Shepherd as Ralph Parker/the Narrator Christian Culkin as Randy Parker Whit Hertford as "Lug" Chris Owen as "Scut" Farkus Geoffrey Wigdor as Flick David Zahorsky as Schwartz Tedde Moore as Miss Shields T.J. McInturff as Grover Dill Glenn Shadix as Leopold Doppler, Manager of the Orpheum Theater Roy Brocksmith as Mr. Winchell, The Assessor Production Shepherd had begun work on the film in 1989, after wrapping up production on the television film Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss. He admitted making