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In the introductory episode of The Abbott & Costello Show, we meet the two heroes, down-on-their-luck performers who owe too much rent to their landlord, Mr. Fields (Sidney Fields). To help pay it off, slick conman-type Bud Abbott maneuvers roly-poly comic Lou Costello into a job as a soda jerk and counterman at the drugstore owned by Mr. Fields' brother (also played, naturally, by Sidney Fields). Costello tries hard, but he's exasperated by a group of boys who each want five cents' worth of licorice, an alternately aloof and flirty neighbor (Hillary Brooke), an overgrown obnoxious kid (Joe Besser), and an ill-tempered customer (Joe Kirk) who thinks 10 cents is too much to pay for one scoop of ice-cream. This episode also includes one of the funniest moments in the two-season run of the show, Costello's attempt to tell the story of "Jonah and the Whale." Also worth the price of admission is a pair of appearances by Iris Adrian, doing a priceless vaudeville gag.