Interesting how we look at it differently. I liked 'The Field,' but that is because I'm a baseball fan. And I thought it was great they had all those Hall of Famers in one episode.
This said, I feel the show should have ended after season five. The one where Wesley and Belvedere are locked in the attic and flashing back over old times would have been a good way to wrap it up. Then we know Belvedere would have remained near the family. The conclusion at the end of season six where he gets married doesn't work for me because Belvedere was not a conventional guy and was not about to ever get hitched with any woman. Plus in earlier episodes, he says that he plans to stay with the Owens until Wesley goes to college. Wesley is barely reaching high school age when the show ends.
I didn't like 'Truckin,' written by Liz Sage whom I normally consider a good writer, because it was too obvious in its feminist leanings and did it in a way that was not very funny. Plus the gag with the pigs getting loose was repeated and it wasn't that funny the first time when the kids had to round them up outside the house. What I did like in the episode was the strange musical number in the diner. It showed off Christopher Hewitt's singing abilities nicely, which no previous episode ever did (usually Marsha sang or guest star Robert Goulet sang).
When 'Fat Cats' aired, I remember there was a scathing article in TV Guide where the magazine's editors called it the worst episode of the season on any network show. I don't remember ABC re-running it the following summer because it really was criticized-- the scene with them eating flies in the cabin was singled out as a low point, and so was the earlier scene with them wearing the pig noses.
When 'Fat Cats' was rebroadcast on Antennta-TV recently, I watched to see if it was as bad as I remembered. And yes, it was-- but the rest of season 5 was pretty good and I can allow a hit show to have one or two clunkers in the batch. Even 'I Love Lucy' had a few episodes that didn't work too well. It happens on most every show. But I think 'Truckin' is the other clunker. I also didn't like 'The Dinner,' a season 5 episode that was not aired by ABC until season 6. The scene where Wesley and Belvedere try to get Marsha's guests to throw up when they assume everyone has been food-poisoned was in poor taste (pun intended). But at least that gag did not go too far, because they soon went to the hospital; and we quickly learned they hadn't been poisoned at all.
By the way, I think the best fifth and sixth season episodes are the ones that involve the dog Spot. The dog brings out a new dimension in Wesley. I also liked 'Big' from season six which I gave a 10 rating here on the IMDb. I love the contrast of Wesley, a small short kid having a big overgrown friend. Plus Wes grew in that episode, realizing what it meant to have a friend and be a friend. He had a pal named Miles in the earlier seasons but Miles was almost a carbon copy of Wesley in some respects, but the new kid in 'Big' was much different and it played very well on camera. Also, while the story did moralize, it managed not to come across too preachy like a few of the episodes do where Wesley starts to see the light and reform.
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