Owl in the Family

**Owl in the Family** is the second segment of the first episode of the third season of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, that originally aired on ABC on August 18, 1990, and the 55th episode in the overall.

## Synopsis

Rabbit is out checking his garden and counting his tomatoes, when he realizes that one plant is missing. Rabbit is quick to realize his plants are being eaten by the thieving crows. He tries to stop them and chases them away, but ends up with his head stuck inside the pumpkin head of his scarecrow after knocking it off in the chaos.

Pooh, Piglet and Owl arrive to investigate Rabbit's distress, and the incident reminds Owl of a story. However, Rabbit, in frustration, states he has no time for Owl's "nonexistent" relatives or Owl's stories. Hurt, Owl leaves to reexamine his family tree and see that his relatives are real. Owl disregards Rabbit's disbelief in his family, and is excited by a ring at the door, expecting his family. Instead, he only finds Piglet and Pooh. When he asks if they have seen any owls other than him, he is disappointed to hear them say that he is the only owl they know. Owl then goes inside, saddened as Piglet explains to Pooh that Owl misses his family. They then decide to hold a Family Reunion for Owl. Overhearing, Owl is thrilled by their wish to help him and ecstatically readies for their arrival.

Pooh and Piglet then send invitations tied to a balloon as "air mail" to invite Owl's family. As Piglet goes to help Owl ready for the party, Pooh waits for Owl's relatives, but doesn't see them and goes off to look for them instead.

As Rabbit drives away the crows yet again, Owl and Piglet are readying food for the family reunion. The crows, seeing this, watch greedily, hoping to steal all the food. Pooh then surprises them and mistakes them for owls (which the crows take advantage of).

While the crows are feasting on Owl's food, Owl is delighted that Pooh has "found" his relatives. Though Piglet is suspicious that the "owls" look like crows, Owl brushes their worries aside, even as the crows act obnoxious and cause mischief, including breaking his dishes.

Owl later is persuaded into stealing from Rabbit's garden later that night, but they trigger an alarm and the crows flee, leaving Owl to be caught by Rabbit's trap for the crows. Rabbit is astonished by Owl's declaration that the crows are his relatives and decides to take action as Pooh and Piglet try to find their own plan to help Owl with the crow problem.

Pooh and Piglet later disguise themselves as Owl's Uncle Torbit and cousin Dexter to try and get rid of the crows, but are unmasked by crows. Owl is quite pleased to see them and believes the trick to be a wonderful prank. He is then surprised by the sound of more guests ringing his doorbell. Owl then opens the door to see his *real* Uncle Torbit, cousin Dexter and his Aunt Ophelia, and invites them inside. The crows, thinking the new owls are also frauds, make the foolish mistake of pulling out one of Aunt Ophelia's tail feathers, after which she smacks them with her purse. The crows fly away, scared and realizing their mistake as Owl wonders where they're off to in such a hurry. Rabbit, also thinking Owl's family are the crows in disguise, pulls out another of Ophelia's feathers, and is himself smacked by Owl's aunt.

As Rabbit lies dizzy on the floor, Aunt Ophelia reminisces on how Rabbit reminds her of their Uncle Tucker, causing Rabbit to realize Owl's family is real as Pooh explains their family reunion. Piglet also says that means four times as many stories to listen to, much to Rabbit's befuddlement and exasperation as he is forced to listen to Owl and his family tell their stories.

## Characters

* Pooh
* Piglet
* Rabbit
* Owl
* The Crows
* Dexter
* Uncle Torbit (only appearance)
* Aunt Ophelia (only appearance)

## Videography

* Volume 8: The Sky's the Limit (VHS, US only)

## Trivia

* The episode's title is a play on the American television sitcom series *All in the Family*, that ran from 1971 to 1979.
* This is the only episode of the series in which the oft-mentioned Uncle Torbit actually appears.
* This is Dexter's first actual appearance in the series. His next (and currently last) appearance was in "The Bug Stops Here".
	+ This is excluding the smaller owl that appears in "Paw and Order", if this owl is indeed Dexter making an early debuting cameo.
* The episode shares some similarities to *The Tigger Movie*, where Owl wonders about his family's existence, and later his friends do disguise themselves as said family, only for the title character to suddenly discover for himself it was his friends all this time and sees it as a joke, except whereas Tigger takes this personally and despairingly leaves his friends, Owl just cheerfully calls it a "wonderful prank".
* Owl and his relations talk about how "Uncle Tucker" spent a summer in a cuckoo's nest and never got over it, in reference to the book *One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest*.