St. Boniface Vikings (Part 1)

Like Father Like Clown

After finishing his show, Herschel decides to free himself up for the night and cancels all his plans, including a thank-you dinner with Kevin. Herschel is reminded of how Kevin saved him from prison, but still cancels and not for the first time. This makes Kevin extremely upset even to the point of turning in his membership badge. He sends a letter to Herschel and after his secretary reads it, she is very disappointed and forces Herschel to go. Marva Lynn tells Kevin that Herschel is coming and he instantly cheers up.

Meanwhile, Herschel and Kevin's friend Steve were guests. At dinner, the Smiths ask Herschel to say grace and he starts to recite a prayer in Hebrew. Realizing that Herschel is Jewish, Lisa speaks of his heritage, making Herschel break down in tears. After some convincing from the family to why he is so depressed about it, and describes his upbringing in the Lower East Side of St. Boniface. His father was a rabbi and he wanted Herschel to be a rabbi as well, but Herschel wanted to be a clown. One night Herschel got a chance to perform at a rabbi's convention but he was sprayed by seltzer, his make-up fell off and his father recognized him and disowned him. After the story is over, Herschel becomes very emotional. He ends up outstaying his welcome at the Smiths, not leaving until after 1am. He finally leaves and tries calling his dad, but is afraid that his dad will reject him again, so he doesn't say anything. The next morning, Steve's mom told him that he supposed to be at the old man's birthday party.

Kevin and Lisa notice him getting increasingly depressed (even to the point of crying during his TV show) so they agree to try to locate and reunite Herschel with his father. Herschel's father is still mad at him, so after several tries, they finally convince Hyman to forgive Herschel by saying a quote from Sammy Davis, Jr., a Jewish entertainer just like Herschel, in which the entertainer makes a passionate speech about the struggles that the Jewish people have overcome. This finally convinces the rabbit that entertainers have a place in Jewish heritage. Kevin, Lisa, and the now proud father meet Herschel on the set of his show, where they reconcile their differences together.

Meanwhile, Nolan asked Herschel about reuniting with his father, although Paul, Grady, Ed, Fran, Bill, Mick, Roy, Fred and Karl were okay with it.