Summary

The premiere of this comedy series, a spinoff of “The Jeffersons,” about Florence Johnston working as the executive housekeeper at a hotel.

Florence is excited to receive her first paycheck at her new job despite her obstructive new boss, Lyle Block. He makes things difficult for her when he reveals that he has booked the hotel’s sixth floor to host a shoe salesman convention. She learns from Betty, one of the maids, that one of the rooms on the sixth floor is supposedly haunted, although Florence finds this laughable. Elena explains that every year the room is closed for one week since a woman was supposedly murdered there, accounting for unexplained audiovisual phenomena. Florence does not believe any of this, and neither does Lyle. Earl finds a file on the murdered woman, who was apparently a concert flutist who was strangled to death in the room in 1936. Lyle still does not believe story but thinks it represents bad publicity, and so orders Florence to stay in the “haunted” room in order to prove that there is no ghost. She gets Elena to stay with her, although both of them are nervous about the prospect.

They enter the room and find Dennis the bellboy there, attempting to contact the ghost with “mental telepathy.” They soon encounter an old woman claiming to be the ghost, but soon discover that she is only there at the behest of Hank as part of a prank. Hank joins them in order to ridicule them, and Earl arrives hoping to obtain evidence of ghostly activity. The discussion turns to their fears: Elena is afraid of the dark, and Florence is afraid of spiders after an incident with one in her childhood. Lyle arrives as well to check up on everyone. He ridicules Florence and the others for their fear of what he feels is a nonexistent apparition. Suddenly everyone hears the faint sound of flute music and they become nervous. Earl accidentally breaks the door, leaving them trapped inside. Hank discovers that the noise is being generated by the room’s ventilation system, thus explaining the presence of the “ghost.” Everyone except Lyle and Florence leaves, but they can still hear the flute music despite the vent being closed. They hastily contrive an excuse not to allow the room to be booked. Commercials deleted.