A refined middle-age man from out of town checks into the Shady Rest. He is polite and friendly, enjoys relaxing on the front porch, but otherwise tends to keep to himself. Kate and her daughters take an immediate liking to him. But Uncle Joe has his usual harebrained suspicions, and convinces his doofus friends of same. IIRC, they think he’s a spy or a communist.
At one point, the man hands Kate something like $200 and asks if that would be enough for him to rent the entire Shady Rest for the duration of his stay (explaining that he’s just finished a big work project and wants to relax in quiet). She replies something like, “Five more dollars and it would be enough to buy (the Shady Rest)!” After he’s left, they learn from an article in the paper that he’s a renowned rocket scientist who had just recently completed some historic space mission.
Since the episode featured Kate, it had to be in one of the first five seasons, since Bea Benaderet left the show after season five due to her 1968 death from lung cancer.
I know it sounds similar to “That Was the Night That Was”, an episode where composer Frank De Vol plays a visiting scientist who seems connected to some recent spooky outer space occurences near Hooterville, which leads to similar crackpot suspicions from Uncle Joe. But that’s not the one.
I had thought the guy was named Reynolds, but I held off on stating same, because he reminded me of a math professor I had by that name, and I thought I might have been conflating them.
Not even that, so much…I just started skimming the episode summaries on IMDB, season by season, until I found a likely candidate. Even so, you are welcome!
It does this librarian’s heart good to see someone go straight to a trusted source rather than Google. Not that I have a problem with Google, of course.
Even so, you are welcome!