Today's Special - Phil's Visit 

yes, we'll miss her

I was shocked to find the full episode here

You're correct. His name is Gerry Parkes. He also played Barton Winslow on Shining Time Station. He's not the only cast member from Fraggle Rock who was in this show. Cheryl Wagner, the facial puppeteer and voice of Ma Gorg, performed Mrs. Pennypacker. Here are some more connections. Cheryl Wagner created The Big Comfy Couch and Bob Stutt, who puppeteered Mort from Today's Special, did Molly, Snickelfritz and one of the dust bunnies while Rob Mills was the suit performer for Junior Gorg in Fraggle Rock. Rob Mills also did Bleep the robot from the Jim Henson special The Christmas Toy and in that same special Nikki Tilroe (the mime from Today's Special) was Ding a Ling the telephone. Cheryl Wagner and Bob Stutt also worked on Sesame Street's first feature film Follow that Bird. Alyson Court (Loonette) played a girl named Ruthie that Big Bird meets on a farm. She voiced a character in Care Bears feature films while Bob Dermer (Sam from Today's Special) voiced Grumpy Bear. Fred Stinson played Major Bedhead in The Big Comfy Couch and he, Trish Leeper, Gord Robertson (who also worked on Fraggle Rock and Follow that Bird) and Nina Keogh (Muffy the mouse) worked on Groundling Marsh and Trish Leeper, Rob Mills, Bob Stutt, and Nina Keogh worked on the Canadian version of Sesame Street. Tim Gosley, the original puppeteer and voice of Basil the bear from the Canadian Sesame Street had previously puppeteered the green honker in Follow that Bird. Speaking of which, in one episode of Today's Special, you can spot a honker doll next to Muffy. Not only that, but you can see Sesame Street and Muppet Babies dolls on the shelves.

What is Fraggle Rock?

SERIOUSLY? YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF FRAGGLE ROCK? it's a show with Muppets, I trust you've heard of the Muppets @@tenderpawsm473

@@tenderpawsm473SERIOUSLY? YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF FRAGGLE ROCK? it's one of Jim Henson's Muppet series

Gerry Parkes later played general store owner Barton Winslow on PBS' Shining Time Station. (I believe he was credited as Gerard Parkes on that series.)

@@tenderpawsm473, this is it: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraggle_Rock

Unless Phil sprayed his breath to hide the smell........

Not all breath sprays work that well.

And even if they couldn’t smell the alcohol,his behavior did show a few red flags. Jeff could definitely tell that something was up.

Muffy could smell it at around 13 minutes into the episode. I don't know what alcohol smells like but I used to work at a Cafe for Microsoft employees and we used to serve Russian food and drinks every Wednesday. One time, I tried a drink made with some kind of bread (kind of like pumpernickel) and some kind of dried fruit but I can't remember exactly what else. It wasn't until after I tasted it that one customer told me it tasted like beer. Then I learned that it indeed had alcohol. It's a miracle I didn't get drunk. Our religion was taught not to do alcohol no matter how old we are (not counting cooked foods with an alcoholic drink in the sauce because the alcohol is gone when the drink is cooked). I have no intention of doing alcoholic beverages whatsoever.

Phil flat out lied to Muffy when he called his alcohol "breath spray"

The nose poking?

My aunt drinks. 😕

Muffy was more upset than Sam was