MeTV's SuperSci-Fi Saturday Night

[The Old Mixer]

The Incredible Hulk
"Ricky"
Originally aired October 6, 1978

I just realized that I didn't catch a David B. alias this week--Did anyone else? In any case, "Just schlepping around" gains in its lead as we find him working at a race track in New Mexico--his comic book counterpart's traditional stomping grounds.

As a Hoosier, I was tickled at multiple references to "pop"--I used to get looked at funny if I used that term in Florida, and they don't call it that in CT, either. I wonder if they actually do in NM? More likely, they do in Hollywood.

For plot purposes, we get our earliest first Hulk-Out yet in a regular episode...at -33:41, it's nearly a full minute earlier than last week's all-too-brief champion.

Mickey Jones does a good job of making Ricky endearing, and not only do we get good chemistry between him and the Bix, but he gets a good scene with Ferrigno as well. Love how the Hulk drops the can in imitation of him.

According to the attempt at putting together a production order list that I found on another site, this one was produced as the last episode of Season 1. Perhaps it's noteworthy in that respect that David still seems concerned that the creature might harm innocents, but the airdate position really only makes for a difference of a few episodes.

How convenient that David knows all about the special education school in the town where's he's working this week. How convenient again that Sam Roberts seems to have a black belt in TV-Fu with that knockout neck chop that he gives David. And how convenient still that Ted Roberts left the keys in his car for David!

At -6:52, the timing of the second Hulk-Out is relatively unremarkable.

The driver's view shot of the Hulk approaching Roberts's car at the derby was apparently shot as the Hulk approaching Ricky's car, judging by the color of the driver's outfit.

How did Mac / the WKRP guy know that the Roberts brothers were responsible for Ricky being in the derby? Still more plot convenience to tie everything up in a bow!

I have to wonder if David actually keeps his promise to write to Ricky....

So I was looking up who to credit for Ricky's performance, and found a fun fact...in addition to being a busy character actor, Mickey Jones was also a musician, one of whose more noteworthy gigs was as drummer for Kenny Rogers & The First Edition in the late '60s:

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Look for a close-up around 1:50. According to Wiki, he also worked with Trini Lopez, Johnny Rivers, and Bob Dylan.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

I just realized that I didn't catch a David B. alias this week--Did anyone else?

Just as there was no McGee or cure search, there was no David B. alias.

Mickey Jones does a good job of making Ricky endearing, and not only do we get good chemistry between him and the Bix, but he gets a good scene with Ferrigno as well. Love how the Hulk drops the can in imitation of him.

...and Jones played him sans what we would see in the decades to come, where many TV episodes featuring a character with a disability came off like pushy PSAs or "a very special episode" of some terrible sitcom.

According to the attempt at putting together a production order list that I found on another site, this one was produced as the last episode of Season 1

It felt like it, but if feeling was not enough, the main title used the season one theme arrangement, instead of the more familiar season two version.

How convenient that David knows all about the special education school in the town where's he's working this week.

His "I'm sensitive" meter just picked up on the school's location.

How convenient again that Sam Roberts seems to have a black belt in TV-Fu with that knockout neck chop that he gives David.

Captain Kirk, Napoleon Solo, and a host of other TV heroes say hello..then demonstrate the chop.

How did Mac / the WKRP guy know that the Roberts brothers were responsible for Ricky being in the derby? Still more plot convenience to tie everything up in a bow!

We have to assume Irene told Mac, since David told her that the Roberts boys placed Ricky in the car.

I have to wonder if David actually keeps his promise to write to Ricky....

David makes so many friends who seem to deeply care for him, and want to stay connected, that he would end being the world's most busy penpal. Imagine if Facebook and Twitter existed in '78...he would never have time to look for a cure.

So I was looking up who to credit for Ricky's performance, and found a fun fact...in addition to being a busy character actor, Mickey Jones was also a musician, one of whose more noteworthy gigs was as drummer for Kenny Rogers & the First Edition in the late '60s:

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I remember that!

 

[The Old Mixer]

the main title used the season one theme arrangement, instead of the more familiar season two version.

You're right...I hadn't noticed when first watching, but those are the Season 1 Hulk growls.

We have to assume Irene told Mac, since David told her that the Roberts boys placed Ricky in the car.

D'oh, that's right...David sent her to have Mac stop the race.

David makes so many friends who seem to deeply care for him, and want to stay connected, that he would end being the world's most busy penpal.

Not to mention leaving a paper trail for McGee!

 

[Christopher]

"Ricky": Ahh, yes, the Very Special Episode. I think I remember this one being promoted as kind of a big deal with an important message. Certainly that's what they were going for. Although I don't think the execution was that great. David's transformations seemed to be triggered unusually easily and to go too quickly. And it was clumsy that the Hulk saved Ricky the same way twice. (Although the soda-can scene was fun.)

This is probably the first thing I knew Mickey Jones from, but now I think it's weird to see him without his trademark beard. And the role is quite a departure from his usual typecasting as well. There was a time there when it seemed obligatory to cast him in any story that involved a biker gang.

NOTE: Ricky is watching a scene from Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (Universal, 1943) of another victim of unwanted transformations--Larry Talbot. Universal and other studios taking advantage of its classic horror films as TV fare within productions became common--in part thanks to two generations of filmmakers and producers who grew up watching Universal, AIP, Republic, and other studio's horror catalog which burst on the TV scene in once-prolific horror host programming blocks starting in the 1950s.

Hmm, that's an interesting thought... Does that mean that the Hulk is one of the Universal Monsters? Well, Marvel has prior claim, of course, but Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Invisible Man were all adapted from earlier sources too.

How convenient that David knows all about the special education school in the town where's he's working this week.

He probably looked it up in the phone book after meeting Ricky. That's how they Googled back in the Stone Age.

 

[RJDiogenes]

It's just too bad the series never continued. I was looking forward to The Sheet I Slit and Stop Me Before I Quilt Again.

 

[Christopher]

About the season 1/season 2 thing: Even if "Ricky" was made in season 1, it seems not to have been scored until season 2, titles aside. I recognize the Hulk-rampage music that was used in "The Antowuk Horror," and it was familiar to me from before, so it's surely going to be used as stock in further episodes. I think I also recognized a cue from "Married." And TV shows generally aren't allowed to reuse stock music from one season to another, unless they re-record it (as part of musicians'-union rules, to ensure that musicians keep getting work).

So if this was shot in season 1 and postponed, maybe the decision to postpone was made before they'd scored the episode, which would've been one of the last steps.

 

[The Old Mixer]

It's just too bad the series never continued. I was looking forward to The Sheet I Slit and Stop Me Before I Quilt Again.

Not getting the reference.

(Although the soda-can scene was fun.)

I beg your pardon--It was a pop can.

 

[Christopher]

I beg your pardon--It was a pop can.

They said "soda pop," actually.

 

[The Old Mixer]

The bad guys did...they also said "pop machine," and Ricky just called it "pop".

 

[Greg Cox]

Growing up in Seattle, we called it "pop." When I moved to New York, I had to train myself to say "soda" instead because "pop" got blank looks.

 

[Christopher]

I've always heard soda, soda pop, pop, and cola used interchangeably. But they definitely said both "soda pop" and "pop" in this episode.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Not getting the reference.

No reference to specific movies. The Sheet I Slit was an old tongue twister from when I was a kid: I slit the sheet, the sheet I slit, and on the slitted sheet I sit. Say it one time fast and you'll see why it was funny to a ten year old. Stop Me Before I Quilt Again is just a riff on the old cliche "Stop me before I kill again," usually written on a mirror in lipstick or something.

As for soda versus pop, we used to call it tonic back in Dorchester. While eating our spuckies and sitting on the piazza. Both soda and pop sound stupid to me, but I absolutely refuse to say pop.

 

[Greg Cox]

As for soda versus pop, we used to call it tonic back in Dorchester. While eating our spuckies and sitting on the piazza. Both soda and pop sound stupid to me, but I absolutely refuse to say pop.

Spuckies?

 

[publiusr]

I think we have to take a moment to enjoy the title of tonight's Inner Sanctum movie on SVENGOOLIE: "Pillow of Death."

One has to wonder who at the Universal thought that pillows were scary.

Well, I wonder why anyone ever thought a guy with a flat head was scary either. Can't imagine what it would be like to go back in time and show ALIEN or Carpenter's THE THING to the audience of the 1930's.

"Ricky": Ahh, yes, the Very Special Episode. I think I remember this one being promoted as kind of a big deal with an important message. Certainly that's what they were going for. Although I don't think the execution was that great.

Well, if really should have been me instead of Mickey Jones. So my boss sez. I wonder what I did with that plastic helmet.

The Incredible Hulk

For plot purposes, we get our earliest first Hulk-Out yet in a regular episode...at -33:41, it's nearly a full minute earlier than last week's all-too-brief champion.

It came a bit too easy. He's always hurting his hands. The worst is yet to come.
In one of the last episodes--he almost loses his little finger in a rockfall.
I'm surprised they showed that on prime time. Then too, Savini and the effects guys were at their prime as well.

Mickey Jones does a good job of making Ricky endearing, and not only do we get good chemistry between him and the Bix, but he gets a good scene with Ferrigno as well. Love how the Hulk drops the can in imitation of him.

That and the scene where he follows Ricky for a bit before moving away.

A scene right out of the description of Vanity Fair. Or an Ingmar Bergman film.

The best part--the shadow of the Hulk.

As he was walking away--the shadow got smaller due to perspective. Very well done.

 

[Christopher]

Well, I wonder why anyone ever thought a guy with a flat head was scary either.

Now, that's actually an interesting story. Here it is in the words of the makeup artist for Frankenstein, Jack Pierce:

https://www.rc.umd.edu/editions/frankenstein/Pop/pierce

I did three months of research in anatomy, surgery, criminology, ancient and modern burial customs, and electrodynamics. My anatomical studies taught me that there are six ways a surgeon can cut the skull in order to take out or put in a brain. I figured that Frankenstein, who was a scientist but no practising surgeon, would take the simplest surgical way. He would cut the top of the skull off straight across like a pot lid, hinge it, pop the brain in, and then clamp it on tight. That's the reason I decided to make the Monster's head square and flat like a shoe box and dig that big scar across his forehead with the metal clamps holding it together.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Spuckies?

It's a local term for what other people call a sub or hero or grinder. Technically, it's a very specific type of sandwich that was once made in one particular restaurant, but it came to be a general term for a sub sandwich. I don't think it's used that much anymore, but it was what we said back in the 60s and 70s.

 

[Christopher]

Here in Cincinnati, we call chili dogs "coneys" or "Coney Islands." I used to think that was because they'd originated at a local amusement park called Old Coney Island (presumably named after the New York one), but Wikipedia says the term originated among Greek and Macedonian immigrants, probably because they arrived at a time when New York's Coney Island had banned the name "hot dog" (for fear people would think there was literal dog meat in them). I guess that makes sense, since our "coneys" are topped with Cincinnati chili, which is a recipe that originated with Greek or Macedonian immigrants.

 

[Greg Cox]

Here in Cincinnati, we call chili dogs "coneys" or "Coney Islands." I used to think that was because they'd originated at a local amusement park called Old Coney Island (presumably named after the New York one), but Wikipedia says the term originated among Greek and Macedonian immigrants, probably because they arrived at a time when New York's Coney Island had banned the name "hot dog" (for fear people would think there was literal dog meat in them). I guess that makes sense, since our "coneys" are topped with Cincinnati chili, which is a recipe that originated with Greek or Macedonian immigrants.

Which is funny, since a "coney" is a kind of rabbit, which is where Coney Island got its name, since they used to overrun the island. So wouldn't that imply that they were made of rabbit meat?

 

[Christopher]

Which is funny, since a "coney" is a kind of rabbit, which is where Coney Island got its name, since they used to overrun the island. So wouldn't that imply that they were made of rabbit meat?

No more than the name "hamburger" or "frankfurter" implies they're made of German city-dwellers...

 

[Greg Cox]

And, of course, hamburgers are not made of ham . . . .

An annoying peculiarity in my neck of the woods is that, increasingly, local eateries no longer make any effort to distinguish between "hamburgers" and "cheeseburgers." It's just assumed that a burger comes with cheese, and some menus don't even list "hamburgers" anymore, so you if you want a hamburger you have to order a cheeseburger without cheese . . . .