Interesting....
I think they were going for a Bond vibe, but it felt more like Hitch was the traveling salesman in a farmer's daughter joke.
Yes, I'd basically like them to continue onward and show all the episodes until the end.
I think they'd have to have it in a regular daily slot to practically accomplish that. When I was Googling for hints about their plans with DS this year, I found a DS site post about how Hulu's plan going forward was to have a block of the early Barnabas episodes always available as a starting point for new viewers, and a rotating block of episodes progressing through the series for those who wanted to watch it all, as having 1,225 episodes available at all times wasn't practical. I've never used Hulu, but it looks like they currently have episodes 210 through 290 and 372 through 573 available.
She discovered them.... performing on Ed Sullivan's stage. That quote from Ed is both prophetic and heartbreaking, though.
He specifically said that she discovered them in Gary, Indiana. She must have been at the airport waiting for the jet from Chicago.
_______
50th Anniversary Viewing
_______
Mission: Impossible
"The Bank"
Originally aired October 1, 1967
Xfinity said:
The team must end a scam in which rich Eastern Berliners who want to escape to the West are robbed of millions and then slain.
Vinyl isn't dead, it seems--Phelps gets his orders from an old-fashioned wind-up phonograph...
The voice in the recording said:
This record will self-destruct when it reaches the final groove. Good luck, Jim.
Well, that's got the final groove of
Sgt. Pepper all beat! And yes,
there is such a thing.
This mission includes a guest agent who's an ex-bank robber, and I think it has Phelps's first use of an accent.
This is also the source of the other bit used in that MeTV spot: "I understand completely."
I found the details of the plot a bit hard to follow, but the story nevertheless had a good pace.
TOS guests include James Daly (Flint, "Requiem for Methuselah"; also memorably starred in
The Twilight Zone, "A Stop at Willoughby") and Gene Dynarski.
_______
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
"The Prince of Darkness Affair: Part I"
Originally aired October 2, 1967
Xfinity said:
Kuryakin and Solo travel to Iran to find the Thermal Prism, a new weapon which exterminated an African village.
Open Channel Death Ray McGuffin. And the big, red lines that the Prism leaves in its wake look
absolutely nothing like red paint....
Solo and Kuryakin are split up this time, though we don't get the tired old babysitting formula. Solo infiltrates undercover while Illya teams up with Bradford Dillman to break into the vault of the scientist who made the Prism. It turns out that Dillman's character, Luther Sebastian, is the real bad guy of the story, who somehow manipulated UNCLE into helping him secure the Prism for his own ends. He was rather conspicuously the center of attention in this part, not only being an outside agent crucial to UNCLE's plan, but having Carol Lynley's character, Annie, pursuing him the entire episode (and interfering with Solo's end of the operation along the way).
I know it was supposed to be a more liberal country before the Shah was deposed, but it doesn't seem much like Iran with so many miniskirt-wearing blondes running around.
After Solo and Azalea are freed from the sand trap, they don't look or act much like they've been buried up to their shoulders in sand. We don't even get the requisite pounding sand out of the shoes beat.
A so-so installment...it kept things moving, but has the same sort of "wants to be a more clever show than it is" tone as the Season 3 episodes.
_______
The Rat Patrol
"The Darers Go First Raid"
Originally aired October 2, 1967
H&I said:
Troy decides that the only chance at destroying a supply depot inside a fortress is by capturing a German tank and using it to get past enemy guards.
This week the Patrol faces the challenge of raiding the impenetrable German fortress at Vasquez Rocks. Pissed off at getting their asses handed to them on California soil, they devise a desperate plan. After some complications and improvisations centering around a patato masher-fetching dog, they liberate the painted American tank and achieve their objective.
This is a tight little episode with only the main cast credited, though there are some uncredited tank crewmen with (German-)speaking roles.
_______
Batman
"The Sport of Penguins"
Originally aired October 5, 1967
H&I said:
The Penguin steals a supposedly priceless parasol and leaves an exploding umbrella for the Dynamic Duo. Meanwhile, he teams with Lola Lasagne, fashion icon, to steal the real parasol.
This would be the first of the season's multi-part episodes that H&I scheduled so bizarrely around.
Extra Special Guest Villainess Ethel Merman's delivery seems very artificial here. She was much more natural on
That Girl...but she was playing herself there.
They sure did get around to Penguin again quickly enough...and Barbara makes it sound like his appearance in the season premiere happened longer ago than it did for us.
There are more obvious story shortcuts here...e.g., the Dynamic Duo just happen to be in the Commissioner's office when Barbara calls about the bomb. The Bat Shield sporting optional bomb-grabbing tongs was a nifty gimmick.
And the Bat-Computer not only has voice recognition, but responds to any odd musings within earshot.
This time Batgirl gets involved via a tip from Alfred--a source that she's obviously coyly hiding when she attributes her being on the scene to "a woman's intuition." And she gets on the scene just in time to make a difference in the fight, while Robin's down for the count. Batgirl joining a fight in progress has the added benefit of triggering a switch to her fresher theme music. We also get another instance of the Batgirl Disappearing Trick (aided by a scene cut).
But Barbara has an Emergency Library Prowler Signal in her apartment...?
He doesn't make as big a deal about it this time, but once again the Caped Crusader makes a point of referring to a villainess only by her real name (Lulu Schultz).
Christopher 2015 said:
Plot-Specific News Channel
For chronological context, I'll add that Gary Owens is coming to us here between his regular gigs on
The Green Hornet and
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (which becomes a regular series the middle of this TV season).
_______
Ironside
"Eat, Drink and Be Buried"
Originally aired October 5, 1967
Xfinity said:
After several attempts on his wife's life, the husband (Farley Granger) of an advice columnist (Lee Grant) appeals to Ironside for help.
This one was a whodunnit with a few too many half-baked suspects...people we haven't spent enough time with to keep straight. It particularly confused me on first viewing that the husband and manager were cast with similar looking actors and had easily confused names to boot (Mitch and Vic). And to top things off, the latter was uncredited for some reason, so he didn't appear on the unexpanded IMDb cast list, which I glance at as a tool for keeping characters straight.
One of the red herrings was the era-ubiquitous Richard Anderson as the columnist's publisher. Another noteworthy guest, whose jazz musician character was an informant rather than a suspect, was legendary musician, composer, and record producer Quincy Jones, whose name appears in the closing credits of each episode of the series because he wrote the title theme. I'll give him his due as a musical guest downpost. His character also drops a reference to Cannonball Adderley, whose guest appearance on an episode of
Kung Fu was recently covered upthread.
This episode could have used more character moments with the cast. There was a cute early scene of Ironside and Mark playing pool. And I think that maybe Ironside's thing for chili might be a running gag.
A note on something that Batgirl's been criticized for: Eve also makes a quip about women's intuition being in her arsenal, and she's a fully trained police officer. I also just came across an instance of Sue Richards invoking women's intuition in a contemporaneous issue of
Fantastic Four. So it seems to have been a pretty common thing for fictional heroines of the era to bring up.
_______
"The Apartment"
Originally aired October 5, 1967
Wiki said:
Donald gets Ann to house sit at his apartment, and she runs into another friend of his (Bill Bixby), who is also staying there.
If you haven't watched this, all I can ask is...why not?
Of course, Ann can only spend the night at Donald's apartment when he's out of town (in Boston, no less); and the comedy of this episode is driven by the inappropriate situation of Ann finding herself alone there with a strange man.
First Harry-Out--Blasted with a spray gun:
-16:24.
Ensuing hijinks include the ludicrous only-in-a-sitcom scenario of Harry at one point nailing the door of Donald's bedroom shut from the inside to serve as a barrier between the two of them.
Second Harry-Out--Hitting his own thumb with a hammer:
-7:00 (and accompanied by a good off-camera Bixby scream).
Harry Banner said:
Well there's no point in getting angry.
Mr. Marie comes visiting from Brewster at 2 in the morning after Harry answers the phone. But in the end it's Donald who acts suspicious/jealous of the bond that's developed between Ann and Harry.
I see that Bixby and Thomas had worked together before on an episode of
My Favorite Martian...I'll have to check that out when my viewing isn't so backed up. They had good comic chemistry here...had things been different, he could have been a good Donald.
"Oh, Donald" count: 3
"Oh, Daddy" count: 1
"Mr. Banner" count: 9
Episode-Specific Lonely Harry Sequence:
Jack Colvin does not appear in this episode...but he will be popping up in Season 3!
_______
Tarzan
"The Blue Stone of Heaven: Part I"
Originally aired October 6, 1967
H&I said:
Defying an ancient taboo, Tarzan leads an archaeological expedition to a burial ground deep in the jungle.
TOS guests include first-timer Jason Evers and return appearances by Lloyd Haynes and William Marshall.
Marshall does some good scenery-chewing as Colonel Takakombi, and makes a dramatic entrance swooping in via helicopter to stop an attack by tribesmen. The Colonel wants the legendary titular object, which is supposed to bring great power (and turns out to be a big, blue statue). His plans are complicated by a conspirator who's more interested in gold.
Tarzan, Jai, and Cheeta are assembled in this adventure.
Our female guest of the week at one point dismissively likens Tarzan to "ski bums and surfers." I'd think a lord of the jungle has a little bit more going for him than that...!
In one scene, Tarzan escapes from a burial chamber via an underground water passage...any time he goes diving, it just makes me miss the giant clam.
_______
Star Trek
"Mirror, Mirror"
Originally aired October 6, 1967
Stardate Unknown
MeTV said:
Kirk and three of his officers are accidentally transported into a parallel "mirror" universe where violence, greed and evil are commonplace.
See my post here.
_______
The Prisoner
"The Chimes of Big Ben"
Originally aired October 6, 1967 (UK)
Wiki said:
A new prisoner, Nadia, may have information about the Village that makes an escape attempt possible.
I definitely get the vibe from the intro that Number Six's own people are responsible for the Village. But there's a suggestion in this episode that there might be a third party involved...a SPECTRE?
Leo McKern I'm primarily familiar with from
Help! I was set to say that I couldn't take him seriously because of that, but he's quite enjoyable here.
Here Number 2 specifically wants to know why Number 6 resigned...though No. 2 indicates that's just the tip of the iceberg.
I have to wonder how many of those in the Village are actual prisoners like Number Six, and how many are basically working there. No. 6's initial demeanor toward No. 8 was interesting, and it turned out that his caution was warranted. I'd hope that he'd be a little less trusting in the future. But maybe that's what his captors want....
I knew that the arts & crafts contest would play into the plot. So No. 6 thinks he can escape from his place of confinement by building a boat? He obviously has a lot to learn about how things work in vintage TV Land! I got a big laugh when it turned out that he bought that hanging of No. 2 to serve as the sail!
The scenes of No. 6 & Nadia talking through the boxes were cute, but I could sense the fake-out coming at that point. Notice how we never get an establishing shot of London and the blinds in the fake office are all down.
Here we get one of the bits that causes fans to reorder the episodes...there's a mention of Number Six having been missing for months.
The next competition's subject is "seascapes"...cute.
This time around we get a chess-playing elderly general...it was an admiral last time.
Sign o' the times: No. 6 makes a reference to wanting to be the first man on the moon.
_______
The Avengers
"Death's Door"
Originally aired October 7, 1967 (UK)
Wiki said:
Top Civil Servants are manipulated into believing that if they go through the door to a vital conference they will die.
I found this episode to be generally more effective than the last one...what's going on is a mystery to us, so we're not waiting for our heroes to catch up. In fact, Steed and Peel are fairly quick on the uptake in this one, getting ahead of the problem in the second half.
Steed does an interesting bit of gimmickry putting a bullet in a hole in a fence and then striking it with something to make it fire into somebody on the other side--Would that actually work?
We get an odd bit of background info about how Peel met Steed when she ran into the back of his car.
Part of the episode takes place on Friday the 13th...and there was a Friday the 13th coming up in October of 1967, just as there is in October 2017.
_______
Get Smart
"Witness for the Persecution"
Originally Aired October 7, 1967
Xfinity said:
KAOS marks Smart for death when he is the only one who can spot one of their agents.
The Chief is off this week, so Max occupies the chair in his office.
Shades of this week's
That Girl...Max doesn't want 99 to stay at his apartment because it wouldn't be appropriate. It seems like this episode covers a lot of the same territory as the one in which Max had a scientist posing as an agent and vice versa staying in his gadgeted-up apartment last season. They try to do some marital gags with Max and the CONTROL scientist he's staying with, but they fall flat for me. I like the L-shaped twin beds, but why does Bascomb have twin beds in his room when he lives alone?
Max using the back seats of three cabs to cross the street seems inspired by
A Hard Day's Night. While the cop acting oblivious to the sniper and ticketing Max for illegally crossing the street was a genuine source of humor, it's pretty stupid that our heroes will go to such lengths to get Max across the street instead of simply dealing with the sniper.
_______
Quincy Jones has a resume too sprawling to effectively cover here. Among some highlights that I caught upon skimming his Wiki page, his work has earned 28 Grammies; and earlier in the '60s he produced Lesley Gore's biggest hits, which were covered upthread. He's perhaps best known to my generation as the producer of three consecutive smash-hit albums for Michael Jackson--
Off the Wall, Thriller, and
Bad--the middle of which remains the best-selling album of all time. Since I recently posted the "Billie Jean" video in the MeTV thread...
"Beat It," Michael Jackson
(Charted Feb. 26, 1983; #1 US the weeks of Apr. 30 through May 14, 1983; #1 R&B; #14 Rock; #3 UK; #337 on
Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time; 1984 Grammy Award for Record of the Year)
He also scored a few Top 20 singles as a musician back in the day, with other artists handling the vocals...
"Just Once," Quincy Jones feat. James Ingram
(Charted Aug. 15, 1981; #17 US; #7 AC; #11 R&B; #76 UK)
"One Hundred Ways," Quincy Jones feat. James Ingram
(Charted Dec. 19, 1981; #14 US; #5 AC; #10 R&B)
"I'll Be Good to You," Quincy Jones feat. Ray Charles & Chaka Khan
(Charted Nov. 18, 1989; #18 US; #30 AC; #1 Dance; #1 R&B; #21 UK)
And Fun Fact for Classic/Retro TV fans...he was married for 16 years to
The Mod Squad's Peggy Lipton, a union that produced two daughters.
_______
