The Classic/Retro Pop Culture Thread

Discussion in 'TV & Media' started by The Old Mixer, Jan 11, 2016.

  1. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

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    _______

    Dragnet 1967

    "The Subscription Racket"
    Originally aired April 20, 1967
    Tuesday, January 17 (1967 again!): Friday and Gannon are working the day watch out of Frauds Division, Bunco Section. Friday is substituting for another detective who's busy on another case in taping an appearance on a nighttime talk show. He's nervous about going on camera, but does fine, using props--a rubber snake and a bogus money-printing machine--to demonstrate some typical bunco scams. This appears to be a purely expository scene, but serves a purpose in setting up the story: after the taping, a film cutter in the studio tells Friday about how his wife has been buying a lot of magazine subscriptions, and asks Friday if it's a racket. From his description, Friday thinks it is, and goes to the man's home to question his wife.

    At the Tate home, Gannon finds some code written on the picket fence to tip off other confidence men. At the door, Mrs. Tate (whom Friday calls Miss Tate for some reason) misidentifies Friday as Sgt. Sunday. She conveys how she's been buying subscriptions for herself and supposedly for servicemen, from a young man claiming to be a Congressional Medal of Honor-winning Marine and a lovely young nursing student.

    Over the next few days, the detectives identify the male seller as Glenn Procustan (Brian Avery), a dishonorably discharged Marine with an arrest record whose father had won the medal posthumously. They also discover that he made out a check from Mrs. Tate that was supposed to be for $50, but was cashed for $500.

    Friday and Gannon track down Procustan's former employer, Benson (Larry D. Mann), who'd pressed charges against Procustan. He's clearly a shady operator himself, but is willing to lead them to Procustan and his girlfriend, Norma Bryant (Marianne Gordon), the one who's been posing as a nursing student. When they find Procustan, he insists that Benson was framing him when he pressed the charges, and admits to stretching the truth in his sales, but not to raising the check; it turns out that Norma, now his wife, was the one who did that, so that they could get out of the racket that much sooner.

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    "The Big Gun"
    Originally aired April 27, 1967
    Tuesday, August 16 (1966): Friday and Gannon are working the day watch out of Homicide Division when they're assigned to investigate the murder of a 26-year-old woman named Reiko Hashimoto, who was shot in the head and heart. A neighbor wearing a nurse's uniform tells them that Reiko's Japanese-American husband was killed in Vietnam, and that Reiko has a 5-year-old daughter who's staying with Reiko's mother. As the investigation of the scene continues, Friday starts getting short with one of the investigators and Gannon accuses him of letting it get personal. Outside, Friday has a smoke while engaging in a reflective voiceover, but that's as far as the angle goes.

    The detectives have been working the case for nearly two weeks when they spot a pickup truck at a neighboring home that matches the description of one whose driver had been reported as having raped a woman at gunpoint nearby on the day of the murder. They arrest the man but have nothing to connect him to the murder, so they search the home where he was living, whose owner is an outspokenly devout church-goer who supports her tenant as a repentant sinner, seems less concerned about the victims, and accuses the detectives of being the devil's disciples for searching her house. After several searches involving multiple pairs of detectives, Gannon finds a .45 caliber revolver that's been fired recently, hidden in a drawer with a false bottom.
    Back at HQ, the forensics man verifies that the gun matches a slug found at the crime scene.

    The detectives return to the Hashimoto home to meet the victim's mother and daughter, who've just come back after learning of Reiko's death. Little Miko offers Friday her favorite doll, but Friday has to refuse it, saying that just the thought is enough.

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    _______

    Was just listening to those on the Essentials collection I bought...I can hear why "M'Lady" didn't do better...sounds a bit too much like a knockoff of "Dance to the Music".
     
    Last edited: Apr 4, 2019
  2. RJDiogenes

    RJDiogenes Idealistic Cynic and Canon Champion Premium Member

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    We had that racket in High School. :rommie:

    That seems like an unusual plot device for Dragnet, for Friday to get a tip from a co-worker like that.

    That seems odd (although I trust Dragnet implicitly ;))-- you'd think that con men, unlike hobos, would see each other as competition.

    Interesting. There's no indication why Friday would take it personally? Because her husband was a vet, maybe? It's a grisly murder, but Joe Friday has seen it all at this point.

    So presumably the motive was attempted rape? It doesn't sound like they knew each other.
     
  3. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

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    _______

    55 Years Ago This Week




    Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:

    Leaving the chart:
    • "A Letter to the Beatles," The Four Preps (3 weeks)
    • "Penetration," The Pyramids (10 weeks)
    • "See the Funny Little Clown," Bobby Goldsboro (13 weeks)

    New on the chart:

    "There's a Place," The Beatles

    (B-side of "Twist and Shout"; #74 US)

    "(Just Like) Romeo & Juliet," The Reflections

    (#6 US; #3 R&B)

    "Ronnie," The Four Seasons

    (#6 US)

    "Love Me Do," The Beatles

    (#1 US the week of May 30, 1964)

    Although not as celebrated as the previous week, this week is also an historic milestone, as the Beatles are at their peak number of songs on the chart: 14

    I was planning to drop the count after this achievement, but would there be any interest in watching it wind down?

    _______

    I guess easy marks are good for sharing.

    Nothing very specific. Much was made throughout the episode from various commentators about how young and small and beautiful she was, and there was emphasis on looking at / showing the audience a photo of her repeatedly. Maybe this victim just touched something in Friday.

    They handwaved that away in the last scene between the detectives and the victim's mother...

    Mrs. Watanabe: Why would he want my daughter's life?
    Gannon: We don't know, Mrs. Watanabe. Some men just kill.​

    In an earlier scene, Friday speculates that Reiko may have been "mauled," if that was supposed to be a euphemism for rape, but he doesn't know at the time and there's never any indication after that. They didn't even say outright that Yoder had raped the other woman until they arrested him. The initial description of the incident just said that she was attacked. And Church Lady says that Yoder was on parole, but if they specified what he had a record for, I didn't catch it.
     
  4. gblews

    gblews Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I just knew this one was by Elvis. I mean, it wasn't until YEARS later that I found out this wasn't Elvis. :shrug:
    I just knew this one was by Tommy James and the Shondells. Years later I found out the truth. :shrug:
    When I'm on Spotify I check out their top 50 lists of songs, but I never see songs that appear as out of the norm as the ones I've listed below. I think all things in pop music are cyclical, but it is hard for me to foresee a time when we'll see outliers like these on the charts. (Full disclosure; haven't checked out the current Billboard charts.)
    OMG, did I love this song, and still do. I bought the "45" back then. But I swear I have a Motown songbook with this song in it, which made me think it was either a Motown production or at least, published by Jobete. Neither of the aforementioned appears to be the case, which makes me wonder why it was in that songbook.

    I also thought (back when I first saw it in the songbook), that The Reflections were Motown artists. But, per what I found from Google, the song's only "connection" to Motown appears to have been, that Golden World Records was located in Detroit and there were some Motown musicians playing on the record. Song does have a slight Motown feel to it. Anyway, one of my all time favs.
     
  5. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

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    As touched upon upthread the week of its chart debut, it was a cover of an Elvis album track, so the similarity isn't coincidental.

    I was planning to come to the two of those that haven't been covered yet in future posts, but since they've been caught in the spotlight...

    "The Pink Panther Theme," Henry Mancini & His Orchestra

    (Apr. 4; #31 US; #10 AC; I'd be interested in Golden Age Squiggy's opinion on this one.)

    "People," Barbra Streisand

    (Apr. 4; #5 US; #1 AC)
     
  6. TREK_GOD_1

    TREK_GOD_1 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    ...where it could be argued that the series dipped into darker humor. By 1969, the spy craze initiated by the Bond films had definitely faded, despite some productions still trying to milk that dry tit (e.g. The Wrecking Crew--the last of the Matt Helm movies--was released in February of '69). Get Smart was a victim of that, and its 5th and final season shows that, with the old government ineptitude/spy humor no longer working as it had in its first two seasons.

    A song can still be great--and a "hit" beyond the arbitrary "top 40" list.

    Believing that at all in his way (unlike the religious members of the Civil Rights movement--who wisely framed legal rights with the truth of Christian morality as the only way to achieve their goals) was extremely naïve. Its as though he completely missed the fact that the kind of noise sold during the so-called Summer of Love (two years earlier) was not practical in the real world of the 60s (or beyond, for that matter, at least not on any national scale).

    As always, Wiki pages (and their sources) often mischaracterize art. "Sunshine" or "Psychedelic" pop is not how John Stewart composed "Daydream Believer," (or how it was recorded) and "Morning Girl" described as "baroque pop?" That's kind of a stretch. I do hear a direct lineage from the Monkees song to "Morning Girl" and other songs I cited. In other words, "Morning Girl" is not a particularly original song, but one in a short-lived line of this sub-genre.
     
  7. RJDiogenes

    RJDiogenes Idealistic Cynic and Canon Champion Premium Member

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    I'm not familiar with this one. It's pretty good.

    I love this one.

    Not the best of the Four Seasons, but still good.

    A classic, of course.

    I'd find it interesting, but I don't want to make work for you.

    Such altruism among thieves. :rommie:

    Well, it's 60s TV, so I suppose even Dragnet would be squeamish talking about rape.

    I've had a few like that. For a while, I thought that Quarterflash song was Pat Benatar. :rommie:

    :rommie: This is a strong exception to the Golden Age Squiggy Rule. Nothing could improve this masterpiece.

    On the other hand, I strongly dislike Barbra Streisand.
     
  8. gblews

    gblews Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Okay, mystery solved. And yes, this stayed with me last night. :lol:

    Pulled out my old Motown songbook and "Romeo" was definitely there. Song was apparently acquired by Jobete (it appears), in 1971. So, not an original Motown song, but a great acquisition by Berry Gordy.
     
  9. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

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    _______

    50 Years Ago This Week



    Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:

    Leaving the chart:
    • "Baby, Baby Don't Cry," Smokey Robinson & The Miracles (14 weeks)
    • "Don't Forget About Me," Dusty Springfield (6 weeks)
    • "Everyday People," Sly & The Family Stone (19 weeks)
    • "I Got a Line on You," Spirit (12 weeks)
    • "Kick Out the Jams," MC5 (4 weeks)
    • "Sweet Cream Ladies, Forward March," The Box Tops (15 weeks)
    • "The Weight," Aretha Franklin (7 weeks)

    New on the chart:

    "Breakfast in Bed," Dusty Springfield

    (B-side of "Don't Forget About Me"; #91 US)

    "Cissy Strut," The Meters

    (#23 US; #4 R&B)

    "Stand!," Sly & The Family Stone

    (#22 US; #14 R&B; #241 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time)

    "The Boxer," Simon & Garfunkel

    (#7 US; #3 AC; #6 UK; #105 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time)

    "Love (Can Make You Happy)," Mercy

    (#2 US; #2 AC)


    And new on the boob tube:
    • Mission: Impossible, "The Vault"
    • The Mod Squad, "Peace Now – Arly Blau"
    • Ironside, "Not with a Whimper, But a Bang" (season finale)

    _______

    That could be interesting if true. I wouldn't mind seeing the show mix up its style of humor a bit.

    I'm gonna let this go, as I'm sure you must be tired after moving that goalpost.

    It was art, not politics. John and Yoko were performing, they weren't running for office.

    So you reject established, recognized sub-genres but invent your own. Accepting for the sake of argument that the other songs were in some way derivative of "Daydream Believer" specifically, I'd say that might classify as a trend, but not a sub-genre.

    If you haven't listened to the Beatles' albums, you should.

    It's a nice bit of pop, but I liked the movie better.

    Pretty much.

    In British chronological context, I always felt this was a weak first single for the Fabs (actually, that was a different recording of the song), and that the British record-buying public was more on the money in only pushing it to #17 (reportedly with a lot of help from excessive record orders by Brian Epstein for his store). But for whatever reason, hearing it come up at the peak of early Beatlemania in the States increases my appreciation for it.

    No trouble at all. As you might have surmised by now, these posts are a labor of love for me.

    The other day I heard a DJ on Sirius say that "Itchycoo Park" by Small Faces was sung by Rod Stewart. I used to think the same, but he didn't join the band until years later. Steve Marriott apparently just sounded a lot like him.

    Glad to hear it! :techman:

    My hobgoblin made me get this, because I dipped into her Top 10 singles from the next couple of decades.
     
    Last edited: Apr 6, 2019
  10. RJDiogenes

    RJDiogenes Idealistic Cynic and Canon Champion Premium Member

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    This is new to me, and very nice.

    Golden-Age Squiggy Rule back in effect. :rommie:

    This is a good one.

    I can't tell you how much I love the classic Simon & Garfunkel stuff.

    This is a very nice song. And, speaking of misidentifying things, I would have pegged this as the Stylistics.

    I'm going to steal this in the future, if you don't mind. :rommie:

    I haven't, and you're right.

    :rommie:

    Same here. I'm not quite old enough to remember it when it was new, so it I really only know it as an established classic.

    Indeed!
     
  11. TREK_GOD_1

    TREK_GOD_1 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Okay, I have to ask, because I have a friend, who is also a vocalist--who cannot stand Streisand. What's your reason?

    Not a favorite at all. Sort of a big fall compared to the signature song from the Dusty in Memphis album.

    A sound and era-specific feel like no other.

    If you have to break up, its best to go out on top. The album it would be featured on--Bridge Over Troubled Water--blew the competition away by being the best selling album three years in a row (1970.1971 and '72), even after the duo had called it quits in 1970. Unlike some albums that were just hits, this one actually had character to it, as opposed to being a collection of "aim for the chart" ditties.

    Instant standard.

    Well, from memory, the final season was more miss than hit. Just strange. I would say the highlights (and that's not for the full half-hour of each) were:
    • "The Mess of Adrian Listenger"
    • "The Apes of Rath"
    • "Widow Often Annie"
    • "And Only Two Ninety-Nine"
    ...and that's about it. Watch for longtime Smart nemesis Siegfried becoming a shadow of his former funny self in his one and only season 5 appearance.

    Wha--? That was not strictly "art"; they were certainly political and making statements about social/political issues in this era, including the bed-in business. Lennon effectively put the final touches on transforming himself into a political commentator--the opposite of merely being one of the Beatles.

    No one is inventing anything, but its not uncommon for songs to be incorrectly categorized--usually due to the biases of the people creating the category. Its the same kind of myopic thinking that has too many rock music history books and sites still making the blanket, incredibly inaccurate judgement that the Monkees music all being of the "bubblegum" variety, when that was provably false from even a casual review of their 1st album. I believe that's the case in categorizing "Morning Girl" in the way presented in the links.

    As far as the song goes, all you need to do is listen to the post-"Daydream Believer" songs I listed and tell me if you hear no influence from the Monkees song at all.
     
  12. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

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    I haven't heard it enough to have a very strong opinion of it yet, but in this case I can revisit it when I get around to reviewing the album.

    Can't say I'm surprised. These guys are new to me, though they have a future album on the Rolling Stone list.

    And here's another album on the list that I was looking forward to getting, but I see that the Essentials collection I bought for their major singles has all but one of the tracks from the album, which doesn't encourage me to buy most of it again....

    A very striking classic song...and still another album on that list.

    A pleasant one-hitter. Not on the list.

    Not at all, please do. You could start by reiterating it to...
    Using art to make political commentary is not the same thing as being in politics. John was expressing an ideal and trying to make people think in a different way, not establishing policy.

    You're inventing a sub-genre that nobody else recognizes with one hand...
    ...then dismissing sub-genres that others recognize with the other. Perhaps your "Daydream Believer" sub-genre is the product of the sort of bias that you attribute to others.
     
    Last edited: Apr 7, 2019
  13. gblews

    gblews Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Another of my all time favorite bands, (except for Aaron, who I just cannot stand). Saw them at the Roxy back in the 70's and they were brilliant. Oops, now that I think about it, that was The Neville Brothers, opening for Wild Tchapitolous. Great great night. The place was packed, and the audience shouted out the choruses to all of the WT songs. Those guys were looking out at us like, WTF!!! They had no idea of how popular they were.
    My fav Sly album, though I don't know if I'd call Stand my favorite Sly song. The Mt. Rushmore of funk should include Professor Longhair, the Meters, Sly Stone, and James Brown.
     
  14. RJDiogenes

    RJDiogenes Idealistic Cynic and Canon Champion Premium Member

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    Something about her just rubs me the wrong way (nothing personal, as with people like Frank Sinatra or Jane Fonda). Her voice is displeasing to me. Just a matter of taste, and I'm obviously in the minority there.
     
  15. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

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    _______

    50th Anniversary Viewing

    _______

    The Ed Sullivan Show
    Season 21, episode 24
    Originally aired March 30, 1969
    As represented in The Best of the Ed Sullivan Show

    A Muppets intro that didn't use the word "youngsters"! In a skit known as "A Change of Face," Robbins advises an old man Muppet on how to get out of his rut by removing and switching around his facial accessories.

    The bit where the Muppet recites poetry while holding a flower might have been a spoof of Henry Gibson's recurring bit on Laugh-In.

    In a routine continuing the theme of his Sinatra impression, Henderson plays a stage singer who's having issues with his microphone cord while trying to move around on stage, eventually getting all wrapped up in it. One of the camera angles clearly shows a man handling the other end of the cord just offstage. Henderson cites Steve Lawrence (also on the show that night) as an example of how it's done right.

    Also in the original episode according to tv.com:
    _______

    Mission: Impossible
    "Nicole"
    Originally aired March 30, 1969
    From the description, this sounded similar to last season's "The Town," but it's not a situation in progress. It starts with a tape scene and a brief meeting scene between Jim, Rollin, and a contact, making it feel a lot more like one of those Season 1 episodes in which the mission consisted of standard spy-fi fare. The IMF is assigned to get a list of defected allied agents from enemy intelligence minister Anton Valdas (Logan Ramsey). The meeting sets up the presence of friendly agent Nicole Vedette (Collins, sporting a short bob). Barney is referenced.

    Jim and Rollin infiltrate Valdas's chateau as a couple of military officers attending a party...Rollin playing a cranky elderly general. Jim and Nicole flirtily eye each other from across the room while Pervy Old General Rollin takes a more direct approach with a couple of attractive young ladies. Nicole comes over to introduce herself, demonstrate her keen observational skills, and engage in some romantic dancing. Meanwhile, Rollin sneaks his way to Valdas's safe but sets off an alarm in cracking it. Jim drops his cover to help Rollin, holding a gun to Valdas's head while they make their way to the door. While Rollin's outside pulling a limo up for them, Valdas makes a break and one of his men shoots Jim. Rollin is forced to drive off.

    Nicole tries to spring Jim and quickly gets caught. Jim deduces that the list Rollin got away with is a phony that Valdas wanted them to have, and Nicole tells Jim that their contact was a double agent. While Undisguised Rollin stakes out the chateau, Jim uses the old "fake your death in the cell" trick to get him and Nicole out, and they proceed to engage in some montage scenes of fleeing through the woods until they find the customary abandoned barn to hide in. When Jim passes out, Nicole slips outside for a rendezvous with Valdas, who's waiting in his limo. It turns out that the list is real and her name is on it; but her professional relationship with Valdas is less than chummy, as she's blackmailing him with a packet of info, and, we learn after she leaves, he's planning to have her killed. Revived Jim realizes she's a plant when he finds a bug in her pack of matches, but when they take to the woods again and it appears that Jim might kill himself getting to the border, she blabs all to stop him, and he realizes that she didn't know about the bug, via which Valdas has heard everything she's said.

    Valdas and his guards resume the chase in earnest and corner the duo, but Rollin, who's followed Valdas to the location and has been sneaking around TV Fu Chopping guards, gets the drop on Valdas and his men. Valdas gets off a fatal shot at Nicole before being shot himself by Rollin. When they hear the guards returning with reinforcements, Jim, clearly affected by Nicole's death, very reluctantly has to leave her lying in the woods.

    This sort of story plays differently now than it did in Season 1, when the show clearly hadn't nailed down its MO yet. It was a refreshing change to see Jim in a full-on romantic angle.

    Jon Lormer briefly appears as "Minister," a figure to whom Valdas answers. The episode also features some suspenseful musical motifs very similar to ones used on Trek. I think I've heard them on M:I before, but they're particularly prominent here.

    _______

    The Avengers
    "Requiem"
    Originally aired March 31, 1969 (US); April 16, 1969 (UK)
    The death of Mother was obviously a ruse...the setup was suspicious, with Tara suddenly finding herself at Steed's apartment just in time for the explosion following a drug-induced blackout; Tara's minders, including a doctor and a military officer, constantly pressing Tara for info about Steed's mystery hiding place; and Tara always being drugged up to travel, each way of the journey. It turns out that Steed's destroyed apartment is a set in the same building where she was being held early in the episode and where the fake hospital was.

    The protectee, played by Angela Douglas, was quite cute. Steed's hideout is a place where he used to play tabletop wargames with his best pals as a lad, and he keeps her entertained by playing those and chess, but she always beats him because of various relatives who were experts.

    Upon her escape, Tara returns to Steed's actual apartment to find Mother and Rhonda there--when she gives Mother a big kiss, his expression is priceless. When Tara relates to Mother the details that she gave her keepers about Steed's potential hiding place, he quickly has a house in the area where the bad guys are searching set up to fit all of the odd details that Tara was remembering piecemeal. When the bad guys arrive, Rhonda and Mother take care of them personally.

    I found this one enjoyable despite its predictability, for having an interesting angle and not being so obviously on-template...though I suppose the "multiple incidents" angle could be all the times Tara was drugged and taken to a new fake location.

    _______

    Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
    Season 2, episode 26
    Originally aired March 31, 1969



    This week's Quickies segment, which includes Billy Graham:



    This week's Letters to Laugh-In:


    And so ends Laugh-In's first full-length season. I'm good with taking a break from it, it gets a little samish.

    _______

    Ironside
    "A Matter of Love and Death"
    Originally aired April 3, 1969
    The episode opens with a pretty, young woman dying on a park bench of what we learn was a massive internal hemorrhage from an illegally performed abortion. Eve gets involved when she and Ed are sent to the morgue to make an identification in relation to a missing person's case that they're working. The Jane Doe--eventually identified as Arlene Dodd (Connie Kreski) isn't the girl they were looking for, but Eve wants to learn more about how this happened, so after a bit of customary grousing by the Chief (and a report that the girl they were looking for has conveniently turned up alive and well), Team Ironside gets on the case.

    Ed goes to a residence for women where Arlene was staying to question the girls there. The cynical one among them, played by Susan Howard, comes off as a natural early suspect. Eventually Ed and Eve float the idea by Ironside that Eve should check in at the residence as a girl in trouble with the belief that she'll be referred by somebody there to the abortionist. Eventually, when brunette wig-sporting Eve gives enough indications of her fake condition, she gets a ransom-style note slipped under her door. Shortly after, Howard's character proves to be a red herring as she visits Eve to try to talk her out of having an abortion, having been through the experience herself.

    The one that does nibble turns out to be the slightly heavy-set girl who's always munching on a box of chocolates, and whose name is...Betty Ross (Barbara Shannon). As she takes Eve to her back alley doctor, they're tailed by Ed and Mark and a couple of pairs of detectives in other cars, but they all manage to lose the car that Eve's in when it quickly slips into a well-concealed backlot garage. It turns out that the abortionist is a woman who's been working as a secretary at various doctors' offices (Lillian Adams). Eve's gun falls out of her coat after she has to take it off, there's a struggle over it, and she throws it out the window, attracting Ed and Mark's attention.

    In places this felt like another Very Special Episode. It's not as thoroughly so as the one about the girl on drugs who got sent to the girls' prison, but it does get a bit lecturey and heavy-handed in places...like when the legitimate female doctor that Arlene had approached muses that she did the legal thing in refusing to perform the abortion, but may not have done the right thing; and when the guy who knocked Arlene up, who was unaware of the pregnancy or abortion, gets guilt-tripped for his role in the matter.

    They may have splurged on some location shooting for this one, if it wasn't L.A. passing itself off as Frisco. In one scene Ed and Eve are knocking on some doors, seen in long shots with no dialogue.

    _______

    Adam-12
    "Log 22: ...So This Little Guy Goes into This Bar, and..."
    Originally aired April 5, 1969
    As Reed starts clumsily telling the joke to an obviously unenthusiastic Malloy, they get a call to see the woman, 484 (theft). The caller is a little old lady reporting a mink scarf stolen from her refrigerator, presumably by one of her recent guests. Malloy quickly finds it misplaced in the freezer.

    Reed gets a little further into his story when they get a call for a man assaulting a woman. They arrive at the shabby apartment to find a woman whose hand has been cut by a knife and five young children running around. They arrest the husband, but out in the hall Malloy opines to Reed that the whole thing seems a little hinky, noting that there wasn't any sign of blood. Going back to investigate further, they find that her wound is a day old, and Malloy deduces that she'd accidentally cut herself and the couple agreed to take advantage of the situation to get the woman and children more welfare money from the husband being in jail.

    Reed manages to finish his story but is sore when he gets no laughs from Malloy. At a diner on a Code Seven that we didn't hear approved, Brinkman and Walters come in and Reed tells the story to them (aided by a transition to the punchline). Walters doesn't get it, but Reed's fellow junior officer, Brinkman, thinks it's hysterical; and the waitress who's been listening the whole time thinks it's disgusting. (Before somebody asks, it was about a couple of dogs getting into a fight, and one of them turns out to be an alligator who was painted and had his tail cut off.)

    Back on patrol, Adam-12 gets a call for a 415 party...and there's that instrumental again--Squiggy clearly wouldn't like living in the Mark VII-verse! The crowd inside mostly seem a little old to be listening to it, though. The man throwing the party is an old school friend of Reed's, so Reed wants to handle it alone. The man's pleased to see his old friend and introduces Reed to his wife, but doesn't take Reed seriously until Reed threatens to arrest him. Then Reed becomes "the fuzz".

    Back at the station, a lieutenant is telling the story to a group of officers, and while Reed doesn't think he's telling it right, he has the crowd in stitches. Reed considers that he might be the one who's not be telling it right, but Malloy offers that he is...he just hasn't made lieutenant yet.

    And so ends the first season of Adam-12. This has definitely been a welcome inclusion in the weekly line-up, in spite of my just having done a full-series watch-through a couple of years back.

    _______

    A smidgen of 55th anniversary / British Invasion business: I read that the Searchers appeared on the April 5, 1964, episode of Ed Sullivan...not represented on Best of.

    A welcome bit of retro programming news...H&I just changed its Sunday afternoon lineup back to playing classic Westerns. Recently they had the day devoted to a mix of the same '90s-2000s shows that alternate each weekday afternoon/evening. And I've decided to toss Branded, now part of the lineup, on the DVR pile for future 55th anniversary or catch-up viewing.

    However, they badly need to replace their "up next" announcement on Saturday mornings for The Incredible Hulk, which hasn't been in their lineup for months.

    _______
     
    Last edited: Apr 8, 2019
  16. RJDiogenes

    RJDiogenes Idealistic Cynic and Canon Champion Premium Member

    Joined:
    Jun 11, 2003
    Location:
    RJDiogenes of Boston
    I saw this not too long ago. Very funny, and a nice demonstration of modular Muppet technology.

    The cast of Hair didn't make Best Of? :confused:

    She's got all kinds of irons in the fire.

    Poor Jim. Doomed romance is one of the downsides of episodic TV. She could have been added to his portfolio.

    Ah, the good old days, when enemy agents had imagination and ambition, and panache.

    Yeah, just wait till he reports her to CNN.

    Now that I want to see.

    Imagine something like that happening today.

    But next season is the pinnacle.

    I watched an old movie called The Sniper yesterday, which was shot on location in Frisco. I don't think it's possible for any city in the world to pass itself off as Frisco. :rommie:

    That's actually a touching change of pace from all the stories of people abusing each other and their kids.

    So, more of a Scaly Dog story. :rommie:

    He called it in.

    It's a better show than I gave it credit for, back when it was just another thing on the UHF lineup.

    Interesting. I'm not familiar with that show at all.
     
  17. TREK_GOD_1

    TREK_GOD_1 Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    May 24, 2006
    Location:
    Escaped from Delta Vega
    Ah. Well, to each his own. Personally, i've enjoyed her style of singing--at least her 60s and 70s work. My friend says she cannot stand Streisand because as she claims, Streisand "sings from her nose" instead of the diaphragm, which my friend says is the "right" way. I shrug my shoulders at that one.
     
  18. Jim Klag

    Jim Klag Vice Admiral Premium Member

    Joined:
    Mar 23, 2019
    Location:
    Chicago suburbs
    For Christmas, my wife gave me the complete series DVD sets of Combat! with Vic Morrow and Justified (Blu-ray) with Timothy Olyphant.
     
  19. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

    Joined:
    Feb 4, 2002
    Location:
    The Old Mixer, Somewhere in Connecticut
    Previously, in the MeTV's SuperSci-Fi Saturday Night thread...
    _______

    Nor could I find a video on YouTube...but I did find this one from The Smothers Brothers:


    Ah, now that would have been interesting!

    It was brief, but a nice moment. With the series nearly over, I'm just now starting to warm up to Mother.

    Is it? It's also the last season that I have recorded Decades.

    :lol:

    It's still on Cozi, though down to two episodes a week on Saturday afternoon.

    Hence the recap.... :p

    On Sirius when I was driving home, the DJ played a full audio clip of Joe Friday describing an auto collision in tenths of a second from "The Hit and Run Driver". Tying it in even more with recent business here, he was using it to introduce "Dead Man's Curve"!
     
    Last edited: Apr 9, 2019
  20. TREK_GOD_1

    TREK_GOD_1 Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    May 24, 2006
    Location:
    Escaped from Delta Vega
    Trying to change the ideas or lives of others through political statements (no matter the vehicle used) is...politics. That is not created to operate in an experimental vacuum, but to make changes. By influencing others, that had a natural path toward anyone who took his message to heart acting on/for political interest. This period defined him as a agent of political change for the reminder of his life.


    No, I believe the bias is in leaning on questionable categories, yet cannot acknowledge how the Monkees song had a direct influence on the songs which followed it (all cited). Its no secret that major hits often lead to numerous imitations or "inspired by" songs, so why this is not acknowledged by a hit as major as "Daydream Believer" raises questions.