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50th Anniversary Viewing
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The Ed Sullivan Show
Season 22, episode 10
Originally aired November 30, 1969
As represented in
The Best of the Ed Sullivan Show
Ed said:
Best of shows us Neil's performance of his hit from earlier in the year, "Sweet Caroline" (complete with an awkward orchestral end in place of the fade-out, not shown here):
But tv.com indicates he was really there to plug his still-rising current single, "Holly Holy".
Ed said:
Now from Argentina, the fire-juggling Martin Brothers.
The brothers comedically accentuate their act by simultaneously switching pins, hats, and cigarettes between each other. Then come the lit torches, which they toss between each other from a distance while both are blindfolded and hooded.
Ed said:
And now, comedy star Irwin C. Watson!
Watson's routine as shown on
Best of consists mainly of an extended joke about going to the Moon to find Indians hiding there, from the angle of his own racial perspective.
Ed said:
Accompanied by Hank Jones, 15-year-old Brooklynite Julie Budd singing Johnny Mercer's and Hoagy Carmichael's "Skylark".
She reminds me of Streisand.
Ed introduces Sergio Franchi by showing a clip of the two of them in a line of people passing wine bottles during the filming of
The Secret of Santa Vittoria in Italy. Sergio then sings a theme from the film, "Stay".
Ed said:
Now here are Jim Henson's Muppets!
I was too young to know what was going on at this point, but my sister might have enjoyed this. And what, Ed didn't give a shout-out to "all you youngsters"?
Also in the original episode according to tv.com:
Music:
--Sergio Franchi sings "Stay" & " Granada" (both songs in English & Italian).
--Voices Of East Harlem (led by Bernice Cole) - medley including "For What It's Worth" (Gospel style singing).
Comedy:
--Pat Henry - stand-up topics include New York, marriage, and health.
Also appearing:
--Audience bows: Toots Shore & Bob Considine (with their wives), Wayne Zahn (bowling champ), and Raymond A. Gallagher (VFW Commander-In-Chief).
Filmed segments: A scene from "A Boy Named Charlie Brown"; baseball sketch from Broadway play
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Mission: Impossible
"Robot"
Originally aired November 30, 1969
Wiki said:
A country is unaware that its premier is long dead and has been replaced by a double (both played by Leonard Nimoy) who is about to name a successor.
The recent death of Premier Pavel Zagov is being kept secret by Deputy Premier Gregor Kamirov (Malachi Throne), who's replaced Zagov with an imposter code-named Gemini (Nimoy, in very good old-age makeup--
last picture here). Gemini is being kept around until he can give a broadcast naming Kamirov as his successor...which is only two days from when Jim listens to the tape!
The miniature reel-to-reel tape in the glove compartment of a Recreation & Parks truck said:
This tape will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck, Jim!
We see a little more of Jim's apartment as he does some planning out on his balcony before he whips out the portfolio to show us that Lee Meriwether is back as Tracey.
The man that the IMF is hoping to get put in as premier is Anton Massik (Vic Perrin), but he can't be directly involved in order to maintain his political neutrality. They use a mysterious phone call to Massik that they know is tapped to point Kamirov's men to a rendezvous at the airport, which turns out to be Tracey meeting Horn-Rimmed Jim and his lovely assistant, Willy, who run a stage show called "The Marvelous Mr. Mechanico," which involves an extremely lifelike mechanical dummy (Ken Delo). Digging up Jim's file (as planted by Tracey), they find a film of a fake TV appearance demonstrating the dummy. I'm not clear if the film is supposed to have been faked in-story...the cuts and illusions involved with removing his head and then having it talking on a table are fairly obvious to the viewer, but good enough in-story to fool Kamirov.
Searching Jim's apartment, one of Kamirov's men, Danko (Jan Merlin), finds broadcasting equipment and, inside one of Jim's crates that he and Willy had at the airport, a dummy of Zagov. This is all to convince Kamirov that there's a plot to cut into the succession broadcast to replace Fake Zagov's announcement with Even Faker Zagov's announcement. Some additional subterfuge makes it appear that Kamirov's man Colonel Silensky (Larry Linville) is plotting with Gemini to get himself named as the new premier. Having "caught" Tracey along the way, Kamirov sends her with Danko to retrieve Jim, Willy, and the crates. The way up to see Kamirov involves passing through Kamirov's jail, which is now housing Gemini. (I'm not clear if that was supposed to be the usual arrangement, or was the result of the false conspiring with Silensky.) Willy leaves one of the crates propped up against Gemini's cell, from which Barney stealthily works on the bars. With the help of a seduction distraction of Danko by Tracey from her cell, Barney hangs Dummy Zagov in Gemini's cell. Danko is knocked out and left in Gemini's cell while Barney frees Gemini and Tracey.
The other crate contains Paris as Even Faker Zagov. In Kamirov's office, Jim demonstrates his "mechanical" double of Zagov, using signals pressed against Paris's back and a mechanical extra arm to convince Kamirov that he's the genuine fake article. Paris/Nimoy puts on a good performance that includes having his volume adjusted and being switched on and off in mid-speech. The fake programmed speech names Silensky (who's been reported as having shot himself in custody, though my impression from the way the news was delivered to Kamirov is that this was the cover story for his execution) as Zagov's successor. Kamirov wants Jim to reprogram EFZ to name him as Zagov's successor instead, eliminating the need for Gemini.
While Kamirov is entertaining distinguished guests (including Massik) who are there to watch the succession broadcast, the assembled IMFers swap Gemini and Paris, so that it's Gemini who actually gives the speech, calling for free elections to be held. Kamirov makes himself look unhinged by going into the broadcast booth and trying to remove Gemini's arm to show everybody that he's fake. When he can't, he realizes that it's Gemini.
This seems like a ludicrously convoluted scheme to get the original Fake Zagov to say something different than what Kamirov intended for him to say!
Tracey's character's height is given as 5'6" on a forged ID sheet; Meriwether is a slightly more statuesque 5'9".
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Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
Season 3, episode 12
Originally aired December 1, 1969
The Wiki list of guest appearances said:
Jack Benny, Johnny Carson, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Engelbert Humperdinck, Jill St. John, Peter Lawford
A musical skit about the office:
The news song is pilgrim-themed...a bit late for Thanksgiving.
A surprise cocktail party:
Laugh-In looks at privacy:
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The Mod Squad
"A Place to Run, a Heart to Hide In"
Originally aired December 2, 1969
Wiki said:
Pete, Linc and Julie pose as college students for the campus investigation of a young man's mysterious death.
Lotta kids dying on campuses these days. Actually, it happens outside of a sanitarium, in a cryptic teaser scene that involves Edward Timmers (Mike McGreevy) having just visited a woman there and threatening to expose an unknown party to another unknown party whom he's talking to. A scuffle ensues in which Zimmers's head is slammed into the gate bars. He's found on a vacant lot, so Greer has the Squadders investigate the school that he attended, Simms College. Pete's cover makes use of prior experience playing football, so he goes to the football-centric frat house in the middle of a hazing ritual. On the word of their BMOC, Holly Anders (Christopher Stone), the fraternity lets Pete in right away without a hazing.
Linc investigates as an African exchange student, doing a really awful accent. He intervenes when a drunk security guard, Dever (Tom Tully), who seems to know something is roughed up by a couple of the frat boys. Pete arranges for Holly to meet his "cousin," Julie--yes, she's actually active in this episode! We learn that Anders is resentful of his overbearing, influential father, George Anders (Don DeFore), who contributes to the college and does everything he can to promote Holly.
George Anders's "promotion man," Mike (Paul Lukather), sees Pete meeting with Linc, and follows Linc to Julie's. Having guessed that they're cops, he nabs Linc and Julie at gunpoint, then nabs Pete, and holds the three of them in the college gym and summons both of the Anderses, who seem shocked about the situation. It comes out that Holly was responsible for putting the girl in the asylum, implicitly via a sexual assault, though they don't spell it out; and that Mike killed Timmers, who was the girl's boyfriend. Dever drops in, sharing what he saw of the incident, and when he threatens to draw his pistol, Mike takes a shot at him and the others jump Mike. A chase outdoors through the stadium ensues, with Greer and a squad car showing up because Dever had just called them. Holly busts his leg in the bleachers, and shames his father when he's more concerned about that than what Holly had done.
After Holly hobbles into the back of a squad car on crutches, the Mod Trio do their customary walk-off on the football field.
The psychedelic John Lennon poster returns in the frat house.
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Ironside
"L'Chayim"
Originally aired December 4, 1969
Wiki said:
Ironside must recover a stolen Torah before the thieves learn it's only of value to members of a synagogue.
This time the front-billed main guest isn't much of a suspect...David Opatoshu as Rabbi Herschel Farber, who's injured during the robbery. The thieves leave a swastika painted on the wall of the shul. It turns out that the Rabbi is another figure who was there when Ironside was recovering after he was crippled, so the Chief wants to return the favor. As hinted at, the Torah isn't inherently valuable...it's a powerful symbol of faith for its synagogue because it was lost in Europe during the war and only recently recovered.
Via the rabbi's young grandson, Allie (Stephen Liss), Ironside catches wind of a local street gang called the Loyals, so he checks them out. Their leader, Digby (Hilly Hicks), protests that the Loyals are "too big" to have committed such an act...
Digby said:
Bustin' up a Jewish church and crack an old rabbi's head, that ain't our bag!
The African American gang gains some additional benefit of the doubt when it turns out that there's a holy man in their midst, Reverend Hanley (Hal Frederick). In Mark's parlance, Hanley "grooves with them".
We subsequently get a good look at the thieves, who definitely aren't Loyals, when they try to fence their loot only to be told that there's no market for hot Torahs. One of them, Royce (Greg Mullavey), wants to toss it in the bay, but the other, Trannon (Shelly Novack), won't let him because it's a holy object. They learned about the torah because of a write-up that its recovery got in the paper, so Ironside has a piece written in the same column about how the scroll is only valuable to the congregation. This gives Royce the idea to ransom it, which includes sending a piece of it as proof, to the rabbi's distress.
Digby visits the Ironsidecave trying to sell information. It turns out that his price is help opening a local high school gym to local kids for use at night. He only has the first three letters of the license plate, but between that and another tip about the make of the car that comes from the fence via a go-between, the Chief is able to zero in on the vehicle used by the robbers. Eventually Ed finds the robbers' hotel room, to discover that Trannon has been injured by Royce in a scuffle over Royce's desire to string along the synagogue for more money.
Allie shows up for the delivery as arranged, with a paper bag full of money procured from Commissioner Randall by the Chief, and the beachside area is thoroughly staked out by Team Ironside and the police. Royce grabs the bag from a car that the boy passes and tries to make a getaway, but finds himself in hot pursuit by the Ironsidemobile, Ed's car, and a squad car. But once they've got him, they still don't know where the Torah is, and Royce hints that there's a ticking clock involved. With Trannon's help, they check the cove where Royce had been threatening to toss the Torah earlier in the episode, and Mark locates it among the rocks just as the tide's starting to splash in.
At the end the Loyals' have gotten their gym access, and the reverend has several neighborhood boys sing at the synagogue's celebration of the scroll's recovery.
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Get Smart
"Age Before Duty"
Originally aired December 5, 1969
Wiki said:
Max is bewildered when his young 28-year-old contact dies of old age. A disgruntled CONTROL photographer, Felix (John Fiedler), has developed a paint (called "Dorian Gray"), which causes aging once the paint is applied on the photo of the intended target. Rejected by the Chief, Felix shops his dark art to KAOS, which has paid him $100,000. Before long, everyone at CONTROL is aging rapidly, except Larrabee, who has not yet had his ID photo renewed. The episode is a spoof of The Picture of Dorian Gray and the title is a spoof of the old adage, "age before beauty".
Max meets his aged contact, Carruthers (Ralph Moody), at a harbor bar, where his passphrase is "I lost my dinghy," which elicits some reactions when he goes around saying it. The before picture that we later see of Carruthers still looks a lot older than 28.
Felix is working in the CONTROL photo lab, which is how he has access to the photo ID pictures. The antidote turns out to be wiping the Dorian Gray off the retouched photos with a cleaning solution.
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The Brady Bunch
"Every Boy Does It Once"
Originally aired December 5, 1969
Wiki said:
After Bobby watches a television adaptation of "Cinderella," older stepsisters Marcia and Jan tease him, then Carol asks for his help in sweeping the chimney. Bobby reasons that what he just saw on TV was correct: All stepmothers and stepsisters are evil. Feeling unloved and unwanted, he decides to run away.
Guest stars: Michael Lerner as Johnny, Larry McCormick as the TV announcer (voice only)
I've noticed how they seem to be giving each kid a spotlight episode early on. After the bit about being asked to sweep the fireplace (not the chimney), Bobby's put out further by Carol fixing up Greg and Peter's old clothes for him instead of buying him new clothes. (See? Mike's not made of money.) Marcia and Jan acting so mean to him (mainly rubbing things in by making fun of his hand-me-downs) seems out of character. Then Mike chooses to fix Cindy's doll cradle before Bobby's bike. Later, after Alice tells Carol about a talk she had with Bobby about the ideas he got from the show, Carol realizes how she contributed by asking him to sweep out the fireplace. By that point the adults all know what's bothering Bobby, but nobody can talk any sense into him. What he doesn't know when he decides to run away is that Carol and Mike are out getting his bike fixed early as a surprise.
Bobby tells Peter what he's doing when Peter catches him packing.
Peter: I told ya, I can't tell ya, I promised Bobby. The only reason he told me is 'cause I'm his brother!
Greg: Well so am I, dummy!
It doesn't look as funny in print, but Barry Williams's delivery got a good LOL from me. Greg tells Alice in an unsubtly roundabout way, and Mike and Carol get home (without the bike, having decided that it would be like bribing Bobby) while Bobby's still packing--Bobby's got a big-ass suitcase for a little kid...he could almost sleep in it! Mike goes up to talk to him, acting like he doesn't plan to stop Bobby, but putting some ideas in his head about the drawbacks of being out alone in the world. Then when Bobby goes down to the door he finds Carol there with her own suitcase packed, saying that she plans to join him. It's only this that convinces Bobby that everyone cares about him.
Bobby's bike is a bit of a period piece. It's got a banana seat and a high "sissy bar" (as a bit of Googling told me it's called) behind the seat with a nameplate on it.
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Hogan's Heroes
"The Empty Parachute"
Originally aired December 5, 1969
Wiki said:
To spook a courier into unchaining a briefcase from his wrist, the team convinces security that there’s a commando somewhere in camp.
Hogan's in Klink's office when Hochstetter brings the courier, Schlager (Parley Baer) in. The coffee pot listening device lets the prisoners spy on one side of a phone conversation with the Fuehrer, so they know it's something big. They perpetrate their ruse by letting Schultz find a half-buried parachute...though they have to go out of their way to draw his attention to it. That convinces Schlager and Hochstetter to put the briefcase in a "more secure" place...Klink's safe, which has a history of secretly being broken into, but under guard. This time Newkirk does the deed while everyone is in the office, with the help of a planted speaker that makes the Germans think they're hearing a radio broadcast of a speech by Hitler--which Kinch's announcement tells them they are ordered to listen to! Newkirk is ostensibly there to do cleaning, and smuggles the briefcase out in his basket, which gives the prisoners some time to inspect it in the tunnel.
Hogan quickly surmises that it's rigged to blow if opened normally, so he radios to London for a not-guaranteed walk-through of how to open it...which is a bit more elaborate than with Bond's FRWL case. Inside they find American currency, which they realize is counterfeit because it's accompanied by the plates that made it. They put a way-too-obvious flaw in the plates--a swastika and Hitler's face! Then they have to perpetrate another ruse to smuggle it back into the safe, so one of them tosses a German grenade (easily purloined from Schultz's belt, and with the pin still in it) into Klink's window right as the safe has been opened. In the coda, Hogan brings the search for the commando to an end when he shows Klink that the parachute was made in Berlin.
DISSS-missed!
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In particular, the idea of a conscientious objector who enlists to make a contribution-- because the abhorrence he feels for the Nazis is in conflict with her personal beliefs-- is compelling
His attitude toward the Nazis was more like, "I've heard about all the things they've done, but..."
(although the gimmick of him sneaking on board and so on is pretty contrived).
I thought so, too. If he felt so strongly, it didn't make any sense that he'd put himself in that position.
He's an Old Salt. He's been around. He's seen things!
You should do a Young Skipper prequel series!
I don't think the Howells really grasped the concept the three-hour tour.
I can just imagine trying to bring all that crap aboard a whale watch or a schooner.
Different network? Different inquisitors? Different context? You can never be sure what will or won't trigger the censorious mind.
I suspect different context. The difference with Jeannie's costume was probably that she'd be running around in it all the time, so they would have been concerned about not making it "too naughty".
Made a completely random visit to the Decades site to see what was up these days and they had something interesting posted...they're finally getting more episodes of
Dark Shadows.
One of the
Petticoat Junction episodes that Me played yesterday morning involved a beatnik coffee house...which seemed a bit behind the times considering that the episode aired in early '67.
)
