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50th Anniversary Viewing
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The Ed Sullivan Show
Season 22, episode 14
Originally aired December 28, 1969
As represented in
The Best of the Ed Sullivan Show
Our odd bit of business from this broadcast...
Ed said:
World-famous Metropolitan Opera stars Roberta Peters and Robert Merrill...
Both are singing numbers from
La Traviata: first Peters with "Sempra Libera," then Merrill with "Di Provenza Il Mar". She hits really high notes, he's got the deep, rich thing going on.
This video of the two of them performing together seems to be from the same appearance--same clothes, same set--though it wasn't shown on
Best of, nor is it listed for the date on tv.com.
Also in the original episode according to tv.com:
Music:
--Thelma Houston - "Didn't We?" (and possibly "Save the Country").
--Jerry Vale sings "Stay Awhile" and a medley ("Sunny," "More," "This Guy's In Love" and "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You").
--Your Father's Mustache (Dixieland-style band) - "Come On People (Glory River)" with dancers.
--New Music Hall of Israel (troupe of folk-dancers, singers, and musicians) - segment includes "Where Are the Good Old-Fashioned Girls?" sung in Yiddish.
Comedy:
--Joan Rivers (comedy monologue)
--Charlie Manna (comedian)
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Mission: Impossible
"The Amnesiac"
Originally aired December 28, 1969
Wiki said:
A stolen isotope could make atomic weapons affordable to every country in the world. Paris poses as an amnesia victim to retrieve the stolen isotope.
The miniature reel-to-reel tape in an empty pool hall said:
Good morning, Mr. Phelps. Two years ago, a sphere of a rare isotope known as trivanium was stolen from us. Trivanium is invaluable, as it could lead to development of nuclear weapons so inexpensive that any nation in the world could afford them. Three men engineered the actual theft of the trivanium. One was Otto Silff. The second, Major Paul Johan [Steve Ihnat]. The third, the leader, Colonel Alex Vorda [Anthony Zerbe], security chief of their country.
Your mission, Jim, should you decide to accept it, is to find out where the trivanium is hidden and get it back. As always, should you or any of your IM Force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck, Jim!
This week's unusual suspect, Monique:
Jim also tosses in stunt driver Jack Ashbough (Victor Paul, from a fake auto magazine cover dated January 1970) and the Globe Repertory Company.
Silff is dead, so he's the one Paris will be impersonating. Johan killed him, hid the trivanium, and plans to sell it; Vorda, who wants to give the trivanium to the UPR in exchange for help with a coup, thinks that Silff hid the trivanium and died in an accident. The ticking clock is set at 48 hours at the time of the briefing, so at least Jim had additional time to plan.
Jim poses as Dr. Lumin, who's just gotten a lot of fake publicity about his breakthrough treatment for amnesia. Meanwhile, Willy's made to "return" a file cabinet to a high-security file room; of course, Barney's inside it, and he gets to work on Silff's file. At a cabaret, Monique as a piano player and Paris as a caricature artist drop various clues for the benefit of Silff's lover, Alena Ober (Lisabeth Hush), that Paris is really Silff despite his different appearance. Meanwhile, UPR representative Erhard Poltzin (Tony Van Bridge) confronts Vorda with intelligence he's received that somebody plans to sell the trivanium to a rival power, the North Asia People's Republic.
Vorda questions Monique and then Paris, who put forth that Paris was badly disfigured two years ago and doesn't remember anything before the accident. They call Paris's plastic surgeon (Barney) and learn that Paris has an appointment with Dr. Lumin, whom they strong-arm into cooperating with them despite Paris supposedly having a tumor that would make it dangerous to use Lumin's technique on him. Meanwhile, Johan confronts Monique with knowledge that one of her clues to Paris's fake true identity, a lighter with a date inscribed on it, is a fake. Monique says that she was using the fake lighter to try to smoke out Silff's partner for the mysterious transaction that she'd learned about.
Lumin gives Paris the treatment, with Paris enacting restored childhood memories, which involve him being afraid of a "man in the shadows" whose identity must be determined. With the help of Goateed Tail Willy, Monique convinces Johan that Fake Silff must have already given info to Lumin that is enabling Vorda to close in on him, and Johan decides that to get the heat off of him, he has to have Silff reveal where the trivanium is hidden--which he tells Monique, while Barney is listening via bug.
While Monique and the stunt driver stage an accident outside the warehouse where the trivanium is, presumably as a distraction, Paris spills the info in Vorda's presence, including how Johan was involved. In the warehouse, Barney and Willy switch the trivanium with a fake container. At one point, when it's determined that an ambulance won't arrive in time, somebody walks Monique to his car--even though she'd been lying with her back on the pavement and her legs supposedly pinned inside her own car. Vorda and Poltzin get into the warehouse in time to find the fake trivanium. When Johan arrives, Vorda shoots him.
I wasn't quite following all the angles of this scheme by the end. I was particularly unclear where the repertory actors factored in. During the IMF's getaway, we see some dressed as the staff of an ambulance, but there was no ambulance at the scene of the staged accident, so I didn't catch what their involvement was.
The numerical date inscribed on the lighter is in Month Day Year order, which is pretty much a US thing.
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Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
Season 3, episode 15
Originally aired December 29, 1969
The Wiki list of guest appearances said:
David Frye, George Gobel, Guy Lombardo, Ed McMahon, Frank Sinatra Jr., Nancy Sinatra
There's a New Year-themed opening cocktail party, which I couldn't find a clip of.
Lily Tomlin is in the house! This episode includes her first skits as Ernestine the telephone operator.
Second part here. There's a third part in the episode that's not available as a clip; and going by the clips that are available, apparently the reveal that the Mr. "Veedle" she's calling is actually Gore Vidal will be in an upcoming segment.
Guy Lombardo said:
And me, I'm Paul McCartney!
The last Quickies of the Sixties.
Nancy Sinatra meets the Farkels.
A New Year's-themed news segment song is kicked off by Nancy. In the News of the Past, Nancy plays Madame Curie.
Nancy gets in some "Boots".
The second Whoopee Award goes to Mrs. Florence Davidson.
A New Year song/dance/comedy segment:
Guy Lombardo said:
I've said it before and I'll say it again: when I go, I'm taking New Year's Eve with me!
Laugh-In salutes the Sixties, part 1:
There's another
I Am Curious (Yellow) reference in one of the earlier bits in the episode. The salute continues after a commercial break. Not included from in-between the video clips...
Joanne and Teresa (singing):
We made it through the Maharishi Sixties
Through the sitar Sixties
Through the meditational Sixties
We spent our evenings on a bed of needles
Waiting for the second coming of the Beatles
Ruth said:
When the hippies came to Chicago, Mayor Daley reversed the old adage: If you can't join 'em, beat 'em.
Teresa said:
If the Seventies are anything like the Sixties, we won't be around to worry about the Eighties.
David Frye does a quick bit impersonating somebody who I think is supposed to be William F. Buckley Jr....in which case Dan was kinda telling the truth the other week.
The last Joke Wall of the Sixties, with Nancy Sinatra.
And appropriately enough, that will be our last television episode of the Sixties!
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"Ten Percent of Nothing Is Nothing"
Originally aired January 1, 1970
Wiki said:
Ann Marie is helping her agent with his stand-up comedy act.
Maybe I should have kept a list of Ann's agents! This week is the debut of her latest, Sandy Stone (Morty Gunty). It looks like he'll be appearing in two more episodes next season. Note that Gunty had just appeared as himself in Vegas.
At a party thrown by Ann for Sandy, Sandy gives a demonstration of his stand-up routine, using Ann as the secret partner who heckles from the audience and is brought onstage. He likes her performance so much that he books her with him at a country club gig on Long Island. This only leads to more gigs, which Ann isn't crazy about, as it's not the sort of career she's looking for. Donald comes to all of the gigs and Ann pretends to wait on him, which is her cover for being in the audience.
Sandy lands Ann a part in a commercial that conflicts with one of their gigs, so he tells her that the gig was postponed. When she finds out what he did, she shows up at the gig anyway, only to find that he hasn't. Taking advantage of his gender-neutral first name, she does his part of the act while Donald does hers...but his heckling of her doesn't go over well with the audience, and he comes out of the gig with a black eye.
In the coda, we find that Ann's gotten in trouble with her union for working with Donald, who isn't a member.
Lew Gallo appears as an audience member at one of the gigs. He's the associate producer of
That Girl and played the recurring role of Major Cobb on
12 O'Clock High.
I've been noticing from the wardrobe on this show that plaids are coming in.
"Oh, Donald" count:
5 (not counting Donald repeating one of them and one close-sounding "Aw, Donald")
"Oh, Sandy" count:
1
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Get Smart
"Moonlighting Becomes You"
Originally aired January 2, 1970
Wiki said:
After 99 objects to doing simple assignments after marriage and motherhood, the Chief assigns her to find out how a radio drama is transmitting coded messages to KAOS. The title comes from the 1942 popular song "Moonlight Becomes You". A spoof of Orson Welles' Mercury Theater.
In a teaser completely unrelated to the main story, Max gives some microfilm disguised as chewing gum to a museum guard played by Sid Haig, thinking that's his contact. When he calls the Chief via a pay phone in the coffin in which he was hiding, he learns that his contact was supposed to be a woman.
The Chief is specifically concerned that 99 is now picking up Max's mannerisms, and she proves his point by doing some of his schtick. On her assignment, she meets the radio show's star, Hannibal Day (Victor Buono), who seems based on Welles and comes off as the most likely suspect after the sound effects man, who was also a federal agent, is killed via an electrocution trap wired into his box of gravel. Max replaces the sound effects man and forces Day to improvise on the air because he keeps using the wrong sounds. But the one who tries to shoot Max from behind the curtain turns out to be producer Rodger Hammerstein (Ron Husmann).
The announcer, Frank Ogg, is played by Billy Bletcher, who has one of those very recognizable voice actor voices.
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The Brady Bunch
"Father of the Year"
Originally aired January 2, 1970
Wiki said:
Marcia nominates Mike as "Father of the Year" in a newspaper contest, but her attempts to keep this secret results in several misunderstandings. She is first asked to do a few extra chores for being caught in Mike's den (past bedtime) where she is writing her letter for the contest. After not doing them to continue writing the secret entry, she is grounded for a week. Then when she sees the deadline for entry for the contest was the next day, she sneaks out to mail the letter. When she is caught outside well past her bedtime she is grounded from going with the family on a ski trip which was being planned in the subplot. Things are resolved when Mike is presented with the "Father of the Year" plaque and informed of how he won.
Marcia becomes motivated to nominate her father after he delays an important meeting to help her with her homework. (Carol's help won't do, because "it's math!") Her initial incursion into the den is made to look worse because the other girls have snuck down to see what their big sister's been doing, and are in the process of playfully fighting over the letter when Mike walks in. Furthermore, Marcia doesn't correct their misconception that she's been writing a love letter. But Mike demonstrates his qualifications for the award when he remains even-tempered and loving, even after a secondary mishap in which he accidentally knocks over a bottle of correction fluid that she left open, ruining some blueprints. However, as described above, Marcia finds herself caught in a downward spiral of seemingly bad behavior, following which Mike gets tougher on her. The line with which she finishes her letter is kind of touching in the way she delivers it...
Marcia said:
Even when he punishes me, it's because I deserve it.
We get a peek at the office where the letters are being read to learn that the judges have narrowed it down to three entries, one being Marcia's. The ski trip only becomes "the subplot" after it's determined that Marcia's not going, when the episode milks it for a physical comedy scene of Alice practicing in the backyard. A camera crew arranges to come to the Brady home via Carol, without revealing what award Mike is receiving, and she keeps the entire affair a surprise from him...which stymies the camera set-up when Mike unexpectedly comes home via the back door. When he finds out on camera what the award is for...gosh darn it, something about this show just hits the right notes for me. The show's got a lot of heart, and while it could all seem very trite in the wrong hands, I think it's the kids who really sell it.
Jan's infamous middle child syndrome doesn't seem to have kicked in yet, as she acts very compassionate toward Marcia once she's been grounded from the ski trip. Jan also gets in a good line earlier in the episode when she makes an excuse for her and Cindy coming down to the kitchen area after bedtime (to see what Marcia's doing in the adjacent family room), by proclaiming that the kitchen water "tastes groovier".
I did a quick bit of browsing to find out how new-fangled correction fluid would have been at this point, and ran into
this surprising tidbit:
In 1956, Bette Nesmith Graham, the mother of The Monkees' Michael Nesmith, invented the first correction fluid in her kitchen.
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Hogan's Heroes
"How's the Weather?"
Originally aired January 2, 1970
Wiki said:
London’s request for daily wind and weather reports results in the prisoners getting creative in their ways of acquiring and losing balloons.
The prisoners' first impromptu balloon is a helium-filled volleyball, which they let Klink serve. Then Hogan has Newkirk disciplined by Klink so he can be put to work at the Sergeants' Club in order to get his hands on some party balloons. A suspicious Klink walks into the barracks while the prisoners have the balloons lying out on the table, so Hogan improvises that they were planning to throw a party for Klink's anniversary as kommandant.
Hogan said:
We'll still try to make part of it a surprise, sir.
The prisoners then get a request for more detailed meteorological info, so they stage a dispute about whether or not Klink's party can be held outdoors, which causes Klink to call the meteorological bureau and get the info for them.
Klink gets suspicious again when Burkhalter reports unusual radio activity in the area. At the party, Klink notices that Kinchloe is missing, and insists with armed guards backing him that the prisoners take the party to Kinch. In the barracks, Klink has the guards shoot up the device that Kinch was cranking, which was a hand-cranked generator for the radio, but convincingly disguised as an ice cream churner, such that Klink assumes he was mistaken. The prisoners then trick Klink into radioing Burkhalter to thank him for flowers that he never sent, giving the bombers a signal to home in on.
In the coda, Hogan saves Klink from the Russian Front by convincing Burkhalter that Klink was heroically trying to serve as a diversion for the bombers.
Mmmm, apple crumb cake. Klink has good taste.
I didn't catch a DIS-missed in this episode to attempt to spell out.
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Adam-12
"Log 43: Hostage"
Originally aired January 3, 1970
Wiki said:
While at lunch at a local eatery, Malloy is seriously wounded by two escaped prisoners who are holding the officer and the other patrons hostage.
The setup of Duke and his Longhorn Café in two previous episodes pays off here, where the eatery is the setting of the story. After putting in for a Code Seven, Reed goes to grab a paper while Malloy enters the café to find a robbery in progress. He attempts to draw his gun and one of the robbers shoots him first, then fires shots out the window at Reed. Reed dodges the fire and calls for help.
The robbers, Bernie Ryan (Ken Lynch) and Vince Warren (Joseph Turkel), who we later learn are escapees from San Quentin, are distressed to find the place quickly surrounded by police, so the titular situation ensues. Duke's waitress and love interest, Angie (Diane Holden, who'd also been set up in previous episodes), insists on tending to Malloy's wound. Vince argues for surrendering to avoid death via police bullets or the gas chamber (if Malloy dies), but Bernie refuses to ever go back to the joint.
Sgt. MacDonald announces that they'll be throwing tear gas in, and Duke tells the robbers that one of the customers, Stony (William Fawcett), has emphysema. Bernie goes out the door with Stony shielding him and shares the news with Mac to buy time. Back inside, Malloy tries to get into Bernie's head. Bernie next takes Malloy out to try to negotiate an exchange--Malloy for the robbers' freedom. When Mac won't make any guarantees, he goes back in and allows Vince to surrender, which he does, with much pleading for his life motivated by the guns trained on him, including from rooftop snipers.
Bernie then walks out with Malloy in front of him with the intent of making his getaway. Sgt. Baron (Lew Brown), a detective who knows Vince, approaches with his jacket off and his hands up, but a pistol tucked into the back of his waistband, and tries to talk Bernie into surrendering. He eventually gets close enough to grab Bernie's arms, and the situation is quickly brought under control. Malloy lives, natch.
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Michael's rock tinged vocal style was a 180 degree turn from the usual Motown male vocal performances.
Hmmm...hadn't noticed that.
It does sound British, but why? I mean, what makes it sound British? The harmonica? The harmonies? Don't know.
I'm not enough of a musicologist to put my finger on it myself, but it's definitely a matter of style.
I'm sure we're going to see more of the great Philly International artists as the 70's kick off.
And Philly Soul in general, but doing a quick bit of looking up, it seems like that really gets going ca. 1972+.
Brook Benton was one of my mother and her friends' favorite artists. They used to laugh at us kids for listening to Motown, which they thought of as "bubblegum" music.
Insightful.
Recurring characters-- and good ones.
Just this once for them.
The two-thirds that survive, anyway.
The idea was that somebody was going to have to fly that mission and incur the losses, and if it were another group, the 918th would be suffering from survivor's guilt--a larger-scale version of the issue that Lockridge was facing by being laid up.
Water, water, everywhere....
Salt water.
I absolutely love this song. It really puts me right back on the streets of Dorchester, not just because of when it came out, but because of the lyrics (sort of like "Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard").
Willy and the Poor Boys played on your corner?
Another goodie. I haven't heard this one in a while.
I was anticipating you wouldn't like this one, given its criticism of the counterculture.
That time and this time even more so.
How's that?
I did notice a lot of good oldies there when I was subscribed before.
They've also got
The Brady Bunch, so if I decide I'm going to keep the subscription long-term, I could save some DVR space by chucking the Me recordings.
ETA: But looking closer, for whatever reason they don't have all of the episodes, so I may just hold onto those recordings and delete as they come up.
But this is probably not the place for that....