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50th Anniversary Catch-Up Viewing
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Hawaii Five-O
"Pray Love Remember, Pray Love Remember"
Originally aired January 1, 1969
Wiki said:
When a young Indonesian student is murdered, McGarrett searches for the prime suspect.
The young woman, who was found strangled, was attending a cultural institute that's the Governor's pride and joy, hence McGarrett being put on the case. Initial clues found at the scene indicating the presence of a man of considerable size make her boyfriend, college football player John Hayes (Denny Miller), the prime suspect. He seems genuinely devastated by her death, but doesn't have a very good alibi because he was seen being violently drunk the night before, following a proposal attempt that was rejected because the girl felt an obligation to take her education back to her country...and he slept on the beach that night.
A fortuitous meeting with a young girl at the pond where the body was found leads the investigation in a new direction, because she's noticed that two distinctive fish are missing. This adds up with another clue found at the scene...the print of a bucket, indicating that the very valuable fish were stolen. 5-O tracks down who bought them, and then find out who was hired to take them...a man named Benny Apa who's very Lenny-esque in his size and simple-minded nature. He initially withholds the truth from them for his own reasons, but ultimately confesses to having accidentally killed the girl when trying to silence her.
The episode ends on a positive note, with the exonerated Hayes deciding to take his education to Indonesia in his girlfriend's place.
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Dragnet 1969
"Community Relations (DR-17)"
Originally aired January 2, 1969
Xfinity said:
A black officer and his white colleague become aware of their prejudices at a police conference.
Sgt. Joe Friday said:
This is the city: Los Angeles, California. Twenty-five miles from the heart of the civic center lies the Port of Los Angeles, with the largest manmade harbor in the world. With a fleet of over 700 fishing boats, it's become the most important commercial fishing center in the nation. It's a bustling port which handles goods coming into the country from all over the world. There are agencies set up to handle most of the harbor's problems. Occasionally things get out of hand in the city. When they do, I go to work. I carry a badge.
That was a clumsily weak transition, but there ya go!
Monday, October 7 (1968): Friday and Gannon are working the day watch out of Community Relations Division when they're assigned to attend the LAPD's Community Relations Conference at Lake Arrowhead. Captain Walton (Art Gilmore, now in what appears to be his eighth roll thus far in the Mark VII-verse) describes it as an opportunity for the detectives to "let their hair down"--which I find impossible to picture in Friday's case--but the buildup to leaving for the conference the next week seems very serious and businesslike, including a meeting of several attending officers with a conference coordinator (Sid McCoy). The purpose of the conference is to find ways to improve the department's relationship with the public.
Once at the site of the conference, Friday and Gannon are checking into their cozy accommodations when they meet their cabinmate, Sgt. Keith Barrett (Leonard Stone), and practically the first words out of his mouth are about how the department is trying to bend over backwards for minorities--yeah, subtle there. He quickly stands out as the Archie Bunker of the discussion group that Friday is leading, with several of the other officers--who include William Boyett (not as Sgt. MacDonald, though he easily could have been other than having been written as being with Training Division) and Walter Brooke--dogpiling on him for his prejudices the second day. Friday tries to keep things "fair and balanced" by pointing out that the black officer at the table, Sgt. Tom Benson (Morris Erby), admits to taking more of an interest in serving the needs of citizens of color.
The episode ends on an uplifting note when Barrett, who never returned to the cabin the last night of the conference, reveals that he spent the night walking and talking with Benson.
The Announcer said:
The Los Angeles Police Department's Arrowhead conferences engaged 350 key department personnel in the identification to barriers to understanding, confidence, mutual respect, and the development of plans for effective two-way communication between the department and all segments of the community. From those meetings came the beginning of an awareness and concept which have developed into one of the most effective and comprehensive police community relations programs.
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Hawaii Five-O
"King of the Hill"
Originally aired January 8, 1969
Wiki said:
A Marine Vietnam veteran (Yaphet Kotto) suffers a breakdown and, believing he is back in Vietnam, takes Danny hostage in a hospital ward.
Future Bond villain in the house! Kotto's character, Corporal John Auston, is home on leave from a tour in 'Nam when he suffers a head injury from a batting accident at a little league softball game. When he wakes up, he hallucinates that everyone around him is a soldier on one side or the other back in 'Nam, and grabs a police officer's gun. Most escape the room, but Danny is wounded--ironically, as Austin sees him as his sergeant, whom he thinks he's protecting. Auston is holding his hill from behind an overturned gurney in an outside corner room with the door open, blocking off a wing with critical patients. McGarrett gets to lose a few IQ points this episode so that Dr. Hanson (Jeff Corey) can lecture him about the dangers of going in with guns blazing or tear gas. Hanson manages to get to those patients and have them carefully evacuated via a boom lift up to the windows, though Auston takes some shots at those manning the rescue from below at one point.
Eventually 5-O digs up a buddy of Auston's who's also on leave, and from him learn details of the battle that Auston is reliving in his head. McGarrett then arranges to play one of the good guys involved in the incident's resolution, a corpsman who took Auston out via helicopter. This involves wearing the uniform and being dropped to the window from a helicopter. Part of the act includes informing Auston that Sgt. Danno is dead, because that's what really happened. This causes an emotional breakdown for Auston, in which he vents about racial tensions that he experienced with the actual sergeant. I don't know if they played it unbleeped in the original broadcast, but this includes a full-frontal use of the N-word, which I was surprised to find coming up at this point on prime-time network TV.
Lt. Kealoha returns in this one, pinch-hitting for Danny.
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Dragnet 1969
"Homicide (DR-22)"
Originally aired January 9, 1969
Xfinity said:
An elderly man solves the murder of a young woman who lived in the apartment building he manages.
Sgt. Joe Friday said:
This is the city: Los Angeles, California. I work here. I carry a badge.
Sunday, November 3 (1968): Friday and Gannon, working the day watch out of Homicide Division, investigate the murder of a young woman named Mary Jenkins whose body is found hogtied--dressed like she was coming or going--in her ransacked apartment. In this effort they get a lot of unsolicited help from the 91-year-old apartment manager, Calvin Lampe (Burt Mustin), who seems suspiciously observant of the details of the crime and of Miss Jenkins's activities. At first they take him to be an overeager police buff, but a clue turns up that makes him a suspect. Their concerns about him quickly evaporate when he's taken to the station and enthusiastically greeted by Captain Brown, who identifies him as an accomplished Chicago dick of 44 years. The detectives' attitudes toward Lampe do a 180 from that point, and they eagerly pick his brain for any insight he might have to offer. The case gets a break when a hype and prostitute named Eve Wesson (Jill Banner) is brought in with a jewelry box in her possession that Lampe identifies as the one stolen from Jenkins's apartment. She confesses to how a couple she was with tried to get drug money from Jenkins, the man tied Jenkins up to silence her, and she learned after the fact that he ultimately killed Jenkins after Wesson had left the apartment.
The Announcer said:
On January 23, trial was held in Department 184, Superior Court of the State of California, for the County of Los Angeles....The suspect was found guilty of murder in the first degree, and was sentenced to death.
The mugshot said:
CLETUS CARL MARTIN
Now awaiting execution in the State Penitentiary, San Quentin, California.
The Announcer said:
The suspect was found guilty of second degree murder.
The mugshot said:
BEVERLY FRANCIS LONG
Now serving a term of five years to life in the California Institution for Women, Corona, California.
The Announcer said:
The suspect was found guilty of robbery and assault.
The mugshot said:
EVE STEWART WESSON
Sentenced to a term of one to five years, is now confined in the California Institution for Women, Corona, California.
I felt kind of sorry for Cletus and Beverly...they only showed up in the episode for the conviction and sentencing.
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I think this was the version that I used to hear on oldies radio, though...yet I couldn't find it for download. No matter, Joni Mitchell's single, while it won't reach the Top 40, will be charting fairly soon.
To be fair, they were covering an instrumental originally done by the Who themselves. At first listen this sounds a bit muzaky, but it's still cool, because it's
Tommy. What's more, members of this studio group will go on to be in MFSB, who will be giving us a major trendsetting single of the decade in a few years.
An incredibly heartbreaking song, with one of the most memorable lines of all time: "What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground?"
A powerful and unfortunately inspired sign-o-the-times statement. The band rush-released this single in the wake of the Kent State shootings despite the fact that the recently released "Teach Your Children" single was still climbing, probably hurting the performance of both singles.
Ya think?
I distinctly remember reading the news in the Globe that day, and it mentioning that he was 40, so he's the one Beatle whose age I always know instantly at any time.
Just remember that Ringo was born the same year, three months earlier.
Did I ever tell the story of how Annabella nearly trod on my fingers?
Were you disappointed that she missed?
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50th Anniversary Viewing Addendum
Just tonight, the Ed Sullivan YouTube account released this video of the full Jackson 5 performances from their December 14, 1969, debut on the show:
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Happy 78th, Sir Paul! 
For a moment, I saw Elizabeth Collins and thought it was a Dark Shadows thing.