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50th Anniversary Viewing
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All in the Family
"Gloria's Pregnancy"
Originally aired February 16, 1971
Wiki said:
The Stivics start looking for an apartment after Gloria reveals her pregnancy, making Archie furious. Though he eventually comes around, Gloria has a miscarriage, and he comforts her for the loss.
The episode opens with Archie and Mike having a discussion about chicanos (in the acceptable parlance of the time) protesting in California. Edith and Gloria come home from the doctor chomping at the bit to share some wonderful news. Alone with Gloria, Mike quickly figures it out for himself and goes into the customary unprepared father panic. They go out to tell Archie, and Edith hints at the news in such a way that it makes it sound like
she's the one who's pregnant. While everyone else is ecstatic, Archie is speechless, and repeatedly glares at Mike. When the two of them have the room, Archie bawls out Mike about not being able to support the baby, and Mike declares that he'll quit school. In the time that it takes Archie and Edith to have a scene in the kitchen, Mike secures an apartment via a friend, but Archie remains skeptical that the Stivics will be going anywhere.
Edith pressures Archie to tell the kids that they can stay. Then a very pregnant friend of Gloria's named Mona (Holly Near) drops by to congratulate her. Archie uses an argument about what kind of sausage he prefers to excuse himself to go to a diner, following which the subject of natural childbirth comes up. Everyone has a hearty laugh when Edith reveals that she was such a nervous mother that she never counted baby Gloria's toes, and Gloria starts to have complications. A doctor makes a house call and confirms that she's going to be fine, and will be able to have more babies. Then Archie comes in, not knowing what's happened, with a giant stuffed panda and announces that the kids will be staying. Mike and Edith break the news, and Archie visibly deflates. He goes up to Gloria's room and pays her a very gentle, fatherly visit, with few words but much love and understanding between them.
In the coda, Archie's back to commenting about Mike and Gloria making out.
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Hawaii Five-O
"Dear Enemy"
Originally aired February 17, 1971
Wiki said:
A woman (Vera Miles) falsifies evidence linking two murders in an attempt to trick McGarrett into re-investigating the homicide charge for which her husband was convicted. Gary Collins also guest stars as the woman's lawyer/accomplice, and local television personality/pitchman David "Lippy" Espinda appears as the bartender.
Fast-talking real estate swindler Ray Tobias (Dub Taylor) has just arrived on a cruise ship and calls somebody trying to make a deal. He leaves a bar to make a rendezvous at a pier where he trips on a bad stair, is hit from behind, and his face is held in the drink by gloved hands. Tobias had been a witness in the conviction for murder of a man named Fred Whiting (John Lupton), which the papers try to make a connection to. McGarrett gets barked at to put and end to the story by state senator Amos Bolin (William O'Donnell), who's apparently subbing for the Governor this week. Steve then gets called to meet with attorney Henry Lockman (Gary Collins) and his client, Flora Whiting (Vera Miles), who's been in a mental hospital. Fred is said to have been a political rival of Bolin's for a US Senate seat, and Lockman was his campaign manager. Mrs. Whiting claims that Tobias wrote her offering to get her husband's case reopened, and seems erratic and desperate.
Danno talks to the Harry the bartender (David "Lippy" Espinda) while Steve goes to the pen to talk to Fred about a piece of cuff link found at the scene of the murder that Flora thinks may be his. Fred describes how he met and had an affair and fought with the victim, Betty, and admits to having hit her when she threatened to blackmail him, but swears that he didn't kill her. Flora and Lockman then show up at Steve's office with a page from Tobias's letter. The other half of the cuff link is turned up, which comes to three complete cuff links, making it possible that somebody else was at the beach house where the murder occurred and may have framed Fred. We then see Lockman, wearing the gloves, knocking out a hotel maid while going through Tobias's stuff.
Five-O discovers that Tobias called Lockman's office about a land deal the day before. They bring in Bill Makoto (Ah Vah), the assistant jeweler whom they believe made the cuff link, who was about to fly to Japan with a decent wad of cash, which suggest a payoff. Lockman and Flora are brought in, and when she reacts to seeing Makoto, it comes out that he'd just made the third cuff link for her a few days ago. Steve confronts her about having done what the Wiki contributor told us she did up front...if only Steve could read Wiki. She's taken away back to her hotel, and while Lockman is using one of Five-O's phones to call a doctor, he listens in on a conversation about a car that was used by the hotel attacker.
In her hotel room, Lockman seems interested in making a connection between the sedated Flora and the balcony, but is stymied by the presence of a neighbor on her balcony. Flora wakes up and he fixes her a drugged drink. She pieces some things together, guessing that he ransacked Tobias's room and accuses him of having killed Tobias and Betty. He admits that Betty was threatening to expose him for setting her up with Fred, just as she passes out. He's finally carrying her to balcony when Five-O bursts in for some booking, explaining how Lockman needed to silence Flora because she knew that he was using the car that she'd rented. Steve gets a hug from Flora.
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The Brady Bunch
"Lights Out"
Originally aired February 19, 1971
Wiki said:
Cindy develops a fear of the dark after seeing a magician's "disappearing lady" act at a party. Peter helps Cindy deal with her fear by asking her to be his assistant for a magic act at his school's upcoming talent show. The whole thing is nearly undermined when Bobby plays a cruel joke on his sister, but Cindy shows courage when she learns that Peter's new assistant, Jan, hurt herself in gym class.
Unable to sleep, Cindy wakes up the other girls by turning on the light. When a commotion ensues, Mike gets involved and asks her what's going on. She wants to sleep with the parents, and tells them why when she's in their bed. It turns out that she saw the disappearing part at a birthday party, but ran out so she didn't see the assistant reappear. But even with the parents, she doesn't want the light turned out. Meanwhile, Peter takes an interest in doing magic for a school vaudeville show after having attended the same party. Mike takes Peter to a store, where the owner (Snag Werris) demonstrates a number of tricks. Peter practices one of them at home--making a bottle disappear from one tube and appear in the other--and Cindy takes an interest, so Carol suggests that Peter use Cindy as his assistant. He also bought a book for building his own disappearing cabinet, but Cindy doesn't want to do the trick. Peter tries to demonstrate with Bobby, but Bobby doesn't cooperate with the reappearing part, which reaffirms Cindy's trauma. (I know they're being coy about how the tricks work for our benefit, but it seems like Peter would have to show Cindy how it works, which might help her to overcome her fear.)
Cindy bows out of assisting Peter, even after Bobby reappears, so Jan takes over, and Cindy won't even watch them demonstrate their tricks for the family. The show's tryouts come, but Jan can't make it because she sprained her ankle in gym class, so Peter goes out to solo what tricks he can, though he gets hung up on describing for the judges the good tricks that he can't do. Then Alice brings in Cindy in the nick of time, and she volunteers for the booth to help him win. The trick goes smoothly (so Cindy must know how it works), and Cindy overcomes her fear, wanting to do it again.
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The Odd Couple
"You've Come a Long Way, Baby"
Originally aired February 19, 1971
Wiki said:
Felix must take care of a baby left behind at his studio.
Felix is developing photos he's been taking of babies all day for an ad campaign. While Oscar's on the phone with him, Felix hears a baby crying and finds him in the studio. Back at the apartment, neighbor boy Phillip (Christopher Shea) drops by on Oscar with his chihuahua, and I'm too distracted by the fact that he has Linus's voice to pay attention to why he's there or what the scene's about. Felix comes home with the baby in a bassinet, and is surprisingly good with him, though Oscar is less comfortable. Felix and Oscar are scheduled to perform a skit at a dinner, so when Nancy Cunningham comes over (apparently she'll be regularly recurring into the next season), she volunteers to wait for the mother to show up (Felix having left a note on the studio door).
Murray comes by and Felix thinks that Oscar called him because Oscar thinks that the baby was abandoned deliberately; but he's there for a different reason. They usher him out without letting him see the baby, but then the baby comes up missing, and it turns out that Phillip took him, apparently to commandeer the bassinet for his dog. As the time for the dinner nears, Oscar reveals that he has since called Murray, but didn't tell him what it was about. Murray nevertheless hears the baby and figures it out, and is taking charge of the situation when Mrs. Lee (Lisa Lu) arrives. She tries to explain how she accidentally left the child in the studio, but breaks into rapid Chinese, so nobody understands her.
In the coda, we learn that Felix and Oscar didn't win for best skit, but they start demonstrating their version of Abbott and Costello doing "Who's on First" for Nancy.
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Mission: Impossible
"Kitara"
Originally aired February 20, 1971
Wiki said:
In order to rescue a renowned resistance leader imprisoned in an African colony governed by apartheid, the IMF utilize drugs and a special light bulb to trick a white governor (Lawrence Dobkin) into believing that his race has been altered.
In Bocamo, West Africa, a man named John Darcy (Robert DoQui), who says that he's a schoolteacher from another province, is chased down and caught in the jungle by a group of government police types. Their leader, Colonel Alex Kohler (Lawrence Dobkin), accuses him of being somebody named Kitara, who stole a military truck full of gold bullion.
The regular-sized reel-to-reel tape at a small amphitheater with a burning barrel nearby which fairly screams that the usual method is coming said:
Good morning, Jim. [Ooh, less formal!] This is John Darcy, code name Kitara, leader of a liberation movement in the African nation of Bocamo, which for over a century has been ruled by a colonial minority practicing severe racial segregation. Darcy has been captured by Colonel Alex Kohler, a provincial governor and a ruthless tyrant. If Kohler succeeds in torturing Darcy into revealing his true identity, the liberation movement, deprived of leadership and inspiration, will be destroyed.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to free Darcy and end Kohler's tyranny. As always, if you or any member of your IM Force is caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. Good luck, Jim!
The method is so usual that Jim doesn't even have to be told anymore! In the briefing, Barney and Doug demonstrate and explain how a special bulb, placed in Kohler's bathroom ceiling fixture, will activate a drug that he's given to actually turn his skin black!
In Bocamo, Kohler's questioning Darcy after letting him out of a hotbox when Colonel Jim and Dr. Doug arrive on the scene on fake behalf of Kohler's superior general, tasked with confirming that Kohler has the right man. Kohler doesn't heed Doug when he insists that Kohler be treated for his heat exposure. When Kohler has left the scene, they sow some doubt about Kohler's intentions in his aide, Captain Maxfield (Rex Holman). Posing as a reporter, Dana is treated to Kohler talking about his background, and slips the drug into his tea. Meanwhile, Barney sneaks into the colonel's bathroom and replaces the bulb. Over tea with Kohler and Dana, Dr. Doug describes how he's an expert in people attempting to pass themselves off as being of a different race, and exposits about a case when a nervous disorder caused someone to be revealed as an impostor. Barney, after having dropped his gear down to Paris in the bushes, gets himself captured as an intruder.
Kohler showers under the light, and as he sleeps, his skin gradually darkens. In the morning, he wakes up to find himself in blackface, and tries to wash it off. Jim and Doug continue to express their suspicions about the colonel to Maxfield, including about how his wife died while pregnant, and what that might have revealed; as well as about how he always keeps his head shaved. Barney gets himself tossed in the hotbox, so he can tap a coded Swahili message to Kitara, filling him in on his role in the plan. By phone, Kohler agrees to let Doug examine Darcy, and Doug gives him a canteen, the lid of which he uses to exchange messages with Barney. A guard catches their noisy tapping, and takes Barney in to be questioned by Col. Jim. Kohler summons Dr. Doug, wanting to be given something to lighten his skin; Doug recommends a long, hot bath. Paris examines the tape of Barney's interrogation, which is littered with code-phrases that stand for letters, spelling out Sugano, the name of the village where the bullion is hidden.
Dana brings Kohler an old picture from the house where he grew up, which matches one in Kohler's possession of him sitting on his grandfather's lap...but in this picture, his grandfather is black. She takes him to the shop where she bought the picture, which is run by Paris, who--now passing himself off as 1/16 black--rubs a chemical over Kohler's original photo to somehow "reveal" that it's been doctored and that the grandfather is actually black in that copy as well. (I suspect that a photo-switching was involved, but I didn't catch it.) Then Dana knocks him out with the usual ring, and Doug comes in talking about his susceptibility to hypnotic suggestions while under the drug's influence. Meanwhile, Kohler's manservant, Hawn (Jason Wingreen), has tipped Maxfield off about some of the strange goings-on with Kohler, and Maxfield heads for the shop.
At the shop, Paris, disguised as the fake grandfather (Ken Renard), plays out a fake recovered memory from Kohler's childhood, revealing how he's perpetrated the deception that Kohler is white. Kohler passes out again and Paris resumes his shopkeeper role, reviving him. Maxfield arrives and sees Kohler with his new complexion; then Paris draws a gun and offers Kohler an escape. Dana brings Maxfield up to speed on Kohler's fake background, and Col. Jim promotes him to Kohler's position. Paris brings Kohler to the hut where the gold is hidden, but Maxfield's men quickly swoop in and a chase ensues, while Maxfield finds the gold in Kohler's fake hideout. Col. Jim convinces Maxfield that Kohler is actually Kitara, and is subsequently allowed to drive off with Barney, Darcy, and the gold. Mission: Accomplished.
The problems with this episode from a modern perspective are obvious; but also, Dobkin in blackface simply wasn't convincing as an actual native African.
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The Mary Tyler Moore Show
"A Friend in Deed"
Originally aired February 20, 1971
Wiki said:
Mary's bubbly forgotten pal from summer camp, "Twinks" McFarland (Pat Finley), turns up as WJM's new receptionist and wants to be Mary's best friend again---with an unsuspected ulterior motive.
The guys are talking about how overly friendly the new receptionist is, when Twinks comes in and pounces on Mary with a hug. Mary doesn't recognize her, and has to be reminded of how they knew each other. This appears to be another case in which the old friend is more attached to that moment than Mary, as Twink has a camp scrapbook and talks about how she's still getting the camp's newsletter.
Lou: I went to a Notre Dame reunion...it was terrific!
Mary: I didn't know you went to Notre Dame!
Lou: I didn't, but those guys really know how to throw a bash. Word to the wise, Mary...the best kind of reunion is one where you don't know anybody.
Twinks visits Mary's apartment and tries to impose herself in all of Mary and Rhoda's plans, including a potential vacation to Hawaii. (They should take her...imagine Five-O fishing Twinks out of the drink...) Back at WJM, Twinks continues to be an annoyance to Lou for routinely hugging him despite his deliberate rudeness toward her. Then Twinks springs the news that she's getting married, cornering Mary into serving as her maid of honor, and Rhoda into being a bridesmaid.
Mary isn't enthusiastic about her maid of honor duties, and finds the pink dress that Twinks picked out to be horrendous. Then Twinks drops in and breaks the news that her best friend who wasn't going to be able to fly out for the wedding will be able to make it after all, so she's going to be the maid of honor as originally planned. With some egging on from Rhoda, Mary expresses to Twinks how used she feels over the whole ordeal...and Rhoda realizes that she's still stuck being a bridesmaid, in the purple version of the horrendous dress.
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At least they're not all students.
There was actually a gag about that--when Greer tells them he's putting them undercover at the school, Linc objects that they're too old to pass as students, and Greer drops the bomb that he's putting Linc in as a teacher.
Linc's objection was perhaps lampshading that all of the other students looked like they were in their 20s as well.
Wow. Is that the only time he ever played a villain?
Dunno.
Also, after knocking the guard out, Linc put a makeshift pillow under his head!
Messy, after all that planning.
Not at all...it was definitely part of Mills's plan the entire time. He was reducing how much he'd have to split the take even further. What was messy was that he didn't actually off the two Mods who were at his mercy (which Turk was supposed to do)...but then, I don't think he found out they were cops until the very end, so if he was skipping the country, he probably thought that leaving them behind was sufficient.
The secret identity reveals for characters who don't figure out for themselves that the Mods are really cops tend to be fun bits of business to watch for. Here, Pete's interaction with the motorcycle cop was more entertaining than my summary got across. The cop is completely stone-faced, clearly thinking that Pete's bullshitting him, and Pete's saying something like, "Look, what I'm trying to tell you is that I'm..." [cut to Greer on the phone] "...exactly what he says he is!"
It seems like this is a line from a song, but I can't place it.
The first search result is quoting Linc; the rest are about whether you should drink wine from paper/plastic cups.
