The Classic/Retro Pop Culture Thread

Really? It looks like he's going in slow motion to me...

 

55 Years Ago This Week

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_popular_than_Jesus

In fact, the controversy over this remark doesn't kick off until the interview is published in the American teen magazine Datebook in July. John's famous apology statement is given as the Beatles are arriving in the US for their final tour in August.

Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:

Leaving the chart:

• "Five O'Clock World," The Vogues (14 weeks)
• "A Hard Day's Night," Ramsey Lewis Trio (6 weeks)
• "Jenny Take a Ride!," Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels (12 weeks)
• "Lies," The Knickerbockers (13 weeks)
• "Like a Baby," Len Barry (9 weeks)
• "Set You Free This Time," The Byrds (4 weeks)
• "She's Just My Style," Gary Lewis & The Playboys (12 weeks)

New on the chart:

"Little Latin Lupe Lu," Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels

(#17 US)

"Sure Gonna Miss Her," Gary Lewis & The Playboys

(#9 US)

"Nowhere Man," The Beatles

(#3 US)

"(You're My) Soul and Inspiration," The Righteous Brothers

(#1 US the weeks of Apr. 9 through 23, 1966; #13 R&B; #15 UK)

Rising to the top this week:

"The Ballad of the Green Berets," SSgt Barry Sadler

(charted Feb. 5, 1966; #1 US the weeks of Mar. 5 through Apr. 2, 1966; #1 AC; #2 Country; #24 UK; #1 on Billboard's 1966 Year-End Chart of Pop Singles)


And new on the boob tube:

• The Ed Sullivan Show, Season 18, episode 24
• Branded, "Call to Glory: Part 1"
• 12 O'Clock High, "Angel Babe"
• Batman, "The Joker Goes to School"
• Batman, "He Meets His Match, The Grisly Ghoul"
• Gilligan's Island, "Feed the Kitty"
• The Wild Wild West, "The Night of the Bars of Hell"
• Hogan's Heroes, "How to Cook a German Goose by Radar"
• Get Smart, "All in the Mind"

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Does your eye make a lot of noise when you blink? If so, you may want to see your cyberneticist.

 

50 Years Ago This Week

Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:

Leaving the chart:

• "My Sweet Lord" / "Isn't It a Pity", George Harrison (14 weeks)
• "One Less Bell to Answer," The 5th Dimension (19 weeks)
• "Remember Me," Diana Ross (10 weeks)
• "Stoney End," Barbra Streisand (18 weeks)
• "Your Song," Elton John (14 weeks)

New on the chart:

"Chick-A-Boom (Don't Ya Jes' Love It)," Daddy Dewdrop

(#9 US)

"Stay Awhile," The Bells

(#7 US; #8 AC)

"Another Day," Paul McCartney

(#5 US as double A-side w/ "Oh Woman, Oh Why"; #4 AC; #2 UK)

"Oh Woman, Oh Why," Paul McCartney

(#5 US as double A-side w/ "Another Day")


And new on the boob tube:

• Hogan's Heroes, "Kommandant Gertrude"
• The Ed Sullivan Show, Season 23, episode 22
• Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Season 4, episode 24
• All in the Family, "Lionel Moves Into the Neighborhood"
• Hawaii Five-O, "The Grandstand Play (Part 1)"
• Ironside, "The Summer Soldier"
• Adam-12, "Log 16: Child in Danger"
• The Brady Bunch, "Double Parked"
• The Partridge Family, "Not with My Sister, You Don't!"
• That Girl, "Two for the Money"
• The Odd Couple, "Oscar's New Life"
• Love, American Style, "Love and the Duel / Love and the Note / Love and the Young Unmarrieds"
• Mission: Impossible, "The Party"
• The Mary Tyler Moore Show, "The 45-Year-Old Man" (season finale)

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Others had done it, but Ryder's was the biggest hit version. It was written by Bill Medley and originally done by the Righteouses as their first charting single in 1963; then the Kingsmen covered it in '64. Both only got it into the 40s.

Another of their poppy oldies radio classics.

One of the gems from the original UK version of Rubber Soul that was left off the US version, but will be appearing on the upcoming Capitol compilation Yesterday and Today. This song maybe used to hit me a little close to home, but it's so pretty and John's just being so gosh-darn nice about it...he's not berating or condescending, he's empathizing and trying to lure the guy out of his shell. And of course I can't listen to the song without picturing the sequence from the Yellow Submarine film, which has everything moving in time to it.

Their second of two chart-toppers. The Righteouses will be on the wane after this, but they're going out with a bang here.

Now this I didn't get...classic though it is, and though I generally believe in supporting the troops in the here and now, in the '60s pop cultural spectrum, it seems like a "them" song rather than an "us".

You're just supposed to knock the side of your head for that.

 

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50th Anniversary Viewing Revisited

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The Mod Squad
"When Smitty Comes Marching Home"
Originally aired October 22, 1968

This one I'd actually caught previously, but as clicking the link reminds us, Decades had been having technical difficulty for the first several minutes of the episode...so I re-recorded it and rewatched it from the beginning.

The episode opens with war hero Sgt. William Smith, a.k.a. Smitty (Louis Gossett Jr., billied in this era as Lou Gossett), coming to in uniform on a rocky shorline, calling for a man named Crowley. We see Crowley's body lying nearby, the surf lapping over it. Smitty stumbles to a bar, where the bartender (Edward Faulkner) asks him where Crowley is; outside, Smitty's stopped by a detective and a couple of uniformed officers, who found his uniform beret near the body. Clearly very disoriented from being under the influence of something, Smitty envisions the police as Viet Cong, fights them off, and flees the scene. He bursts into Linc's pad--which is conveniently near the bar--asking for a place to hide.

After the credits, Linc's serving Smitty coffee in bed, and Smitty's evasive as Linc asks him about what he was saying about killing a man and the name Crowley. This appears to be where I picked things up last time, and my review was detailed enough, so I won't bother re-covering it now. But this is worth sharing:

Lucite: A Crimefighter's Best Friend!

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The Mod Squad
"You Can't Tell the Players Without a Programmer"
Originally aired October 29, 1968

Pete and Linc are valet parking at a Beverly Hills mansion when Pete is approached by Louis Semple (Linda Marsh), an old school friend who lives across the street and wants to talk to him. He brushes her off so he can get back to busting some fur thieves with his fellow Mods. Greer shows up and maintains their cover, offering them commendations as public-minded citizens...which they turn down because they don't like cops.

After the credits, Pete rescues Louise from lying face-down in her swimming pool, which guilts him into taking an interest in whatever she wanted to say. Louise's mother, Samantha (Julie Adams), comes home from a date with a younger guy named Roy (Mark Goddard), which turns out to be the source of Louise's angst. Pete tries to reach out to Louise, but she gets a call and abruptly DIS-misses him. He tries to pay a follow-up visit with the other Mods in the woodie, and they end up following her, first to a pawn shop, then to a beachside rendezvous where she hands over her new cash to an unsavory type whose name I didn't catch. Linc and Julie follow the man, while Pete stays behind to question Louise, figuring that she's being blackmailed.

Louise tells Pete about how her parents separated a year ago. Then he goes to buy back the diamond watch that she pawned, with the other Mods chipping in. It turns out that the blackmailer has pictures of Samantha and Roy, which she thinks would keep her father away, thus ruining any hope of a loving, American-style reconciliation. Greer, who initially discouraged the Mods' extracurricular activity, turns up a make on the blackmailer's license plate, the car belonging to a computer programmer named Arthur Quinn, though he wasn't the one driving it at the time. Talking some more with Louise, Pete learns how she once went to a computer dating service, which is where Quinn works, so Greer sends Julie in as a client.

Julie's flashy car gets her flagged for the attention of Quinn (Byron Foulger), and she drops some broad hints at having some exploitable skeletons in her closet. Quinn hooks her up with...Roy Tilson, Samantha's boyfriend...and the Mods smell a set-up operation for the blackmailing. After seeing Roy some, Julie "catches" him with Louise and makes a scene, demanding that he get rid of her. Afterward she produces a tape of their conversation to the Semples, as evidence of how Roy's using Samantha. Mother and daughter reconcile, and the Mods enlist Samantha to help them sting the blackmailers. This involves her drying up as a source of money for Roy, so he gets nasty and tries pulling the blackmail directly on her. She calls in her "husband," Greer...accompanied by Louise and Julie. Roy makes a break for it and is chased by Pete and Linc, to the pool, where he ends up, Hawaii-style...except not dead.

In the coda, Greer and the Mods have a happy picnic with the Semples, and Samantha shares her plan to take Louise to Miami for a family reunion with Louise's father. There's no walk-off, just a pan-out, of everyone sitting around on the beach eating chicken.

As a guy who'd hooked up with a woman in her early 40s when I was 26, I had to take exception to part of the premise of this episode, though it may have reflected taboos of the times. Goddard's character was said to be 26 or 27, which was about five years younger than he was...the actual age difference between him and Julie Adams was ten years. Also, it was never made clear when/if Samantha and Louise learned that they were working with cops...the Mods made a point of not revealing themselves earlier on, but by the time Greer was getting openly involved, you'd think an explanation would've been in order.

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This one I haven't gotten...it seems a bit too novelty to me. Also, iTunes comments indicate that the one I posted--which is also what's available for purchase--may not be the original recording...typical of K-tel.

This was already in my collection, but I'm not that familiar with it. It has that mellow early '70s vibe.

Paul's first solo single is a little low-key, but I've always liked it. This is exactly the sort of song that John cited as a contrast to his own songwriting style...that Paul would write about secretaries while John was writing about himself.

Like the Wild Life album (which this was attached as a bonus track to in the early CD release that I have, though it's actually from the sessions for the more immediately upcoming Ram album), this is the sort of early, funky, goofy Paul that I have a big soft spot for, though most would just consider it inferior. And with that period trend I was noticing of songs about guys shooting their girlfriends, it's nice to have one where the guy is on the other end of the barrel for a change.

Good points, and cause for consideration. But this still seems, both thematically and musically, to be a deliberate counterpoint to all that long-hair British stuff that was dominating the charts of the era. And did it tend to get played on pop/rock-oriented oldies radio? Not in my experience. It just seems a little too out of the wheelhouse. On the mid-'60s pop music spectrum, it's a lot closer to the Singing Nun than the Beatles.

ETA: I'm now reunited with my DVR. At this point, I'll be covering the past week's viewing as-is, without the shows that I was missing. Then I think I'll just go forward with the usual viewing schedule in progress, and catch up on the weeks of shows that I missed during the upcoming hiatus season.

Came home to a rude bit of business concerning the DVR...although it had recorded something as recently as this morning, it said that I was out of space and needed to delete recordings or upgrade my plan from a limit of 150 hours to 300 hours, which I did; then I rebooted my DVR because it hadn't taken effect yet. After the reboot, it says that my DVR is only 50% full, which is good, but a rough tally indicates that I already had over 300 hours worth of stuff on it...which doesn't add up. Think I may stick with it though, as the extra space that I now appear to have would make gathering things for future viewing more flexible than it has been.

 

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50th Anniversary Viewing

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All in the Family
"Mike's Hippie Friends Come to Visit"
Originally aired February 23, 1971

Archie's complaining about Mike and Gloria making out again--this time while she's helping him study--which eventually leads to Archie complaining that Mike doesn't do enough around the house, when a friend of Mike and Gloria's named Paul Goodrow (Jack Bender) comes over, having been invited by the Stivics to stay overnight before being taken to the airport for a charter flight to Europe. He's said to have been Mike's best man at the wedding (somebody make a continuity note for the wedding flashback episode), but has apparently only gone hippie since then.

Archie: I liked him when he was a nice, clean engineerin' student...used to dream about buildin' bridges and banks. Now he looks like someone who wants to blow 'em up!​

There's a side argument between Archie and Edith about what their doormat says, and it turns out to be one borrowed from some neighbors. (This would have been a great opportunity to work in a reference to the original pilot, which had a doormat reading "Justice" shown in the credits.) Anyway, Paul brings in his old lady, Robin (Jenny Sullivan)...who's barefoot, to Archie's chagrin. And as advertised, Archie won't have them staying together because they're not married.

Mike and Gloria accuse Archie of having a hang-up about sex, and there's a great bit involving Edith trying to remember the circumstances when Archie references how Gloria came into the world. Discussions about legality and Christianity ensue, and Archie gets to two conflated. Archie is further put off when it turns out that Robin doesn't talk, but "speaks with her eyes," which amounts to Paul speaking for her based on her nonverbal reactions. Gloria comes up with the idea of the guys and girls sleeping dormitory-style, which Archie agrees to, but Robin, via Paul, feels that it's hypocritical. Then Archie, just wanting to get to bed, puts money on the table for the two of them to stay in a motel, but they won't take it, claiming that it amounts to bribery. At that point, Mike and Gloria actually stand up to their friends for being so difficult and not meeting in the middle. Finally, a friend they called as an alternate arrangement, Jeff (Corey Fischer), comes by, but declines to put them up when he finds out that Paul and Robin aren't married, because he's living with his parents and his father has the same hang-up as Archie.

Mike and Gloria end up taking the couple to the airport hours ahead of schedule, leaving them to sleep there. When they get home, Archie's fallen asleep in his chair and nobody wants to wake him up, so Edith, Mike, and Gloria sing "Down by the Old Mill Stream," evoking a waking comment from Archie that he must have died and gone to the wrong place, "because youse all sure sound like hell."

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Hawaii Five-O
"The Bomber and Mrs. Moroney"
Originally aired February 24, 1971

Another substantial spoiler in the capsule description. The episode opens with a prisoner (Mark Jenkins) being granted parole, after which he goes straight to the palace, bearing a small case and asking the girl at the information booth (Terrilee Kekoolani) where Danny's office is. The other titular character, Mrs. Minnie Leona Moroney (Hope Summers), is talking to Chin (the only Five-O investigator in the office at the time) about wanting to stay in Hawaii against the wishes of her children back in Wisconsin, who plan to put her in a home. The parolee comes in with a gun and takes everyone hostage, which includes recurring secretary Jenny (Peggy Ryan) and uniformed officer Kyle (Verne Hoke). He has a really cheesy mental fantasy about plugging a superimposed Danny full of holes...

Might've been more stylish if he'd imagined luring Danny to a dock first or something. Anyway, Kono is just outside the office and Danno quickly shows up, but when asked while Chin is being held at gunpoint, Kono tells him that Danny's not there yet to buy time. Danno confers via phone with Steve, who's in Chicago. The gunman holes up with his hostages in McGarrett's office, while a couple of officers watch him from another building via binoculars. Chin covertly patches Steve's speaker phone through to the information desk so that the others can listen in on what's happening. The captor goes into his cheesy superimposed fantasy again, then has Officer Kyle walk out onto the balcony and shoots him so that he goes over the edge...onto the lawn. (Steve may want to consider moving Five-O HQ to a waterfront location.) The captor then fires a shot close enough to Chin's eyes that it blinds him. Following all of this, a sniper, Officer Olena (Roland Naauao), is assigned to the observation post, awaiting an opportunity for a clean shot.

Danno's planning to burst in wearing a bulletproof vest with a group of SWAT officers when the intercom informs him that the captor has rigged the door with dynamite. Plan B has Danno crawling through the ventilation shaft with a rifle, which doesn't go anywhere. During all of this, Mrs. Moroney earns her title spot by badgering and berating her captor, showing no fear of his gun. She gives Chin some water, so he can ask the captor what he plans to do with Danno, just to trigger the cheesy superimposed fantasy for a third time. Along the way, the captor mentions his brother Joey in the past tense. Danno determines that he's got to play along and give himself up as the captor expects.

Once Danno's face-to-face with the captor, he tries to get the others released, but the captor reveals and activates his human bomb harness. Steve tensely listens to what's happening via the speaker audio over the phone, while Kono informs Olena that he can only go for a head shot. Challenged to tell everyone what it's all about by Mrs. M, the bomber (as we can now call him) drops the name Joey Collins, and Danno breaks into a flashback to his first killing from a previous episode, as spoiled by the Wiki summary. Back in the present, the bomber identifies himself as Joey's brother, Marty. Danno pads things out with another flashback, to remind the audience of how the killing affected him, as well as to give Lord a little more screen time while he's working remotely. Marty tells Danno that he indulged in his cheesy superimposed fantasy over 3,000 times while he was in the hoosegow, which is enough to drive anyone batshit crazy. Mrs. M, though not familiar with the circumstances of Joey's death, stands up for Danno.

Marty's mother (Bea Barrett-Davis) is brought in, though she doesn't think she can be of much help. Danno tries to tell Marty how things really went down in Season 1, and Marty informs Mrs. M that the vest is rigged so that if he takes it off before the timer runs out, it'll blow. Mrs. Collins tries to talk her son down via a bullhorn, which provokes a strong negative reaction from Marty, who then figures out that the phone is off the hook and yanks it out. Mrs. M continues to berate Marty, and Danny plays along, shifting the focus to talking smack about Joey as a means of taunting Marty to approach him while he stands in front of the window. When Marty is properly lined up, Danno quickly drops down and Olena takes his shot, which does the trick. At that point, the climax becomes about Danno defusing the vest while Mossman (Doug Mossman, who already had a recurring Five-O character, but is now being identified by his actual name) talks him through it, unable to come in because of the door bomb. Danno succeeds, tossing the detonator across the office so that it can blow harmlessly. Steve is informed in order to give him one last bit of screen time; Chin is taken away for medical treatment; Mrs. M asks Danno what she was asking Chin about earlier, and he opines that he doesn't think anyone can force her to do anything that she doesn't want to; and Jenny goes back to answering the phone.

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The Brady Bunch
"The Winner"
Originally aired February 26, 1971

So who's giving out trophies at the playground? Bobby downheartedly goes over the other boys' trophies. Continuity point: Peter's Outstanding Citizen Award from the Daily Chronicle is presumably from Season 1's "The Hero". The parents encourage Bobby to find one thing that he's good at and stick with it, but he fails to demonstrate aptitude at various other games. Greg and Marcia report to the parents that Bobby's being "a real stinker"--which is language too strong for Carole--and the grown-ups explain what's bugging him. Bobby dreams of himself winning the World Series, a boat race, and a ski jump competition...but he just wakes up tearful.

Another kid (Kerry MacLane) comes to the door selling subscriptions for a contest, which grabs Bobby's interest. Mike and Carol hit the phones, calling in favors from friends. Bobby thinks that all the people are buying the subscriptions because of his salesmanship, then learns the real reason, which causes him to throw a little tantrum. (It's not too late for military school...) Then he sees Kartoon King's announcement of his contest, which involves a trophy and all the ice cream you can eat for a year. (Interested? Call 555-6161!) This episode may be breaking Hal Smith's typecasting, at least on camera...the King is probably hitting the bottle after the show. Bobby gets all dressed up and the parents drive him to the studio, where it turns out that the contestants have to eat the ice cream with their mouths, hands behind their backs. Another kid wins, so Bobby's brain freeze seems for naught. Then the other kids throw their little surprise party (which isn't a surprise to us, because of the beat-by-beat Wiki descriptions). I'm not sure how being given a trophy by his family is better than selling subscriptions through his family. Anyway, Bobby reacts negatively to the sight of the party's main treat--ice cream.

In the coda, Alice dusts off an old dance contest award.

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The Odd Couple
"A Taste of Money"
Originally aired February 26, 1971

Oscar's busy writing a piece for his column when Phillip (in what turns out to be Christopher Shea's second of three appearances in the role) comes to the door wanting to arm wrestle him on a bet. After beating him, Oscar arbitrarily sets a wager of $1,000, and Phillip actually pulls out a wad of bills and counts it out. He claims that he saved it from doing his paper route...for fifteen years (four longer than he's been alive); then he claims to have robbed a bank. Oscar and Felix assume that the money is hot but don't want to call the police on him, so they try talk to his family's maid, Alicia (Queta De Acuna), while his parents are away...and though the language barrier proves comically difficult to break through, eventually she confirms his robbery story...so they next visit the local bank. The manager, Mr. Larkin (Howard Morton), initially goes into a sales pitch, but eventually confirms a recent robbery and brings in the teller involved, Mr. Skyler (William O'Connell)...but thinking that they're onto him, he confesses to having stolen the money himself...which leaves the question open of where Phillip got his wad, which turns out to be $2,000.

Wishing now to get the police involved informally, they call Murray over. Murray, Oscar, and Felix mock-interrogate Phillip, but just tire themselves out as his lips remain sealed. Felix realizes that he's enjoying the attention, so they have to trick the information out of him by having Murray mock-arrest Oscar and Felix for the crime. It turns out that Phillip found it in a garbage can, so Felix and Oscar head to the location, which looks an awful lot like the neatly organized alley that George Reeves used to muss up a bit by taking off. They stake it out for a couple of hours before a duo come out to use the can in question...longtime roommates Max Turner and Sam Mitchell (Peter Brocco and John Qualen), who, it quickly becomes apparent, are older counterparts to Felix and Oscar, respectively. Max and Sam take them up to their place, which is neatly packed with organized clutter...literally bags and bound piles of things that they've been keeping for many years. When the question of money comes up, Max checks the cabinet where they keep their savings, and finds a bag of garbage in it instead...realizing that he must have made a mistake when attempting to clean things up. Grateful to have their money returned to them, they roll out a huge ball of silver foil that they've been saving for years, as a reward for Phillip.

In the coda, Oscar checks through everything in a bag of garbage that Felix is about to toss in the chute.

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Mission: Impossible
"A Ghost Story"
Originally aired February 27, 1971

On a dark and stormy night, a young boy named Paul (Anthony Norwalk) is woken up by somebody standing outside his terrace doors. Justin Bainbridge (Andrew Duggan) goes up to an attic room and finds his adult son, Howard (Frank Farmer), who says that he was exposed to nerve gas in a lab accident, and wants to spend time with his son, Paul. A struggle ensues and the already dying Howard punches out early, with dear old Dad burying him in the yard.

In the briefing, we learn that Bainbridge is a crypto-fascist with a heavy security force on his estate; that a tiny earpiece, a microphone hidden in his ring, and a couple of laser-projected holographic ghosts will be used in the scheme; and that there's also a mercenary working security at the estate, Vincent Sandler (William Smith), who's secretly working for the East, and is also there to find Howard's body. While the rest of the team enters the estate covertly and makes their way into the unused bomb shelter from which they'll be operating, Jim drives through the front gate under the cover of being Paul's new tutor. Paul is found sneaking through the woods and Jim intervenes when Sandler threatens to punish him. Jim then meets the housekeeper, Mrs. Foster (ayyyyy, Marion Ross), and Grandpa Bainbridge himself, who believes in rigid discipline. Jim slips something in Bainbridge's drink, which causes him to see a picture of his son in the bottom of the goblet. (Did Barney come up with that, or did Jim order it from a comic book ad?)

Jim sneaks Paris and Barney into the house from the shelter, and they spray gas through Bainbridge's keyhole and enter his room, where they insert the device in his ear, conceal some equipment in false bedpost tops, and replace his ring. Jim finds that Paul's been sneaking up into the attic, where he can be heard laughing, so he goes up to investigate and is TV Fu'ed back down the stairs, with Mrs. F standing over him as he comes to. He goes back up and finds the room empty. He questions Paul about it the next day, establishing that it was Howard's room, and Paul asks him if he believes in ghosts. While the team in the shelter send Bainbridge reel-to-reel audio of a loud heartbeat, which seems to disorient him, Jim tails Paul outside and is himself pursued by Sandler, whom he escapes.

The heartbeat audio is then accompanied by Howard's voice, pleading for help. Willy sneaks into the attic and places a picture of Dana there...which Bainbridge is lured to visit by the sound of his son's clarinet. He's evidently meant to think that it's a picture of Paul's mother, whom he never met. Paris prepares a Howard mask so that he can enact a BarneyVision visitation via the bedpost projectors...which has Howard begging his father to burn him and destroy the poison in his bones. Bainbridge tries to call his doctor and is patched through to Dana, following which Paris makes a house call as the doctor's new assistant. (I wonder if this was written as a Doug part.) Dr. Spock proposes that Bainbridge is suffering early symptoms of a mental collapse, and presses him on how he thinks of his son--who's supposed to be alive behind the Iron Curtain as far as anyone else knows--as being dead.

When it's dark and stormy enough (Has Barney got a weather machine with Willy pumping the pedals?), footfalls and clarinet lure Bainbridge toward the attic; then Dana is projected into his room, pleading on behalf of Howard's spirit to burn, baby, burn him. While Bainbridge runs out into the rain and starts digging up his son's grave, Dana hears Paul's laughter and goes up into the attic. In flashes of lightning, she sees Paul...with Howard! Outside, Bainbridge finds the grave empty and accuses Jim of having taken the body. Then Sandler demands to know where the body is and attacks Bainbridge, who falls in the grave, following which Sandler is Willy Fu'ed. (It's not clear if Bainbridge is supposed to have died here...kind of like Superman II.) Inside, Howard explains to Dana that he wasn't really dead, and managed to dig himself out of the shallow grave...but then finds himself held an gunpoint by Mrs. F, who's working with Sandler. Jim's entrance provides a distraction, Howard struggles with Mrs. F and takes a fall down the stairs, and Barney subdues Mrs. F. Jim checks on Howard and openly persuades him to share the TRA formula with goverment scientists on the outside chance that an antidote can be found. Mission: Accomplished.

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The Mary Tyler Moore Show
"Smokey the Bear Wants You"
Originally aired February 27, 1971

As the episode opens, Chuck Pelligrini (Michael Callan) has given Mary and Rhoda a lift after Rhoda's car broke down. Rhoda expresses an interest in whether or not he's married and BSes him a bit (which includes telling him that she's Mary's roommate because he likes the apartment), and he asks her out to dinner. Rhoda sees him a lot, which becomes common knowledge at WJM, and Mary has develops her suspicion regarding his conspicuous spending. Back at the apartment, Mary learns that his latest attempted gift was his car, and she and Rhoda start speculating that he might be in organized crime. Then Chuck drops in wanting to introduce Rhoda to his godfather.

Chuck turns out to have recently been the vice president of a lawn mower and snow blower company, though he's been on a break after quitting, and is planning to go back to college to become a forest ranger. Rhoda openly disapproves of his choice. Later, when she's explaining it to Mary...

Rhoda: He has some stupid idea about being happy.​

Mary convinces her to go through with joining him for a group hike, which Mary will also be going on. The outdoor life doesn't agree with Rhoda, and while Mary goes up to Rhoda's under a pretense, Chuck offers to bow out of the relationship, but Rhoda persuades both of them to stick with it.

In the coda, Rhoda's reading up on tree diseases, but with the ulterior motive of trying to steer Chuck back into a better-paying career.

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Now you've gone and turned this into a porn thread!

Whether or not it was the point, it's definitely what he was doing. He was doing all of the usual ventriloquist schtick, but with a backwards twist, like having the dummy drink a glass of water while he sang.

Going from childhood memory: "Yeah, so what?"

I had noticed a similarity on casual listening. As they're on the same album, which I've read is a concept album, I presume that was deliberate.

She knew you were a bad seed.

I assume both. It was played as a suicide attempt, and I assume that people don't just kill themselves by lying face-down in a pool without some medicinal help.

Robert Conrad?

Samantha was never the customer. Louise was the one who went to the dating service.

Potentially forever, I guess. I've still got stuff in there that I recorded in 2017.

 

I thought so...the show's strength was looking at both sides, and here Mike and Gloria were caught in the middle.

I suspect it was Lord's week off. His brief other-side-of-the-phone bits at a hotel could have easily been shot in one day.

Well, we didn't see his brains splattered all over the office, but it was done very quickly.

It's her comfort zone...the actress was given a bit of a dramatic beat at one point in this episode, and didn't do very well...her delivery was just grating.

One does see the seeds being planted here...I think that my generation may have largely been responsible for that phenomenon.

I was thinking that he slipped something in there that projected the photo, or a small photo that the drink was magnifying. I may have to go back to the briefing to see if it was mentioned.

He was still supposed to be in the process of dying from it, and they made him up to look like it.

That'd be Future Past now, wouldn't it?

He was former cavalry, attended West Point. I had to search to verify his rank...I was pretty sure I'd heard him referred to by the rank of major. The show's Wiki was confusing on the subject...it says that he first served in the US Cavalry, where he attained the rank of major; then served in the Union Army during the Civil War, attaining the rank of captain. In the army rank scheme, major is higher than captain; and wasn't the Union Army the same as the US Army?

You forgot KAOS!

 

This is what we got:

Followed by Danno defusing the vest on his prone body, with his head out of the shot.

Like I said, I'm pretty sure I've heard him referred to as Major West in the series. Something I'll watch for in the episodes to come.

Historical note: It would have been 50 years ago this month that Amazing Spider-Man #96 (cover date May 1971) came out...the first installment of the three-part drugs storyline for which Stan sacrificed the approval of the CCA.
Look, Ma, no seal!

 

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50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 1)

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Hogan's Heroes
"Kommandant Gertrude"
Originally aired February 28, 1971

The prisoners are commando'ing around during a bombing raid and see one of the crew bailing out, so they go to retrieve him, find that he's General Al Sharp (Johnny Haymer), and take him back to the camp. Meanwhile, Klink is entertaining a woman named Karen Richter (Leslie Parrish) with his violin, playing what the closed captioning describes as "'Liebestraum,' horribly". She spills some wine on him, and when he briefly leaves the room, sneaks a look at some plans. Outside, she reports to Hogan that Klink is having the guard towers moved further out, which threatens the escape tunnel exit. Then Burkhalter's sister, Gertrude Linkmeyer (Kathleen Freeman in her last of four appearances in the role), arrives at the stalag with her new fiancé, Major Wolfgang Karp (Lee Bergere), whom Klink is informed will be his adjutant. General Sharp, blending in as one of the prisoners, is chomping at the bit to be smuggled out despite these complications.

At a reception party, Hogan gossips to Gertrude that the guard tower plan will be very expensive, which catches her interest on behalf of her fiancé's career. The plan is subsequently scrapped, but Klink announces that Karp has come up with an alternate plan to have a guard posted 24 hours in every barracks...which the prisoners figure was Gertrude's idea. Hogan calls in Karen, who was introduced to Karp at the party, to pretend that she's fallen in love with him. Word gets to Gertrude that Wolfgang is alone with Karen, and she storms to Klink's building to catch him in a seemingly compromising position.

In the coda, Karp is gone, and Klink, who'd thought he was in the clear regarding Gertrude, is pressured by Burkhalter to take his her out for consolation

DISSS!missed!

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The Ed Sullivan Show
Season 23, episode 22
Originally aired February 28, 1971
As represented in The Best of the Ed Sullivan Show

The Everlys treat the audience to a rousing performance of their breakout 1957 hit "Bye Bye Love" (#207 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time).

Carlin does a routine that includes describing how he pulls tricks with his eyes on the subway; going into a rhyme about hair; and talking about how Muhammad Ali lost his job beating people up because the government wanted him to kill people. This clip shows more of the routine than Best of did:

The Everly Brothers return to perform a song called "Mama Tried," which was apparently a Merle Haggard single in 1968.

It sounded to me like he said "Brockfords," but closed captioning agrees with the onscreen blurb. The man/woman duo ride around with her balanced on his shoulders, then doing her own things on the bike.

Phil and Don perform another esteemed early hit, a slower arrangement of 1958 chart-topper "All I Have to Do Is Dream" (#141 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time).

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Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
Season 4, episode 24
Originally aired March 1, 1971

An opening song about the crazy things that people do.

The cocktail party:


Lily as the Prediction Lady.

The Mod World of Religion and the Clergy:

Part Two

Ernestine plugs Lily Tomlin's album, This Is a Recording:


This week's Quickies.

The Joke Wall:


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All in the Family
"Lionel Moves Into the Neighborhood"
Originally aired March 2, 1971

The episode opens with Edith asking Archie if he loves her and enjoys spending time with her while he's trying to read the paper. Mike and Gloria come down and he argues with Mike about how Nixon's doing as president.

Mike: In today's society, if something doesn't work, you throw it out.
Archie: Well you don't work, maybe we oughta t'row you out.​

Soon after the Stivics leave for the museum, Archie answers the door to find Isabel Sanford making her debut in her long-running signature role (named in the credits as Mrs. Jefferson...her surname is used once that I caught, and I didn't catch any references to her first name). She doesn't identify herself by name, but asks for the key to the Bowman house a couple of houses down, which Edith has been holding since the widowed Mr. Bowman sold the house. Trying to make small talk while they wait, Archie brings up Julia. Informed by Mrs. J having borrowed a pail from Edith, Archie assumes that she must be a maid, and speculates that the new owner may be Jewish to be able to afford one. Archie goes over to the house to talk to Jim Bowman (Vincent Gardenia), who's obviously eager to get out of the neighborhood before his neighbors find out who he sold the house to. Feeling Bowman out on just that subject, Archie brings up how they once signed a neighborhood petition to keep a Jewish family from moving in. Then Mrs. J comes out and makes it clear that she's the new owner. Trying to smooth things over, Bowman suggests to Archie that he organize the neighborhood to put up money to buy the house back.

Mike and Gloria return with an abstract tabletop sculpture, following which Archie then returns with the news, which involves employing a couple of epithets. Mike cites a study that the new owners may be well-to-do enough to cause property values to go up, while Gloria tries to change the subject to the sculpture. Asked how she feels about things, Edith notes how many black people are professionals these days on TV. Lionel drops by (though Mike Evans is uncredited this episode), and Mike and Gloria learn that his family are the new owners. Not in the know about this, Archie tries to enlist Lionel's help with his plan to buy back the house, and Lionel strings him along for a bit, including about the statistic that 12 percent of the American population is black...

Lionel: If you follow that kind of thinking, 88 percent of the Harlem Globetrotters oughta be white!​

...before finally filling Archie in.

In the coda, Archie seems to have warmed up to the idea in his own way, offering Lionel tips about dealing with various local business proprietors based on their ethnicities.

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Hawaii Five-O
"The Grandstand Play (Part 1)"
Originally aired March 3, 1971

At an Islanders game that the Governor is attending, Gary Phillips (Elliott Street) is heading for the concession stand when he tries to help a drunk older woman (Electra Gailas) whom he sees stumbling around. He engages her in some conversation that clues the audience in that he's developmentally disabled; she ends up kissing him on the cheek and wiping it up with an embroidered handkerchief, which she drops and Gary picks up. When Lon Phillips (Pernell Roberts) is up to bat, he sees that his son isn't in his seat; and finds himself distracted by this while at second. When Gary returns to his seat, Lon gets it together and makes it home. Meanwhile, the woman, Emily Workman, is found dead.

Back in town, Steve questions Emily's separated husband, Lester (Barry Atwater), who was sitting with the Governor, and talks of how he'd been trying to get custody of their children. Danno, Kono, and Steve then question Gary as part of a routine sweep of people who were sitting in the nearby stands; but when shown a photo of Emily, he claims to have never seen her, and not to have gone to the concession stand--motivated by his father's rule that he never leave his seat...and Lon doesn't contradict him when he insists that he didn't. Back at home, Lon confronts Gary about having lied, but ultimately accepts his explanation, and they bond a little over memories of Gary's deceased mother. Meanwhile, we see a woman (Josie Over) in an apartment berating a man (Don Chastain, whose character is credited as Lou Horton, though it doesn't come up this episode) over having blown things at the scene of the murder.

Steve talks to the tennis instructor with whom Emily had a flirtatious relationship, though nothing happened between them because, in his opinion, she was afraid of doing something that would get the kids and alimony taken away. Next Steve pays a visit to Stately Oceanfront Workman Manor, asking Lester if he's been having his wife watched. Meanwhile, the stadium's hot dog vendor has told Kono that he saw Gary with Emily. Steve talks to Lon again outside his apartment, and notes Emily's missing handkerchief. Inside, Lon tries to get the truth out of Gary over some Corn Flakes product placement, and Gary confesses that he had a hot dog. Clearly concerned about what he thinks may have happened, Lon's wheels spin about how to deal with the situation.

Back at the apartment, Horton sees a picture of Gary in the paper next to the story about the murder, realizes that he bumped into the kid--who may be a witness--and determines to go after him. Back in the Phillips home, Lon finds Emily's handkerchief in Gary's drawer. But Gary, after being sent out on an errand, is now riding a tour bus, and Lon doesn't know where he is. While both are out, Horton lurks around outside their apartment, and is seen and briefly talks to the apartment manager. Back at the office, Steve has found that in previous weeks, Emily had made a series of increasing bank withdrawals, which coincide with her starting to go to the ballpark alone. (I smell a blackmail plot.) Back on the bus, the tour guide (Laola Ohai) tries to lend Gary her handkerchief, which triggers a flashback of his having bumped into the Horton and seen Emily's body.

Steve has Lon in his office and speculates that Gary may have seen something, backed by having turned up more witnesses who saw Gary with Emily. Lon shares that somebody's been seen lurking around his house, and produces the handkerchief. Steve orders an All Points Kono to scour the streets for Gary. Horton finds him first, and starts to make a move toward Gary, but is stymied when Kono pulls up and calls for the boy, who runs and hides from him. Horton sees Gary board a transit bus and follows it in his car. Gary gets off at a stop and we see Horton floor his gas peddle in an attempt to run him over. The episode ends not with Those Three Words, but rather with the executive producer credit.

We'll see what happens next week, but from Part I, I'd say that this is a very fillerish two-parter that could easily have been compressed into a single episode.

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