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50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 2)
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Ironside
"The Summer Soldier"
Originally aired March 4, 1971
Wiki said:
Ironside helps an old immigrant take down his nephews who are using his tobacco shop to make synthetic marijuana.
The episode opens with Eve calling in late while giving friend Adrina Hovanesian (Linda Marsh) a lift, which includes dropping by the shop of her uncle, Arschag Divinian (Theodore Bikel)...and Armenian immigrant with an endearingly spotty command of English whose hero is a misquoted Teddy Roosevelt. Afterward nephews Leo and Ara (Walter Koenig[!] and Andrew Rubin) visit, he threatens to go to the police over something that he finds on them, and a struggle ensues in which he's superficially injured. Later Adrina has Eve and Ed meet her at the club of another uncle, Bedros Demirjian (Vincent Beck)--where she works as a waitress, and Ed is entertained by a belly dancer (Joyana Frederics)--to share her suspicion that Uncle Arschag is in some kind of trouble.
Ed gets the idea of giving tobacco to Commissioner Randall as a birthday present from the team, so he and Eve go to Arschag's shop, where Adrina mixes some of her uncle's special blend. Back at the Cave, the Chief can identify all of the tobacco types used, and detects a special ingredient--angel dust. Adrina insists that her uncle is innocent, so the Chief pays a visit to the shop under the pretense of ordering some more, and is allowed the rare honor of watching Arschag mix it. Ironside doesn't detect any signs of PCP in the mixing of this blend, but comes to suspect the nephews, whom he meets at the shop, in part because a university lab would be needed to create the PCP. Later Adrina finds her cousins' jar of angel dust-laced moistening water and is interrupted by them while attempting to call Ironside. She confronts them, another struggle ensues, and she's accidentally impaled on a pointy hook sticking out of the wall, but lives. Arschag finds her and calls the police during the commercial.
In the hospital, Adrina insists that she was alone and her injury was an accident. Some investigation of the nephews indicates that they're pushing the laced tobacco as pot to underaged kids who don't know better. Finding out that they spend a lot of time at Bedros's club, Eve fills in for Adrina there. The rest of the team uncovers that Arschag's life involves a suspicious lack of official documentation (e.g., no driver's license, never registered to vote, etc.). Going to see him again, the Chief evokes the episode title in persuading him to come clean with what he knows...and he drops the bomb that for 62 years, he's been the most-wanted man in America. It turns out that his crime is that he jumped a ship to immigrate, and never became a citizen...something that the nephews have held over him to secure his silence. The Chief offers to help him to apply for citizenship, on the condition that he cooperates with taking down the nephews.
He points them to the club, where they take their product. As the club is closing, Bedros catches the nephews trying to hide their stash in the back room because Ed and Eve are there, and tells them to get out and take their junk with them. Surprisingly, a struggle doesn't ensue. The Chief and Mark get there as the nephews are leaving, as does Arschag, who confronts them at the point of Leo's knife, causing Leo to back down and surrender.
In the coda, the Chief is disappointed to find that, in celebration of having become a citizen, the meal that Arschag is treating him to isn't Armenian, but rather hamburgers and french fries.
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Adam-12
"Log 16: Child in Danger"
Originally aired March 4, 1971
Wiki said:
Malloy has to shoot one of two robbery suspects, then the officers counsel a young woman in a bad neighborhood not to hang around (she is later kidnapped by two men claiming to fix her car), the LAPD's Air-Ten helicopter is used to catch the kidnappers (who already had outstanding kidnapping warrants), find a "mover" (burglar) whose partner hides in a freezer, and the officers visit an apartment on a domestic dispute complaint and find another woman with severe injuries but the couple insists nothing is going on, later arresting the husband on domestic violence charges after the woman's mother calls the police back to the apartment after the woman's husband beats their daughter.
The first call is for a 211 in progress, where the officers arrive with another unit, and a man who was in the stockroom (Raymond Mayo, I'm assuming from elimination) warns them that the perps inside are armed with hostages. The officers sneak in through the back, with Malloy taking cover behind the bar and announcing himself, following which there's a brief exchange of fire in which one suspect goes down.
Back on patrol, the officers stop a girl (Ronne Troup) who just committed a minor traffic violation and is getting out of her car to grab some food for her college friends, and warn her that she shouldn't be alone in the neighborhood.
Their next call is a 415 at an apartment building. The manager (Beatrice Kay) says they're too late, but tells them that there had been a major fight going on. The officers go to the apartment in question, where they find young Mrs. Barstow (Susan Seaforth) beaten and hear a crying child. Mr. Barstow (John Chandler) then comes out, and she asks them to leave. He explains that he's been unemployed for months before sending the officers on their way.
The officers subsequently find the young woman's car still in the same spot with men looking under her hood, then giving her a push, which involves one of them driving her car. Their car is conveniently identified as belonging to kidnap/rape suspects. The officers manage to lose it, but Air-10 spots the pair of vehicles behind a warehouse, where the suspects try to take the struggling woman out of her car but are quickly surrounded. Malloy explains to her how they took her distributor cap while she was in the store, then replaced it while pretending to help her.
The next call is for a 459 in progress. They catch a man named Calder (that other John Sebastian) putting things in the back of his pickup truck; he claims that he's helping somebody move, but they find evidence of a break-in and arrest him. Then they hear muffled crying for help from the open garage, and find the man's partner (Don McArt, unhelpfully billed as "Man") locked in a freezer, where he was trying to hide. When they're back on patrol, Reed makes a crack about how he went "out of the freezer, into the cooler".
Finally, the officers are called back to the Barstow apartment, this time by Mrs. Barstow. At first she tries to turn them away again, but her need to help her young daughter (Mia Bendixsen), still crying in pain, prevails. Wally comes out and tries to shut her up, but she tells him off for beating the girl. When the officers approach him, he flees outside, where he manages to sneak to his car while they're searching the parking lot for him, but is intercepted before he can drive out. He claims that he's not to blame because he never wanted the kid anyway.
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The Brady Bunch
"Double Parked"
Originally aired March 5, 1971
Wiki said:
Carol leads the family in campaigning against city hall to save their neighborhood park. However, battle lines are drawn when the park may be the site of a new courthouse Mike is designing. The Bradys argue over the fate of the park. When Mike's boss Ed Phillips (Jack Collins) confronts him, he saves the day when his design moves the courthouse to a new site.
Guest stars: Carolyn Stellar as Greg's school teacher, Jackie Coogan as the man
Greg and Peter are practicing their pitching and catching when Marcia and Jan inform them that Woodland Park is going to become the site of a "dumb ol' building". Carol suggests that the kids exercise their right to protest, and decides to get her women's club involved. But just as the kids are put off by the time involved in the project, Carol is taken aback by being elected head of the committee. Mike is encouraging of their efforts, but is then informed by Mr. Phillips that he's being assigned to design the new courthouse. He still wants the family to do their own thing, but when their campaign goes so public as to picket city hall, Mr. Phillips sternly disagrees.
Then Phillips goes for the carrot approach and calls Carol to try to smooth things over...but makes it clear that he expects her to drop the campaign. Carol and the kids want to comply to save Mike's job, but he insists that they stick to their guns. The next step is door-to-door petitions, which gives Bobby and Cindy a chance to be cute.
"The man": You radicals sure start young!
When they're unsuccessful, Alice hits the same door and gets the man's signature by using a flirtatious approach.
As the campaign's efforts prove to be a tiresome, uphill battle, Mike goes to work as their inside man...employing a brief montage sequence of architecting to draw up alternate plans for the courthouse to be built on the site of the city dump; and selling Phillips on the idea based on its superior location and economics. In the coda, Greg briefly puts the folks on by telling them that the city is now planning to move the dump to Woodland Park.
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The Partridge Family
"Not with My Sister, You Don't!"
Originally aired March 5, 1971
Wiki said:
The rumor mill starts buzzing at school when a hot new guy arrives on campus. Keith initially sees him as a rival until Laurie, who doesn't believe the rumors, accepts a date with the alleged Lothario.
Keith learns in the locker room of Lester Braddock's reputation for taking out half the girls in the school...then when he gets home, Laurie's gushing about having a date with him. Shirley cautions Keith that Lester's reputation may be undeserved, and not to get involved...but Danny prods him to take action. Keith approaches Lester (Michael Ontkean) at school to invite him to double date, and he comes on as a nice guy...but the girl Keith says he's seeing is somebody Lester just went out with, as is Keith's alternate choice. Keith and Danny very conspicuously use the bus to tail Lester and Laurie up to a "makeout point" spot with a gorgeous nighttime L.A. backdrop...which culminates with Danny actually going up to the car when it looks like Lester's trying to make a move.
The brothers try to apologize afterward, but neither Laurie nor Lester will speak to them. Danny pops up outside Lester's car at makeout point again--when he's with another girl (Cindy Crosby, I assume from the cast list)--but this time it's part of an effort to get him to go on another date with Laurie, to make things up to her. Keith approaches Lester at school again to apologize and invite him to one of their shows...where the Partridges perform the opening track of their new album (
Up to Date), which will also be their next single, "I'll Meet You Halfway" (charts May 8; #9 US; #4 AC):
Lester enjoys the show, but Keith and Danny wait up for Laurie while she's dating him afterward. Reuben shows up first, in his robe with his night mask on his head, because Danny called him telling him that Laurie was missing, and Reuben assumed an abduction. Then Laurie returns, having walked home after Lester started proving his reputation...and she's sore at Keith for having arranged the date!
In the coda, Keith's met a seemingly ideal girl who's interested in him, but can't take her out because she's Lester's sister.
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That Girl
"Two for the Money"
Originally aired March 5, 1971
Wiki said:
Ann gets a modeling assignment at Belmont Racetrack and when Don's friends realize there's a horse running named for her, they see it as a "sign" and send her with the money to place a bet for them. She loses the ticket at the wrong time!
That episode description is kinda writing its own prequel, which doesn't quite match the actual story details. As the episode opens, Ann's already doing her shoot at the racetrack. They might as well have used an indoor studio in-story, because that's too obviously what they used in reality. She's already been tasked with placing the bet, but can't remember the horses' numbers when she gets to the booth and has to dig them out of her purse. As her shoot resumes, she's distracted by the race announcements (voiced by an uncredited Dick Van Patten). It turns out that both of her horses win in consecutive races--Santana and Fearless Lover. But as advertised, when she's at the booth she can't find her ticket. She finds Charlie, the guy who sold her the ticket (Michael Lerner), but he informs her that she actually has to present it. She calls Donald to inform him of the situation, then scours the litter on the floor after hours trying to find the ticket, but to no avail. She wants to pay Donald's friends the $15 they gave her, but Donald insists that, according to the "Code of the Gambler," she now actually owes them $500.
He wants to spot her for it, but she insists that if she post-dates the check, she should have the money in the bank by then. They meet the Guys of the Week from the Office at Nino's, and before she can give them the check or explain the situation, they insist that she put all the money on another horse the next day. Donald's certain that Lucky Model can't win, so Ann doesn't need to put down any money and is off the hook. So much for the Code of the Gambler...though he does consider them responsible for paying off the bet should the horse happen to win. At the track, as Lucky Model starts gaining, Ann roots against her...but she wins. Then there's a follow-up announcement that Lucky Model bore in and has been disqualified...immediately after which the photo shoot's wardrobe lady (Bunny Summers) comes up to Ann, having found the winning ticket from the day before in the coat that she was wearing. Donald insists that she can keep the money because it's supposed to have been lost in the bet, but she doesn't feel right about it, so she rushes out, to either place an impulsive bet on a horse named Annie's Guy, or to give the money to its jockey as she'd just been contemplating...I wasn't clear which.
In the coda, Donald learns that for weeks afterward, Ann has been placing imaginary bets on horses and following the races on the radio, keeping track of her imaginary winnings and losses...the latter of which firmly outweigh the former.
"Oh, Donald" count:
7
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Lovely. An amazing confluence of talent was EL&P.
The ampersand isn't used for the abbreviation. Guess this would be the "prog rock" thing coming in...basically psychedelic experimentalism rebranded for the new decade. Sounds quite similar to what the Moody Blues were doing a few years before. But definitely a classic rock radio staple.
Stevie seems to have done a nice, but superfluous, cover of "We Can Work It Out."
I'd say that he put a distinctive musical spin on it...the song didn't used to funk like that. And Paul liked it. Stevie played it when Paul was given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 1990 Grammies (along with Ray Charles doing "Eleanor Rigby").
A very nice Oldies Radio Classic.
I don't know that I've ever heard this one on oldies radio...and I didn't get it because it's pretty much outright gospel, though with a contemporary vibe.
You just can't go wrong with Three Dog Night.
Definitely this week's star.
Anyway, she did her share of shooting, too.
Is there an incident with firearms in her past, or are you referring to another song?
Jack Lord would've had you booked for parting his hair the wrong way! And is that Danno on the milk carton? I actually thought of suggesting that!
Nice. I'd love to hear your reviews of that show. It's a true (and unappreciated) classic. Like Perry Mason, each episode is like a mini classic movie.
The show has generated some discussion in these parts (or maybe those other parts) in days of yore. I was a bit put off by the style of the show when I was first exposed to it, but I think I'm ready for some meatier drama in my retro TV diet, whenever I might get around to actually watching it.
Somebody needs to Photoshop that!
