The Classic/Retro Pop Culture Thread

Discussion in 'TV & Media' started by The Old Mixer, Jan 11, 2016.

  1. RJDiogenes

    RJDiogenes Idealistic Cynic and Canon Champion Premium Member

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    From Superstar, of course, but a beautiful song on its own.

    Catchy. I can't wait for Part 2.

    That's cute. I wonder how it would have done as a single.

    I wonder who Taxman's sidekick would be. Robbin?

    "He's a... soulless man!" [​IMG]

    :D

    And a TV show. :D

    I'll go along with that.
     
  2. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

    Joined:
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    Location:
    The Old Mixer, Somewhere in Connecticut
    _______

    50th Anniversary Viewing

    _______

    Ironside
    "Walls Are Waiting"
    Originally aired April 15, 1971
    Season finale
    The episode opens with parole officer Don Brand (Where have I seen this William Shatner guy before?) in the office of supervisor Arthur Torin (Morris Buchanan), arguing for putting one of his parolees, Tommy Sanchez, back behind bars on account of a series of minor violations. For some reason the Chief is there, and he doesn't agree. As Brand is leaving, somebody takes a couple of shots at him in his parked car, which he avoids because he dropped his keys. He considers Sanchez to be the number one suspect, but doesn't want to take time off for fear of looking weak in the eyes of his other parolees. Nevertheless, a couple of hang-up phone calls spook him into agreeing to plainclothes protection. Ed and Mark go to see Sanchez (Lazaro Perez) on his job as a mechanic, and question him about his whereabouts at the time, which involve attempting to meet with another ex-con who called him for help, and no witnesses.

    It comes out that Brand's involved in disbarment proceedings against Sanchez's lawyer, Mike Elman (Roger C. Carmel), so Ed and Eve go to question him. He indicates that Brand's sent more parolees back than anybody else in the district, and that the ones he's had it in for were all convicted of drug charges. He also proposes that Brand may have faked the shooting, which nobody saw. Finally, when asked why Brand is obsessed with narcotics violators, he points them in the direction of Brand's sister, Millie (Patricia Mattick, who, at a full twenty years younger than Shatner, looks more suitable to be cast as a niece or daughter). Millie is a disarmingly friendly hippie type who's been in a psychiatric ward for two years because of persistent acid flashbacks. In a follow-up visit, Eve meets her boyfriend, Ted Morgan (Michael Larrain), whom Brand doesn't approve of out of suspicion that he was involved in her drug use. Meanwhile, Ed confronts Brand with circumstantial evidence that supports Elman's theory. And Billy Gresham, the ex-con with whom Tommy was trying to meet, shoots himself when the police try to bring him in.

    Ted visits the Cave and tells the Chief how he wants to get Millie out of the ward. As he's leaving, we see him taking an interest in Ed telling the Chief the type of gun that was used in the shooting attempt...and he goes home to check his own Smith & Wesson .38. Ed and Eve pay a follow-up call on him to ask him for his alibi, which is having been on an outing with Millie. Meanwhile, Tommy sees the Chief about his suspicion that Elman did it, telling of how Elman came to him specifically because Brand was out to get him. The Chief finds out that Ted has a license for a S&W .38 because his job includes transporting money to the bank, and the team goes to confront him with a number of details in Millie's story that didn't check out. He admits that Millie got away from him on that last visit and had a key to his apartment with which she could have gotten his gun. The Chief calls the sanitarium and is told that Millie's disappeared.

    Brand's calling about his sister when she drops in. While he makes another call to report her whereabouts, she takes his letter opener, approaches him all crazy-eyed, and makes several lunges at him. The team makes the scene and she makes it clear that she's motivated by wanting out of the home and to marry Ted, both things that Don's getting in the way of. Then she drops her weapon and runs to perch herself on the sill of an open window. The Chief talks Millie down and convinces her to let them help her. The episode ends with Don Brand paying a visit to Tommy Sanchez at his job to apologize, and the two of them beginning to form a new rapport.

    And that's the end of of the '70-'71 TV season for our purposes, though I'll be circling back to those February episodes of various shows. And it'll probably also be the last season of Ironside that I cover, given the show's current unavailability. As I've mentioned before, I think this would be a good point to drop it anyway...exactly halfway through its run, and it's losing its first original cast member.

    _______

    Mary Magdalene: the original groupie.

    Just flip the damn thing over!

    Or not.

    The less giggly final version can be found on Revolver...though in the US in 1966, it'll be popping up earlier on Yesterday and Today.

    I don't know how exposed to the show Brits would have been at this point, but listening in immersive retro context, I'm sure that they are riffing on the Batman theme. Maybe they heard the singles at least. The Who recorded a cover of it later in '66, so it must have been out over there in some fashion. IIRC, the movie was released internationally in the summer, but they didn't use the theme song in the movie, did they?
     
    Last edited: Apr 18, 2021
  3. RJDiogenes

    RJDiogenes Idealistic Cynic and Canon Champion Premium Member

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    Barbary Coast.

    He is drawn to where he is needed.

    This is exactly why I drop my keys every time I get in my car!

    Harcourt Fenton MUDD! Did they have any scenes together?

    Yikes. Was there a particular reason, or just fear of going back to the slammer?

    I think that's a non-starter now, Millie.

    He should also be paying a visit to Ted and possibly Elman, plus all those guys he put back in stir, and that old lady he shot for jaywalking.

    Sounds like an Easter special on History Channel.

    Oops. Bad choice for the "Part 2" joke.

    That would have made a good TV show theme.

    I thought I heard it, especially at the end.

    I don't really know. That seems odd, since it was so recognizable.
     
  4. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

    Joined:
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    The Old Mixer, Somewhere in Connecticut
    _______

    50th Anniversary Viewing Revisited

    _______

    The Mod Squad
    "An Eye for an Eye"
    Originally aired October 7, 1969
    The episode opens with Pete and Linc workin' at the car wash--dammit, it's too early to pull out the song! Julie's pouring coffee inside and Greer's playing customer. The captain nabs an employee, Crowley (William Vaughn), trying to place a tin of smack in a wheel well. But the guy who brought the car in has split. Pleased with their work, he gives the Mods a week off. For the sake of keeping the teaser moving, they're a little open about the Mods' secret IDs in such a public place and in front of other officers.

    In the interrogation room, Greer presses Crowley for the name of the man he was working for. Then an anonymous client uses a lawyer to put up bail for him, but he refuses it. Word of this gets to a man on a yacht in a marina named Alex Tate (Francis De Sales), who declares to his associate, Frank Devon (Arthur Batanides), that Crowley may try to work with the law and is therefore expendable. (Note that while Devon basically plays henchman here, I don't refer to him as such because he addresses Tate by his first name.) Cut to the mods returning to Greer's office after a vacation to Tijuana, with Julie sporting a big honkin' sombrero that's a gift for the captain. They catch him on phone making a date at a pop art gallery while toying with a rose. When they ask him about how the case has developed, Greer seems very preoccupied...and guessing what it's all about, Julie tails him to the gallery, where he meets his new ladyfriend, Liz Weaver (Nancy Gates). Greer later drops by her pad to let her know that she needs to work on her surveillance technique, and brings Liz in to meet the gang, introducing them as his family. (There's another drinking game rule.) Cut to the courthouse, with Linc and Pete foiling an attempt on Crowley by Devon, who's disguised as a repairman, and gets away dramatically by jumping through a second-story window.

    Tate then sics Devon on Greer...who's at Liz's gorgeous Malibu seafront home painting. He works up the nerve to bring up the subject of marriage, and she takes him to the unfinished house that her husband, Marty, was working on when he was killed on his job as a federal investigator. She explains that she doesn't want to set herself up for that kind of heartache again. And Devon is watching them. Investigation turns up that the car used for the drug pickup and the getaway car used at the courthouse were both stolen from the same harbor, so Greer sends the Mods to stake the place out. Pete appears to be doing odd jobs, including working on a boat, and both he and Linc are taking pictures of people and plates. Devon nabs Liz from her home, and Greer realizes something's happened to her when she doesn't meet him for a dinner date at Julie's. Then he gets a call from Devon, and storms into the interrogation room to go all Kling-on Crowley, though Linc and a uniformed officer hold him back. Afterward, Linc decides that he and Pete need to stay on the job to try to find the baddies. Greer then tries to go after the lawyer who put up bail, Lassiter, and Linc intervenes outside his home, persuading Greer to come to his senses for the good of the family, though Greer almost decks him before getting all apologetically huggy. :weep:

    The Mods bang their heads together at Julie's, and Linc gets the idea to check the film of Crowley being busted (you'd think the police would have). They have a shot blown up and see a man who's also been photographed by Pete at the marina, Carl Wyatt (Boyd "Red" Morgan), who runs a bait and tackle shop and makes the reservations for the fishing trips of the people whose cars they suspect him of stealing. They make a point of not telling Greer about this, though in this case with ample justification--he's too much of a loose cannon at the moment, and they don't want to get his hopes up. But they actually have to gall to have Linc claim that he's "never lied to the man before"...

    ! :eek: ! :wtf: !

    Pete breaks into the shop and finds what turns out to be the radio phone call signal for the Pegasus, Tate's yacht. Pete tries to sneak aboard with a wetsuit and snorkel but is caught by Tate; while Devon notices Linc snooping around the dock and brings him aboard at gunpoint. On the boat, a pair of tussles in separate compartments ensues, with Pete taking on Tate and Linc dealing with Devon. Greer and the shoreside and harbor police swoop in. For the sake of our story, the baddies get the upper hand on each of their opponents, so that Greer, like a man possessed, can leap aboard and take each of them down in turn...which includes tossing Tate into the drink! He then reunites with Liz.

    In the coda, Liz has decided that she needs some alone time to think about their relationship, while the kids wait down on the beach. Greer takes the lift down the cliff, tells Linc that he followed the Mods after Linc picked up the projector and film, and joins them for a scenic shoreline walk-off.

    _______

    The Mod Squad
    "Lisa"
    Originally aired November 4, 1969
    Greer accompanies Cliff Whittaker (Barney Phillips)--said to be his boss, though I didn't catch what his actual title or position was--to a municipal airport where Cliff's sister, Lisa (Carolyn Jones SNAP!SNAP!)--whom he hasn't seen in several years--is flying a small plane in from a visit to San Diego while en route to Honolulu to work on a novel. Cliff wants Adam to keep on eye on her as a personal favor while he travels to Washington for an extradition case. A uniformed officer carrying her bags is critically injured by a bomb in one of them, which is later determined to have been meant to go off while the plane was en route. (I don't recall catching whether the officer made it or not, so we'll assume that he did.)

    Lisa is set up in a Beverly Hills mansion belonging to a friend of her brother's, with Julie as her secretary, Pete as her chauffeur, and Linc as her gardener...while a shady character surveils the place from across the street (Joseph Ruskin). When Julie reads notes about Lisa's book, Lisa reacts unusually to a detail that she doesn't remember writing and takes some medication. Later, when she's alone, she makes a call to a disconnected number and has an imaginary conversation with a man named Frank, which doesn't end well, causing her to mutilate the sculpted bust she's been working on, which she had been caressing during the conversation. Between these two incidents, Pete is attacked by a figure in the darkened garage, who runs off.

    Julie finds Lisa collapsed on the floor after the phone incident. When she comes to, she's surprised to see what happened to the bust. Then she takes off in the car in the middle of the night, and returns in the morning, seeming to think that she just took it for a morning drive. Pete finds a parking slip with her signature, but according to Julie, it doesn't match her handwriting. Pete investigates to find that she's parked at the gas station that the slip is from several times recently while visiting a bar across the street called the Palli Palli...which indicates that she'd been driving up from San Diego prior to flying in. Pete checks the place out while she's there, to find her being the life of the party...but she doesn't recognize Pete, and first tries to flee from him, then flirts with him. She has a strong negative reaction to being addressed as Lisa, insisting in the Southern accent that she's now sporting that she's Ginny, a woman, not a mouse like Lisa. Then she collapses again.

    Greer finds that her medication is for treatment of hysteria, and consults a Dr. Sam Berger (Arthur Franz), who speculates from their description that she has two personalities, one in which she escapes from trauma in her life...which, as we've already learned at this point, include being orphaned at an early age and raised by her brother, and having married young only for her husband to commit suicide a few months later. At night by the pool outside the house, she's approached by Ruskin's character, who asks her questions and mentions an arrangement that they have. Linc comes out and sees a man in the bushes preparing to fire a gun, which hits Ruskin's character, who's identified as George Bates as he's being put in an ambulance. Greer asks about him at the bar, to find that he's been seen there talking to Ginny. Meanwhile, Lisa has another imaginary phone call and the same dreamlike flashes of her trying to stop a man with a gun that we saw her having during the prior phone call. She wakes up the next day as Lisa in a strange bed while somebody's in the shower. She gets dressed and skips out, with the gunman trying to make another attempt on her as she drives away, but he's blocked by a garbage truck. Lisa tries to get new meds at a drug store, and resorts to stealing them.

    Linc does some research to find that Frank was the name of her husband. Greer talks to Bates at the hospital, who confesses to having hired the gunman--who only hit him accidentally--on behalf of...Lisa Whittaker. Pete and Linc find Lisa at a shut-down carousel, and she talks to Linc thinking that he's Frank. In the conversation, she indicates that Frank killed himself because she was seeing other men as Ginny. Then Ginny comes out to taunt Lisa, still addressing Linc as Frank. Then Lisa starts screaming for the gunman to kill Ginny, and he pops up to take some shots. Pete starts the carousel to spoil his aim, and the gunman pursues him around the carousel, wasting lots of ammo. Linc jumps him, and he and Pete take him out.

    In the coda, Lisa has voluntarily committed herself, and is driven away by Greer. After this times-signy observation about regards she wanted Greer to give to her brother...

    Linc: After all she's been through, she still has love to give. That's solid.​

    ...the Mods walk off the grounds of the mansion to their non-woodie wagon.

    _______

    Oddly, no, though they were nemeses from afar. I think Carmel only had the one scene (though he rated second-highest guest billing).

    If they set that up, I blinked and missed it. Mind you, we never even saw the guy...he was just a plot point in Tommy's thread.
     
    Last edited: Apr 20, 2021
  5. RJDiogenes

    RJDiogenes Idealistic Cynic and Canon Champion Premium Member

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    Because he's afraid of Tate? Wants out of illegal pharma?

    Wait a minute. TV cops went on vacation and didn't get involved in a murder or drug trafficking or something? Who wrote this?!

    More like The Nosy Squad!

    Nice touch. :rommie:

    They do go on vacation together.

    Super-powers also exist in the Modverse.

    And yet there she is, dating Greer.

    Love can make even the most seasoned professional go off the rails on a crazy train.

    "I exaggerated."

    There we go! Greer finally gets the chance to prove he's still got it.

    So she's moving to Canada.

    Because he suspects something is wrong, or just because he's overprotective?

    Lisa was flying the plane solo, right?

    You're anticipating my questions. :rommie:

    There's a lot of hot property in this show.

    "Banner weakling! Hulk hate Banner!"

    Hmm. Elaborate suicide, or did she think she was killing Ginny?

    So... the split personality predated the trauma that caused the split personality? :rommie:

    That seems to answer that, and yet there have been indications that she's aware of her condition.

    She can't call him herself? I can imagine Cliff returning from DC and coming to Greer's office: "So how'd things go while I was away?" :rommie:

    Those were the days.

    Ah, okay.
     
  6. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

    Joined:
    Feb 4, 2002
    Location:
    The Old Mixer, Somewhere in Connecticut
    _______

    50th Anniversary Viewing Revisited

    _______

    The Mod Squad
    "Willie Poor Boy"
    Originally aired November 18, 1969
    Linc and Pete are heading to a warehouse where a friend of Linc's named Masters (Bobby Johnson) works as a night watchman, to pick up a chess set that Masters has carved as a birthday present for Julie. (Yeah, contrived, and they had Linc lampshade it.) Meanwhile, the warehouse is robbed by a pair of thugs. Masters struggles with one of them (Dan Travanty) over his gun and it goes off, and that thief escapes when the Mods burst in. Pete catches the other (Joe Don Baker) upstairs breaking into the coin compartments of vending machines. In the ensuing chase, the thief jumps over some boarding into an empty elevator shaft despite warning signage and falls to the bottom. The thief is carrying ID identifying him as Willie Turner, with his likely partner, George, listed as an emergency contact. (His name is George, get it?) Greer brings Pete in to identify Willie while posing as an uncooperative parolee. Willie secretly calls George, who comes to the hospital and dons some scrubs to see him, but is spotted with him and makes a run for it from the Mods and security. He escapes by changing back into this street clothes and calmly walking out.

    Pete visits Willie at the hospital to try to gain his confidence, and Julie comes in posing as a nurse asking him to sign something. When he stalls by feigning illness, they bring in Dr. Albee (Wesley Lau), who wants to test his eyesight, and it comes out that Willie, who hails from the rural South, can't read, which is a source of embarrassment and anguish for him. Back at Linc's pad, Greer and the Mods have a brief After School Special moment on the subject of illiteracy, and Pete becomes Willie's advocate, wanting to see him given a chance. He and Linc go to the owner of the vending machine company, Braden (Stanley Adams), to convince him to give Willie a job to work in exchange for dropping his charges, while they teach him how to read and write for his court appearance, as a demonstration that he just needs to be given a second chance.

    Pete introduces Willie to Linc, who's said to be studying to be a teacher. (Not sure offhand if that's a cover or the truth.) The lessons commence in Willie's hospital room as they familiarize him with the sounds of the letters of the alphabet...I can't help thinking that they missed a great opportunity for a Sesame Street crossover. Staying true to form, they keep mum about what they're doing to Greer, who hopes that having Willie around will give them a chance to nab George. The classroom moves to Linc's pad, while George wanders the streets and tries to evade the police. Willie is allowed to take a walk during one of his lessons and goes to a dive bar where he somehow knows George would be. George is trying to talk him into skipping bail when Pete comes in, and George recognizes him from the hospital chase. After Willie leaves, while being watched by Linc, George evades Pete by going to the restroom and escaping out the window.

    After the commercial, we learn that Willie has slipped through their fingers too. But the Mods are hopeful that he learned something and will show up for his hearing...and he does. The judge (Arthur Peterson) expresses his belief that flexibility is called for in Willie's situation, and the hearing commences with Willie slowly writing his name on a chalkboard while Greer and the Mods nonverbally cheer him on. While everybody's congratulating him after he succeeds, Braden slips and mentions that the Mods are cops--or "hound dogs" as Willie refers to them--and Willie thinks that he's been used and storms out. Willie goes back to the warehouse with George to steal some getaway money, the Mods arrive, and another warehouse chase ensues. This time Willie stops at the shaft because he can read the sign (like he wouldn't have learned his lesson from the last time anyway), while Linc takes down George. The Mods get in some words to George expressing their confidence in Willie.

    In the coda, Willie's looking for a better job, and teases the Mods by pointing out a Keep Off the Grass sign that they're violating...and they keep walking on it anyway, as part of their walk-off.

    _______

    The Mod Squad
    "The Death of Wild Bill Hannachek"
    Originally aired November 25, 1969
    At the Paradise Inn, the title character (Sheb Wooley, who gave us "The Purple People Eater" and the Wilhelm scream) is performing while a patron (Will Mackenzie) makes a call from a booth to report that an unnamed party's death is on. Wild Bill turns the stage over to his guitarist, Bob Travis (Murray MacLeod), and drunkenly tries to drag the waitress, Dolores (Tyne Daly), out to his truck, but she breaks free of him. Driving off in a huff, he swerves wildly while chanting a spoken-word song...until his steering gives out and the truck goes down a gorge, bursting into flames. (This isn't the main event, it's just foreshadowing.)

    In the Mods' police lot briefing, Greer assigns Linc to use the woodie, which is finally acknowledged onscreen to be on its last legs, but is said to have one job left in her. (And this is what they call telegraphing.) It comes out that Julie plays guitar and is familiar with Wild Bill's work, so she goes, with Pete as her brother, to the inn to audition as a singer...performing a song by renowned country legend Carole King, "Now That Everything's Been Said" (from a 1968 album of the same name with a group called the City)...but then, Travis was singing a song by Poco. Clearly this episode was meant in part to give us some of Peggy Lipton's singing, which sounds very not live. We learn that Bill was the co-owner of the inn with the proprietor, Bubba Johnson (James Griffith); and Bob flirts with Julie, with which Dolores clearly isn't pleased.

    Nevertheless, while showing Julie her cabin, Dolores opens up with some exposition about potential suspects, including her estranged, abusive husband who's in the Army, Carl; and her more recent fling, Bob; and shares that she's with child, though she won't specify by whom. Pete watches with amusement as Linc drives into town to demonstrate everything that's wrong with the woodie to the local mechanic (Arthur Malet), and ends up backing into a support post of the overhang so that he can stay to work off the damages. Elsewhere, phone booth guy drives up to a hot dog stand and, when he makes some disparaging comments about Wild Bill being on the radio, is incredulous to learn from the proprietress (Ida Mae McKenzie) that Hannachek is the one who died in the truck.

    Linc chats up the mechanic about when he used to play with Wild Bill. (No, this didn't go anywhere.) Pete then brings him to eavesdrop on a phone conversation Travis is having about having "the stuff" and wanting to get rid of it. Pete distracts Travis so Linc can search his room, where he finds a block of "stuff" that's wrapped like marijuana, but seems to be ordinary pipe tobacco; he and Greer figure that somebody on either end of the deal is being had. As Julie, now decked out in cowgirl gear, is about to go on, she learns from Dolores that Travis was involved in a big deal that would have had him taking the truck out the night that Wild Bill was killed. Julie contrives an excuse for Pete to come onstage so she can tell him, and he follows Travis to his deal with phone booth guy...who uses the alone time in a shed to sucker punch Travis and drops a live grenade. Pete dives in and tosses it under something, but Travis is blown out of the shed and severely injured.

    Dolores visits Bob--now conscious--while Greer and the Mods listen from another room via a mic. She tells him that the baby isn't his and he tells her that the guy who tried to kill him is from his home town, then abruptly passes away. Greer intercepts a call from phone booth guy, in another phone booth, who's asking about Travis. He and the male Mods go outside to confront him, the suspect pulls a gun, shots are exchanged with Greer, and Greer gets him first. The suspect says what sounds like "car...paid" before passing, and they find dog tags on him identifying him as James Decker, a PFC on leave.

    The case now apparently considered to have gone cold, the Mods are fixing to leave when Carl Abernathy (Tim O'Kelly) drives to the inn to see Dolores. When they're alone, he gloats about Travis being gone, eventually even admitting to having done it, and tries to use it as leverage to get her to get back together with him. On the road, the Mods realize that Decker's last words were "Carl paid," and they turn around. Back at the inn, Dolores confesses that the baby is Carl's...which means that Carl killed Travis for nothing, because Carl was working under the assumption that it was Bob's. The Mods drop back in and he pulls a gun on them. They try to bluff him into giving up because everybody knows about him, and he uses Dolores as a shield to get to his car and speeds off. Pete and Linc pursue in the woodie onto a narrow, hairpin-turn, hillside road. The woodie gives out on them, they bail, and it meets its end going down a gorge, bursting into flame.
    Mod18.jpg
    Mod19.jpg
    Mod20.jpg

    We learn in the coda that Carl was picked up by the highway patrol...because this episode was really about killing off the woodie. While Greer has nothing good to say about the wagon, the Mods have him take them out to the spot where she went down for a small pseudo-service...
    Mod21.jpg
    Mod22.jpg

    Woulda been better if the woodie had given them its last while helping them to accomplish something, instead of going down in failure. And Pete and Linc's stunt doubles are the real heroes on this show.

    _______

    Thought it would make him look guilty or he could get off on his own or something like that. So his accomplices would have an excuse to kill him.

    Julie: And then we found their secret underground lair, fought off all the guards, and saved El Presidente!
    Greer (fondling rose): Uh-huh...

    Smitty did the same thing.

    I was thinking of saying that!

    I was more of the impression that he didn't just want to leave her alone, and she is the type of person who needs borrowed mansions and secretaries and stuff...kinda high-maintenance.

    Yeah.

    I'm learning to. ("Better rewind, he's gonna ask.")

    It may have even been the same exterior as Pete's family home, I'm not sure.

    Puny Banner.

    Probably a little of both. She was not entirely well even when she was Ginny.

    The death of her parents was the original trauma.

    Greer kinda said that, in a nicer, more encouraging way.
     
    Last edited: Apr 21, 2021
    J.T.B. likes this.
  7. RJDiogenes

    RJDiogenes Idealistic Cynic and Canon Champion Premium Member

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    RJDiogenes of Boston
    And it sounds like her birthday never even came up again.

    And yet nothing happened in Tijuana.

    The Hill Street Blues guy, maybe?

    From a billion things, usually involving explosions.

    Stay in school, kids.

    "Which way did he go?"

    And that copy of Reading For Dummies that paw gave him didn't help a'tall.

    Illiteracy and sub-literacy are serious problems that are often overlooked (even though the Internet has made it obvious how widespread they are). When I just got out of high school, I worked in a warehouse for a while and I met a bunch of truckers who were illiterate. They wouldn't say so, but there were always giveaways and I learned when to offer to do things for them, like look up something in the phone book, because they couldn't.

    Good negotiators. "If you do our friend a favor, we'll let you do him another favor." :rommie:

    I think it's just become a habit to set up a cover, even when it's not needed. "I'll go pick up the Chinese food. I'll tell them I'm in town visiting my sick aunt."

    I'm sure Maria would have provided greater incentive than Pete.

    George is a slippery son of a gun.

    Also a bit contrived that they would go back to the same warehouse, but that's poetry for ya.

    "That one is just blocking out the scenery and breaking our minds."

    Both classics!

    Cagney or Lacey.

    "Matthews here. We got 'im. Ten-Four!"

    It was kind of a mess. :rommie:

    "Good-bye, Old Paint." :rommie:

    Yeah, seriously, that was worse than the Enterprise-D. If you're going to write an episode specifically to get rid of a character, they should get a heroic sendoff.

    That's what I thought. :rommie:

    :rommie: Mod Squad: The Lost Tales.

    :rommie:

    Heh. :D

    Damn. It's been too long. :(

    I would have been nicer if she was here.
     
  8. wayoung

    wayoung Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    wayoung
    After watching It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia for the first time on Disney+ I threw on Predator on the background while I worked.

    Which reminded me of the kids version, The Boy From Andromeda, which I haven't seen in forever. So I searched it but other than a pretty bad copy on YouTube couldn't find it.

    It reminded me of The Girl From Tomorrow which I found is actually streaming on Amazon Prime! I had a big crush on Alana as a kid.

    Which reminded me of a bunch of other 80's/90's shows/movies/failed pilots, none of which are available anywhere.

    I really hope Disney starts digging more into their old failed pilots/TV shows/specials they burned off as "Wonderful world of Disney" shows. I'm sure none of this stuff holds up but who wouldn't give Earthstar Voyager another watch for nostalgias sake?
     
  9. J.T.B.

    J.T.B. Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
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    He was also a co-star on Rawhide, but the Wilhelm is true immortality!

    When he started playing a good guy he had to change his name up.
     
  10. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

    Joined:
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    50th Anniversary Cinematic Special Revisited

    A Boy Named Charlie Brown
    Directed by Bill Melendez
    Starring Charlie Brown (Peter Robbins), Lucy Van Pelt (Pamelyn Ferdin), Linus Van Pelt (Glenn Gilger), Schroeder (Andy Pforsich), and featuring Snoopy (Bill Melendez)
    Released December 4, 1969
    1971 Academy Award nominee for Best Music, Original Song Score


    I caught this last Thanksgiving weekend, IIRC, but put off writing it up because my notes were so sporadic. I figured that syncing it up with the Viewing Revisited business would be my last opportunity. And what timing, it looks like they just put up Fandango movie clips a month ago!

    I originally saw this on network TV as a kid in the '70s. The one thing about it that was vaguely burned into my brain was the spoken but rhyming spelling practice, which is clever and educational, if you can keep up with it:


    I have to wonder if people stood for "The Star-Spangled Banner" in the theater.

    I found myself missing Christopher Shea as Linus...I could tell the difference.

    Snoopy's dream reuses the WWI flying ace sequence from It's the Great Pumpkin:


    The film has some nice cinematographic touches, like multi-panel screens (or single panels with most of the screen black) and surreal/impressionist backdrops. Schroeder's "Sonata Pathetique" sequence is downright psychedelic.



    Another sign-o-the-times touch: Linus going cold turkey from his blanket! I got a good laugh out of the bit where Snoopy runs to get a glass of water, runs back to Linus, and drinks it!

    The way the Peanuts kids are always running around doing things unsupervised is underscored when they're wandering around alone in New York City!

    And Charlie Brown dealing with depression--that's very '70s.

    Closed captioning's official take on what the teacher is saying: "[adult squawking]".


    _______

    It did not, now that you mention it.

    Including three Bond films.

    I have to wonder how they managed road signs for directions and exits.

    I think that would have been a better episode title.

    I guess it would have been a little OTT if they'd bailed and the woodie had kept going down the cliff to the next hairpin and smashed into Carl's car.

    This is where I page @TREK_GOD_1 to ask if he has any info regarding the behind-the-scenes circumstances of the woodie's demise.
     
  11. Nerys Myk

    Nerys Myk A Spock and a smile Premium Member

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    I recall seeing the Woodie's demise as 10 year old. :confused:
     
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  12. RJDiogenes

    RJDiogenes Idealistic Cynic and Canon Champion Premium Member

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    I used to watch Wonderful World of Disney all the time back in the 60s. It would be a kick to see some of those again.

    He got into the witness protection program. :rommie:

    Wow, that was like Sesame Street on steroids.

    I like how it's basically a thought balloon that looks like a movie screen.

    I had forgotten how artistic and well choreographed it was. And the animation is more complex than it first appears.

    It would be amusing to come up with an explanation for that, like how B.C. turned out to be post-Apocalyptic rather than prehistoric.

    Peanuts is a very strange mix of lightheartedness and anguish.

    Numbers and landmarks, mostly. One of the tells was when they would call their next stop from our phone for directions and insist on landmarks rather than street signs.

    True. :rommie:

    Yeah, but a little rewrite could have fixed that. It's not a bad idea.
     
  13. TREK_GOD_1

    TREK_GOD_1 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    The account i've heard has two, differing reasons for the Woodie's exit: one, it was story-specific, meant to mark a change by "killing off" a "character" that had been on the show since the pilot. The other is that Thomas-Spelling Productions wanted the Squad to drive stylish sports cars (which may have been tied to Dodge / Chrysler--one of their sponsors / car suppliers to the series).

    There was a disconnect (or one side ignoring the other) when the Woodie was turned into the Aurora model kit, with figures of the squad included--

    [​IMG]
    --because Thomas-Spelling Productions obviously knew they were going to get rid of the Woodie, but failed to inform Aurora before the model maker produced the tooling for the car and figures (which was an expensive process). They did not, so Aurora--financially committed to this merchandising--eventually released the kit, but the real Woodie was destroyed, so to potential fans of the show / kit-builders, their point of interest would never have that active connection manufacturers of licensed merchandise want.

    I guess one could say the Woodie had the last laugh, because the Aurora kit (if complete) is very scarce, and as a result of its limited production run, is widely known as the most expensive bit of merchandising ever based on the TV series.
    .
     
    Last edited: Apr 22, 2021
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  14. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

    Joined:
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    The Old Mixer, Somewhere in Connecticut
    _______

    50th Anniversary Viewing Revisited

    _______

    The Mod Squad
    "The Debt"
    Originally aired December 30, 1969
    Pete's taking a stroll at night near an industrial plant when three toughs surround him, one with a knife (Judd Laurance). When they find out he's only got eight dollars, they decide to teach him a lesson, but a young man who's been watching from the back of a car (Solomon Sturges) jumps out and helps fight them off. Then he picks up Pete's police ID, gets panicky, and runs back to his car. Pete stumbles up to his car and collapses, and the kid, whom we learn is named Joey, runs off on foot, to the lumber yard owned by his uncle, Janos Kovacs (Nehemiah Persoff), to frantically tell him that Joey's father has escaped from the sanitarium and still wants to kill a man named Sanders...whose plant Joey was staking out, waiting for his father to show. Greer turns up that the car belongs to Janos, and they find Joey's prints on it. (Yeah, don't ask me why he took the car, but sat in the back and ran from it. Nor did I catch any explanation of why Pete was walking through the area in the first place.) When Pete goes to the lumber yard to try to find Joey, he sees Howard Sanders (Ross Elliott) paying Kovacs a visit. This raises enough suspicion for Greer to send Linc in as a coffee wagon vendor, where he quickly picks up some gossip from a worker (Art Lewis) about the boss's hot young wife who used to be his bookkeeper, Doris (Marj Dusay). Linc eavesdrops outside Sanders's office to find that Doris is both milking him and seeing other men, thanks to an "understanding" that clearly involves her having something on him. Later Joey catches Pete coming out the window of Sanders's office, at first thinking that it's his father. Pete tries to offer help for whatever's going on, but Joey runs for it. A rooftop chase would have ensued, but Joey knocks Pete from the ladder early, and Pete just gives up, because [ he's still nursing his injuries from the mugging / his stunt double took a day ].

    Note that we're up to the part where Julie starts missing cases...here she's said to be visiting her mother. Good thing they gave Linc a pad.

    Pete has turned up that a Franz Kovacs used to work for Sanders, and that's the name of Joey's father, so Greer pays an open visit to Sanders to warn him that Kovacs is after him; and when Sanders claims not to know any of Kovacs's family, confronts him with the fact that he was just visited by Franz's brother, which causes Sanders to clam up. Meanwhile, Pete and Linc decide to check out the man Doris said she was seeing, a mechanic named Lou Franklin (Peter Brown), bringing a rental car in for him to look at. Back at the plant, Sanders ends up calling Franz (Jay Novello) to try to reason with him and persuades him to come by the plant for a talk...while an unseen figure holds a gun on Sanders, which is fired twice once the call is over. Franz comes by and is knocked out by an unseen figure. When he wakes up, he finds himself lying next to Sanders's body with the gun in his hand, and flees.

    The police get an anonymous call about a fight at the location, and turn up Franz's fingerprints...which are on file with the DMV? Do they do that in California? Greer has Doris in his office, and she keeps cool and is frank about having had an open relationship with her husband. Pete goes to see Janos again and tells him that Sanders is dead, which gets him to open up about how Sanders stole a labor-saving invention of Franz's and patented it, which made Sanders lots of money while Franz's wife was dying, which is what drove Franz into the sanitarium; and that Sanders was meeting with Janos because he was secretly paying for the sanitarium care. Meanwhile, Greer learns that Franz seemed to be making great strides toward recovery just before he escaped; and with the police hot on his tail, Franz goes to his brother, who offers to hide him in a storeroom.

    Linc and Pete recover a recorder that they planted at Franklin's garage, and find on it audio of a visit from Doris in which there are comments about her wearing a candy striper's uniform and serving cake and cookies. Greer remembers seeing such workers at the sanitarium, and goes to the office of the nurse's aide organization, where a flirtatious Miss Leland (Melora Conway) verifies that Doris has been working at the sanitarium. Greer and the Mods deduce a plot to set Franz Kovacs up for Sanders's murder. Having no hard evidence, Pete goes to Doris claiming to be a PI that Sanders hired, and to have enough on what she and Franklin have been doing to put them both in the gas chamber...in addition to having Franz, who supposedly got a look at Franklin before he passed out, in hiding. Franklin comes out of hiding with a gun and Pete takes him to the lumber yard...where Linc's stunt double jumps Sanders from atop the shed, and a scuffle ensues between Pete and Franklin. Franklin tries to get away in Kovacs's car, but Linc turns it over with a forklift, and the Mods pull Franklin out just before it obligatorily bursts into flame.

    In the coda, Joey's grateful to Pete, Franz is free and doing much better, and Greer, who's planning to go back and see Miss Leland some more, fills in for Julie in the the lumber yard walk-off.

    This one was a bit odd to me...the premise was too out of left field, the set-up too contrived.

    _______

    The Mod Squad
    "Sweet Child of Terror"
    Originally aired January 6, 1970
    A nervous, intense young man named Ed (Robert Salvio, enjoying a prominent "And Introducing" billing in the end credits) is fired from his dog-walking job by high-strung Beverly Hills resident Mrs. Farrell (Martine Bartlett) after a mishap with her poodle, and becomes determined to get back at her. He sees Julie--a friend of Farrell's daughter, Diane--being dropped off by the other Mods, and assumes that she's Diane. Julie reacquaints herself with Diane's folks--Mr. Farrell being Dennis Patrick--and learns that Diane's plane is being held up. Back at Ed's shabby pad, a rent dispute with his landlady, Mrs. MacCready (Marjorie Bennett), provokes Ed to pull out a big honkin' six-shooter.

    Back in Beverly Hills, Julie heads out to drop by and see the other Mods in Diane's Mercedes, and Ed pops out of the back seat with his phallic overcompensation. She tries to tell him that she's not Diane, but he indicates that would mean he'd have to kill her, so she plays along. Pete and Linc go to Stately Farrell Manor to see what's keeping Julie and are there for the ransom call. They quickly determine that the kidnapper has Julie, and call Greer. (See? Sometimes they share with him!) Greer figures that the guy must be an amateur, and with the help of the Spanish-speaking maid, Luisa (Yolanda G. Gonzalez), they figure out that Ed is the kidnapper.

    Meanwhile, Ed takes Julie to his ghost town hideout. Julie tries bonding with her captor over his appreciation of the location, where he once worked as a tour guide, and learns that Ed has mommy issues. Elsewhere, Greer tries to enlist the cooperation of the press, but against his instructions, a reporter has a picture of Diane dug up. Greer learns that the dog-walker's last name is Bonney--supposedly related to Billy the Kid--and connects it with the landlady incident, which was reported. Back at the ghost town, while Ed's lost in telling a story, Julie makes a move and grabs his gun...but he faces her down, she can't bring herself to shoot him, and she lets him take it back--some policewoman! Then he demonstrates that it was empty the whole time.

    Julie lets Ed truss her up to a post and leave her in the town while he heads for the ransom drop outside a small-town library...his leverage for not getting stopped there being a story that there's a time bomb with Julie. The amateur runs low on gas, sees the newspaper story with Diane's picture at a station, and rushes back before he can find the attendant. When Ed doesn't show, Greer enlists the help of the sheriff (Robert Karnes) to figure out where in the area Ed might be hiding; the ghost town, Parkersburg, comes up; and the Mods remember seeing a poster for it at Ed's place...so off they go!

    Ed's car runs dry on the way back and he races the rest of the way on foot. He still manages to get there first and angrily confronts Julie for spoiling his revenge. He threatens to shoot her (without addressing whether or not the gun now has ammo), but she stands up to him this time and walks, then runs, away, figuring that he doesn't have the will to shoot her, either. She runs into the other Mods, and a shootout between Ed and Greer ensues, during which Ed takes to a rooftop and runs out of ammo. Pete and Linc climb up for a rooftop chase, which ends with Ed taking a bad fall into the graveyard. Julie listens sympathetically as Ed confesses that he's not really named Bonney, then passes away. Julie cries for him and, comforted by Greer, joins the guys for their ghost town walk-off.

    _______

    A society of children whose unseen parents/teachers are actually computers...?

    I'd been wondering from the way they'd already been phasing out of using it prior to its final fate if they were finding it too expensive to bother maintaining, and maybe too old for stuntwork.
     
    Last edited: Apr 23, 2021
  15. TREK_GOD_1

    TREK_GOD_1 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    At the time, that model of Woodie was easier to find / maintain so I'm guessing studio or external mechanics would've able to keep it running. But, yeah, they wanted to get rid of it; at least they picked a dramatic way of doing it, instead of the team doing something as "regular" as trading it in.
     
  16. RJDiogenes

    RJDiogenes Idealistic Cynic and Canon Champion Premium Member

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    Jun 11, 2003
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    RJDiogenes of Boston
    "Why don't you make something of yourself? Don't you ever think about your future?"

    Innumerable credits and the coolest name in character-actor-ville.

    Looking for crimes, man. The official docket is no longer enough to satisfy the need.

    The Squad's one unsolved mystery.

    They do now, so I guess they probably did then. Besides, we know that Mod Squad is meticulous in its research. :D

    If cars are so explosive in the TV-Cop-Verse, wouldn't there be a ban on cops flipping them with forklifts?

    He's bouncing back nicely from his tragic love affair.

    Indeed. Maybe a frantic last-minute rewrite because of Peggy Lipton's absence?

    "This shabby pad ain't big enough for the both of us."

    But she keeps a picture of Old Paint on her dresser.

    When you're dealing with an ex-dog walker, you've got to bring out the big guns.

    Geez, she coulda shot him in the leg or something. Well, not with an empty gun, but she could have tried.

    Ah, now it begins to make sense.

    That's about the one thing he's done right.

    I kinda feel bad for him, too. He's about the most pathetic villain ever.

    Oh, that's a good one. A bit Star Trek-y. My thought that it was the childhood memories of Charlie Brown as a 90-year-old with dementia, which is pretty horrific (although maybe good for a National Lampoon-style parody).

    I was wondering if it was one of those showing-the-episodes-out-of-order situations.
     
  17. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

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    55 Years Ago This Week



    Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:

    Leaving the chart:
    • "Baby Scratch My Back," Slim Harpo (13 weeks)
    • "Love Makes the World Go Round," Deon Jackson (14 weeks)
    • "Magic Town," The Vogues (9 weeks)
    • "Satisfaction," Otis Redding (8 weeks)
    • "634-5789 (Soulsville U.S.A.)," Wilson Pickett (11 weeks)
    • "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'," Nancy Sinatra (14 weeks)
    • "Walkin' My Cat Named Dog," Norma Tanega (9 weeks)
    • "You Baby," The Turtles (12 weeks)

    Recent and new on the chart:

    "I'll Take Good Care of You," Garnet Mimms

    (Mar. 26; #30 US; #15 R&B)

    "Love's Made a Fool of You," Bobby Fuller Four

    (Apr. 16; #26 US)

    "Love Is Like an Itching in My Heart," The Supremes

    (#9 US; #7 R&B; #54 UK)

    "It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World," James Brown & The Famous Flames

    (#8 US; #1 R&B; #13 UK; #123 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time)

    "Cool Jerk," The Capitols

    (#7 US; #2 R&B)


    And new on the boob tube:
    • Branded, "Kellie" (series finale)
    • Batman, "Death in Slow Motion"
    • Batman, "The Riddler's False Notion"
    • Hogan's Heroes, "Request Permission to Escape" (season finale)

    _______

    ...to find things not to tell Greer about.

    Julie's really dead, they just don't want you-know-who to find out.

    "Who?"

    Batgirl at least put up a fight...just sayin'. :p

    Like Miri's world with Landru!
    Now you're reminding me of a humor magazine gag I saw in the '70s, in which adult Charlie Brown and Lucy were married and had a blond, toy piano-playing son.

    Except that, IIRC, they'd began conspicuously subbing for the woodie back in Season 1.
     
  18. RJDiogenes

    RJDiogenes Idealistic Cynic and Canon Champion Premium Member

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    Jun 11, 2003
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    RJDiogenes of Boston
    Meh.

    This is a goodie.

    Supremes. 'nuff said.

    Not bad, but that's a pretty high number.

    Fun. Sounds like the 50s.

    :rommie:

    Maybe Mod Squad should take over for That Girl.

    :mallory:

    Yes!

    Nice. :rommie: I don't remember seeing that one, but I remember a couple of others from NatLamp or some underground comic. One had Sheriff Taylor as a racist redneck waylaying Blacks on the outskirts of Mayberry. The other had Fred Mertz as a slumlord who burned down his building for the insurance money-- with Lucy and Ricky inside. :rommie: What was once sick humor now sounds like a standard reboot....

    Poor Woodie. :(
     
  19. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

    Joined:
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    The Old Mixer, Somewhere in Connecticut
    50 Years Ago This Week



    Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:

    Leaving the chart:
    • "Blue Money," Van Morrison (12 weeks)
    • "Heavy Makes You Happy (Sha-Na-Boom Boom)," The Staple Singers (12 weeks)
    • "Oye Como Va," Santana (10 weeks)
    • "Proud Mary," Ike & Tina Turner (13 weeks)
    • "Soul Power (Pt. 1)," James Brown (9 weeks)
    • "Temptation Eyes," The Grass Roots (18 weeks)
    • "What Is Life," George Harrison (9 weeks)

    Re-entering the chart:

    "Take Me Home, Country Roads," John Denver


    New on the chart:

    "The Drum," Bobby Sherman

    (#29 US; #2 AC)

    "Reach Out (I'll Be There)," Diana Ross

    (#29 US; #16 AC; #17 R&B)

    "It Don't Come Easy," Ringo Starr


    (#4 US; #24 AC; #4 UK)

    "Brown Sugar," The Rolling Stones

    (#1 US the weeks of May 29 and June 5, 1971; #2 UK; #490 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time)

    _______

    I'm not wildly enthusiastic, but it's pretty good. Mimms has a strong, distinctive voice.

    I did not know until I looked up this one that "I Fought the Law" was a cover of a post-Buddy Holly Crickets number; but this one I could tell right away was a Buddy number...which I read was originally recorded with Buddy as a demo for the Everly Brothers, but not released until after his death. Bobby Fuller's version seems to more closely follow the arrangement of the version that the Crickets recorded post-Buddy...which has a more distinctively Buddy sound than Buddy's version did. :p

    Good number in its own right, but this continues their streak-breaking period between strings of chart-toppers; and in immersive retro context, sounds quite a bit like "Shake Me, Wake Me" by the Four Tops.

    This is a pretty odd one, but it definitely doesn't sound like every other James Brown song.

    Not at all to me...it has a very mid-'60s vibe/energy.

    I always thought it was odd how the opening credits made it look like the Squad were running for their lives from Greer, like he was the bad guy or something. But now I'm thinking that maybe they really are running from Greer...because he has some pointed questions for them, and like Linc says, they don't want to lie to the man...

    As I recall, it was part of a larger gag of demonstrating what the strip would have been like if the Peanuts gang had aged in real time. There was an earlier one in the sequence of college-age Peanuts as hippies, except Charlie Brown, who remained the square of the bunch.

    ETA: Here you go. I remember seeing it around '79, which must have been a reprint.
     
    Last edited: Apr 24, 2021
  20. RJDiogenes

    RJDiogenes Idealistic Cynic and Canon Champion Premium Member

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    Jun 11, 2003
    Location:
    RJDiogenes of Boston
    That's not bad. I don't think I ever heard it before.

    Classic.

    Good one, RIngo!

    There we go! This one needs a higher number. :rommie:

    Maybe he was trying to separate himself from his Cricket period.

    Hmm, I didn't notice that.

    That's true enough.

    Maybe it shows how the series both begins and ends. :rommie:

    That's great. I'm surprised I don't remember it, because I was obsessed with MAD in the early 70s and I especially loved their comic strip satires. Like the one where the guys decided to get a look at Beetle Bailey's eyes, so they pinned him down and took off his helmet, and he had "Get Out Of Vietnam" tattooed on his forehead. :rommie: