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55.5th-ish Anniversary Viewing
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The Ed Sullivan Show
Season 18, episode 3
Originally aired September 26, 1965
This is another episode that wasn't represented in
The Best of the Ed Sullivan Show. With the help of
its Metacritic listing, I bring you these offerings...
Sonny & Cher, "I Got You Babe" (short clip):
According to the listing, this was part of a medley with "Where Do You Go?" (Cher solo) and "But You're Mine".
Turk Murphy & His Band, "(Won't You Come Home) Bill Bailey":
Gertrude Berg, "How to be a Jewish Mother" comedy routine:
Balancer Komazuru Tsukushi:
Nice to hear some individualized performance music rather than the same three or so pieces that
Best of always uses.
Other performances:
Music:
--Leslie Uggams - "Unchained Medley"
--U.C. Berkeley Marching Band
Comedy:
--Jack Carter (comedian)
--Helene and Howard (comedic ballroom-style dancers)
Also appearing:
--The Incredible Martys (acrobats)
These appear to be the exact same listings that used to be on tv.com, just formatted differently on the new site's pages.
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Branded
"Mightier Than the Sword"
Originally aired September 26, 1965
Xfinity said:
McCord tries to protect a newspaper publisher who refuses to support Paul Mandell for public office.
Jason rides into town to find a fistfight outside the office of the
Banner, a newspaper that we learn is renowned for its integrity. Jason punches his way past the winner at the door to find another thug smashing up the place and beating up one of its employees, while a woman lies huddled and crying--Ann Williams (Lola Albright), another old acquaintance. The employee is her printer, Anders (Ed McCready), who quits on the spot. Jason learns that Ann's father, Adam, passed away a month prior (in 1873). She's been running the
Banner since, but is planning to sell it. Jason notices the paper's slogan--"Truth, Honor, Integrity"--carved on the tombstone.
As they clean up the office, Ann explains how Paul Mandell runs the town, and that Adam had refused to endorse him for a political appointment and was digging into his past. A flirtatious woman named Teddi Stafford (Maureen Arthur) brings Jason to see Mandell (Kevin Hagen). He explains how he's under consideration to head the opening of a new territory, and plans to buy the
Banner to take advantage of its reputation and endorse himself. Jason sees that he's ruthless and dangerous, and persuades Ann to finish her father's story. To that end, he reads from a framed personal letter that her father received from...Abraham Lincoln. OK, that's getting a bit heavy-handed.
Ann finishes her father's expose, which describes how Mandell bought his way out of service and played both sides of the Civil War for profit. As she and Jason start getting romantic over their accomplishment, one of the thugs busts in shooting and Jason takes him down, as well as the other one, who tries to sneak in the back. Jason and Ann show Mandell the latest edition and inform him that they're sending copies to Washington. A fistfight ensues, with Jason taking it out into the street so the town can watch as Mandell gets the crap beat out of him by a renowned coward, ending up in a water trough...while Ann hands out copies of the paper to the onlookers. Teddi gets hysterical about how she'd been afraid of Mandell.
In the coda, Anders is back on the job as Jason heads out to a bridge engineering job in Missouri, saying his goodbyes to Ann.
The henchmen were played by Michael Lane and Charles Horvath. I didn't catch which was which.
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12 O'Clock High
"Then Came the Mighty Hunter"
Originally aired September 27, 1965
Xfinity said:
A gunner (Beau Bridges) cracks after a mission and admits to being underage; guests Tom Skerritt, Ted Bessell, Judy Carne.
https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/the-classic-retro-pop-culture-thread.278375/page-75#post-12286385
I can buy 23-year-old Beau being a little underage, but 15? That's pushing it. And it gets a bit silly after his age is revealed, when we have characters being ordered to put him to bed, repeatedly threatening to spank him, and whatnot. And then he still manages to stow away on a mission in which both waist gunners conveniently get killed, and gets his moment to prove himself under fire.
For the Judy Carne fans, here she is as an Archbury saloon gal:
Also appearing in this episode of
12...Oh, Donald, hi!
His small role in the episode definitely seems filler-ish...it turns out that he was in the know about the real age of Beau's character, but doesn't bring it up until everyone else has already found out for themselves.
Since Komansky joined the main cast, the top turret gunner has gotten in the habit of coming down into the cockpit a lot. Maybe there's real-world authenticity to that, but it feels like he's just photobombing Gallagher and his Co-Pilot of the Week...
The episode opens with Gallagher's group getting flakked up in what he considers to be a suicide mission on a factory in Hagensburg. Back at Archbury, Corporal Steven Corbett (Beau Bridges), eager to get in on the action, approaches Komansky to get in as a replacement on Gallagher's crew. Everyone is impressed by his gunnery record, but a little put off by his over-eagerness to take advantage of the circumstances. In conference with Britt and some others at wing HQ, Gallagher offers a plan to go in with a small formation under cover of a larger diversionary run elsewhere. In a practice run against a simulated target over Scotland, Corbett loses his shit when his waist gun won't fire, following which he won't show his face on the ground. Komansky feels sympathetic for and invested in him, and Gallagher in turn sees the situation as an opportunity for Komansky to grow as a leader.
Sandy takes Corbett to a place in Archbury that's a little quieter than the Star & Bottle and asks one of the regular girls there, Floy (Judy Carne), to hook Steven up with a girl who'd be his type...but by the time she's found somebody, an attraction has already sparked between Steven and the owner's more respectable 17-year-old daughter, Gillian Denby (Carol Booth). The episode goes out of its way to signpost the age issue with too-obvious stuff like Steven preferring milk to beer. The next day over Scotland, Corbett is showing signs of having gotten little sleep when the group runs into an actual squadron of German fighters. Corbett freezes like a deer in the headlights faced with the real thing, and only opens fire after his fellow waist gunner, Sgt. Rodale (Tom Skerritt), is shot up and with some prodding from the cockpit. When he does, he takes his target down cleanly, but seems horrified by what he's done, and is too shocked to get help for Rodale. Nevertheless, Gallagher promotes him to buck sergeant over the intercom. Back on the ground, Corbett asks to see Gallagher and confesses about being not 19, but 15.
Steven's cousin Corporal Smith (Ted Bessell) comes to see him in the base hospital, and blabs to Rodale about Steven being underage. Komansky wants to bail on his responsibility for Corbett, but Gallagher won't let him off the hook. In the hospital, Corbett takes a lot of ribbing from Rodale and the other guys--including one patient played by William Christopher--and ends up running away, a.k.a. going AWOL. Sandy finds him hiding at the Not Star & Bottle, and convinces him to come back by sharing that he was also (not as) underage when he joined, as well as in trouble with the law. Sandy covers for Corbett having actually left the base, which Gallagher sees through, but considers to be a sign of that growth in Komansky that he was looking for. Corbett is eager to have another opportunity to prove himself, and when the real mission comes up, he bluffs his way onto the plane, with Komansky and Gallagher not finding out until they're approaching the target. This is when Sandy threatens to spank him, and if we're buying into the character's age, he has earned it by this point. Corbett is put in the radio room, but the radio operator and then both waist gunners are shot up by German fighters. After initially doing his deer impression again, he takes turns at both guns, shooting down several German fighters while fueled by rage.
Back on the ground, Gallagher chews Corbett out, making it clear that the thing about officers not being allowed to manhandle enlisted men is the only thing stopping him from doing what Sandy threatened to do. But once Corbett has been dismissed, Gallagher tells Komansky that he wants Corbett promoted to staff sergeant and put in for a Silver Star that he won't be approved for, so that these things will be on his record before he's discharged.
"Oh, Corporal Smith" count:
0
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Gilligan's Island
"The Little Dictator"
Originally aired September 30, 1965
Wiki said:
When El Presidente Pancho Hernando Gonzales Enrico Rodriguez of Ecuarico (Nehemiah Persoff) is exiled on the island, he foments a revolution and tries to get Gilligan to become his puppet leader. Gilligan dreams that he is the ruler of a small country and the Skipper is Secretary of the Navy. Some of Rodriguez's men come back for him and he tells the castaways he will send a boat back for them. They later hear on their radio that Rodriguez had been exiled once again.
Note: This episode is in effect a satire of the military politics of many Latin American countries during the 1960s, and is series creator Sherwood Schwartz's personal favorite.
Rodriguez is unceremoniously dropped off by a motorboat, and quickly runs into Gilligan picking berries. Gilligan accidentally picks el Presidente's gun, but he takes it back, and has Gilligan (whom he comes to refer to as George, based on Gilligan having sarcastically identifying himself as Washington) take him to the other castaways, whom he considers to be his new subjects, and himself to be the founder of a new country. The castaways conspire to get his gun from him or get him to fire all of his bullets...first via Ginger putting the moves on him, though she proves too interested in actually learning to fire it; then by trying to catch him in a net trap, though Mr. Howell ends up in it while trying to lure him out of his hut.
Rodriguez tries to execute Gilligan, but it turns out that he's two bullets short, so the castaways confiscate his empty gun and try to turn him into a citizen of the island. He attempts to talk Gilligan into being a puppet leader...everybody seems to have forgotten that he was already the island's president. In his hammock, Gilligan goes into a dream sequence about being a dictator, with the others as his cabinet (or in Ginger's case Secret Agent 0036), who try to convince him what terrible shape his country is in. Rodriguez ends up implying that he's shot the others, and reveals that Gilligan's just his puppet, complete with the strings appearing. When Gilligan wakes up from his dream, he finds that the boat has come back to pick Rodriguez up, el Presidente's faction having regained power.
The Professor's giving the others Spanish lessons to prepare them for their stay in Ecuarico when they get the radio report that Rodriguez has now been exiled to a mountaintop in the Andes, having been considered insane for his tales of ruling the island.
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The Wild Wild West
"The Night the Wizard Shook the Earth"
Originally aired October 1, 1965
Wiki said:
West and Gordon have their first encounter with the brilliant but evil dwarf, Dr. Miguelito Loveless [Michael Dunn], along with the doctor's two assistants, the lovely Antoinette [Phoebe Dorin] and the mute and simple-minded giant, Voltaire [Richard Kiel]. Dr. Loveless is planning to take over California from control of Governor Newton Booth [William Mims], which the doctor claims rightfully belongs to him through his mother's venerable Ranchero family line.
In a foggy harbor town, with the assistance of Voltaire, Dr. Loveless plans to kill Professor Nielsen by blowing a pellet of a highly potent explosive at him; but Jim is posing as the professor for his protection...and Loveless can tell that he's not the real McCoy (Harry Bartell), whom he spots posing as Fake Nielsen's butler and blows away. Jim stays close to the professor's secretary, Greta Lundquist (Leslie Parrish), thinking that she may be a target...but when Voltaire brings her a message, we learn that she's working for Loveless. Loveless next makes an attempt on Jim via ride-by crossbow.
Greta having been outed by the way she set Jim up for the hit, he pretends to be interested in selling secret papers that he claims the professor left with him, so she arranges a meeting with Loveless at his estate. Jim first meets his Moriarty engaged in combat practice against several burly fighters, armed with a cane. As a test of Jim's loyalty, Loveless asks him to deliver his demand for control of a vast area of desert land to the governor, threatening to kill 5,000 people a week with his planted explosives until it's been met. Jim delivers the message, but asks for men to surround Loveless's estate...and his secretary, Miss Piecemeal (future Klink secretary Sigrid Valdis), is also working for Loveless. Jim tries to escape Loveless's men via a trick coach that includes a passenger ejector seat and secret weapon compartments, but is still nabbed by Voltaire and another man outside.
Back at his estate, Loveless boasts to Jim of outlandish-sounding inventions that he's devised to better the world--which we recognize as radio, automobiles, airplanes, and penicillin. He then uses a trap door to put Jim in an iron maiden. While she's feeding him, Jim appeals to Greta's romantic side to help free him, and she tells him that the explosives are in a clock tower near the governor's mansion. He busts out of unlocked cage, takes down a couple of Loveless's men, rushes to the clock tower, and gets past Voltaire a lot more easily that Roger Moore would. While Loveless defiantly sits on bottles of the explosive, Jim climbs into the tower rafters to stop the clock from striking by using the doctor's cane. Loveless mounts the pendulum to unjam the gears, but Jim reaches the bottles and defuses them.
Artie, whose appearances in the episode are only bookends, pops back up for the train coda, in which he relates how Loveless took one of his inventions with him to prison...a glass tube that could catch pictures sent through the air!
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Hogan's Heroes
"Kommandant of the Year"
Originally aired October 1, 1965
Wiki said:
To give a scientist access to a rocket being kept in Stalag 13, Col. Hogan arranges for Kommandant Klink to receive an award.
The prisoners use the rain barrel periscope to check out the large item that's been brought to the Stalag on the back of a truck, though it's covered. In Klink's office, Major Hauser (William Allyn) presents orders from General Burkhalter (who doesn't appear in the episode) placing Stalag 13 at his disposal, and the prisoners learn via the coffee pot that it's a V-bomb (and they're still running the gag about the pot also being used to make coffee on the side). Hogan radios for permission to blow it up, but is told that three commandos and a scientist will be dropped into the area instead. Hogan uses a visit to Klink's office to plant a dispatch about Klink receiving his award, which identifies the scientist, Schneider, as a colonel in Burkhalter's staff who'll be visiting to bestow it.
LeBeau is sent out to find the commandoes, and an escape is reported so that the prisoner-trained dogs are released to help him. After the party is found and LeBeau gets Schneider's measurements, he lets the dogs bring him in. Schneider (Woodrow Parfrey) is later brought in via a staff car in uniform, with the commandos posing as his staff. Schneider fakes a public presentation, and while Klink is giving a long-winded speech, slips under the nearby tarp to take pictures, while Hogan sets a bomb that will cause the rocket to fire. Schneider is caught coming out from under the tarp by Hauser, who buys his excuse for being there and wants to show off his rocket. Schneider manages to slip back out before the bomb goes off, following which Hauser walks out looking like he'd been smoking dynamite in a Loony Tunes installment.
In the coda we learn that the rocket destroyed an airfield in Hamburg; and Schultz clearly knows that it was Hogan's doing, scolding him in private.
"Now Hogan, I am a very busy man, you are dismissed!"
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Get Smart
"School Days"
Originally aired October 2, 1965
Wiki said:
Max goes undercover at the CONTROL spy school to find an undercover KAOS spy.
Arriving at the school under a cover that even Dean Watson (Byron Morrow) doesn't know about, Max goes to the wrong house; when he gives his pass-phrase, the neighbor (Kitty Kelly) tells him that the spy school is next door. 99 and K-13/Fang are already embedded there. Max walking through the grounds as everyone trains in various types of combat spoofs on the SPECTRE training school in
From Russia with Love...and they're training with, among other things, garotte watches and razor-edged hats. Max throws his hat through the neighbor lady's window. British CONTROL officer Hillary Gainsborough (Ben Wright) catches Max and 99 snooping around, so they have to drop their covers, and eventually Watson is informed.
Max zeroes in on three likely suspects--Grillak (Leo Gordon), Zukor (Henry Brandon), and Dimitri (an uncredited Philip Roth)--and attempts to covertly test them for unique characteristics that aren't in their training school files. One of these involves Max wearing a suit jacket with carbon paper lining to obtain a handwriting sample from a note written on his back. After each of the tests proves bumblingly inconclusive, Max announces his identity and that he knows who the impostor is. He and 99 and promptly abducted and tied up next to a bomb, but Fang saves them. Then Max confronts each of the three suspects and directly challenges them with new tests. When each passes, he names Gainsborough as a suspect, and he comes right out and confesses in a comedically anticlimactic manner.
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I know! He' just three months younger than my Mother.
A belated Happy Birthday to her, too!
FWIW, my ex's landlord turned 96 last week! He's a WWII vet and still very physically active. Does all the lawn work, snow-blowing, you name it.
Could you tell the difference?
Not much.
Dylan has gone octogenarian! 
![quote]](https://i.postimg.cc/fDQMhLPd/Birthday-Cake-Animated.gif [/quote])
