_______
50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 2)
_______
Love, American Style
"Love and the Lovesick Sailor / Love and the Mistress / Love and the Reincarnation / Love and the Sex Survey"
Originally aired October 29, 1971
"Love and the Lovesick Sailor" opens with aspiring model Ursula (Melodie Johnson) bringing a sailor named Benny, who's spent eleven months on a submarine (Peter Kastner), back to her apartment--which has a pink-clad brass bed--after meeting him on the plane. (It's strongly implied that she was working as a stewardess, though they don't make it explicit, and she's not wearing a uniform.) Looking at one of her magazines, Benny finds that she's a centerfold who was very popular back on the sub. He nervously excuses himself to visit his mother (Joan Blondell), who has a big meal prepared for him...which he wolfs down, then offers to make a grocery run, hoping to send her to bed with her glass of milk so that he can get back to Ursula, who has other dates available and is getting impatient. But when he rushes back, Mom gives him a present--a photo album she made that she wants to go through with him. Another surprise she has in store is a date she set up for him with a dowdy librarian named Emma (Bridget Hanley). Mother makes a point of going out for what's expected to be a couple of hours to leave them alone, and once she's gone, Emma removes her hat, glasses, coat, and shoes, by which point Benny has gotten a lot more interested. Emma confesses that she was putting on an expected facade for his mother's sake so she'd seem like a non-threatening girl. But as the two of them are warming up with some romantic dancing, Mother pops back in unexpectedly to grab something, causing Emma to hurriedly re-don her accessories. Once Mother has left again, the couple picks back up where they left off.
I don't have "Love and the Mistress". According to IMDb, it featured Kenneth Mars, Jaye P. Morgan, Vito Scotti, and Naomi Stevens. I didn't mention it at the time, but Decades did another LAS binge this past summer, from which I picked up a lot more Season 3 material, hence my having had I think all of the segments up to this point.
"Love and the Reincarnation" features Diane Rhodes (Marianne McAndrew) as the lovelorn assistant of an archaeologist named Nick (Robert Reed), who only has eyes for his artifacts. Archaeological colleague Cecil (Eric Christmas) has a brainstorm to have Diane dress as an Egyptian queen named Nefervessa, to whom she bears a resemblance. Upon seeing her in costume, Nick immediately speculates that she may be a reincarnation, and she goes along with it. He starts dating her in the interest of research, and things go well. Then Cecil reads some hieroglyphics about how men who courted Nefervessa were cursed, which alarms Nick. Diane tries to confess that she was just faking her connection to the ancient queen, and when Nick cites the symptoms of being cursed that he's been experiencing, it's pointed out to him that those are symptoms of being in love. Skip to Nick and Diane's wedding night, with Nick still being preoccupied by the curse, and finding that he's come down with the German measles.
In "Love and the Sex Survey," George Watkin (Gary Collins) is one of several psychology students who are conducting a sex survey that involves talking to respondents from the next room via speakers that are supposedly distorting their voices (though they aren't to any appreciable amount). George thinks that his respondent (Mary Ann Mobley) is his wife, Linda, whom he's separated from--a Southern belle with very old-fashioned values who'd faint at any sexual forwardness whom he'd just been describing to the director (John Myhers). The director dismisses the possibility that it's her, and as the survey continues, George sees a side of the woman that he didn't see of his wife. While she is reluctant to openly speak of S-E-X, she shows a flirtatious interest in George, and describes how her husband treated her as fragile and wouldn't take the initiative of attempting to lower her defenses. When she drops George's name and her own, George knows that it is her, but the director insists that he continue objectively. George proceeds to ask her some pointed questions, during which she describes their honeymoon as "Mission: Impossible". This turns into an argument and he reveals who he is and comes into the room to start taking that initiative...which she responds to positively. The director comes in to chastise George, sending him out long enough for us to learn that it was a set-up on the director's part, with Linda in the know. He then arranges for George to stick with Linda for some "hands-on research".
_______
All in the Family
"The Election Story"
Originally aired October 30, 1971
Wiki said:
Archie intends to vote in the local elections just for his candidate to beat Mike and Gloria's.
Mike and Gloria--who's voting for the first time--are canvassing the neighborhood in support of their candidate for the local assembly, Claire Packer. Archie has a more jaded view of the process, assessing the candidates by the ethnicities of their names...
Archie: I call this representative government: Salvatore, Feldman, O'Reilly, Nelson. It's an I-talian, a Jew, an Irishman, and a regular American there.
...and doesn't think that Packer has a chance against the candidate he supports, Lundy.
Gloria: I'm not interested in picking a "winner".
Archie: Well, I knew that the day you married this guy.
Archie learns that Packer will be coming to the house, and Mike erupts when he learns that, highly opinionated flag-waver that Archie is, he's not even voting in the local election. Packer (Barbara Cason) arrives in the middle of the argument, injecting some campaign rhetoric and invested in persuading Archie to vote for her even though she's a "progressive pinko" liberal. This turns into a de facto campaign debate...which climaxes in Packer describing Archie with a word that she picked up from her father: "Meathead"...a moment that Mike savors. But Packer ultimately succeeds in getting Archie involved, as he gains new motivation to canvass the neighborhood in support of Lundy. (I think we saw the seeds of Maude being planted in this sequence.)
Archie slams the door on a number of campaigners, including a man and woman who represent the Gay Liberation Front...which he has to explain to Edith by giving her examples of a couple of people she knows. Archie's preconceptions are challenged by Lionel's candidate, a black man named D'Angelo. On Election Day, Archie insists that Edith come with him to the polling place. Mrs. Jefferson is one of those working the table, and it turns out that Archie's not registered because he hasn't voted since 1960. Edith is registered, so Archie takes an interest in trying to influence her vote to counter those of Mike and Gloria. Although she won't even tell Archie who she plans to vote for, in the coda she slips and implies that she voted for Packer.
_______
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
"Didn't You Used to Be...Wait...Don't Tell Me"
Originally aired October 30, 1971
Wiki said:
Assuming that the relentless Howard Arnell will not be going, Mary decides to attend a high school reunion, and Rhoda comes along.
Mary gets written up in her high school alumni magazine for being an unmarried career gal, including cute commentary by editor and former rival Estelle Kamser Proust that teases her for not settling down and encourages her to get together with also-single Howard Arnell. Lou Scoffs at Mary's ploy to be assigned to the multi-class reunion celebrating the 50th anniversary of the high school, but encourages her to call in sick, which she isn't comfortable with even given his under-the-table permission.
At the school, Howard (Richard Schaal in his second and last appearance in the role, if you don't count his also playing Paul Arnell) stakes out the Class of '59 table, which is manned by Estelle (Pippa Scott), because he's keeping an eye out for Mary. He acts awkwardly, taking lots of pictures with a bundle of photography gear and trying to hide a hole in his sock (as nobody's allowed to wear shoes in the gym). Rhoda takes an interest in Ed Mims (Ron Masak), whom she considers to be a square and who thinks that Howard looks like a hippie because of his longer hair. Mary also reacquaints with Eldon Colfax (former LBJ Jack Riley), who's had lots of cosmetic work done. Estelle is distraught because only eleven people showed up for the '59 reunion. The principal, Mr. Vandermast (Kermit Murdock), tries to flirt with Mary...and Howard asks her to marry him, which she has to refuse in front of everybody...after which he asks if she can hook him up with a friend. In the coda, Mary wins a tiny award for having traveled the farthest to the reunion...and loses the crowd trying to come up with something to say.
_______
Mission: Impossible
"Encounter"
Originally aired October 30, 1971
Wiki said:
In order to put two Syndicate operators out of commission, Casey poses as the wife (Elizabeth Ashley) of one of the operators attending a group encounter alcohol rehab center in order to convince the two operators that each is double-crossing the other.
The episode opens with a chemical warehouse being firebombed by minions as a means of strong-arming the owner to play ball with an unfavorable partnership proposition...with one of the minions accidentally being caught in the big blast when the place goes up.
The reel-to-reel tape in the office of a train museum after Jim has a chat with the undercover train ride engineer said:
Good morning, Mr. Phelps. Conventional law enforcement agencies...I just like to say "conventional law enforcement agencies" these days.
No, really...
Conventional law enforcement agencies have been unable to prevent Frank Brady [Val Avery] and his immediate subordinate, Martin Stoner [Lawrence Dane], from successfully using terror tactics to force legitimate businessmen all over the Southwest into secret partnerships with the underworld. As a result, tens of millions of dollars are now flowing through Brady's organization into the Syndicate. [I also like to say "the Syndicate".] Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to prevent further violence, and to get the evidence we need to stop Brady and Stoner for good. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck, Jim.
The IMF's plan involves using Stoner's alcoholic wife, Lois (Elizabeth Ashley) against him. Jim chats her up at a bar so Casey can observe her from an adjacent seat. Willy tries to cut in and Jim gets to deck him! Jim brings her back to his room, where Casey does more research from behind a two-way mirror. Jim's stuff puts Lois out and Casey finishes her disguise by taking some of her personal effects, after which the real Lois is taken to a sanitarium. Fake Lois goes home to make a scene in front of the boys, causing friction between Brady and Stoner, and plant a bug along the way. In private, Stoner slaps Lois without letting his other hand be seen on camera. She pleads with Martin to let her go to Cumberland, the rehab joint that the IMF is setting up. At Cumberland, we get to see a bit of Jim briefing some repertory actors who'll be playing the others in the group, and the group listens in via the bug as Brady, feeling that Lois is a security risk, sends his man Dekker (William Smith) there to off her if she gets out of line.
Willy strongarms his way into a Brady/Stoner meeting posing as the older brother of the thug who was accidentally killed in the firebombing. An impressed Brady talks him down and offers him a job. Later Brady's demolitions guy (Byron Mabe) approaches Willy regarding an upcoming operation involving some C-4. Barney is dressed as a doctor at the sanitarium where the real Lois comes to under the care of Dr. Adams (Lauren Gilbert), with Virginia Gregg maintaining gainful employment as a nurse billed as Smitty. (She played so many characters on
Dragnet, she should be a regular IMFer.) Dekker joins Jim's fake group, where he's right at home, and Jim conducts his first session, which involves the participants feeling each other's faces with their eyes closed. (That can't help making me uncomfortable these days.) At the next session, a group discussion, Lois makes some vague comments about the men her husband works with. A third session involves the patients slapping one another's hands, in which Lois ends up slapping Dekker's face, as she's being fake-triggered by recognizing him as the type of people her husband is involved with. Jim encourages her to use a padded bat to take out her pent-up hostilities on an object, and then encourages her to discuss her issues with her husband. Decades before Eastwood at the RNC, she holds a discussion with an empty chair that represents Martin, making more vague comments about the people he works with, who break the law. Dekker tries to interrupt, she accuses him of being a killer, and he slaps her. (Casey gets slapped a lot.) When Dekker reports in, Brady gives the order in front of Stoner to kill her, and Jim and Casey listen in on Dekker's plan for doing it. Later, an accomplice of Dekker's arrives at Cumberland.
One of the repertory rehabees, Evie (Arline Anderson)--an older white woman who's been exchanging some racial tension with a younger black male rehabee (Renny Roker) at the sessions as a side detail--calls Fake Lois in character to come see her...the new hood rehabee holding a gun to her head. The trussed-up Evie creates a distraction that allows Casey to make a run for it, and a chase ensues in which Casey's actually winged...following which she expresses a moment of vulnerability to Jim, who's tackled her assailant. The IMF doc lets her walk out of the hospital with the wound intact so she can go to her Not Husband and let him know that somebody tried to put the hit on her. Meanwhile, Willy has been grabbed by the boys for the job without advance notice, so he can't call in. At the site, he sets off a silent alarm so that the other two are caught. Willy goes back to Brady claiming a set-up, Brady and Dekker connect it with Lois, and Willy volunteers to do the hit on her himself. He tosses an explosive at the half-fake Stoners in the parking garage where they're meeting, and Martin assumes the hit was meant for him. Fake Lois prompts him that he must have something he can hold over the others, and he drives away to get it without sharing what it is.
Also meanwhile, real Lois has escaped from the sanitarium after whacking Nurse Gregg with a pitcher. Her first priority is to find a bar, from which she gets around to drunkenly trying to call her husband...getting Brady instead, which tips him off that Lois wasn't hit. Mr. Stoner heads for a safe deposit box and retrieves a spool of microfilm. Brady and Dekker catch him leaving and shoot him right there in the bank. As they find the film, Jim and Willy arrive toting guns and accompanied by boys in blue to take the film and haul off the Syndicators. The episode ends on the note of Barney finding Real Lois in a bar and offering to help her.
I found it particularly distracting that the character's name was Lois in this case, as the actress reminded me more than a little of Margot Kidder.
_______
