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Really Wild Post-55th Anniversary Viewing--and Loving It!
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The Ed Sullivan Show
Season 19, episode 9
Originally aired November 6, 1966
Performances listed on Metacritic:
- Lou Rawls - "Love Is A Hurtin' Thing" & "In the Evening"
- Nancy Ames - "Be Ready" & "Time After Time"
- The Kim Sisters - "Sound of Music" medley
- The U.S. Air Force Academy Chorale
- Corbett Monica (comedian)
- Arthur Haynes (British comedian)
- Topo Gigio (Italian mouse puppet) - boxing skit
- The Rudas Dancers
- The Pollack Brothers' Circus Elephants
The Sullivan account also has this:
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"The Night of the Watery Death"
Originally aired November 11, 1966
Wiki said:
Jim and Artie investigate a new weapon: a mysterious dragon-like creature that is blowing up a ships. Together they must find the weapon before government ship, loaded with a cargo of explosives, arrives in the San Francisco harbor.
In foggy San Francisco, Jim enters the Mermaid Tavern for a requested meeting with the Marquis Philippe de La Mer, who speaks to him through a hanging ornamental fish and has him knocked out by a dart blown by the lady dressed as a mermaid on a stage behind the bar (Jocelyn Lane). Jim wakes up to find himself on the deck of a steamer named the
Lady Luck with the woman, who brings his attention to a small, flame-emitting, dragon-like object approaching the ship, then goes overboard before the ship blows.
Having been found adrift, Jim thinks that this may be threat to Admiral Farragut, who's due to arrive on the battleship
Virginia, though Lt. Keighley (John Ashley) is skeptical. A compact that the woman left with Jim has jewels on it that can be traced into the pattern of a serpent, so he and Artie go investigating establishments that it may have come from. Jim shows it to Captain Pratt (Forrest Lewis), the proprietor of a pawn shop, who's eager to buy it for a collector who can be found at the Mermaid Tavern. (Why didn't Jim just go back there in the first place?) The people there are different, including a man dressed as King Neptune on the stage where the mermaid was, who hurls his trident to kick off a tussle with the sailors present. Jim returns to Pratt's shop to find it closed and snoop around, finds a hanging body, then falls into a pit where he's beset by several sailors and knocked out by a uniformed man (John Van Dreelen).
Jim wakes up tied to a bed and being tended to by the woman, Dominique, who introduces the uniformed man as the Marquis. Jim reasons that the Marquis is interested in the compact and put him on the
Lady Luck to be a witness to the dragon. The Marquis assumes that Artie must have the compact, and announces how he intends to found a water-based country named La Mer. The Marquis leaves Jim after activating a force field in front of the room's door (which emits a sound from
Trek that I'm not placing). Jim gets to work on his ropes with his sleeve-sprung knife, which he throws through the field to hit its control panel. He then fights his way out of the house through sailors--including a couple who are disintegrated on the reactivated force field--only to be caught at the front door by the Marquis, who takes him down to a cellar to show him the dragon and demonstrate how it works, which includes being steerable.
The Marquis boasts of how he intends to control shipping between countries from Le Mer, and Artie, who's been rounded up by the Marquis's men despite an attempt to elude them with a disguise, is brought in. The agents are trussed up, and once alone free themselves with the help of Jim's boot dagger. Artie gets out to stop Dominique, who's gone to the
Virginia bearing the compact, which the agents have deduced carries a homing device for the dragon, and false instructions from Jim to take the ship closer to the Marquis's base. Jim is caught again by the Marquis, and prevented from leaving by another force field. He's taken back below but breaks free when the Marquis launches the torpedo, and swims after it. Meanwhile, Artie has arrived at the
Virginia just as Lt. Keighley has started to wise up to Dominique, but she holds them off with a gun and escapes after she sees the dragon approaching. Artie smashes the compact, while Jim catches up with the torpedo and plants a magnetic, explosive coin on it, causing it to blow before it reaches the ship.
In the train coda, Artie's nursing a cold after having swam after and captured Dominique offscreen, but is also preparing a speech about submarines of the future and the airships that will drop bombs on them.
I found that this one was very obviously padded by too many repetitive plot beats.
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Get Smart
"Rub-a-Dub-Dub...Three Spies in a Sub"
Originally aired November 12, 1966
Wiki said:
Max and Agent 99 go on a dangerous mission to destroy a KAOS computer on an island. However, they are captured by a KAOS sub commanded by Siegfried.
Max and 99 sneak onto the island on a raft bearing explosives, but have trouble opening the envelope with their instructions and are found by a guard and shot. It turns out to only be a training exercise, supervised by the Chief. In his office, the Chief describes how KAOS submarines working from the island and directed by the computer have been committing piracy. A briefing by Admiral Nelson of submarine command (Jack Rigney) and Admiral Jones of destroyer command (Russ Grieve) turns into a game between the two at their planning table. Max and 99 are transported on a sub skippered by William Boyett, and once they arrive on the island via raft are quickly captured.
They get away when Max pulls the pin on one of their grenades, blowing them up offscreen; then set up their weapon, locate the computer center, and destroy it. But when they return to the sub, they find that it's been taken over by Siegfried. Back at HQ, the Chief makes the call to have the sub destroyed, and six destroyers arrive and start dropping depth charges. Max tries to turn Siegfried's guards against him, and they prove to be pretty fickle, but after some back-and-forth they stick with Siegfried. After a Frndly commercial interrupts the climactic scene, we return to Skipper MacDonald taking Siegfried into custody; and learn that Max persuaded him to surrender by threatening to hit a torpedo with a hammer.
When Max and 99 return to HQ, the Chief tries unsuccessfully to cover up that he's already had Smart replaced, and delivers the news that Siegfried has escaped and sent Max a telegram threatening revenge.
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My Mother watches that channel for the Westerns, but even she, an elderly Irish Catholic Church Lady, is freaked out by their commercials.
I'll have to watch them next time!
Weird. I wonder if he's listed in the end credits on the show, assuming INSP shows them.
INSP doesn't, but as I recall, the show's end credits list the actors without naming their characters.
Which probably makes him the best spy on the island.
I got the impression that he was a poser.