The Classic/Retro Pop Culture Thread

[The Old Mixer]

50th Anniversary Cinematic Special

Live and Let Die
Directed by Guy Hamilton
Starring Roger Moore, Yaphet Kotto, and Jane Seymour
Premiered June 27, 1973
1974 Academy Award nomination for Best Music, Original Song ("Live and Let Die," Paul & Linda McCartney); 1974 Grammy Award nomination for Album of Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special (Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney, George Martin)

Live and Let Die is a 1973 spy film. It is the eighth film in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, and the first to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. It was directed by Guy Hamilton and produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, while Tom Mankiewicz wrote the script. Although the producers had approached Sean Connery to return after Diamonds Are Forever (1971), he declined and a search for a new actor led to Moore being signed.

The film is based on Ian Fleming's 1954 novel of the same name. The storyline involves a Harlem drug lord known as Mr. Big who plans to distribute two tons of heroin for free to put rival drug barons out of business and then become a monopoly supplier. Mr. Big is revealed to be the alter ego of Dr. Kananga [Kotto], a corrupt Caribbean dictator, who rules San Monique, a fictional island where opium poppies are secretly farmed. Bond is investigating the deaths of three British agents, leading him to Kananga, and he is soon trapped in a world of gangsters and voodoo as he fights to put a stop to the drug baron's scheme.

Live and Let Die was released during the height of the blaxploitation era, and many blaxploitation archetypes and clichés are depicted in the film, including derogatory racial epithets ("honky"), black gangsters, and pimpmobiles. It departs from the former plots of the James Bond films about megalomaniac super-villains, and instead focuses on drug trafficking, a common theme of blaxploitation films of the period. It is set in African-American cultural centres such as Harlem and New Orleans, as well as the Caribbean Islands. It was also the first James Bond film featuring an African-American Bond girl romantically involved with 007, Rosie Carver, who was played by Gloria Hendry.

The film is certainly guilty of capitalizing on contemporary movie trends. But a memorably enjoyable bit of business when I was exploring the extras in my DVD set years back was Yaphet Kotto's infectious enthusiasm for discussing his opportunity to play a Bond villain. He didn't act like somebody who felt exploited.

Three MI6 agents are killed under mysterious circumstances within 24 hours in the United Nations headquarters in New York City, in New Orleans, and the small Caribbean nation of San Monique, while monitoring the operations of the island's dictator, Dr. Kananga.

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The teaser is the first one in the series not to have the Bond actor in it, if only as an imposter. Overall Live and Let Die seems to go out of its way not to make a big deal about Moore's debut in the role...perhaps informed by how OHMSS arguably oversold Lazenby. LALD just rolls right into letting Moore sell his own distinctive take on Bond, as if he were already established in the role. And of course, he kinda sorta was...

John Barry, who had worked on the previous seven films, was unavailable during production....Broccoli and Saltzman instead asked Paul McCartney to write the theme song. Saltzman, mindful of his decision not to produce A Hard Day's Night (1964), was especially eager to work with McCartney. Since McCartney's salary was high and another composer could not be hired with the remainder of the music budget, George Martin, who had been McCartney's producer while with The Beatles, was chosen to write the score for the film.

"Live and Let Die", written by McCartney along with his wife Linda and performed by their group Wings, was the first true rock and roll song used to open a Bond film, and became a major success in the United Kingdom (where it reached number nine in the charts) and the US (where it reached number 2, for three weeks). It was nominated for an Academy Award, but lost to "The Way We Were". Saltzman and Broccoli hired B. J. Arnau to record and perform the title song, not realising McCartney intended to perform it. Arnau's version was featured in the film, when the singer performs it in a night club that Bond visits.

I never realized that this was the first Bond film not scored by Barry. In general, non-Barry scores in the classic films tend to feel off to me, each composer bringing their own idiosyncrasies. But even before I became biased, I always thought this one had a solid Bondian score, which makes particularly good use of motifs from the title song.

James Bond, Agent 007, is sent to New York to investigate.

The also unusual bit of business of having M and Moneypenny show up at Bond's flat for the briefing comes at the expense of preventing Desmond Llewelyn from having a consecutive streak of appearances as Q. The character is mentioned as Bond kinda breaks the rules by demonstrating only one of the two special functions in his watch that will come into play in the climax. Lois Maxwell, who does have a consecutive streak, isn't given a lot of time here to demonstrate the easy rapport she enjoyed with Moore from their having been acting schoolmates.

Kananga is also in New York, visiting the United Nations. After Bond arrives, his driver is shot dead by Whisper [Earl Jolly Brown], one of Kananga's men, while taking Bond to Felix Leiter of the CIA [David Hedison]. Bond is nearly killed in the ensuing car crash.

Also enjoying a preexisting rapport with Moore was David Hedison. While, like all the other Leiters in the classic series, he wasn't well-cast as the distinctive character from the books, Hedison was my easy favorite among them even before he reprised the role in Licence to Kill.

The killer's licence plate leads Bond to Harlem where he meets Mr. Big, a mob boss who runs a chain of restaurants throughout the United States, but Bond and the CIA do not understand why the most powerful black gangster in New York works with an unimportant island's leader. Bond meets Solitaire [Seymour], a beautiful tarot reader who has the power of the Obeah and can see both the future and remote events in the present.

IMDb has a misleading uncredited listing for Nikki Van der Zyl, who dubbed for many of the classic Bond girls, as the voice of Solitaire. Looking further into it, she said that she did some pickup lines for Jane Seymour.

Mr. Big demands that his henchmen kill Bond, but Bond overpowers them and escapes with the help of CIA agent Strutter [Lon Satton]. Bond flies to San Monique, where he meets Rosie Carver, a local CIA agent.

• "Homemade Snake Slayer"

The film doesn't play up the moment, but I always had to imagine what might have been going through Bond's head when he was informed that "Mrs. Bond" had checked in ahead of him, given the relative recentness of OHMSS. TSWLM and FYEO will affirm that Moore's Bond carries the weight of that film's events with him.

An old favorite bit of Moore delivery comes a bit later in the scene linked above...

Bond: Why, it's just a hat, darling...belonging to a small-headed man of limited means who lost a fight with a chicken.​

They meet up with Bond's ally, Quarrel Jr. [Roy Stewart], who takes them by boat near Solitaire's home.

To explain this awkward bit of business for those not in the know...LALD was the second installment of Fleming's novel series, and the first appearance of Quarrel. Dr. No, four books later, was the character's second appearance, in which he died as he did in the film. So here they keep Quarrel in the story (which, typical for the Bond films at this point, bears little resemblance to that of the novel...though elements of the book would later be used in FYEO and LTK) by adding the "Jr.," with no further elaboration. Roy Stewart was only twelve years younger than John Kitzmiller, leading me to speculate that perhaps "Quarrel Jr." was a nickname supplied by Bond; which further causes me to wonder if perhaps the Sharkey character in LTK, obviously based on Quarrel, might have been the Quarrel Jr. character rebranded. The character would've de-aged at that point, but so had Bond.

When Bond suspects Rosie of being a double agent for Kananga, Rosie tries to escape but is killed remotely by Kananga.

Tipped off by a tarot card...possibly sent by Solitaire, though it's never specified in the film. Bond interrogating Rosie at gunpoint gives us a hint of the cold ruthlessness that could occasionally peek out of Moore's otherwise lighthearted take on Bond.

Rosie: But you couldn't...you wouldn't...not after what we've just done.
Bond: I certainly wouldn't have killed you before.​

007 proceeds to Solitaire's place:

Bond then uses a stacked deck of tarot cards that show only "The Lovers" to trick Solitaire into thinking that fate is meant for them; Bond then seduces her.

• "Tarot Card Lovers"

Having lost her virginity and thus her ability to foretell the future, Solitaire realizes she would be killed by Kananga, so she agrees to cooperate with Bond.

The Wiki plot summary skips quite a bit here. Solitaire accompanies Bond to find Kananga's closely guarded secret--camouflaged poppy fields; following which the couple make their getaway in a distinctive stunt sequence:

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The chase involving the double-decker bus was filmed with a former London bus adapted by having a top section removed, and then placed back in situ running on ball bearings to allow it to slide off on impact. The stunts involving the bus were performed by Maurice Patchett, a London Transport bus driving instructor.

Bond and Solitaire escape by boat and fly to New Orleans.

There's a bit of skipping plot points here as well. Bond and Solitaire are initially captured in their cab, which turns out to have the same driver who proved to be working for Mr. Big in New York (Arnold Williams). This leads to another distinctive if awkward action sequence. I always wondered why Bond didn't just take off.

• "Bond's Flying Lesson"

Tweed-jacketed henchman Adam is played by Tommy Lane; Mrs. Bell is Ruth Kempf.

At Felix's direction, Bond proceeds to a Fillet of Soul restaurant in Orleans, where Strutter is implicitly killed ahead of his arrival by the same funeral procession used in the teaser. Inside, Bond avoids a potential trick booth like the one in New York, but still falls prey to a trick table; while B. J. Arnau performs her rendition of the title song. (As I recall, either the trick booth or the trick table was a surviving element from the novel.)

There, Bond is captured by Mr. Big, who removes his prosthetic face and reveals himself to be Kananga.

The fake face was garishly obvious, but between that and Kotto's performance, did function as an effective disguise. Notably, Kananga unmasks himself after Bond insists that he'll only reveal whether he had sex with Solitaire to Kananga himself. To clarify for those who haven't read the books, a Harlem gangster named Mr. Big was the actual villain in the novel; and his plot involved smuggling gold coins from a pirate treasure he'd discovered to fund SMERSH operations. Kananga was an invention of the film.

He has been producing heroin and is protecting the poppy fields by exploiting the San Monique locals' fear of voodoo priest Baron Samedi [Geoffrey Holder--best known to children of the '80s as the 7 Up guy], as well as the occult. As Mr. Big, Kananga plans to distribute the heroin free of charge at his restaurants, which will increase the number of addicts. He intends to bankrupt other drug dealers with his giveaway, then charge high prices for his heroin later in order to capitalise on the huge drug dependencies he has cultivated.

"Leaving myself and the phone company the only two going monopolies in this nation for years to come." By the time I was watching this film on home video in the mid-'80s, Kananga's faith in Ma Bell's longevity had proven to be misplaced.

Kananga tests Solitaire's ability with a true or false question (which too easily could have produced a false result), threatening to have the mechanical-armed Tee Hee (Julius W. Harris as one of the more memorable and talkative Oddjob offshoots) snip off Bond's finger. In the novel, Bond had a finger broken by one of Mr. Big's thugs.

Angry at Solitaire for having sex with Bond and losing her ability to read tarot cards, Kananga turns her over to Baron Samedi to be sacrificed. Kananga's henchmen...leave Bond to be eaten by crocodilians at his farm in the Deep South backwoods. Bond escapes by running along the animals' backs to safety.

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While searching for locations in Jamaica, the crew discovered a crocodile farm owned by Ross Kananga, after passing a sign warning that "trespassers will be eaten". The farm was put into the script and also inspired Mankiewicz to name the film's villain after Kananga.

Ross Kananga suggested the stunt of Bond jumping on crocodiles, and was enlisted by the producers to perform it. The scene took five takes to be completed, including one in which the last crocodile snapped at Kananga's heel, tearing his trousers.

After setting the drug laboratory on fire, he steals a speedboat and escapes, pursued by Kananga's men under Adam's order, as well as Sheriff J.W. Pepper [Clifton James] and the Louisiana State Police.

As related previously, dial-flipping to a network broadcast of LALD in the early '80s, with the boat chase in progress, played a key role in piquing my interest in the Bond films. I was blown away by the sequence.

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The boat chase was filmed in Louisiana around the Irish Bayou area, with some interruption caused by flooding. 26 boats were built by the Glastron boat company for the film. 17 were destroyed during rehearsals. The speedboat jump scene over the bayou, filmed with the assistance of a specially-constructed ramp, unintentionally set a Guinness World Record at the time with 110 feet (34 m) cleared. The waves created by the impact caused the following boat to flip over.

The character of Sheriff Pepper is kind of anticipating Smokey and the Bandit...and will be making an unlikely return in the next film, vacationing in Bangkok.

Most pursuers get wrecked or left behind, and Adam is killed in a boat crash by Bond.

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Even back in the '80s--the story's titular philosophy aside--I thought that 007 dousing Adam in gasoline to send him to a fiery death was bad optics. But the boat sequence's climax is otherwise a cool bit of Bond business, and the best use of the film's title theme in the score.

Bond travels to San Monique and with the help of Quarrel Jr. sets timed explosives throughout the poppy fields. He rescues Solitaire from the voodoo sacrifice and throws Samedi into a coffin of venomous snakes.

• "Baron Samedi, Voodoo Priest"

While Bond was known to cicumstantially use a heavier firearm in the books when he needed more stopping power, having Bond specifically sport a .44 Magnum at the first opportunity seems a little too emulative of another recent hit film.

The production also had trouble with snakes during the voodoo ceremony scene in Jamaica. The script supervisor was so afraid that she refused to be on set with them, an actor fainted while filming a scene where he is killed by a snake, Jane Seymour became terrified as a snake was held up to her face, and Geoffrey Holder only agreed to fall into the snake-filled casket because Princess Alexandra was visiting the set. Another notable incident was when during filming of this scene a dancer who held a snake was bitten, and he dropped the snake, and this grabbed everyone's attention. Meanwhile Seymour was tied up to a stake for this scene, and the loose snake then set its sights on Seymour, who was saved by the film's snake handler, who grabbed it when it was mere inches from Seymour's feet.

The in-story snake handler, Dambala, is played by Michael Ebbin. I presume that he was the one bitten.

Bond and Solitaire escape below ground into Kananga's lair. Kananga captures them both and proceeds to lower them into a shark tank. However, Bond escapes and forces Kananga to swallow a compressed-gas pellet used in shark guns, causing his body to inflate and explode.

• "The Shark Tank"

Climactically speaking, the film kind of shot its wad with the boat chase. The actual climax is underwhelming, and the exploding balloon effect was just damned silly.

Leiter puts Bond and Solitaire on a train leaving the country. Tee Hee sneaks aboard and attempts to kill Bond, but Bond cuts the wires of his prosthetic arm and throws him out the window.

Continuing the film tradition of a surviving villain popping up in the coda to make one last attempt on Bond...

• "Being Disarming"

The train fight in TSWLM seems a little too similar, coming so soon after this one.

As the film ends, a laughing Samedi is revealed to be perching at the front of the train.

The film was a box-office success and received generally positive reviews from critics. Its title song, written by Paul and Linda McCartney and performed by their band Wings, was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

A common critique of the film in contemporaneous reviews seems to be that it didn't feel high-stakes enough for a Bond film. The filmmakers were going for a relatively grounded approach at this point compared to the direction of two of the three previous installments, though here having Bond fighting a drug lord is juxtaposed against unexplained supernatural phenomena--Solitaire's power and Samedi's inability to be killed, which foreshadows the Jaws character. The more grounded approach would be tossed out the window after the following film lived up to the criticism...

 

[DarrenTR1970]

I just found out from watching a YouTube video on the changes between the first and second season of Space: 1999 that Fred Freiberger was a writer/producer on the later seasons of 'Ironside' and it was after this show was canceled that he was approached by Gerry Anderson to help revamp/helm Space: 1999. So, I guess we have 'Ironside's' cancelation to blame for freeing up Freiberger to work his magic on Space: 1999.

 

[The Old Mixer]

As an actor, he's a better singer.

I didn't know that he was in the film...!

He was so cool. It's a terrible shame that he died so young.

Yeah, I was surprised.

There's a nice Sunday-morning song. I don't think I ever realized that Marshall Tucker band did this.

And surprising that it did so poorly on the chart.

Classic novelty song.

I wish somebody had mentioned two years ago when it came up as 55th anniversary business that I'd typo'ed the name as "Napleon".

Doesn't ring a bell. Not a classic.

It's worth noting here that Donny Osmond's first single not to break into the Top 20 is now also on the chart.

Classic Zimmerman. It's kind of a Sunday-morning song, too.

Something of a comeback single for him at this point.

Oldies Radio Classic.

A good one.

I'm sure he got off easy, which is fine, but I'd kind of expect him to be in custody at that point.

True.

Apparently out of uniform, or there would have been a lot less confusion.

Think he was a civilian sailor.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I knew it was the Marshal Tucker Band thanks to my Time Life Collection, however it could be mistaken for a lost Allman Brothers song.

I never thought of that, but you're right.

Live and Let Die

Now we're talkin.'

The film is certainly guilty of capitalizing on contemporary movie trends.

Very much a sign of the times. My brain lumps it in with stuff like Christie Love and Marvel's black-and-white Horror mags.

But a memorably enjoyable bit of business when I was exploring the extras in my DVD set years back was Yaphet Kotto's infectious enthusiasm for discussing his opportunity to play a Bond villain. He didn't act like somebody who felt exploited.

They should probably check with people before declaring them exploited.

outube]lPgVSsHlwnw[/MEDIA]
LALD just rolls right into letting Moore sell his own distinctive take on Bond, as if he were already established in the role. And of course, he kinda sorta was...

That's a cute sketch. They should include it on the DVD as a prequel.

Lois Maxwell, who does have a consecutive streak, isn't given a lot of time here to demonstrate the easy rapport she enjoyed with Moore from their having been acting schoolmates.

It's kind of a shame that she was never given more to do.

Also enjoying a preexisting rapport with Moore was David Hedison. While, like all the other Leiters in the classic series, he wasn't well-cast as the distinctive character from the books, Hedison was my easy favorite among them even before he reprised the role in Licence to Kill.

He also had the coolness factor of being a veteran of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

Bond interrogating Rosie at gunpoint gives us a hint of the cold ruthlessness that could occasional peek out of Moore's otherwise lighthearted take on Bond.

It's always important to be reminded that Bond will do anything for King and Country.

following which the couple make their getaway in a distinctive stunt sequence:

This movie could be study material for modern action filmmakers. It's got at least four very distinctive action sequences.

This leads to another distinctive if awkward action sequence. I always wondered why Bond didn't just take off.

Good question. Maybe they kept him turning around too much to get up enough speed. It may have been his intention with that straightaway before him just before they clipped his wings.

while B. J. Arnau performs her rendition of the title song.

That was a nice touch.

"Leaving myself and the phone company the only two going monopolies in this nation for years to come." By the time I was watching this film on home video in the mid-'80s, Kananga's faith in Ma Bell's longevity had proven to be misplaced.

As well as his own. This is why he needed Solitaire. He ain't too good at predicting the future on his own.

As related previously, dial-flipping to a network broadcast of LALD in the early '80s, with the boat chase in progress, played a key role in piquing my interest in the Bond films. I was blown away by the sequence.

Yeah, this is another distinctive action sequence that makes contemporary movies look generic in comparison. The other one, and my personal favorite, is Bond running along the backs of the snapping alligators. So Bond, and so cool.

The character of Sheriff Pepper is kind of anticipating Smokey and the Bandit...and will be making an unlikely return in the next film, vacationing in Bangkok.

My least favorite part of the movie. I much would have preferred to see Rosie become a recurring character.

The in-story snake handler, Dambala, is played by Michael Ebbin. I presume that he was the one bitten.

Why'd it have to be snakes?

Continuing the film tradition of a surviving villain popping up in the coda to make one last attempt on Bond...

I love how he flips him out the window using his metal arm as a lever.

though here having Bond fighting a drug lord is juxtaposed against unexplained supernatural phenomena--Solitaire's power and Samedi's inability to be killed

At least the supernatural touches are ambiguous-- although it does have that Horror film ending. I really don't want the supernatural to encroach on the Bondiverse.

I wish somebody had mentioned two years ago when it came up as 55th anniversary business that I'd typo'ed the name as "Napleon".

Probably didn't notice. I've got that internal autocorrect.

Think he was a civilian sailor.

Ah, okay, I was assuming he was Navy.

 

[The Old Mixer]

_______

Post-50th Anniversary Viewing

_______

The Mod Squad
"Whatever Happened to Linc Hayes?"
Originally aired November 16, 1971

Suffering from amnesia after getting mugged, Linc wanders Skid Row, unsure as to whether or not he is the escaped mental patient he reads about in a newspaper. The second clip show of the series, which includes flashbacks to previous episodes "Bad Man on Campus," "My, What a Pretty Bus," and "Who Are the Keepers, Who Are the Inmates?".

Greer and the guys throw a surprise party for Julie at her pad...and while she's appreciative, she laughingly informs them that her birthday is the following month. (You'd think Greer would have files...)

Pete forgot to bring wine, so Linc walks to a liquor store that's been holding a bottle of cognac for him and, Julie apparently living in a nasty inner-city neighborhood, is whacked in the back of the head by a couple of scruffy muggers (Lee de Broux and Renny Roker), who don't find much on him, but take his wallet and leave him lying in the alley that they dragged him into. After he awakens, Linc stumbles down the street, right past the store, even though the owner (Sam Edwards) tries to get his attention...and the Mods soon learn of this. A ways further up, Linc stumbles in front of the rooming house of Mamacita Valdez (apparently uncredited because none of her lines are in English). A bandaged Linc begins stirring to consciousness while having flashes to action sequences at an amusement pier from the series's first regular episode. (These include Pete and Linc jumping into a very shallow drink, under the pier.) When Linc's fully conscious, he's talked to by Mamacita's English-speaking granddaughter, Consuela (Priscilla Garcia). Linc tries to describe the flashes he's seeing, and briefly mentions "the Captain," but can't remember who that is. She informs him that he kept saying the name Pete in his sleep, and he knows that Pete was with him at the pier. But Linc has no idea what his own name is.

Linc searches his clothes but can't find the wallet that he knows he always carries. Connie sees a newspaper headline about an escaped mental patient and tries to call the police, thinking that it's Linc, but he stops her...though this triggers flashes to him acting insane in "Who Are the Keepers". He runs out and Connie calls the police again. Meanwhile, Linc's glasses are found in the alley, and Greer puts out an APB while checking out a report that he was seen being taken into and leaving the rooming house. Stumbling through the backlot, Linc sees headlines about the mental patient again, and has more detailed flashes to "Keepers". Linc then sees a VW bus driving by and flashes to a similar bus turning over and obligatorily bursting into flame in...well, you can guess which one that was. He tries to question the driver and chase after the bus, and is stopped and questioned by a cop. Trying to pretend that he knows who he is, he makes up a name, inspired by a sign within sight, and then seizes upon a distraction to run. In an alley, he meets a wino (Lance Taylor Sr.), who asks if he's "one of them". A former musician who still carries a guitar that he's named Louise, the wino chats Linc up and takes to calling him Johnny...all while never dropping his own name, at least that I caught. (IMDb lists the character as Deke Gibson, though the character name isn't shown onscreen as he's the top-billed guest.) Then Linc drops the bomb that he thinks he escaped from a mental hospital.

Greer and the other Mods talk to Connie, learning that Linc has amnesia and may have been led to believe that he's the escaped mental patient (who has since been picked up). Greer also learns about the incident with the cop. In the alley, the wino is telling Linc about a pair of brutal local toughs, Keyes and a partner whose name he doesn't know (Chermak according to the credits)--Linc's muggers, who have also routinely mugged the wino. As Linc can now remember Pete's full name, the wino encourages Linc to find him...coaching him on how to knock free calls out of a local pay phone. While Linc is getting Pete's number from an operator and trying to call his pad, Keyes and partner pay a visit to the wino. Linc returns to find them stabbing him, chases them off, and goes to call an ambulance.

The wino is wheeled into the hospital, but the doctor (Frank Farmer) is no Kel Brackett. Unable to identify the man, Linc recites the names of the famous blues musicians that the wino said he played in the same circles as. Remembering the wino telling him that Keyes and partner hung around a mission, Linc heads there, arriving during a pre-meal hymn. While Linc's getting in line, the reverend (Ted Stanhope) calls the police, who were around asking about Linc earlier. Then Linc sees Keyes and partner walk in, and he suddenly remembers who his stunt double is! He takes both muggers out, his fight with Keyes spilling out into the street. As he's standing over Keyes, Greer drives up and gets out of his car, calling Linc by name. Linc then flashes to an unadvertised fourth episode, "An Eye for an Eye," and its memorable scene of Linc talking down Greer from going vigilante, taking several blows from the Captain, and Greer getting "all apologetically huggy," to flash back to my own post.



Pete getting out of the car triggers a flashback of Linc hugging with Pete and Julie, and Julie getting out triggers a flash to her party at the beginning of the episode. Julie starts to cross the street to get to Linc and is about to get Edith Keelered, causing Linc to cry out her name and dive to her rescue.

In the coda, a recovering Linc jokes about getting the others' names mixed up, and they bring in Julie's still-uncut birthday cake, as well as a serving of the chicken cacciatore that Greer was making at the party. Greer and the Mods have a birthday cake slice-off in the hospital room.

I wouldn't classify this as a full-on clip show, as the clips served the plot more than vice versa; and I think that the climactic flashbacks were the only ones in the second half. But they did miss an opportunity for Linc to experience flashbacks of being shot in "A Time for Remembering," the previous clip show!

_______

Ironside
"If a Body See a Body"
Originally aired November 16, 1971

Ed tries to prove he saw a body—even though the corpse keeps vanishing on him.

Ed and Mark are tossing a football in the park while having a picnic with their girlfriends (!!!--Don's wife, Linda Galloway, and Gail Peters) when Ed goes to retrieve the ball after missing a catch and finds a green bag that contains a body in the bushes. While he's starting to examine the corpse, a bespectacled kid who's been snapping pictures (Lee Harcourt Montgomery) comes on the scene to take one, and Ed swears him to secrecy. While leaving the find unattended (supposedly to not disturb it), Ed fills in Mark and calls in a squad led by Sgt. Larry Carr (Brian Avery), who exhibits an antagonistic attitude toward "Chief Ironside's boy". When Ed takes them to the site, a press photographer, Roy Eng (Guy Lee), snaps a photo of the bewildered detective holding up an empty bag...which ends up on the front page, of course.

When Ed's relating what happened to the Chief, he remembers the kid, and Mark recalls his family's vanity plate--which turns out to be the kid's name, Craig. This leads to the parents, Ted and Sally Carlson (former Rat Patroller Lawrence Casey and Pat Delaney). Craig's not home, and Ted fumbles removing the film from his camera, which exposes it. Meanwhile, after browbeating the Chief about the bad publicity, Randall brings him in on the kidnapping of Paul Collin (Robert K. Dornan), son-in-law of the wealthy J. P. Thompson. Back at the Cave, with some prodding from the Chief--to whom Ed described what he saw of the body--Ed realizes that Collin matches his description.

The Chief and Ed are present for a scheduled ransom call to Collin's wife, Elizabeth (TV writers sure like that name; San Christopher). She requests to speak to Paul on the phone, and the voice print of the recording later checks out (though I'm calling that what he said on the phone was generic and unconnected enough that it could have been a recording). The call is traced to a motel where nobody matching Paul's description was seen with the nondescript caller. Ed gets a break when Sally Carlson calls to inform him that Craig had changed the film and sent the roll for developing. Ed visits the photo lab after hours to find that the pics have already been shipped out. Carr is outside in his car to taunt Ed by singing "My Body" to the tune of "My Bonnie"...having already sent Ed a gag gift of a male doll in a green bag.

Having learned that Paul Collin has been keeping a mistress, Karen Muller (Beth Brickell), Ed poses as a brush salesman to pay her a visit, finding her hitting the martinis hard for early in the morning and talkatively despondent about how she'll be losing her place soon. Her brother, Joe (Warren Berlinger), drops in and she gets in an argument with him about how he got the keys. After Ed leaves, we find that they're the kidnappers, and she's surprised that he's still going through with the ransom after what happened; Joe seeming determined to prove that he's a pro operator, not a screw-up. Ed has Joe checked out and he proves to have a record. A close examination of the call tape turns up a Chopin waltz playing in the background only when Paul is talking...which, after some checking with a station, leads Ironside to deduce that Paul was recorded three days prior. While Ed is out trying to run down Joe Muller, Craig Carlson drops by the Cave with the photo packet hidden under his sweater. He takes his oath of confidentiality to Sgt. Brown seriously, and Ironside's about to try loosening his lips with cookies and milk when the boy sees Muller's recently obtained address written on a pad and runs out.

Craig drops by Muller's shabby room just as he's packing things to make the ransom pick-up at the airport. Craig asks if Sgt. Brown has shown up yet, and recognizes a picture in the paper of Paul Collin as the man in the bag. Muller pretends to be Sgt. Brown's partner, and this kid who wouldn't talk to Ed's boss shows Muller the pictures and agrees to work with him on his case. Muller takes Craig with him to the airport, where he dons the coveralls of a baggage handler to pick up the ransom bag that J. P. Thompson (Bill Zuckert) is checking in. Meanwhile, Ed has tailed Karen Muller to the park, where she drops the body back in the same spot (Joe having temporarily removed it). He calls the Chief to confirm that the body has returned, and the Chief has Sgt. Carr specifically, along with the press, summoned to the park; then notifies the FBI men staking out the ransom drop that Paul Collin has been confirmed to be dead, and they can move in on the pickup man. They do that, Joe blurts out that Collin had a heart attack, and Craig, whom Joe had left in his car, unexpectedly shows up to bring Joe his gun...holding the FBI men at bay with it while yelling for somebody to call the FBI. The Ironsidemobile arrives, and the Chief convinces Craig that Muller is really the bad guy. Craig is devastated, because nobody's ever supposed to lie!

In the coda, Ed has been vindicated in a second front-page story, and the Carlsons visit the Cave to thank Ed for giving Craig a new camera--"the kind that shows pictures right away". He wants a picture of the team to be the first he takes with it, and the Chief examines the result to praise Craig's work. Ed and Mark then look to find that shot if focused squarely on Ironside, their heads having been cut out of the frame.

Elizabeth Baur is credit-only again...this one perhaps having been shot consecutively with the episodes that were aired before her introduction. According to the credits, one of the FBI agents is named Bill Murray (Charles Bateman).

_______

That's a cute sketch. They should include it on the DVD as a prequel.

That clip was an extra from the DVD set.

He also had the coolness factor of being a veteran of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

For most, he'd be trumped in that department by Jack Lord.

It's always important to be reminded that Bond will do anything for King and Country.

Moore's Bond wasn't working for a king.

This movie could be study material for modern action filmmakers. It's got at least four very distinctive action sequences.

And all done with practical stunt work!

My least favorite part of the movie. I much would have preferred to see Rosie become a recurring character.

She was a victim of the formula--the early Bond girl almost always dies!

At least the supernatural touches are ambiguous-- although it does have that Horror film ending. I really don't want the supernatural to encroach on the Bondiverse.

Really, there's nothing in the film to suggest that Samedi is anything but an omnipresent and very theatrical performer, except turning up on the cowcatcher at the end. That could maybe be taken as symbolic rather than literal.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

Live and Let Die

I never realized that this was the first Bond film not scored by Barry. In general, non-Barry scores in the classic films tend to feel off to me, each composer bringing their own idiosyncrasies. But even before I became biased, I always thought this one had a solid Bondian score, which makes particularly good use of motifs from the title song.

Now we're talkin.

A contract dispute kept John Barry from scoring the latest James Bond picture, the same dispute that nearly kept him from scoring 'Diamonds are Forever'; which is why Geroge Martin and Paul McCartney were on Producers Harry Saltzman and Cubby Broccoli's short list when negotiations with Barry broke down again, as they were approached to write the score for 'Diamonds' during the first contract dispute.

Recording commenced at 2:30pm on 19-October-1972 with McCartney and Wings laying down ten takes of the basic arrangement before settling on Take 10 as the Master. This was done as a safety precaution in case the live recording didn't pan out; George could overlay the orchestra track on top of the basic arrangement and the band would flesh it out from there.

At 7pm, the orchestra arrived and commenced rehearsals with Paul McCartney and Wings. By 10pm, everyone was satisfied, and George Martin led the band and orchestra through three takes, with Take 3 being deemed the Master.

It didn't end there. Over the next two days, 20-21-October, Paul and George assembled 'Live and Let Die' utilizing the best portions of the Take 10 basic Master along with those from the Take 3 band/orchestra Master with Paul adding an additional keyboard and doubling up his vocal performance.

The end of the 21st saw the completion of the final master. Acetates were cut and shipped to New Orleans where, as Roger Moore noted in his diary, it arrived on the 22nd and was played back to a rough cut of the boat chase scene which had just completed filming. Everyone in the screening room was floored by song and how well it worked with the boat chase.

On Monday, 23-October, 'Live and Let Die' was mastered at EMI Studios, given the matrix number 7YCE.21722, and shipped to pressing plants all over the world. The recording was never touched again after that date.

 

[RJDiogenes]

"Whatever Happened to Linc Hayes?"

Derived from Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?, of course, but there was also a slew of similar movie titles in the early 70s.

she laughingly informs them that her birthday is the following month. (You'd think Greer would have files...)

Well, they wanted it to be a surprise.

View attachment 36194

Very Counterculture.

Julie apparently living in a nasty inner-city neighborhood

Have they ever previously indicated where Julie's pad building is located?

who don't find much on him, but take his wallet

Do they find his badge?

though this triggers flashes to him acting insane in "Who Are the Keepers".

This is a strong tie in. They should have played it up a bit more.

He tries to question the driver and chase after the bus

That's a little weird. "Excuse me, sir, are you familiar with any vehicles similar to the one you drive that turned over and exploded recently?"

Trying to pretend that he knows who he is, he makes up a name, inspired by a sign within sight

"My name is Somerset Holmes."

who asks if he's "one of them".

Technically, yes.

Then Linc drops the bomb that he thinks he escaped from a mental hospital.

Linc has lost both his memory and his judgment.

the escaped mental patient (who has since been picked up).

Chekov's gun misfires.

coaching him on how to knock free calls out of a local pay phone.

"You're under arrest. Wait, why did I say that?"

Linc returns to find them stabbing him, chases them off, and goes to call an ambulance.

Okay, if the muggers routinely mug the wino, presumably for panhandled change or social security money, why would they suddenly stab him?

Unable to identify the man, Linc recites the names of the famous blues musicians that the wino said he played in the same circles as.

That's a cute touch.

While Linc's getting in line, the reverend (Ted Stanhope) calls the police, who were around asking about Linc earlier.

I like how it was actually very easy to find Linc, and everything just happened in a very short period of time.

he suddenly remembers who his stunt double is!

Linc then flashes to an unadvertised fourth episode, "An Eye for an Eye," and its memorable scene of Linc talking down Greer from going vigilante, taking several blows from the Captain, and Greer getting "all apologetically huggy,"

Awww.

Julie starts to cross the street to get to Linc and is about to get Edith Keelered, causing Linc to cry out her name and dive to her rescue.

Kind of overkill, but okay.

and they bring in Julie's still-uncut birthday cake

At least it's closer to her actual birthday now.

I wouldn't classify this as a full-on clip show, as the clips served the plot more than vice versa; and I think that the climactic flashbacks were the only ones in the second half.

Definitely better than the typical clip show. The escaped mental patient was obviously in the script to trigger Linc's flashbacks, but he should have actually been part of the story. Also the wino and Consuela lacked resolution, as they played important parts in the story.

But they did miss an opportunity for Linc to experience flashbacks of being shot in "A Time for Remembering," the previous clip show!

Whoa, wheels within wheels.

Ed and Mark are tossing a football in the park while having a picnic with their girlfriends

Wow, they're TV cops and they have girlfriends who don't die?!

Ed goes to retrieve the ball after missing a catch and finds a green bag that contains a body in the bushes.

Isn't this the second time that somebody has dumped a body in a public park rather than someplace where it might not be found?

who exhibits an antagonistic attitude toward "Chief Ironside's boy".

Weird. Have we ever seen this kind of attitude before?

Ted fumbles removing the film from his camera, which exposes it.

Just hand over the camera, Ted. You just made yourself look guilty.

Carr is outside in his car to taunt Ed by singing "My Body" to the tune of "My Bonnie"...having already sent Ed a gag gift of a male doll in a green bag.

Does Carr have a history with Ed? Or did he apply for Ironside's team and get rejected?

Craig drops by Muller's shabby room just as he's packing things to make the ransom pick-up at the airport.

What is Craig's interest in Muller? Has he ever even met him?

Meanwhile, Ed has tailed Karen Muller to the park, where she drops the body back in the same spot (Joe having temporarily removed it).

Okay, so they dumped the body in the bushes in the park in a green bag, Joe went and took the body back while Ed wasn't looking, leaving the bag, and then Karen went back and dumped the body again in the same spot. Why did they do these things? Where was Joe keeping the corpse? I don't understand.

Craig, whom Joe had left in his car, unexpectedly shows up to bring Joe his gun...holding the FBI men at bay with it while yelling for somebody to call the FBI.

Now that's funny.

Craig is devastated, because nobody's ever supposed to lie!

It's good that he learned that before he was old enough to vote.

the Carlsons visit the Cave to thank Ed for giving Craig a new camera--"the kind that shows pictures right away".

Canon Powershot SX.

That clip was an extra from the DVD set.

That's great. Actually, I have the Live and Let Die DVD. I wonder if my edition has it.

For most, he'd be trumped in that department by Jack Lord.

For most.

Moore's Bond wasn't working for a king.

It's an expression. Actually, I was paraphrasing Connery's Bond. I think. If memory serves. Now that I think of it, Kirk may have used it in one of the movies as well.

And all done with practical stunt work!

Yes, absolutely amazing.

Really, there's nothing in the film to suggest that Samedi is anything but an omnipresent and very theatrical performer, except turning up on the cowcatcher at the end. That could maybe be taken as symbolic rather than literal.

Or he could be the Dr Loveless type who always escapes to return again. He met his alleged doom in a coffin full of poisonous snakes-- but who's to say he's not immune?

Everyone in the screening room was floored by song and how well it worked with the boat chase.

I'll bet. It's an amazing composition.

 

[The Old Mixer]

_______

Post-50th Anniversary Viewing

_______

The Mod Squad
"And a Little Child Shall Bleed Them"
Originally aired November 23, 1971

The Squad tries to protect a TV clown (Milton Berle) whose life is in danger.

The episode opens with Uncle Bobo (Uncle Miltie's a creepy-looking clown) doing his show, singing to a little girl named Jennifer, then performing a magic trick in which she's replaced by a balloon and a puppy. When the balloon pops, he starts gasping for air and collapses. The children in the audience continue laughing, thinking it's part of the act. Greer questions Bobo (real name Robert Harris) and his assistant, Paulie (Henry Jones), backstage and ultimately assigns the Mods to protect him. Pete first poses as a theatrical writer to question the novelty shop-keeper who sells props to the show, Luther Smith (Keenan Wynn), who turns out to have formerly served in a stage act with Harris, and who acts jaded about Bobo's comparative success, but insists that he wouldn't kill the man. At his palatial manor while hitting the liquor, Bobo insists that the Mods not address him by his real name, but expresses his resentment of his role and audience. Paulie, who lives with Bobo, paints a more admirable picture, noting that despite his mouthing off, Bobo secretly donates to children's hospitals. Bobo receives a call from an Ellie Knox who wants to see him, but puts off the appointment. Outside the house, Pete spots a prowler who makes a run for it, and Pete trips over pool furniture into the cement drink, injuring himself and having to be pulled out by Linc. Bobo watches from a window and thinks that these kids should have their own TV show...he'll have to call his good friend Danny.

Ellie (June Dayton) intercepts Bobo as he's making an appearance at a hospital and has an affectionate talk with him, though he offers that for a minute, he thought maybe his attempted killer might be her. Bobo proceeds to visit a nine-year-old named Herbie who has a severe head injury, and Linc, who's shadowing Bobo, is enlisted to accompany him in a song and dance.

Outside, Julie feigns twisting her ankle to get a ride with Ellie. Back at the TV studio, Bobo is found thoroughly plastered before his show, muttering about poor Herbie, so Paulie improvises onstage for him. A bruised Pete's watching at home when Greer drops in, having dug up that Luther almost killed Bobo in a bar fight five years prior. Both are distracted when Linc appears onstage posing as Bobo.

A recovering Bobo, in his face makeup and robe, is watching from beside the stage when the slide ladder breaks under Paulie, sending him tumbling down. Bobo runs onstage to see to him and angrily addresses on camera the "stinking animal" who's doing this.

Bobo's tending to a not-seriously-injured Paulie backstage when Linc finds a 555 number written in an unknown person's hand in the vanity drawer, which Bobo notices and silently reacts to. Pete pays another visit to Luther, this time sans figurative muttonchops, to question him about the fight with Bobo. Luther angrily reveals that Bobo stole the entire idea for the show from him, right down to the theme song; but claims to be torn between resentment for that and gratitude for the charity patronage from the show that keeps him afloat. Julie uncovers that Ellie was married to Bobo before his current gig, and has a son around nine or ten who dates back to that time. Linc and Julie stake out uncostumed Bobo staking out the school as Ellie picks up the boy, Joey (Milton's RL son William Michael Berle); Bobo confronts them angrily afterward about prying into his personal life. Linc traces the number to the hall phone of a shabby apartment house and is seen by a man who looks like the one at the pool, who flees the scene and gives Linc the slip in what appears to be the same backlot alley that Linc got mugged in.

Greer identifies the man as Frank Hagen and questions Bobo about him at the house, but Bobo promptly claims to know nothing. Seeing the number, Pete recognizes the handwriting and breaks into the novelty shop by night to confirm that it's Luther's. When Bobo is called in to keep Herbie awake for an hours-long EEG test, with Linc filling in as his assistant again, Pete is caught by Paulie snooping around Stately Bobo Manor for a scrapbook of the old troupe. Hagen then calmly walks in as if he's expected, and Pete starts to press him for information.

Paulie calls Pete off, insisting that Hagen is innocent, and Pete wants an explanation. Back at the hospital, the examination a success, a filled-in-via-phone Linc confronts Bobo in the corridor.

Linc: Did you enjoy it? All the sweat and flap, everybody running around trying to protect Bobo...save Bobo...and from what? From Bobo.​

Bobo explains how he's been afraid to face Joey again since he was on a restraining order years back for roughing up Ellie; and that the fake attempts on his life, for which Luther enlisted Hagen on his behalf (the balloon incident having been entirely faked by Bobo), were a desperate ploy to keep Ellie and Joey in town because her current husband was offerred a promotion that involved transferring to London. Linc encourages Bobo to go to Joey, because Joey's just a kid and isn't going to come to him.

In the coda, the Mods watch from afar as father and son are playing at the Bobo Manor pool, and Julie reveals that the unseen Arther Knox turned down his promotion to help it happen. Reaffirmed that there are still good people out there, the Mods walk off the grounds of Bobo Manor.

Overall, this one seemed a little too similar to the last Sammy Davis Jr. episode.

_______

Ironside
"Good Samaritan"
Originally aired November 23, 1971

A murder case gets personal for Ed because the suspect is the man who saved his life.

Ed's cruising through the city when he hears a jewelry store alarm, calls it in, and gets out to investigate. He's wounded in the leg in an exchange of fire with two robbers, and the titularly described character (Michael Callan) enters the line of fire to pull him to cover. A hospitalized Ed is disappointed that nobody knows who his rescuer is, and Randall wants to give him a medal. The Chief examines news camera footage of the aftermath of the shooting and has a blowup made of a frame showing the rescuer. Ed gets a call at his bed from the man, who identifies himself as William Bell, and is elusive about providing any contact information or arranging a meeting. The Chief breaks the news that he's Army corporal William Eller, who's gone AWOL and is wanted on drunk and disorderly charges. The Chief and Ed, now up and about with a cane, pay a call on Lt. Col. Orville Hazlitt of the Military Police (Warren Stevens), who brings in Capt. Pauline Daniels (Diana Muldaur), whose nursing unit treated Eller when he was wounded, and Cpl. Larry Hayes (Robert Pratt), who served with Eller in 'Nam. Hayes informs the colonel that Eller was drunk the night before, and when he identifies one of Eller's drinking companions as WACS Sgt. Mildred Peterson, it catches Hazlitt's interest, as Peterson was murdered the night before. the colonel takes the Chief and Ed to Warrant Officer Harry Wilke of the Criminal Investigations Department (Donald Barry), who's investigating the outdoor area where the body was found, with a bloody rock identified as the murder weapon. The jurisdiction of the case will depend on whether the killer was Army or civilian. Pfc. Jurzyck (Dennis Rucker) identifies Eller as a man he saw hobbling by with blood on his uniform the night before; and Eller's fingerprints are found on the rock.

Ed talks first to Capt. Daniels, then to a couple of other soldiers who were drinking with Eller and Peterson the night before, Cpl. Lester Howe (D'Urville Martin) and Pfc. Jerry Kovak (Bryan Montgomery), learning that Mildred seemed desperate to get in touch with a Captain Christie who'd served in Long Bien. Fran turns up that this is an alias being used by a drug supplier in Long Bien who's been shipping his wares to the States. Ed gets a call from Eller at home and arranges a rendezvous in a backlot alley, where Eller relates in flashback how a glass of beer given to him had an unusually potent effect, and Mildred (Kristin Helmore) tried to take him to the WACS barracks to sober up. They got in a minor physical altercation; he started seeing her in double and then quadruple as he tried to get her to help him up, ripping at a jacket; he passed out; and when he came to, he saw Mildred lying dead on the ground with the bloody rock nearby. He's convinced that somebody else killed her while he was out. Then a patrol car drives into the alley, Eller tries to make a run for it, and is apprehended by the uniformed officers.

Eller thinks that Ed set him up, and Ed asks Daniels to try to explain things while Eller's temporarily in the hospital with an injured arm. A search of Peterson's quarters turns up evidence that she received a package from Long Bien and may have forwarded it to someone else without knowing what was in it. A new search of Eller's off-base apartment turns up packages of high-grade heroin in an air vent, but Howe drops in and Wilke and the detectives learn that all of the drinking buddies had access to and used the place. The Chief has Mark, who just passed mid-terms, don a uniform to have a run-in with his old buddy Ed while Ed's talking with Hayes in a bar. Mark identifies himself as Captain Christie from Long Bien, and as soon as Mark and Ed are gone, Hayes rushes to make a call while Fran watches...though the number she takes pictures of him dialing with a concealed camera turns out to be a general one for the Presidio. Ed visits Eller in his cell to try to convince him that Hayes played a role in setting him up. When Ed leaves, he reports an unseen outburst of violence by Eller. Wilke accompanies a couple of MPs who are delivering a new bed rack to the cell; Eller grabs a gun from one of them, tucks it into his sling, and tells Wilke to take him to the judge advocate's office.

Eller calls Hayes, confronting him with what he knows and wanting help getting his hands on $5,000 and a ticket to Brazil. Hayes calls another party to help with this, then arranges for a rendezvous with Eller...who turns out to be making his calls from the Cave with Wilke present, the escape having been a ruse. But an attempt to monitor Hayes's call is botched by the equipment having been planted too close to the hospital while X-ray equipment was in use. Eller goes through with his meeting with Hayes, who seems very under the influence. Hayes draws a gun on Eller, and Ed pops out of hiding to arrest Hayes, who then collapses dead from what's determined to be a slow-acting poison that probably took effect quicker than intended. A woman's uniform button that was found on Eller leads the Chief to speculate that when Eller was seeing quadruple, he may have actually been seeing double of two women; and it's confirmed that a button wasn't missing from Mildred's uniform. The Chief brainstorms what high-billed guest playing a female officer who was stationed in Long Bien, has access to poison, and hasn't had much of a role in the story yet may fit the bill. Eller subsequently pays a visit to Daniels, ostensibly seeking help, and lays out for her what he thinks happened, which includes that when Mildred staring asking questions about Christie, Hayes called his accomplice, who decided that Peterson needed to be gotten out of the way and arranged for Eller to be framed for the murder; and how a woman was at the scene of the murder, whose button he grabbed while she was putting the rock in his hand. Daniels tries to give him a drink, and he lets in the team. Ed wrests the drink from her hand, to be examined at a lab.

In the coda, Eller has been honorably discharged with a Bronze Star, and visits the Cave to ask about getting into police work.

_______

At this point, Ironside moves from Tuesdays to Thursdays, and I'm missing an episode that either aired November 25 or 30, "Gentle Oaks". Either way, that means that it doubled with another episode airing on the other night; and I'm wondering if the airdate confusion between Wiki and IMDb has something to do with why I haven't got it.

Ironside faces off against a malevolent nurse in a convalescent home with a suspiciously high death rate.

The IMDb description further says that he goes undercover. Casually familiar to comedy club audiences one episode...able to work undercover the next.

_______

A contract dispute kept John Barry from scoring the latest James Bond picture

The Wiki article says that he was tied up working on a musical at the time.

Have they ever previously indicated where Julie's pad building is located?

When we've seen the exterior in the past, it always looked like it was in a residential area with individual houses. But for the purposes of this episode, it's also a casual stroll from the inner city backlot.

Do they find his badge?

I was anticipating that, but it didn't come up.

That's a little weird. "Excuse me, sir, are you familiar with any vehicles similar to the one you drive that turned over and exploded recently?"

It was more like he thought the man might know him.

"My name is Somerset Holmes."

I think it was Joe Newton.

"You're under arrest. Wait, why did I say that?"

Okay, if the muggers routinely mug the wino, presumably for panhandled change or social security money, why would they suddenly stab him?

They were portrayed as being a little psycho, or at least Keyes was; and he was apparently angry that the wino didn't have more on him.

I like how it was actually very easy to find Linc, and everything just happened in a very short period of time.

Yeah, I noticed that...and he was actively hiding because he thought people were after him.

Definitely better than the typical clip show. The escaped mental patient was obviously in the script to trigger Linc's flashbacks, but he should have actually been part of the story. Also the wino and Consuela lacked resolution, as they played important parts in the story.

When they were first introducing the wino, who seemed paranoid about "them," I thought that he might be the escaped mental patient. As for Connie, they got in a cute bit of her being embarrassed when Linc asked where his clothes were, because she'd stripped him down to his underwear to make him comfortable.

Whoa, wheels within wheels.

I'm having a flashback to...having a flashback! I think they might've done that in Kung Fu once.

Isn't this the second time that somebody has dumped a body in a public park rather than someplace where it might not be found?

You got me...would it have been a recently watched episode?

Weird. Have we ever seen this kind of attitude before?

Does Carr have a history with Ed? Or did he apply for Ironside's team and get rejected?

It was a very episodic thing...Ed needed a taunting rival.

Just hand over the camera, Ted. You just made yourself look guilty.

I was suspicious of the parents at first.

What is Craig's interest in Muller? Has he ever even met him?

He thought he'd be secretly helping Ed, though of course he was doing the exact opposite.

Okay, so they dumped the body in the bushes in the park in a green bag, Joe went and took the body back while Ed wasn't looking, leaving the bag, and then Karen went back and dumped the body again in the same spot. Why did they do these things? Where was Joe keeping the corpse? I don't understand.

It was a bit confusing/underexplained, but apparently Joe just opportunistically took away the body so it wouldn't be found and he could continue the ransom scheme. Of course, if Paul's death wasn't expected, it raises the question of why Joe made the recording when he was alive...perhaps to facilitate making the call, given that he had to go somewhere public to make it. The bit about Karen wanting to know where he got the keys was because those were Paul's keys to the love nest.

Canon Powershot SX.

I wasn't sure of the brand, but it might have been product placement.

That's great. Actually, I have the Live and Let Die DVD. I wonder if my edition has it.

It was a 2006 series release in which the films could be bought as individual DVDs with just the disc containing the film, CCs, and commentaries; or bundled in four sets of five movies each, with each movie accompanied by a second disc packed with extras specific to that film. I got the box set that had all four sets, plus a bonus disc of Craig's Casino Royale.

Moore was the only Bond actor to do commentaries for each of his films. They were rather dry and he had a tendency to repeat the same stories, but they had a really nice vibe to them overall...like he'd invited you to his home to sit and watch the films with him over drinks.

It's an expression. Actually, I was paraphrasing Connery's Bond. I think. If memory serves.

I'm familiar with the expression, but it always would have been "queen and country" in the classic Bond films.

Yes, absolutely amazing.

CGI makes modern big action sequences relatively meaningless--they're just flashy cartoons. And I always want to say something when somebody distinguishes between effects in animation and live action, when the "live action" they're referring to is just more realistic-looking animation. E.g., "I want to see the Cerritos in live action!"

Or he could be the Dr Loveless type who always escapes to return again. He met his alleged doom in a coffin full of poisonous snakes-- but who's to say he's not immune?

The bit with the coffin of snakes was unconvincing in the first place. It could have been one of Samedi's parlor tricks.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

The Wiki article says that he was tied up working on a musical at the time.

From Chapter 19 Page 458 of 'The McCartney Legacy' - Henry Saltzman's and Cubby Broccoli's Eon Productions was gearing up to start filming 'Live and Let Die', the next installment in their series based on Ian Fleming's spy novels, with Roger Moore replacing Sean Connery in the role of 007. Once again, go-to Bond composer John Barry was at loggerheads with Saltzman and Broccoli over pay, and had taken a sabbatical, so this time there would be no confusion about whether the film's composer's chair was vacant, McCartney didn't think twice.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

"Baron Samedi, Voodoo Priest"

The character of Baron Samedi inspired Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman to write this song for the 10cc album 'Sheet Music'

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Eric Stewart, after the break-up of 10cc, would go onto work with Paul McCartney on his albums 'Tug Of War', 'Pipes Of Peace', 'Give My Regards To Broad Street' and 'Press To Play'.

Edit to add: It's funny, I didn't notice until now that Lol Creme switches out his guitar for one with a Gizmo on it. Which is a whole 'nother story entirely.

 

[RJDiogenes]

"And a Little Child Shall Bleed Them"

Good one.

Uncle Bobo (Uncle Miltie's a creepy-looking clown)

I'm hooked already.

Paulie (Henry Jones)

The Robot Master, as well about a billion other things.

Luther Smith (Keenan Wynn)

Also a billion things.

At his palatial manor while hitting the liquor

Creepy clowns do well for themselves.

Bobo watches from a window and thinks that these kids should have their own TV show...he'll have to call his good friend Danny.

"Think of it, Danny! Bobo's Hippies!"

Linc, who's shadowing Bobo, is enlisted to accompany him in a song and dance.

What a treat that must have been.

Both are distracted when Linc appears onstage posing as Bobo.

Oh, my goodness. How'd he do?

Joey (Milton's RL son William Michael Berle)

Aw, cool.

who flees the scene and gives Linc the slip in what appears to be the same backlot alley that Linc got mugged in.

It would have been funny if Linc tripped over a trashcan or something. You can't chase Slapstick Man without falling down.

In the coda, the Mods watch from afar as father and son are playing at the Bobo Manor pool, and Julie reveals that the unseen Arther Knox turned down his promotion to help it happen.

Very nice, but it would have had more impact if Knox had been an actual character.

Reaffirmed that there are still good people out there, the Mods walk off the grounds of Bobo Manor.

Not bad. A good vehicle for the Vaudeville Generation to meet the Mod Generation.

Overall, this one seemed a little too similar to the last Sammy Davis Jr. episode.

Yeah, it's almost like they commissioned two writers to produce a script from the same prompt and decided to use them both.

Ed's cruising through the city when he hears a jewelry store alarm, calls it in, and gets out to investigate.

I'm impressed that he called it in.

The Chief breaks the news that he's Army corporal William Eller, who's gone AWOL and is wanted on drunk and disorderly charges.

But couldn't resist coming to the rescue.

Lt. Col. Orville Hazlitt of the Military Police (Warren Stevens)

Doc from Forbidden Planet.

Capt. Pauline Daniels (Diana Muldaur)

Doctor Pulaski, a couple of TOS characters, McCloud's girlfriend, and about a billion others.

The jurisdiction of the case will depend on whether the killer was Army or civilian.

Interesting. The killer but not the victim.

A woman's uniform button that was found on Eller leads the Chief to speculate that when Eller was seeing quadruple, he may have actually been seeing double of two women

Now that's clever use of what seemed like a throwaway detail.

The Chief brainstorms what high-billed guest playing a female officer who was stationed in Long Bien, has access to poison, and hasn't had much of a role in the story yet may fit the bill.

In the coda, Eller has been honorably discharged with a Bronze Star, and visits the Cave to ask about getting into police work.

Not bad. It seems like Ironside let the team take center stage in this one.

The IMDb description further says that he goes undercover. Casually familiar to comedy club audiences one episode...able to work undercover the next.

If the place is in another city, maybe.

When we've seen the exterior in the past, it always looked like it was in a residential area with individual houses. But for the purposes of this episode, it's also a casual stroll from the inner city backlot.

Maybe she lives in a dry county and Linc had to cross the border.

I think it was Joe Newton.

That was a totally obscure reference to a comic book named Somerset Holmes published by Pacific in the early 80s. It was a Hitchcockian mini series about a woman who got her name in that exact same way (it was written by Bruce Jones, the same guy who was doing Alien Worlds and Twisted Tales).

When they were first introducing the wino, who seemed paranoid about "them," I thought that he might be the escaped mental patient.

Yes, that would have been perfect-- much better than the generic muggers. Linc could have bonded with him over his flashbacks and convinced him to give himself up.

As for Connie, they got in a cute bit of her being embarrassed when Linc asked where his clothes were, because she'd stripped him down to his underwear to make him comfortable.

"To make him comfortable." Sure, Connie.

I'm having a flashback to...having a flashback! I think they might've done that in Kung Fu once.

I think it may have been in the Crazy parody.

You got me...would it have been a recently watched episode?

Actually, I was thinking of Mod Squad. The one where Julie got shot in the head.

It was a 2006 series release in which the films could be bought as individual DVDs with just the disc containing the film, CCs, and commentaries; or bundled in four sets of five movies each, with each movie accompanied by a second disc packed with extras specific to that film. I got the box set that had all four sets, plus a bonus disc of Craig's Casino Royale.

Mine is just a single disk, so I probably don't have it.

Moore was the only Bond actor to do commentaries for each of his films. They were rather dry and he had a tendency to repeat the same stories, but they had a really nice vibe to them overall...like he'd invited you to his home to sit and watch the films with him over drinks.

It seems like he's not the greatest speaker or interviewee, but he seems like a nice guy.

I'm familiar with the expression, but it always would have been "queen and country" in the classic Bond films.

You're right, it should have been. Google confirms that both Bond and Kirk did say "King and Country," which makes me wonder if they're referencing something specific, like a quote or lit or poetry. I might do some research later. I'm mainly happy that I remembered it correctly.

CGI makes modern big action sequences relatively meaningless--they're just flashy cartoons. And I always want to say something when somebody distinguishes between effects in animation and live action, when the "live action" they're referring to is just more realistic-looking animation. E.g., "I want to see the Cerritos in live action!"

I agree. This is one of the things that makes contemporary entertainment less engaging to me.

The bit with the coffin of snakes was unconvincing in the first place. It could have been one of Samedi's parlor tricks.

That's true as well. The snakes were probably defanged, and he just slipped away like a magician's assistant.

 

[The Old Mixer]

_______

Post-50th Anniversary Viewing

_______

The Mod Squad
"Real Loser"
Originally aired November 30, 1971

The Squad defends a drug dealer (Martin Sheen), whose daughter is a sick child in need of medical care; his associate has marked him for murder.

After Danny Morgan (Sheen) takes his kid sister, Kim (Erica Petal), to school on his motorcycle, a man in a sedan tries to run him down, ultimately succeeding in sending him up a bank, which he falls back down. Another motorist is trying to stop traffic when the sedan driver (William Smith) gets out to take something off Morgan's unconscious body and then takes off. Julie is called to Kim's school as she's an old neighbor of the Morgans who's on Kim's emergency card. She tells Kim what happened and takes the girl back to her pad, where Julie tells Pete of how Danny is a former pilot who's had a run of bad luck with the Air Force, an airline, and now an attempt to start his own air charter company. Meanwhile, the sedan driver calls the hospital to brusquely ask if Morgan is going to live; and Linc talks to the motorists who tried to help, learning that it wasn't an accident and how what one of them identified as an envelope was taken from Danny's pocket. The sedan is picked up when the driver is trying to ditch it, though he gets away. An empty envelope is found in the car; and the plate leads Pete to the condemned apartment building address of Jack Harper. When he searches the place, Harper, the driver, bursts out, scuffles with him a bit, and gets away.

In the hospital, Danny denies to Linc that he was carrying an envelope, and tries to allay any concerns that he was smuggling dope from Mexico because he hasn't flown in awhile. He also introduces Linc to an older, disabled vet who's staying there, Lester Chennery (Harold Gould), who likes to chide Danny for being a loser. Linc goes to see Danny's partner in the charter business, Artie Ralston (uncredited William Bramley), who confirms that Danny hasn't been flying because of blood pressure, talks about how he's tried to get Danny to sell his share of the business, and is defensive when asked about possible smuggling. Greer identifies Harper as a former debt collector and bouncer who's most likely being used as a hitman. Danny comes home from the hospital and isn't pleased that his sister is staying with Julie. At Greer's order, Linc keeps an eye on Danny at his place. Danny eagerly picks up the phone when Pete calls Linc with a lead about Harper's girlfriend, who's working as a dancer in a bar. Learning of this, Danny wants to go out, Linc tries to stop him from going after Harper, and Danny knocks Linc out from behind with his arm cast (hurting himself in the process).

A revived Linc meets Pete at the bar where Harper's girlfriend, Charlene Grant (Lada Edmund Jr.), works. They question her about Harper's whereabouts, claiming that they have business with him. Danny goes back to the hospital desperately wanting help from Les, who recommends suicide, but ultimately agrees to hook Danny up with his brother-in-law. The Mods and Greer converge on Harper's not-condemned current apartment, but Harper gets a call from somebody he doesn't want to talk to, who tips him off about the Mods, and Harper slips out. He goes to meet with Danny, whom he was apparently involved in something with. Danny wants to know what happened to all the money he gave Harper; and Harper accuses Danny of chickening out and threatens to tell the cops everything if he's caught. Danny jumps the armed Harper from behind, a struggle ensues, Harper is shot when his gun goes off, and Danny splits.

Danny returns to Julie's, and tries to apologize to Linc when he drops by. Greer and the Mods having found a phone bill of Harper's, Linc's trying the only number that Harper was calling. Danny takes interest in this, and it turns out to be the number of the charter company, making it appear that Artie has been trying to kill Danny. Linc and Danny head to the field and the receptionist informs Linc that the man Harper was calling was Danny. Linc catches up as Danny is taxiing in a small plane; Danny holds Linc at gunpoint and makes him climb aboard as Linc accuses Danny of hiring Harper to kill him. In the air, Danny makes a call to the tower claiming to be having difficulties. Danny then reveals to Linc that he has to die in a way that doesn't look like suicide so Kim will get insurance money that she needs to get surgery for a condition that was set up at earlier points in the episode in a very blink-and-miss-it way. When Danny goes into a dive, Linc TV Fus him and gets on the radio. The tower controller talks Linc through regaining control of the plane and multiple rough landing attempts, finally getting him on the ground, where the plane skids off the runway but doesn't burst into flame.

In the coda, Danny's being wheeled into an ambulance, willing to face charges for killing Harper because it was self-defense (which is glossing over how he jumped Harper from behind); and Greer has offered to get the Policeman's Charity Fund to pay for Kim's surgery. The ambulance drives away, and Greer and the Mods walk off the runway.

_______

Ironside
"License to Kill"
Originally aired December 2, 1971

Ironside uses old-fashioned detective work to clear a cop framed for murder.

The episode opens with the televised aftermath of a trial for the murder of detective Dave Lucci, which ended with a hung jury after a key witness, Nick Walston, went missing, allowing the defendant, Reuben Colter (Joshua Bryant), to go free. Not pleased about this is Lucci's partner, Frank Carlson...

...who happens to be an episodic buddy of Ed's; but the Chief refuses to let Carlson work on the case. Carlson does so anyway, behind Ironside's back...talking to Walston's landlady (Amzie Strickland); then to a co-worker named Buster Logan (Jackie Coogan) whom he learned wanted to take a lighter from Walston's apartment while it was under investigation. Logan immediately calls Colter to tell him about Carlson; and at the advice of Keating (Roger Perry)--his partner in what appears to be a shady but legal high-interest money-lending business--Colter decides to lay low for awhile. Carlson subsequently goes to investigate a phoned tip. Carlson hears a shot as a shadowy figure down an alley walks into the lit doorway of a garage; he then sees what appear to be more shots coming from the silhouette (which actually look like they're coming from behind), and returns fire. He runs up to find the dead body of Colter, as a late-working mechanic, Jerry Maxon (James McEachin), comes out to play witness.

Carlson is questioned by Ironside as Colter's gun was found to be holstered and unfired, and no bullet holes from shots fired at Carlson were found. The Chief informs Carlson that he's suspended from duty (as if Ironside were his superior), and while the Chief makes some noise about how Internal Affairs is also involved, his team continues to investigate the matter themselves. What's more, Keating goes directly to Ironside to protest that Carlson isn't in jail, describing Carlson as Ironside's own man. Logan denies having called Carlson with the tip; while at the garage, Maxon says that he was working on car with a backfiring problem; and when he demonstrates, it includes a puff of smoke billowing toward the doorway. However, another local business proprietor, launderer Wing Yee (Tad Horino), says that he heard only the one shot the night before, and when he went out to investigate didn't see smoke, but did smell gunpowder. At the Cave, Mark and Carlson works out on a blackboard exactly where Carlson and Colter were when the shot was fired, and Ironside determines that Colter was turning away--perhaps to find out where the shots were coming from--when Carlson fired. The team proceed on the theories that blanks were involved; and that Maxon could have been paid off, digging up that he may have needed money to make up for missed alimony payments.

Carlson makes a lot of noise about having to take a psych test, but when pressed for a good reason, holds back from saying why. The Chief thinks that Walston still may hold some answers, and his sister comes forward to report that he's gone missing. Walston's car is found in a ravine, and his body nearby, indicating that he's been dead for two weeks. Fran goes undercover where Maxon's ex, Iris (Gloria Calomee), works as a waitress, learning that Jerry's recently come into money. Then Iris introduces her to her divorce lawyer, who was also Colter's defense consul, Rod Ballard (Richard Anderson)--who recognizes and identifies Fran. Ballard then goes to Keating to tell him that he's figured out what Keating's done, and if he can, so can the police. Jerry Maxon is subsequently beat up by a couple of heavies to keep his mouth shut. After the team make inroads in getting Logan--perceived to be a patsy at this point--to talk by informing him that Walston's dead, they visit Jerry, whom Ironside strongarms by indicating that he's going to plant a story in the papers reporting that Jerry's working out a deal to testify. Another pair of heavies subsequently pay a visit to Maxon and make him get in their car. While begging for a chance to clear things up with Keating, he spills details about what he did. The team are in Keating's office with Logan when Maxon is brought in...and the heavies are revealed to be detectives Tracy (Michael Conrad) and Peterson.

In the coda, Carlson's passed his psych test and been given a week off.

_______

I'm hooked already.

So you're pro-Bobo.

The Robot Master, as well about a billion other things.

Looking that up, you could've said six million other things...

"Think of it, Danny! Bobo's Hippies!"

Oh, my goodness. How'd he do?

Quite well...he was keeping the kids laughing.

Very nice, but it would have had more impact if Knox had been an actual character.

I think it served the message that he was an unseen figure who was willing to do what was best for his loved ones.

Yeah, it's almost like they commissioned two writers to produce a script from the same prompt and decided to use them both.

As you can see from the episode review above, it seems to have become a formula story for them..."Real Loser" using the "suicide made to look like murder" angle from the Sammy Davis episode; with the victims behind the real or faked murder attempts on them two episodes in a row. At this point, it's an angle that I'm going to start looking for.

I'm impressed that he called it in.

I hear ya there.

Doctor Pulaski, a couple of TOS characters, McCloud's girlfriend, and about a billion others.

Including David Banner's sis.

Not bad. It seems like Ironside let the team take center stage in this one.

There were parts that I found hard to follow, though it came together in the end.

Yes, that would have been perfect-- much better than the generic muggers. Linc could have bonded with him over his flashbacks and convinced him to give himself up.

Or he could've remembered the treatment that he was getting at the mental hospital in that episode and encouraged the wino not to give himself up...

Actually, I was thinking of Mod Squad. The one where Julie got shot in the head.

Oh yeah. Which brings up a bit of trivia that I came across on LALD's IMDb page...apparently revolvers don't have safeties. And if that's the case, you have to wonder why any male character would ever tuck a revolver in his waistband...

 

[DarrenTR1970]

50 years ago, today - Paul and Linda McCartney fly to Lagos, Nigeria to begin work on the new Wings album 'Band on the Run'; Denny Laine and producer Geoff Emerick having flown out a day earlier. Denny leaving behind his wife and four-day old son.

The band minus both its lead guitarist, Henry McCullough, and drummer Denny Seiwell.

McCullough quit on 14-August at Paul's Rude Studios, during rehearsals of the song 'No Words'. Paul insisted the guitarist play the solo a certain way, which Henry refused, saying he had come up with a better guitar break. Paul shoved Henry's guitar in his face and said, "You'll f*cking do this." To which Henry replied, "We'll see about that, you c*nt." Henry packed up his guitar, amp, threw them in back of his car and drove off. Henry handed in his resignation the following day. Henry and Paul would cross paths just one more time before Henry's death in 2016. Paul invited Henry back to his offices in London where Paul and Henry made up and Paul wrote Henry a check reimbursing him for lost wages.

Denny met with Paul on the 25th and asked Paul to postpone the trip to Lagos for a month in order to find and break in a new guitarist. Paul refused, saying that they would go down to Lagos and record the basic tracks as a three-piece, just like 'Ram', then fly back to London for the overdubs.

For Denny Seiwell, this was the final straw, and when Paul sent a limo to Denny's house on the 29th to take him to the airport, Denny called Paul and said he was quitting. A violent argument ensued that ended with Paul slamming the phone down. Five minutes later, Linda called, screaming "How dare you inconvenience us!"

"Inconvenience you?" Seiwell replied. "How about the last three years of my life? You took me out of a great career in New York. I don't want to hear this," and hung up on her.

The next day, Paul's brother Mike and Paul's personal assistant Vincent Romero phoned Seiwell and tried to persuade Seiwell to come back, but Denny had already booked a flight back to New York.

Denny and Paul wouldn't see or speak to each other until 1993 when Paul played in Anaheim, where Denny had moved following the death of his father. Seiwell sent a note backstage and Paul and Linda invited him to their dressing room where everything was forgiven and forgotten. Paul would hire Denny as a consultant on the 2001 documentary "Wingspan", with Denny contributing photos and documents of 'Wings Mark I' to the project. Denny continues to serve as a consultant on Paul McCartney Archival Release projects.

 

[The Old Mixer]

50 years ago, today - Paul and Linda McCartney fly to Lagos, Nigeria to begin work on the new Wings album 'Band on the Run'

Lewisohn, Wiki, and web search hits say that this happened on Aug. 9.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Danny Morgan (Sheen)

Character actor? Major actor? Definitely a great actor.

Julie is called to Kim's school as she's an old neighbor of the Morgans who's on Kim's emergency card.

That's a clever way to get a Mod involved.

Meanwhile, the sedan driver calls the hospital to brusquely ask if Morgan is going to live

"Hello, I'm a hit man and I'd like to check on my victim, please."

Linc talks to the motorists who tried to help

Helpful passers by seems to be another trope that pops up on this show.

the plate leads Pete to the condemned apartment building address of Jack Harper.

This is weird for so many reasons.

Lester Chennery (Harold Gould)

Feather's father again.

and is defensive when asked about possible smuggling.

This red herring about the smuggling seems arbitrary somehow.

Danny knocks Linc out from behind with his arm cast (hurting himself in the process).

Luckily Linc didn't get amnesia again.

Danny goes back to the hospital desperately wanting help from Les, who recommends suicide

With friends like that....

The Mods and Greer converge on Harper's not-condemned current apartment

He moved up in the world quickly.

Danny jumps the armed Harper from behind, a struggle ensues, Harper is shot when his gun goes off, and Danny splits.

Does the title refer to Harper? He's not really top of the line hitman material.

Danny then reveals to Linc that he has to die in a way that doesn't look like suicide so Kim will get insurance money that she needs to get surgery for a condition that was set up at earlier points in the episode in a very blink-and-miss-it way.

That's cool. Usually they hit you over the head with it.

The tower controller talks Linc through regaining control of the plane and multiple rough landing attempts, finally getting him on the ground, where the plane skids off the runway but doesn't burst into flame.

Also a bit more realistic than the usual talked-in landing.

Danny's being wheeled into an ambulance, willing to face charges for killing Harper because it was self-defense (which is glossing over how he jumped Harper from behind)

They gotta get that boy some psychiatric care.

Greer has offered to get the Policeman's Charity Fund to pay for Kim's surgery.

Okay, that's a bit much.

but the Chief refuses to let Carlson work on the case.

Greer could take a lesson from this.

(as if Ironside were his superior)

They don't call him the Chief for nothing!

The Chief thinks that Walston still may hold some answers, and his sister comes forward to report that he's gone missing.

Wasn't he already missing?

Walston's car is found in a ravine, and his body nearby, indicating that he's been dead for two weeks.

Odd that he didn't turn up long before this.

Rod Ballard (Richard Anderson)

Oscar Goldman. Also, an occasional cop on Perry Mason. Steve, I think.

The team are in Keating's office with Logan when Maxon is brought in...and the heavies are revealed to be detectives Tracy (Michael Conrad) and Peterson.

Okay, I have no idea what just happened. Colter killed Lucci, for apparently unknown reasons, and Walston was just a random witness. Colter and Keating are not doing anything illegal. Colter or Keating or their heavies then kill Walston and somehow recruit his co worker Logan, who had loaned Walston a lighter. Keating then sets up Carlson to kill his partner Colter. Ballard and Maxon are just kind of there. What's going on here?

So you're pro-Bobo.

Bobo Lives!

Looking that up, you could've said six million other things...

I wish I had thought of it.

As you can see from the episode review above, it seems to have become a formula story for them..."Real Loser" using the "suicide made to look like murder" angle from the Sammy Davis episode; with the victims behind the real or faked murder attempts on them two episodes in a row. At this point, it's an angle that I'm going to start looking for.

I wonder what it says about the mind set of the writing team at the time.

Including David Banner's sis.

Forgot about that one.

Or he could've remembered the treatment that he was getting at the mental hospital in that episode and encouraged the wino not to give himself up...

Yes, that also could have been interesting.

Oh yeah. Which brings up a bit of trivia that I came across on LALD's IMDb page...apparently revolvers don't have safeties. And if that's the case, you have to wonder why any male character would ever tuck a revolver in his waistband...

Good grief.

Paul shoved Henry's guitar in his face and said, "You'll f*cking do this." To which Henry replied, "We'll see about that, you c*nt."

Negotiations broke down.

A violent argument ensued that ended with Paul slamming the phone down. Five minutes later, Linda called, screaming "How dare you inconvenience us!"

The McCartneys were a bit hotheaded in those days, it seems. At least everybody made up eventually.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

Lewisohn, Wiki, and web search hits say that this happened on Aug. 9.

That's interesting because 'The McCartney Legacy' lays out a pretty detailed timeline of the events leading up to the trip to Lagos, based on Denny Seiwell's diary and the recollections of those involved. To wit. . .
31st-July - Band arrives at Rude Studios to begin three weeks of rehearsals before departing for Lagos.
1st-August - Rehearsals begin.
8th-August - The two Denny's and Henry join the local band Babe Ruth onstage for a night of jamming.
14th-August - Henry McCullough leaves the rehearsals.
15th-August - Henry McCullough telephones Paul and gives his resignation from Wings; rehearsals are halted and the Seiwell's fly back to London.
18th-August - Paul has his press liaison draft a statement for the music press announcing McCullough's departure, which runs in the 25th-August issues. Paul also cancels a charity appearance by the band scheduled for 25th-August.
24th-August - JoJo Laine goes into premature labor and gives birth to Denny Laine's son Laine Hines.
25th-August - Denny Seiwell meets with Paul and asks him to postpone the trip to Lagos for a month to audition and find a replacement for Henry McCullough. Paul insists that the trip and recording will go as scheduled.
29th-August - Paul meets with the press outside his London offices to clarify the reasons behind Henry's departure. Denny Laine and Geoff Emerick fly out to Lagos to set up the studio. Laine leaves behind his wife and four-day old son in the hospital. Denny Seiwell telephones Paul and tells him he's leaving Wings.
30th-August - Paul and Linda head to Lagos for six weeks of recording. The trip will be cut short after three weeks when Paul gets mugged and suffers a health scare.
3rd-17th-September - Recording the album 'Band on the Run' in Lagos.

 

[The Old Mixer]

_______

Post-50th Anniversary Viewing

_______

The Mod Squad
"Death of a Nobody"
Originally aired December 7, 1971

A woman is killed by a hit-and-run driver, but Pete is sure he was the intended victim.

The Mods drive up to a backlot deli by night, and Pete gets out to order. But as he's crossing the street, a car comes screeching recklessly at him. Stunt Pete rolls back over the Challenger, but a woman named Mary Clarkson who's exiting the Our Lady of the Holy Backlot church isn't so lucky. At HQ, Pete, who's recently gotten a couple of threatening calls, scours through files of old cases for somebody who might want to settle a score with him. (This would've been a good premise for a clip show.) His attention is drawn to Johnny Pell (Brock Peters), a former boxer and parolee, whom he pays a visit to. Pell doesn't seem to recognize him at first, assuming that he's selling something, and invites him in. As Pete questions him, Pell finally recognizes him, and expresses that he does want to get back at Pete, but still acts confused. Pell's wife (Florence St. Peter) enters and explains that he's suffering brain damage from too many blows to the head, and Pete apologetically leaves. Nevertheless, Greer, who's already skeptical about the whole affair, gets a complaint that Pete invaded the home without a warrant. (He knocked on the door.) At his pad with the Mods, Pete sees a strange car outside (of a different make from the hit-and-run auto), and when they go out, it screeches away.

Pete turns up a couple more parolees of interest. Telly Hogan, sent up for manslaughter, proves to be a dead end when his brother, Father Jeremy Hogan (Brett Parker), informs Linc that Telly is now a novice in an order of monks, and restricted to a vow of silence. Pete goes to see Frank Delgado (Perry Lopez), a construction worker who'd been convicted of assault and armed robbery and who formerly owned a white 1963 Chevy like the one that hit Clarkson. While Delgado isn't sorry that somebody's after Pete, he denies that it's him. Afterward, Delgado's pregnant wife, Carolyn (Meg Foster), meets him at his job site. At HQ, Greer plays a tape of a threatening caller who sounds nothing like Brock Peters, and informs Linc and Julie that the perp was a junkie who's been picked up, having been making similar calls to other cops at HQ, and was in the hospital the night of the hit-and-run. Afterward, figuring with Linc that the timing of the attack was wrong for Pete to have been the intended victim, Julie decides to try investigating Mary Clarkson, though she's a titular loner. Clarkson's landlady (Marjorie Bennett) lets Julie into Clarkson's room, indicating that she was from Montreal and that she'd been crying during a hallway phone call with somebody she was glad to have found again and promising to never let go. Looking through Clarkson's meager possessions, Julie finds a clipping about the Paris debut of a Patricia Bailey. Back at the construction site, Delgado sees Pete leaving in a newer model of wood-paneled station wagon than the old woodie, and is then summoned by his boss, Mr. Burke (Richard X. Slattery), whom Pete had just been questioning. It turns out that Delgado's cover story for his whereabouts on the night of the hit-and-run was a lie, and Burke has determined that Delgado is an ex-con who falsified his application, and thus fires him.

The Bailey thing seems to be unrelated, but Linc looks at the other side of the clipping to see a picture of a man from Montreal. Flipping through recent newspapers at the library, Julie finds the full article, identifying him as a Richard Clark (Martin E. Brooks), who's engaged to an heiress. Linc and Julie visit Clark posing as insurance agents (Julie sporting specs for the occasion) who want to ask him questions about being the beneficiary of Mary's policy...learning that he's her ex-husband and confirming that he's also owned a white 1963 Chevy, which he claims to have gotten rid of a while back. They tail him to a junkyard where they find him looking over the car, which has a large dent in it. When they confront him, Clark goes after Linc with a two-by-four, and Linc takes him down.

Pete tracks down the car that he saw and roughs up the driver, accusing him of working for Delgado. At their shabby apartment, Delgado informs Carolyn that they have to leave town, explaining about how Pete's been after him. She realizes that the one night he wasn't with her was Tuesday, the night of the hit-and-run. He has to confess that he was seeing an old girlfriend that night, and while he claims that it was to tell her that it was over between them, Carolyn runs out on him. Delgado retrieves a revolver from a drawer and, yep, tucks it in his waistband. At HQ, Greer informs Pete that the driver he picked up was spying on his wife who was having an affair; and that Linc and Julie have picked up the murderer, whom Mary Clarkson was threatening to expose because he never got a divorce from her. Pete goes to apologize to Delgado, who's drinking across the street when he sees Pete at his buzzer. He forces Pete at gunpoint to the construction area and makes him climb up a smokestack ahead of him. Once they're on the catwalk, Delgado reveals that he wants Pete to watch him jump. Pete manages to wrest the gun away from Delgado, but he gets over the railing. Pete tries to talks him down by arguing that his wife and kid are the ones he'll really be hurting, offers to help him patch things up with them, and ultimately gets to Delgado and pulls him back over.

In the coda, Delgado is exiting HQ after an explanation from Greer about everything that's been going on; and Pete, who's already helped Delgado get his job back, reveals that the other Mods have brought Carolyn, Pete having gotten the ex-girlfriend to explain to her that nothing happened that night. The Mods drive off in the station wagon while the Delgados walk off the HQ parking lot.

_______

Character actor? Major actor? Definitely a great actor.

I forgot to do a "Charlie young Martin Sheen" gag.

That's a clever way to get a Mod involved.

Once again, Julie's connected in an off-duty way.

"Hello, I'm a hit man and I'd like to check on my victim, please."

Pretty much.

Feather's father again.

Last time he came up, I was surprised to learn that he's no relation to Elliott.

This red herring about the smuggling seems arbitrary somehow.

It did, actually. It came out of nowhere with no evidence.

With friends like that....

That bit of business made more sense in hindsight. Presumably he knew what Danny wanted his brother-in-law for, and was encouraging Danny to do it himself. Also, he shared that (being disabled and apparently living in the hospital) he'd thought about doing it as well.

That's cool. Usually they hit you over the head with it.

It was actually confusing. The references to her condition were so blink-and-miss that I was confused when the need for surgery money came up in the climax, and had to go back looking for a couple of references to her condition. A quick bit of exposition about what she had, or a bit of showing rather than telling, would have better brought attention to that.

Also a bit more realistic than the usual talked-in landing.

The tower guy was very gabby, too...it was like Linc was being talked through the landing by an auctioneer.

They don't call him the Chief for nothing!

They seem to have forgotten that it's supposed to be an honorary title at this point.

Wasn't he already missing?

Missing from being in hiding, I guess.

Okay, I have no idea what just happened. Colter killed Lucci, for apparently unknown reasons, and Walston was just a random witness. Colter and Keating are not doing anything illegal. Colter or Keating or their heavies then kill Walston and somehow recruit his co worker Logan, who had loaned Walston a lighter. Keating then sets up Carlson to kill his partner Colter. Ballard and Maxon are just kind of there. What's going on here?

Now I found this one a lot easier to follow than the previous Ironside. Whatever the nature of the altercation between Colter and Lucci, Colter's story was that it was self-defense as Lucci got aggressive with him. Ballard was the defense attorney who got Colter off, but wasn't a conspirator on the killings. Colter and Keating were clearly shady loan shark types, though operating legally. (They literally showed them demanding $700 payment for a $500 loan, same as the "Joss Sticks" episode. I recall a humor magazine parody of The Equalizer in which his response to a call about a similar situation was, "I'm sorry, but that's the way MasterCard works.") Logan thought he was helping Walston by keeping mum about him, not knowing that Colter and/or Keating had him offed. With Carlson getting close to the truth, Keating apparently decided that he had to be taken care of and that Colter had become a liability, so he arranged to kill two birds with one stone. Maxon was a false witness and accomplice in the scheme to trick Carlson into shooting Colter.

 

[RJDiogenes]

But as he's crossing the street, a car comes screeching recklessly at him.

Another amateur.

Our Lady of the Holy Backlot church

(This would've been a good premise for a clip show.)

Imagine if they gave every character their own clip show. Julie's would look like a screensaver.

Johnny Pell (Brock Peters)

Sisko's dad.

Pell's wife (Florence St. Peter) enters and explains that he's suffering brain damage from too many blows to the head

"Hey, me too!"

Telly is now a novice in an order of monks, and restricted to a vow of silence.

I immediately figured that this was the guy, with a really great cover story.

Greer plays a tape of a threatening caller who sounds nothing like Brock Peters

Yeah, you'd think that would have occurred to Pete.

Clarkson's landlady (Marjorie Bennett)

An old movie star, going back to the Silent Era.

Delgado sees Pete leaving in a newer model of wood-paneled station wagon than the old woodie

The Woodie-A.

Richard Clark (Martin E. Brooks)

Rudy Wells.

They tail him to a junkyard where they find him looking over the car, which has a large dent in it.

A large, person-shaped dent.

Delgado retrieves a revolver from a drawer and, yep, tucks it in his waistband.

We need a PSA on this.

Greer informs Pete that the driver he picked up was spying on his wife who was having an affair

This was the car lurking in front of the Mod Pad?

Pete, who's already helped Delgado get his job back, reveals that the other Mods have brought Carolyn, Pete having gotten the ex-girlfriend to explain to her that nothing happened that night.

Aww, Pete got Delgado his job back, restored his marriage, and saved his life-- oh, wait, it was Pete who got him fired, screwed up his marriage, and nearly drove him to suicide.

The Mods drive off in the station wagon while the Delgados walk off the HQ parking lot.

Weird episode. It was 90% red herrings and Pete causing trouble.

I forgot to do a "Charlie young Martin Sheen" gag.

Charlie Sheen is like a clone of Martin, except he's a train wreck. He makes me feel bad for Martin. I always really liked Martin Sheen.

Once again, Julie's connected in an off-duty way.

She really would be better suited as a social worker or something.

Last time he came up, I was surprised to learn that he's no relation to Elliott.

Yeah, that's not a real common name.

That bit of business made more sense in hindsight. Presumably he knew what Danny wanted his brother-in-law for, and was encouraging Danny to do it himself. Also, he shared that (being disabled and apparently living in the hospital) he'd thought about doing it as well.

Pretty grim nonetheless.

A quick bit of exposition about what she had, or a bit of showing rather than telling, would have better brought attention to that.

Yes, showing is always better than telling.

The tower guy was very gabby, too...it was like Linc was being talked through the landing by an auctioneer.

"Stop badgering me!"

They seem to have forgotten that it's supposed to be an honorary title at this point.

I think the Chief was the first one to forget.

Missing from being in hiding, I guess.

Ah, of course, his sister was his accomplice or confidante.

Now I found this one a lot easier to follow than the previous Ironside. Whatever the nature of the altercation between Colter and Lucci, Colter's story was that it was self-defense as Lucci got aggressive with him. Ballard was the defense attorney who got Colter off, but wasn't a conspirator on the killings. Colter and Keating were clearly shady loan shark types, though operating legally. (They literally showed them demanding $700 payment for a $500 loan, same as the "Joss Sticks" episode. I recall a humor magazine parody of The Equalizer in which his response to a call about a similar situation was, "I'm sorry, but that's the way MasterCard works.") Logan thought he was helping Walston by keeping mum about him, not knowing that Colter and/or Keating had him offed. With Carlson getting close to the truth, Keating apparently decided that he had to be taken care of and that Colter had become a liability, so he arranged to kill two birds with one stone. Maxon was a false witness and accomplice in the scheme to trick Carlson into shooting Colter.

I guess the weirdness comes from Colter and Keating not actually being criminals. So why was Carlson after Colter to begin with, and why would Keating consider Colter a liability?

 

[The Old Mixer]

"Hey, me too!"

Linc wasn't in the scene.

I immediately figured that this was the guy, with a really great cover story.

I might've been more suspicious of him as well, if he'd had a listing in the credits. As it was, we saw him from afar wearing a hood.

Yeah, you'd think that would have occurred to Pete.

Not to mention one of the other suspects having had the same type of car, which should have been the first thing that he looked for.

Rudy Wells.

I didn't realize.

This was the car lurking in front of the Mod Pad?

Yeah.

Aww, Pete got Delgado his job back, restored his marriage, and saved his life-- oh, wait, it was Pete who got him fired, screwed up his marriage, and nearly drove him to suicide.

Weird episode. It was 90% red herrings and Pete causing trouble.

It wasn't that bad. Under the circumstances, the other Mods were a little too quick to start treating Pete like he was acting obsessed. But he was driven by the guilt of thinking somebody else had died in his place, and the actions he took to rectify the situation had unintended consequences.

I think the Chief was the first one to forget.

Next he'll be doing personnel reviews for random officers of the week.

I guess the weirdness comes from Colter and Keating not actually being criminals.

What, other than all the killing? Lucci must have had something on Colter that he wanted to hide enough to kick the events into motion.

So why was Carlson after Colter to begin with, and why would Keating consider Colter a liability?

I deleted the episode, so I can't check that last part. Maybe Keating thought that Colter was drawing too much attention / was in too much danger of getting caught, and thought that offing Colter while discrediting Carlson was killing two birds with one stone. Possibly he didn't agree with the choice to off Walston, but I couldn't say at this point.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

I can't believe I forgot to post this yesterday. 50 years ago, Steely Dan on The Midnight Special with a three-song set.

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This is probably one of their last televised appearances as they quit touring in 1974, partially due to Donald Fagan's stage fright and the move to become a studio only band.