Belated 50th Anniversary Viewing
The Six Million Dollar Man
"Operation Firefly"
Originally aired February 1, 1974
IMDb said:
Word reaches Oscar Goldman that Dr. Samuel Abbott, who has spent years perfecting a portable laser projector, is missing. Steve Austin travels to Spain to meet Abbott's daughter Susan, who just happens to share a strong bond with her father by way of ESP. With this connection guiding them, they journey into the Everglades together on a rescue mission.
The bionic eye sound effect is in the house, getting lots of play in the teaser, which has Oscar demonstrating a wireless laser projector that uses chemically generated light based on the principle of the titular insect. After Steve inspects the device, Oscar tells him that the inventor, Dr. Samuel Abbott, has been kidnapped, and sends him to Spain to contact the scientist's daughter, parapsychologist Susan Abbott, who allegedly has ESP that she believes can help them find her father. What Steve's eye doesn't spot is a rather obvious-looking transmitter in a lab rat cage via which a baddy named Le Duc (Joseph Ruskin) eavesdrops, causing him to call an associate named Rawlins about Abbott and Austin.
Rawlins (Erik Holland) follows Steve to the town of El Capote, where Steve makes contact with Susan (Pamela Franklin), but she thinks he's trying to pick her up. He gets her attention with a silly bit of bionic-speed guitar playing, so she hears him out and takes him back to her place, where she handles a carved stone piece that used to belong to her father to get images of him alive (Simon Scott), a swamp, and a "missile" (Saturn V rocket), which point Steve to Florida. They catch a cab for the airport, but the driver sets them to careen off a windy, sloped road and jumps out. Steve sticks one of his legs out the door and uses it as a brake, allowing them to bail before the taxi plummets off the road to its OTVF. Back in Washington, Goldman receives a ransom visit from Le Duc, which Steve learns of when he calls from the airport to update Oscar. Steve's habit of talking very loudly in public places about where he's going next keeps a pleased-looking Rawlins on his tail.
We trade Spanish guitar for
Deliverance banjo as Steve rents a boat and supplies from a friendly Everglades outpost-keeper dubbed Big Frank (former NFL quarterback Joe Kapp). When a couple of young toughs (led by Vic Mohica, whose character is billed Eddie) approach Steve with a story about subbing for the guide he'd arranged, Steve, now properly paranoid, takes Frank up on his offer to guide them through the swamp--where Steve sees what appears to be an old local who's actually an enemy operative named Hobbs (Bill Conklin) watching them from the shore, and notices that he has a walkie talkie, which he uses to report. All the while, Susan continues to have vague visions of her father. When the trio camp out for the night, Steve has Susan and Frank sleep in a clearing away from the campsite, and watches as an armed quartet that includes Eddie and Hobbs drive in, set the boat on fire, and fire shotguns into the tents only to find that nobody's in them (though Steve conveniently left his ID behind to be found). Steve charges into them swinging a piece of tree trunk around, sending them scattering. Seeing his boat on fire, Frank runs over to try to put it out and is blasted just before the boat blows up. Steve ineffectually splashes around in the shallow water in a show of concern before declaring to a panicky Susan that Frank won't be helping them anymore. (He got Quarreled.)
Susan wakes up to the sound of Steve bionic-carving a canoe out of a log with the help of a machete. She's confused by visions that seem to show her father happy and at ease. In Washington, Le Duc goes back to Oscar trying to persuade him to pay up. Oscar plays it cool until Le Duc claims to have Susan and Steve, and produces Chekhov's ID as false proof. Back in the Everglades, after an interlude in which Steve saves Susan from a fakey gator (I half-expected Roger Moore to climb out of it) that chomps on his bionic arm for a bit, they come upon a house with armed guards outside. After helping Susan when she almost falls into an obligatory pool of quicksand, Steve takes the pair of guards out with a choke hold and TV fu, and he and Susan see Dr. Abbott browsing around a study through a window. The door being unlocked, Susan bursts in to reunite with her father; but when Steve says he's from Washington, Abbott immediately calls out for an armed man named John Belson (Jack Hogan).
Belson, whom Abbott says he's known since the Manhattan Project, claims to be a government agent, and that Steve in the enemy operative after the laser, which the doctor believes he's now perfected. (Jack Hogan was a teenager in the '40s.) Susan is convinced when Steve can't produce his ID. Steve sees the laser device ready for testing outside, and is chained to a pipe in an outbuilding cellar. As soon as he's alone, Steve easily dispenses with the chains and takes an evening stroll through bent bars, only to return to his cell and put them back into place. The next day, when Abbott tries to demonstrate the laser, it bursts into sparks. This causes Belson to lose his cool and drop his cover, strongarming Abbott to fix it and having Susan taken prisoner as persuasion. When Susan is taken to the cellar, Steve knocks out her escort and they go back to free her father. Belson and his two underlings pursue them into the swamp, guns blazing. Steve has the Abbotts hide while leads the baddies to Chekhov's pool of quicksand, which he jumps over and, after they've caught up enough to see him, continues on. The baddies run right into the pool and aren't seen again. Steve and the Abbotts proceed to the makeshift boat.
In an MIT coda, Oscar shares an update that Le Duc and Rawlins are both in custody (the latter supposedly identified by Steve, though we saw him strictly in the background, never interacting with Steve and Susan), and Steve reveals to Abbott that he swiped a transistor for the laser, which encourages the professor to continue his research. When he's alone with Susan, Steve has a "vision" of a romantic evening with her, which she accepts.
Not only does the ESP angle seem a little too similar to the memory transfer in "The Solid Gold Kidnapping," in this case the premise seems pretty wasted, like it wasn't really necessary to the story. I guess it was basically an excuse to have Susan come along instead of just providing Steve with leads on her father's whereabouts.
All in the Family
"Gloria's Boyfriend"
Originally aired February 2, 1974
Wiki said:
Archie disapproves of Gloria's friendship with George Bushmill (Richard Masur), a mentally challenged box boy at Ferguson's Market.
Meathead's helping Archie as he tries to shave down the edge of the bathroom door downstairs, though the plane he borrowed from Irene isn't working. Gloria comes home from Ferguson's with George bringing her groceries to the back door. Archie considers George to be a "nutcase," while Mike counters that he's just R-worded. (Gee, which of those is less acceptable these days?) Mike doesn't approve of how Archie talks down to George in a voice so loud that George asks him why he's shouting. Archie encourages George to stay and take a break despite his orders from Mr. Ferguson. Along the way...
Edith (after taking Archie aside): I gotta go to the bathroom.
Archie: Well, go to the bathroom.
Edith: I can't!
Archie: Why can't you?
Edith: You got the door.
(Pause for applause and laughter.)
Archie: Well, what do ya want me to do, carry it all the way back upstairs here?
Edith: I gotta have privacy, suppose somebody comes by!
Archie: Tell you what you do, sing, and nobody'll come near ya.
But when Archie sees George lifting Gloria up to a cabinet in the kitchen, and learns how Gloria lets George refer to her as his girlfriend and himself as her boyfriend, Archie tries to get Mike to intervene, then to discourage George from lifting girls, afraid that he might hurt them
Of Mice and Men-style. Ultimately Archie describes George as a "D-U-M-M-Y," thinking he can't spell, and George storms out offended, proclaiming that he'll show them. Archie starts to head upstairs only to be stopped by Edith bursting into "Moon River".
Archie (working with Mike again): Hang onto this door, will ya? Unless ya wanna hear your mother-in-law singin' "Moon River" for the rest o' your life.
The Bunkers get a visit from George's father, Pat Bushmill (Joseph Mascolo), who informs them that George lost his job at the market because he was late coming back. (Chekhov, at least, is pleased at this development.) When he's told what George said as he left, Mr. Bushmill is sure that he was being literal and plans to return, so he takes Archie's seat and has a conversation with him about how hard it is for boys like George to get and keep jobs. Archie can't help saying insulting things based on his misconceptions, and Bushmill, who's heard it all before, counters with a few digs at Archie, which as usual tend to go over his head. Bushmill is explaining that George's condition isn't inherited but a common birth defect when George comes rushing in with news that he got a new job and shows them a sign that he had hanging up at the market, which reads, "Every man is my superior in that I may learn from him."
Mike: I wonder who said that?
Edith: I think it was David Carradine in Kung Fu.
George shares that the sign was a gift from a teacher, and he tells everyone of how a friend just got him a job at a loading dock--Archie having just told his father that George wouldn't be qualified for that line of work. George fixes the plane while he's talking, explaining to Archie that he had the blade in backwards.
M*A*S*H
"As You Were"
Originally aired February 2, 1974
Frndly said:
Frank chooses a lull in the action to ask Hawkeye and Trapper to perform his hernia operation, and that's just when the war returns full tilt.
The episode opens with the personnel enjoying some downtime. In the officers' club, Hawkeye, Trapper, and Radar play pinball, slots, and atonal piano, respectively. Blake is outside sunning himself. The guys play a prank on Frank, putting him in a shipping crate overnight. Blake uses the opportunity to try to give a required lecture on VD, with much heckling, led by the guys; Radar is the only one who seems to take it seriously. Margaret persuades Frank to ask the guys to operate on his hernia, despite the mutual animosity, Houlihan opining that while they're beneath contempt, they're two of the best surgeons she's ever seen. When Frank and Margaret proceed to the Swamp to ask, the guys are playing poker in recently delivered gorilla suits...so they characteristically monkey around as Frank makes his request. Frank is being prepped for surgery, with the guys entering the OR doing some comedy schtick, when an incoming wounded announcement is made...so Frank has to get off the table and go back on duty.
The surgeons operate while nearby shelling shakes the place and makes the lights flicker. Radar, attempting to impersonate an officer, gets on the horn with a local artillery unit to find out that they're responsible, and unsuccessfully attempts to direct their fire away. Mulcahy organizes a blood drive for the casualties, and Klinger donates, lying on a mess table in typical attire. In the OR, Frank's hernia flares up, so Hawkeye takes him out to the ward, has him sedated, and lies him at a feet-up 45-degree angle in an attempt to reduce the hernia, which would alleviate the need for an immediate operation. Mulcahy takes food orders from the surgeons as they operate. Trapper meets a nurse outside on a smoke break and they go off for a quickie. Klinger pops into the OR to alert the surgeons that a Korean woman about to drop is being brought in. Frank ends up needing to be brought in as well, and the continued shelling knocks out the generator. Frank comes to after his surgery to the sound of the newborn baby crying.
In the coda, everyone's enjoying downtime again, which includes Mulcahy paining signage for his tent, Klinger sewing, and the guys at the officers' club in their gorilla suits.
"It's the economy, stupid."
Did you catch the part toward the end where he was asked about potentially pardoning Nixon?
Ah, the Snake River Canyon thing. I remember that.
I had Evel Knievel toys in the day; one of them was based on his Snake River stunt rocket.
The general pardon will cover these accusations as well.
John wasn't trying to prosecute Nixon, he was trying to get out of being deported. I should note that the tense Lewisohn used indicated that he hadn't done his homework concerning Nixon being out of office at this point. Not covered in Lewisohn, August 23, 1974, is when John allegedly saw a UFO in NYC.
I don't know this one at all. It's not much.
Decent, but not memorable. Their new singer does a good Smokey imitation.
More memorable, enjoyably mellow.
I don't know this one either. It's the Osmonds.
...
Huh!?! Whu--!?! Is it over...?
This was completely obscure to me when I got it.
I gave him one. I didn't want him to end up homeless.
I went back, there was no mention.
It just seemed to me to be another attempt to cash in on Star Wars after the failure of Battlestar Galactica. Like most of these re-imaginings, it was barely Buck Rogers at all.
It might be worthwhile as cheesy period fun. I liked the pilot movie, which was released in theaters, back in the day. The first season had Buck as a special agent, sci-fi Bond. The second tried to reset the premise to being more of a Trek rip-off, with Buck and Wilma assigned to an exploratory cruiser.
If they were going to jump, everybody would need a transponder. Maybe they had several options for landing and intended to decide at the last minute. It's possible that there were several islands in the area with airstrips left over from the war, but I'm not sure about that (and they'd probably be pretty dangerous to use in any case). I think it's more likely that the plan got lost in the plot.
It could be that Cromwell intended to grab the transponder for bailing. It's hard to tell, as they were already on an improvised Plan B before the plane crash.
