50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 1)
Happy Days
"Guess Who's Coming to Christmas"
Originally aired December 17, 1974
Edited Wiki said:
Brought to you ahead of the hiatus by Christmas Magic™! I wanted to catch this one, which I distinctly recall having seen this first-run, at the appropriate time, and decided to post it in a timely manner as well.
'Tis the morning of the Night Before Christmas, and Howard declares that this year the night will be strictly family, no guests. In the yard, Howard and Richie have problems with a life-size mechanical Santa that's obviously a guy in a costume. At Arnold's, Fonzie makes a show of handing out gifts to the gang, including waitresses Marsha (Beatrice Colen) and Wendy (Misty Rowe). When Potsie invites Fonzie to his family's in return, Fonz says that he has plans with a cousin out of town. At the hardware store, Howard throws a little eggnog party that includes Richie, Orville (Robert Casper), Mrs. Harrison (Marjorie Bennett), and an uncredited employee named Buzz who's zonked out from one cup. Afterward, Howard has trouble with the car and they take it to Fonzie, who repairs their water hose for free. When he claims to have missed a bus to a cousin's in Waukesha, they offer him a drive and he gets defensive, then apologizes. As Richie goes back in to give Fonzie a present, he sees Fonz sitting down to a modest Christmas dinner of canned ravioli at a hot plate.
As the family trims the tree back home, Richie kills the mood when he reveals why he's been moping. Marion suggests that they invite Fonzie over, which Howard initially resists with a protest that they should be doing traditional family things, but he relents and accompanies Richie to Fonz's apartment...where Fonzie (who keeps his motorcycle inside for the weather) pretends that he's about to leave for the bus, though Howard finds that his suitcase is empty.
Fonzie, who has something a bit more robust-looking than Charlie Brown's tree on his dining table, maintains his story, so Howard lures him to the house by telling him that he needs help with his Santa.
Fonz goes inside for cider, and while clearly impressed by the festive family surroundings, maintains that he has to go soon. After Fonz helps Chuck (reportedly making his last appearance here) fix a string of bulbs, Howard emphasizes that he's now missed his bus and offers to drive him to Waukesha again, and Fonzie claims that the snow is coming down too heavy now. Then he and Marion have a substantial relationship-forming moment.
Marion: Fonzie, you're staying here, and I don't want to hear another word about it.
Fonzie: Hey, Mrs. C...my mother used to talk to me like that. The only one who used to get away with it, too. Until you.
(And soon she'll be the only one allowed to call him "Arthur," though they wouldn't have gotten to that yet.) At the fire, Fonzie tells Howard that he knows that Howard's hip to Waukesha, and Howard gives Richie the credit...following which Fonzie makes an appreciative gesture toward Richie, bumping him on the shoulder and thanking him for having all his freckles in the right place.
Fonzie then volunteers to read The Night Before Christmas--I think it's the same version that Grandma used to read to my sister and me. The Fonz punctuates the verses with his own asides. ("Can you dig it?")
The next day, Fonzie's still with the Cunninghams for Christmas dinner, where Howard insists that their guest say grace.
Fonzie: Hey, God? Thanks!
As Christmas episodes go, this one hit the right spot. It's quite appropriate that this is Chuck's last appearance, as this was a big step toward Fonzie becoming a surrogate Cunningham. Chuck may have come to regret this moment:
IMDb lists Al Molinaro being in this episode. That would be from (as I read) how the episode was rebroadcast in later seasons as a flashback story with a framing sequence.
Adam-12
"Credit Risk"
Originally aired December 17, 1974
MeTV said:
The episode opens with Reed in civvies seeing a man named Henry Carruthers (Harry Hickox) at a credit analysis company about why he's been labeled a credit risk. He's told that computers provide the company's findings and, confronted with red tape, threatens to bring an attorney if the matter isn't expedited.
On patrol, the officers are called to see a Mrs. Dwight (Johana deWinter) in a department store parking lot. She shows them her bent-up fender and says that another woman hit her and drove off. The plate number she recalls leads the officers to a parked car matching Dwight's description and with a scraped-up front fender that picked up some of the blue paint from Dwight's car. The owner, Ellen Tomley (Bobbi Jordan), insists that she didn't know about the damage and that somebody must have hit her. Both women are told that follow-up investigators will be seeing them.
When Reed gets off duty, he's called to see Carruthers, who indicates that their findings indicated a delinquent payment history that Reed emphatically denies. Jim questions the accuracy of the human investigators whom he's told would have looked into his case, and Carruthers promises to double-check the findings himself, which will take a day.
Reed's still fuming the following day as the officers are sent to a Mr. Gatlin (Bert Holland), who reports that some camping gear was stolen from his sporting goods store, the point of break-in being a broken basement window with bars wide enough for a child to have gotten through, leading his to suspect a couple of 10-to-12-year old boys who'd been eyeing his shop. After Woods relays another summons from Carruthers, Reed talks about taking a seven, which gets them assigned to another call, from a concerned motorist about a couple of suspected runaways sitting on curbside with camping gear. The older of the two brothers, Billy Ray Roberts (Willie Aames), indicates that they're running back to their home in Montana. The officers return the gear to Gatlin, who doesn't want to press charges but indicates that the boys' mother was looking for them, having explained that they're new to the big city. Gatlin promises that he'll put them to work in his store to pay for his broken window.
On patrol again, the officers volunteer to back up another unit on a 211 in progress. They spot and corner an armed suspect (Raymond Mayo) running out of a liquor store, who protests that he was chasing the suspect. When they take him back to the store, Woods has another man in cuffs, and the man Malloy and Reed cuffed is verified to be the store manager.
After having talked to Carruthers again, Jim reports to Pete that he was found to have been mixed up with a different Jim Reed thanks to a human typo changing his middle initial. This lesson in human error inspires Reed to check back into the hit and run matter, running a couple of variants on the plate number through dispatch. One of them leads, incredibly enough, to another car matching Dwight's description that has a fender with blue scrapes. The owner of this one, Iris Cooley (Gigi Perreau), admits to the matter, emphasizing that the other party wasn't in her car when it happened. The officers tell her that she made matters worse by fleeing the scene, which could have been a felony if someone had been injured.
Ironside
"Fall of an Angel"
Originally aired December 19, 1974
IMDb said:
After assistant barber Oscar Kearns (Val Bisoglio) leaves the shop where he works, he gives a silent okay to underworld heavy Bud Drexel, who enters to lean on the proprietor, ex-con Al Williams (William Elliott), about using his store for drops, which includes a threat regarding Williams's son, Joey. When Williams refuses and Drexel draws a gun, an altercation ensues which ends with Drexel being felled by the straight razor Williams had been shaving with.
Back at the Irongarage (which still has a squad car parked in the background), the Chief goes to the van to find Joey Williams (Jarrod Johnson)--not yet identified--inside with an anonymous note from the father, who says someone's out to kill him and that he trusts Ironside to take care of the boy. The Chief places the boy in Fran's care while the team investigates the killing of Drexel, who's the son of major hitman Russell "The Angel" Drexel, and whose body was found in his own car, driven away from the scene. Elsewhere, Al makes a surprise visit to ladyfriend Ellen Young (Judy Pace) to beg her to hook him up with someone who can help him get out of the country. Elsewhere still, the Angel (Henry Beckman) looks into his son's activities on the day of the murder. The team consults with a forensics lab technician, who finds an unusual number of hairs from different people on the body, some of which have soap on them. (He's Casey Kasem.) A check of reported first-grade absentees helps the Chief narrow down his search to Al Williams, a former car hustler he'd sent up who now owns a barber shop, which Diana accompanies Mark on a stakeout of, even as the Angel has a look at the closed shop. The shop is subsequently investigated by a team of detectives.
The Chief has a talk with Joey while the latter is making a late-night sandwich, surprising the boy with knowledge of his identity. Joey, who knows nothing of his father's past, insists that he didn't do bad things. Elsewhere, the contact Ellen found, Martinez (Joe Renteria), strikes a hard bargain, so Williams calls the pool hall of a guy named Tiny (Richard X. Slattery) looking for Oscar to loan him some bread. Talking to next-door shopkeeper Nora Clitterhouse (Nora Marlowe), Fran learns of Oscar, whom the team tries to locate for questioning. A stakeout photo of the Angel near Williams's apartment catches Mark's interest, as he recognizes the unidentified man from the barber shop. The Angel also questions Clitterhouse, who proceeds to tip off Fran. Mark and Sgt. Torres (Victor Millan) pay a visit to Kearns's apartment, but Oscar pretends not to be home as the Angel is holding a Five-O Special on him; then calls Tiny to facilitate a call from Al, who promises to sign over the business and arranges a rendezvous...following which Angel shoots Oscar. Torres and a stakeout partner take notice when Kearns subsequently stumbles out of the apartment and collapses, causing a neighbor woman to scream.
The Chief meets with an informant known as Bos'n (Allen Jaffe) hoping he can dig up some info about the man in the photo. The Chief then tries to persuade Joey to break his vow of silence and provide some indication of where his father might be hiding. This includes asking Joey about Ellen, whose name Joey inadvertently dropped to Fran. After the Chief convinces Joey to trust him because his father trusts him, Joey leads Mark and Fran to Ellen's place. Bos'n comes through with an alias and address of the man in the photo, whose woodworking shop the Chief visits, claiming he's questioning associates of Al Williams. This makes "Evans" more cautious about making any moves (Mark having been assigned to stake him out), so he calls a contact at the pool hall (Danny Wells, billed as "Sallow Fellow") to arrange for him to make an envelope bomb.
Fran doesn't find Ellen at home, but is able to fully identify her as a worker for the port authority. Oscar pulls through surgery and is heard to mutter the name Tiny, leading to the pool hall, which is near the barber shop, where the Sangers do another stakeout. Mark and Ed move in when Ellen goes in to try to give an envelope to Kearns via Sallow Fellow, who attempts to make a break for it and is taken into custody. Mark sees Evans/the Angel walking away from the scene and calls the Chief. Ellen is brought to the Cave, and after a happy reunion with Joey, the Chief questions Ellen, who's informed that the envelope was found to have been explosives-laden. (This part I didn't get--Was she trying to return what she thought was the money? Perhaps a beat got dropped for syndication.) Ellen takes the Chief and Ed to a rooftop rendezvous with Al, the Angel following them. The Chief chastises Williams for trying to handle things himself instead of cooperating with the police, then the Angel pops out of the stairwell with a gun, but finds Ed ready with his weapon drawn behind cover, and Mark, who's been tailing, with a gun drawn behind him.
In the coda, the Chief arranges a reunion between Al and Joey, and it's explained to the latter that Al and Ellen are being taken into custody, though the Chief is confident that they'll get off. In the meantime, it seems that he's arranged for Joey to continue staying at the Cave, but the recording cuts off early as usual.
The Six Million Dollar Man
"The Peeping Blonde"
Originally aired December 20, 1974
Wiki said:
Oscar and Steve are at the delayed launch of what's said to be the 100th unmanned space mission, which is being covered unenthusiastically outside by TV reporter Victoria Webster (Farrah's second guest role). When a helium inlet issue threatens to delay the launch further, Steve rushes out to fix it. Unknown to him, Victoria's lurking around with a handheld camera as he not only jumps the fence, but rips open a pipe hatch, fixes something inside, and then pounds the hatch bolts back into place.
Victoria has her assistant, Billy Jackson (Christopher Stafford Nelson), rush the film to their boss, Charles Colby (Roger Perry), who's skeptical of its importance because he feels that Webster wastes too much film. Victoria also does a brief spot on the air alluding to how one man saved the launch, with further details to come. Oscar and Steve are at the Bionic Camper talking about an archaeological trip they're going on to Baja--Oscar's first vacation in three years--when Victoria, who's dug up some info on Oscar and Steve, confronts them about what she shot. They agree to meet later to further discuss it.
Steve (after Victoria leaves): What a fine-looking blackmailer.
Back at the station, however, Colby shows Webster that the film is blank. She won't divulge what was on it, but convinces him to let her make her meeting, where she plans to bluff about still having the film. Back at the camper, Oscar hints at taking extreme actions to silence the newswoman, but Steve objects and argues that they should try talking her out of exposing them. She makes the meeting and agrees to go along with them to Baja, on the condition that they'll let her take some more footage. Back at the station, it becomes clear that Colby is playing his own game, calling a foreign head of state with whom he once had a discussion about bionic men to offer to sell him one for a very high price.
Following the guys in a camper borrowed from Colby, Webster records notes about what she thinks they're up to. Meanwhile, Colby hires a couple of pro guns named Karl and Victor (Harry Rhodes and W. T. Zacha) to take him along as they go after Steve, which includes showing them the footage. At the campsite, Victoria's feeling maybe a little ominous at the sight of Oscar digging a hole. Oscar and Steve have an argument within earshot about what to do about her, then Steve goes after her to try the carrot approach. She argues that the world deserves to know that people like Steve exist, and he gives her a brief rundown of his origin, with a bit of a retcon, assuming he's not supposed to be deliberately misinforming her. He says that his crash happened when he was testing a space shuttle--This is particularly odd as they just did a whole episode about the test plane flight. Apparently the HL-10 testing was connected to the development of the shuttle, but it was not itself a space shuttle. Anyway, he accuses her of actually being motivated by career ambition, which she admits to. Later, she sets her camera to start on a timer in her camper, pointed at a rock formation, which, in true Lois Lane fashion, she then proceeds to climb so that she can dangle off of it. (She makes pretty good time in platform shoes.) Steve does some bionic jumping to go up and save her, not knowing that he's on Candid Camera.
Meanwhile, Colby and the hit-ish-men find the campsite in a private plane that appears to be ol' Cessna N4372K again, though the number isn't shown. As they hike armed to the campsite, the manhunters take charge, telling Colby to stay out of their way and keep his mouth shut. After Victoria hides the film, she goes for a ride with Steve in his dune buggy, which was towed behind the BC. Steve stops to engage in some archery, and when she asks if he's using his strength, he shows her how far he can toss an arrow without a bow. She asks some more about his bionics, and he shows her his human side by getting all kissy. (What would Lee's wife think of this?) When they return to the campsite, they find that the dangerous gamers are holding a shirtless Oscar prisoner.
Steve is chained up and Victoria assumes that it's all a ruse on Oscar's part to convince her about bad people who'd be after Steve, until, as Karl is tying her up in her camper, Colby pops in and explains his motive to sell Steve for big bucks. Karl turns on the stove gas and leaves her to die. Victor forces Oscar to drive Steve in the BC, and we get what I think is the first use of the bionic sound effect applied to leg power as Steve kicks Vic out of the moving van. Steve then takes off on foot to go back for Victoria, and the baddies go after him in his buggy. As they're about to pass under a rock formation, Steve pushes a boulder in their way to stop them, then leaps down into the buggy and tosses them around with liberal use of the sound effect, ultimately bending the roll bar to bind them to the rocks. He then takes his buggy to get to Victoria in time to save her.
In the coda, Oscar, whose men have gotten ahold of the original film of Steve, insists that he'll have to kill Victoria's story, and she and Steve reveal that she hasn't written one. Then they use the second film as leverage for Oscar to get Victoria a job with a Washington station...following which she and Steve take another spin in the buggy.
I recall all of that, and agree to the last point. It was really obvious as they went on that Hiro and Peter weren't meant to be series characters and they didn't know what to do with them after S1. Musical powers!
I'm intrigued that you did know some of these.I was going to say that this is the only one I don't know, and I guess this is why.
I had to look it all up. An early version of the commercial appears to have used more of the song, though eventually they abbreviated it to feature their original verse...which doesn't fit in with the rapid cramming in of lyrics characteristic of the original.
As did I, at least off-and-on. And my sister had one of those Cher dolls that they mention. We had a Sonny & Cher studio playset that came with a floppy record of them doing a routine that you could act out with the figures.
Which is how it should work, if not for that missing 0.Well, this much I can understand. People generally don't start counting with zero. The thing that confuses people about centuries and millennia is that the number changes at the beginning and the zeroes come up at the end, so it looks like it should be a new century.
Most likely the latter--it's too neat and legible.
Heh. I don't remember that. But there is only one Pat Benatar.
Yikes.Yeah, I've been working on it for a while, so I do have a bit of a head start. But there's a lot of work and a second storage unit in my near future.
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Gerry Chrimble! 
