50th Anniversary Viewing
Adam-12
"Christmas"
Originally aired December 24, 1974
MeTV said:
Malloy and Reed are chatting about shopping and getting trees when they're called to unknown trouble, which turns out to be an elder gentleman named George Atkinson (Wallace Rooney) who's annoying his neighbors by playing "Deck the Halls" on his bagpipes. He explains how he's practicing to perform for the residents of a nearby old folks' home that's about to be closed down, which will leave some of them on the streets. Reed gives him a tip about where to get a tree at a good price, which is also part of his plans.
The officers are then called to a loading dock where a Mr. Conway (William Bronder) tells them how some teenagers stole a truck carrying radioactive materials while he was preoccupied. He explains that the materials shouldn't be dangerous if their lead canisters aren't opened, after which it's a matter of length of exposure; and pleads that it wasn't his fault. The officers call in Air-10 for search support and the van is located at the good ol' L.A. River Aqueduct, with two cannisters missing. The officers patrol the vicinity on foot to find two young men fiddling with the cannisters in a drainage tunnel. Malloy pulls his gun on them and warns them not to open the cannisters. They surrender and are taken in.
Back on patrol, the officers stop to question a man (Marty Ingels) who's siphoning gas out of a station wagon and into a coffee can. While Reed's checking out his ID, he tells Malloy an unlikely story about how he has to mask a mistress's perfume so his wife won't smell it. When Reed returns, it turns out that the car is his, and his story is true. Malloy advises the man to buy his wife the same perfume.
Stopping by the Christmas tree lot, they find Mr. Atkinson attempting to haggle with the proprietor, Sam (Joseph Mell). Once Sam's agreed to a price, Atkinson tries to pay him with a vintage buffalo nickel, which he says is worth at least eight dollars, but Sam isn't interested until Jim offers to buy if for ten. Then Atkinson tries to persuade the officers to deliver the tree for him, and while they're explaining why they can't, Sam takes it upon himself to put it on top of the squad car. Then a woman comes running up to tell them about a nearby liquor store robbery in progress, so they toss the tree off and proceed to the scene. As Malloy is approaching the store, the owner (Edmund Cambridge) comes out and describes the masked robber as best he can and indicates the direction he left in.
While Woods is asking Pete and Jim about a bit of evergreen that got left on their roof, a sniper starts taking shots at the officers from the roof a building across the street. (I was unclear if this was supposed to be the robber.) After they take cover, a woman (either Faye Michael Nuell or Marion Wright, the other presumably being the woman who reported the liquor store robbery) comes running out of the building to explain that the shooter is her husband, who's stoned and trying to get himself killed. Malloy gets across the street behind the cover of a passing truck and takes the sniper (Richard Balin, I presume) by surprise when he comes out. The woman explains how her husband was at the end of his rope from being out of work. Once the suspect is in custody, Mac visits the scene in his wagon to tell Pete and Jim how he got a call from a citizen who wanted one of his units to deliver a tree for her after she saw a squad car with a tree on it at the tree lot. Everyone's coy about who the unidentified unit was, with Pete playing it cool in assuring the sergeant that they'll be vigilant regarding any such unauthorized activity.
Once they're off duty, Pete and Jim hit the lot in their civvies to pick up a tree for Pete. They find that Atkinson's tree is still there and offer to take it to him, while Pete picks out one for himself, also haggling with Sam. After they arrive at the home bearing the two trees on Pete's car, Sam arrives lugging a box, which he claims is full of ornaments that he was planning to try to sell to Atkinson and the old folks. When he accidentally drops the box, it turns out that it's full of presents. The off-duty officers carry the tree in while Atkinson, now dressed in a Santa suit, plays "Deck the Halls" on his pipes.
I didn't catch if they ever actually specified that it was Christmas Eve in the story, though it was implied to be. This was a pretty cute final holiday installment for the series, though it's no competition for their original contribution in that area, Season 1's "Log 122: Christmas – The Yellow Dump Truck," which has become possibly my favorite Christmas episode of a TV series.
Ironside
"The Visiting Fireman"
Originally aired December 26, 1974
Frndly said:
A pair of stocking-masked cat burglars sneak into the British Consulate and pistol-butt the one man working in an office there, Doubleday (Hedley Mattingly), then proceed to break into the safe. The Chief is attending the International Law Enforcement Conference Drug Seminar, where he reacquaints himself with Inspector Bill Walston of Scotland Yard (John Williams). Once the team is investigating the crime, they learn that the embassy codes, while a large amount of cash in the safe seems to have been ignored; while the precision involved indicates people who knew the place, and possibly the safe's combination. Checking into the background of embassy personnel, they learn that senior clerk Henry Beamish (Keith McConnell) was previously suspected of theft within his own family, who covered it up. Ed questions him as he's arriving at the airport from a phony trip that he says was actually an affair rendezvous. Meanwhile, the Chief, suspecting that the code book was a ruse as the codes would be replaced, finds that $3,000 of the $10,000 kept in the safe is missing. The M.O. makes it the fourth in a series of similar thefts, via which the Chief suspects someone's planning to finance a bigger job.
Walston notifies an accomplice (actor unidentified); talks to reporter Roy Makin (Barry Cahill) about Ironside's theory; and loses control of his car, having an accident and ending up in the hospital. Makins does an embarrassing write-up that plays up the Robin Hood angle the Chief has named the case after, painting Ironside as the Sheriff of Nottingham. Ed talks to a Mr. Welks (Larry J. Blake) about equipment that was bought with the money, then talks to inmate Johnny Lewis (James McCallion), who indicates that it can be used to override vault timers from before 1962. Fran uncovers that Walston's car was rented by him in L.A. weeks before he's supposed to have arrived in the States. When the Chief questions him about this, Walston says that he was secretly looking into a heart condition and that he's afraid of being booted off his job ahead of getting his pension.
The latest place hit by Walston's accomplice and his partner is a printing company, where a guard is tied up at gunpoint. The purchased equipment is used to break into the vault, which is full of bundles of foreign bank notes, determined to be worth nearly $2 million. Welks identifies the equipment buyer as a Kenny Wilson. As soon as the Chief is notified in Walston's presence, Walston hits the phone, getting ahold of Barney Rollins (Joseph George), previously mentioned as a suspect. Rollins promptly finds the team converging on an apartment and notifies the man inside, Wilson, who's also Walston's contact and tries to get out via the fire escape only to be shot by Rollins, who quickly drives away. Rollins's car is found abandoned, and Mark pays a boy playing ball nearby (Eric Woods) for info.
When Rollins is picked up, he says that Kenny recruited him for jobs on behalf of a planner he hadn't met; and indicates that the code book was planted in an apartment in an apparent set-up of an unknown party. The apartment turns out to be Beamish's. The Chief gets permission to open the codebook and finds a claim check for $2 million in it. Fran calls the Chief to update him that Walston is back in the hospital in critical condition. The Chief confronts Walston with what he's deduced, that Walston planned to find the code book with the check and solve the cases. He admits to this and indicates that the shooting wasn't part of the original plan before passing away.
Makins, having previously received a tipoff from Walston of a theory he had, does another write-up in which he gives Walston credit for having helped Ironside. Ed reads out loud a speech that the Chief has typed out for the conference, which is cut off by the recording.
Emergency!
"The Bash"
Originally aired December 28, 1974
Edited IMDb said:
Squad 51 is cruising around after a call when they're assigned to an injury at a movie studio. Proceeding through a backlot where they've probably done rescues before, they come to a studio building in which actor Vic Webster has been trapped with a bear. Johnny has a look at a superficially wounded trainer (Marcus Smith) who's already being seen to by a studio medic and pleads with the paramedics not to shoot Charlene. Then the paramedics cautiously proceed into the building, Johnny with a fire extinguisher ready, and find their way through a building interior set. (I'm pretty sure we've seen this fleabag hotel corridor in an Adam-12 or three.) They find Webster in a stairwell part of the set, nursing a leg wound while hiding from Charlene, who's further down the stairs, and with whom he clarifies he hasn't been getting along. The Terrific Trio make their way out via an adjacent catwalk while Johnny keeps the bear at bay with bursts from his extinguisher. At ground level, they find Charlene back on their trail as they try to find their way to the exit through the set--Roy literally opening a set door to find the bear on the other side and closing it again! When they find the double-doored studio exit, Johnny blocks the inner door shut on the bear. At Rampart, a grateful Webster asks the paramedics to see him. After Roy gets his autograph while claiming it's for Johnny, Vic invites them to the "thing", to be held in a day or two at his place in Bel Air. Johnny gets worked up over the idea of being invited to a Hollywood "bash".
Who is Vic Webster? We've hit the Guest Star Bat-Jackpot, old chum!
Meanwhile, in the reception area of Stately Rampart Hospital, a man named Gerard B. Hill (uncredited Heath Jobes) has been brought in by a friend named Ted MacReady (Larry Delaney) for a fever and aching all over. Brackett also finds a rash, discoloration of the fingernails, and sensitivity to his penlight. Brackett diagnoses trichinosis, and Hill admits that he likes to eat raw steak. Brackett asks about his butcher to have the meat checked out. Later, Ted is brought in, also having contracted it. Brackett brings in Dr. Frank Gray from the county Health Department (uncredited Albert Reed), who questions MacReady, learning of a connection with a couple who've contracted it and of how, for the cookouts that they all attended, Ted brought bear and buffalo meat, not telling the others what it was. Gray determines that the culprit would have been the bear meat. He and Brackett are relieved that it's not a more widespread contamination.
Back at the station, Marco encourages the guys to use the party as an opportunity to get discovered, and Johnny practices smiling in front of a mirror. Roy informs Johnny that Joanne has (conveniently) declined to come, and Johnny shows him a magazine as a reference for how to dress. Chet and later Dr. Early are both interested in the guys having the opportunity to meet sex symbol Monique Morris, who's believed to not have a lot going on upstairs (Chet), and to have had a lot of work done (Joe).
Station 51 and Battalion Chief #14 (Morgan Jones) are called to assist the police, who've cordoned off a block where a gunman is holding his wife and her brother hostage in a house, and is said to have rigged the place with explosives. The firefighters extend a ladder for SWAT snipers to get into position on a rooftop. During the standoff, while shots are being exchanged, the house suddenly goes up. The woman is walked out, shaken but not seriously injured, and the two men are found unconscious inside. At Rampart, Dix indicates that the gunman/bomber will make it, though nobody knows what his motive was.
The next day, Johnny picks up Roy in his land rover, both clad in tuxes. They proceed to Stately Webster Manor, where they're impressed by the layout, but promptly find that they're conspicuously overdressed. They help themselves to drinks and hors d'oeuvres while looking for Vic, who's being wheeled around in a chair by his agent, Harry (actor unidentified). Vic loudly introduces Roy and Johnny to the crowd--who don't pay much attention--and tells the paramedics that he's suing the studio. While he proceeds to mingle among other guests, Roy and Johnny make awkward attempts at small talk with Harry and a hip-looking girl (uncredited Janice Whitby). Looking around inside, they find Monique Morris (Karen Jensen) sitting alone in a solarium, knitting and wearing glasses. She chats them up some and then unenthusiastically excuses herself to mingle. The paramedics are agreeing to leave when they hear Monique scream and find that a musician has been electrocuted by faulty wiring. They go to work while Vic looks on admiringly, then we cut to the patient being driven away in an ambulance.
Vic sees Roy and Johnny off while apologizing for how things went and inviting them to another party. As they leave, Johnny's wheels start spinning about what they'll do differently.
WILL THINGS GO BETTER AT THE NEXT "THING"?
TUNE IN NEXT WEEK!
SAME EMERGENCY-TIME!
SAME EMERGENCY-CHANNEL!
I've been sticking to my recordings for Emergency!, but I used Peacock for this one as the recording was glitched.
An Anthology reunion with living John rather than a bathroom tape could have been glorious.
I may have as well, though there was probably still some contention at Grandma's regarding Dick Clark vs. Guy Lombardo.
It strikes me as a little unfair that the goon squad are still being prosecuted for Watergate after Nixon got his pardon.
I wonder what his campaign song was in '78.
Will Sammy Hagar be voting for Carter?
This one I'd never heard before in my life. I might get it.
Decent, lower-key Carole hit.
I can't recall any first-hand exposure to this one, but it's got a pretty distinctive sound.
An uber-classic of the era.
That's the general consensus, based on King Herod being part of the story.
I still think it would've made sense, if you're going to have years going backwards before the guy, that you have a 0 in there to make it all work out, especially if the 0 corresponds to the actual first year of the guy's life. Makes more sense than saying that year was "before" him. Though to be fair to the church, I assume that they were just using the same before/after dating system that had been used with Roman emperors before Jesus.
But did you know that Karras was Mongo when he came up on M*A*S*H? Seems like something you would've referenced.Oh, man, the horse punch. What a great movie.
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But he did make it to 100 years old and he helped a lot of people. You can't ask for much more than that.
