50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 1)
All in the Family
"Gloria Is Nervous"
Originally aired December 8, 1975
MeTV said:
Wiki said:
Now nine days overdue, Gloria's edgy with Mike because of her condition, which includes frequently having to go upstairs to the bathroom.
Mike: I didn't eat your Oreo Cookies. Gloria, you know I'm a Ding Dong man.
Mike tries to be sympathetic and encouraging, but every gesture gets twisted in a negative fashion. While Archie's on a fishing trip, Edith comes over to be supportive but makes things worse when she emphasizes how Gloria's life will never be the same once she has a child depending on her. Mike and Edith persuade Gloria to continue with her childbirth exercises, lying her on the floor with pillows while Mike explains the purposes of the exercises to Edith.
Edith: I'm glad I had Gloria when I did, 'cause I don't think I'd know enough to have a baby today.
He mentions how they're prepared for Gloria hyperventilating, explains the condition, and shows Edith the paper bag and other essential items collected in their hospital-ready "goodie bag"...which includes a lot of snacks for Mike. As the exercises commence, Gloria becomes defiant and won't cooperate with Mike, so Edith steps in and puts both in their place. Then Mike gets upset when he's reminded that the baby shower is the next night, when he was planning to go to a basketball game. (If she's over a week overdue, wouldn't they have already had the shower?)
That night, Gloria repeatedly wakes up Mike for snoring--in the first instance, he thinks it's time. Mike proves that she's messing with him by pretending to fall back asleep sans snoring. Gloria finds her missing Oreos packed in the goodie bag and their argument intensifies, causing her to move to the next room.
Cut to the shower, attended by Edith, Irene (uncredited in her swan song), Sylvia (Robin Wilson), Dotty (Garn Stephens), Debbie (Suzanne Astor), and Vikki (Madeleine Fisher)...but not Mike. Gloria disses him in Edith Ann mode. Mike rushes in having trouble breathing, having gone into a panic when a Dr. Shapiro was paged at the game. When the girls realize that this is Chekhov's Hyperventilation, they lie him on pillows on the floor and Edith gets a paper bag. While Mike regains control of his breathing, Gloria apologizes for how she's been treating him. The episode closes with the two of them alone and Michael saying things that make her laugh.
M*A*S*H
"Mail Call, Again"
Originally aired December 9, 1975
Frndly/Wiki mashup said:
Potter's shaving with a straight razor when Radar reads an arriving piece of postage from the colonel's dentist son, announcing an incoming grandchild. (There's a loud whoop during which I'm not sure whether Potter was supposed to have cut himself.) The colonel and Radar come up with the idea of starting a pool regarding when the baby is born, its weight, and whether it's a boy or a girl. Radar next delivers a package to Houlihan containing a sexy nightgown that Frank ordered for her. Mulcahy gets a letter from his sister the sister about her basketball coaching. Hawkeye receives a Crabapple Cove Courier, and B.J. multiple letters from his wife and one from his dog. Burns's letter is steamed open--allegedly by accident--and Radar shares with the guys that his wife wants a divorce, having found out about Houlihan from another officer who'd come through the 4077th. When Frank arrives, he rudely sends Radar on his way.
Hawkeye: We like Radar, Frank.
B.J.: He's soft and cuddy.
Hawkeye: And almost housebroken.
Burns notices that his letter was open, yet tries to hide what it's about, chewing a pillow up while reading it and ultimately running out...desperate to call home and not in the mood to hear about the arrival of Margaret's naughty nightie. But when Burns gets to the radio, the colonel--who cuts short Burns's abuse of Radar--is burning up the air between Korea and Ohio trying to find out what hospital his daughter-in-law is at.
Hawkeye reads gossipy small-town news items to an apparently shell-shocked patient in the ward. Klinger visits the colonel's office in widow's garb with news that his two brothers have died, and wastes no time in citing an Army regulation that would allow him to be discharged as the surviving son. A wary Potter pulls out his service record, which indicates that he has no brothers.
Potter: Every time you tell a lie your nose gets smaller.
When Frank's getting himself patched through to Indiana, Klinger comes in for sundry business with Radar, so the major feels the need borrow Potter's phone. Margaret eavesdrops on Radar's end and gets worked into a rage listening to Frank pleading with Louise while describing how unattractive Major Houlihan is.
Klinger and Radar have been setting up a projector to watch a home movie from Radar's family, in which we get our first look at his mother:
Mrs. O'Reilly's silent sign-off brings Walter to tears. Just as the film ends, Potter gets a brief call informing his that he has a granddaughter. The personnel have a little drinking party in honor of the occasion.
Hawaii Five-O
"Wooden Model of a Rat"
Originally aired December 11, 1975
Wiki said:
Curator Gustave Lupin (Richard McKenzie) is describing the Museum of Oriental Art's low-key exhibition of Asian miniature carved figures to wealthy patron Mr. August March, who takes an interest in one of the citizens who's contributing his modest private collection.
At Stately March Manor, August gloats of his discovery and how he plans to take advantage of it to his sardonic associate, Suzari (FOFF charter member Kwan Hi Lim). March has a meeting with a Professor Masaaki (John Fujioka) to make an unspecified proposition. Meanwhile, Steve's working on a smuggling case involving such art objects, which has been stymied by a courier, Kim Chung Lo, having diplomatic immunity, so he wants to find who the objects are being fenced to before they're shipped to the mainland. Danno meets with the courier's mistress on the islands, Malinda Grant (Josie Over and Over), who tells him that Kim's interested in seeking asylum so he can stay with her. She's taking the initiative of trying to set up a deal that would involve him talking. Steve gets a call from the high-strung Mr. Lupin, insisting that he come to the museum at once. Lupin takes Steve to talk to Masaaki, who, accompanied by March, confronts Steve with the titularly named piece in his collection having been stolen from the Yokohama Museum six months prior, though Steve insists that he picked it up in Korea in 1951. (Crossover! Crossover!) Already-present members of the press take pictures and write up the scandal in the papers, connecting Steve's alleged crime with Five-O's investigation.
Steve explains to John Manicote that his similar-looking piece was a Tomakazu, not an Ittan; and suspects that this is a ruse to discredit the investigation. When Danno questions Lupin, the curator produces a handwritten inventory cataloging the piece Steve contributed as an Ittan. After Steve watches a press conference in which Masaaki cites McGarrett's reputation for impeccable honesty...
Steve: I've never been called a thief more politely in my whole life.
At March Manor, Suzari informs August of the courier's pursuit of asylum, so March sends Suzari to silence him. As Danno and Duke are presenting Ms. Grant with their witness protection offer, Suzari pays a visit to Kim Chung Lo (Peter Chun). Kim is subsequently found dead of an apparent suicide, complete with a note expressing shame for his affair. Masaaki brings in Dr. Hayabusa of the Yokohama Museum (Bill Lee), who bears a list of the other pieces stolen in the same theft. One of them is a similarly valued piece that Five-O recovered in its investigation and returned to the museum. This is taken as an implication that Steve was pocketing some pieces confiscated by Five-O, forcing Manicote to present the evidence against Steve before a grand jury.
Danno questions Masaaki about the circumstances of Mr. March bringing him in, his discovery of the stolen piece, and why the press was called in, which Masaaki himself found odd. Danno then talks to March, taking away that he has business and museum connections in various points of interest, including Yokohama. Steve theorizes that the piece could have been switched by somebody embedded in the armored car during the delivery, so Danno questions a very defensive Lupin, who packed the pieces and thus could have made it easily identifiable to the switcher. Lupin blows up when Danno suggests that he might have had the car make a stop at March's. Lupin goes to March to declare that he's washing his hands of the whole affair; following which March calls Suzari; following which Lupin is found hanging in his home.
A houseboy saw Suzari leaving, which gives Five-O a description to go on. An investigation of Lupin's records indicates travel activities that connect to the smuggling investigation, and he's identified as the contact of a paid courier who's in jail. Doc Bergman determines that Lupin was already dead before he was hung: "It's called killing yourself the hard way." Che finds that needle marks indicating that he was an addict and that he died of a massive overdose. While Steve puts the pressure on March, Five-O spots Suzari visiting March's and picks him up. Steve's playing hardball with Suzari in his office when Danno brings in a headline reporting that Steve's been indicted, which is followed by a call from Manicote in which Steve soberly agrees to turn himself over in the morning. Suzari is let go and goes straight to March to share the good news. Suzari then threatens to talk to McGarrett if March doesn't give him McGarrett's switched Tomakazu, which would be Suzari's insurance against being silenced himself. March produces the rat, along with a gun, but then Five-O swoops in and Steve confiscates his Tomakazu.
McGarrett underscores that this indicates March was the possessor of the stolen Ittan, and has the duo booked. He then calls Manicote with an update.
Steve: I've got the rats...both of them. And they're not carved ones, either.
Episode-closing freeze frame:
It's something I might have been expected to remember, being a Hoosier.
I meant IRL.Oh, sure, there were a few sequels.
[robin]I-i-i started a me-e-e-me...[/robin]I've started a meme.
We can only hope.
