This is a heartbreaking song. Much better than "Love Child," actually, though not as popular. And he said, "No! They shall bow to ME!" I remember that one. Something tells me they also did it on Smothers Brothers, but I could be mixing up memories. Hopefully including "The Roman Was A Rogue." Very nice, although the wibbly wobbly video quality made me dizzy. Whoa, serious business this week. Very serious business. Post-credits scene: Phelps dials his phone and says, "Thank you again. We couldn't have done it without you." Cut to Ricardo Montalban in a white suit. "You are quite welcome. Quite welcome indeed." Actually, I'm surprised they did a torture story about a woman in those days. Ralph Nader was never born in the TV-verse. Stop that with a wall, Donnie-baby. Sounds like a season premiere or something. Oh, no doubt about the failing memory. Well, it's all in there, it's just that retrieval has become a problem. At least I remembered them. They're the band that needs no introduction-- or comment. I was thinking about trying to track that down for her birthday present, but I don't know if she'd go for a war show.
_______ 50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 2) _______ Ironside "Up, Down, and Even" Originally aired January 9, 1969 This week's top-billed guest is Alfred Ryder as Sgt. John Darga. Yes, it's a Very Special Episode of Ironside. Kim (Susan O'Connell) was already on probation when she was busted based on the smell of marijuana coming from her car (which seems like a flimsy basis for a charge), though she tells her parents (Richard Anderson and Rachel Ames) that she was just smoking Turkish cigarettes. Her one shot at not getting sent to a girls' school is to tell the authorities where she got the drugs that they apparently didn't find. This episode uses a couple of songs--music by William Goldenberg, lyrics by Richard McLelland, but the female vocalist isn't identified. The first, "The Melody Man," is a soft song that vaguely reminds me of "Windmills of Your Mind". It plays a few times in the episode, including in the post-intro credits. The second, "Anywhere," has a funky, Aretha-ish vibe, and plays over a scene of Kim being taken on a visit to the girls' school, which is basically a prison. Remaining unreptentant, Kim tells Aunt Eve not to knock marijuana if she hasn't tried it, and plays the "victimless crime" card, portraying herself as a victim of the law. Eve has twin beds for some reason...I can only assume that she's having an affair with Ricky Ricardo or Rob Petrie. Meanwhile, keeping with the episode's theme, Ed does a substitute teaching gig out of the blue, just so he can find that one of the students is stoned in class. This leads to a Very Special Expository Discussion between the principal and Team Ironside. Kim busts out of Eve's place overnight, and the following day happens to be the day of a planned drug inspection at the school that had gotten around through the grapevine. Drugs are found in her locker at school. Ironside tracks down a group of Kim's truant friends and lectures to them about how dealing drugs is a crime just like burglary. Team Ironside finds Kim staying with a young man named Terry, who has a pad somewhere in the vicinity of some establishing shots of Haight-Ashbury and was a fellow arrestee at the party that was the source of Kim's probation. Mark finds bags of week in the bottom of a cereal box. Terry faces a contributing to the delinquency charge, but says that Kim was the one who turned him on. In the end, she gets sent to the school. I can appreciate what they were trying to do here, and it was all very timely...but I dunno, Very Special Team Ironside make Friday and Gannon look cool. _______ Star Trek "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" Originally aired January 10, 1969 Stardate 5730.2 See my post here. _______ Adam-12 "Log 36: Jimmy Eisley's Dealing Smack" Originally aired January 11, 1969 While Reed's despondent over all of his entertainment options having been shot down by the other officers in the locker room, they come across Teejay on the backlot, who gives them the tip about Jimmy Eisley's drug deal. This time the details are vague enough that they're assigned to handle it, with the option of calling for backup if it pans out. Back on patrol they spot a young woman with a child waiting at the same bus stop that they'd seen her at an hour previously. It turns out that they're from out of town, haven't had anything to eat, and the woman, Ellen Harris (Jenny Sullivan), confesses to having reluctantly stolen a box of cookies from a nearby market. Malloy makes a call and says that he's taking them to the Salvation Army. Ellen breaks into tears, thinking that she was going to jail, but Malloy promises to smooth things over with the store manager. After dark, they drive stealthily into the alley behind the house where the deal is taking place (from which loud stock groovy music emanates) and inspect the garbage cans for evidence. They quietly apprehend one man coming out of the house and find out how many are inside, then call in for backup. Once it arrives, they take to the front door and start arresting and questioning. Eisley (William Mims) insists that nobody's been shooting up there. Despite ample evidence to the contrary, the officers are stumped as to the location of the stash itself...until Malloy finally discovers it hanging inside the bathtub drain. The officers then proceed to deliver their subpoena to Randy Tait, a famous folk singer. We never see the fictional celebrity, but find out later in the locker room that Reed was successful in recruiting him, much to the delight of the other officers. Cozi chose to cut out the audio of part of the coda for a Quincy split-screen commercial, but there was some sort of denouement involving having to raise the price of the tickets. _______ Get Smart "The Day They Raided the Knights" Originally aired January 11, 1969 Guesting Nancy Kovack as KAOS agent Sonja, who hires 99 at Knight's Stamp Redemption Center. At one point a black hippie comes in to redeem his stamps for a George Wallace poster and a set of darts. The stereophonic pistol is a pretty silly threat that doesn't look terribly practical. For starters, it's about the width of four pistols...how could you wear it concealed? After 99 is captured calling in, the Chief and Larabee go to the Redemption Center dressed as old women, but are also captured, so believe it or not, it's Max to the rescue. In the long shots of the fight/chase through the back storage room, Max's stunt double is really obvious--his hair looks nothing like Adams's. When one of the KAOS agents gets the drop on him and tries to shoot him with one of the guns, the twist is that the manufacturers took the order literally, and made twin-gun-shaped radios. 99's reflex of hitting Max when he sneaks up on her at home comes up again. _______ Hogan's Heroes "Who Stole My Copy of Mein Kampf?" Originally aired January 11, 1969 Hogan assumes that their target is a man because her name is Leslie, so they plan to kill him with an exploding electric razor. When the Colonel tries to deliver it in disguise and finds that he's a woman, baby, he backs out of the plan, because there are some things you just don't do even in espionage and war. But because his orders were actually to "silence" her, and she's a propaganda broadcaster who's presenting Klink with an award for Stalag 13's record, Hogan's Plan B is to let her think that he's vocally pro-Hitler, such that she wants to bring him on her program as well. Once he's on the air, he's effusive in his backhanded praise for the Fuhrer, which results in Leslie being taken into custody by the Gestapo--You have to wonder if that's a more gentlemanly fate to condemn her to! Hitler's personal orders regarding Colonel Hogan: "If this man ever attempts to escape, let him!" DIS-miiissed! _______ Well, it effectively involved scaring her into talking...and M:I's sister show was known for having its main female officer telling the captain how frightened she was. But do they sound like the '50s...? But do they...no, I'm afraid to ask.
Zero tolerance! If I had known that was the penalty for drugs, I would have smoked marijuana as a kid. That's hilarious. I just had a vision of Laura Petrie walking into her bedroom and finding Rob in his bed and Suzanne Pleshette in the other. They should have had Mod Squad make the rounds with training sessions to beef up everybody's groovy factor. +1 tolerance. "Engage cloaking device." We had a ton of stuff from the S&H catalog. Nice. Sounds like a fate worse than death to me. True, but TV torture was never very explicit in those days, with rare exceptions. Can you imagine them involving Uhura in "The Empath?" Hmm. Not like Rock'n'Roll 50s. Their perky sound is kind of retro, though. No, they definitely don't.
Compare and contrast to this week's Adam-12...Reed and Malloy had plenty of circumstantial evidence that people were shooting up in the house, but they had to find the actual goods or the bust was a bust. I'd give props to Mark for conveying some street smarts, but that's his usual thing on the show. Figuratively speaking. Coasting in with the headlights off. I can imagine Kirk and Spock in togas approaching Uhura and Chapel with a whip and branding iron, I'm afraid.... Whew.
This series never received deserved credit for many well-staged fight scenes like the one in this episode--and this was produced in a decade where the bigger and better fight scenes (in some of TV and movie's greatest action/adventure films) were before the cameras with each new year. You mean the double's hair does not match the toupee worn by Adams.... Not uncommon for TOS, the episode has a very bleak resolution. Kirk's defeated, sort of helpless final words was a subtle way of saying that real world racial conflicts had no hope of a solution at all. Ballsy.
Curse those rules and regulations! True, but it stopped short of anything bad happening. They all got pretty beat up in "The Empath," McCoy nearly to death.
_______ Dragnet 1967 "The Kidnapping" Originally aired January 26, 1967 Thursday, December 15 (1966): Working the day watch out of Homocide, Friday and Gannon respond to a call from a bank, where a woman named Janet Ohrmund (Peggy Webber) tells of how her employer, a cosmetics queen named Adele Vincent, was kidnapped earlier that morning. Ohrmund was sent out to collect a ransom of $75,000 by noon, which doesn't give the detectives time to count the money themselves or get down all of the serial numbers. They also realize once they're staking out the residence that neither of them signed for the money. As the suspect vehicle leaves the residence, they pull out and front-tail it. At this point they learn via radio that nobody was found in the house, and they only see one woman sitting in the front. (At the end of one scene, the car behind them in the rear projection pulls alongside and passes them...I'm not sure if that was part of the plan.) They proceed to arrange to block a freeway on-ramp with some other police vehicles...I'm not sure how they had the time to rendezvous with one of them at another location as shown. Pretending to have been a party in an accident, Friday approaches the car, converses with the driver while scoping out the situation, and rapidly pulls open the door, stepping on the driver's gun hand when he falls to the pavement. It turns out that Miss Vincent was the one in the front, while Miss Ohrmund had been put in the trunk. Back at HQ, the bank manager is grateful to find all of the money accounted for, but Friday and Gannon face a talking-to from the Captain when they aren't able to produce the receipt for signing it out. I was afraid for Miss Vincent or suspecting that it was all a scam when I saw that she wasn't in the cast list, but it turns out that she just didn't have a speaking role. Interesting...that date would put the court decision in the future of when the episode aired! _______ I wouldn't interpret it that way at all. More as a cautionary "there but for the grace of God" thing. The show in general presented a future in which such conflicts evidently had been solved.
Joe Friday made a mistake? That's like finding out there's no Santa Claus. I agree. Star Trek shows us how things are if we get it right, Cheron shows us how things are if we it wrong. Unfortunately, the current generation is going more in the direction of the Cheron way of things.
_______ 50 Years Ago This Week (Oath of Office @14:28+) Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week: Leaving the chart: "Both Sides Now," Judy Collins (11 weeks) "Crosstown Traffic," The Jimi Hendrix Experience (8 weeks) "Hey Jude," The Beatles (19 weeks) "Magic Carpet Ride," Steppenwolf (16 weeks) New on the chart: "Crossroads," Cream (#28 US; #409 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time) See the 50th Anniversary Album Spotlight for Wheels of Fire upthread. "Give It Up or Turnit a Loose," James Brown (#15 US; #1 R&B) "I'm Livin' in Shame," Diana Ross & The Supremes (#10 US; #8 R&B) "Indian Giver," 1910 Fruitgum Co. (#5 US) "Proud Mary," Creedence Clearwater Revival (#2 US; #8 UK; #155 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time) And new on the boob tube: The Ed Sullivan Show, Season 21, episode 14, featuring Liza Minnelli, Gary Puckett & The Union Gap, Victor the Bear, John Davidson, and The Lennon Sisters Mission: Impossible, "The Test Case" The Avengers, "The Interrogators" Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Season 2, episode 16 The Mod Squad, "Flight Five Doesn't Answer" Star Trek, "That Which Survives" Hogan's Heroes, "My Favorite Prisoner" _______ It's a bit late, but you asked for it.
Cream! Classic! 'nuff said. I may or may not have heard this before. Hard to tell with James Brown. Like all James Brown, it's fun in the moment. As heartbreaking as ever. Kind of catchy, but not quite as memorable as whatever their other song was. CCR! Classic! 'nuff said. Thank you. Sniff.
_______ 55 Years Ago Spotlight Coming soon to an album spotlight near you! Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week: Leaving the chart: "Be True to Your School," The Beach Boys (12 weeks) "For Your Precious Love," Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters (9 weeks) "Kansas City," Trini Lopez (10 weeks) New on the chart: "I Only Want to Be with You," Dusty Springfield (#12 US; #4 UK) "(Ain't That) Good News," Sam Cooke (#11 US; #1 R&B) "Navy Blue," Diane Renay (#6 US; #1 AC) "California Sun," The Rivieras (#5 US) "She Loves You," The Beatles (#1 US the weeks of Mar. 21 and 28, 1964; #64 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time) Total Beatles songs on the chart: 2 _______ Their final of three Top 40 hits in America. Yep. Not least because, as with the decade itself, we're getting near the end for Diana Ross's tenure with the group. But she won't go before giving them one last chart-topper.... I see what you did there! Can't help being a little embarrassed for this one in light of changing times and sensitivities. Anyway, this is their last of three Top 30 hits (all in the Top 5), and so the last we'll be hearing from them. Perhaps their signature song in a string of classic hits. 'Smatter RJ? 'Smatter RJ!?! _______ From The Incredible Hulk #113 (cover date Mar. 1969)... What's wrong with this panel? Hint: You can tell that Stan wrote it.
This is a good one. I'm not familiar with this one, but it's a nice, happy song. This is kind of obscure, I think, but I love it. It used to get some fair amount of airplay on an Oldies station that doesn't exist anymore. And, yep, it sounds like the 50s. A surfin' classic. These guys again? Definitely too short a season for this band. Not my personal favorite of CCR (that would be "Bad Moon Rising"), but definitely their iconic number. Just something in my eye. Nothing. Stan was dropping a revelation that Bruce had dated Betty Brant prior to the events of Incredible Hulk #1, during the year he lived in New York. Stan would often pepper his scripts with these story seeds for other writers to follow up on, sometimes decades later.
Does anyone love the old Herbie movies? I haven't seen the new one with Lindsay Lohan, but I love the old movies.
In the milquetoast-y Next Generation maybe, but TOS was the series where racial/cultural conflicts were not uncommon, not only in this episode, but in "A Private Little War", "The Cloud Minders", "The Omega Glory" and "Patterns of Force". TOS was the harder, darker edged Trek long before some would claim that about DS9. Regarding Kirk's tone, considering he Kirk experienced a number of torn races/worlds, to me, his parting line in "...Battlefield" seems defeated, and try as he might, the problems will never be solved--or cannot. A memorable Brown track, but he has what I would describe as a return to greater form coming around the corner. Kind of a blah track. ^ All expenses paid seat on that rocket to the sun. Sort of "perfected" the so-named country rock others had been building on in that decade. Always listenable.
_______ 50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 1) _______ Mission: Impossible "The Mind of Stefan Miklos" Originally aired January 12, 1969 This one has no portfolio. In the briefing, they play up Miklos as a flawless individual (apparently his smoking doesn't qualify as a vice by the standards of the day, and it plays into the scheme), whose attributes include a photographic memory. On the Trek front, this one also has Jason Evers as Walter Townsend, the agent who's being fed false info, and Vic Perrin as the vaguely billed "Owner" of an art gallery where Gas Inspector Jim reports a leak and calls in Gas Company Barney to get in a crawlspace and swap out some dead-dropped information that's hidden in a statue. Meanwhile Rollin goes to a glassware shop and makes contact with the handler, Simpson (Asner), passing himself off as Miklos sans disguise. Fake Miklos reports that Simpson's cover has been blown, and has One-of-His-Agents Jim take Simpson to a safe place. Real Miklos then shows up and Rollin assumes the role of Fake Simpson, also sans disguise, made possible by Rollin's picture having been put in the dead-dropped intel. Miklos searches Townsend's apartment and finds evidence of Fake Girlfriend Cin, then searches her fake place and finds some leads involving Stockbroker Barney. The IMF sends Simpson to make contact with Townsend and give him information that will lead to his new contact. Miklos traces some keys found in Cin's apartment to a pair of airport lockers where he finds passports and matching tickets to Rio for Townsend and Cin; he then catches the two of them going to their lockers at the same time, as that's where Real Simpson sent Townsend. Miklos is nearly convinced that Townsend is a traitor (such that Jim briefly frets behind the scenes that the plan might be blown), but Miklos picks up on a series of subtle clues planted by the IMF to take advantage of his photographic memory, which add up to it all being a set-up by Simpson. Here the IMF once again makes their operatives being seen in more than one role part of the scheme, as Miklos checks some security footage at the gallery and recognizes several of the IMF people as participants in what he's now viewing as a scheme set up by American intelligence on Simpson's behalf to discredit Townsend. Miklos allows Fake Simpson to think he's been fooled and arranges to get Townsend out of the country, convinced that the false info fed to Townsend must be true. There's an interesting moment at the end in which Miklos, being listened in on by the IMF, compliments the brilliance of the American agent who planned the scheme (effectively Jim), and expresses regret that he'll be ruined (unknowingly actually talking about himself). I found this one a wee bit confusing in places, there were so many pieces in play. In particular, I didn't get what the stockbroker part was about...perhaps just a means of conveying secret information for the enemy agents. _______ Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In Season 2, episode 15 Originally aired January 13, 1969 Dick has a substitute this week: The News from the Future is now from 1989...and there's a mention of King Ronald Reagan. The Fickle Finger of Fate goes to a candy company: Mishap-prone ventriloquist Lucky Pierre returns: Mod, Mod World looks at War and Peace: The Peter Lawford Joke Wall: _______ The Mod Squad "Hello Mother, My Name Is Julie" Originally aired January 14, 1969 The episode opens with a Mod Mission in Progress, as Pete and Linc pull off a fake heist to get into a gang. Afterwards they drop by Julie's place to find that her mother (Nan Martin) is already visiting, and Julie clearly isn't happy about it. She doesn't look much like a former prostitute, but Pete more or less acknowledges that, saying that she doesn't look like he'd imagined she would. The early part of the episode mixes use of a flashback to the pilot with a new flashback of Julie's past. The "Mr. Big" that Pete and Linc are trying to get in with, Fred Williams, turns out to be none other than William Windom! Julie works as a waitress to serve as a middle-woman contact between Greer and the Male Mods. Pete and Linc go to Julie's for dinner to lend support as she meets the man her mom intends to marry, Fred White, who turns out to be none other than...Willaim Windom! Ruh-roh! Pete, Linc, and Fred engage in some layered repartee about his line of work that goes over Julie and her mother's heads. Later it's back to work digging a tunnel for Fred...maybe he actually works for the IMF! "Let's pick up the pace, Barney needs this tunnel yesterday!" Pete and Linc's mission, should they choose to accept it, is to get his fingerprints to Greer...but the guy has a habit of wearing gloves while working and being careful to wipe his prints off of items that he touches when they're not on. Because they don't want to let Julie in on Fred's true nature, they covertly dig through her garbage to find a champagne bottle that he'd opened. Alas, Greer calls in the results to Julie, Williams's alias of Fred White comes up, and Julie doesn't react well. Not long after, Greer finds out about White and Julie's mom...andhas Pete and Linc pulled over by a squad car to make contact with them. The tunnel ends up intersecting with an existing city tunnel system, via which they break into a bank vault. But Fred's underling, Mace (Leonard Stone) pulls a gun on the other three, there's a struggle, Mace is killed, Fred overpowers Pete and Linc, and he runs off with the money. Soon afterward, Julie's mother sees Fred being arrested outside of Julie's apartment. In the coda, Julie's mom has traded her planned honeymoon in Mexico for a bus trip to Somewhere Off the Show, and the Mod Trio do their customary walk-off outside the bus depot. _______ Dusty had a prior minor hit under her belt ("Silver Threads and Golden Needles" with the Springfields, 1962, #20 US, #16 Country)...and I'd like to think that "I Only Want to Be with You" would have been a hit regardless...but I have to wonder about the timing of this one, coming as it did just as the British Invasion was breaking onto the charts. At the very least, it may have enjoyed a bump from the circumstances. For me it has that "early-to-mid-'90s, when oldies stations were still playing the early '60s" sound. And it's a fun, cute song. Hailing from South Bend, Indiana, the Rivieras are One-Hit Hometown Heroes! Ah, don't worry about it...I'm sure they're just a passing fad. I'm partial to "Green River" myself. I find the Hulk's concern for one of Spider-Man's supporting characters touching. Telling stories about current issues by projecting them on alien races was always Trek's gig. But the people encountering these races were an optimistic future version of humanity for whom such issues were nowhere in evidence. Humanity clearly hadn't bombed itself into oblivion, and Uhura's skin color was only an issue when an alien assuming the role of Abe Lincoln was visiting. Too late--You already kicked me onto it and launched it, remember? So I guess you're stuck on Earth with the 1910 Fruitgum Co.--Enjoy!
I have not seen a single Herbie movie, and I was surprised to see that the first one came out in 69. I would have guessed mid 70s. It's become really weird to see people smoking in old shows like this. It's odd, because retro usually looks normal to me, but the smoking is very jarring. Ditto. That's hilarious. Johnny Carson is great. They warned us. They warned us and we didn't listen. That sounds more like Police Squad! than Mod Squad. "Hello, Julie's Mom. You don't look at all like how Julie described you. I was picturing Ann Coulter." It's like Aunt May and Doc Ock! "I'm Officer Malloy, this is Officer Reed-- license and registration, please." Oh, man. About ten years later, it was covered by another British band that was briefly compared to the original invaders. Yeah, you can't find that era on the radio anymore. Our Classic Rock station is playing Nirvana now. Nice. So many to choose from.... The Marvel characters were really one big family, held together by common bonds of radiation and mutation. Sure, they fought sometimes, but deep down they really loved each other. I always think of Kirk's appalled reaction in "Day of the Dove" when he realized what the alien force was doing. "Even... even race hatred." It was these kinds of things that made Sisko seem a little weird and petty sometimes on DS9.
Another strong episode. You were not going to see the policewomen of the Jack Webb shows revealed to be prostitutes. That's the stark difference between shows of the Webb variety and The Mod Squad, which was breaking new ground. Despite being an old hooker, take note of mother Barnes' initial reaction to Julie's friends; no matter what low station in life some find themselves (or place themselves), there's still the idea that they are somehow better than "others". Always a reliable actor, and never gave the same performance twice. So, the Pete and Linc work for Kras the Klingon, trying to get the goods on Commodore Matt Decker.... What's up with shall we say...older Windom characters overpowering younger men in the prime of their lives? First Mr. Montgomery on the Enterprise, and now Pete and Linc! What IS he eating? Huh? TOS was a darker series with those conflicts present among its human characters: Stiles ("Balance of Terror") was clearly a racist. In "The Doomsday Machine," Matt Decker's reply ("No...I guess they don't") and facial expression to Spock's "Vulcans never bluff" line was clearly meant to paint Decker as harboring some racial animosity toward Spock and Vulcans in general, and Captain Tracey's instant use of Spock as a Satanic stand-in was more than trying to tip the scales in his favor--he had no love for Spock almost from the moment the landing party beamed down. On that note, racist humans were clearly meant to be a thing in the TOS era as the original screenplay for "The Omega Glory" had Tracey openly hostile to Spock because he's Vulcan. That racial tension survives in James Blish's adaptation of the episode in the novel Star Trek 10 (1974). This darker portrait of humans in TOS was the reason The Next Generation was so criticized for Roddenberry finally pushing a future where humans were so flawless and internal-conflict-free, they were perfect...perfectly boring, which went a long way in shaping how the "anti-TNG" DS9 would be produced. I'm sure the Russians have some rockets they're not using. Anything so no one has to listen to the Big Hits of the 1910 Fruitgum Co., such as..."Goody Goody Gumdrops." It was painful just writing the title of that so-called song!
_______ 50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 2) _______ Ironside "Why the Tuesday Afternoon Bridge Club Met on Thursday" Originally aired January 16, 1969 Do all detective shows visit the "comic-relief amateur guest sleuths" trope? The Chief gets the titular line out of the way right up front, albeit in the form of a question. He holds his aunt (Jessie Royce Landis) in high regard, and takes her suspicions, which are fueled by her detailed knowledge of her friend's peculiar habits, very seriously. Rosalyn McPhee's husband, Harvey, told the bridge club that she died, but when Ironside visits him, he claims that she left him and that the other story was just a fabrication at his wife's request. He's having an affair with his secretary, Val, who isn't in on what's really going on, such that he doesn't want her snooping around his basement. "Sign o' even older times still being in living memory" exchange about Harvey's era-evoking den... Val: Harvey says this is where he can shut out reality, and go back to those wonderful days of the turn of the century. Victoria: I've been through those "wonderful days". The whole world smelled of horses. "Sign o' contrasting times" reference... Victoria: We may be past wearing mini-skirts, but we do have full possession of our senses. Mark gets a good moment when Ironside sends him around the back of McPhee's house to check for an open door or window. We hear breaking glass, followed by Mark appearing at the front door. "The back window was busted." The timing was too quick, though. Ironside pieces together that Harvey's activities match those of a 1910 murderer named Crippen, right down to having his mistress dress as a boy to leave the country. As with that case, they find Rosalyn's body behind the wall in the basement. It turns out that Harvey is schizo and completely immersed in the role of Crippen. In order to save Val, Ironside plays along and assumes the role of a Scotland Yard inspector from the original case to talk McPhee down. This turned out to be an almost disturbingly awkward episode. It so played up the comical aspects and quirkiness of the situation, and Harvey was so obviously suspicious, that I expected there'd be a twist...that it would turn out that nobody had been killed and there'd be some off-the-wall explanation for it all. But no, after all the wacky hijinks and humorous musical cues, it turned out that the guy really did kill his wife and put her body in the wall. _______ Star Trek "The Mark of Gideon" Originally aired January 17, 1969 Stardate 5423.4 See my post here. _______ Adam-12 "Log 62: Grand Theft Horse?" Originally aired January 18, 1969 Reed and Malloy are on patrol, looking for robbery suspect, when they become distracted by a noise the squad car is making while in motion. Then they get the call for "grand theft horse". Malloy dismisses the prospect that it's one of the robber's phony calls, because it's "too goofy". The call takes them to a ranch from which a horse was stolen by a "hippie type". When Reed and Malloy insist that they wouldn't be able to effectively pursue the suspect in a car, the owner tries to get them to go out on horses. Malloy opts to call in a pair of park rangers instead. Reed and Malloy end up intercepting the suspect on a road with the rangers in hot pursuit. His name is Leroy and he came out to California from Texas to "find himself," but found that after finding nothing but people pedaling drugs on him, he just had an urge to return home...on horseback. I don't recall if this has come up already, but Reed sits in the back with him, as they don't have a barrier between the front and back seats. After that they get a call for a "415 (disturbance) woman at a motel". The young woman won't talk but is sitting behind the car of a Charles Carter (Peter Duryea) and won't move. He informs the officers that her name is Susan; that he'd met and dated her while he was in Virginia on a business trip; and that she came out to California uninvited to move in with him. They take her back to her rented room and call her mother for her. Once Susan's on the phone, they leave. After dark, with the squad car still making its noise, they get a call for a prowler followed by one for a 211 in progress at a liquor store. They respond to the latter and are shot at by the fleeing suspect. A car chase ensues with the robber riding shotgun and continuing to fire at them. Reed returns fire, hitting the rear of the vehicle, which then fails to make a turn, runs into a tree, and catches fire. The suspects are pulled out of the vehicle unconscious. Speaking to Sgt. MacDonald afterward, Malloy notes that he suspected the prowler call was a phony because it was "see the man" rather than the usual "see the woman". Driving away from the scene, Reed realizes that the noise has stopped. _______ Get Smart "Tequila Mockingbird" Originally aired January 18, 1969 The showgirl (Poupee Bocar)'s name is Esperanza in the credits, Esperanaza according to a poster shown in the episode. She sends Morse code messages to CONTROL through her castanets. I did notice some of the Eastwood spaghetti Western touches, like the musical motifs, the way Max rode into town on a burro with a cigarello clenched between his teeth, and the shooting style of the showdown, in which Max is saved by the Chief disguised as a man in a sombrero taking a siesta. _______ Hogan's Heroes "Operation Hannibal" Originally aired January 18, 1969 Hedy (Louise Troy) wants to protect her father, General von Behler (John Hoyt), so she insists the plans have to be photographed, not stolen. Hogan attends a party at von Behler's disguised as a German captain, where he has a couple of close calls with Klink. Meanwhile, Carter and LeBeau sneak into the General's study to photograph the plans, taking advantage of distractions provided by Hedy and Hogan. At one point Newkirk intercepts a phone call from the General to Stalag 13, and Carter does a pretty spot-on impersonation of Klink. War Show Chronology Note: Klink says that Hogan's been at Stalag 13 for two years. DIS-miiissed! _______ I saw one of them--I think the original--at a theater as a little kid in the early '70s. I think it's the first movie that I have a distinct memory of having seen. I was so young that I had trouble following the plot and staying awake. So I was successful in conveying my understanding of the episode.... He does do a pretty damn good impression of Dick. I don't think Scots like to be referred to as British.... Julie's mom wasn't a policewoman. All of these alleged examples of bigotry (some of dubious merit) were directed outward at a member of an alien species. They present no evidence of racial bigotry within 23rd-century humanity, which is what we were discussing. Fortunately for all of us, that one didn't crack the Top 30.
Never said she was. The point is that in Webb's Our-Women-Are-From-Ladies-Home-Journal world, you were not going to see that kind of life for or connected to a main female character. Hardly dubious. Stiles was a racist, the screenplay for "The Omega Glory" was adapted, so Tracey's behavior is published fact, and there's no doubt what Decker meant in responding to Spock--specifically about Spock's own racial reference with: Decker's meaning was not shrouded in mystery. You were the one who said: "Nowhere in evidence" is a patently false claim, and you argued that the TOS version of humanity had moved beyond those beliefs, only seeing it in analogues of human behavior on alien worlds. Clearly, 23rd century humans still deal with racism, and it matters not whether its from human to human, or directed at an alien. You cannot erase racist belief if its not directed at another human. That's not why those characters were written that way in order to make a statement / examination of human failings. Moreover, racism extends to the TOS movies with The Undiscovered Country's Scotty writing off Klingons as not feeling as humans do--a racist assumption (mean to "dehumanize" the "other"--one of the points of the film). while Azetbur point-blank calls Chekov out on his "racist" (her words) use of the term (and belief) of "Inalienable human rights". And of course, Admiral Cartwright offered the following-- That is one of the points of Star Trek--examination of human failings and not just on parallel worlds, but how humans use and project said failings toward anyone. That film's story takes place in-universe decades after the 5-year mission era of TOS, only hammering home the fact the TOS era's humans were never free of that worldview.