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50th Anniversary Viewing
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The Ed Sullivan Show
Season 22, episode 5
Originally aired October 26, 1969
As represented in
The Best of the Ed Sullivan Show
Ed said:
And now, ladies and gentlemen, Santana!
The band's first number is "Persuasion," one of the vocal-centric original songs that I wasn't very impressed with on the album. The visuals are pretty groovy, though:
This segues into "Jingo," which is identified onscreen as "Jingo - Jingo".
Ed said:
Here is shadowgraph star Albert Almoznino.
This is the quite good shadow puppeteer whose routine in what must have been a different installment included doing the profiles of various presidents. Here he's only shown doing some animals.
Also in the original episode according to tv.com:
Music:
--Liza Minnelli sings "Come Saturday Morning."
--Mason Williams - "Cowboy Buckaroo."
--Henry Mancini (composer-conductor, with orchestra) - plays the themes from "Peter Gunn" and "Romeo and Juliet."
--Judy Carne (from "Laugh-In") - "American Moon" (a.k.a. "There's an American Flag on the Moon Tonight") production number.
Comedy:
--George Kirby (stand-up comedian)
--Charlie Manna (stand-up comedian)
Also appearing:
--David Hemmings (actor) - does a dramatic reading from "Romeo & Juliet."
--The Trio Hoganas (aerialists)
--Audience bows: Barbara Eden, Jack Warner.
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Mission: Impossible
"Fool's Gold"
Originally aired October 26, 1969
Wiki said:
Paris poses as a counterfeiter in order to get access to and destroy a safe containing 100 million drona worth of counterfeit money as well as the plates used to make it. If the counterfeit money is released then that nation's gold reserves will be depleted and the pro-Western government will be overthrown in a revolution.
The reel-to-reel tape under the seat of a zoo cart said:
This tape will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck, Jim.
Jim's again engaged in some research before he breaks out the portfolio, but he only has to pick out the photo of this week's guest agent, Beth, as the usual suspects are already laid out on the table.
In the briefing, Barney demonstrates his indirect means of destroying the counterfeit drona using the same "Destruct" switch that Jim used to detonate his car last week.
Horn-Rimmed Baron Jim, the fake envoy from Bahkan--the nation whose economy Is threatened by the counterfeit money--meets with the man behind the scheme, Finance Minister Stravos (Nehemiah Persoff) of the Federated People's Republic, ostensibly to exchange the nation's gold reserves for the cash. Under that pretense he has Paris along as an expert in spotting counterfeits to inspect the currency. Meanwhile Barney's doing his thing in the guise of a maintenance man replacing light bulbs. Beth plays Jim's Baroness, who manufactures an opportunity to share some juicy gossip with Stravos about Paris, including that he's a counterfeiter himself. Paris subsequently approaches Stravos with knowledge that all of the paper money is counterfeit, and of a fake weakness in Stravos's plan...that Bahkan's gold reserve is twice as large as he thought. Paris also offers that Stravos will need a means of blackmailing the seemingly viceless Baron into releasing the additional gold under the table--without the FPR knowing about it, so that Paris can get his cut--and to that end an encounter is arranged at an irreputable nightclub between Swinging Counterfeiter Paris, Baron Jim, who's checking up on him, and the Baroness, whom Baron Jim is shocked--shocked!--to find there with Stravos. Following up on this, Paris later suggests to Stravos that he could film Paris and the Baroness enjoying a liaison.
Currency Courier Willy scopes out the combination of the vault using special glasses to see mirrors that Barney installed in the light fixtures, and places a fake dial front over the inside combination dial that will cause the time lock to be set for a time of their choosing. The liaison takes place and Stravos shows the film to the scandalized Baron Jim. Paris offers to bring in a couple of associates to help with the additional counterfeiting. He then goes to the vault at the prearranged time, using the combination to get in and a special headset to survive the ultrasonic waves protecting a corridor in the vault, in order to swap out Stravos's plates; but the headset doesn't fully protect him, and he has difficulty getting out of the vault conscious and unvegitized before its 10-ish-minute power pack goes out entirely...a good jeopardy moment.
Back in character, Paris proceeds to bring in his men...Barney and Willy, who else? Barney uses the destruct switch to activate the extending, flame-shooting device that was hidden in a bundle of bills planted in the original counterfeit stash by Paris, which activates the sprinkler above, after the pipes have been rigged by Barney and Willy to have the sprinkler spray something other than water...acid, I presume...reducing the stash to a pile of charred pulp. Stravos learns of this just as Sir Malcolm from the World Monetary Commission (Ronald Long) inspects the new counterfeit stash in front of the FPR Premier (David Opatoshu) and spots the imperfection that was deliberately put in the swapped-in plates and artfully hidden from Stravos in previous inspections. Baron Jim leaves without having to turn over Bahkan's gold reserves, and once they're alone, the Premier implicitly orders Stravos to shoot himself. Mission: Accomplished.
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Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
Season 3, episode 7
Originally aired October 27, 1969
The Wiki list of guest appearances said:
Sammy Davis Jr., Jack Riley, Flip Wilson
There's a vaudeville opening, which I couldn't find a clip of. One early skit consists of bloopers of Ruth and Joanne repeatedly flubbing a scripted exchange.
A more pointless than usual Uncle Al skit:
Not actually announced as a Quickies segment:
The news intro song is Halloween themed. The segment includes mention of Tiny Tim getting married (coming on the December 17 episode of
The Tonight Show).
The Fickle Finger of Fate goes to shipyard employees:
Pamela: Goldie, what has six legs and a bra?
Goldie: Peter, Paul and Mary.
Jack Riley is back as LBJ in a fews bits, including this one:
If Sammy Davis Jr. was in the episode, I completely missed him.
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"The Snow Must Go On"
Originally aired October 30, 1969
Wiki said:
While stranded at JFK Airport during a snowstorm, Ann will do anything to get to an audition on Broadway.
It seems kind of early in the season for a story about a major blizzard. Ann and Donald are at the airport dropping the Maries off for a vacation flight. Mr. Marie is pretending to be a mortician who's attending a convention in order to get a travel discount, but the Maries' flight is suspended by the weather . When he hears that the airport restaurant is out of food, Mr. Marie tries to hoard by ordering 40 ham sandwiches at the snack bar and putting them in a locker. He later finds that he's lost his key and can't remember the locker number, so he sniffs out the correct locker with the help of an actual undertaker's son. Then Lew gets found out and has to pass around the sandwiches.
Ann is able to audition over the phone, but still has to get to a live audition the next day, but the blizzard is threatening to last long enough to put the kibosh on that. The next day Donald tries to cash in a favor by getting Ann a ride back into Manhattan via an ABC news helicopter, but their seats are taken by the mortician and his son, the latter of whom is suffering a "medical emergency" from having eaten a few too many of the sandwiches. When Ann learns that the ABC newsman is interviewing stranded passengers, she gets the zany idea of giving an interview in-character as the tough-talking Mary Thatcher so that the producer, Mr. Howard (John Stephenson) can watch. I got some good laughs out of this. Happy ending: Ann gets the part...and Donald writes up her experience as his story about the blizzard.
"Oh, Donald" count:
10
"Oh, Daddy" count:
2
"Oh, Mother" count:
2
"Oh, Mom" count:
1
"Oh, Mr. Howard" count:
1
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Ironside
"Seeing Is Believing"
Originally aired October 30, 1969
Wiki said:
Five eyewitnesses claim that Ed is responsible for a bookie's fatal beating.
The detective investigating the bar fight in which Frankie Baum was seriously injured is Lieutenant Haines (Norman Fell). The composite sketch of the witnesses' descriptions doesn't look so much like Ed that Haines should recognize him right away. Ed had busted Haines once, and he was on a solo fishing trip for the weekend while he was trying to work on a freelance magazine article about the Chief, so he doesn't have much of an alibi. The witnesses pick Ed out in the lineup, then Frankie himself semi-consciously indicates Ed from his hospital bed. Not long after, Frankie dies from his injuries. (The victim who lives just long enough to implicate his assailant has definitely come up before on the show.)
The team takes the Ironsidemobile for a road trip to a gas station 70 miles away, which Ed was at close to the time of the beating. The attendant is initially unhelpful and asks for a bribe when he realizes that a cop needs an alibi, but Mark takes him aside for a brother-to-brother talk that changes his attitude. Nevertheless, the attendant honestly can't remember having seen Ed. Upon returning to town, Ed is arrested, and recites his own rights.
The rest of the team then go to Frankie's home town for leads, thinking that the killer may be from there. They talk to his mother and a girl whom he was seeing, and find that the latter, Julie, is pregnant with Frankie's child and has a brother, Bobby Joe, who generally matches Ed's description. With their new theory being that Bobby Joe was good-naturedly trying to persuade Frankie to marry Julie and that he's still in Frisco, they lure him to a hospital room by making him think that his sister's been taken there when he calls to check on her. Warren Hammack does bear a vague resemblance to Don Galloway, but it's hardly a striking one. Anyway, the Chief persuades Bobby Joe to do the right thing and he turns himself in.
Ed actor Don Galloway co-wrote the episode. The look on the Chief's face when he hears the title of the article that Ed was trying to write--"Robert T. Ironside: Cop and Human Being"--is priceless.
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Get Smart
"Smart Fell on Alabama"
Originally aired October 31, 1969
Wiki said:
Because he failed to retrieve a little red code book from a KAOS courier, Max has to train three skilled convicts (a pickpocket, strongman, and safe-cracker) to break into a highly fortified mansion where the code book is being kept. The mansion just happens to belong to a southern Colonel who owns a successful chain of restaurants. A spoof of Colonel Sanders and the Kentucky Fried Chicken chain he founded. The title is based on the 1934 jazz standard "Stars Fell on Alabama".
It sounds like the premise may be a spoof of
The Dirty Dozen, which I haven't seen yet. The reason Max doesn't get the codebook is because it's taped to the chest of an unconscious KAOS agent named Bohrman, who turns out to be a woman (Diahn Williams). Visually, Colonel Kyle K. Kirby (John Dehner) is more of a straight-up spoof of Col. Sanders than the Slim Pickens character on
That Girl was. And I have to think those initials on a Southern aristocrat weren't a coincidence...particularly as they make a joke of how he supposedly still has a slave in his attic, handed down as a family heirloom.
Everyone on Max's team--Simmons, a safecracker (Stanley Clements); Murphy, a strongman (Don Megowan); and Farley, a pickpocket (Larry Vincent)--proves their expertise, but Max flubs the training exercises. During the mission, the safecracker has to talk Max through opening the safe after Max steps on his hand.
This episode they're setting up that 99 is ready to drop any time...as was my mother when the episode aired...to say nothing of Jean Reed the following night....
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Hogan's Heroes
"The Kommandant Dies at Dawn"
Originally aired October 31, 1969
Wiki said:
Klink spills Luftwaffe secrets at a dinner party and is sentenced to face the firing squad.
Hogan gets a message in a cucumber from a vegetable vendor at the camp's gate, and needs to pass the message back out, but Field Marshal Kesselring (Ned Wertimer) is coming for a visit; so the prisoners plan to smuggle it out via Klink when he goes into town for an event with the marshal. For this they need to switch his belt with one that has the message planted in it (not sure why they couldn't just plant it if they could switch the entire belt), so Newkirk removes Schultz's belt literally right under his nose to swap it for Klink's.
But at a Stalag 13 reception for the field marshal, Klink tries to impress a fraulein (Inger Stratton) with knowledge of the weaknesses of Luftwaffe planes, which Hogan had just been telling him. Fraulein Ziegler turns out to be a Gestapo agent, and immediately reports Klink to her superior, Major Feldkamp (Ben Wright)...so the kommandant finds himself in the cooler. Hogan is visiting Klink to try to get the belt back when Schultz comes in to announce Klink's pending execution, and reports that every man in the camp volunteered for the firing squad...including two deserters who came back just for the occasion. Schultz tries to hatch a plan to help Klink escape to Switzerland with the prisoners' help; Hogan suggests some modifications but otherwise humors him, having a plan of his own to piggyback off of it. When "Laurel and Hardy," as Hogan aptly refers to the German duo, carry out the plan in their bumbling way, the prisoners help them to get the field marshal's car going with a push, causing it to roll away into an obstacle, which detonates a bomb they've planted in the car. Hogan sells it up to Kesselring and Feldkamp as a heroic attempt by Klink to save the field marshal's life, and all charges are dropped. Thus Klink is free to go into town with the message-carrying belt after all.
DIS-missed!
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Adam-12
"Log 103: A Sound Like Thunder"
Originally aired November 1, 1969
Wiki said:
Malloy, Reed, Malloy's current girlfriend (a nurse) and a very pregnant Jean Reed visit a ghost town on the officers' day off and have to deal with a gang of outlaw bikers.
In the opening Reed and Malloy are bringing an elderly gentleman who's lost his way (Ralph Moody) into Central Receiving Hospital, where Malloy's girlfriend of the week, Sally Fisher (Barbara Baldavin), works as a nurse. Once they hit the ghost town of Silver Lode, the officers are in their civvies for the rest of the episode. This is Mikki Jamison's first of three appearances as Jean Reed. The character pops up again toward the end of the series, played by a different actress of a different type. I prefer original Jean...she was really cute, though her acting was unconvincing.
When they hear the bikers riding in, the foursome take refuge in the saloon. But they have to leave their car in plain sight, and their precautions soon prove to be warranted from the attention that the armed bikers give it. The outlaws are also able to deduce a few things from what they find in the car--that there's at least one woman, as they find her sweater, and that the men are off-duty fuzz, from a pair of handcuffs. (Not the only possibility, but I guess that was 1969's TV-friendly option.) Pete and Jim have their guns on them, so while the ladies hide behind the bar, they surround the door and capture a biker who rides into the saloon. Tension mounts as Bach (clearly written on his bike but pronounced "Batch," played by future Bond baddie Bruce Glover) makes threats, then there's a shootout with a biker who tries to sneak up on the place on foot, and gets one in the leg for his trouble. After that, another two wave flags and ask for a truce, but when they get in the saloon, one of them tries to sucker punch Malloy, and they get taken down--all while Sally holds Bach's luger on him. Then the rest of the group bugs out, and at Jean's behest, Reed rides out to get help on Bach's bike.
When we come back from what had originally been a commercial break, Jean is being taken out on a stretcher, though the doctor says that she could drop in an hour or a week. I'm gonna go out on a limb and bet on a week.
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Brace yourself.
Thanks for the cheery regards!
the 1978 soundtrack to the […] movie
Let us never speak of this here.
