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50th Anniversary Viewing
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Mission: Impossible
"Death Squad"
Originally aired March 15, 1970
Wiki said:
While on holiday with Jim, Barney kills a man in self-defense and is marked for execution by the dead man's brother (Pernell Roberts), a corrupt chief of police. The IMF team must rescue Barney before it is too late. This episode is unusual in that there is no tape recording; instead the team goes on a completely personal mission to rescue Barney.
This one is indeed a total format breaker...no tape scene, no portfolio, no briefing. It starts with Barney, who's on vacation but using an assumed surname, having a romantic evening in Country of the Week with an artist named Alma (Cicely Tyson). When he leaves, she's confronted by a jealous man named Luis (Val de Vargas). Stopping down on the street to buy her flowers, Barney hears her scream, runs up, and finds himself attacked by Luis with a knife. Barney sidesteps a lunge and Luis falls through a window down to the street below and lands on his knife. The complication is that Luis was the brother of the chief of police, Corba (Pernell Roberts), who arrests Barney despite multiple testimonies that Barney was only acting in self-defense. Alma calls Jim--also there on vacation using an assumed surname--who calls a lawyer...but Chief Corba quickly gets to the lawyer, causing him to drop the case...and makes the flower man "disappear" as well. The guy in the cell across from Barney, a petty crook named Riva (Leon Askin, a.k.a. General Burkhalter from
Hogan's Heroes), informs Barney that they're in the cell block reserved for condemned men.
Meanwhile, Jim calls in Paris and Willy, who get a briefing after they arrive. Jim has some identities planned for them, but otherwise this situation better delivers on the idea of this being an impromptu mission. They're not going in with omniscient intel, but figuring things out as they go. Interpol Inspector Willy informs Corba and his right-hand man, Lt. Jocaro (John Schuck), that Jim and Barney are really emerald smugglers. Police transferee Sgt. Paris reports to Jocaro, whose greed they plan to use against him. Paris makes sure Jocaro knows that he's got a lot of money and likes to spend it. Meanwhile, working on his own initiative, Barney rigs up a torch in his cell to work on the lock while Riva watches.
Corba pays a visit to Jim, and goes down to the block to find Barney breaking out. Jim gets a visitation with Barney, which is being spied upon. Jim feeds Barney essential parts of his script via a couple of messages written on a matchbook cover. Meanwhile, Paris and Jocaro have a private party with a couple of paid ladies. When Paris fake passes out, Jocaro searches his wallet to verify his identity. Fake coming to, Paris fake confesses that he's a fence who's interested in a prisoner recently executed by the death squad, as he may have had an emerald hidden in his possessions. Jocaro goes looking for the gem, which leads Jim and Willy to the warehouse where their gallows are hidden. They find a cabinet containing belongings of executed prisoners, as welll as a vat of sulfuric acid where the bodies are disposed of. Then they get to work rigging the gallows.
Barney and Riva brought in for their dual execution, but their ropes keep going and they fall through a second trap door into the basement. Alongside Jim and Willy, they make it out to the car where Paris is waiting, their getaway aided by Paris having sabotaged the police van. Barney retrieves Alma to take her to New York, telling her that they've gathered enough evidence to have Corba hanged.
Impromptu Mission: Accomplished.
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Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
Season 3, episode 26
Originally aired March 16, 1970 (season finale)
The Wiki list of guest appearances said:
Carol Channing, Tony Curtis, Peter Sellers, Tiny Tim
The opening gags have lots of mentions of this episode featuring the wedding of Gladys and Tyrone.
The last Quickies of the season:
Carol Channing makes the Farkel scene.
The Cocktail Party, with Carol Channing:
Carol takes tips from Teresa on how to be a soul sister.
Carol as Mildred, a woman who seems to get around a lot.
Ernestine calls another operator:
The Whoopie Award goes to the gas company.
The main event--Gladys and Tyrone's Wedding:
The last Joke Wall of the season:
This is as far as I recorded
Laugh-In before I lost Decades, so that'll be it for the show for our purposes unless something changes. It strikes me that I could follow along somewhat with the plethora of clips on YouTube, if only there were a way to identify which episodes they were from without actually watching the full episodes.
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"Easy Faller"
Originally aired March 19, 1970
Wiki said:
After Donald injures his back in her apartment, Ann brings his interviewee to Don. Then her father shows up.
Ann delivers the magic freeze-frame words this episode, but she's referring to a hypothetical girl that Donald might meet on their ski trip to Vermont. Ann isn't into skiing, but wants to spend the time with Donald, who loves it. Donald injures his back while trying to demonstrate for Ann how the skis are made to come off before twisting his ankles. Ann calls Donald's doctor, Goldfisher (Warren Berlinger)...he's the man, the man with the chiro touch. Donald can't move, so he's forced to sleep in Ann's bed. You can see where this going...
Donald is self-conscious about being a bad pill-taker...I can relate, I was like that as a kid. Donald's also concerned about missing an exclusive interview with Jean Paul Lemairre (Albert Carrier), so Ann calls him to have him come to her place. Before he gets there...you guessed it...Lew drops by. When he hears Donald crying out from Ann's bed, he naturally assumes the worst; but the situation is explained inside of an edit and he helps Donald to get dressed and out into the living room, enjoying Donald's pain along the way. After another edit, Lemairre is leaving following a successful interview. Lew leaves at the same time, insisting that Donald vacate the premises shortly.
In the coda, Ann is trying to help Donald get to the stairs, and injures her own back while attempting to support him.
This one had bad audio issues on iTunes, which may have distracted me from noticing some "Oh, Donald"s.
"Oh, Donald" count:
9
"Oh, Daddy" count:
1
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The Brady Bunch
"Lost Locket, Found Locket"
Originally aired March 20, 1970 (season finale)
Wiki said:
Depressed from a lack of attention, Jan's spirits are lifted when she receives a locket from a secret admirer. But not only can't she discover who sent it, she suddenly loses it. She uses her detective skills to find it, and Alice reveals that she sent the locket; she was a middle child and often felt left out too.
So Jan's middle child issues are established here, though Marcia is not yet the bane of her existence.
Everyone in the family treats the locket as a mystery to be solved, but the boys in particular. They notice dropped Y's on the typewritten mailing label. Seizing this clue, the parents investigate each other--Carol and Alice go to Mike's office at night to check out his typewriter, and get in hot water with the security guard, who threatens to call Mike; while Mike is checking out Carol's typewriter at home.
That night Jan wakes up and discovers the locket no longer around her neck, which triggers some melodramatic crying out that presages her famous "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!" The boys come up with the idea of reenacting the crime, so the next night everyone does exactly what they were doing the night before. On cue, Jan cries out, but it's because she realized what she did before going to bed the previous night--leaned out the window to look at the Little Bear. Leaning out again, she spies her locket, which fell onto the tree outside the window, and Mike retrieves it.
Later Alice takes Jan aside and privately confides to having sent the locket, showing her the typewriter that she keeps in her bedroom closet, which has been dropping its Y's.
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Hogan's Heroes
"Crittendon's Commandos"
Originally aired March 20, 1970
Wiki said:
Hogan’s team takes over an abduction job after Crittendon’s commando team is captured. Unfortunately, Crittendon is still at large and eager to help.
This is Bernard Fox's sixth of eight appearances as Crittendon. The prisoners are assigned to pick up a group of commandos whose target is Field Marshal Rommel, who's recuperating from an injury at a nearby hospital. The prisoners have a plan to pick them up in a stalag truck disguised as German guards who've captured them...but when they rendezvous with the commandos they discover that Crittendon's in charge, and he blows the plan, insisting that the commandos make their way to the stalag on foot.
Crittendon's the only one who makes it, after his men were surrounded and captured and he was accidentally left behind. Rather than send for more commandos, the prisoners decide to do the job in their German uniforms. But at the hospital, Crittendon pulls the switch for the air raid alarm instead of the power, following which he wants to scrub the mission, so Hogan shoots him up with the sedative that they brought for Rommel.
In the coda, the prisoners learn that they rolled out the wrong man, his face having been covered by a sheet at the time. Their abductee turns out to have been an Admiral Toddly, about which Mama Bear is pleased, but the prisoners fake an excuse not to do another mission with Crittendon.
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Adam-12
"Log 74: Light Duty"
Originally aired March 21, 1970
Wiki said:
After breaking his wrist, Malloy gets reassigned to desk duty while Reed is called out to assist with a potential riot.
We learn that Malloy injured himself falling over a garbage can in an alley while chasing a 211 suspect. Reed isn't injured, but is initially assigned to accompany him manning the front desk of division HQ. They're joined by new academy graduate Officer Doris Mills (Beth Brickell), who sits back and watches them, and gives them an excuse to explain how things work there. Continuity point: Reed says that he's been with the department for eight months.
An elderly woman named Mrs. Higgins (Louise Lorimer) is brought in after loitering for 10 hours at a bus station. Malloy and Mills try to get her story and are able to determine that she's been living in L.A. but wants to go back home to Detroit. Eventually Higgins gives in and has them call her daughter in Bel Air, after she'd been denying knowing anybody in L.A.
Reed has issues filling out a form for a complainant who's had a door stolen from his car as he shares more details..first Reed fills it out as a stolen vehicle report, then a as a theft when he finds out that only the door was taken, after which Malloy informs him that because the car was locked, it actually counts as a burglary.
All the while, everyone at the station is concerned over a student rally that may get ugly because of a group of agitators called the Sympathizers. After a major 415 is announced on the radio, Boyett takes Reed with him to rally and leaves Malloy as acting watch commander. Mills takes Reed's phone. She and Malloy (still at the front desk) listen via radio as the situation further escalates. Reed is injured by a thrown object and taken to the hospital, and Jean calls, concerned about her husband's possible involvement with the rally.
A man named Ed Ligh (Robert Clarke) comes in to pick up his son (Scott McCartor), who was arrested for shoplifting. From what he says to his father, it becomes clear that Ed Jr. is begging for discipline...or maybe attention in general.
A man named Bill Bradley (John Nolan) claims to be looking for a brother who may have been arrested. The name of the brother matches a liquor store robber who was brought in earlier and had two partners who hadn't been caught. (I had to go back and find the scene where that happened.) Malloy makes an excuse to go out to the parking lot; sees the third man, who's waiting in the car outside; and draws his gun and brings him in, arresting both.
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He's getting a little testy about the whole thing.
Maybe they had ambitions for a theatrical release (hence the color), and wanted to give him a dramatic entrance.
Not necessarily, as his situation will keep them apart.
"Hello, editor? Let's talk about this. Meet me by the stairs."
That might have mattered if it supported Jason's account, had Jason been trying to establish his innocence. But he didn't want that info out.
"Hi. I'm James West and this is my partner, Artemus Gordon."
Hadn't thought of that!
There's four: The Howells, the girls, the boys, and the Professor-- he needs me time to think big thoughts.
That was always my impression, but the series hadn't yet clearly established that...first they were supposedly in a community hut, then the women split off.
Oh, right. It's forgettable. I forgot to say that.
Point taken and agreed with. I've gotten familiar with it already, but it's an underwhelming little bit of nothing.
You don't like "Seasons In The Sun?" That's a pretty good song.
Schmaltzy fluff.
I'm not alone...
Wiki said:
Though the song enjoyed contemporary success, modern criticism takes a dimmer view, considering it overly sentimentalized. Jacks's version has been held up as an example of bad music, such as having been listed as one of the worst pop songs ever recorded and ranking number five in a similar CNN poll in 2006.
RJDiogenes said:
I've been working from home for about twelve years now, so I seldom go out during the week.
Ah, you must do something different from what I thought you did.
I'm actually not worried about myself at all, which is either a rational estimation of the odds or a character flaw. I'm mainly worried about my Aunt who has COPD and one of the members of my forum who is elderly and disabled and had a stroke.
Best wishes to them. I need to get in touch with my Dad. My sister's his main point of contact as they live near each other in Colorado, but she has health issues of her own and now can't go in to do anything for him.
