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50th Anniversary Catch-Up Viewing
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Hawaii Five-O
"Once Upon a Time: Part 2"
Originally aired February 26, 1969
Wiki said:
McGarrett continues his quest to put an end to the faith healer. (Other than the pilot, this is the only non-season 12 episode in which James MacArthur does not appear.)
Zulu and Kam Fong aren't in it either...this part takes place entirely in L.A.
From where last week's episode left off, I assumed this would be a court-centric episode, but following the early adjournment, McGarrett, not satisfied with the minor charge that they're convicting Fremont on, uses the extra day to do some crash investigation to try to find evidence that would allow them to charge her with murder...enabled by Zipser, who lets Steve borrow his car. (He borrowed his brother-in-law's last week, the moocher!) This includes flipping through books full of carbon copies at the hall of records, with the voluntary help of a flirtatious young file clerk (Victoria Hale). They find the records of four victims whose death certificates were signed by Fremont instead of a legitimate practitioner, but Steve strikes out on a couple of attempted calls (one victim's spouse still being a true believer) before calling on Mama and Chester Grant (Beah Richards and Davis Roberts), whose son/brother, Walter, died after going to Fremont as an alternative for treating his diabetes. Mama was actually present for his treatments and is therefore eligible to testify in court, and Steve convinces her to agree to have Walter's body exhumed when he tells her why he's working on this case. Unfortunately, the County Coroner can't confirm the cause of death because of the condition of the remains.
The trial resumes in the second half of the episode. Tommy's died by this point, but Mary Ann still considers Fremont to be a saint. Fremont's strategy includes demonstrating how her methods work in the courtroom, and when she asks for a volunteer, McGarrett submits himself...against the protests of Defense Counsel Herbert (William Schallert, sporting a southern accent). When McGarrett makes a show of dropping the blotter with a drop of his blood on it, and Zipser bends over to pick it up for him, it's pretty obvious to the audience what their game is. Nevertheless, Fremont proceeds to run it through one of her contraptions, which has been brought to the courtroom, and then reads out a detailed medical history of McGarrett, which includes a susceptibility to cancer that has her estimating that he'll die from it before he's 50. (I don't know how old they wanted us to think McGarrett was, but Lord was turning 50 the following year.) The judge subsequently opens an envelope that was supposed to contain McGarrett's pre-written account of his own medical history, to find that it contains a note telling him that they'd switched the blotter for one that only contained vegetable die...and Zipser offers that they have multiple witnesses who can testify to its preparation and purpose. Fremont is revealed as a complete fraud before the court, and more importantly, in the eyes of Mary Ann Whalen, Steve's sister.
It was all too obvious where the filler was in this two-parter...the first half of this part was devoted to a line of investigation that turned out to be nothing but a dead end.
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Dragnet 1969
"Juvenile (DR-19)"
Originally aired February 27, 1969
Xfinity said:
When Friday and Gannon investigate a child-abuse case, a young boy is reluctant to reveal who injured him.
Sgt. Joe Friday said:
This is the city: Los Angeles, California. With over 5,600 Little League Baseball teams in the city, its youngsters have a love for the game. After sixty-nine years in Brooklyn, the Dodger baseball team came west. They chose Los Angeles for their new home, and became the first Major League team on the West Coast. Their new stadium was built to accommodate 56,000 fans. In the first year in Dodger Stadium, 2,750,000 people watched the club play, a new Major League attendance record. Baseball is the sport of Americans; it teaches youngsters fair play. Sometimes they never seem to learn the lesson. When they don't, I go to work. I carry a badge.
That was on-topic for the division they're working in, at least...but the voiceover teaser between the opening credits and commercial break--usually quite brief--has Friday going into another, more story-specific monologue about child abuse.
Friday, January 17 (1969): Friday and Gannon, working the day watch out of Juvenile Division, are showing a book of pictures of abused children to a Mrs. Sadler (Cathleen Cordell), who heads a club that might raise awareness. We aren't shown the pictures, but Friday's descriptions get the contents across. He and Gannon then get a report of a missing boy named Chris Devon who was last seen at a bus stop where a bloody handkerchief was found. They talk to his mother (Elizabeth Knowles, whose delivery is very awkward) and get some information about the boys father, from whom she's divorced. A red flag is raised when her parting comment indicates that she's more concerned with how she'll clean the handkerchief than with Chris's welfare.
At Chris's school, the detectives are trying to get information from one of his friends when a uniformed officer brings in Chris himself (Logan Harbaugh), having found him in an abandoned car that he'd turned into a clubhouse. They have a look at his back and find severe welts (again unshown), which a doctor determines were probably caused by an electric cord. The detectives pay a call on the boy's father (Edward Faulkner), who instantly assumes that his ex-wife is responsible. He expresses his frustration over being cheated of his visitation rights and paints a picture of his wife having caused trouble that cost him multiple jobs. Because of all this, he's leaving the country, despite Friday guilting him with a zinger about how he's forgetting his son.
Back at the station, Mrs. Devon tells a story about how Chris had told her that some older boys beat him, and when Chris comes in his story mostly lines up with hers, but the instrument he says was used doesn't match the doctor's assessment. The detectives are surprised when Chris tells them that it doesn't hurt much. He offers, "Maybe I'm gettin' used to it." The detectives tell Mrs. Devon that they're arresting her, following which she goes into a spiel about how children need discipline, which includes this sign-o-the-times rationale: "If more parents disciplined their kids when they needed it, there's be a lot fewer hippies and drug users!" When the subject of her ex-husband comes up, she airs all of her grievances with him. Friday retorts, "Tell me something, Mrs. Devon, whose back did you swing at...your son's or your husband's?"
At a preliminary hearing, Mrs. Devon gets three years of probation under condition that she seeks psychiatric help. Friday insists on attending the boy's subsequent hearing on January 25, though it's not part of his duty. The judge afterward explains the factors that caused him to return the boy to his mother. Mrs. Devon expresses her indignation at Friday's presence, and he promises her that he'll be ready to jump on any further calls concerning her and Chris (except, of course, that he changes divisions every week).
Because the last part of the episode takes place in court, the Announcer only has this to say before the last commercial break:
In a moment, a conclusion on tonight's story.
He's not very chatty after the break, either, nor does he tell us anything that hadn't already been covered...
The Announcer and the mugshot said:
MRS. MARION DEVON
Now undergoing psychiatric treatment as a condition of her probation.
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He looks good for 80. Not even a touch of gray.
I got a kick out of one of the YouTube comments that I saw on the 7th...something along the lines of "I'll come back when this obviously 40-year-old man actually turns 80."
)...she said that she educated herself after her husband died. But immediately afterward Steve accused her of having bought phony diplomas (hanging in her office), and she didn't contradict him.
