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50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 2)
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The Brady Bunch
"The Drummer Boy"
Originally aired January 22, 1971
Wiki said:
Bobby is depressed after being rejected from joining the Glee Club, so Mike suggests a musical instrument. He chooses the drums, but his talentless efforts drive the family and the neighbors crazy. Peter is relentlessly teased because he plays football and sings for the Glee Club. Just as he is about to quit the Glee Club, he and the other football players learn a lesson from Los Angeles Rams defensive end Deacon Jones.
Guest stars: Bart LaRue as the coach, Jimmy Bracken as Larry, Pierre Williams as Jimmy, Dennis McDougal as Freddy
Peter, Jan, and Cindy all got in the Glee Club, and Bobby's bad singing becomes an object of ridicule among the other kids. The parents try to comfort him, and Mike suggests that Bobby try an instrument...so he picks out a drum set. Bobby's cacophonous practicing disturbs everyone, so the parents try to talk to him, but can't bring themselves to further discourage him. Mike eventually gets the idea to set up the garage as his studio, but the neighbors complain.
Meanwhile, Deacon Jones starts popping up at Peter's football practice because he's a friend of the coach. Peter's late to practice because of Glee Club, and the other boys on the team make fun. At the next practice, Peter takes more of a ribbing, so he wants to quit Glee Club, though the parents try to talk him out of it. But when Larry makes fun of Peter in front of Deacon, the celebrity guest rebukes him because he's part of a singing group with some teammates, and encourages Peter to stick with the club. Afterward, Peter tells the parents that a lot of guys on the team are now trying out.
Bobby then talks about quitting playing the drums, and Mike and Carol, in contrast with the Peter situation, steer him into going through with it. But it turns ot that he's switching instruments with another kid at school, trading in his drums for a bugle. Needless to say, his bugle playing is terrible. In the coda, Mike brings home a baton for Bobby, figuring that it will be a noiseless option, but Bobby starts breaking things in the house.
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The Partridge Family
"Why Did the Music Stop?"
Originally aired January 22, 1971
Wiki said:
Shirley has doubts about what being on the road is doing to the Partridges' lives so she suggests they take a break and start living like a normal family again. But she forgets one thing: they're not a normal family.
Guest Star: Richard Mulligan as Dr. Jim Lucas
Songs: "I'm Here, You're Here"; "I Can Feel Your Heartbeat"
Shirley runs into an old friend, Mabel (Reva Rose), at the grocery store, who lays it on thick about how Shirley's a big star, which gets her worried about show biz corrupting the kids. Switch to a small-scale club gig were the band is playing "I'm Here, You're Here":
Shirley starts fussing over the kids in the dressing room afterward, and declares that they're all going to the doctor for a checkup. At the pediatrician's office, she runs into her curly-mustached visiting former obstetrician, Dr. Lucas, who delivered Tracy. He later calls the house for a date, which Shirley can't make because of a gig. At dinner, she suggests that they take a break for six months, which Danny considers to be career suicide...but discussing it among the kids, Laurie argues for it on the basis that Mom is the one who needs a normal social life. So they go back to her with their unanimous decision to quit.
But while Shirley tries to impose some normal activity on the kids, they're clearly bored out of their minds. As Dr. Lucas hasn't called, Danny lures him over to make sure he knows that Shirley's still in town. Once they're alone together, he starts nervously talking about a question that he's been meaning to ask Shirley, but he's called away by a patient who's going into labor. On a follow-up date at his place, he confesses that he's been keeping tabs on her, and dropped by Dr. Michaels's office while she was there deliberately. But when she returns home to the kids clearly enjoying playing "I Can Feel Your Heartbeat" in the garage, she reveals that he wanted Shirley to have a look at some songs he'd written! In the coda, things are back to normal (of course), and Reuben, Keith, and Danny have been taking an interest in rescoring Lucas's songs.
Story-wise, it seems like this one came way too close to the episode in which Shirley had to temporarily leave the band.
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Love, American Style
"Love and the Cake / Love and Murphy's Bed / Love and the Neighbor / Love and the Serious Wedding"
Originally aired January 22, 1971
"Love and the Serious Wedding" opens with Louise (E.J. Peaker) being delivered her gorilla suit-wearing boyfriend, Ralph (Paul Winchell), in a cage. Demonstrating what a joker he is, Ralph changes into a superhero costume. He pops the question, and when she accepts, he starts planning for how to stage their wedding as a big gag, but while she usually shares his sense of humor, Louise declares that she wants the wedding to be "absolutely straight". But Ralph can't comply for the rehearsal, coming in through the window and gluing the best man and maid of honor's (Ed Peck and Rosanna Huffman) shoes to the platform they're standing on. At the wedding, the minister's (Arthur Malet) words leading up to the "speak now or forever hold your peace" part heavily emphasize the seriousness of the occasion...then somebody in a gorilla suit (lacking a credit, I'm guessing Janos Prohaska) bursts in, Louise recognizes him as an old boyfriend who was shot down in WWII, and he carries her off. While the minister is horrified, Ralph declares that it's Louise's best gag ever and runs after her!
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Mission: Impossible
"The Field"
Originally aired January 23, 1971
Wiki said:
In order to help Barney cross an enemy minefield and destroy a nuclear satellite, Paris impersonates the American defector who designed the minefield. But when the real defector is accused of murder, the enemy forces take Paris into custody and reactivate the mines, with Barney trapped inside the field.
On an island in the Adriatic Sea, the enemy nation of the week launches their satellite on a Saturn V rocket; the project's commander is General Marin (Barry Atwater).
The miniature reel-to-reel tape in the back of the art shop again said:
Good morning, Mr. Phelps. This satellite, launched this morning by a hostile power, contains several thermonuclear bombs, each large enough to destroy any capital city in the world. Controls for the weapon, which is designed for international blackmail, are situated on this fortified island in the Adriatic. The installation is protected by a sophisticated minefield designed by an American defector, Arthur Norris [Denny Miller], and considered to be impenetrable.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to destroy the satellite. As always, should you or any member of your IM Force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck, Jim!
The mines can only be disarmed from Marin's control center, and Barney has to get past them to get to a separate bunker where he can bring down the satellite. Norris, whom Paris will be posing as, is described as an unstable gambler and womanizer. Paris acknowledges that Norris's body type is too different for a disguise, so fortunately, nobody currently on the island is supposed to have met him. Jim sneaks into a government office to use a developed-on-the-spot X-ray photo to break into a safe where the minefield schematic is kept. Barney then scubas onto the island. Paris and Doug pay a visit to Norris's place, with Doug packing heat--a relatively rare part of our IMFers' M.O. Real Norris is with his ladyfriend, Kathrine Berat (Patricia Priest), but catches her making a call after he's supposed to have left and shoots her on the spot; then disposes of the body but sloppily leaves her handbag in his vehicle. (I guess Denny Miller really is typecast--the main difference here being that he actually did it.) When he returns to his place, he's knockout-drug-ringed immediately so Paris can take his place.
Barney detonates some mines with a rocket launcher so that Marin will have Fake Norris brought to the island to check it out. Norris persuades them to deactivate that section of the minefield, allowing Barney to get in and do his thing. But back on the mainland, Inspector Koder (Milton Selzer)--for whom Kathrine was spying on Norris--is on the murder case, and quickly zeroes in on his suspect. So Marin gets a call to
take "Norris" into custody and have him brought back to the mainland for questioning; and the section of minefield is reactivated with Barney trapped inside it. At Norris's apartment, Koder and his lieutenant talk loudly about what's going on for the benefit of three hiding IMFers--Koder misses them, as well as Real Norris, who's drugged in a closet. They revive Norris and question him under the pretense that he's been given something potentially fatal. Then Jim and Doug get into Secret Police uniforms to infiltrate HQ, prioritizing drugging Koder before he can get in to see Paris, as the inspector actually knows what Norris looks like.
Paris stalls the questioning, not knowing what the rest of the team is up to. Then Dana is brought in as a surprise witness to the murder--her story checking out as her details match what the police found. Taking his cues from her act of being a jealous rival love interest, Paris accuses her of having killed Kathrine, and she eventually breaks down and confesses, following which she's escorted out by Doug. Paris is allowed to make an emergency call to the island, where he has the section of minefield deactivated again. He drives off with the other landbound IMFers, while Barney does his wetsuit thing. Mission: Accomplished.
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The Mary Tyler Moore Show
"Second Story Story"
Originally aired January 23, 1971
Wiki said:
Mary's apartment is burglarized, twice.
After spilling some of Lou's liquor on herself while pouring him a drink, Mary goes home to change and finds that the clothes in her closet are gone. Only after officers Jackson and Tully (Vic Tayback and Bob Dishy) respond to Mary's call does she realize that her TV and stereo are also gone. After buying new clothes, she comes home from work to find that her place has been much more thoroughly cleaned out, including her books and most of the furniture. Phyllis saw a truck, but her memory of its appearance and license number seem dubious. At work the next day, the others bring Mary various hand-me-down items to refurnish her apartment. Tully calls her with news that they might have a suspect at the station (where Mary has a conversation with an old man played by Burt Mustin). Tully, now dressed in a suit, tells her that they spotted a phony charity truck and has her identify some of her things. In the coda, her apartment is back to normal and she has to give Phyllis a series of excuses to get out of attending a dermitoligists' organization meeting.
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The Chief: That I am.
At some point in the Webbverse, Malloy and Reed got promoted to
Dragnet.
I always pictured Malloy being promoted to Mac's job...they even later had him sub for Mac on at least one occasion.
reaction from you...
I personally prefer "Get Off of My Cloud," but it was first and foremost "Satisfaction" redux...and it worked!
