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50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 2)
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Love, American Style
"Love and the Detective / Love and the Guilty Conscience / Love and the Mixed Marriage / Love and the Wake-Up Girl"
Originally aired October 15, 1971
In "Love and the Detective," newly mail-graduated PI Chuck Erickson (Charles Nelson Reilly) is just opening his office when a tough mobster type named Sal (Noam Pitlik) hires him to check out a dame he's interested in named Dawn (Louisa Moritz). When the showgirl comes home while Chuck's rummaging through her apartment, he hides under the brass bed while she undresses, then switches to the shower while she's on the phone, but that's the next place she goes. He manages to get out of there while she's letting the water run, but she catches him trying to get out her thoroughly locked door and she thinks that he's just come in, so he claims to be from building maintenance.
The fingerprints on items that Sal gave him turn up a rather extensive criminal record, but those turn out to have been from his prints. Chuck goes back to her place to plant a bug, which she catches him doing, but he claims that it's to detect termites. Apparently he starts dating her afterward, as next we see, Sal visits Chuck to have him find and rub out the guy who's been seeing Dawn. Chuck goes back to her place and Sal catches him there, but Dawn, who learns that Chuck's a detective, distracts Sal...though Chuck doesn't make good the opportunity, instead attempting to negotiate expenses. Ultimately Sal is driven out when he's told that he's being bugged, though it turns out that the bug isn't operative. Chuck and Dawn enjoy being alone at last.
A running gag during the segment is how Sal keeps threateningly breaking Chuck's equipment during his visits, including his tape recorder and phone.
"Love and the Guilty Conscience" has Steve Robinson (Sandy Baron) making an appointment with Elaine Brown (Jo Anne Worley) to sell her a vacuum cleaner. Steve's wife, Helen (Deborah Walley), is insecure about him going to see strange women. Meanwhile, Elaine is dealing with an extremely jealous husband, Bill (Richard X. Slattery), who accuses her of fooling around. When Steve gets to her Elaine's place, he very clumsily reads straight from the script, and Elaine just takes the appliance without a demonstration, worried about when Bill will return. Somebody comes to the door so she hides Steve, but it turns out to be the man she's actually been having an affair with, Jack (Henry Beckman). When somebody else comes to the door, she hides him, too. The next visitor is Mrs. Bernard (Doris Singleton), Jack's wife, who's there to confront Helen about fooling around with her husband. Elaine puts her in the bedroom when the mailman (Art Lewis) comes to deliver a letter from Bill. Elaine's trying to get Steve out when Helen arrives looking for him. Elaine reveals where he's been hastily placed--in the bedroom with Mrs. Bernard--but Helen ends up being pleased to learn that Steve made the sale. Next Jack is let out of the closet with a thin story that involves acting like he caught his wife snooping around on him. Everyone's left to reconcile and Elaine finally starts to relax when Bill finally returns, and gets upset to learn that the vacuum cleaner salesman was there.
"Love and the Mixed Marriage" opens with Cindy (Jill Choder) sneaking in the window to update John Burton (Wes Stern), who lives with his parents, about having just had a pregnancy test, the results of which are to be phoned to John. Cindy hides while John's mother (Alice Ghostley) tries to discourage him from hanging around with her. What she doesn't know is that they're secretly married. Mother, who's also expecting some test results from a doctor, takes a call for "Mrs. Burton" informing her that she's pregnant! She tells Mr. Burton (Joe Flynn), who's quite pleased, though she frets about how she's going to tell John. When John comes home, his dad is chomping at the bit to tell him the news, going on about what a special breed of men the Burtons are. Meanwhile, Mrs. B thinks she's already getting labor pains and cravings. John overhears his father dropping the p-word, and subsequently finds out about the call and follow up with the office, only telling his parents that his mother's file was mixed up with somebody else's. Mr. B then takes a call from Cindy's mother and finds out that Cindy's pregnant by John, and John reveals that they're already married. Dad is proud and Mom quickly adjusts to the situation, welcoming Cindy to the family.
"Love and the Wake-Up Girl" has answering service voice Ann (E.J. Peaker) pining from afar over Phil Chester (Dick Patterson), whom she sends wake-up calls to in his brass bed and helps to arrange blind dates. When she takes a message that his latest date, Mabel, is canceling, she gets dolled up and takes the girl's place. Phil knows more about the real Mabel than Ann does, from his friend, Harve (Ron Masak), who set them up; but Fake Mabel, in turn, knows a lot more about Phil than he expects. When Ann learns that she's impersonating a topless dancer, she tries to make an exit, but Mabel's boyfriend, Sonny (Norman Grabowski), shows up at the door angrily looking for her. Ann's about to confess when Phil gets a direct call from the real Mabel. Ann reveals that she's the answering service girl and Phil puts Sonny on the phone with Mabel, setting them on the road to reconciliation. Once they're alone again, Phil starts to take a romantic liking to Ann.
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All in the Family
"Flashback: Mike Meets Archie"
Originally aired October 16, 1971
Mike repeatedly tries to call the house to be hung up on by Archie. Gloria tells Archie that she wants to marry that meathead, and it turns out that Archie's afraid of losing his little girl. Edith's optimism that things will turn around pays off as Mike shows up at the door. Another shouting match ensues and Mike doesn't want to stay, but Edith pleads for Archie to let him come in for dinner. At first the men don't want to talk to each other, but Gloria brings up Mike's interest in baseball, which they're finally starting to bond over when Archie complains about Jackie Robinson being brought into the game in 1947. As the next outburst erupts, Archie learns that the kids plan to get married and have Mike live with them for four years while he's in college.
Cut back to the present and a one-candled anniversary cake that Archie impatiently blows out while Mike and Gloria are smooching. I guess the wedding flashback was a separate episode, which I think I saw in first run.
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The Mary Tyler Moore Show
"A Girl's Best Mother Is Not Her Friend"
Originally aired October 16, 1971
Nancy Walker returns for her second of four appearances as Ida Morgenstern on this series, before spinning off into a more frequently recurring presence on Rhoda. Ida is visiting for a week, and Rhoda's pad looks pinker than I remember. Right off the bat, Rhoda tries to match Mary with an eligible gentile whom she met. However, contrary to the Wiki description, the main plot is about Ida trying to be more of a friend to Rhoda than a mother. She's spurred to do this when she notices that Bess calls her mother Phyllis, following which Phyllis shows Ida some books. Ida ends up driving Rhoda crazy by doing things like going on the same diet as Rhoda and buying the same dress. Nevertheless, Ida can't help worrying about Rhoda being out on a late date. When Rhoda comes home, she recruits Ida's help to get rid of her lecherous date, and Ida snaps right back into mother mode.
At the station, Ida sits at Mary's desk and ends up bringing Lou some coffee; he doesn't know who she is.
I seem to recall that Mary's nightie came up before in relation to a recent episode establishing that she wore flannel pajamas. I have to say, by the family-friendly standards of period TV that I've watched to date, the sequence of Mary scurrying about the apartment in her super-short new sleepwear seemed downright gratuitous...not that I'm complaining.
In one bit of business, Phyllis and Bess are going to a PTA benefit production of Hair.
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Mission: Impossible
"Shape-Up"
Originally aired October 16, 1971
The episode opens with Leonard Morgan (Anthony Caruso) pressuring dockside warehouse strongman Frank Delaney (Gerald S. O'Loughlin) to deal with a longshoreman under his employ who's planning to testify before a grand jury. Delaney has big, blond henchman Mike Saunders (Christopher Stone) topple a crate on the guy while he's operating a forklift.
Pinstripe Willy approaches Saunders at a dockside bar asking him to keep an eye on Delaney on behalf of his friends uptown, while Swedish Cap'n Jim watches. Barney gets a job in Delaney's warehouse, and promptly gets to work sneaking around and sabotaging stuff. Casey pays Delaney and his wife, Jenny (Grace Albertson), a visit posing as Murphy's daughter, whom they haven't seen in many years. Uncle Frank catches her in the middle of reacting to a claimed visitation from her father's ghost. The ship that Delaney killed Murphy on, the Orion (I think there was drinking involved), is towed into Delaney's port with a new name and engine trouble, and Delaney goes to Cap'n Jim to demand that he take it out. Jim emphasizes superstition surrounding the man who was killed aboard her.
A Barneyfied thermostat causes crates of spray paint to explode and spill all over linen stacked below them, which causes Morgan to threaten Delaney on behalf of his boss, known as Mr. C. Delaney demands Casey leave, feeling that his trouble started with her arrival. At the bar, Barney mockingly questions Cap'n Jim about the alleged haunting of the Orion in front of several dock workers. Delaney has Jim brought to him and orders him to sail out in the morning. The next morning, Jim claims to Delaney that his crew abandoned him because of the haunting (though we never see any signs of a crew in the first place). Delaney catches Casey near the ship, claiming that her father's coming home. Delaney has Mike date Casey to find out what she's up to. While he's taking her out, another henchman (an uncredited Ron Nyman) breaks into her pad to have a look around. He finds a sealed letter from Casey for whoever might find it if she's killed, saying that she's working to prove that Delaney killed her father. Delaney calls Mike and orders him to get rid of her. Willy delays him, asking about the warehouse accident on behalf of his "friends".
Mike drives Casey to a secluded dockside location and starts to strangle her, but she uses the trusty ol' IMF knockout ring and switches cars with a waiting Willy. Barney causes another warehouse accident, making sprinklers burst over sacks of coffee, following which Delaney tries to convince Morgan that all of this isn't a coincidence. Delaney calls for a replacement crew for the Orion, with Barney intercepting the call. Lt. Orcott visits Delaney to put pressure on him. The second henchman, whose name seems to be Ben Haggerty from a later reference, catches Jim doing something in the engine room and takes shots at him, but is TV Fu'ed by Willy. Delaney boards the ship to find Cap'n Jim hanging in a noose.
Jim is hauled out via ambulance, still alive with the help of a concealed harness. Morgan gets a pressuring call from Mr. C. Barney, holding Saunders prisoner, tries to blackmail him into cooperating with him, claiming to have seen him kill Casey and dump the body. Ultimately holding Saunders at gunpoint, Barney has him call Delaney to arrange a meeting on the Orion. Afterward, Barney lets Saunders overhear a phone call making it seem that this is a trap set by Morgan, who's responsible for stringing up Cap'n Jim. Saunders breaks out of his locked room as planned and fake shoots Barney with his own gun. After he leaves, Barney calls Morgan telling him that Delaney hung himself on the Orion. Then he calls Mr. C with a faked tape of Delaney asking for a meeting on the Orion. Delaney goes to the Orion and finds a noose, and Saunders shows up to spill the fake beans about Morgan. Morgan arrives and is promptly shot by Delaney. Willy gets the drop on them in his role as one of Mr. C's men and Delaney shares his plan to make Morgan's death look like suicide by hanging (never mind that gunshot wound). Mr. C shows up (Robert Mandan; they wasted Tom Bosley on the wrong role), Delaney tells him everything that he thinks he knows, and Mr. C wants to see the noose. It's not there, and Cap'n Jim pops up alive, making Delaney look unhinged. Mr. C leaves one of his men behind to deal with Delaney for the good of the Syndicate, following which Lt. Orcott swoops in just in time to offer Delaney a ride. Jim and Willy debark to be picked up by Barney, Mission: Accomplished.
Everyone in the episode who says the ship's name pronounces it "OR-ee-on," like in the TAS episode "The Pirates of Orion".
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50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 2)
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Love, American Style
"Love and the Detective / Love and the Guilty Conscience / Love and the Mixed Marriage / Love and the Wake-Up Girl"
Originally aired October 15, 1971
In "Love and the Detective," newly mail-graduated PI Chuck Erickson (Charles Nelson Reilly) is just opening his office when a tough mobster type named Sal (Noam Pitlik) hires him to check out a dame he's interested in named Dawn (Louisa Moritz). When the showgirl comes home while Chuck's rummaging through her apartment, he hides under the brass bed while she undresses, then switches to the shower while she's on the phone, but that's the next place she goes. He manages to get out of there while she's letting the water run, but she catches him trying to get out her thoroughly locked door and she thinks that he's just come in, so he claims to be from building maintenance.
The fingerprints on items that Sal gave him turn up a rather extensive criminal record, but those turn out to have been from his prints. Chuck goes back to her place to plant a bug, which she catches him doing, but he claims that it's to detect termites. Apparently he starts dating her afterward, as next we see, Sal visits Chuck to have him find and rub out the guy who's been seeing Dawn. Chuck goes back to her place and Sal catches him there, but Dawn, who learns that Chuck's a detective, distracts Sal...though Chuck doesn't make good the opportunity, instead attempting to negotiate expenses. Ultimately Sal is driven out when he's told that he's being bugged, though it turns out that the bug isn't operative. Chuck and Dawn enjoy being alone at last.
A running gag during the segment is how Sal keeps threateningly breaking Chuck's equipment during his visits, including his tape recorder and phone.
"Love and the Guilty Conscience" has Steve Robinson (Sandy Baron) making an appointment with Elaine Brown (Jo Anne Worley) to sell her a vacuum cleaner. Steve's wife, Helen (Deborah Walley), is insecure about him going to see strange women. Meanwhile, Elaine is dealing with an extremely jealous husband, Bill (Richard X. Slattery), who accuses her of fooling around. When Steve gets to her Elaine's place, he very clumsily reads straight from the script, and Elaine just takes the appliance without a demonstration, worried about when Bill will return. Somebody comes to the door so she hides Steve, but it turns out to be the man she's actually been having an affair with, Jack (Henry Beckman). When somebody else comes to the door, she hides him, too. The next visitor is Mrs. Bernard (Doris Singleton), Jack's wife, who's there to confront Helen about fooling around with her husband. Elaine puts her in the bedroom when the mailman (Art Lewis) comes to deliver a letter from Bill. Elaine's trying to get Steve out when Helen arrives looking for him. Elaine reveals where he's been hastily placed--in the bedroom with Mrs. Bernard--but Helen ends up being pleased to learn that Steve made the sale. Next Jack is let out of the closet with a thin story that involves acting like he caught his wife snooping around on him. Everyone's left to reconcile and Elaine finally starts to relax when Bill finally returns, and gets upset to learn that the vacuum cleaner salesman was there.
"Love and the Mixed Marriage" opens with Cindy (Jill Choder) sneaking in the window to update John Burton (Wes Stern), who lives with his parents, about having just had a pregnancy test, the results of which are to be phoned to John. Cindy hides while John's mother (Alice Ghostley) tries to discourage him from hanging around with her. What she doesn't know is that they're secretly married. Mother, who's also expecting some test results from a doctor, takes a call for "Mrs. Burton" informing her that she's pregnant! She tells Mr. Burton (Joe Flynn), who's quite pleased, though she frets about how she's going to tell John. When John comes home, his dad is chomping at the bit to tell him the news, going on about what a special breed of men the Burtons are. Meanwhile, Mrs. B thinks she's already getting labor pains and cravings. John overhears his father dropping the p-word, and subsequently finds out about the call and follow up with the office, only telling his parents that his mother's file was mixed up with somebody else's. Mr. B then takes a call from Cindy's mother and finds out that Cindy's pregnant by John, and John reveals that they're already married. Dad is proud and Mom quickly adjusts to the situation, welcoming Cindy to the family.
"Love and the Wake-Up Girl" has answering service voice Ann (E.J. Peaker) pining from afar over Phil Chester (Dick Patterson), whom she sends wake-up calls to in his brass bed and helps to arrange blind dates. When she takes a message that his latest date, Mabel, is canceling, she gets dolled up and takes the girl's place. Phil knows more about the real Mabel than Ann does, from his friend, Harve (Ron Masak), who set them up; but Fake Mabel, in turn, knows a lot more about Phil than he expects. When Ann learns that she's impersonating a topless dancer, she tries to make an exit, but Mabel's boyfriend, Sonny (Norman Grabowski), shows up at the door angrily looking for her. Ann's about to confess when Phil gets a direct call from the real Mabel. Ann reveals that she's the answering service girl and Phil puts Sonny on the phone with Mabel, setting them on the road to reconciliation. Once they're alone again, Phil starts to take a romantic liking to Ann.
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All in the Family
"Flashback: Mike Meets Archie"
Originally aired October 16, 1971
Most uselessly redundant episode description ever! The framing occasion is supposed to be Mike and Gloria's first wedding anniversary, which I just realized isn't a continuity issue in real time because the show started as a mid-season pickup. Mike brings home Chinese for the anniversary dinner, and everybody has their own method of using the chopsticks except Archie, who insists on being brought a fork. A discussion ensues in which Archie drops the C-slur many times, and gets in a G-slur along the way. A comment of Mike about how Archie's been putting him down since they day they met leads to Edith kicking off a shared flashback of a night "stamped inedibly" on Archie's heart, when Mike first came to the house for dinner. Flashback Archie grouches about how far out of their way Edith and a pigtailed Gloria are going to make a good impression. When Mike shows up in tie-dies, a pendant, and a full beard, he doesn't make a very good impression on Archie. He does have a firm handshake, though, which Edith considers crucial. But Mike makes the cardinal mistake of helping himself to Archie's chair. Archie pries about Mike's last name to learn that he's of Polish descent. They get into their first argument over a story in the paper about an antiwar demonstration, and Archie uses the M-word for the first time, explaining that Mike's "dead from the neck up". By the time the ladies return to the room, Mike's screaming at Archie while Archie's trying to drown him out with a rendition of "God Bless America".Wiki said:
Mike repeatedly tries to call the house to be hung up on by Archie. Gloria tells Archie that she wants to marry that meathead, and it turns out that Archie's afraid of losing his little girl. Edith's optimism that things will turn around pays off as Mike shows up at the door. Another shouting match ensues and Mike doesn't want to stay, but Edith pleads for Archie to let him come in for dinner. At first the men don't want to talk to each other, but Gloria brings up Mike's interest in baseball, which they're finally starting to bond over when Archie complains about Jackie Robinson being brought into the game in 1947. As the next outburst erupts, Archie learns that the kids plan to get married and have Mike live with them for four years while he's in college.
Cut back to the present and a one-candled anniversary cake that Archie impatiently blows out while Mike and Gloria are smooching. I guess the wedding flashback was a separate episode, which I think I saw in first run.
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The Mary Tyler Moore Show
"A Girl's Best Mother Is Not Her Friend"
Originally aired October 16, 1971
Wiki said:
Nancy Walker returns for her second of four appearances as Ida Morgenstern on this series, before spinning off into a more frequently recurring presence on Rhoda. Ida is visiting for a week, and Rhoda's pad looks pinker than I remember. Right off the bat, Rhoda tries to match Mary with an eligible gentile whom she met. However, contrary to the Wiki description, the main plot is about Ida trying to be more of a friend to Rhoda than a mother. She's spurred to do this when she notices that Bess calls her mother Phyllis, following which Phyllis shows Ida some books. Ida ends up driving Rhoda crazy by doing things like going on the same diet as Rhoda and buying the same dress. Nevertheless, Ida can't help worrying about Rhoda being out on a late date. When Rhoda comes home, she recruits Ida's help to get rid of her lecherous date, and Ida snaps right back into mother mode.
At the station, Ida sits at Mary's desk and ends up bringing Lou some coffee; he doesn't know who she is.
I seem to recall that Mary's nightie came up before in relation to a recent episode establishing that she wore flannel pajamas. I have to say, by the family-friendly standards of period TV that I've watched to date, the sequence of Mary scurrying about the apartment in her super-short new sleepwear seemed downright gratuitous...not that I'm complaining.
In one bit of business, Phyllis and Bess are going to a PTA benefit production of Hair.
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Mission: Impossible
"Shape-Up"
Originally aired October 16, 1971
Wiki said:
The episode opens with Leonard Morgan (Anthony Caruso) pressuring dockside warehouse strongman Frank Delaney (Gerald S. O'Loughlin) to deal with a longshoreman under his employ who's planning to testify before a grand jury. Delaney has big, blond henchman Mike Saunders (Christopher Stone) topple a crate on the guy while he's operating a forklift.
So another ticking clock that leaves an unlikely turnaround for devising and enacting a highly detailed operation...though I don't think the grand jury timetable was referenced again in the episode. The team consults with police lieutenant Bill Orcott (Lonny Chapman), who was friends with Delaney and his old work pal, Tom Murphy, whom Delaney offed when he started working for the Syndicate.The miniature reel-to-reel tape in a closed rug crafting shop said:
Pinstripe Willy approaches Saunders at a dockside bar asking him to keep an eye on Delaney on behalf of his friends uptown, while Swedish Cap'n Jim watches. Barney gets a job in Delaney's warehouse, and promptly gets to work sneaking around and sabotaging stuff. Casey pays Delaney and his wife, Jenny (Grace Albertson), a visit posing as Murphy's daughter, whom they haven't seen in many years. Uncle Frank catches her in the middle of reacting to a claimed visitation from her father's ghost. The ship that Delaney killed Murphy on, the Orion (I think there was drinking involved), is towed into Delaney's port with a new name and engine trouble, and Delaney goes to Cap'n Jim to demand that he take it out. Jim emphasizes superstition surrounding the man who was killed aboard her.
A Barneyfied thermostat causes crates of spray paint to explode and spill all over linen stacked below them, which causes Morgan to threaten Delaney on behalf of his boss, known as Mr. C. Delaney demands Casey leave, feeling that his trouble started with her arrival. At the bar, Barney mockingly questions Cap'n Jim about the alleged haunting of the Orion in front of several dock workers. Delaney has Jim brought to him and orders him to sail out in the morning. The next morning, Jim claims to Delaney that his crew abandoned him because of the haunting (though we never see any signs of a crew in the first place). Delaney catches Casey near the ship, claiming that her father's coming home. Delaney has Mike date Casey to find out what she's up to. While he's taking her out, another henchman (an uncredited Ron Nyman) breaks into her pad to have a look around. He finds a sealed letter from Casey for whoever might find it if she's killed, saying that she's working to prove that Delaney killed her father. Delaney calls Mike and orders him to get rid of her. Willy delays him, asking about the warehouse accident on behalf of his "friends".
Mike drives Casey to a secluded dockside location and starts to strangle her, but she uses the trusty ol' IMF knockout ring and switches cars with a waiting Willy. Barney causes another warehouse accident, making sprinklers burst over sacks of coffee, following which Delaney tries to convince Morgan that all of this isn't a coincidence. Delaney calls for a replacement crew for the Orion, with Barney intercepting the call. Lt. Orcott visits Delaney to put pressure on him. The second henchman, whose name seems to be Ben Haggerty from a later reference, catches Jim doing something in the engine room and takes shots at him, but is TV Fu'ed by Willy. Delaney boards the ship to find Cap'n Jim hanging in a noose.
Jim is hauled out via ambulance, still alive with the help of a concealed harness. Morgan gets a pressuring call from Mr. C. Barney, holding Saunders prisoner, tries to blackmail him into cooperating with him, claiming to have seen him kill Casey and dump the body. Ultimately holding Saunders at gunpoint, Barney has him call Delaney to arrange a meeting on the Orion. Afterward, Barney lets Saunders overhear a phone call making it seem that this is a trap set by Morgan, who's responsible for stringing up Cap'n Jim. Saunders breaks out of his locked room as planned and fake shoots Barney with his own gun. After he leaves, Barney calls Morgan telling him that Delaney hung himself on the Orion. Then he calls Mr. C with a faked tape of Delaney asking for a meeting on the Orion. Delaney goes to the Orion and finds a noose, and Saunders shows up to spill the fake beans about Morgan. Morgan arrives and is promptly shot by Delaney. Willy gets the drop on them in his role as one of Mr. C's men and Delaney shares his plan to make Morgan's death look like suicide by hanging (never mind that gunshot wound). Mr. C shows up (Robert Mandan; they wasted Tom Bosley on the wrong role), Delaney tells him everything that he thinks he knows, and Mr. C wants to see the noose. It's not there, and Cap'n Jim pops up alive, making Delaney look unhinged. Mr. C leaves one of his men behind to deal with Delaney for the good of the Syndicate, following which Lt. Orcott swoops in just in time to offer Delaney a ride. Jim and Willy debark to be picked up by Barney, Mission: Accomplished.
Everyone in the episode who says the ship's name pronounces it "OR-ee-on," like in the TAS episode "The Pirates of Orion".
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Not at all dissimilar from how he explained it to Five-O.
Made some wry, scathing comments, no doubt.
What fictitious drummer? They were setting up Punky as Danny's replacement on bass. They were saying that this guy actually ghost-bassed Paul on the Beatles' records. "Those old Beatle records" would have been the ones that everybody knew.
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I'll give that much to the Boomers...overall, they aged pretty well. Older generations were definitely older younger.
