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50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 1)
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Hawaii Five-O
"Draw Me a Killer"
Originally aired September 18, 1973
Wiki said:
McGarrett attempts to solve the riddle of a series of four apparently motiveless slayings that occur at six-week intervals, and his investigations lead him to the comic strip section of a daily newspaper.
Speaking of the Corn Flakes box, we open with Elliott Street walking down his namesake and consulting a newspaper strip panel in which a villain named Ling Po threatens a heroine named Judy Moon. Elliot's character, Arthur, proceeds to the pawn shop of Ho Toy (Clement Low), whom he addresses by the villain's name, confronting him about being mean to Judy Moon, and finally pulling out a pistol to shoot him. Arthur returns to his digs in his dog grooming van, moons over Judy in a strip that he has hanging on his wall, and crosses out mean ol' Ling Po. The crime is determined not to have been a robbery (It never is, is it?), and McGarrett links this murder to two others in the same area using bullets from the same gun and the same pattern of fire, though the victims--the other two being a bank V.P. and a Navy sailor from Iowa--seem unrelated. Chin finds that an expensive brooch belonging to the banker's widow was pawned to Ho Toy. Mrs. Royce (Audrey Totter)--clearly not broken up about her husband's death and now sunning with a young boy toy--indicates that the brooch was stolen by a maid and she had it tracked down and redeemed it. At Arthur's job, we see how his obsession with Judy Moon affects his daily life, as his boss, Verna (Nora Marlowe), chides him about it (as he always takes the strip from her paper), and he talks about Judy to one of the shaggy customers. (I hope Judy isn't threatened by hounds tomorrow...!) Arthur leaves his customer in the van as he takes a break at a lunch counter, where he sees a young woman named Mary (Susan Foster) who bears an uncanny resemblance to Judy, and stalks her back to her job at an insurance agency.
Brainstorming about the murders, McGarrett (who now has a habit of snapping his fingers repeatedly as he's thinking, assuming that I hadn't missed it before or forgotten it) finds another pattern--that the shootings happened neatly six weeks apart from one another. Back at the grooming shop, Arthur is reading the latest strip to one of his customers...
Arthur: Oh, Tinker Bell...I can't let that lawyer cheat Judy Moon out of her money--I just can't!
...and we see just how disturbed he is when he chokes up on the innocent pooch's collar! Arthur proceeds to steal the Yellow Pages out of a phone booth and lets his fingers do some of the walking as he checks around on all the law offices...then, following a "clue" from the strip, he checks the county courthouse, where he sits in on a trial in which the defense attorney, John G. Lott (not
that George Kennedy), happens to resemble the shyster in the comic.
Lott's body is subsequently found shot in the same way outside his office building, and this time they find a two-day-old paper under the body, with blood smeared on the
Judy Moon strip. Later, at the only barber in Honolulu who uses Kryptonian scissors, Steve's waiting for his appointment when his attention is drawn by the
Judy Moon strip in the paper. Playing a hunch, he calls a newspaper contact and has him send the last 26 weeks of comics pages. McGarrett subsequently assembles the 5-Oers, including Che, along with a psychiatrist, Dr. Bishop (Jean Tarrant), to show them slides of the murder victims next to then-current villains in the Judy Moon strip whom they each resembled. The doctor diagnoses the killer as a paranoid schizophrenic who feels protective of Judy, and pretty accurately deduces his physical characteristics and living conditions. McGarrett then arranges to have the strip's artist, Lowell Palmer (Tom Hatten), fly out from Chicago to set up the killer's next victim--
Danno!
Palmer makes Danno's character a crooked cop whom Judy gets romantically tangled up with; and McGarrett has the artist cut down the storyline to three weeks, because they've got 22 more cases to work on this season. A montage ensues of Arthur reading the strips out loud to one of the poor dogs, doing the voices of the characters. When Officer Danny is ordered by a mob boss to silence Judy, Arthur loiters around HPD HQ looking for him...while Danno is being fitted with his temporary uniform. Eventually Arthur sees Danno coming down an escalator, and goes to the real-life Judy to tell her that everything's going to be okay, he's on the case. Later he's staking out the HPD parking lot when he sees Mary pulling in and tries to stop her from going in. She screams for help and Danno happens to be outside to respond. Arthur runs off, but Miss Farmer is brought to 5-O HQ to obligatorily look through the mugshots, then work with a police artist. Eventually Donner works up a pretty good sketch of Elliott Street. 5-O subsequently tails Danno as he walks the neighborhood of the murders in his uniform and wired. Officer Danny is called into an alley by Arthur, who gets him at gunpoint and asks him why he wants to hurt Judy Moon. Danno stalls Arthur while McGarrett accesses the alley through a building, giving Danno a doorway to duck into as Steve comes out ready for action, taking out Arthur's leg in an exchange of fire. Arthur lies in the alley crying over who'll take care of Judy now...
Between this and the prior episode in which Street played a developmentally disabled character, I've gotta say that he was really good.
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Adam-12
"Rampart Division: The Senior Citizens"
Originally aired September 19, 1973
The first sentence on Wiki said:
Malloy and Reed patrol a neighborhood of Los Angeles inhabited by a large retired population.
Jim teasingly refers to Pete as the Strawberry Fox (a real-life fan nickname for Milner) while questioning him about a big party that he was supposed to have attended the night before. At a cemetery entrance, the officers see a man running with a purse and pursue him with siren on through the cemetery, though he escapes by climbing over a wall. They talk to the victim, a Mrs. Hong Toy (Beulah Quo) who was visiting her husband. (Was he recently shot in Honolulu by Elliott Street?)
Passing an old folks' home, the officers discuss seniors and retirement. They're flagged down by George Foster (Bill Quinn), a former cop turned security guard at a halfway house who claims to have a tip regarding a big dope deal. Reed listens to what he has to say, and when he's about to leave, Foster offers tips and starts reminiscing about the good ol' days. Pete pretends to have received a call to break away, and explains to Jim afterward that George's problem is that he was a cop all his life and never learned to talk to civilians.
The officers stop again when they see a man named Harold Tanner (Jim Boles) breaking into a car. He initially claims to have lost his keys; then admits that it's not his car but explains in a disarming manner how he's desperate to get home to Missouri, where his son has a job waiting for him. The minister who's driving the church-owned car (Lindsay Workman) wants to let the matter go, but the officers take him in because he has three warrants for grand theft auto.
Reed gets a seven approved so that the officers can get out to witness a Mrs. Baker (Elizabeth Kerr) attacking a Mr. Morton (Ian Wolfe), claiming that he's been acting lecherous toward her. Baker proudly tells the officers that her son's coming to pick her up. The apartment manager (Natalie Masters) sends her back in and Mr. Morton reveals that she's being evicted, further explaining that his "indecent proposal" was offering to let her stay in his apartment...volunteering that at his age, he has no "indecent" left in him. While the officers are inside their seven stop across the street looking at the menu, they find Mrs. Baker attempting to break the windshield, and comply with her intention by taking her in.
Getting out of the car to patrol a park on foot, the officers break up an altercation between men billed as Antonio (Felipe Turich) and Jose (Natividad Vacio). Antonio tells Reed that Jose stole $5 that he got from donating blood and dropped on the ground; Jose makes the same claim. The officers settle the dispute by having both men roll up their sleeves, finding a round bandage on the inside of Antonio's arm. The officers then hear a woman (Carmen Zapata) crying out about her nino and see a baby carriage rolling downhill into the lake. They effortlessly pull out the carriage and hand the baby to the woman, whom Reed converses with in Spanish, impressing Malloy.
Reed calls in for the code seven that got interrupted last time and is unprecedentedly approved for a second--he should use it to pick up a lottery ticket! As the officers are getting out at a food stand, they spot the cemetery purse snatcher entering a church. They enter to look around, briefly talking to the priest (Steve Conte). Reed spots the suspect trying to escape through the parking lot and pursues him on foot. Malloy cuts the man off and tackles him trying to jump off a flight of stairs, impressing Reed.
Pete: The Strawberry Fox still moves pretty good.
The officers respond to an all-units call for a 211 in progress at a cocktail lounge. Officer Woods is on the scene to indicate where the suspect fled. Pete is searching an alley adjacent to the halfway house when George Foster pops out of a door to train his gun on the suspect, who's over Malloy on a fire escape with a gun drawn. As Reed's cuffing the suspect, George admits that he was just looking for somebody to talk to earlier, and indicates that he's outlived his friends. The episode ends with Jim teasing Pete about how someday he'll be chasing nurses in a black-and-white wheelchair...a prospect that doesn't seem disagreeable to the Strawberry Fox.
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Ironside
"Murder by One"
Originally aired September 20, 1973
Wiki said:
Ironside questions whether the gunshot that killed a boy was suicide or murder.
This one has an original rock song in the opening, being played loudly in the bedroom of Donny Hamilton, as his mother, Liz Hamilton (Mary Ure), gets home. Finding the door locked, mother, she looks in the window to find him dead on his bed. The team are bowling when Fran gets a call and leaves with Ed without telling the Chief what it's about. (It's too late to audition for
The Mod Squad, it was just canceled.) After the break, Ed is investigating Donny's bedroom, where a note was left, but the gun is found over 8 feet from the body; but the room was locked from the inside with a bolt. Liz gets a visit from her fiancé, Frank Clinton (Clu Gulager), who comforts her while she's in hysterics. The Chief arrives and is filled in that the Hamiltons are friends of Fran's. One of various items that draw attention in an otherwise very neatly organized teenager's bedroom is an electronic football game with KICK OFF partially scratched out to read KICK B. Frank's partner, David Wollens (Herb Edelman), arrives, and it's explained how they gave Donny a job at their furniture plant, but Donny was against the marriage. Donny had a therapist whom Frank was paying for, but Donny hadn't seen him in two months. David blames Fran for having bought Liz the gun.
The Chief suspects it may have been murder; while Fran reports a suspicious lack of fingerprints on anything but the gun or the note. Mark talks to the therapist, Dr. Harold Sands (Michael Baseleon), to learn that Donny was obsessed with his parents' divorce, which he blamed himself for, though he didn't see any indications of Donny being suicidal. Ed and Fran go back to the house. Ed learns from a neighbor that Donny was seen entering that afternoon with Frank, after which the music started; and a large stash of dough is found in the record sleeve. Fran takes the Chief for a visit to the plant, where Frank plays down having been at the house, and produces a book report he was reading for Donny about
A Tale of Two Cities, which was quoted in the note. The Chief finds that the page of the paper in which Donny was getting to the famous quote is missing, which flusters Frank. (At only halfway into the episode, Frank has officially been rendered Too Obvious.) Frank gets defensive, indicating that he was finally making progress with Donny, having had a good talk with him. His prints indicate that he's Frank Cameron, who served 18 months in prison for a theft that he claimed to be innocent of. He's also found to have made two conspicuous withdrawals of $2,500 recently, which amounts to the sum found in the sleeve with his fingerprints on it. The Chief, who's now also sharing the driving duties, circles around the neighborhood, taking note of prevalent No Parking signs. Ed subsequently inspects access to the property from an alley between blocks. The Chief then returns to the plant to talk to David.
The team assembles Liz, Frank, and David at the Hamilton home. The Chief confronts Frank about how he was being blackmailed, and reveals the cash found with his prints on it. The Chief then demonstrates how dental floss could have been used to pull the bolt closed from outside the door, explaining wax residue found on it earlier. Ed demonstrates how a rubber band and paperclips, which were found on the floor, could be used to make a slingshot that would have hurled the gun across the room after Donny let go of it. But the Chief still thinks it was murder, made to look like Donny committed suicide in a way that would make it look like Frank had murdered him...pointing the finger at Wollens, accusing him of blackmailing Frank and setting up the circular suicide/murder scene to cover both bases. Ed hypothesizes that the message Donny didn't finish leaving on the football game was "kickbacks," which they've verified Wollens was taking from suppliers, and Donny must have learned about. The Chief produces a parking ticket that Wollens got from parking on a nearby street at the time of the shooting. Wollens admits that he was afraid Frank was winning over Donny enough that Donny would have told Frank about the kickbacks. As the team is leaving with Wollens in custody, Ironside reassures Frank that he was winning Donny over.
Credits indicate that the original song was "Your Time Is Coming," music by Marty Paich & David Paich, lyrics by David Paich, sung by Carol Carmichael. It actually had a male lead vocalist, but prominently featured female background vocals.
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The Brady Bunch
"Mail Order Hero"
Originally aired September 21, 1973
The first sentence on Wiki said:
Discovering the New York Jets will be playing in town, Bobby boasts to his friends that he personally knows their quarterback Joe Namath.
Namath gets a Special Guest Star headshot after the opening credits. The story commences with Bobby having a dream of Joe being on his team in an otherwise-kids football game in the backyard, which goes about as you'd expect, except for the crippling injuries. At a real backyard football game with three friends, the other guys are swapping stories about family brushes with sports celebrities, so when he's asked, Bobby claims that Joe Namath is a friend of the family who stops by when he's in town. By the time Bobby's talking to the parents and otherwise ready to confess to his friends, he's afraid that the lie has spread too far to reign it in. Carol tries to persuade Mike to invite Joe Namath to dinner so Bobby can save face, the problem being that the Bradys don't know him or anyone else who knows him. Bobby tries getting through to Namath on the phone himself. (The Bradys' number is 555-6161.) Jan has just practiced first aid by wrapping Alice up in bandages so that her arms are bound to her sides when she has to answer the phone...
The Brady Bunch - Hello? - YouTube
It's one of Bobby's friends, Eric Parker (Kerry MacLane), who informs Bobby that Namath is coming to town and asks if he'll be visiting. Marcia later reads a newspaper story about how Mike Connors visited a sick girl in the hospital, which gives Cindy the idea to write to Namath posing as Bobby, claiming to be seriously ill with just one wish. (Interestingly,
Mannix was on a rival network.)
Bobby tries to skip school, but Mike sets him straight about that. Meanwhile, at the neighborhood football stadium, Herb Keller (Tim Herbert), the PR man for the exhibition game that Namath's in town to play in, shares the letter with Joe, who decides to pay Bobby a visit. Cindy takes a call from Herb announcing that he's coming over with Joe, and she runs up to inform Bobby and help him prepare to be seriously ill. Alice, who's not in the know, is flabbergasted when she answers the door to see Joe Namath and some other guy. Joe and Herb go up to Bobby's room, where he's lying in bed trying to contain himself while pretending to be in bad shape, and dictates a very specific signature on a glossy photo, calling out each of Bobby's friends by name for not believing him...
The Brady Bunch - Meeting Joe Namath - YouTube
Mike calls the house to tell Alice that he's found somebody who knows somebody who knows Joe Namath, when Alice informs him that Namath is upstairs in Bobby's room. When Carol and Mike each come home separately and don't seem at all concerned with their son's condition, Joe shows them the letter, and they recognize Cindy's handwriting. Just as the actual situation is being explained to Joe, Bobby and Cindy come downstairs to confess. Joe is graciously relieved that Bobby isn't really gravely ill, and offers to make Bobby's dream come true by throwing him a few passes in the backyard...for which Bobby assembles his friends between scenes. When Joe leaves, Bobby tries to confess that he didn't know Joe before that day, but his friends don't believe him.
In the coda, Joe has given the Brady family tickets to the game, Mike and Carol having given theirs to Bobby's friends so they can have the house to themselves.
Bobby's 12 here, which now matches Mike Lookinland's age. (As I recall, Bobby was said to be a year younger earlier in the series.) Susan Olsen is 11 or 12, depending on when the episode was filmed, taller than Lookinland, and seeming a bit old to be doing the lisping little girl bit at this point.
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The Odd Couple
"Last Tango in Newark"
Originally aired September 21, 1973
Wiki said:
When famous ballet star Edward Villella is late for a children's performance of "Swan Lake", Felix takes it on himself to dance the lead role himself.
The episode opens with Oscar, Felix, and Miriam returning from the ballet. Felix is furious with Oscar for his humiliating behavior, and is afraid that this is going to affect his relationship with NYC Ballet star Edward Villella (himself), whom he's befriended while working on a shoot. Felix apologizes to Edward at the photo studio the next day, and Edward, like most celebrity guests playing themselves, is gracious about it. Then Oscar drops in unexpectedly for something and awkwardness ensues, but Villella helps Oscar with some exercises to loosen up his right arm, which has been bothering him while playing football. Oscar subsequently comes home from his game hunched over in pain, the entire rest of his body bothering him except his right arm. Felix takes a reluctant Oscar to Villella's ballet appreciation class for more help. (There's an episode-specific location shot here, with Oscar walking into Villella's studio hunched over.)
After the class, Felix and Oscar (now walking upright again) stay to watch Villella overseeing a children's group in rehearsing for a recital of
Swan Lake the next day. When Felix learns that they haven't found a boy to play the Huntsman,
he volunteers to fill the role. When Villella has to bring the rehearsal to a close because he has a performance that night, Felix volunteers to stay with the students to make sure they're ready. For this he enlists Oscar to take over the role of the Huntsman, while Felix takes Villella's place as the Prince.
The next night before the recital, Felix is dressed to pay the Huntsman when he learns from Murray that Villella's performance that day is running late. Determined that the show must go on (and making a derisive comment about "those clowns over at Lincoln Center"), Felix takes over as the Prince and enlists Oscar to play the Huntsman again, this time with both in full costume onstage in front of an audience. (It really stretches the show's own credulity when Felix pulls Oscar into these fish-out-of-water situations.) Oscar is awkward as expected, but Felix is doing a serviceable job when Murray rushes Villella in mid-performance; so Oscar has to go back onstage in character to lure Felix off so that Villella can take over. Then Villella shows how it's really done, which includes a solo. He brings Felix and Oscar back out to take their bows with him and the class.
In the coda, Villella's young son Roddy appears uncredited as himself at an after-party in the apartment...non-verbally criticizing Felix's performance in a childlike fashion.
The credited members of Villella's class are Lark Geib, Jennifer Cheng, Denise Dervs, Mary Jane Evans, Mimi Kirk, Anne Maier, and Carolyn Weller.
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