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50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 2)
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Love, American Style
"Love and the Games People Play / Love and High Spirits / Love and the Memento / Love and the Single Husband / Love and the Stutter"
Originally aired October 5, 1973
In "Love and the Games People Play," a pair of maids, Bridgette (Mary Grace Canfield) and Jane (Helen Page Camp), are cleaning up a bridal suite while gossiping about a celebrity wedding between a football player and a woman who became one to marry him, which took place at halftime during a game. Right after the maids exit, the couple in question arrives in the suite, Jackie Lee Rhodes (Max Baer) and Beverly Arnold Rhodes (Jo Anne Worley), both dressed in football gear with him carrying her over the threshold across his shoulders. They romp around a bit, but when he wants to proceed from the pregame warm-up to kickoff, she doesn't know if she can go through with it because she doesn't feel like they're really married, not having had a traditional wedding. When she won't relent, he agrees to have a church wedding on Sunday, at which more football-themed antics ensue. Back in the bridal suite, he tries to tackle her as she carries the ball to touchdown on the bed.
"Love and the Memento" has attorney Winston J. Magruder (Edward Andrews) reading the will of wealthy drive-in franchise mogul Lionel Chadwick, which establishes that his business fortune will be used to establish a foundation run by Magruder; and leaves Chadwick's 10-year secretary and companion Victoria (Bridget Hanley) with any titular keepsake she chooses from the house. She just wants to take a framed picture of Lionel; but when Chadwick's good-for-nothing son, Henry (Dick Shawn), arrives late as anticipated in the will, he's informed that he's inherited the estate and a job with the foundation, but not the franchise. He doesn't want to let Victoria have the picture; while Magruder points out that the house is full of valuable belongings...and that Henry, hungry for money, can't sell anything until Victoria chooses her item. Henry tries to rush her into picking something, while she points out the nature and value of each item. Ultimately Victoria, agreeing with Lionel's assessment of Henry, decides not to rush things, leaving for Chicago without picking her item so that Henry will be forced to work for a living.
In "Love and the Single Husband," Myron Gates (Michael Callan) is enjoying the freedom of having affairs without commitment so long as his wife, Gwyn (Elaine Giftos), holds out on getting a divorce. But she comes by to inform him that she's fallen in love with a guy named George Clark (J. S. Johnson), and will be wanting to proceed with the divorce in order to get married to him. Myron uses a dinner meeting with George as an opportunity to have some alone time with George to discourage him by filling him in on made-up negative traits. George can tell that he's being snowed, but assumes that it's because Myron still loves Gwyn...which he falsely admits to in front of her. She seizes this as her big opportunity to get Myron back, threatening to actually divorce him if he fools around on her.
"Love and the Stutter" opens with dentist Howard Wilson (Roddy McDowall) seeing an old college pal who's now a psychiatrist (Marvin Kaplan) to rid himself of the titular behavioral disorder, which only occurs when he's in love. He explains that he no longer stutters around his wife...but he does stutter around his partner's wife, Carol (Susanne Benton), which could endanger his marriage; and he and his wife are having dinner with the Rutlidges that night. The psychiatrist advises Howard to fake-stutter around his wife to make her think that the real stuttering is all about her. He returns home to Maureen (Amanda McBroom) putting on the act, leading her to believe that the flame has reignited. Then Jack (Jack Knight) and Carol arrive, and the real stuttering ensues at the sight of Carol's revealing dress. After dinner, Jack proposes that the four of them go to Hawaii together. As the Rutlidges are leaving, Carol takes Howard aside to ask him something, and Howard is surprised to discover that he no longer stutters around her. Thinking he's been cured, he practices in front of the mirror...then when Maureen calls him to bed, he responds with a stutter.
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Super Friends
"Dr. Pelagian's War"
Originally aired October 6, 1973
iTunes said:
The nation's three leading industrialists receive a warning from a computerized albatross, "Listen to the voice of Dr. Pelagian, you have one hour to stop pollution of the seas, before the sea strikes back!" The Super Friends must get the three stubborn industrialists to meet with Dr. Pelagian before his tactics endanger the country.
The Junior Super Friends are enjoying a day at a seaside amusement park when Wonder Dog chases a squirrel who takes his hot dog up onto a Ferris wheel. From their pursuing vantage point, Wendy and Marvin see a tidal wave threaten to crash over a factory complex, then suddenly disappear; following which a circling albatross broadcasts a message from the titular persona (Wiki says Ted Knight; sounds like John Stephenson), warning the "defilers" to stop their pollution of the seas in one hour, or the seas will strike back. Reports of more albatross broadcasts come in from different seaside cities, and a blown-up picture of one of the birds reveals that it's wearing an electronic cluster that includes a speaker and sensors. Col. Wilcox assigns the Super Friends to round up three holdouts from a recent agreement among top industrialists to stop pollution--financier J. Mortimer Hutchinson (Norman Alden), spinster multimillionairess Agatha Prentiss Caraway (Sherry Alberoni), and sportsman/tycoon Luther Fenwick (Olan Soule).
Supes flies an uncooperative Fenwick away on his polo horse; while Wonder Woman uses psychology to lure Caraway onto the Transparent Plane. The two of them are taken to the estate of Hutchinson, who's throwing an engagement party for his daughter and her fiancé. The hour strikes and Pelagian causes an oil rainstorm over the estate, followed by another albatross warning. The skeptical Hutchinson assumes that Supes is responsible for everything in classic JJJ fashion. Wonder Woman pursues the albatross but loses it over the North Pole. Back at the Hall of Justice, Aquaman theorizes that Pelagian may be an old acquaintance of his, marine biologist, engineer, and albatross expert Dr. Ansel Hillbrand, who was reported killed in a diving accident five years prior. Aquaman investigates the vicinity of Hillbrand's accident, finding an empty diving suit. Wendy gets the idea of her and Marvin approaching the holdouts, thinking that they may be responsive to the idea of closing the generation gap. When Wendy sees Fenwick, his smoke-filled boardroom smokes up in a more immediately dangerous fashion, accompanied by jammed doors and a Pelagian broadcast. Supes lowers the occupants to safety by flying up a fire ladder. Marvin visits Caraway, whose stock ticker goes wild and shorts out, accompanied by another broadcast.
The assembled Super Friends then go to see Hutchinson, who proudly displays a large transparent dome covering the pavilion where he'll be holding another engagement party. When the party commences, a zephyr whips up to fly the dome away so that the guests can be treated to another oil storm. While the Super Friends try to locate Pelagian, Marvin is inspired to recreate the circumstances of their first Pelagian encounter at the amusement park. This time he and Wendy leave Wonder Dog on the beach, where he's approached by an out-of-climate penguin. The Junior Super Friends pursue the penguin onto what turns out to be the back of a whale, which carries them out to rendezvous with the
Sprite, the automated submarine of Dr. Pelagain--a bearded, sandaled hipster of a disgruntled scientist, who shows them the undersea world; demonstrates how, like Aquaman, he can send commands to his sea friends; and rants a little before he sees a defiant broadcast by Hutchinson on behalf of the holdouts. In response, he plots to create tidal waves by tapping into undersea volcanos; prior to which he rather quaintly sends out a mail bag full of letters to the editors of newspapers. Wendy and Marvin sneak Wonder Dog out in the bag, which is carried to land by only two albatrosses.
Wonder Dog hitches a ride on a garbage truck to the Hall of Justice, delivering one of Pelagian's letters. The Super Friends stake out the factories that Pelagian has threatened to hit. Supes creates a large barrier of junk, including train cars, a bridge, and a water tower, to block the wave at Fenwick's factory. Then he and Aquaman use steam shovel scoops to break the Hutchinson wave (which, despite their power, seems like too small-scale a solution). At Caraway's energy generation plant, the duo put large freon coils to use, freezing her wave solid. In a too-pat moment, the three holdouts approach the Super Friends on the beach to announce a sudden change of heart, bringing us to our climactic clip:
Those "killer whales" look like sharks to me; and Aquaman's "twelve o'clock high" is on his six.
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Star Trek
"More Tribbles, More Troubles"
Originally aired October 6, 1973
Wiki said:
While the USS Enterprise escorts two robot cargo ships carrying quintotriticale, a new seed grain, to famine-stricken Sherman's Planet, it encounters a Klingon battlecruiser pursuing a Federation scout ship. When the Enterprise rescues the pilot, the Klingons attack with a new energy weapon and demand that the pilot be handed over to them.
Captain's log, stardate 5392.4. The Enterprise has been assigned to escort two robot grain ships to Sherman's Planet, which has been struck by crop failures and famine. This shipment of seed grain, quintotriticale, is necessary to the survival of the colonists. We are breaking course to Sherman's Planet to investigate what appears to be a Klingon battle cruiser pursuing some kind of smaller ship. Observation may confirm a rumor that the Klingons have a new weapon, type so far unknown.
As the Klingon ship fires on the one-man scout vessel, the
Enterprise attempts to rescue the pilot via the most drawn-out transporter sequence ever, which continues well after the vessel is destroyed, and on through the Klingons unveiling their new weapon...
An uncredited Stanley Adams reprises his role as Cyrano Jones; while Doohan is recast in the role of Koloth, doing what sounds like an attempt at a Chinese accent. The robot ships are of historical interest, as we hadn't seen any other type of Starfleet vessel in TOS.
Captain's log, supplemental: Our rescue effort has given us some knowledge of the new Klingon weapon...and the presence of Cyrano Jones, intergalactic trader and general nuisance.
Jones claims that the tribbles he's transporting have been engineered not to reproduce; and explains how he cut his stay at Station K-7 short by demonstrating his glommer, which eats tribbles. Kirk nevertheless confines him, as he's been engaged in various shady dealings, including selling tribbles on a Klingon planet. While the crew brainstorms about the Klingon stasis weapon, they have the grain containers from the crippled robot ship beamed to the
Enterprise, filling all available space, including corridors. The Klingons return to attack the second robot ship and the
Enterprise, causing grain containers to break. While the
Enterprise is forced to take on the additional burden of towing the second robot ship, loose tribbles eat the grain...and grow. When Kirk confronts Jones on the bridge, a running gag ensues of the captain having to push increasingly large single tribbles off his chair. The Klingons come back for a third attempt at Jones.
Captain's log, supplemental: The Klingon ship under command of Captain Koloth is forcing us into a battle for custody of Cyrano Jones for reasons still unknown.
The Klingons use the new weapon to immobilize the
Enterprise again, and Koloth demands that they turn over Jones. As the Klingons prepare to board the
Enterprise, Kirk has Scotty implement a plan suggested in a semi-humorous manner by Mr. Spock. The Klingons find to their horror that their ship is now full of the enlarged tribbles. Koloth informs Kirk that Jones stole the glommer from the Klingons, and Kirk agrees to transport it over. The
Enterprise crew determines that the Klingon weapon was too limited to be of much practical use; McCoy reveals that the enlarged tribbles actually consist of joined colonies of regular-sized tribbles; and back on the Klingon ship, Koloth gets a comeuppance...
This one was trying very hard to call back to "The Trouble with Tribbles," but was hampered by TAS's limited scoring. Apparently the one lighthearted cue they had only went so far, so scenes that were clearly meant to be taken humorously were undermined by incongruously suspenseful music playing under them.
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I wonder which one they picked.
And right after that, I learned that Mark Goddard died last Tuesday, right over in Hingham.