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50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 2)
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Good Times
"Too Old Blues"
Originally aired February 8, 1974
Series premiere
Wiki said:
James (John Amos) is excited because he is sure that he is going to get a high paying job. However, at the interview, he learns that he is too old to join the company's union. Meanwhile, Florida (Esther Rolle) and the children (BernNadette Stanis, Jimmie Walker, and Ralph Carter) get ahead of themselves and throw a celebration party for James unaware that he was rejected.
Note: This episode was taped after the pilot to add additional characters and to provide background for those in the pilot episode.
The pilot would be aired as the third episode of the season. I never realized that Gordy was the dad from
Good Times--was Amos wearing a piece on MTM? Or did he sport a balding look to appear older for the part? It turns out that Amos (34 at the time) was substantially closer to Walker's age (26) than Rolle's (53).
We meet the Evans family over breakfast, where the energy crisis is referenced and 17-year-old James Jr., better known as J.J. (Walker), learns that his conception was the catalyst for his parents' marriage. James is anticipating a letter with the results of an aptitude test that he took to join a union apprenticeship program, via which he hopes to get a steady job paying $4.25 per hour. He gets the letter, and it bears good news, with the program starting that day--He's happy, but isn't that kinda short notice to convey via snail mail? The kids--also including 16-year-old Thelma (credited as Bern Nadette) and 11-year-old Michael (Carter)--fantasize about what they'll do with the extra money. (Florida notes that the family got through the meat shortage without knowing there was one.) Divorcee neighbor Willona Woods (Ja'net Du Bois) drops in as the kids are getting ready for school.
Willona: Don't they teach you about Malcolm X in school?
Michael: Are you kidding? The teachers in my school still call Muhammad Ali "Cassius Clay".
James references the Temptations and Diana Ross & the Supremes when planning a celebratory party for that night.
But when the interviewer (Woodrow Parfrey) learns that James is 41, he explains that the program is restricted by government rules to men between 18 and 35.
James: Too old? For what, man? We're talking about working, we ain't talking about playing stickball!
Meanwhile, the unaware family are preparing the party, with Florida shooting the works food-wise. In addition to Willona, a number of other guests arrive--the only credited one being Monty (Stymie Beard). When James walks in, everyone breaks out singing, concerned about the cost of the party and expenditures that the kids have already been making, but not getting a chance to break the bad news until he speaks for a toast. The episode ends with Florida consoling James in the bedroom and James trying to brush the matter off.
I suspected that we wouldn't get the famous catchphrase right out of the box...but apparently we kinda did, as looking it up, it was first heard on the air in the third-aired pilot.
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The Odd Couple
"Shuffling Off to Buffalo"
Originally aired February 8, 1974
Wiki said:
Felix accepts his brother's offer of an executive position at the Unger bubble gum factory in Buffalo.
Felix gets a telegram that his brother Floyd will be coming to visit for a few days. Oscar looks less than enthusiastic at a declaration that Floyd is exactly like Felix. Oscar further learns that Floyd is the president of a company that makes bubble gum. When Floyd arrives (William Redfield), he assumes that Oscar is a poor person whom Felix took in as an act of charity. Floyd tries to convince Felix to leave the big city and come back to the titular home town...and for the purposes of the episode, Felix is suddenly disillusioned with his career as a photographer. After a hard day's shoot followed by having his shoes stolen on the subway, Felix is ready to take Floyd up on his offer, and Oscar encourages him to see it through--pleading with God afterward to let him have this.
When it's time to go, Felix is reluctant to depart.
Felix: Four years ago, a man came to this door who had nowhere to turn. You took him in. Remember that day?
Oscar: Like I remember Pearl Harbor.
The titular phrase comes up as Felix tries to pick up his own spirits by tapdancing out into the corridor.
We next see Felix in his spacious, gum-machine-equipped office, chomping on the company product while dictating a letter for Oscar to his secretary (Beatrice Colen). Back in New York, Murray finds that the apartment has reverted to being a disaster area, and Oscar just happens to be leaving for Buffalo to cover a basketball game.
Oscar finds that Felix really seems to be enjoying his new life, though Floyd asks Oscar to intervene as he's not pleased with Felix's innovations in his R&D position--which include opera cards for kids who don't like sports and broccoli-flavored gum. Oscar accepts an invitation to dinner at the Unger home, where he meets the members of their lodge, the Zebras, as well as Floyd's bubble-blowing wife, Mildred (Alice James). When Oscar sits Felix down for the talk, Felix beats him to the punch by confiding that Buffalo and the gum business are driving him crazy. Oscar promptly announces the news to Floyd, who gives Felix his blessing.
Oscar tries to pass the state of the apartment off to a temporary roommate...and the lights go out because Felix was the one who paid the bill.
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Emergency!
"Floor Brigade"
Originally aired February 9, 1974
IMDb said:
John and Roy think about going into the floor cleaning business on the side. A hermit is trapped in his cave home. Dr. Morton treats a famous singer. John is injured on a high rescue, and the station battles a chemical warehouse fire.
This time the quirky scheme is Roy's thing--he tries to get Johnny to go into part-time business with him after he picks up a notice about buying floor-cleaning equipment at the market...making him seem uncharacteristically eager and naive. The station is called to aid a hermit whose cave in the hills has partly collapsed. The grocery store box boy who called it in (Christopher Man) leads them to the entrance, where the paramedics have to deal with the hermit's dog, who's tied up outside. After containing him in a fire coat and retying him further away, they dig open the entrance and Johnny crawls inside to find the occupant (Pat Buttram) lying under some rubble. After pulling him out, they determine that he may have a fractured leg and he's taken to Rampart, where Brackett also has him X-rayed for skull injury. During brief moments of consciousness, the hermit's main concern is whether it's going to cost him anything.
At the hospital, the paramedics happen to see a floor cleaner named Anderson at work (uncredited Ray Ballard) and, impressed with his machine, determine that it's the same model as the one in the ad and get his number. Johnny becomes sold on the venture and starts taking lead, calling the shots for Roy. A disoriented woman stumbles into Rampart's waiting room and is recognized by Dr. Morton as singer Cealy Kenya (uncredited Vivian Bonnell). She acts defensive, insists that she isn't drunk, and at one point tries to bust loose. As Morton examines her, she's concerned about making her current gig at a dive where she's performing while trying to make a comeback. Morton convinces her that she has to let him help her first. He determines that she's a diabetic on medication and insists that she can't even afford the moderate drinking that she engaged in prior to her attack. Elsewhere, Brackett and Dix visit the recovering hermit, attempting to get him to divulge details about himself, though he acts evasive.
After calling Anderson, who says that it sounds like a good deal, the paramedics try to call DeGeorgio before the station is called to a man trapped on a transmission tower. Johnny slips on a rung while climbing the ladder inside the tower's framework, injuring a rib, so Roy goes up to help him to a landing and takes over the rescue while Johnny climbs down attached to a harness with Chet acting as his line's pulley. The firefighters on the ground are startled when a figure falls from the top of the tower, which turns out to be a dummy planted by a couple of kids who've just been nabbed by a motorcycle officer in a timely manner. Johnny's impressed that they climbed all the way up the tower just to pull a prank.
At Rampart, Early determines that Johnny doesn't have a fracture. Joe the grocer (uncredited Milton Frome), who's been donating provisions to the hermit, comes in with the box boy, Jerry, to see him. Talking to Dix about him, Joe volunteers to take the hermit to stay with him and later wheels him out. Elsewhere, a grateful Celia invites Mike to her next show. At the station, Roy is disheartened to learn on the phone that DeGeorgio has already sold the equipment to someone else.
The station and several other units are called to a climactic chemical company fire, complete with periodic backlot explosions. The firefighters go in with equipment to find and extract a scientist who's unconscious in his lab. Coming to, the man panics, saying that he can't see; and warns them of the chemical formula that caused the explosion, which is written on his blackboard, so Johnny goes back in to take a picture of it. Back at the station, Johnny tries to impress the other firefighters with his knowledge of photography, which clears the dining area.
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The Mary Tyler Moore Show
"Ted Baxter Meets Walter Cronkite"
Originally aired February 9, 1974
Wiki said:
After winning his first Teddy Award, Ted meets his idol, Walter Cronkite, and assumes that he is on his way to a network career.
Rhoda drops by Ted's dressing room to show him sketches for a publicity campaign to help him win the Teddy Award. One of Ted's stunts is to close the news with an unscripted prayer. Lou wants to fire or kill him, but Mary talks him out of it.
Lou: Oh, he's shrewd. We think he's stupid, but he's smarter than all of us.
The newsroom gang gather in their tuxes at Mary's place, along with Mary's date, now-recurring love interest Andy Rivers (John Gabriel). When Rhoda learns that Marie's not going, Murray agrees to take her as his date.
To everyone's surprise, Ted actually wins, and goes into a self-pitying acceptance speech. We learn afterward that Lou slapped him to get him off the podium. Ted speculates about moving up to the network news. The next day at the newsroom, Murray and Mary are shocked by the figure they see in the hallway, who promptly walks in asking to see Lou. Ted initially blows him off without looking at who he is, but when he realizes, he assumes that the visit is all about him. Lou introduces Cronkite to the starstruck newsroom cast, and is professionally polite in the face of Ted's self-promotion...though he promises on the side to get even with Lou. (They don't specify why Cronkite happens to be visiting Lou.)
Afterward, Ted doesn't understand Cronkite's lack of interest, and Mary and Murray are kicking themselves for being tongue-tied in the CBS anchor's presence.
Really, there wasn't much of a story here. They were just filling time until the celebrity guest randomly dropped in.
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The Bob Newhart Show
"A Love Story"
Originally aired February 9, 1974
Wiki said:
Howard falls in love with Bob's sister Ellen (Pat Finley) even though she's engaged to another man.
This one was directed by Peter Bonerz.
Bob is embarrassed when his mother drops by the office and tells Michelle Nardo a story about how her shrink used to run around naked when she was trying to get him into the bath. Mrs. Hartley is visiting to announce that Ellen is getting married, though Bob already heard it directly from his sister. Bob finds himself stuck in the apartment for the shower that Emily's hosting when a ball game is rained out. Howard drops in as the guests are leaving, is immediately thunderstruck by Ellen, and is undeterred when Bob informs him that she's getting married the following weekend.
Howard drops in again to flirt with Ellen after the Hartleys leave for work.
Howard: What are you doing tonight?
Ellen: I'm having a wedding rehearsal.
Howard spends the day helping her prepare for the wedding, then drops by Bob's office the next day desperate to stop the ceremony. Bob tries to talk sense into him, and later as Howard's engaging in the lonely task of ironing at his apartment, Emily drops in to console him. After she leaves, Howard resists the urge to call Ellen and is settling back into his chore to the accompaniment of a moody jazz record when Ellen drops in to announce that she called it off, and things get steamy...
I was surprised when this didn't turn out to be a fantasy sequence. I wonder if this goes anywhere.
Mrs. Hartley subsequently sits Bob, Emily, and Ellen down to formally announce the indefinite postponement of the wedding and the repurposing of the ceremony to her and Mr. Hartley renewing their vows...all of which everyone already knew again.
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It must plug into the USB port of the watch.
It's pretty ridiculous, but it looks cool. It wouldn't have any range at all, unless it communicates with a booster in her car.
Range-wise, she was talking to Duke, who was on stakeout within line of sight. I'm thinking that the gadget was probably meant to pass muster for a quick look on non-rewindable TV...it conveyed the impression of what it was supposed to be.
