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Post-50th Anniversary Viewing
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The Mod Squad
"Yesterday's Ashes"
Originally aired September 28, 1972
Pete and Linc are looking for some action, so they go for an off-duty stroll with Julie. A young female thief (Jo Ann Harris) bursts out of a jewelry store and runs to a beat-up old pickup truck. The stunt doubles each take a running board, but while Lucy quickly falls back off, Pete struggles with the driver (Robert Pine) until the truck runs off the road. The girl being unconscious, the driver runs off on foot. Pete ends up in the hospital and takes an interest the girl, who's also there and is identified as probation violator Sue Fielding, because she grabbed the arm of the driver--identified from mugshots as Jay Turner--when he tried to train his gun on Pete. While Linc and Julie fill some time trying to get a lead on Turner's whereabouts, Pete visits Sue with flowers and finds her attitude hostile and her lower left cheek cosmetically scarred in a way that's hardly even noticeable in long shots.
Pete summons Sue's probation officer, Gloria Stone (Toni Moss), who explains how she considers herself a freak since her scarring in the house fire that orphaned her a few years prior, which motivated her to fall in with Turner. Pete gets the idea that if they fix her face, it might fix her head. The Mods get Greer to reluctantly go along with Pete's scheme, and back him into calling in a favor from an old college buddy who's now an expensive plastic surgeon, Dr. Leland Forrester (Ivor Francis). Julie approaches Sue with the idea, posing as a city employee recruiting her for an experimental program. Sue soon learns from Forrester that the idea for the surgery was Pete's, and takes more kindly to him on a follow-up visit, in which he tries to convince her to put her past behind her.
On the eve of the surgery and under the influence of medication, Sue gets into the idea of doing something that could result in helping others like her. Meanwhile, Jay's hiding out on the tiny ship of an old cellmate named Jerry (Nino Candido), paying his room and board by holding up a liquor store. Linc finds him celebrating at a Mexican restaurant hangout afterward, but he gets away.
Cut forward six weeks, to the day the bandages are coming off. Pete, no longer a fellow patient, gives Sue the gift of a hand mirror. Everyone's pleased with the results, and Sue spends a day paddle-boating with Pete. Over fried chicken in the park, she volunteers how she met and got into a relationship with Jay through a friend named Jerry. Later at Julie's, where Sue's staying, it becomes evident that she's now serious about Pete, and Linc convinces him to come clean with her that he doesn't feel the same way. Sue's outside feeling rejected afterward when Jay pops up out of the shadows...Jerry having been keeping tabs on Sue's whereabouts in previous scenes. He tries to recruit her into helping with a big bank job, and while she's reluctant to go back to that life, he plays the "I'm the one who loves you" card. She subsequently splits from Julie's pad, leaving a note that she's going back to her own kind.
Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go
Down to Jerry's boat where I wanna lay low
As Sue's heading to the bank with Jay in his new convertible, the Mods compare notes, identify Jerry Vincent as a guy who's been tailing them, and track him down...which includes Julie questioning a salty old seadog (Rusty Lane) who looks like he stepped out of a clam chowder label.
Outside the bank, Sue tells Jay that she can't go through with it, and he angrily drives them back to Jerry's boat, the Roman Hawk, which Pete and Linc board without permission to rough up the captain for info. Jay comes upon the scene and tries to split down a dock, where Sue puts herself between Pete and Jay's gun. As Greer and uniformed CLE arrive, Jay resumes with splitting, only for Lucy to finally get his moment:
Outside the county court house, Sue thanks the Mods for helping her turn over a new leaf, then exchanges more personal, regretful goodbyes with Pete. The two walk off in separate directions...Pete to the Mods' Season 5 wheels, identified as a 1972 Dodge Charger. (Looking that up, I learned that the Challenger convertible from the previous seasons was custom modeled for the show and ended up being restored by a collector.)
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Ironside
"Programmed for Panic"
Originally aired September 28, 1972
The episode opens with a special talk program hosted by top-billed guest James Gregory as an unidentified TV presenter. The program is about the murder of an art student named Mary Belmont in a park, and its panel of guests include prominent criminal psychiatrist Dr. Albert Bartheim (Victor Izay); Congressman James Lowery (John Ragin); Mrs. Millicent Pyle (Scottie MacGregor), the widow of a respected theologian; and the Chief. Team Ironside and other police officers are manning phones to take any tips about the murder. The show is watched by a tensely drinking couple whom we eventually learn are Martin and Rhoda Lucas (second-billed guest Russell Johnson and Maggie Malooly).
The post-break credits play accompanied by an unidentified mellow song about a lost love. The host gives what little details the police are supposed to have about the killer, including a sketch that vaguely resembles Johnson. But in actuality, the team is already onto Martin Lucas, whose apartment Ed has staked out while keeping in touch with the team via the phones they're manning; and the program is an attempt to draw out their suspect. The host plays interview footage of the first person who called the police after other neighbors refused to get involved during the noisy altercation that preceded the killing--Rhoda Lucas. Then, live in the studio, they bring on a young track star named Jimmy Sanders (Ed Begley Jr.), who attempted to pursue the assailant and found the body. Ironside publicly reassures him regarding his doubts about his bravery in failing to catch up with the killer.
The next guest is Sandy Weiner (Kres Mersky), an operator for a student hotline to whom Mary had talked about an affair she was having with a married man whom she was routinely traveling into the city to see. Weiner breaks the hotline's usual confidentiality to give what details she knows about Belmont's lover, including that she'd made a sketch of him that she left at a mailbox or post office box via which she and her lover exchanged messages. Shortly after, Martin makes an excuse to his wife to go out for air. While the panel fills time with discussion of the nature of the crime and its perpetrator and witnesses, Ed and another detective (Fred Lerner, I presume) keep a close watch on Lucas, who first probes his wife for what she knows when she goes out to the park across the street that was the scene of the crime. The detectives then tail Lucas as he drives to a backlot bar where he continues to watch the program. In the TV station lobby, another detective (Vince Howard) has to deal with a serial confessor named Charlie (Al Checco). Lucas proceeds to a nearby post office as hoped, but after hesitating in front of the P.O. boxes only buys stamps.
His next move surprises everyone, including his wife watching at home: he proceeds to the station and goes on camera with info about the girl. He claims to have witnessed from a distance prior meetings between Belmont and her lover, which included arguments; and describes what he recalls of the man, details that coyly match his own features. When he's done speaking, the Chief asks him to stay until after the program to give a formal statement. He has a soft drink in the studio's refreshment area and the Chief has Fran get some bags of peanuts and put them on the table. After watching from afar as Lucas puts peanuts in his bottle of Coke, the Chief brings Weiner back on camera to disclose a matching habit of Belmont's lover. The Chief puts the pressure on by talking on camera about how the killer's wife may come forward; and at home, a horrified Mrs. Lucas throws a dish of peanuts across the room. Then Ironside describes how their biggest source of help has been the killer himself, who left an amateur trail.
Lucas attempts to leave, and when Fran approaches him, pushes past her and makes a break for it across the studio floor, to be pursued and apprehended partly on camera by Mark and Ed. The song reprises as the host thanks the audience while underscoring how the case has been solved before their eyes, and Lucas is taken out in cuffs.
This one didn't work for me. The killer was so obvious that I was expecting a twist...perhaps that it was Mrs. Lucas who was actually involved somehow. They may have been going for a Columbo angle, where the audience knows who the killer is all along and it's about the attempt to catch him up in his lies. If so, from my limited exposure to that show, it fell short in multiple areas...most notably the rather lame "gotcha" moment, which didn't even involve a face-to-face confrontation with Ironside. What was more novel for the time--which I didn't catch until I read it on IMDb--is that the episode takes place in real time, over the course of an hour-long broadcast.
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Post-50th Anniversary Viewing
_______
The Mod Squad
"Yesterday's Ashes"
Originally aired September 28, 1972
Wiki said:
Pete and Linc are looking for some action, so they go for an off-duty stroll with Julie. A young female thief (Jo Ann Harris) bursts out of a jewelry store and runs to a beat-up old pickup truck. The stunt doubles each take a running board, but while Lucy quickly falls back off, Pete struggles with the driver (Robert Pine) until the truck runs off the road. The girl being unconscious, the driver runs off on foot. Pete ends up in the hospital and takes an interest the girl, who's also there and is identified as probation violator Sue Fielding, because she grabbed the arm of the driver--identified from mugshots as Jay Turner--when he tried to train his gun on Pete. While Linc and Julie fill some time trying to get a lead on Turner's whereabouts, Pete visits Sue with flowers and finds her attitude hostile and her lower left cheek cosmetically scarred in a way that's hardly even noticeable in long shots.
Pete summons Sue's probation officer, Gloria Stone (Toni Moss), who explains how she considers herself a freak since her scarring in the house fire that orphaned her a few years prior, which motivated her to fall in with Turner. Pete gets the idea that if they fix her face, it might fix her head. The Mods get Greer to reluctantly go along with Pete's scheme, and back him into calling in a favor from an old college buddy who's now an expensive plastic surgeon, Dr. Leland Forrester (Ivor Francis). Julie approaches Sue with the idea, posing as a city employee recruiting her for an experimental program. Sue soon learns from Forrester that the idea for the surgery was Pete's, and takes more kindly to him on a follow-up visit, in which he tries to convince her to put her past behind her.
Pete: Yesterday was, honey...today is.
On the eve of the surgery and under the influence of medication, Sue gets into the idea of doing something that could result in helping others like her. Meanwhile, Jay's hiding out on the tiny ship of an old cellmate named Jerry (Nino Candido), paying his room and board by holding up a liquor store. Linc finds him celebrating at a Mexican restaurant hangout afterward, but he gets away.
Cut forward six weeks, to the day the bandages are coming off. Pete, no longer a fellow patient, gives Sue the gift of a hand mirror. Everyone's pleased with the results, and Sue spends a day paddle-boating with Pete. Over fried chicken in the park, she volunteers how she met and got into a relationship with Jay through a friend named Jerry. Later at Julie's, where Sue's staying, it becomes evident that she's now serious about Pete, and Linc convinces him to come clean with her that he doesn't feel the same way. Sue's outside feeling rejected afterward when Jay pops up out of the shadows...Jerry having been keeping tabs on Sue's whereabouts in previous scenes. He tries to recruit her into helping with a big bank job, and while she's reluctant to go back to that life, he plays the "I'm the one who loves you" card. She subsequently splits from Julie's pad, leaving a note that she's going back to her own kind.
Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go
Down to Jerry's boat where I wanna lay low
As Sue's heading to the bank with Jay in his new convertible, the Mods compare notes, identify Jerry Vincent as a guy who's been tailing them, and track him down...which includes Julie questioning a salty old seadog (Rusty Lane) who looks like he stepped out of a clam chowder label.
Outside the bank, Sue tells Jay that she can't go through with it, and he angrily drives them back to Jerry's boat, the Roman Hawk, which Pete and Linc board without permission to rough up the captain for info. Jay comes upon the scene and tries to split down a dock, where Sue puts herself between Pete and Jay's gun. As Greer and uniformed CLE arrive, Jay resumes with splitting, only for Lucy to finally get his moment:
Outside the county court house, Sue thanks the Mods for helping her turn over a new leaf, then exchanges more personal, regretful goodbyes with Pete. The two walk off in separate directions...Pete to the Mods' Season 5 wheels, identified as a 1972 Dodge Charger. (Looking that up, I learned that the Challenger convertible from the previous seasons was custom modeled for the show and ended up being restored by a collector.)
_______
Ironside
"Programmed for Panic"
Originally aired September 28, 1972
Wiki said:
The episode opens with a special talk program hosted by top-billed guest James Gregory as an unidentified TV presenter. The program is about the murder of an art student named Mary Belmont in a park, and its panel of guests include prominent criminal psychiatrist Dr. Albert Bartheim (Victor Izay); Congressman James Lowery (John Ragin); Mrs. Millicent Pyle (Scottie MacGregor), the widow of a respected theologian; and the Chief. Team Ironside and other police officers are manning phones to take any tips about the murder. The show is watched by a tensely drinking couple whom we eventually learn are Martin and Rhoda Lucas (second-billed guest Russell Johnson and Maggie Malooly).
The post-break credits play accompanied by an unidentified mellow song about a lost love. The host gives what little details the police are supposed to have about the killer, including a sketch that vaguely resembles Johnson. But in actuality, the team is already onto Martin Lucas, whose apartment Ed has staked out while keeping in touch with the team via the phones they're manning; and the program is an attempt to draw out their suspect. The host plays interview footage of the first person who called the police after other neighbors refused to get involved during the noisy altercation that preceded the killing--Rhoda Lucas. Then, live in the studio, they bring on a young track star named Jimmy Sanders (Ed Begley Jr.), who attempted to pursue the assailant and found the body. Ironside publicly reassures him regarding his doubts about his bravery in failing to catch up with the killer.
The next guest is Sandy Weiner (Kres Mersky), an operator for a student hotline to whom Mary had talked about an affair she was having with a married man whom she was routinely traveling into the city to see. Weiner breaks the hotline's usual confidentiality to give what details she knows about Belmont's lover, including that she'd made a sketch of him that she left at a mailbox or post office box via which she and her lover exchanged messages. Shortly after, Martin makes an excuse to his wife to go out for air. While the panel fills time with discussion of the nature of the crime and its perpetrator and witnesses, Ed and another detective (Fred Lerner, I presume) keep a close watch on Lucas, who first probes his wife for what she knows when she goes out to the park across the street that was the scene of the crime. The detectives then tail Lucas as he drives to a backlot bar where he continues to watch the program. In the TV station lobby, another detective (Vince Howard) has to deal with a serial confessor named Charlie (Al Checco). Lucas proceeds to a nearby post office as hoped, but after hesitating in front of the P.O. boxes only buys stamps.
His next move surprises everyone, including his wife watching at home: he proceeds to the station and goes on camera with info about the girl. He claims to have witnessed from a distance prior meetings between Belmont and her lover, which included arguments; and describes what he recalls of the man, details that coyly match his own features. When he's done speaking, the Chief asks him to stay until after the program to give a formal statement. He has a soft drink in the studio's refreshment area and the Chief has Fran get some bags of peanuts and put them on the table. After watching from afar as Lucas puts peanuts in his bottle of Coke, the Chief brings Weiner back on camera to disclose a matching habit of Belmont's lover. The Chief puts the pressure on by talking on camera about how the killer's wife may come forward; and at home, a horrified Mrs. Lucas throws a dish of peanuts across the room. Then Ironside describes how their biggest source of help has been the killer himself, who left an amateur trail.
Lucas attempts to leave, and when Fran approaches him, pushes past her and makes a break for it across the studio floor, to be pursued and apprehended partly on camera by Mark and Ed. The song reprises as the host thanks the audience while underscoring how the case has been solved before their eyes, and Lucas is taken out in cuffs.
This one didn't work for me. The killer was so obvious that I was expecting a twist...perhaps that it was Mrs. Lucas who was actually involved somehow. They may have been going for a Columbo angle, where the audience knows who the killer is all along and it's about the attempt to catch him up in his lies. If so, from my limited exposure to that show, it fell short in multiple areas...most notably the rather lame "gotcha" moment, which didn't even involve a face-to-face confrontation with Ironside. What was more novel for the time--which I didn't catch until I read it on IMDb--is that the episode takes place in real time, over the course of an hour-long broadcast.
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