50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 1)
Adam-12
"Lady Beware"
Originally aired November 19, 1974
MeTV said:
Malloy and Reed join forces with Sgt. Gloria Tyler to search for a rapist who attacks teen girls.
On patrol, the officers stop when they see a young girl stumbling through the park. She struggles with Pete as he tries to help her, revealing bruises on her face. At the hospital, rape is confirmed.
In the HQ breakroom, the officers are approached by Gloria Tyler from Juvenile (Beth Brickell), who tells them that the girl they found matches the M.O. of a suspected serial rapist who operates near a school. Having cleared it with Mac, she also enlists them to attend her titular program meeting at the high school, where, in her uniform, the sergeant coaches the girls in how to scream for help and enlists the officers' aid in demonstrating how common objects carried in their purses can be used as defensive weapons, and all three officers offer advice in how to deal with a rapist, including not being afraid to report it to the police. (The school angle was a bit confusing, because the first victim didn't look high school age.)
On patrol, the officers respond to a 459 on South Rodeo. At a house whose residents are known to be on vacation, they catch an elderly burglar of their acquaintance named Franky (Charles Seel) coaching his nephew, Donny (Eric Shea), in his art. Franky explains that he expects to be put away after an already impending trial, and wanted to teach the boy how to take care of himself. As he's pleading with the officers not to take the boy in, Franky collapses from a heart attack. As Franky's being loaded in an ambulance, Donny expresses how he'd rather go to jail that be sent back to his drunk, wanton mother in El Paso. Pete encourages him to explain his situation to the juvenile authorities, and Franky is heartbroken to be told that one way or another, he's not likely to see Gramps again.
When the officers return to the school to pick Gloria up, they find her outraged at a chauvinist teacher who was outspoken about how the young rape victims are asking for it with their dress and mannerisms. Back on patrol...
Pete: We're gonna get a call any minute.
Jim: What makes you think so?
Pete: Because it's almost lunch time and I'm starving.
On cue, the dispatcher assigns them to an attempted shoplifting at a supermarket. The clerk there (Don Diamond) tells them how the suspect he was holding, who was wearing a large raincoat filled with his stolen goods, got away while he was calling it in. The officers find the coat in a garbage can outside of a bar. They enter and are told by a patron (Ralph Montgomery) that the man struggling to do stand-up comedy on the stage (John Furlong) just got there and isn't the usual entertainment. When the officers approach him about accompanying them to the supermarket, he confesses and tries to blow off his crime, claiming to be an out-of-work actor; and Pete guilts him about his role in raising the price of groceries.
Suspect: Hey, howdja figure I was the guy you were lookin' for?
Pete: Well, we were pretty sure you weren't a comedian.
At the 12-Cave, Mac briefs Malloy, Reed, and several other officers in civilian and working attire about doing stakeout for a sting operation in which Sgt. Tyler, dressed alluringly, will serve as bait for the rapist. Jim rides a bicycle in the area, while Pete drives around in a catering truck. When Tyler enters a pedestrian underpass tunnel and Pete hears a scream, he drives his Petemobile on the grass to get to her. Tyler runs out, directing Pete to the other end of the tunnel, where a man on a bicycle (Lee Paul) exits, followed by an assaulted girl, whom Tyler comforts. The suspect tries to get away, but is cut off by Pete and run down by Jim. As he's being arrested, he protests his innocence, but--sporting a wound over one of his eyes, reacts strongly to the victim, who defended herself the way the officers taught in class. Tyler assures the girl that she did the right thing.
Back at HQ, Jerry Woods, who was also part of the stakeout, tries to pick up Tyler, but she skillfully evades his pass.
M*A*S*H
"There Is Nothing Like a Nurse"
Originally aired November 19, 1974
Wiki said:
The men of the 4077th must cope without the nurses, who are evacuated due to the possibility of an enemy attack.
Houlihan dismisses a nurse from the OR for being insubordinate to Burns, which the guys play off of.
Houlihan: You report to my quarters!
Hawkeye: Major Burns will show you how to get there.
Houlihan goes to Blake, wanting him to place her under "bed arrest," which would involve the nurse sitting on her bed at attention while off-duty for a month. While this is a harsh punishment, I have to wonder if Houlihan would need to go to the colonel to discipline her own nurses. Isn't she the immediate superior officer? Blake pushes back, outraging Houlihan. Then Radar enters with news of an expected enemy attack, for which the nurses are evacuated to another unit.
This is Loudon Wainwright III's second of three appearances as Capt. Calvin Spalding. Here we see him being more interactive with the cast, including Hawk and Trap accompanying him as he sings and plays an upbeat song about death and the afterlife (apparently a Wainwright original titled "Unrequited to the Nth Degree"). Burns puts enlisted men to work digging foxholes. Hawkeye and Trap try to get in some last-minute time with nurses in the supply room, as does Frank with Margaret in her quarters. As the nurses are preparing to leave, Hawkeye surprises Hot Lips with a big, passionate kiss, which she doesn't react negatively to. When the truck pulls out, a bag falls off the back that turns out to have Klinger in it.
As the guys try to drown their sorrows at the officers' club, Spalding plays a melancholy number about men missing their women ("I Wonder If They Miss Us"). When Klinger enters in full drag, he's met by cat calls. Despite the lack of qualified nursing personnel, choppers continue to come in, keeping the 4077th in business. (I have to question the authenticity of this--it smells like the dubious setup of the sniper episode.) Substitute nurses are enlisted, including Mulcahy, Radar, and Klinger. This time we see Spalding operating in the OR, assisted by Mr. Kwang (Leland Sun). In a phone call with Margaret, Frank expresses insecurity about Margaret hooking up with another guy, and flatters her by threatening to kill her if that happened. Burns chases the guys for listening in from Radar's desk, and the guys trap him in a foxhole that he falls into by driving a Jeep over it. For diversion, the guys have Blake screen a reel that Burns keeps under his bunk, with Radar and Klinger also attending. It turns out to be of Frank's wedding to sour-expressioned, bespectacled, and pregnant Louise (Jeanne Schulherr). Everyone heckles. Then an air raid siren sounds, and it turns out that the expected paratrooper invasion was nothing more than Five O'Clock Charlie dropping leaflets by day.
Blake: "Give up, Yankee imperialist dog."
Burns: "Harry Truman is sleeping with your wife"?
After the nurses are promptly returned, Spalding and the guys lead a celebratory parade while performing the song from the opening.
The Odd Couple
"Our Fathers"
Originally aired November 21, 1974
Wiki said:
In a flashback to Chicago in the Roaring Twenties, Oscar's and Felix's fathers (Klugman and Randall in dual roles) meet, as do the young Oscar (Adam Klugman) and Felix (Sean Manning).
Felix returns from a visit with cousins in Chicago, scandalized to have learned how Oscar's father, Blinky Madison, tried to kill Felix's. Felix goes into a flashback tale of when Blinky, whom Oscar thought was a maître d', actually ran a speakeasy. After Blinky mistakes police at the door for Shriners, he goes to see optometrist Morris Unger for the condition that earned him his nickname. Dr. Unger prescribes carrots for night blindness and fixes Blinky up with a pair of glasses. Unger later takes Madison up on an offer to visit his establishment. The overly straight-laced doctor doesn't know what type of establishment it is, or that his iced tea is spiked; and has to fend off a dancing girl named Lucy (Barbara Rhoades) because he's married. As a federal agent (Billy Sands) flashes his badge and declares a raid, the Big Boss (Giorgio Tozzi) arrives.
Lucy: It's the Big Boss!
Unger: President Hoover?
The Big Boss buys off the fed with a fat wad of cash. When Dr. Unger expresses his outrage at the bribe, Blinky points out that the police commissioner is sitting at one of the tables.
From his office, Unger tries to call the police to report the commissioner, but the desk sergeant just puts the commissioner on the line to listen. This gets back to the Boss, who assigns Madison to kill Unger, accompanied by a seasoned pro from Detroit named Heel (Elisha Cook), who limps on a metal-heeled shoe that he uses as a lethal weapon. While Heel waits outside Unger's office, Blinky pulls his gun on Morris but, following a one-sided call that Unger gets from his son, can't go through with it, as he's never killed anyone. Unger offers to take care of Heel, having him come in and holding the gun on him, but Morris also can't go through with it and hands over the gun. Then Heel reveals that he's actually an undercover federal agent and orders them to get out of town for 25 years...identifying himself as he leaves as Eliot Ness.
Back in the present, when Oscar disbelieves Felix's story, Felix produces a family heirloom--Ness's shoe, which breaks a table just as it did in the flashback. In the coda, learning that their fathers hid out in a hotel together for a couple of days jogs Oscar's memory of him and Felix having an awkward first meeting, portrayed in a brief flashback of their younger selves.
Ironside
"Far Side of the Fence"
Originally aired November 21, 1974
Wiki said:
When Ed infiltrates a crime ring, he's told to kill Ironside in order to prove his loyalty.
The chief makes a dockside rendezvous with informant Charley Yager (it must be Elisha Cook Night), who tells him that one of the local gangs is planning a big heist. Then a trio of hoodlums comes running up on the deck of an adjacent ship with guns blazing. Charley goes down and Mark's gun is shot out of his hand, but the Chief apparently puts a slug in one of the hoods, sending him into the drink. Afterward, Lou Parker (Peter Mark Richman) informs his inside man on the force, Matt Black (Jim Hutton), that his brother Ronnie was killed by Ironside, whom Parker now plans to knock off. Matt feels that he can't let this happen, but when he fills in his wife, Charlotte (Shelley Fabares), about what happened, and how he became an informant for Parker to get Ronnie out of gambling debt, she encourages him to think of the family, to keep working for Parker and not turn himself in. The team figure that there's an inside man on the force and start an investigation to determine who it might be. They know the hood Ironside shot at as Ronnie Schwartz, and don't know of any family. In the parking garage, the Chief is lowering the chair lift of the van when an ineffectual explosion goes off, which the Chief takes as a warning.
The Chief gets a taunting call from Parker, following which Ed decides to go undercover, disguising himself with sunglasses and a 'stache. Hanging out at a dockside diner and asking about Ronnie Schwartz, he's soon approached by Parker's right-hand man, Trace (Lee Paul), who takes him to see Parker. Parker has Trace and another man, Steve (W. T. Zacha), rough "Si" up to find out what he wants Ronnie for, breaking the wire Ed's wearing in the process. Parker then offers to put Si to work to earn the money that Ronnie supposedly owed him...the job being to kill Chief Ironside. Ed's isolated in a room at Parker's place and has no means to contact Ironside; but he overhears Parker making another call to Ironside, so he accesses a phone jack in his room, tapping it so that it can be heard over the line. This makes Parker hang up, but catches the Chief's interest. Trace and Steve subsequently accompany Ed to a sniper's perch looking into the Cave, from where Ed seemingly shoots the Chief in the back. The hoods makes Ed leave the rifle there with his prints on it so that Parker will have something on him.
The Chief's assassination makes the news, including an interview with Fran on the scene. While the hoods wait for info about the big job, Ed tries to learn about Parker's man on the force. Diana Sanger drops by the Cave and quickly learns that the Chief is alive, which even the department doesn't know. They explain how Ed left a rough Morse code message, including some typos that were deciphered as meaning to read, "Chief play dead." Parker brings Matt to meet the hoods and Ed. In his room, Ed taps another message on the phone jack...somehow dialing the Chief's number in the process, but is caught by Parker (who clumsily explains how kids can tap out phone numbers with the receiver buttons). Matt claims not to recognize Ed; and Parker deduces that the Chief's death was a ruse.
The message Ed got out was "Ron cop bro". The team narrow this down to Black, who also comes from New York and Americanized his German name. They question Mrs. Black, who tries to play dumb and cover for her husband, but she's made to talk with the threat of becoming an accessory to murder. From what little she knows, the team deduces that the heist is the hijacking of a load of illegal guns that the police are dumping off a pier into the drink. Ed is brought along to drive for the heist. While they're unloading the police truck, Ed shares with Matt that it was determined that Ronnie was actually shot by a different gun from the side (very briefly set up in an earlier scene but not well explained), with Parker being the likely suspect. When the van swoops in, Ed tries to make a break and is caught at gunpoint by Parker. But Matt confronts Parker about killing Ronnie, getting winged as Ed swings an object at Parker's gun arm. Uniformed backup arrives and Parker and hoods are apprehended.
Before the coda is cut off, we see that Charlotte has been taken into custody as an accessory, while Matt contemplates his own involvement.
Amazing. So they must have diverted traffic for hours. I suppose it makes sense when you think what a big part of the local economy the movie-and-TV industry is.
Or a train wasn't due.
