The episode opens with Chet describing a 14-course dinner he had.
I don't know how people do stuff like that. The human body has limited volume. Of course, mine is more limited than most.
The paramedics volunteer to go in with borrowed SCUBA gear
Was it really them?
Aided by another diver, they manage to pull Charlie free and bring him up, where Roy mends his superficial injury.
And, once again, they stumble upon an Emergency! while doing something else.
Doc Morton, who lectures the crew about stress, the effect of adrenalin on the heart, and fear and anxiety causing ulcers.
"Lecture over. Now go back to risking death in perilous situations every five minutes."
When he sees the firefighters' large platters of fried chicken and French fries, Morton expresses concern and informs them that the study is going to experiment with diet, and will involve the paramedics taking readings of the firefighters.
I would volunteer to be in the fried chicken and French fry control group.
Squad 51 is called to a home where just-turned-seventeen Bob Jensen (Michael Mullins) is experiencing a severe stomachache after eating two loaves of raw cinnamon bread dough.
Kinda serves him right.
Brackett examines his visibly extended stomach and inserts medication through his nose to relieve the pressure.
And to show him who's boss.
When Morton informs the paramedics that Chet's interested in his diet program, they try to warn him of Chet's tendency to "overreact".
"He's the basis of many of our comic subplots."
The paramedics go to bed hungry and have trouble sleeping.
Especially Chet, who is hanging from the rafters by his toes.
The daughter is suspected to be experiencing fetal compromise with possible cord compression.
That's an indication for induction or c-section at 36 weeks.
The paramedics head to Rampart to talk to Morton and learn that Sarah's daughter prematurely delivered a 4-1/2-pound boy who's doing fine.
Kind of small. There might have been something going on for a while. Did she just deliver on her own?
They find Morton in Brackett's office and tell him how Chet's going overboard (to Brackett's amusement)
Has Brackett ever actually interacted with Chet?
Then a wire drops down and sparks on the car and a metal fence, starting a brush fire and electrocuting Cap'n Stanley, who had both hands on the car.
Brackett diagnoses SHAZAM Syndrome.
Both victims are transported to Rampart, where Early assesses that he'll be back to work in a couple of days.
He's a tough guy. I don't remember if he's ever been hurt on the show before.
The episode ends on a freeze frame of the crew moving in on Chet menacingly in the kitchen.
Good health can be bad for your health.
Mary, who's been talking with a contact in organized crime for a story, shares with Lou that the mob put Congressman Brian Nordquist through law school...somehow not anticipating that Lou would want to run a story on this, which she objects to because Nordquist is an old friend whose family she knows and whose campaigns she's worked on.
This is the woman who went to jail for a principle?
Nordquist (Edward Winter when he's not wrapped in the Flagg)
Immediately untrustable.
admits to the funding, indicating that he repaid the loan in full and subsequently refused to do his benefactors a favor.
And yet he still lives.
At work the next day, Mary decides to fight Lou on the matter.
"You're off the story, Mary. Conflict of interest."
Mary confronts Lou--who, it turns out, called Sue Ann drunk at 4:00 in the morning
Hmm. There's more going on here than I remember.
Mary's still present when Ted delivers the story and, having since been clued in, apologizes to Mary on the air.
Interesting. Kind of a nice moment for Ted.
Lou drops by Mary's place that night with a bottle of champagne and asks how the letter's coming. When she admits to a block, he dictates it for her, describing their years of friendship and camaraderie in a way that brings Mary to tears as she's typing. She nevertheless insists on handing it to him, but he tears it up.
Aww. That sounds like a good scene.
Mary's still on the job while Lou shares the news that Nordquist is well ahead despite the story.
Cop out.
Ted declares that he's quitting over not getting a raise, which everyone accepts nonchalantly, motivating him to immediately grovel for his job back.
Howard nevertheless calls Lois to demand custody, expecting her to refuse, but she agrees.
Red flag!
Howard visits Bob at the office to go over a schedule for Howie, uncertain of even the most basic things like whether Howie should go to school.
Howard needs a father, not a son.
Mitzi Margolis (Brooke Adams)
Soon to become a fairly successful movie actress.
it turns out she won't be able to start for a week because she's in the finals of a beauty contest.
Reasonable.
Bob telling him a story about a childhood friend who relied on Bob to take care of his horse
Uh oh. Do we know what happened to the horse or is it left to our imagination?
Howie sits his dad down to tell him that he doesn't think it's working out, as they're not spending any time together, and Howard is forced to accept that Howie belongs with his mother and that they should make the most of their Sunday visits.
So Lois probably knew exactly what would happen and just let it play out.
Howard nevertheless plans to keep the sitter.
In the coda, Emily intervenes when Bob lingers at Howard's in his absence to visit Mitzi.
Well, at least she has slightly more reason this time.
Well, that's cool.
The host is letting go of his own hair dye at this point.
He's not a young man anymore.
Desi: This is the first time that I have been live since I was Cuban.
That seems impossible.
Garrett does a National Express card commercial from behind bars as Rubin "Hurricane" Carter; Dylan and Baez are references as advocates.
Wow.
Laraine appears as Luciana Vermicelli, who's made herself attractive via drinking blood and other occult techniques.
This should have been a continuing character who got spun off into movies.
For a program called Literary Recital, Desi reads Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky". "Who the hell talks like this?" He ends up walking offstage in frustration while complaining in Spanish.
I'd kind of like to hear that for real, actually.
Desi introduces a series of early-concept pilots for I Love Lucy, featuring Desi Jr. as Ricky--I Saw Lucy, in which Lucy never appears on camera; I Loathe Lucy, with Ricky being abusive to Gilda as Lucy; I Love Louis, in which Ricky's married to Garrett as Louis Armstrong; I Love Asparagus, which has Ricky playing off of a plate of the vegetable; and I Love Desi, with a couple consisting of two Rickys (the other one apparently played by Tom Schiller according to IMDb).
That was like a trip through the Multiverse.
a koala who committed suicide, "despondent over the continuing death of Francisco Franco"
and Nixon moving to China with state secrets.
He declassified them with his brain.
I'm sure he was dead on.
Jane narrates a Bisexual Minute about a woman who left her husband for another woman 200 years ago.
A parody of the Bicentennial Minutes that they were doing that year. I forgot about them till just now.
Desi's performance of "Babalu," again accompanied by Desi Jr., continues into an extended final bow segment of Desi leading the cast in a conga line through the audience and back onto the stage.
That sounds pretty cool.
It's regarded as being an influential blues recording, and has also been recognized by the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the Library of Congress. And the number is in the bottom half of the list.
Oh, yeah. Weird. I must have been looking at the #8.
I knew you'd get a kick outta that.
This one has contemporaneous hit recordings by the Chordettes and the Fontaine Sisters, but the Teen Queens' version was the only one to also make the R&B chart, which can be an indicator of Rock 'n' Roll cred in this era.
I could possibly be remembering one of the other versions then.
It's more familiar than most of the trad pop numbers in this era, at least in part because of the song's adaptation into an Oscar Meyer jingle in my youth.
I don't think I remember that.
The thing is, they ditched the death fetish and made it about him being a cosmic-scale conservationist
What the hell?
and he destroyed the Infinity Gauntlet after the Snap, considering his mission to be accomplished.
Okay, that is inexplicably weird.
In-story, the songs featured were on a mix tape in a Walkman that Starlord had with him when he was abducted from Earth as a kid.
So they changed his story, too, but they timed his abduction to coincide with the publication of
Marvel Preview #4, apparently.
