50th Anniversary Catch-Up Viewing (a.k.a. the Sidelist rebranded)
What was going on the week these episodes aired.
_______
Batman
"The Zodiac Crimes"
Originally aired January 11, 1967
Originally aired January 12, 1967
So Gotham's newest singing sensations are a made-up duo called the Twins. Bring on the generic '60s music! From the look, I'd say they were going for a Sonny & Cher vibe.
I guess this episode is the source of my memory of the Joker in a cowboy hat pretending to be a wealthy Texan...don't think they specified that he was supposed to be an oil baron as I've stated in the past.
In one scene, Batman inspects Commissioner Gordon's barometer/thermometer clock, which is of that style that I'd been noticing in shows from this period.
Even if I'm willing to buy that nobody recognizes Joker's voice, I've been watching too much Adam-12 for his police radio protocol to pass muster.
More repentant moll business, but at least they get into it a little deeper this time instead of just throwing it in as a random detail.
And there's the giant clam...can't say that it particularly resembles the one in Tarzan as giant clams go. It is unusual at this point in the series for somebody else to be in a deathtrap with the Dynamic Duo...a harbinger of what's to come in Season 3....
_______
Tarzan
"The Day the Earth Trembled"
Originally aired January 13, 1967
TOS guests: Susan Oliver (Vina, "The Cage" / "The Menagerie"), playing the aforementioned caregiver, not one of the convicts as I'd misremembered from half-watching the episode in the background.
The episode also features prolific TV Western guest John Anderson, who is playing one of the convicts, and it turns out that there's an association...his character and hers are previously acquainted.
It sure is easy to get episodes in this series blurred when they run this one only four weeks after "End of the River."
The episode starts in media res with everyone trying to get to a safe haven during the earthquakes. Tarzan gets to make a Machiavellian survival decision, using what little food he's able to gather to feed the adults instead of the children, because the adults have to carry the children. And you gotta love survival stories that have one of the characters complaining that the food put in front of him isn't enough...seems like if he's that hungry, he'd eat first and complain that it wasn't enough later.
Soldier ants! Now that's a nasty threat...and one that makes me feel all itchy...!
Eventually each of the two prisoners who isn't too busy romancing Susan Oliver sees the light and comes to willingly endanger himself for the good of the children...though the least repentant one still tries to make a break for it after Tarzan joins in his rescue attempt, and evidently drowns. The others receive pardons.
Manuel Padilla Jr. is credited but not in the episode, though one of the group of kids with a speaking part looks a heck of a lot like him, which caused some momentary confusion for me. Anyway, looks like next week's episode will make up for Jai's absence.
_______
12 O'Clock High
"The Hunters and the Killers"
Originally aired January 13, 1967
Here the backstory of Gallagher's father being a general comes into play, as the commodore he has to work with is nursing a grudge against the senior Gallagher. Said commodore is suffering a TV budget-friendly career setback, as he starts the episode with only one destroyer under his command, though some stock footage of other ships joins up with him along the way.
Maybe I'm Navy-biased, but the commodore's "minimum load, maximum range" plan made sense to me in this situation. The B-17's are there to spot the subs, and they've got carrier wing stock footage to do the sinking. But as story circumstances had it, the subs did manage to submerge before the other planes could get on the scene...and things got further effed up when the commodore wouldn't let the Navy fighters protect the bombers from the Luftwaffe.
There's a subplot about Sgt. Komansky in a romantic rivalry with a sailor. When that duo attempts to break up an inter-service bar fight, Gallagher and the commodore learn a lesson in cooperation. Ultimately Gallagher gets his bombs and he and the commodore learn to work together out of necessity, as plot contrivances again render the carrier wing footage useless.
This episode serves as the finale for the series, and ends appropriately enough with Gallagher going on leave back to the States (but oddly off-screen for the closing scene that establishes that). I've been letting my DVR continue to record the early episodes of the series with the intent of watching more, though I don't know if I'll review each episode. I'm particularly interested in the first episode, which introduces Gallagher as a recurring guest character a year before he takes the lead.
_______
Last Week's 50th Anniversary Viewing
_______
Dark Shadows
Episodes 231-235
Originally aired May 15-19, 1967
Monday
The week opens with Joe and Sam at Maggie's bedside. They give her a recap of last week's events while they await the arrival of...
The Real Doc Woodard, who shows a great deal of interest in the puncture wounds on her neck. Maggie has a bad reaction to the transfusion, as do the children of the night. Later Maggie is desperate to get outside, though her father manages to stop her.
Tuesday
It's Sam's day off, so Joe is watching over Maggie the next morning. She seems more restful during the day, though she winds up pushing him out again, which is a bit repetitive. Joe calls Collinwood asking for Victoria to come over. Jason comes in the room to advise her against going out in the pending storm, though he's really there to be the recipient of exposition about Maggie's plot line. He does get a juicy bit of plot-driving info about the anonymous phone call that Vicki received, and also draws a connection between the description of Maggie's condition and what happened to Willie.
Cut to Jason visiting the Old House the same way that everyone does...knock a few times, then walk right in. Willie is minding the store, so Jason starts pressing him for info before noticing the marks left by the brutal cane beating that Willie received from Barnabas. Jason makes clear that his main concern is that whatever Willie's involved in could bring the authorities to Collinwood, potentially endangering his own schemes. There's a nice, arty shot in their conversation where Jason is facing the camera while Willie stays in profile in the foreground, both in candlelight
Victoria arrives at the Evans home, where Maggie is calling for Joe in her sleep...but then she implores to Vicki that he must never come back. When nightfall comes, Maggie's out of bed, feeling strong, and acting defensive. After some cuts denoting the passage of time while Maggie fitfully sleeps with Vicki sitting nearby, the French doors blow open to reveal the very recognizable yet nonetheless unrecognized silhouette of Barnabas. Night Maggie screams for Vicki not to close the doors, but then calms down, asserting that everything's alright now.
Wednesday
Humpday picks up with Maggie and Vicki in a recap of the previous episode's last scene. After the credits, we switch to Collinwood, where Carolyn is trying to read read while dressed for bed. Vicki comes over, having evidently abandoned Maggie. The lights go out, so the girls light some candles. Then in comes the startling silhouette of Barnabas...to be replaced by Barnabas himself. Used to living by candlelight, Barnabas turns on the deceptive charm and regales them with a tale from his--er, the original Barnabas's--past. Carolyn and Vicki can't appreciate that they've just received a key info dump meant to inform the audience about the storyline ahead. Vicki does perceptively catch his reference to Josette's dead body having been bloodless. Nevertheless, Vicki returns the favor by sharing some exposition about Maggie, which includes the bit about the anonymous phone call--a revelation to Barnabas.
In comes Jason with a flashlight, who's holding up the "obsess over Willie" front, trying to warn Barnabas about his new servant, while unintentionally giving Barnabas a lot of info regarding how much Jason knows about what Willie's been up to. Cut to Barnabas returning to the Old House, angrily calling for Willie, his cane raised and ready.
Thursday
...opens with Willie down on the floor, having clearly become reacquainted with said cane between episodes. Barnabas continues his abuse in a more camera-friendly verbal fashion, expressing particular concern about Jason's snoopiness. Barnabas tells Willie not to do anything to attract Jason's attention while dealing with him, but nevertheless sends him out to do so while all battered up...nothing suspicious about that.
Meanwhile, Sam tries to persuade Maggie to get some rest, though she's feeling much better, what with it being night and all. Back at the Old House, Barnabas stares dramatically out the window in Maggie's general direction.
Cut to The Real Doc Woodard paying a house call on Maggie during the day. Outside her room with Sam, Doc mentions that he's waiting for some blood tests to come in...and expresses how his curiosity has been aroused by the wounds on Maggie's neck. I generally enjoy how the show artfully dances around the vampirism angle, but it seems a bit much when everyone describes the wounds on her and Willie as "cuts," when they'd be much more naturally identified as bites, even if others are clueless as to what bit them. Anyway, the Docs about to change that next episode.
That evening, Sam recruits Vicki to watch over Maggie again. Maggie, clearly struggling with what's been influencing her behavior, implores that Vicki not leave her even for a minute.
Back at the Old House, the portrait of Barnabas finally has a complete face! Once again the guy who's supposed to be posing for the portrait goes out for a rendezvous while Sam works alone...makes you wonder why Sam doesn't ask if he can just take the thing home. Willie comes in and questions Sam, clearly more concerned about Barnabas's whereabouts than Sam is. Sam does, however, get very angry when Willie brings up Maggie...so ironic.
Back at the Evans house, accompanied by the Collinsport Nighttime Children's Choir, Night Maggie drives Vicki out of the room, while something bestial rattling at the French doors drives Ms. Winters to hysteria.
Friday
...finds Vicki hysterically knocking on Maggie's bedroom door when Burke comes in, because he needs something to do this week. He forces it open to find Maggie lying there with a fresh trickle of blood coming out of the marks on her neck. When The Real Doc Woodard pays another house call, he not only diagnoses the usual loss of blood, but becomes the first to notice that Maggie's wounds look like bite marks. Sam comes home to fret, correctly guessing that "something inhuman" did this. Out in the living room, Vicki gives him a recap of yesterday's events.
On soap operas, ambulances are to be heard and not seen. Cut to Maggie's temporary new digs at Collinsport Hospital. Burke comes i--no, wait, that's Joe. Conscious again after her latest transfusion, Maggie seems aware of her impending fate, exchanging last words with her father and boyfriend...though she specifically says that she's going to die. Woodard makes them leave, but they'll see her again...after this storyline plays out.
Later that night, Woodard is ready to leave, and specifically instructs a nurse not to leave Maggie alone for a moment and to keep the window closed...because that always works out. Out in the waiting room, Sam and Joe are holding their own vigil, the former having a particularly hard time. Another cut to the clock, and Maggie convinces the nurse to...what else...open the window a little.
Still later, Maggie has an attack, following which the nurse can detect no signs of life...so she leaves the room, of course. Woodard comes in while she's dialing the phone and the two go back in the room to discover that Maggie has disappeared. And so the poor girl's torment truly begins....
_______
The Saint
"The Power Artists"
Originally aired May 19, 1967 (UK)
Simon says his own name, but this time it's a bit more clever because he's reading it.
The story involves some sort of blackmail scheme mixed with a revenge angle against Templar, both orchestrated by a recurring villain from an episode earlier the same season that I now only vaguely remember. Simon goes through some trouble to hide the murdered artist's body while attempting to get to the bottom of things. To that end he's aided by what appears to be a band of British hippies randomly popping up in the story, apparently acquaintances of the deceased, who manage to serve as a collective distraction and nuisance to others in a couple of situations. Oddly enough, it's the main female guest, another artist who doesn't appear to be personally associated with the hippies, who makes a point of running around barefoot the entire episode.
_______
50 years ago this week:
New on the charts that week:
"Society's Child (Baby I've Been Thinking)," Janis Ian
(#14 US)
"New York Mining Disaster 1941," Bee Gees
(#14 US; #12 UK)
"San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)," Scott McKenzie
(#4 US; #1 UK)
"Windy," The Association
(#1 US the weeks of July 1 through July 22)
And new on the boob tube:
What was going on the week these episodes aired.
_______
Batman
"The Zodiac Crimes"
Originally aired January 11, 1967
"The Joker's Hard Times"Xfinity said:
Originally aired January 12, 1967
Xfinity said:
So Gotham's newest singing sensations are a made-up duo called the Twins. Bring on the generic '60s music! From the look, I'd say they were going for a Sonny & Cher vibe.
I guess this episode is the source of my memory of the Joker in a cowboy hat pretending to be a wealthy Texan...don't think they specified that he was supposed to be an oil baron as I've stated in the past.
In one scene, Batman inspects Commissioner Gordon's barometer/thermometer clock, which is of that style that I'd been noticing in shows from this period.
Even if I'm willing to buy that nobody recognizes Joker's voice, I've been watching too much Adam-12 for his police radio protocol to pass muster.
More repentant moll business, but at least they get into it a little deeper this time instead of just throwing it in as a random detail.
And there's the giant clam...can't say that it particularly resembles the one in Tarzan as giant clams go. It is unusual at this point in the series for somebody else to be in a deathtrap with the Dynamic Duo...a harbinger of what's to come in Season 3....
_______
Tarzan
"The Day the Earth Trembled"
Originally aired January 13, 1967
Wiki said:
TOS guests: Susan Oliver (Vina, "The Cage" / "The Menagerie"), playing the aforementioned caregiver, not one of the convicts as I'd misremembered from half-watching the episode in the background.
The episode also features prolific TV Western guest John Anderson, who is playing one of the convicts, and it turns out that there's an association...his character and hers are previously acquainted.
It sure is easy to get episodes in this series blurred when they run this one only four weeks after "End of the River."
The episode starts in media res with everyone trying to get to a safe haven during the earthquakes. Tarzan gets to make a Machiavellian survival decision, using what little food he's able to gather to feed the adults instead of the children, because the adults have to carry the children. And you gotta love survival stories that have one of the characters complaining that the food put in front of him isn't enough...seems like if he's that hungry, he'd eat first and complain that it wasn't enough later.
Soldier ants! Now that's a nasty threat...and one that makes me feel all itchy...!
Eventually each of the two prisoners who isn't too busy romancing Susan Oliver sees the light and comes to willingly endanger himself for the good of the children...though the least repentant one still tries to make a break for it after Tarzan joins in his rescue attempt, and evidently drowns. The others receive pardons.
Manuel Padilla Jr. is credited but not in the episode, though one of the group of kids with a speaking part looks a heck of a lot like him, which caused some momentary confusion for me. Anyway, looks like next week's episode will make up for Jai's absence.
_______
12 O'Clock High
"The Hunters and the Killers"
Originally aired January 13, 1967
Xfinity said:
Here the backstory of Gallagher's father being a general comes into play, as the commodore he has to work with is nursing a grudge against the senior Gallagher. Said commodore is suffering a TV budget-friendly career setback, as he starts the episode with only one destroyer under his command, though some stock footage of other ships joins up with him along the way.
Maybe I'm Navy-biased, but the commodore's "minimum load, maximum range" plan made sense to me in this situation. The B-17's are there to spot the subs, and they've got carrier wing stock footage to do the sinking. But as story circumstances had it, the subs did manage to submerge before the other planes could get on the scene...and things got further effed up when the commodore wouldn't let the Navy fighters protect the bombers from the Luftwaffe.
There's a subplot about Sgt. Komansky in a romantic rivalry with a sailor. When that duo attempts to break up an inter-service bar fight, Gallagher and the commodore learn a lesson in cooperation. Ultimately Gallagher gets his bombs and he and the commodore learn to work together out of necessity, as plot contrivances again render the carrier wing footage useless.
This episode serves as the finale for the series, and ends appropriately enough with Gallagher going on leave back to the States (but oddly off-screen for the closing scene that establishes that). I've been letting my DVR continue to record the early episodes of the series with the intent of watching more, though I don't know if I'll review each episode. I'm particularly interested in the first episode, which introduces Gallagher as a recurring guest character a year before he takes the lead.
_______
Last Week's 50th Anniversary Viewing
_______
Dark Shadows
Episodes 231-235
Originally aired May 15-19, 1967
Monday
IMDb said:
The Accouncer said:
The week opens with Joe and Sam at Maggie's bedside. They give her a recap of last week's events while they await the arrival of...
The Real Doc Woodard, who shows a great deal of interest in the puncture wounds on her neck. Maggie has a bad reaction to the transfusion, as do the children of the night. Later Maggie is desperate to get outside, though her father manages to stop her.
Tuesday
IMDb said:
It's Sam's day off, so Joe is watching over Maggie the next morning. She seems more restful during the day, though she winds up pushing him out again, which is a bit repetitive. Joe calls Collinwood asking for Victoria to come over. Jason comes in the room to advise her against going out in the pending storm, though he's really there to be the recipient of exposition about Maggie's plot line. He does get a juicy bit of plot-driving info about the anonymous phone call that Vicki received, and also draws a connection between the description of Maggie's condition and what happened to Willie.
Cut to Jason visiting the Old House the same way that everyone does...knock a few times, then walk right in. Willie is minding the store, so Jason starts pressing him for info before noticing the marks left by the brutal cane beating that Willie received from Barnabas. Jason makes clear that his main concern is that whatever Willie's involved in could bring the authorities to Collinwood, potentially endangering his own schemes. There's a nice, arty shot in their conversation where Jason is facing the camera while Willie stays in profile in the foreground, both in candlelight
Victoria arrives at the Evans home, where Maggie is calling for Joe in her sleep...but then she implores to Vicki that he must never come back. When nightfall comes, Maggie's out of bed, feeling strong, and acting defensive. After some cuts denoting the passage of time while Maggie fitfully sleeps with Vicki sitting nearby, the French doors blow open to reveal the very recognizable yet nonetheless unrecognized silhouette of Barnabas. Night Maggie screams for Vicki not to close the doors, but then calms down, asserting that everything's alright now.
Wednesday
IMDb said:
Humpday picks up with Maggie and Vicki in a recap of the previous episode's last scene. After the credits, we switch to Collinwood, where Carolyn is trying to read read while dressed for bed. Vicki comes over, having evidently abandoned Maggie. The lights go out, so the girls light some candles. Then in comes the startling silhouette of Barnabas...to be replaced by Barnabas himself. Used to living by candlelight, Barnabas turns on the deceptive charm and regales them with a tale from his--er, the original Barnabas's--past. Carolyn and Vicki can't appreciate that they've just received a key info dump meant to inform the audience about the storyline ahead. Vicki does perceptively catch his reference to Josette's dead body having been bloodless. Nevertheless, Vicki returns the favor by sharing some exposition about Maggie, which includes the bit about the anonymous phone call--a revelation to Barnabas.
In comes Jason with a flashlight, who's holding up the "obsess over Willie" front, trying to warn Barnabas about his new servant, while unintentionally giving Barnabas a lot of info regarding how much Jason knows about what Willie's been up to. Cut to Barnabas returning to the Old House, angrily calling for Willie, his cane raised and ready.
Thursday
IMDb said:
...opens with Willie down on the floor, having clearly become reacquainted with said cane between episodes. Barnabas continues his abuse in a more camera-friendly verbal fashion, expressing particular concern about Jason's snoopiness. Barnabas tells Willie not to do anything to attract Jason's attention while dealing with him, but nevertheless sends him out to do so while all battered up...nothing suspicious about that.
Meanwhile, Sam tries to persuade Maggie to get some rest, though she's feeling much better, what with it being night and all. Back at the Old House, Barnabas stares dramatically out the window in Maggie's general direction.
Cut to The Real Doc Woodard paying a house call on Maggie during the day. Outside her room with Sam, Doc mentions that he's waiting for some blood tests to come in...and expresses how his curiosity has been aroused by the wounds on Maggie's neck. I generally enjoy how the show artfully dances around the vampirism angle, but it seems a bit much when everyone describes the wounds on her and Willie as "cuts," when they'd be much more naturally identified as bites, even if others are clueless as to what bit them. Anyway, the Docs about to change that next episode.
That evening, Sam recruits Vicki to watch over Maggie again. Maggie, clearly struggling with what's been influencing her behavior, implores that Vicki not leave her even for a minute.
Back at the Old House, the portrait of Barnabas finally has a complete face! Once again the guy who's supposed to be posing for the portrait goes out for a rendezvous while Sam works alone...makes you wonder why Sam doesn't ask if he can just take the thing home. Willie comes in and questions Sam, clearly more concerned about Barnabas's whereabouts than Sam is. Sam does, however, get very angry when Willie brings up Maggie...so ironic.
Back at the Evans house, accompanied by the Collinsport Nighttime Children's Choir, Night Maggie drives Vicki out of the room, while something bestial rattling at the French doors drives Ms. Winters to hysteria.
Friday
IMDb said:
...finds Vicki hysterically knocking on Maggie's bedroom door when Burke comes in, because he needs something to do this week. He forces it open to find Maggie lying there with a fresh trickle of blood coming out of the marks on her neck. When The Real Doc Woodard pays another house call, he not only diagnoses the usual loss of blood, but becomes the first to notice that Maggie's wounds look like bite marks. Sam comes home to fret, correctly guessing that "something inhuman" did this. Out in the living room, Vicki gives him a recap of yesterday's events.
On soap operas, ambulances are to be heard and not seen. Cut to Maggie's temporary new digs at Collinsport Hospital. Burke comes i--no, wait, that's Joe. Conscious again after her latest transfusion, Maggie seems aware of her impending fate, exchanging last words with her father and boyfriend...though she specifically says that she's going to die. Woodard makes them leave, but they'll see her again...after this storyline plays out.
Later that night, Woodard is ready to leave, and specifically instructs a nurse not to leave Maggie alone for a moment and to keep the window closed...because that always works out. Out in the waiting room, Sam and Joe are holding their own vigil, the former having a particularly hard time. Another cut to the clock, and Maggie convinces the nurse to...what else...open the window a little.
Still later, Maggie has an attack, following which the nurse can detect no signs of life...so she leaves the room, of course. Woodard comes in while she's dialing the phone and the two go back in the room to discover that Maggie has disappeared. And so the poor girl's torment truly begins....
_______
The Saint
"The Power Artists"
Originally aired May 19, 1967 (UK)
Xfinity said:
Simon says his own name, but this time it's a bit more clever because he's reading it.
The story involves some sort of blackmail scheme mixed with a revenge angle against Templar, both orchestrated by a recurring villain from an episode earlier the same season that I now only vaguely remember. Simon goes through some trouble to hide the murdered artist's body while attempting to get to the bottom of things. To that end he's aided by what appears to be a band of British hippies randomly popping up in the story, apparently acquaintances of the deceased, who manage to serve as a collective distraction and nuisance to others in a couple of situations. Oddly enough, it's the main female guest, another artist who doesn't appear to be personally associated with the hippies, who makes a point of running around barefoot the entire episode.
_______
50 years ago this week:
New on the charts that week:
"Society's Child (Baby I've Been Thinking)," Janis Ian
(#14 US)
"New York Mining Disaster 1941," Bee Gees
(#14 US; #12 UK)
"San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)," Scott McKenzie
(#4 US; #1 UK)
"Windy," The Association
(#1 US the weeks of July 1 through July 22)
And new on the boob tube:
- Dark Shadows, episodes 236-240
Last edited:
And I had no idea "Cajun Queen" was a sequel to "Big Bad John." Very interesting.
Somehow, after your reaction to Jimi, I knew this would be the case....The Doors are only my second-favorite band of all time.