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50th Anniversary Viewing
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The Ed Sullivan Show
Season 21, episode 14
Originally aired January 19, 1969
As represented in
The Best of the Ed Sullivan Show
The
Best of installment opens with Liza Minnelli doing a quirky number called
"Frank Mills," which tv.com identifies as being from
Hair.
Next Gary Puckett & The Union Gap perform a perfectly nice cover of Glen Campbell's
"By the Time I Get to Phoenix".
After that is the now-famous bit where Victor the Bear eats an ice cream bar out of Ed's mouth, among other tricks:
Not shown in that clip is the male trainer wrestling Victor prior to the ice cream trick. Victor's wearing a muzzle for that part.
Ed said:
Here's handsome John Davidson to sing for you.
John performs
"Didn't We," a trad pop song that seems familiar, possibly just from other
Sullivan performances.
Solidifying this episode's Easy Listening cred, we get the Lennon Sisters performing a number called
"It's Today" from the musical
Mame, mashed up in medley form with an a four-part harmony rendition of "Yesterday" that's actually rather pretty, I have to admit.
Closing the
Best of segment (and clearly their first performance in the original episode judging by the set dressing, which they were changing at the begging of "Phoenix"), Gary & the Gap do "Don't Make Promises," an upbeat but not particularly catchy number that apparently wasn't even a single, though they have one coming up fairly soon.
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Mission: Impossible
"The Test Case"
Originally aired January 19, 1969
Wiki said:
A "hired gun" bacteriologist is developing a deadly but short-lived virus for the Warsaw Pact; the IMF must eliminate him and his virus.
The vinyl record in the office of a record store listening booth said:
This recording will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck, Jim.
There's a nifty swirling smoke effect as the record self-destructs while in motion.
The IMF's plan involves swapping Rollin with a political prisoner who's being used as the test subject. I was a little fuzzy on the specifics of how the testing worked, and thus how the IMF were sabotaging it, particularly the part involving the balloon. But they do play up that this is potentially putting Rollin in very real danger....
Willy: What happens if Rollin actually gets the disease?
Jim: He'll die, in about ten agonizing minutes.
Reporter Cin makes the developer of the virus, Dr. Beck (David Hurst, appearing here two days after "The Mark of Gideon" aired) a covert offer for the virus. Meanwhile, Barney starts his end of the operation sneaking around on some rooftops--nice to see him getting some sunshine and fresh air for a change! Military Doctor Jim and Red Army Willy help Rollin switch places with the test subject. Rollin evidently fakes being exposed to the virus. There's a pill involved that apparently causes his vitals to make it seem like he's died.
Jim claims to the state security guy, Captain Olni (Noah Keen), that Cin made him an offer for the virus. He describes her as being in her late 20s...flattering Bain to the tune of about 10 years. This is part of a trail constructed by the IMF to make it look like Beck is planning to sell out, which leads to a fatal confrontation; Barney's reverse balloon gimmick somehow exposes Captain Olni to Barney's fake virus, which causes the same symptoms but is said to be non-lethal. Barney, back to hiding in crawlspaces at this point, switches the real culture for an explosive that destroys the cultures in the vault. The IMF gets away with Rollin and the original test subject.
Overall, I found this one a bit hard to follow, and perhaps fillerish in places. It just didn't grab me.
Paul Carr is also in the episode, as Dr. Zeped.
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The Avengers
"The Interrogators"
Originally aired January 1, 1969 (UK); January 20, 1969 (US)
Wiki said:
Agents in Steed's department are being fooled into giving away secrets, by men posing as Army officers at a fake Government training establishment. And their next victim will be...Tara King.
Mother's back, and his Roost of the Week is an indoor garden, which is accessed through a phone box with a hidden door for a back.
Some uniformed Red Chinese types are behind the fake training academy, led by a fake British officer named Colonel Mannering--played by Christopher Lee! They're interrogating military intelligence types to get identities of contacts and killing them. One of the targeted contacts is a one-man band who goes by the monicker Izzy Pound and His Incredible Marching Sound; another is a balloon salesman named Mr. Puffin.
The bad guys are conning their subjects into thinking their interrogations are part of an officially assigned training course, and even use a recording of Mother's faked voice to lure in their subjects, including Tara. They persuade their subjects to not talk about the course by making them think that attempts to make them talk are tests of their training. Mother and Steed get info from one of the subjects, which results in Steed following a carrier pigeon via helicopter to find Mannering's camp. Mannering sends the trainees after Steed as a "test," telling them that their guns are loaded with blanks, but Tara sees through it. Steed uses the inside of his bowler to protect him from the bayonet of one of the Chinese soldiers, and ultimately turns the tables when he tells the students to try shooting Mannering, leading to the Colonel's surrender.
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Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
Season 2, episode 16
Originally aired January 20, 1969
The Wiki list of guest appearances said:
George Gobel, Guy Lombardo, Pat Nixon, Richard Nixon, Nancy Sinatra, Smothers Brothers
This one aired on Inauguration Day, and it's the first thing that they mention in the intro, which includes a film of Dan & Dick with Tricky Dick at some public ceremony in Burbank:
I wonder if the John Lennon blurb was a reference to the
Two Virgins album?
The News from the Future includes mention of President-Elect Ringo Starr.
Jack Riley does Moses a la LBJ. He also appears as LBJ to deliver the first of the buzzwords that precede the commercials, "inaugurate". The other buzzwords are "incumbent," "Millhouse," "Spiro," and "flag".
The Legarde Twins return.
The Fickle Finger of Fate goes to the Bureau of Land Management.
Nancy Sinatra participates in a group musical number about meter maids:
Laugh-In looks at the Police / Law & Order:
At one point in the "say goodnight" segment, Nancy says "Goodnight, Dad," and they go to a brief film clip of somebody else doing Arte Johnson's German Soldier bit, complete with helmet...I think it was Frank, but it was hard to tell and Googling / YouTube searching didn't turn up anything to that effect.
Gary Owens said:
This show was pre-recorded, so the new president could broadcast it to our enemies overseas.
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The Mod Squad
"Flight Five Doesn't Answer"
Originally aired January 21, 1969
Wiki said:
While transporting a prisoner by commercial airline, Pete, Linc and Greer face death in a forced plane crash.
The Mod Males, including Greer, are escorting Tony Lando (Will Kuluva), a syndicate boss who's been in prison for 15 years, has six months to live, and wants to talk to the Governor (guess that would be Reagan). Pete and Linc play a steward and the flight engineer, respectively, on the twin-engine puddle-jumper. Julie's left out of the mission because she's a girl, and it might be dangerous! She is in the episode, hanging out with Chief Metcalf (Simon Scott).
Roy Glenn from
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner is the pilot. Sonny's traveling companion, Max, is Whit Bissell. There's also a solder who gets on the flight at the last minute, Willoughby (Larry Casey, a.k.a. Hitch from
The Rat Patrol), and is secretly one of the Syndicate's inside men. Willoughby creates a distraction for the hijacking...which doesn't go as planned, causing the plane's fuselage to end up scattered over the countryside...which makes me kinda nostalgic for
12 O'Clock High.
When Willoughby tries to make off with Lando, there's a fight and Greer takes a bullet. One of the surviving passengers is an injured doctor who talks Linc through removing the bullet, and using makeshift tools to boot! Pete plays his assisting nurse, wiping Linc's brow and everything!
In the climax, it comes out that Max was also working with the Syndicate. Lando dies, but passes on a locket with the location of his hidden stash of millions. Pete and Linc do their sans-Julie walk-off at the crash site--They're not really going anywhere, as they have to wait for the next chopper.
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Star Trek
"That Which Survives"
Originally aired January 24, 1969
Stardate Unknown
H&I said:
Kirk, McCoy, and Sulu are stranded on a barren planet where a mysterious woman attempts to kill them one at a time, while the Enterprise must travel halfway across the galaxy to rescue them.
See my post here.
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Hogan's Heroes
"My Favorite Prisoner"
Originally aired January 25, 1969
Wiki said:
Klink’s plan to use a lovely baroness (Marj Dusay) to charm information out of Hogan works to the colonel’s advantage when London asks him to leak a false defense report.
The plan involves an RAF pilot, Captain Sears, getting arrested trying to pass the fake plans to a contact. Hochstetter assigns Schultz to play the role of the contact, though Sears has to help Schultz along when the Sergeant can't get the passphrase straight. Then the prisoners have to spring Sears, while Hogan stays with the Baroness as an alibi.
This episode reinforces the previous one's chronological assertion, with a reference to LeBeau having been in Stalag 13 for two years. Also, Hogan indicates that he's from Bridgeport, CT.
DIS-miiissed!
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This is cute. I don't know if I've ever heard it before.
I wasn't familiar with it prior to getting it, either, and it is cute, but it's no "Palisades Park"--which is probably what the oldies radio DJs were thinking.
This is a good one. Hard to go wrong with The Four Seasons.
Definitely one of their classics--but does it sound like the '50s to you...?
It's funny how short some of these early singles are. This is good, of course. It's got that catchy Pop sound, but the understated cleverness of the lyrics is a hint of what's to come.
This one has a lot of noteworthy historical bits. It was their second single single in the UK, and was historically generally referenced as their first #1 as it reached that position on two UK charts, but not the one that eventually became the UK Singles Chart, which is why it was left off the
1 album. It was also their first single in the States, released on Vee-Jay in early '63, though it only charted locally in Chicago at the time because that's where Vee-Jay was located and a disc jockey there was playing it (something that I just now read about). John's inspiration for the wordplay in the lyrics was the use of "please" and "pleas" in the Bing Crosby song "Please". It was originally conceived as a slower, Roy Orbison-style number, but when they needed an excuse not to use the professionally written
"How Do You Do It?" (which went on to be a hit by Gerry & The Pacemakers) as their follow-up to "Love Me Do," they sped up "Please Please Me" and used that instead. (Paul in the
Anthology documentary on the Beatles' attitude toward "How Do You Do it?": "We cannot go back up to Liverpool singing that--We cannot be seen with that song!")
He's got the classic version, but Dionne makes pretty much everything sound good.
I am already finding that it's still an earworm either way.
Yeah, actually I do have Cozi. Is that where I've been recording Avengers? Or is that This? In any case, I do have it, so I should be able to record it, if Mom is interested.
This has been recently playing
The Avengers, but a couple years back it was on Cozi. Cozi is currently playing two back-to-back episodes of
Ironside a week on Saturday night / Sunday morning, Midnight and 1 a.m. EST.