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The Classic/Retro Pop Culture Thread

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50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 2)

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Ironside
"Poole's Paradise"
Originally aired October 2, 1969
Wiki said:
A fugitive being pursued by a corrupt lawman attempting to hide his activities at the local jail kidnaps Ed.

Team Ironside are traveling through a rural area implicitly somewhere that's not supposed to be California when they're stopped by a roadblock manned by a good number of heavily armed local deputies who want to search the back of the Ironsidemobile. When the Chief informs them that they're with the SFPD and are just looking for a good place to eat while passing through, the deputy in charge, Jack Hoog (William Smith),tries to point them to the next town...and you don't need to be Robert T. Ironside to figure out what that means in TV Land.

Outside of a local diner, the escaped convict that they're looking for, D.W. Donnelly (Clu Gulager), uses the old "stick a random object in someone's back and pretend like it's a gun" trick on Ed and grabs his pistol, which has been plainly visible from his open jacket flapping around in the breeze. Donnelly forces Ed to drive him out of town. The rest of the team soon figure out what happened after touching base with Sheriff Poole (Steve Forrest), who fills them in about Donnelly. The Chief notices that Hoog only fakes sending out a radio APB; and he and Mark subsequently learn from the friendly lady running the sleepy diner, Wanda (Louise Latham), that the local sheriff's office is more like a militia. The Chief uses the phone at the diner to patch through to the Mobile Ironsidephone, but when he persuades Donnelly to talk about why he thinks Poole plans to have him killed, the call is interrupted by a deputy at the telephone company across the street.

Donnelly abandons the van when Ed fakes some Ironsidemobile trouble. They leave a hidden note, which the deputies subsequently find and Poole burns, but Eve's there to see him do it. We hear him order a deputy afterward to shoot both Donnelly and Ed if they come back to the van. Meanwhile back in town, Bob tries to butter up Wanda a little for info over a beer. Out in them thar woods, Ed gets the drop on Donnelly and takes his gun back, after which Donnelly tells him that he witnessed Deputy Hoog beating a fellow inmate, Hollinger, to death, and claims that Poole let him escape so they could silence him with no questions asked. Meanwhile, Ironside restores the remains of the burned note that Eve covertly retrieved, which tells them just that somebody named Hollinger was murdered. Ironside goes to Poole with this information to rattle him, but Poole plays it cool. While there, Mark is locked up after Webster picks a fight with him while he was trying to obtain a car to leave town. Seeing an opportunity, the Chief has Mark distract Webster back in the cell area while Eve nabs some records to try to learn more about Hollinger. What the Chief finds in those records is that there's a bigger operation going on...Poole hasn't been reporting his prisoner deaths, and has been working his surviving prisoners twice as hard while continuing to collect state funds for the others.

Out in the wilderness, Ed tries to turn Donnelly in to the deputy guarding the van, and the deputy's carbine convinces him that Donnelly was telling the truth about Poole and the gang. Ed and Donnelly cooperate to take the deputy out and reclaim the van, for which Ed has been holding the distributor rotor. When next we see them, Poole and Hoog are pursuing the wagon, but Ed and Donnelly have rigged it to drive off a cliff, becoming the requisite fiery wreck with P & H assuming that they were inside. Scratch one Ironsidemobile! Poole returns to town to tell Team Ironside about Ed's death when he and the released Mark see Ed and Donnelly walking into town, hands over their heads. Poole and Hoog try to intercept them, but Eve and Ironside block them in a hotwired car while Wanda and other onlookers watch, causing Poole to back off.

In the coda, we learn that Donnelly has been released and then meet...the new Ironsidemobile! I did not know this was coming. It's now a large but conventional-looking civilian van rather than a paddywagon, equipped with a side-door wheelchair lift and decked out with police doodads in its more handsome interior. Next thing you know, the SFPD'll be kicking him out of his Ironsidecave and making him get a real apartment.

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Get Smart
"Ironhand"
Originally aired October 3, 1969
Wiki said:
IH Industries acquires KAOS, led by a man with an iron fist named Ironhand. He manages to infiltrate CONTROL headquarters, but did not find what he was looking for: the Anti-Anti-Anti-Missile-Missile plans. The Chief decides the best way to transport the plans to safety is to assign Max and 99 to Operation Baby Buggy Switch. A spoof of Ironside.

In the teaser, Max's contact Marco (Billy Barty) is giddy about not having been killed before he could drop Ironhand's name, then gets shot when Max asks him to repeat it. Max's next contact, Agent 44 (Al Molinaro), is in one of the buggies at the baby buggy shop that Max and 99 are sent to (or at least his head and arms are sticking out of it). Max then gets instructions from the Chief via a recording in a doll.
The Chief's voice said:
Good luck. In five seconds, this doll will wet.
The buggy that Max and 99 use to pick up the plans in 3 parts is loaded with weapons that Max accidentally fires off an inopportune times.

Ironhand's (Paul Richards) reason for his moniker is a huge-ass closed iron fist with which he has a habit of smashing pretty much any object of opportunity on or near his desk, including the desk itself. His chief henchman, Crawford, is played by Edward G. Robinson Jr., and Ironhand's office looks like a slight redress of the Chief's. Back at the Chief's office, there's a parallel gag in which Larabee, who has a bowling ball stuck on his hand, accidentally smashes the presidential hotline, so he yells out the window at the President...and gets a response.

The buggy-switching part of the operation involves a group of sixteen agents doing a choreographed dance routine at the airport while pushing identical baby buggies, but somehow Max ends up with the same buggy, which has the plans. Ironhand confronts Max, but accidentally knocks himself out with his namesake when he reacts to Max's news about a bad stock market drop.

There's nothing resembling Ironside here apart from the name.

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Hogan's Heroes
"The Well"
Originally aired October 3, 1969
Wiki said:
When the German’s new code book ends up at the bottom of the well, the airmen will have to take a lesson from the navy to get it back.

After Newkirk has to drop the book, stolen from Klink's office, in a dry well in a moment of opportunity, the prisoners blow up the local water works so there'll be a need to have them go down and fix the well. Extra security over some stolen spoons stymies their efforts, so they have to re-dump the conveniently wrapped book into the now-wet well, then feign an escape attempt by LeBeau to give the others a chance to lower Carter into the well, his body covered in grease. They're ultimately successful, get the contents transmitted, and return the book to Klink's safe in time.

DISSS-missed!

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Adam-12
"Log 52: Good Cop – Handle with Care"
Originally aired October 4, 1969
Wiki said:
A pair of freelance reporters are determined to create a story on police brutality, and harass Reed and Malloy as their marks. The officers warn them to cease their behavior, but they don't, and end up causing a tragedy.

On patrol, Reed spots a man lying on the ground and the officers stop to investigate. While they're trying to figure out what's wrong with him (he seems to have marks on his face), the freelancers hit the scene, one taking pictures while the other asks a series of contrarian questions, most of which suggest that the man doesn't need help, while playing to a forming crowd, evidently attempting to incite them. The crowd doesn't take the bait and the man is taken away for help. Back at the station, we hear of this duo, Gurney (Carl Reindel) and Bowen (Paul Darby), having been involved in other incidents.

The duo subsequently follow the squad car in their Mustang when the officers are going to the house of a Mrs. Sanchez (Margarita Cordova) to contritely inform her of her husband's death in Texas, following up on an attempt made by the Galveston authorities. As they leave, the amateur reporters are outside and ask what they did to make the woman cry. Reed notices that they have a police radio in their car. When Reed and Malloy ask some questions of their own, the freelancers accuse the officers of harassing them. Then they threaten to go up to the house and ask the woman questions, after just having accused the officers of not having enough tact to perform their most recent duty, and Malloy sets them straight.

The next incident involves the officers taking into custody a man who's tripping (and whom we later learn had been destroying property when they were called). They put him handcuffed in the back of the car with Reed sitting next to him, but he starts freaking out, throwing his entire body around, so Reed tries to control him. As they take him into the station, he'd holding a bloody nose from having hit the back of the front seat with his face. While this understandably looks bad, in the corridor the reporters just snap a picture and run off, not even asking questions this time. The incident is written up in the paper with pictures, and apparently the man, Henderson (Ben Frank), has accused them of brutality. MacDonald questions each of the officers about this.

Back on patrol, Malloy takes it all in stride--the episode title comes from Malloy sarcastically commenting that they should wear the slogan on their uniforms. Malloy also warns Reed that the reporters are still following them because they've seen that Reed is easily riled up. Then the officers get a call about armed suspects fleeing in a car from a 211 at a liquor store. They pursue the suspect vehicle onto a backlot and corner it former occupants when they attempt to flee on foot, holding them at gunpoint with their hands against the wall. As Reed's starting to frisk them, the freelancers come up, take pictures, and accuse the officers of having the wrong suspects. While Malloy's busy trying to get them to leave, Gurney shouts a question at the suspects and one of them who hasn't been frisked yet turns and fires a gun, hitting a bystander across the street. This seems to genuinely shake Gurney and Bowen. In the coda, we learn that the bystander has died and that the department is seeking to take action against the freelancers through the city attorney.

This one suffered from too many crappy syndication cuts to commercial in mid-scene.

_______

Tom was my favorite character on Voyager, but that's not saying much.

Well, whichever approach you think is right, "hip" would have been living together.
The "half full" view is that they'd been committed to doing exactly that; she was outspoken in her beliefs on the subject, which was a point of view novel to the TV landscape at the time; and the story (as underscored by that cute line that I quoted) treated marriage as an obstacle in the couple's relationship.
 
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Ironside
"Poole's Paradise"
Originally aired October 2, 1969

. . . In the coda, we learn that Donnelly has been released and then meet...the new Ironsidemobile! I did not know this was coming.
I guess you've never been into building model kits, then.

SOW9Unv.jpg
 
^^ That's a pretty sexy wheelchair, too.

Jack Hoog (William Smith),tries to point them to the next town...and you don't need to be Robert T. Ironside to figure out what that means in TV Land.
The next town would just have its own deep dark secret, anyway.

but when he persuades Donnelly to talk about why he thinks Poole plans to have him killed, the call is interrupted by a deputy at the telephone company across the street.
Deputy Ernestine, no doubt.

In the coda, we learn that Donnelly has been released and then meet...the new Ironsidemobile! I did not know this was coming.
I think this entire episode was concocted to introduce the new Ironsidemobile.

There's nothing resembling Ironside here apart from the name.
Kind of pointless, since they already did Leadside or whatever it was.

They're ultimately successful, get the contents transmitted, and return the book to Klink's safe in time.
Sometimes I feel that this show is a little far-fetched.

This seems to genuinely shake Gurney and Bowen. In the coda, we learn that the bystander has died and that the department is seeking to take action against the freelancers through the city attorney.
So, not a backdoor pilot then. :rommie:

Tom was my favorite character on Voyager, but that's not saying much.
Yeah, a lot of people felt that way. I was actually one of those who liked the show, for the most part.
 
55 Years Ago This Week

Wiki said:
October 12 – The Soviet Union launches Voskhod 1 into Earth orbit as the first spacecraft with a multi-person crew and the first flight without space suits. The flight is cut short and lands again on October 13 after 16 orbits.
October 14 – American civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King Jr. becomes the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, which is awarded to him for leading non-violent resistance to end racial prejudice in the United States.
October 14–15 – Nikita Khrushchev is deposed as leader of the Soviet Union; Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin assume power.
October 15
  • The Labour Party wins the parliamentary elections in the United Kingdom, ending 13 years of Conservative Party rule. The new prime minister is Harold Wilson.
  • Craig Breedlove's jet-powered car Spirit of America goes out of control in Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah and makes skid marks 9.6 km long.
October 16
  • Harold Wilson becomes British Prime Minister after leading the Labour Party to a narrow election win over the Conservative government of Sir Alec Douglas-Home, which has been in power for 13 years and had four different leaders during that time.
  • 596 (nuclear test): The People's Republic of China explodes an atomic bomb in Sinkiang.



Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:
1. "Do Wah Diddy Diddy," Manfred Mann
2. "Dancing in the Street," Martha & The Vandellas
3. "Oh, Pretty Woman," Roy Orbison
4. "We'll Sing in the Sunshine," Gale Garnett
5. "Last Kiss," J. Frank Wilson & The Cavaliers
6. "Remember (Walkin' in the Sand)," The Shangri-Las
7. "A Summer Song," Chad & Jeremy
8. "It Hurts to Be in Love," Gene Pitney
9. "When I Grow Up (to Be a Man)," The Beach Boys
10. "Let It Be Me," Betty Everett & Jerry Butler
11. "Bread and Butter," The Newbeats
12. "Baby Love," The Supremes
13. "Little Honda," The Hondells

15. "You Must Believe Me," The Impressions
16. "Baby I Need Your Loving," Four Tops
17. "Matchbox," The Beatles
18. "Funny (How Time Slips Away)," Joe Hinton
19. "G.T.O.," Ronny & The Daytonas
20. "Have I the Right?," The Honeycombs
21. "I'm on the Outside (Looking In)," Little Anthony & The Imperials
22. "Come a Little Bit Closer," Jay & The Americans
23. "Ride the Wild Surf," Jan & Dean

25. "Tobacco Road," The Nashville Teens
26. "Girl (Why You Wanna Make Me Blue)," The Temptations
27. "From a Window," Billy J. Kramer w/ The Dakotas

29. "I'm Crying," The Animals

31. "I Like It," Gerry & The Pacemakers
32. "Baby Don't You Do It," Marvin Gaye

34. "Haunted House," Jumpin' Gene Simmons
35. "Rhythm," Major Lance
36. "Mercy, Mercy," Don Covay & The Goodtimers
37. "I've Got Sand in My Shoes," The Drifters
38. "The House of the Rising Sun," The Animals
39. "Slow Down," The Beatles
40. "Everybody Knows (I Still Love You)," The Dave Clark Five

44. "All Cried Out," Dusty Springfield

47. "Ain't That Loving You Baby," Elvis Presley
48. "I Don't Want to See You Again," Peter & Gordon

50. "Save It for Me," The Four Seasons

55. "Out of Sight," James Brown & His Orchestra
56. "You Really Got Me," The Kinks

59. "Leader of the Pack," The Shangri-Las

68. "Is It True," Brenda Lee

73. "Ask Me," Elvis Presley

79. "I'm into Something Good," Herman's Hermits
80. "Time Is on My Side," The Rolling Stones


87. "She's Not There," The Zombies

98. "Gone, Gone, Gone," The Everly Brothers


Leaving the chart:
  • "A Hard Day's Night," The Beatles (13 weeks)
  • "Maybelline," Johnny Rivers (9 weeks)
  • "Where Did Our Love Go," The Supremes (14 weeks)

New on the chart:

"Gone, Gone, Gone," The Everly Brothers
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(#31 US; #36 UK)

"Is It True," Brenda Lee
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(#17 US; #17 UK)

"I'm into Something Good," Herman's Hermits
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(#13 US; #1 UK)

"Time Is on My Side," The Rolling Stones
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(#6 US)

"She's Not There," The Zombies
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(#2 US; #12 UK; #291 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time)

Total Beatles songs on the chart: 2


And new on the boob tube:
  • The Ed Sullivan Show, Season 17, episode 3, featuring Connie Francis, The Harlem Globetrotters, George Kirby, The Youngs, Roy Orbison, and Jean Carroll
  • 12 O'Clock High, "The Sound of Distant Thunder"

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I guess you've never been into building model kits, then.
Dabbled a bit with Trek kits ca. 1990, so this one would have been before my time. But...
Sweet! :techman:

And I used to catch the show, I think in daily syndication, but possibly first run, as a little kid, so if Ironsidemobile Mk. II is a lasting thing, I was likely exposed to it, but I have no memory of it at this point.

^^ That's a pretty sexy wheelchair, too.
:lol:

I think this entire episode was concocted to introduce the new Ironsidemobile.
No doubt.

Kind of pointless, since they already did Leadside or whatever it was.
Which did have some legitimate Ironside spoofery, like having the title character rolling back and forth in his chair in the back of his truck/van. On Get Smart's part, I think the title spoofs are mostly only meant to be title spoofs...but this seems to usually be lost on whoever writes up those Wiki blurbs.

Sometimes I feel that this show is a little far-fetched.
The hell you say!
 
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50 Years Ago This Week

October 11–16 – The New York Mets defeat the Baltimore Orioles four games to one in one of the greatest World Series upsets in baseball history.
Mark Lewisohn's The Beatles Day by Day said:
October 12 – On the fourth day of her hospitalization, with John still at her side, Yoko miscarries her expected baby.
Wiki said:
October 13 – An unofficial strike amongst British mineworkers begins over the working hours of surface workers.
October 15
  • DZKB-TV Channel 9, the Philippines TV station, owner by Roberto S. Benedicto, is launched.
  • Vietnam War: Hundreds of thousands of people take part in Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam demonstrations across the United States.
October 17
  • Willard S. Boyle and George Smith invent the CCD at Bell Laboratories (30 years later, this technology is widely used in digital cameras).
  • Fourteen black athletes are kicked off the University of Wyoming football team for wearing black armbands into their coach's office.
Mark Lewisohn's The Beatles Day by Day said:
October 17 – First release of the Plastic Ono Band's 'Cold Turkey' single in the UK.



The Old Mixer Abbey Halloween is the size of a bunch of Swiss chard...a bunch of Swiss chard that has three weeks to go!


Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:
1. "I Can't Get Next to You," The Temptations
2. "Hot Fun in the Summertime," Sly & The Family Stone
3. "Sugar, Sugar," The Archies
4. "Jean," Oliver
5. "Little Woman," Bobby Sherman
6. "Suspicious Minds," Elvis Presley
7. "That's the Way Love Is," Marvin Gaye
8. "Wedding Bell Blues," The 5th Dimension
9. "Easy to Be Hard," Three Dog Night
10. "Tracy," The Cuff Links
11. "I'm Gonna Make You Mine," Lou Christie
12. "This Girl Is a Woman Now," Gary Puckett & The Union Gap
13. "Baby It's You," Smith
14. "Honky Tonk Women," The Rolling Stones
15. "Everybody's Talkin'," Nilsson
16. "Oh, What a Night," The Dells
17. "Is That All There Is," Peggy Lee
18. "I'll Never Fall in Love Again," Tom Jones
19. "Green River," Creedence Clearwater Revival
20. "Something," The Beatles
21. "Jealous Kind of Fella," Garland Green
22. "Sugar on Sunday," The Clique
23. "Come Together" / "Something", The Beatles
24. "What's the Use of Breaking Up," Jerry Butler
25. "You, I," The Rugbys
26. "When I Die," Motherlode
27. "Going in Circles," The Friends of Distinction
28. "Get Together," The Youngbloods
29. "Hurt So Bad," The Lettermen
30. "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'," Dionne Warwick
31. "Your Good Thing (Is About to End)," Lou Rawls
32. "Walk On By," Isaac Hayes
33. "Baby, I'm for Real," The Originals

35. "Make Believe," Wind

38. "Smile a Little Smile for Me," The Flying Machine

40. "Carry Me Back," The Rascals

42. "Ball of Fire," Tommy James & The Shondells

48. "Backfield in Motion," Mel & Tim

50. "And When I Die," Blood, Sweat & Tears
51. "Something in the Air," Thunderclap Newman

56. "Reuben James," Kenny Rogers & The First Edition

61. "Take a Letter Maria," R.B. Greaves

63. "Cherry Hill Park," Billy Joe Royal
64. "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," Crosby, Stills & Nash
65. "Let a Man Come In and Do the Popcorn Part One," James Brown

67. "Try a Little Kindness," Glen Campbell

69. "Mind, Body and Soul," The Flaming Ember

73. "Groovy Grubworm," Harlow Wilcox & The Oakies

76. "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye," Steam

78. "Undun," The Guess Who

94. "Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday," Stevie Wonder
95. "Delta Lady," Joe Cocker


Leaving the chart:
  • "A Boy Named Sue," Johnny Cash (12 weeks)
  • "I'd Wait a Million Years," The Grass Roots (15 weeks)
  • "It's Getting Better," Mama Cass (19 weeks)
  • "Keem-O-Sabe," The Electric Indian (11 weeks)
  • "Lay Lady Lay," Bob Dylan (14 weeks)
  • "Runnin' Blue," The Doors (6 weeks)
  • "What Kind of Fool Do You Think I Am," Bill Deal & The Rhondels (9 weeks)

New on the chart--some weeks are slow...others capsize the boat with classics:

"Undun," The Guess Who
(#22 US; #15 AC)

"Backfield in Motion," Mel & Tim
(#10 US; #3 R&B)

"Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday," Stevie Wonder
(#7 US; #10 AC; #5 R&B; #2 UK)

"Take a Letter Maria," R.B. Greaves
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(#2 US; #21 AC; #10 R&B)

"And When I Die," Blood, Sweat & Tears
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(#2 US; #4 AC)

"Come Together," The Beatles
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(#1 US the week of Nov. 29, 1969, as "Come Together" / "Something"; #4 UK as double A-side w/ "Something"; #202 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time)

"Something," The Beatles
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(#3 US temporarily charting separately; #17 AC; #4 UK as double A-side w/ "Come Together"; #273 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time)

But wait, we're not even done yet!

"Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye," Steam
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(#1 US the weeks of Dec. 6 and 13, 1969; #20 R&B; #9 UK)


And new on the boob tube:
  • The Ed Sullivan Show, Season 22, episode 3, featuring Shirley Bassey
  • Mission: Impossible, "The Controller: Part 1"
  • Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Season 3, episode 5
  • The Mod Squad, "Ride the Man Down"
  • That Girl, "At the Drop of a Budget"
  • Ironside, "A Bullet for Mark"
  • Get Smart, "Widow Often Annie"
  • Hogan's Heroes, "The Gasoline War"
  • Adam-12, "Log 83: A Different Thing"

_______

This is pretty good.
Sounds like an established, old-guard American act adapting their style to keep up with the changing music scene. One could take that as a positive or a negative, as the Everlys were a huge influence on the Beatles in the first place. I like it myself...too bad it didn't do better. This will be their penultimate Top 40 single.

This is quite good. I love Brenda Lee.
Also sounds like an established American artist giving herself a post-Invasion sonic upgrade. In this case, she has a couple more Top 20 singles ahead of her in the upcoming couple of years.

Definitely good. A minor classic.
An enjoyably bouncy pop classic. I should note that Peter Noone was still 16 at this point!

A major classic.
I wouldn't classify it that strongly. To me, this period of Stones singles is just the slow build-up to that definitive, major break-out hit that's coming next year. But "Time Is on My Side" is noteworthy for being their first American Top 10, so progress is being made.

Ah, wonderful. I love the Zombies.
A very enjoyably distinctive-sounding classic. Plus, it is the time of the season for Zombies....

With the American chart debuts of Herman's Hermits and the Zombies, I'd say that all of the major British Invasion artists are now in play. The Who will be enjoying some sub-Top 40 chart action next year, but they don't really break out in the States until '67.
 
Get Smart
"Ironhand"
Originally aired October 3, 1969
Ironhand's (Paul Richards)
Richards probably best known for his role in Beneath the Planet of the Apes as Mendez, leader of the mutants living in the ruins of New York.

GhjvAIg.jpg


I guess you've never been into building model kits, then.

SOW9Unv.jpg

^ A shining example of how model kit manufacturers--taking a cue from Aurora--thought any TV vehicle could be a best seller. Like Aurora's Mod Squad Station Wagon, this Ironside Van was not a hit. Come on, what child or teen (the general target demographic for kit building) wanted a van with a wheelchair mount? Really? Ironside was a popular show, but on average, it was not kids' "can't miss" program.
 
I think that site is under the thumb of the Vegan lobby.

New on the chart--some weeks are slow...others capsize the boat with classics:
You ain't kidding.

This is a great song, and I don't think I ever knew it was spelled wrong. Ah, well, too late now.

Yup, this is a goodie. :rommie:

Now, that's my Stevie.

"Take a Letter Maria," R.B. Greaves
I love this.

"And When I Die," Blood, Sweat & Tears
A classic.

"Come Together," The Beatles
Another classic.

"Something," The Beatles
And this is just pure beauty.

"Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye," Steam
This is a great fun song.

Also sounds like an established American artist giving herself a post-Invasion sonic upgrade. In this case, she has a couple more Top 20 singles ahead of her in the upcoming couple of years.
I agree about the Everylys, but this seems like that classic Brenda Lee sound to me.

An enjoyably bouncy pop classic. I should note that Peter Noone was still 16 at this point!
Wow, some of these guys got a really early start. Steve Winwood is another.

I wouldn't classify it that strongly.
No? It definitely seems like part of their top-tier work to me.

^ A shining example of how model kit manufacturers--taking a cue from Aurora--thought any TV vehicle could be a best seller. Like Aurora's Mod Squad Station Wagon, this Ironside Van was not a hit. Come on, what child or teen (the general target demographic for kit building) wanted a van with a wheelchair mount? Really? Ironside was a popular show, but on average, it was not kids' "can't miss" program.
At least they didn't release just the wheelchair. :rommie:
 
"Gone, Gone, Gone," The Everly Brothers
The Everly Bros coming to end of an incredible run. This is not one of my favorites of theirs, but respect to two great artists.
"Is It True," Brenda Lee
Yeah, I was a fan as well. She was featured prominently in Ken Burns' country music doc. They showed clips of her singing as a a preteen. Even back then she had a voice that was way more mature than her age. It actually sounds kinda weird hearing that voice coming from a kid. She was mentored by Patsy Cline.
"And When I Die," Blood, Sweat & Tears
Supposedly, this song was written by Laura Nyro when she was a teenager. Imagine being a teen back in the '50's and '60's and writing a song about death.
"Something," The Beatles
Nothing about this song makes me think it's not one of the group's greatest, but I'm really burned out on it, as I am The Long and Winding Road.
 
_______

50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 1)

_______

The Ed Sullivan Show
Season 22, episode 2
Originally aired October 5, 1969
As represented in The Best of the Ed Sullivan Show

Ed said:
Ladies and gentlemen, here from the Copacabana in New York, are the fantastic Gladys Knight and the Pips singing a medley of their songs, so let's have a wonderful reception...
The medley consists of "Let Us Entertain You," their recent hit "The Nitty Gritty," "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" (with a brief spoken intro), and a song that I don't recognize which tv.com misidentifies as the 1966 Temptations hit "(I Know) I'm Losing You". Kaleidoscopic images of the pips are projected behind them as they dance. Afterward, Ed brings the group over to take a bow.

Ed said:
Now from Argentina...the South American magician Fantasio, so lets have a fine w--[cut off]
Accompanied by a female assistant, this very toothy illusionist performs some trickery involving his wand and scarves; making lit candles appear in his hand; making longer lit candles disappear and turn into scarves; eating feathers (which includes giving Ed one, which he puts in his mouth), then pulling a bunch of rope out of his mouth and making a bird appears from the bundle...all shown here.

Ed said:
From the Royal Box at the Americana Hotel, Phyllis Diller!
Phyllis's routine includes self-deprecating gags about her looks, her husband, Fang's, obsession with football, their cowardly German Shepherd, hijackings to Cuba, and Jackie Onassis, with dropped references to Paul Newman and Tiny Tim. There's a follow-up on the latter bit when Ed says that she just got a call from Tim. This clip includes the earlier part of the routine shown:
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Ed said:
Out in our audience tonight is a tremendous recording star and one of the most courageous performers in all of show business. I'd like you all to meet Stevie Wonder. Stevie, would you stand up and take a bow?
You can guess what happens next.

Ed said:
And now the French star who's jamming the Hotel Plaza's Persian Room, Sacha Distel, who opens with Burt Bacharach's new song, "Raindrops"...so let's have a very big welcome for this visitor from France
Distel does a loungey rendition of "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" with an almost carnivalesque uptempo arrangement. He then proceeds into a very brief bit of "The Good Life," which he lets the audience know that he wrote, with humorous immodesty. Finally, he impersonates another, unidentified, "up-and-coming" French performer singing a song called "Louise". A bit of googling indicates that he would have been referring to Maurice Chevalier, who was up and coming in the 1920s and retired by this point, a few years from the end of his life.

Also in the original episode according to tv.com:
Comedy:
--Flip Wilson (stand-up routine)
Also appearing:
--The 1969 Harvest Moon Ball winners perform at Madison Square Garden.
--Ed interviews Mets manager Gil Hodges, and four New York Mets: pitchers Jerry Koosman and Tom Seaver and outfielders Cleon Jones and Tommie Agee.
--Audience bows: Jim Stewart & Kurt Runzy (balloonists) and Jimmy Dunn (Newspaper Boy of the Year).
--Audience bows: Col. John Roosma and Bobby Thompson (teammates on the Passaic (New Jersey) High School "Wonder Team" which was famous for a 159 game winning streak in the early 1920's).
--Audience bows: Karen Sepa, Chris Peterson, Janis Clover, George Wallace and Margaret Bartasak (4H Club reporters celebrating 4H Club Week).
Filmed segments:
--Ed visits the Oregon set of "Paint Your Wagon" where he talks with Alan Jay Lerner and Josh Logan. Clint Eastwood sings "I Talk To The Trees" (rehearsal footage and a clip from the movie).
--A Hasidic Wedding Dance filmed at the New Music Hall, Israel.

_______

Mission: Impossible
"The Numbers Game"
Originally aired October 5, 1969
Wiki said:
The IMF team tries to get a deposed dictator to divulge his Swiss bank account number by making him believe World War III is about to begin.


The reel-to-reel tape in a coin-operated telescope on the harbor said:
This recording will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck, Jim.
This time Jim looks over each portrait, and our Special Guest Agent comes second, right after The Great Paris:
MI05.jpg
Other guest agents include Dr. Ziegler (Karl Swenson) and The Hartford Repertory Company, the latter of whom I think he's used before. Meriwether's character, Tracey, and Ziegler are both at the briefing and fully integrated into the team.

The scheme involves Ziegler making it seem that General Gollan (Torin Thatcher), who plans to use his account money to fund a coup of his native Luxania, is near death's door, while his wife, Eva (May Britt), and right-hand man, Major Denesch (Don Francks), hover over him like vultures. Tracey, in the role of Ziegler's nurse, swaps out Gollan's bedroom radio for a Barney-customized one that picks up WIMF. Meanwhile, Jim and Paris lead a small group of repertory soldiers who sneak into the compound and commence with some more broadcast-receiving appliance swapping...as well as a bit of Gollan swapping! Paris replaces the general in the oxygen tent with a life-sized inflatable Gollan! Real Gollan is taken down to his bunker, now occupied by the Repertory Brigade, to witness the communications chatter and incoming broadcasts that paint a portrait of World War III commencing.

The drama in the bunker includes bickering between Captain Jim and Sgt. Paris, the former of whom wants Ziegler to use his remaining penicillin on Not Dying Repertory Colonel rather than on Gollan. In the midst of all of this, Denesch comes down to the bunker to forge Gollan's signature on a document, so, with Tracey stalling him upstairs, the IMF team in the bunker have to knock Gollan out, get him and their entire operation out of the bunker through their immaculately constructed secret passage, and then put everything and everyone back after Denesch leaves! After he regains consciousness, Gollan offers Sgt. P a bribe for the penicillin. Paris fake shoots Jim, after which Gollan, led to believe that his paper money is now worthless because of global Armageddon, gives Paris the number of his Swiss bank account in exchange for the penicillin.

Meanwhile upstairs, the general's death is faked and Madam Gollan receives Gollan's will while attended by an attorney from the respected firm of Williams & Armitage. Denesch forces Gollan and Willy down to the bunker at gunpoint to show them his more recent fake document. When the party comes down immediately after Gollan has confirmed his bank account number on his computer, everyone's surprised to see each other, allowing Willy to overpower Genesch. The IMF leaves the trio in the bunker and exits the premises.

This was pretty far-fetched to say the least, but reasonably fun.

_______

Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
Season 3, episode 4
Originally aired October 6, 1969
The Wiki list of guest appearances said:
Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Mike Nesmith (The Monkees)

The Monkees Three are the first thing we see, but that's quickly followed by a completely unrelated chicken weenie controversy:
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A quick Letters to Laugh-In.

The Monkees introduce the news segment non-musically, but I couldn't find a video anyway. Nor could I find their cocktail party. There's also a recurring gag bit of the Monkees as a fife & drum band.

The Mod, Mod World of Salesmanship includes a bit of Monkeeing around:
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They're also in this week's Quickies, but Mickey Mouse got the YouTube headline:
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The Fickle Finger of Fate goes to the California Legislature.

The Monkees Joke Wall:
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Not quite the wealth of Monkees clips that we just got for Sonny & Cher, but I find it understandable. Having seen them in consecutive episodes, I found that the Monkees didn't have anything like the stage presence of S&C. They were just kind of there.

_______

TGs4e4.jpg
"Nobody Here But Us Chickens"
Originally aired October 9, 1969
Wiki said:
Ann gets a job as a dancing chicken and after some advances by the boss ends up stranded in her costume.

In the teaser, Ann has a chicken in her apartment, which she's using as her "acting coach," studying its ways so that she can get the part of the Chicken Big chain mascot, Miss Chicken Big. After the credits we're treated to the surreal sight of Ann and two other girls auditioning by strutting, clucking, and flapping their arms in the office of the Chicken Big's rooster, Major Culpepper (Slim Pickens, who seems to be getting around this season)...with freeze frames as each credit appears onscreen. Their performance is graded by the Major's assistant, Walter (Ed Peck).

Lew's not pleased to hear about Ann's new gig, as he considers the two chain stores in Brewster to be his biggest competition. He refers to her job as "Mission: Inedible".

The Major and Walter drive Ann from store to store (or "coop to coop") in southern Connecticut, fully costumed the entire time. At each coop she performs her "courtship dance of the chicken" to that definitive square dance piece that one always hears in association with farms and chickens, which I don't know the name of (which recurs as a musical motif throughout the remainder of the episode), and draws numbers for the customers with her beak. At the end of the day's whirlwind tour, the Major has Walter take the train home so he can make his move on Ann out in the middle of nowhere, and she ends up forcing him to stop the car and refusing to get back in.

Ann's just about given up on hitchhiking or going door to door when a well-to-do man in a sporty convertible gives her a lift and lets her use his new-fangled car phone--"Oh my gosh! How does it work?" Ann's trying to get to Brewster to attend her father being presented with an award, so she has her savior drop her off at her parents' door, thinking she'll be able to get in and change her clothes...but the key isn't under the mat and she's confronted by the neighbors' dog, which sits on her until her parents get home.

"Oh, Donald" count: 1
"Oh, Daddy" count: 1

_______

Richards probably best known for his role in Beneath the Planet of the Apes as Mendez, leader of the mutants living in the ruins of New York.

GhjvAIg.jpg
Looks kind of like Robert Vaughn there.

^ A shining example of how model kit manufacturers--taking a cue from Aurora--thought any TV vehicle could be a best seller. Like Aurora's Mod Squad Station Wagon, this Ironside Van was not a hit. Come on, what child or teen (the general target demographic for kit building) wanted a van with a wheelchair mount? Really? Ironside was a popular show, but on average, it was not kids' "can't miss" program.
Well, I watched it when I was too young to build model kits...and it was on at the family-friendly hour of 8:30.

This is a great song, and I don't think I ever knew it was spelled wrong. Ah, well, too late now.
Such a classic that it's surprising it didn't make the Top 20. I also just noticed that it sounds kind of like "Time of the Season".

Yup, this is a goodie. :rommie:
A definite oldies classic, but perhaps the weakest of this week's outstanding bunch to my ear.

Now, that's my Stevie.
A relatively minor classic in his repertoire, but definitely a classic.

I love this.
An enjoyable oldies radio staple.

A classic.
As I've mentioned previously, I've developed a strange fascination with this song given its message and its proximity to my birth.

Another classic.
This chart-topper started its life as an attempt by John to write a gubernatorial campaign song for Timothy Leary. His allusion to Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me" in the opening lines resulted in a lawsuit, the settlement of which was the basis for John recording his Phil Spector-produced 1975 '50s covers album Rock 'n' Roll. And showing my true age, my first exposure to the song was Aerosmith's version.

And this is just pure beauty.
Abbey Road is George's pinnacle as a songwriter. He still only gets his customary two tracks per disc, but they're arguably the two best tracks on the album.

This is a great fun song.
Major oldies classic.

I agree about the Everylys, but this seems like that classic Brenda Lee sound to me.
It sounds distinctly different from her earlier, more '50s-style work to me.

No? It definitely seems like part of their top-tier work to me.
It never stood out to me as being particularly noteworthy among their rather formidable decades-spanning body of stone-cold classic singles.

Nothing about this song makes me think it's not one of the group's greatest, but I'm really burned out on it, as I am The Long and Winding Road.
I know that feeling. I once thought that John's "Imagine" was mind-blowingly fantastic, but over the decades it's become the definition of an overexposed song for me.
 
Last edited:
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
Season 3, episode 4
Originally aired October 6, 1969 The Monkees Three are the first thing we see

I almost hate to say it, but the trio had a vibe about them that was more easygoing than it had been in for most of the previous year--including the final months of Peter's perticipation. Its not that Peter was some cut up who made them jokesters, and they were coming off of it, but the trio versionjust seems so easygoing.

Not quite the wealth of Monkees clips that we just got for Sonny & Cher, but I find it understandable. Having seen them in consecutive episodes, I found that the Monkees didn't have anything like the stage presence of S&C. They were just kind of there.

..the fault of the format of some of R&MLI's writing staff, which catered to a very stagey, projected type of performance, instead of the kind of quick improvisation The Monkees had perfected on their show, where the script was a template, but they (and James Frawley) built the heart of the natural flow of humor.

Well, I watched it when I was too young to build model kits...and it was on at the family-friendly hour of 8:30.

But a wheelchair van was not the kind of vehicle marketed to kids at a time when the industry was still producing the flashier work of customizers such as Jeffries, Barris, or Daniel. The Ironside kit was just odd, and its no wonder it failed to sell.

I know that feeling. I once thought that John's "Imagine" was mind-blowingly fantastic, but over the decades it's become the definition of an overexposed song for me.

Beyond overexposed, and truly overrated.
 
Phyllis's routine includes self-deprecating gags about her looks, her husband, Fang's, obsession with football, their cowardly German Shepherd, hijackings to Cuba, and Jackie Onassis, with dropped references to Paul Newman and Tiny Tim.
Always got a kick out of Phyllis Diller.

Also in the original episode according to tv.com:
Newspaper boy of the year....

This time Jim looks over each portrait, and our Special Guest Agent comes second, right after The Great Paris:
Ooh, the Great Lee Meriwether. This is reminding me of Wild Wild West and the Substitute Arties.

Tracey, in the role of Ziegler's nurse, swaps out Gollan's bedroom radio for a Barney-customized one that picks up WIMF.
Radio Free Imaginary Countries.

Paris replaces the general in the oxygen tent with a life-sized inflatable Gollan!
And why Paris has a life-sized inflatable Gollan is something none of us wants to know.

This was pretty far-fetched to say the least, but reasonably fun.
It would have been easier to just break into the Swiss Bank. Their security is full of holes.

"Nobody Here But Us Chickens"
And weenies.

At the end of the day's whirlwind tour, the Major has Walter take the train home so he can make his move on Ann out in the middle of nowhere, and she ends up forcing him to stop the car and refusing to get back in.
At this point, Ann reveals that she was pecked by the chicken in the teaser and, as the moon rises, she transforms into a prehistoric terror bird and chicken scratches the Major to death.

Such a classic that it's surprising it didn't make the Top 20. I also just noticed that it sounds kind of like "Time of the Season".
You're right, it does have that vibe.

A definite oldies classic, but perhaps the weakest of this week's outstanding bunch to my ear.
Well, it's kind of silly, just this side of a novelty number.

This chart-topper started its life as an attempt by John to write a gubernatorial campaign song for Timothy Leary.
Hah, now that would have been funny. "Tune In, Turn On, Turn Out The Vote." :rommie:

Abbey Road is George's pinnacle as a songwriter. He still only gets his customary two tracks per disc, but they're arguably the two best tracks on the album.
The Quiet Beatle is underrated.
 
_______

50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 2)

_______

Ironside
"Eye of the Hurricane"
Originally aired October 9, 1969
Wiki said:
Three San Quentin convicts use Ironside, Mark, the van and the warden's wife to plot their escape.

At the prison to talk to an inmate named Wilson (Jackie Coogan Jr.) whom he'd been led to believe was interested in changing his story about an armored car robbery, the Chief is asked to visit the warden's house before he leaves. There he and Mark find that the Warden Leydon (Arthur Space) and his wife (Virginia Gregg) and staff are being held at gunpoint by a pair of convicts named Sims (Johnny Seven) and Toby (Dana Elcar). Their plan to be driven out in Ironsidemobile Mk. II with Mrs. Leydon as their hostage hits a snag when the warden tries to draw a gun on them and gets shot. Now the focus becomes trying to save the warden, and the prison doctor, Ring (James McEachlin), is called over under the pretense that Leydon is ill. Dr. Ring needs plasma, so Mark is sent to get it dressed as the warden's cook. The Chief asks for Mark to get him a favorite brand of cigarettes called MIRAGE...actually a coded message about a device that we learn is called the Miniaturized Intercom Radio-Air Ground Exchange. Mark goes straight to the assistant warden and gets the message out to Ed back at the Ironsidecave. Meanwhile the Chief learns that Wilson is the third prospective escapee, having lured Ironside to the prison specifically to enable their attempt.

Eventually the escape party makes its move and leaves the prison in the van, but Mark picks up the fake pack of MIRAGE cigarettes at a prearranged gas stop. Now Ed, tailing in a helicopter, can pick up audio from the van. But the escapees pull a trick of their own, using a tunnel to switch themselves and the Chief into a hippie van driven by a female accomplice. The Chief still has the cigarette pack, so he chats up his captors in such a way as to tell Ed everything that he needs to know. But Ed is having trouble picking up the signal for some reason, so he's still in the dark until he's able to rendezvous with Mark, who'd been driving the Ironsidemobile as a decoy. The escapees make it to a landing where they plan to take a boat to Mexico, but with the help of some ham radio operators recruited to listen to the MIRAGE frequency, the Edcopter catches up with them and the Chief uses the distraction to grab Sims's gun.

This one came off as more padded than suspenseful...too many odd story quirks to delay the escape attempt. Point of interest: at one point Sims describes the Ironsidemobile as a paddy wagon, even though it isn't one anymore...possibly an artifact of the script having been written without knowledge of the change in hero vehicle.

_______

Get Smart
"Valerie of the Dolls"
Originally aired October 10, 1969
Wiki said:
CONTROL finds out that KAOS is planning to destroy California by using a very powerful bomb whose formula is being delivered in 3 parts. The Chief and Max track down one of the parts to the Valerie School for Expectant Fathers and then enroll as students to find out the method used to deliver the formula. A spoof of Valley of the Dolls.

So...absolutely nothing to do with Valley of the Dolls other than the title, got it. A KAOS agent disguised as a little girl smuggles in part of the formula in her doll. The formula will enable KAOS to...well, I have to wonder if the head of KAOS would be played by Gene Hackman.

The school is run by a woman named Valerie (Antoinette Bower), who teaches the expectant fathers--now including Max and the Chief--using dolls. In a mishap with another student, Max accidentally gains possession of a doll that has 1/3 of the formula. After KAOS agent Mondo (Henry Corden) goes to the Smart apartment and takes the doll, 99 figures out the doll/smuggling angle and Max tries to sneak back into the school, only to be discovered and trapped in...
Max said:
Of course...the old "secret supply room in the supply room" trick!
Max finds himself playing Russian roulette with six dolls...one of which has a string that will unlock the door and another of which has a bomb. He's saved from pulling what turns out to be the latter when the Chief and 99 show up in the nick of time. The KAOS agents are subsequently caught in Los Angeles, because our CONTROL heroes were able to get there by train while the KAOS agents were circling overhead waiting to land.

_______

Hogan's Heroes
"The Klink Commandos"
Originally aired October 10, 1969
Wiki said:
Marya’s latest lover is using her as bait to scoop up her underground contacts. Hogan’s team may have to volunteer for service on the Russian front to keep their operation safe.

Guesting Nita Talbot in her fifth of seven appearances as Marya, and Frank Marth as Count von Waffenschmidt, one of his five different guest roles on the series. This time Marya's being all schmoozy with Klink, which seems to be a new thing. The prisoners figure that she's giving them an opportunity to steal the attache case that the Count has chained to his wrist. But traveling with Marya turns out to be a lure on the Count's part to catch spies, so Hogan and Newkirk end up in the cooler.

The Count has to continue to the Russian front before returning to deal with his catch, so Hogan's counterplan involves having Carter, disguised as a German general, order Klink to accompany the prisoners east on a suicide mission. Conveniently, this involves them being on the same train as the Count and Marya...and it turns out that Marya was aware of and playing along with the Count's plan in order to divert him from how the Russians are actually getting the information that the German couriers have been delivering to the front. Hogan rather easily gets the Count in a situation that will discredit him with his superiors and convinces him to defect, even as the train returns to Stalag 13, the fake suicide mission having been called off.

DIS-missed!

_______

Adam-12
"Log 23: Pig Is a Three Letter Word"
Originally aired October 11, 1969
Wiki said:
Reed and Malloy must keep a race riot from taking place after the apprehension of a pair of armed robbers potentially sets an entire neighborhood against the police. It is here where a lesson Reed earlier was in the process of learning -- keeping his emotions under control when an arrestee begins insulting him -- will be put to the test. Earlier, Reed busts his first sex offender, who was caught brutally raping a 5-year-old boy in a park restroom, and freely trades barbs with him; Reed later learns the boy has died, causing him to punch a locker door in frustration.

The officers are bringing in the sex offender at the beginning of the episode. MacDonald takes Malloy aside to have a word with him about Reed's strong attitude. Malloy of course sticks up for his partner, and only has a brief, gentle talk about it in the squad car. In the meantime, Reed's had an insightful chat with a fellow officer who's just getting off probation about a similar incident that might have endangered his becoming a full officer.

On patrol, the officers respond to a call from an older woman who for some reason thinks that recently moved neighbors left their two-year-old child's body behind. The officers smell a strong odor coming from under the house, so Malloy lets Reed crawl in to investigate. It turns out to be nothing but a sack of fish, likely left by the Ashtons to get back at their busybody neighbor. Malloy knew all along, but let Reed retrieve the sack so he'd know the difference.

Back in the station's locker room, Reed learns about the molestation victim having died from internal injuries and takes it out on his locker as MacDonald happens to be watching. Back in the squad car, Malloy shares that he's had to pay for a few lockers himself. They subsequently get a call about a 459 (burglary) from a man names Barnes (Herbert Anderson) who flags them down in the street, then lets them in his house to witness a young boy crawling in through the doggie door. Having scoped out the situation following three recent incidents, the man points the officers to the boy's father parked in a nearby alley. In the meantime Mr. Barnes has been treating Johnny (Tony Fraser) to a snack, and doesn't want to press charges if it means sending him to jail, which Malloy promises won't happen.

Their next call is a 211 in progress at a grocery store. The officers catch the armed robbers when they attempt to flee the scene through the backlot. As a crowd gathers, one of the suspects tries to incite them based on race, yelling the word "pig" a lot, but a level-headed young man in the crowd shares the news about how the pair shot the couple who ran the store. The young man, Jessie Smith (Alex Clarke), later comes by the station, apparently to apologize on behalf of the neighborhood, but the officers think him for his role in defusing the incident. The episode ends on the note of MacDonald coming in the locker room to ask Reed how he's doing.

Jean's pregnancy is referenced in this episode.

_______

..the fault of the format of some of R&MLI's writing staff, which catered to a very stagey, projected type of performance, instead of the kind of quick improvisation The Monkees had perfected on their show, where the script was a template, but they (and James Frawley) built the heart of the natural flow of humor.
It wasn't up to R&MLI to tailor their very successful series to the Monkees' style...it was up to the Monkees to have the chops to adapt to it, as so many other guests already had. Clearly Sonny & Cher had more of a future in the variety show business.

and truly overrated.
I wouldn't go that far.

Radio Free Imaginary Countries.
:)

And why Paris has a life-sized inflatable Gollan is something none of us wants to know.
:eek:

It would have been easier to just break into the Swiss Bank. Their security is full of holes.
:sigh:

The Quiet Beatle is underrated.
One could certainly have made that claim at this point...but the caveat to his peak moment here will be a very spotty solo career.
 
Their plan to be driven out in Ironsidemobile Mk. II with Mrs. Leydon as their hostage
There we go. That will sell more model kits.

The Chief asks for Mark to get him a favorite brand of cigarettes called MIRAGE...
He'd roll a mile for a Mirage.

But Ed is having trouble picking up the signal for some reason
The Hippie Van is partly in another dimension.

Point of interest: at one point Sims describes the Ironsidemobile as a paddy wagon, even though it isn't one anymore...possibly an artifact of the script having been written without knowledge of the change in hero vehicle.
Somebody on the set should have caught that. :(

So...absolutely nothing to do with Valley of the Dolls other than the title, got it.
I sense a pattern developing.

The KAOS agents are subsequently caught in Los Angeles, because our CONTROL heroes were able to get there by train while the KAOS agents were circling overhead waiting to land.
Those damn budget cuts again. :rommie:

so Hogan's counterplan involves having Carter, disguised as a German general, order Klink to accompany the prisoners east on a suicide mission.
Evidently he has the same mutant power to cloud men's minds as Rollin Hand.

On patrol, the officers respond to a call from an older woman who for some reason thinks that recently moved neighbors left their two-year-old child's body behind. The officers smell a strong odor coming from under the house, so Malloy lets Reed crawl in to investigate. It turns out to be nothing but a sack of fish, likely left by the Ashtons to get back at their busybody neighbor.
Nice. This triggers a vague memory of a guy who buried a fake human skeleton under his front steps when he was remodeling as a long-term practical joke for unknown future owners of the house. I admire that! :rommie:

Back in the station's locker room, Reed learns about the molestation victim having died from internal injuries
Okay, that's about as grim as it gets. Poor Reed is going to need therapy.

I really ran the gamut this time. :rommie:

One could certainly have made that claim at this point...but the caveat to his peak moment here will be a very spotty solo career.
True enough. He started very strong then faded. Of course, that's also true of the others to some degree.
 
_______

55th Anniversary Viewing

(A little early, but after last week I was jonesin' for my 12OCH fix.)

_______

The Ed Sullivan Show
Season 17, episode 3
Originally aired October 11, 1964
As represented in The Best of the Ed Sullivan Show

Ed said:
Miss Connie Francis!
A beehived Connie sings a medley consisting of old standards "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone" and "After You've Gone" to big band-style accompaniment. tv.com indicates that a number called "My Man" was also part of the medley.

Ed said:
Abe Saperstein's Harlem Globetrotters have served as magnificent ambassadors for the United States. Now here they are in the Vatican with Pope John. Let's have a very fine welcome for them.
The team exhibits their basketball showmanship to the familiar tune of "Sweet Georgia Brown," with Ed providing some mumbly introductions to the individual members as voiceovers during the performance.

Ed said:
Recently the New York Evening Post devoted a full page to the star you're about to meet. He comes from Chicago and he's an impressionist, George Kirby!
Kirby plays Walter Brennan and Gary Cooper in a Western scene, then does Sammy Davis Jr. singing "What Kind of Fool Am I" (not as well). tv.com indicates that he also did Dean Martin singing "All the Way".

Ed said:
Right now one of the most fantastic groups we've ever had on our show on this stage, the Youngs!
This seven-member troupe of acrobats, including one boy and one woman, demonstrate their tumbling skill, culminating in the boy somersaulting up from a teeter board to the top of a formation of three of the men standing on each others' shoulders.

Ed said:
A very brilliant comedienne coming back to our stage after too long an absence, Jean Carroll!
Carroll's routine revolves around picking on her husband and describing an incident with her family eating out:
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Ed said:
Now ladies and gentlemen, the polls, both the record polls on both sides of the Atlantic have been all turned up here because a fella out of Odessa, Texas, Roy Orbison, is leading the list with this number. So here is bespectacled number one king, Roy Orbison!
"Oh, Pretty Woman" was actually ceding its position to "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" that week, but don't let that stop a good live performance of a major classic hit:
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Looks like somebody might have used a rerun date there. And I couldn't help noticing that the suits worn by his band members look English. There's a fuller clip not from the Sullivan account here.

Also in the original episode according to tv.com:
Music:
--As a tribute to the 1964 World Series, Connie Francis sings a medley of "On The Sidewalks Of New York," "Meet Me In St. Louis, Louis" and "Take Me Out To The Ball Game."
--Jean Paul Vignon (French pop singer) - "Standing on the Corner."
--Juliet Prowse sings and dances to "Use Your Imagination" (in a sequence taped in Central Park).
Comedy:
--Marty Allen & Steve Rossi (comedy team) - Rossi sings "More," interviews Christopher Columbus (Allen), then sings "We've Had A Swingin' Time" (to the tune of "Battle Hymn Of The Republic").
Also appearing:
--Cameos: Johnny Keane (St. Louis Cardinals manager) and Ken Boyer (St. Louis Cardinals third baseman).
--Audience bows: New York Yankees Elston Howard and Roger Maris.
--Audience bows: St. Louis Cardinals Dick Groat and Bill White.

_______

12 O'Clock High
"The Sound of Distant Thunder"
Originally aired October 16, 1964
IMDb said:
A goofy bombardier Lt. who always hits his mark joins Gen. Savage's crew and finds out the hard way, that real people are killed when bombs drop.

Our Goofy Guest Bombardier, Lt. Andy Lathrop:
12och88.jpg
In a lighthearted teaser, Lathrop attracts Savage's attention by distracting everybody while looking for a seat at a mission briefing, following which the general learns that the lieutenant is his own new bombardier. Lathrop proves his skill in the Act I mission, as well as his courage when the Piccadilly Lily gets shot up by flak. The crew is forced to bail and, when Savage is injured by another hit, Lathrop straps him into his chute and sees that he bails successfully. Recovering back at the base, Savage tells Crowe how Lathrop reminds him of himself at an earlier age, and that he plans to push the lieutenant on the path of eventually commanding a group.

Next thing you know, Lathrop is reading books on tactics that Savage is lending him rather than playing his harmonica on the flights. And he's meeting a serving girl in Archbury, Mary (Jill Haworth). And getting in an alcohol-fueled brawl in the same establishment. Mary takes Andy upstairs to try to sober him up and they start to get to know one another. Andy mentions being pushed into becoming something that he doesn't want to be, and learns that Mary has lost a husband in the war, which causes her to erect an emotional barrier. Mary nonetheless lets Andy crash on the couch for the night, and when he's desperate to get back to base on time, reluctantly tries to give him a lift.
Mary said:
I don't know which is worse...a lost puppy or a helpless American.
But she gets a flat, so he's hours late anyway...and Savage, who'd set up a first-thing-in-the-morning meeting between Lt. Lathrop and General Crowe, is royally pissed. Savage brings up what he's trying to do for Lathrop's career, restricts him to base, and is incredulous when Lathrop tells him that he'd been planning to ask a girl he'd just met to marry him that night.

As Act IV commences, Andy's been restricted for over two weeks, and hasn't been able to see Mary in that time. When a corporal comes with a Jeep to take him to a meeting with Savage, Andy has a brief talk with the non-com about what's important in life, then hijacks the vehicle, rides into Archbury, and offers Mary his proposal in the pub against the objections of her father. Just as she's accepted, an air raid siren sounds. After a tender goodbye moment, Mary takes shelter with the other pub occupants in the cellar, and Andy is starting to drive back to base when the pub is hit by a bomb. He goes down to the ruins of the cellar to find Mary dead. :weep:

The Jeep having been tracked down, Savage goes into town in the aftermath of the raid to find Lathrop in what's left of the pub, comforting a young girl who survived the bomb. In a meaty little dramatic scene with Lansing at his snarly best, Lathrop and Savage discuss the impact this incident has had on the former's view of his the job that the latter so values.

Lt. Lathrop: To me, those little puffs of smoke on the target...they were just like thunder, like when I was a boy. Scared me a little, but they were a long way off.
Gen. Savage: And now it's not a long way off anymore.
Lathrop: Not now. Now I've been on the receiving end of it. Now I know what happens when I push that button.​

The General's closing argument...

Savage: Now this stinking war has gone on too long. And the sooner it's over, this one [referring to the young survivor] can start to grow up like a little girl, and run in the fields, and make friends....I'll take you off flight status if you want. Before you make up your mind, though, you think it over. And remember this: That distant thunder, that does mean something, Andy. It can end a war.​

In an Epilog that echoes the teaser, Andy is showing up late for a briefing, trying not to attract attention as he finds a place to put his chair.

Piccadilly Lily Scratch Count: 1

It wasn't explicitly identified as the Lily, but if Savage was flying it and it wasn't specified as being somebody else's plane, I'm assuming that it was a Lily.

_______

I sense a pattern developing.
This week's Wiki blurb will actually make the distinction that it's just a title spoof, which happens once in a blue moon.

Evidently he has the same mutant power to cloud men's minds as Rollin Hand.
I don't think you need one to cloud Klink's mind.

Okay, that's about as grim as it gets. Poor Reed is going to need therapy.
I should have mentioned that they touched upon how Reed was particularly sensitive about the incident because he was expecting a child of his own.
 
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Carroll's routine revolves around picking on her husband and describing an incident with her family eating out:
Well, she's no Alan King.

"Oh, Pretty Woman" was actually ceding its position to "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" that week, but don't let that stop a good live performance of a major classic hit:
"Bespectacled." :rommie:

12 O'Clock High
"The Sound of Distant Thunder"
Oh, yeah, the one with the dinosaurs.

I did watch that episode where Savage court-martialed the guy for breaking formation, and it was very good. I guess I was unfairly dismissive of this show when I was a kid.

When a corporal comes with a Jeep to take him to a meeting with Savage, Andy has a brief talk with the non-com about what's important in life, then hijacks the vehicle
Wouldn't that be another court martial offense? :rommie:

Lathrop: Not now. Now I've been on the receiving end of it. Now I know what happens when I push that button.​
Yup, sounds like another good one.

I don't think you need one to cloud Klink's mind.
:rommie:

I should have mentioned that they touched upon how Reed was particularly sensitive about the incident because he was expecting a child of his own.
Understandable.
 
It wasn't up to R&MLI to tailor their very successful series to the Monkees' style...it was up to the Monkees to have the chops to adapt to it, as so many other guests already had. Clearly Sonny & Cher had more of a future in the variety show business.

Your disdain for The Monkees aside, few of the guests ever "adapted" to it, as it was stagey writing in the variety show format--a problem seen with various guests on The Carol Burnett Show (e.g., Roddy McDowell) and early Saturday Night Live (e.g. Richard Pryor). As for Sonny and Cher, what was Bono's future in entertainment? A variety show piggybacking off of two 60s songs (arguably) and his then-wife, who would not show her own acting abilities until the 1980s. What was it once Cher completely left him? Sonny and Cher's future (short as it was) was about her, hence the reason she could break off with solo hits in the early 1970s, while Sonny.....

...and regarding musical impact, there's no doubt which act made their mark which still resonates to this day...and its not Sonny and Cher.


I wouldn't go that far.

Well, it is, and certainly when some Lennon-addicts try to crown it the best song from any of the ex-Beatles's solo years.
 
From Amazing Spider-Man #79, cover date Dec. 1969...while fighting the Prowler, Spidey breaks into a familiar routine:
ASM79.jpg

I did watch that episode where Savage court-martialed the guy for breaking formation, and it was very good. I guess I was unfairly dismissive of this show when I was a kid.
Liked for this! :techman:

Wouldn't that be another court martial offense? :rommie:
I'm guessing that Stovall's good at misfiling paperwork for this sort of thing when it's in Savage's interest.

Your disdain for The Monkees aside
It's not disdain for the Monkees to recognize their limits and shortcomings as performers. Particularly, in this example, in contrast to Sonny & Cher, who together and solo hosted eight seasons' worth of various variety show series in the '70s. This Laugh-In appearance was a noteworthy foreshadowing of that future. It's a no-brainer that they were more in their element on LI than the Monkees were.

...and regarding musical impact, there's no doubt which act made their mark which still resonates to this day...
Indeed.
Beatles_Tittenhurst.jpg
 
Your disdain for The Monkees aside, few of the guests ever "adapted" to it, as it was stagey writing in the variety show format--a problem seen with various guests on The Carol Burnett Show (e.g., Roddy McDowell) and early Saturday Night Live (e.g. Richard Pryor).
I'm curious, what did you mean by this with respect to Richard Pryor on SNL?
As for Sonny and Cher, what was Bono's future in entertainment? A variety show piggybacking off of two 60s songs (arguably) and his then-wife, who would not show her own acting abilities until the 1980s. What was it once Cher completely left him? Sonny and Cher's future (short as it was) was about her,
Cher was obviously the star of the partnership, and Sonny, her straight man. But this was in line with comedy duos going back to vaudeville. Burns and Allen, Lucy and Ricky, Ozzie and Harriet, are all examples. The straight man IS important, though usually the lesser talent. Note that The Sonny and Cher Show fizzled only after the marriage fell apart. Cher's TV variety show career only resumed when she rejoined Sonny.
...and regarding musical impact, there's no doubt which act made their mark which still resonates to this day...and its not Sonny and Cher.
Monkees songs get an occasional boost when the TV show is re-aired. Kids love the show, so the surviving actors will always have that to fall back on. Sonny and Cher, the musical act, I think, might still one day be inducted into the R&R HOF. I don't think the Monkees have a shot.
 
Sonny and Cher, the musical act, I think, might still one day be inducted into the R&R HOF. I don't think the Monkees have a shot.
On the Rolling Stone side of things, S&C have a spot on the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time ("I Got You Babe," #444). Which is more than the Monkees have.
 
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