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50th Anniversary Viewing
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Mission: Impossible
"Time Bomb"
Originally aired December 21, 1969
Wiki said:
The IMF team must stop a terminally ill renegade Allied agent from detonating an atomic bomb in an enemy capital.
Here we see a potential IMF courier for a change: There's a man feeding the pigeons when Jim approaches his picnic table. The man vacates the bench, leaving a bag behind.
The miniature reel-to-reel tape in a brown paper bag said:
Good morning, Mr. Phelps. Twelve years ago this man, Antoine Malek [Morgan Sterne], was planted in the Federated People's Republic to infiltrate their atomic research program. Now suffering from an incurable disease, Malek is acting independently against his country's orders. At 4:00 the day after tomorrow, Malek is going to turn a nuclear reactor into an atomic bomb, which will wipe out the capital and bring on an atomic war. Any attempt to expose Malek will only result in his setting off the blast ahead of schedule. Your mission, Jim, should you decide to accept it, is to stop Malek. As always, should you or any of your IM Force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck, Jim!
Figured I could just start letting the tape explain the basics. And yet another two-day ticking clock! This time Jim actually bothers to pick the usual suspects out of a pile like it's Season 1 all over again. This week's unusual suspect, Wai Lee:
And apparently the IMF has more than one of these:
The FPR has a culture directive that involves displaying works of art in government facilities, so this place...
(They're not even trying anymore, are they?)
...gets a visit from Scruffy Stained Glass Artist Jim...
...who smuggles Barney in via the trolley he uses to lug around his giant pane. Barney gets to work causing a wall in the reactor area to crack, giving Colonel Paris an excuse to call in the Repertory Corps of Engineers. Some more IMF trickery makes it look like a jet's sonic boom has shattered part of Jim's masterpiece (even though the actual plane flying overhead is a subsonic passenger jet), so the premier's faith healer, Mistress Miasmin, has to be brought in to model for it again. The public hasn't seen her, so
that's Wai Lee's role. Col. Paris accompanies her with orders from the Fake Phone Premier to inspect the entire complex, in which capacity he replaces Malek's drug in the medical section.
Wai Lee approaches Malek and claims that she can heal him, even as the fake drug makes it seem like his condition is worsening sooner than expected, and Fake Miasmin is able to take credit for his subsequent remarkable improvement. Visitors are ordered to leave the facility because of the structural issue, so Miasmin brings Malek with her to continue treating him. Engineer Barney then recommends complete evacuation of the facility so that he'll have the reactor room with the device in it all to himself.
Malek comes to in a repertory resersch facility, which appears to have started to collapse, complete with Miasmin non-seriously trapped under some rubble. Malek goes to deactivate the fake facility's fake nuclear device in the fake reactor room, and Jim, watching Malek's moves on a monitor, directs Barney in deactivating the real device. By the end of the deactivation sequence, Jim thinks that Malek has realized that he's working on a fake, and that his last move in deactivating the device is fake as well; thus Jim makes an educated guess as to the actual move, and Barney successfully disarms the device at literally the last second. The IMF then treat Malek to one of their literal fourth wall-breaking moments, while Barney and Paris leave the real facility.
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The Mod Squad
"Never Give the Fuzz an Even Break"
Originally aired December 23, 1969
Wiki said:
The Squad tries to gain the confidence of the top con man in the business and catch him by becoming involved in a caper.
The episode opens in medias res with the Mods playing a con game on Admiral Nat Johnson (Maurice Evans) involving Julie as an escort and Pete as her gun-toting husband, which is meant to be seen through so that the seasoned old con artist will take these neophytes under his wing. Johnson is Greer's personal Moby Dick, and he can't use regular bunco cops because Johnson knows them all.
Johnson uses the Mods in supporting roles in a scheme that involves persuading rich old ladies at a country club to loan him investment money for buying defense contract stocks using his inside knowledge. To sell his credentials, he throws a party to which he invites contractor Howard Stone (Frank Wilcox), with the ladies also attending. Once he has their money, Johnson breaks the news to his pigeons that the contract inexplicably went to another bidder.
The Mods become really taken with their mentor in crime, which isn't lost on Greer...
Greer: When the Admiral gets through with you guys, you'll be thoroughly corrupt.
Pete: Then you can un-corrupt us...again.
Greer threatens to take them off the assignment, but Julie describes it as the only case they've ever really enjoyed. When the subject of Greer subsequently comes up with Johnson, the Mods are entertained to hear in turn what the Admiral thinks of his old nemesis.
Johnson's next scam involves getting people to buy acreage on the ocean floor off the coast of Mexico, where he fakes having found valuable minerals. Johnson's associate Jake Barry (David Ketchum) shills for him, pretending to be an eager investor. Along the way there's some trouble with a couple of thugs that the Mods have a run-in with at a cantina, which ensues in a later fight scene with Pete and Linc in wetsuits.
The Admiral and Barry later see the Mods meeting Greer at a bar. The Admiral subsequently appears to hand the Mods the evidence Greer needs against them, but it turns out that the mark they thought they were going to get to testify against Johnson, Dr. Steelman (Judson Pratt), was a plant--the Admiral was onto them the entire time. Johnson leaves a letter for Greer in which he compliments the kids.
Then we get another one of those codas that kind of busts the vibe of the episode by establishing major developments as having happened off camera. Greer reveals that the investors in the last scam have cleaned up because there was oil under the acreage that Johnson sold them;
and that Johnson was picked up by the Treasury Department on an old rap and is now serving a sentence! Kind of deflates the whole premise of the episode if Greer's Moby Dick is effortlessly taken down by some no-name NPCs during the commercial break. The Mods walk to the next hole on a golf green.
This was a pleasant, lighthearted episode that was carried by Evans playing a colorful character, but there wasn't really any meat in the story.
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"I Am a Curious Lemon"
Originally aired December 25, 1969
Wiki said:
Ann tries to impress Donald's ex-girlfriend who is now married to his old friend. Also, Ann is babysitting her cousin's 8-year-old daughter.
Donald's old college buddy is Chippy Dolan (future
M*A*S*H chaplain William Christopher). Ann is upset to learn that Donald was seeing his wife, Heather (Susan Quick), for two years before he met Ann.
Ann's young charge, Caroline (Cindy Eilbacher, actually 11 at the time), brings a potted lemon tree to Ann's apartment with her, which has to be watered in the shower, so Ann has to use Ruthie's. Further care of the tree causes difficulty in the kitchen when Ann's trying to prepare an impressive meal for the Dolans. Then Ann throws out her back while trying to move the plant and finds herself serving the Dolans in hunchback posture. She also blows a fuse in the kitchen and can't see what she's doing, causing some courses to get mixed up. Ann and Donald share a climactic laugh when they learn that Chippy's real name, which Donald never knew, is Mervin.
This one seemed a bit conceptually busy, and the writing a little too clever--everybody talked like they were scripted by professional comedy writers. And the continuity of Donald's past relationship with Heather was questionable--he says that he was seeing her four years ago
and while he was in college. I was never under the impression that Donald was fresh out of college when he met Ann; and four years before the episode, Ted Bessell would have been 30.
"Oh, Donald" count:
4
"Oh, Caroline" count:
1
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Ironside
"Stolen on Demand"
Originally aired December 25, 1969
Wiki said:
Mark tries to get a teenage basketball player away from a gang of thieves.
And Danny Goodson ain't just any ol' teenage basketball player...he's future TV heartthrob David Cassidy! David is the top-billed guest, but his name doesn't appear in the front-of-episode credits the way top-billed guests usually do on this show.
Mark is coaching the community center basketball team that Danny plays on. After Danny participates in a burglary with a couple of older crooks, during which a night watchman is knocked unconscious, a play sheet is turned up at the crime scene with Mark's fingerprint on it. Mark keeps what he knows close to the vest but checks the post-practice whereabouts of the entire team, narrowing things down to Danny. Once the watchman revives and says "teenagers" were involved (the actors playing Danny's associates were 26 and 34), the rest of Team Ironside quickly deduces Mark's relationship to the suspect that he's looking into.
TI assembles and questions the basketball team without Mark present, which includes determining who still has their play sheets. They question Danny's parents--a henpecked, shopkeeping father who wants to help, but has to stand up to his demanding, hypochondriac wife. They also visit Danny's girlfriend, Jamie (Pamela McMyler, who's also a bit older than 19-year-old Cassidy at 26), who's committed to a mental institution. Danny has been buying gifts for her, including a big, stuffed Snoopy. She isn't able to provide them with useful info, but they find that one of Danny's gifts to her is an expensive watch.
Meanwhile, Danny has tried turning in his resignation to the brains behind the burglaries, fence Arnold Cane (Alan Oppenheimer), but he's strong-armed by the others into participating in one more job. Mark tries to follow them, but is stopped by police for running a light. During the job, a camera store proprietor is shot by a misfire of his own gun when the thugs shove him from behind.
Danny wants to run off somewhere, but goes to see Jamie first (who also has a Charlie Brown sweatshirt); she insists on going with him, but her erratic behavior costs them a ride and gets them stranded on a back road. Combing the area, TI spots them in the Ironsidemobile's windshield projection footage, and before you know it, Danny is suddenly surrounded by armed troopers. Mark talks Danny, who's armed with a vague weapon of opportunity--a bent piece of iron from what I've tentatively identified as a horse-drawn reaper--into surrendering.
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The Brady Bunch
"Is There a Doctor in the House?"
Originally aired December 26, 1969
Wiki said:
All six children have the measles. Carol calls the girls' usual doctor, a woman (Marion Ross), while Mike has called the boys' doctor, a man (Herbert Anderson). The girls prefer their usual doctor, and the boys prefer theirs. They come to the conclusion that they can use both doctors, and it turns out that both doctors have decided to combine their practices.
Ah, Marion Ross...the only one who was allowed to call Fonzie "Arthur".
Peter's the first to be sent home from school...
Alice said:
As the warden at the state prison once said, I'd sure hate to see 'em all break out at once.
...followed promptly by Jan--even disease keeps the children parallel! Once both doctors are in the house with their little black bags, the other four kids pop home with the disease.
The older four get in some family bonding type over a game of Monopoly...but an argument ensues over women doctors and men nurses, and the boys are kicked out of the girls' room.
Greg said:
Just for that, Marcia, no free rides on my railroad!
Each of the kids has a different bell or noisemaker as a signal for "room service". Maintaining the seasonal spirit, Carol breaks into a mock version of "Twelve Days of Christmas" listing the items being taken upstairs. Carol also makes a blackboard chart to check off which diseases each of the kids has already had.
When the doctors return to the Brady residence together and announce that they're combining practices, Dr. Cameron (Anderson) notices that Mike has a spot on his cheek. In the coda, Mike has just recovered from his bout when Alice breaks out.
As part of his argument against using Dr. Porter (Ross), Greg indicates that Mike has told all three boys about the birds and the bees. Bobby still seems a bit young for that.
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Hogan's Heroes
"At Last—Schultz Knows Something"
Originally aired December 26, 1969
Wiki said:
Finding the German’s new atomic research facility is proving to be a challenge, even with Klink as its new head of security.
As a security precaution, Dr. Felzer (John Myhers) wants to discuss the project with Klink in Burkhalter's car, so the prisoners concoct a lame excuse to sneak LeBeau into the trunk right under Schultz's nose. LeBeau only learns that atomic research is involved. Hogan appeals to Klink's ego and LeBeau to Schultz's stomach to get more information, but neither talks. The mileage of the staff car being used clues the prisoners in that the facility is somewhere within a 12-mile radius. When they decide to zero in on trying again to get info out of Schultz, a visiting contact, Carla (Fay Spain), gives them the idea to use truth serum.
Some serum is air-dropped and Newkirk disguises himself as a Luftwaffe doctor who's doing inoculations, just for Schultz's benefit. The prisoners still have trouble getting useful info out of Schultz because he goes off on irrelevant tangents about the kitchen and the food at the facility, but they eventually manage to get a likely town out of him, which the sergeant names in association with its potatoes. After the underground locates the hidden laboratory under a bombed-out factory, the prisoners and Carla ride a potato wagon nearby, their cargo is requisitioned by the troops at the facility, and the explosives hidden in the potatoes go off inside as the prisoners leave.
Jack Riley, who's been doing LBJ on
Laugh-In, appears as a German guard.
DISSSSS-missed!
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I'm just... not satisfied with that response.
Hey! You! Get off of my cloud!
Not one of their greatest, but it's still got that special 5D sound.
Definitely one of their "in-between" singles.
This is a great song. I first heard the Elvis cover, but this is just as good.
Kinda low-key, but has a sign-o-the-times vibe.
Good song, but... sounds like the 70s. Later 70s, I mean, like 1973 or so.
My thoughts exactly, except I'd take it even a few years further than that. For a stretch there when my chronological playlists were in an earlier, less populated state, this one was the song that kicked off the '70s, and I thought that it couldn't have been more perfect in that role, because the song still would have sounded very current six or seven years later.
I don't like that they were essentially made the bad guys without some sort of understanding or acknowledgment being made.
There was also some awkward business when Savage was trying to appeal to the villagers' national pride to turn their anger against the Nazis, which just sort of came off as 'Mericasplaining.
His mother probably told him that if he smiled too much, his face would stay that way.
