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50th Anniversary Catch-Up Viewing
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Hawaii Five-O
"Killer Bee"
Originally aired January 21, 1970
Wiki said:
A Vietnam vet is revealed to be behind the kidnappings of several local children. But McGarrett suspects that another soldier is using the psychologically damaged kidnapper to commit these crimes.
The episode opens with George Loman (David Arkin) returning to the house to find Ted Frisette (Jeff Pomerantz) sleeping, an unconscious kid on the couch, and a bottle of chloroform nearby. When he wakes Ted up, he indicates that this isn't the first time this sort of thing has happened. Ted seems confused and out of it, but doesn't think that he did it. George gives Ted some medication, then drops the kid off on the side of a road on the other side of the island.
McGarrett goes to see the kid's family about the kidnapping. The Emorys are not well-to-do, and the ransom note--asking for an unprofessionally low sum--was sent to a Mrs. Watson (Doreen Lang), who doesn't know them. Back at George and Ted's pad, George comes back in the daytime with the paper, revealing that the note was sent to Ted's mother, which seems to connect with Ted's mommy issues that George had previously made a point of bringing up. From the way George is playing it, you can tell what's really going on. While Five-O is staking out the ransom drop, David (Harold Best) is found. That night, we see George quietly bring in another kid while Ted is out cold...then waking up Ted to tell him what he "found". The gaslighted Ted is distraught and still very confused; and George offers to take care of the situation again.
McGarrett and the Emorys are visiting David in the hospital when Steve gets a call about the next kidnapping. Watson gets the note again, and McGarrett seems to have figured out the pattern. Five-O digs up that Watson changed her name and her son, Ted Frisette, kidnapped a young boy as a juvenile, received therapy, and went on to join the Army. When McGarrett confronts her with the truth, it's clear that the high-strung Watson had her own issues and was a cold and uncaring mother. She believes that Ted is doing this to hurt her, which is also what George emphasized to Ted. Danny talks to Dr. Wong (Chapman Lam), who'd treated Ted when he came back from Vietnam, for insight about Ted's schizophrenia; the doctor introduces Danny to a psychiatric technician who's very familiar with Ted's case--George. While George has been affirming to Ted that he was a war buddy whose life Ted had saved, here he claims to have just been in 'Nam around the same time as Ted, and doesn't indicate any personal connection.
Watson isn't very cooperative with Five-O, but reluctantly shows them a locker full of Ted's medals and souvenirs (which she has no interest in and barely remembered). They find a picture of Ted with George, which indicates that they were in the same unit. Ted comes to his mother while she's visiting his father's grave, desperate for help, but she's completely unsympathetic and just tells him to turn himself in. Back at home, Ted talks in his sleep during a nightmare about Vietnam, in which he reacts to George having done something shocking. George, who's listening to Ted talking in his sleep, then stabs himself so that really fake, bright blood comes out, and wakes Ted up by fake-struggling to get the knife out of his hand. George drives home that Ted is hopelessly crazy, and Ted slips into a catatonic state.
Five-O looks into George's record and finds that he has a plethora of medals and commendations. Searching his apartment while he's out, they find that his typewriter matches the ransom notes. Putting together the pieces of what they've learned, McGarrett deduces that George is hiding something about a rear-guard action in Vietnam that he was thought he was the only survivor of, only for Ted to to have turned up alive; and that he got his job at the hospital after Ted was checked in there to keep an eye on him. Then they get the news that George has brought Ted to the hospital. McGarrett confronts George with the truth; George makes a dramatic break for it, but Steve tackles him on the hospital grounds, and George slips into a flashback to the battle for the hill in 'Nam, in which he see's McGarrett as his sergeant. As it plays out, we learn that George killed his entire unit, except for Ted.
The episode ends on a hopeful note of Ted beginning the road to recovery from his ordeal.
The title refers to an analogy that Dr. Wong engages in, likening Ted's condition to losing control of a car while being attacked by a bee.
George and Ted's surnames are given as Loomis and Frazer in the credits, though those don't match the names spoken in the episode.
I thought that our Fifth Five-O from Season 1, Lt. Kealoha/Leoloha, was back, but it appears that Doug Mossman is now playing different guest characters--apparently HPD investigators at this point. It's confusing because I have a crappy memory for faces, but Mossman has a very distinct one that I recognized immediately.
While McGarrett is forcing the truth out of George, he uses a slur to refer to the V.C.
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Dragnet 1970
"Burglary – Helpful Woman"
Originally aired January 22, 1970
Xfinity said:
Friday and Gannon search for a woman who picks elderly people as her victims in a theft scheme.
Sgt. Joe Friday said:
This is the city: Los Angeles, California. I work here. I carry a badge.
It's gotten where I can tell when he's gonna say that by the delivery. Probably the same recording every time.
Tuesday, October 9 (last occurred in 1962): Friday and Gannon, working the day watch out of Burglary Auto Theft Division, are enlisting the news media's help for their latest investigation, which is actually something of a bunco scheme being perpetrated by a woman between 30 and 35, who gets into elderly people's houses under false pretenses, spends a little time there trying to help them out with things, scopes out where the valuables are, and covertly swipes them. They describe the M.O. to a radio personality named Dick Whittinghill, who's apparently the real McCoy playing himself. The detectives then visit the latest victims, the Andersons (Nydia Westman and Ralph Moody), who had their Social Security money taken. Mr. Anderson describes Friday and Gannon as "the younger generation"! (And Mrs. Anderson is very obviously sunburned, with tan lines around her eyes indicating sunglasses.) The detectives find three possible matches in the state records, and choose to look into Evelyn Gentry (Julie Bennett), who'd previously operated in Pasadena but the charges didn't stick. When they drive up there, the local detective who worked on her case advises them to show the victims pictures blown up to at least 8 x 10 size, as he'd lost his case because they tended to have bad eyesight.
The LAPD prints expert can tell that Gentry's their woman, though the match isn't strong enough to hold up in court. Then the detectives get a call from Mrs. Kissinger (Lillian Powell), a potential victim in progress who calls them about it, and set up an in-house stake-out...but it's not the same woman or M.O., and she appears to be a legitimate collector for a charity. The detectives then show Gentry's photo to several of the victims, who positively identify her; after which they get another call from a Mrs. McDermott (Ann Morgan Gullbert), the neighbor of a potential victim who wasn't home when Gentry called. McDermott gave Gentry a story to lure her back at a specific time, and positively identifies her from the photo. In a sting scenario very similar to an earlier bunco episode from which I took that screengrab of Friday holding his gun and badge, Gannon plays the wheelchair-bound prospective victim, Mr. Jennings, while Friday eavesdrops from the next room. Gentry offers to help "Jennings" with his pills and pilfers some money left out near the phone where she could find it. Friday doesn't show his gun or badge when he comes out to arrest her.
The Announcer said:
On November third, trial was held in Department 184, Superior Court of the State of California, for the County of Los Angeles....The court found the suspect guilty of burglary in the second degree, which is punishable by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than one year, or the state prison for not more than fifteen years.
The onscreen text doesn't normally spell out the ordinal like that, but it did this time.
The mugshot said:
EVELYN GENTRY
Now serving her sentence in the State Prison, Frontera, California.
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Love, American Style
"Love and Those Poor Crusaders' Wives / Love and the Big Night / Love and the V.I.P. Restaurant"
Originally aired January 23, 1970
This was the sixteenth episode aired; the YouTube video is numbered 18.
In "Love and Those Poor Crusaders' Wives," just-married Steve and April (Monte Markham and Dorothy Provine) are checking out a dockside antique shop at their honeymoon spot, which has lots of medieval gear that seems like it belongs more in a museum. Trying on various bits of armor, Steve accidentally locks himself in a chastity belt. This proves to be a source of embarassment, so they try to hide it from the nosey hotel staff (Gino Conforti and Bryan O'Byrne), who proceed to gossip about it as the couple make strange requests in their attempts to get it off in the relative privacy of their room. The locksmith is out of town, so they ask for some oil; then they try a liberal amount of soap; then they ask for a hacksaw, but Steve doesn't want to have to pay $400 for the belt if they bust it. By this point, April starts speculating that there's a Freudian issue behind Steve's predicament. They call a doctor to give him a shot, thinking that relaxation might help him to slip out of it. The doctor refers them to the retired old locksmith (Percy Helton), who simply strikes an escape latch that would have been put in the belt by a bribed locksmith. Freed from the belt in time for their wedding night, Steve ends up out cold from sedatives that the doctor gave him.
Out cold from sedatives the doctor gave him.
Interestingly, everyone in the segment dances around naming the device, never actually describing it with the term "chastity belt".
The bed in the hotel room...is brass.
"Love and the Big Night" opens with Mark Travis (Tony Randall) seeing his secretary, Holly (Julie Newmar), to her apartment after the two of them had to put in a late night at the office. She seems to want him to stay for you-know-what, and he nervously chatters about his wife and tries to leave, but ends up splattering very liquidy mayonnaise all over his suit, so she cleans it, causing him to have to stay while clad in a towel. He starts getting into the idea of spending time with her and the two of them engage in some drinking; but when they leave the living room, a burglar quickly robs the place via the window, taking his clothes.
He borrows a shirt and pair of pants from her wardrobe, looking rather pimpish, sneaks into his home, and tries to ditch them, but the blouse ends up stuck in a tree outside the bedroom window. Then a policeman comes by in the middle of the night to return his suit. He initially tries to deny that it's his, but his wallet and her watch are with it; and Mark's Cheating neighbor Herb (Buddy Lester) finds out what happened. Mark then finds a note saying that his wife, Alice, is at her sister's and realizes that she was never home. Emboldened, he calls Holly and expresses interest in doing more with her. Then he gets suspicious about Alice's whereabouts, such that when she comes in, he starts questioning her. Alice (Ann Elder) seems evasive, and expresses interest in when he's going to be out of town for a convention. But Mark finds stained gloves verifying her story about getting a flat tire. He then asks Alice about coming with him to the convention, and in a roundabout way lets us know that he won't be trying anything behind her back again.
Mark and Alice's bed: brass.
In "Love and the V.I.P. Restaurant," George Miller (Shelley Berman) has lunch at what turns out to be a topless restaurant. His waiteress is seen from behind and holding a rather large menu in front of her, which she's happy to hand him when he asks to see it. George's wife, Sally, and her friend Carol (Kaye Ballard and Julie Bennett), who've been elected co-chairs of their ladies' club's Stop Filth and Nudity campaign, come to see him and he tries to hide from them; then to try to get them to leave; then to distract them from seeing any waitresses; but they finally see one, so he pretends not to notice that they're topless; and when that fails, claims that he's there doing research for the SFAN campaign. He ends up sticking his hand with a knife and Sally drags him out to see a doctor.
So they can do this, but apparently they can't say "chastity"? There's no brass bed in this one, but it takes place entirely in the restaurant.
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Also a happy ending, even if he doesn't realize it.
Only if he proceeds to get out of the situation.
Not that.
And wants Dwayne to be his interior henchman.
Heh.
Ah, and Mala is out for revenge.
And did we ever discover why he went AWOL? Be funny if it really was to get revenge on McGarrett for putting him in the Navy.
He was grateful to Steve for giving him a second chance, but found that he couldn't cut it in the Navy, and that it was just another type of prison to him.
Is jurisdiction really determined by who gets there first? You'd think that there would be rules determining such things.
So Steve wins the race and then just turns him over?
They didn't really make it clear earlier on, but who got him after he gave up hinged on the fact that he was hiding on a Naval reservation. Steve just went in to bring him out alive, whereas the armed patrol would have likely shot him.
He was in his clothes and without a blanket, perpetrating the illusion that it's not his usual routine.
That really wouldn't do it. Anybody who examined those guns would have known which one was fired.
Guess they didn't really check that closely at the time.
So was it an accident or did he want the guy's wife?
He definitely wanted Waters's wife, but he insisted that he didn't shoot Waters on purpose. He was certainly reckless to fire at them at all while they were struggling, so maybe his rivalry informed that action.
Why remember them when they never went away?
Mercifully, they certainly did.
Damn, it's no fun knowing the future.
I'd like to have used the post to get in some last Jimi business, but all I could find on his Vevo were later-produced videos that used footage from his festival performance, not full performance clips.
It's like I say: if you can remember the '80s...why the hell would you wanna remember the '80s?
