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50th Anniversary Catch-Up Viewing
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Hawaii Five-O
"Three Dead Cows at Makapuu (Part 1)"
Originally aired February 25, 1970
Wiki said:
Dr. Alexander Kline (Ed Flanders) is a scientist who has disappeared. He discovered a biological mutation which he calls "Q strain," which he plans to unleash as a protest against germ warfare.
The titular objects of curiosity and concern are found on a civilian farm that's within an Army reservation, their bodies hardened like rock and covered in lesions. The doctors who examine the cows see similarities to a type of nerve gas that killed a large number of sheep in Utah, but are unfamiliar with whatever agent caused this. An Army lieutenant tries to claim the cows, so Steve goes straight to his superior officer, Colonel Sindell (H.M. Wynant), who seems to be hiding something...but isn't. The Governor brings in a government VIP named Jonathan Kaye (Joseph Sirola), who appears to be with the Department of Defense, and Dr. Benjamin (Dana Elcar), Chief of Operations of the United States Army Department of Chemical and Biological Warfare. They point the Governor and McGarrett to Dr. Kline, who was working on a way to make man immune to all disease, but accidentally discovered a bacteriological agent hostile to all life on Earth. The DoD enlisted Kline to weaponize it, but after a series of setbacks in the project, it was psychiatrically determined that Dr. Kline was subconsciously sabotaging the project because of issues with what his work was being used for. He was removed from the project and subsequently disappeared. While he's being talked about in the Governor's office, there are several cuts to scenes of Kline watching crabs on a rocky beach, and being approached by Wanda Russell (Loretta Swit), who tells him that she's a telephone operator.
Having been given the government's dossier on Kline, McGarrett instructs a group of uniformed HPD officers to conduct a manhunt for him. What they'd know if Steve had a TV in his office is that Kline is working in a medical research laboratory under the alias of Arnold Clay. He tries to connect to a number through the operator and gets Wanda, who practically throws herself at him over the line, but he just gets nervous and ends the call. She tracks him down the place that he was calling, the workshop of a blind sculptor named Abel Morgan (Karl Swenson). Seeing that he appears sick, she takes him back to her place and, while he's in a delirious state, carefully examines the chemical contents of the case that he's carrying. I was all "A-ha!" at this point because I thought for sure that she was a spy who was after his research...but she wasn't. She leaves what we're obviously meant to know is
the vial dangerously lying out near her drinking bird...which gets a lot of camera time, though it doesn't serve any purpose in the story unless it's a symbolic one. Wanda nurses "Arnold" back to consciousness and says that she looked through his things searching for medication, assuming he had something like malaria.
Meanwhile, Steve has been tipped off to Kline's alias by his boss at the lab, Dr. Soong (Yankee Chang), who called in after seeing a picture of Kline put out by the police. Dr. Benjamin examines the contents of Kline's lab, but the object of most interest to McGarrett is a whale-tooth carving that leads them to Morgan, who offers his insight that he has reason to believe that "Arnold" is dying...though he isn't, at least not literally.
Later, Wanda tries to call Arnold at his lab from her switchboard and Soong puts Danny on the phone. She quickly hangs up and finds Kline on the beach to tell him that the heat is on. Trying to get her to leave him alone, he manhandles her and accidentally pushes her off a rock into the rough, lapping drink, but then dives in to fish her out. He rushes her to a hospital, and after she regains consciousness, opens up to her a bit about his youth as a prodigy, then urges her to leave for the mainland as soon as possible...telling her that he's done something to open the world's eyes about the dangers of biological warfare, and that in twelve hours, every living thing on the island will be dead!
Danny having deduced that Wanda was an operator, Five-O checks out her workplace and another operator helps to identify her, and confirms second-hand that she's met a guy who could be Kline. Then the team is alerted to Kline having been spotted at the hospital, so they rush there and run into him in the corridor. He flees and McGarrett tackles him outside, but he tells McGarrett that the agent isn't on him and there's nothing they can do. The episode ends with Kaye, Benjamin, and Sindell questioning Kline in a hospital room, and the colonel roughing up Kline because his wife is in danger.
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Dragnet 1970
"Burglary – The Dognappers"
Originally aired February 26, 1970
Xfinity said:
Friday and Gannon track a pair of thieves who steal dogs and then collect the rewards.
Sgt. Joe Friday said:
This is the city: Los Angeles, California. I work here. I carry a badge.
I'm likin' this run!
Monday, November 6 (last occurred in 1967...ah, if only they'd used a Thursday): Friday and Gannon, working the day watch out of Burglary Auto Theft Division, get a list of lost dogs from a man named Watson who works for the Department of Animal Regulation, and believes from the pattern that criminal activity may be involved. Captain Green (Art Gilmore) is skeptical of whether this is a matter for Burglary Division, but then starts reminiscing fondly about his family's beloved old German shepherd, and sells himself on the matter.
The detectives talk to a recent potential victim, Myron Bently (Bert Holland), who lost a beloved clumber spaniel named Duke. Myron shows them the doghouse he's been building in his garage for Duke. The house is styled like a castle, complete with a drawbridge on the opening. Bently swears that when he left the dog in the car, the window was only slightly down rather than most of the way as he later found it. He tells the detectives of a neighbor who paid a $100 reward to get her lost dog back. They talk to the neighbor, Eula Van Meter (Luana Anders), a pretentious lady with an Afghan hound named Zardi. It was at this point that I realized the episode was subtly engaging in a "dogs resemble their owners" running gag, as the similarity of her hairstyle to the dog breed was unmistakable, and the camera kept switching between closeups of each of them, with Eula playing with the dog's fur and then her own bangs...plus she was wearing a choker that looked like a collar. Eula describes the man to whom she paid the reward (with a bonus), and also recalls the make of his car and part of his license number.
There's a running gag of Gannon always getting the breeds wrong that pays off with an unusual bit of continuity. Mid-episode, Bill's brushing up on his breeds via a library book, and Joe's able to identify all of them, though he's never owned a dog. Friday reveals that he checked out the same book after the case they handled involving trained dogs snatching ladies' purses, which is said to have been a year ago. (It was actually in Season 2, airing in late 1967.)
Following up with several other owners during the commercial indicates a pattern of findings and rewards and descriptions of two suspects. A newfangled computer runs down the license number and they dig up a radio car report that ID'ed two men matching the descriptions who were using the car when they were stopped as possible car prowlers--Harry Jennings and Carl Barth. The vehicle registration leads them to an address where they find Jennings (Tim Donnelly again) keeping a large number of dogs. They arrest him on suspicion of grand theft. Jennings was bringing a Scotty home who matches the description of a recently lost dog, and the dog is brought into the station with him. Prints on the owner's vehicle match his. (We never see the black-furred Scotty's owner, so I'm thinking that he was supposed to resemble Donnelly, hence keeping them onscreen together.)
Then they get a call from Myron Bently that he's been contacted by a man who found his dog. They stake out the Bently garage when Duke is returned. They wait for Bently to pay the reward, then nab "Mr. Smith" (James Minotto). Searching him, they find Duke's collar with ID tag, which he'd just claimed Duke wasn't wearing when he was found. As a last gag after Barth is hauled away by uniformed officers, Duke won't go into his new doghouse until Gannon comes up with the idea of tossing a biscuit into it, which he uses to score points with Friday regarding his knowledge of dogs.
The Announcer said:
On December 3rd, trial was held in Department 184, Superior Court of the State of California, for the County of Los Angeles....The court found the suspects guilty of five counts of burglary and three counts of grand theft.
The mugshot said:
HARRY JENNINGS
and
CARL BARTH
Now serving their sentences in the State Prison, San Quentin, California.
This episode seemed familiar, especially the parts with the captain waxing nostalgic over his old dog and Luana Anders looking like her dog. Maybe I'd seen it before, or part of it.
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Love, American Style
"Love and Las Vegas / Love and the Good Samaritan / Love and the Marriage Counselor"
Originally aired February 27, 1970
This was the twenty-first episode aired; the YouTube video is numbered 22.
In "Love and Las Vegas," Harvey Marshall (Bill Dana) and Judy Ricker (Ann Prentiss) from North Dakota are getting married while they're in town for a teachers' convention. Elmo (Edward Everett Horton), the justice, has them wait in his garish chapel while he makes a house call, giving Judy time to assert that she doesn't want to get married in a place like that and temporarily walk out. Harvey downs the champagne that Elmo left, then a young couple comes in, Clyde (Jim Connell) and Bonnie (Patricia Stich). (A passing gag is gotten out of the names.) Bonnie's upset that Clyde's a mama's boy, and Clyde is worried about what his mother will think. They think that Harvey's the justice, so he agrees to marry them, though he doesn't know what he's doing. Judy comes back and blows his true identity, then Elmo returns, upset that his deal with another client fell through, so he tells everyone to get out. The two couples each decide to get married somewhere else. Elmo's ladyfriend, Sarah (Nellie Burt), asks about tying the knot themselves, and he says that he wouldn't get married in a dump like that.
"Love and the Good Samaritan" opens with Freddy (Sandy Baron) dressed as the Devil for a date at a Hollywood costume party. As he's leaving, a neighbor, Delila (Hope Holiday), comes out of her apartment begging for help with a water issue. He ends up soaking wet, so she offers to iron his costume pants. Her husband, Jake (Kenneth Mars), comes home and thinks the worst of the situation.
Jake: Well I thought I imagined the worst, but I never dreamed that I'd catch ya with Rosemary's Baby.
Freddy and Delila don't do a very good job of explaining the situation, and Freddy ends up getting slugged. Back at his apartment, he calls his date, Marna (Maggie Peterson), who's dressed as an angel, to explain that he's running late. Then Delila comes knocking and wants Freddy to come back over so Jake can apologize. He reluctantly agrees, but Jake wants to make too big a deal out of it, while Freddy just wants to get going. Getting himself drunk, Jake tells Freddy that he suspects his wife is seeing another guy. Freddy tries to talk some sense into him, but a misunderstanding ensues over flowers that Freddy had left there, so he gets punched out again.
Delila comes over yet again, having been locked out of her apartment and wanting to stay at his place until Jake comes home. He agrees to let her in to call some friends. While he's out of the room, she calls her boyfriend, Danny, to arrange a rendezvous. Delila's still there when Marna drops by. Freddy hides Delila in the closet, and Marna offers to apologize for thinking the worst the last time he called her. Then the boyfriend, Danny (
Laugh-In's LBJ, Jack Riley), comes knocking while Freddy's trying to sneak Delila out; and then he has to hide them both in the closet when Jack angrily comes knocking--in uniform, as it turns out that he's a cop. He sees Marna and briefly thinks he was wrong about Freddy--but then he brings a clue that another woman has been in the apartment to Marna's attention. Freddy resigns to pointing Jake to the closet, where he finds Delila and Danny. Jake doesn't get what's going on as Danny is his best friend, but leaves with Delila. Once Freddy and Marna are alone, they make up.
"Love and the Marriage Counselor" features Jim Backus and Ken Murray as Jerry and Ben, partners in a sweater-manufacturing business. They have a disagreement over what type of secretary they want to hire, so Ben insists that they see his nephew, Paul, a hip marriage counselor (Bernie Kopell). Paul encourages them to air their grievances with one another to let out the emotions that they've been bottling up...which ultimately results in him having to break up a fight. Paul then wants to get to the core of their hostility, which he thinks will also shed light on why they've nevertheless stayed together for so many years. Ben, ironically, ends up talking about a childhood attachment to a teddy bear, and Jerry comforts him over the bear having been thrown away by Ben's father. But they find their way back into the secretary dispute and start fighting again. Then Paul brings in their wives (Joan Shawlee and Mary Benoit); and Jerry's wife informs him that the woman he was interviewing, Miss Hazelton (Sharyn Hillyer), has gotten an offer for a role in a Swedish film.
I thought these were all weak segments that didn't really go anywhere. I didn't notice the brass bed in any of the main segments, but it appeared in more than one interstitial.
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Did we ever find out what he was allegedly being blackmailed for? And did Theresa deliberately befriend Royce for the purpose of manipulating him?
Who is this guy working for? Or is he really just an independently wealthy Bond villain who wants to rule the submarines?
The uncle-in-trouble thing was only a thin lure...they were a spy ring trying to manipulate Royce into defecting. Theresa was working for Kreuter, and Kreuter was working for the URP (Unnamed Rival Power).
She just goes back to her apartment that they fled from after a shooting? We're not up against the smartest villains that ever villained, are we?
She was specifically picking up mail about her immigration application in the lobby, so there was a purpose. I wasn't clear if she was supposed to be going there for other reasons...or if she even went up to her apartment.
"Hmm. Why is this 1947 Victrola playing Jefferson Airplane?"
Friday would probably put a "the" in front of Jefferson Airplane.
Well, he's hooked up with a woman who values honesty and only dates married men, so they kind of deserve each other.
Maybe...but he was the one acting like a weasel the whole segment.
Jack Cassidy doesn't watch The Partridge Family?
He can't, it's a TV season early. (And I did not know that he was David and Shaun's dad until I just now looked up the connection.)
That's pretty futuristic for WWII.
This is the war that brought us jet aircraft, guided ballistic missiles, and nuclear weapons.
The question is, which will we see first--aliens or Steve's pad?
