The Classic/Retro Pop Culture Thread

The Old Mixer · Oct 28, 2020

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50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 2)

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Ironside
"The Lonely Way to Go"
Originally aired October 22, 1970

Wiki said:
An investment manager's confession to a murder seems to contradict the evidence in the case.

The episode opens with Jason Banning (Carl Betz) drinking at a bar while having flashes of a woman being killed. He rushes to his office and brings the cab driver up with him to find his secretary, Kathy Dana (Donna Ouellette, who's oddly credited for a murder victim with no lines), faceplanted on the floor, and calls the police to turn himself in. Inspector Reese (Johnny Seven) brings in Ironside and Ed to talk to Banning. While Banning did blow his marriage to have an affair with Dana, evidence indicates that she put up a fight, but Banning shows no signs of having been in such a struggle, so they let him go.

Ed and Eve go to Dana's apartment to find a gloved man named Matt Wratten there (Denny Miller). He tells them that he's the building's janitor, who's also a part-time artist who painted a portrait of Kathy that's hanging over her mantle that he was trying to retrieve, because he loved her. Kathy's place displays evidence of expensive living, done via accounts under various aliases. From confirming notes in Banning's office, Reese suspects that she may have been blackmailing men for the money. Banning confirms that she was seeing other men, but says that he didn't know the extent of her activities.

The Chief and Reese are called into Commissioner Randall's office when Banning has an article put in the front page of the paper about how he believes that he did it. Then Team Ironside gets a call from a resident of Dana's building who thinks that Wratten stole her gun after reading the article. To the hospital! (I'm not even sure why Banning is in the hospital.) Wratten slips into Banning's room wearing hospital duds, but finds the Chief and Mark waiting for him, with a uniformed officer in reserve. Wratten is taken into custody and the Chief belatedly arrests Banning.

Then Eve discovers that somebody had recently bugged Dana's apartment, though the bug has been removed. This supplies us with a good, quotable Ironside line...

The Chief (to Eve on the phone): Detectives do not begin reports by saying "guess what"!

The team questions Wratten, now sporting convict duds, who's reluctant to discuss his relationship with Dana, but reveals that they had marriage plans and that she claimed to have a $50,000 inheritance coming to her. TI zeroes in on the likelihood of these items, having been overheard via the bug, factoring into the killer's motivations...and Banning becomes a true suspect in the eyes of the Chief.

Wratten is placed in the cell next to Banning's and it becomes clear that Banning held Dana in much lower regard than Wratten, and knew more about what she was up to than he's been letting on. Banning is subsequently confronted with a recording of his conversation, as well as Reese and Team Ironside's take on what happened...that Dana was embezzling money on his behalf from pension funds that he was administrating, and learned from the bug of her "inheritance," which was money she was putting aside from that. His initial unlikelihood of being a suspect was a ruse perpetrated by him; e.g., the signs of a struggle that he wasn't involved in were faked by him after the fact.

Charges are dropped against Wratten on the basis that the gun was inoperable, not having a firing pin; Mark indicates that the Chief must have removed it after the fact.

Denny Miller seems to be typecast as "love interest who's a chief suspect, but didn't do it".

This was the second appearance of Seven as Reese, who it turns out becomes a frequently recurring character for the remainder of the series. Not knowing that, I was suspicious of his conspicuous involvement in the story, as it's unusual for the show up to this point to have an outside police detective featured so prominently without having a personal stake in the case.

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The Odd Couple
"The Breakup"
Originally aired October 22, 1970

Wiki said:
After Oscar kicks Felix out, his life goes downhill. Alice Ghostley guest stars.

The episode opens with Oscar suffering from a hangover after a night when Felix had the mat turned over because he had a lady in the apartment. Felix makes things worse by trying to mix a frape for Oscar, putting Oscar over the edge. Felix ultimately leaves as a matter of pride.

Felix goes to live with Murray and his wife, Mimi (Ghostley); at first she's delighted to have Felix there, but he starts to get under Murray's skin by being a better husband--cleaning, organizing, and cooking. Then there's an incident in which he accidentally fires Murray's gun, which Murray cleans while loaded. Eventually Felix starts driving both of them crazy with his omnipresent fastidiousness, so they make an excuse about Mimi's mother coming to visit.

Murray: Maybe now he'll go back home to Oscar.
Mimi: Poor Felix.
Murray: Poor Oscar.

Meanwhile, Oscar has a date with Gwen Pigeon, but she's upset at Felix's absence and how the place has gone downhill. Oscar tries to hire a maid, but she won't take the job.

Felix moves to Vinnie's and calls Oscar to have his mail forwarded. Oscar continues to experience difficulty getting things together on his own; while Felix gets under Vinnie's skin while cleaning up at gin rummy. Felix is on the street again (pretty sure these location bits, complete with Felix lugging around his bags, are from the same shoot as the narrated opening credits footage in later seasons), then moves in with the Pigeon sisters. He tries to warn them that they might find him difficult to live with. Indeed, without seeing exactly why, Oscar sees Felix in the hall with his bags packed again, and makes amends, asking Felix to come back. Felix accepts, but the sight of the kitchen drives him to tears.

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The Brady Bunch
"Going, Going... Steady"
Originally aired October 23, 1970

Wiki said:
Marcia's new boyfriend Harvey Klinger is a nerdy insect collector. The family initially helps Marcia win Harvey's affection, including tutoring her on bugs. When Marcia succeeds, Carol and Mike feel uneasy about Marcia starting to "go steady".

The episode opens with Marcia coming home from school acting all Cloud Nine-ish. Mike and Carol figure out what's going on, but the other girls are a little more clueless. The two older boys are shocked to learn that the object of her affection is Harvey Klinger (Billy Corcoran), whom Greg describes as an "all-time, all-American, grade-A creep." When Marcia doesn't come down for dinner, Alice learns that she's despondent to have found out from a friend that Harvey doesn't know she exists.

Deciding to get involved, Carol coaches Marcia on Harvey's hobby of collecting insects. At school, Marcia drops an envelope of insects at Harvey's feet while he's engrossed in a book, and then brings his attention to the specimens, exhibiting her knowledge. Impressed at a girl who's interested in such things, he walks her home from school and she asks Carol if she can go steady with him. Carol's worried about telling Mike, but he's initially not phased by it.

Harvey brings his collection over to show Marcia, to the disgust of Greg and Jan. Next thing, Marcia wants to wear false eyelashes, but Carol puts her foot down. Mike finally gets upset when he hears that Harvey considers Marcia and himself to be the equivalent of what people in their early 20s used to be, so the parents decide to treat them like it, with Mike having a man-to-man talk about Harvey's life plans and Carol bringing up the subject of marriage. This makes the young couple take a step back in their commitment.

In the coda, Marcia's bringing home her latest boyfriend, and we learn that she's been through a couple of others since Harvey, whom she now considers to have been a "drip".

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The Partridge Family
"When Mother Gets Married"
Originally aired October 23, 1970

Wiki said:
Shirley begins dating an old flame but the kids are suspicious of him, especially when they see him leave a jewelry store with a beautiful young woman.

Guest Stars: John McMartin as Larry, Jaclyn Smith as Tina

Another pre-Angel on the same show!

The younger kids are put off that Shirley's going on a date, though Laurie gets it...and acts the part of the concerned parent, waiting up for Mom to come home. At a gig venue, the band rehearses "I Really Want to Know You," which is obviously another Love Generation performance, and turns into a montage sequence of Shirley and Larry seeing each other with the kids ever present.

Danny gets suspicious and enlists Reuben to investigate the man whom he believes is a "giggle-o," and Shirley finds out. In the lobby of the hotel where the Partridges and Larry are staying (which is how Shirley and Larry ran into each other), the younger kids overhear that he's ordered a diamond ring for "a lady...who's starting out on a whole new life". At first they think it's for their mom, but then then Keith and Laurie see him giving the ring to Tina. Keith breaks the presumed news to Shirley...only for Larry to drop in and introduce the family to Tina...who's his niece, the ring being for her graduation (which seems contrivedly odd).

Shirley's upset with the kids for their meddling, but later they listen in as their mother breaks up with Larry because she doesn't love him. When the two are alone, we learn that it was an act to get everyone off the hook. Then they part ways as she hits the road with the family and he has a bridge to build.

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RJDiogenes · Oct 29, 2020

2020 said:
(Donna Ouellette, who's oddly credited for a murder victim with no lines)

She may have had scenes faceplanted on the cutting room floor. Or maybe she was in those recordings.

The Chief (to Eve on the phone): Detectives do not begin reports by saying "guess what"!

Right! They wait until the suspects are all gathered together in the sitting room. :rommie:

His initial unlikelihood of being a suspect was a ruse perpetrated by him; e.g., the signs of a struggle that he wasn't involved in were faked by him after the fact.

The old Tell-Them-You-Killed-Her-So-They-Won't-Think-You-Killed-Her Trick. Which makes the opening scene kind of duplicitous from a storytelling point of view.

Charges are dropped against Wratten on the basis that the gun was inoperable, not having a firing pin; Mark indicates that the Chief must have removed it after the fact.

Heart of gold. He's got a heart of gold.

Felix goes to live with Murray and his wife, Mimi (Ghostley)

I didn't remember that Alice Ghostley plays Murray's wife. Of course, it occurs to me that it's probably been several decades since I've seen an episode of this show.

Oscar tries to hire a maid, but she won't take the job.

Felix moves to Vinnie's and calls Oscar to have his mail forwarded.

Why doesn't he just rent an apartment? He's supposed to be a very successful photographer, isn't he?

When Marcia doesn't come down for dinner, Alice learns that she's despondent to have found out from a friend that Harvey doesn't know she exists.

The good news is that he'll give her a Latin name when he discovers her.

Next thing, Marcia wants to wear false eyelashes

Or "feelers," as Harvey calls them.

This makes the young couple take a step back in their commitment.

I guess Marcia won't be biting off this guy's head.

Another pre-Angel on the same show!

So young! I hardly recognize her.

Danny gets suspicious and enlists Reuben to investigate the man whom he believes is a "giggle-o," and Shirley finds out.

Danny really thinks he's the boss of Reuben. :rommie:

When the two are alone, we learn that it was an act to get everyone off the hook.

That's Shirley for you. Always one step ahead of her flock.

The Old Mixer · Oct 29, 2020

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50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 3)

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That Girl
"Rattle of a Single Girl"
Originally aired October 23, 1970

Wiki said:
Ann and Donald go to pre-marital counselling finding problems that may or may not be there.

The episode opens with Ann thinking that she made a mistake getting engaged because she and Donald had an argument. Recurring friend Marcy recommends pre-marital counselling to avoid potential divorce. Ann goes to see Donald at an apartment that a landlord named Mr. Morse (Dick Van Patten) is showing him. Donald thinks the idea is ridiculous, likening it to calling a lifeguard while you're still in the locker room; but Ann is so upset about the situation that he reluctantly agrees. So they see Dr. Globe (Alan Oppenheimer), who first wants them to discuss the things that irritate them about each other; in the usual fashion, neither wants to admit to anything, but they're obviously holding back. Cut forward to Donald discussing Ann's tendency for tardiness. Globe declares at the end of the session that they're not ready for marriage, and wants to see them again. Donald doesn't agree with his prognosis, but Ann wants a second opinion. They get into another little spat, but quickly make up. Then Ann slips and alludes to the issues with Donald that she was holding back on, and they end up discussing his nostril-twitching and eating habits.

Ann has Lew over to console her, and he advises that they should do things the old-fashioned way and fix things themselves. After he leaves, she calls Globe to cancel their next appointment. The doctor's pleased that they've at least admitted to having problems. When he says that he'll probably spend the afternoon of the appointment at home with his wife, and on follow up tells Ann that he has eight children, her response is, "Wow, you must get a lot of cancellations." Ann goes to see Donald at the apartment that he's looking at again. They have a generally good make-up moment, with Donald getting a couple of rises out of Ann by joking about things. In the coda, Ann is having Lew and Donald over for a dinner consisting of four days of leftovers, with the usual tension between the two most important men in her life...which causes Ann to end the episode with the following question to her father: "When Donald and I get married, are you going to call me 'Hollinger,' too?"

"Oh, Donald" count: 11 (though 2 are the words strung together in a different-than-usual context)
"Oh, Daddy" count: 4
"Oh, Marcy" count: 2

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Love, American Style
"Love and the Elopement / Love and the Visitor"
Originally aired October 23, 1970

In "Love and the Elopement," we find Ronald (Davy Jones!) going up to what he thinks is his girlfriend's window with a ladder to elope...but when the girl in the brass bed (Karen Valentine) turns out to be Jane rather than Alice, he realizes that he's at the wrong house. He's terribly embarrassed, but she's understanding about it, and encourages him to use her phone to call Alice...who doesn't give him a chance to explain what he's doing in another girl's bedroom. Jane gets Alice on the phone, but Alice has her pass the phone to Ronald just so she can hang up on him again. Jane is encouraging Ronald to find a girl who appreciates him when her father (Arch Johnson) comes knocking on her bedroom door, so Ronald hides under the covers of the bed (his ladder having fallen), but is soon found...and then Alice (Jaclyn Carmichael) pops up in the window, acting haughty and unamused with the situation. As Ronald's about to leave, he asks Jane for her number in case things don't work out with Alice, and the two of them bond over their mutual clumsiness.

In "Love and the Visitor," Claudia (Anne Francis!) is returning home from a sojourn in Africa to her husband, Harrison (William Windom). It's a happy reunion until she brings in Tiny, the gorilla she brought back with her (Janos Prohaska), which results in some consternation from Harrison. While Claudia's changing, Harrison tries to have a man-to-ape talk with Tiny about how he'd be happier in a zoo. But Tiny exhibits jealousy of Harrison, which causes him to break a priceless Egyptian bust. Harrison insists that Tiny has to go, but Tiny speaks his first words..."you" and "go"...then strings them together in a sentence to Harrison: "You go!" Excited by this breakthrough in communication, Claudia won't even think of getting rid of Tiny, and Harrison has to face the prospect of his bestial rival becoming a member of the family.

This segment was written by Valerie Harper and her then husband, Richard Schaal...which I didn't know when he popped up in "Today I Am a Ma'am" as Mary's old boyfriend. Looks like he'll be playing Chuckles the Clown as well.

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Mission: Impossible
"My Friend, My Enemy"
Originally aired October 24, 1970

Wiki said:
While motorcycling in Europe, Paris is recognized by enemy agents, kidnapped, and programmed to murder his "control" – Jim Phelps.

The show really seems to be going out of its way to shake up the formula lately. The bad guys are effectively using IMF methods, though Paris is a target of opportunity rather than this being a scheme planned in advance. He's knocked off the road and shot with a tranquilizer, then subjected to brainwashing by Dr. Paul Tabor (Mark Richman). We get a lot of background info about Paris--he's from Cleveland; his mother's name was Maria; Paris blamed his father for driving her away when he was too young to know her; when he was older, he studied under a magician named Meerghan (Tony Giorgio), but fell for his assistant, Inga (Chris Holter), who was killed by the jealous mentor while rehearsing his act, which appeared to involve shooting objects that she was holding. All of this is be exploited psychologically in conjunction with the use of an electrode planted in the back of his neck that has proven effective in the lab at turning a dog vicious against its master. But this can't just have been a holiday gone wrong for Paris...there was an assignment involved, and the others are waiting for him in Geneva. He checks into a specific inn as part of a standard backup procedure, remembering only that he was in an accident. The team's first priority becomes to undergo a clearance protocol, assuming that Paris has been compromised in some fashion. Doug is either working or posing as a doctor again...I'm getting the impression that he actually is one. I also just noticed that he's getting a credit in the opening for his episodes.

Jim and Doug check into the inn, and from a distance Jim taps a coded message to Paris arranging a rendezvous, where Jim examines forensic evidence on Paris's person--which includes finding hairs from Max, the German shepherd in Tabor's lab--and Doug examines him medically. Meanwhile, Barney and Dana retrieve and examine the motorcycle, with Barney becoming suspicious of a missing headlight, which one of the enemy operatives tossed away at the scene. From that they retrieve a print, identifying him as Karl Maur (Wesley Lau), whom Paris was responsible for the arrest of the previous year. Under a cover identity, Dana makes a professional appointment with Maur, and uses a dog whistle disguised as a cigarette holder to locate the canine.

While all of this is going on, Paris strikes up a romance with a blonde staying at the inn, Enid Brugge (Jill Haworth), who's an enemy agent meant to trigger memories of Inga. She admits to being Marla Kassel, a communist agent, but claims to have defected. At another rendezvous, Jim confronts Paris with the knowledge that he was kidnapped and Enid's true identity. During this meeting, Tabor triggers the electrode remotely, turning him aggressively against Jim and making him very defensive of Enid.

Dana goes back to Maur's office under a pretense and "accidentally" triggers an alarm, enabling Barney and Doug to break into Tabor's lab. There they find Max with his electrode, which sticks out of the back of his neck into the kill center of his brain; and evidence that Paris's was implanted in him through the palate.

Tabor has Enid call Paris to claim that Jim confronted her forcefully, and he overhears her being real shot by enemy bureau agent Bandar (Bruce Glover)...when she was told the plan was for her to be fake shot. Paris rushes to the scene, and the electrode is triggered again, causing him to see her body as Inga's. He picks up the gun that was conveniently left lying next to her body, then goes out to find Jim coming his way, seeing him as Meerghan and taking shots at him. Jim manages to get close enough to Paris in the dark that a hand-to-hand struggle ensues, and he tries to convince Paris, who retains the gun, of what's been done to him. Then Tabor and Bandar pop up--their real target, Jim, having been delivered--and Tabor orders Bandar to shoot Jim...but Paris shoots Bandar, and recognizes Jim as Jim again.

The episode ends on the happy note of Paris meeting Max, both having had their electrodes removed and been restored to normal.

Enemy Mission: Foiled.

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The Mary Tyler Moore Show
"Support Your Local Mother"
Originally aired October 24, 1970

Wiki said:
Mary puts Rhoda's visiting mother up in her apartment when Rhoda refuses to see her. First appearance of Nancy Walker as Rhoda's mother, Ida Morgenstern.

Mary finds Ida sitting on suitcase outside her door, having already gone calling at Rhoda's apartment. Rhoda gives Mary a call to get coded answers from her. Mary goes up to talk to her, which gives us our first look at Rhoda's apartment. We learn that Rhoda has issues with her mother that involve lots of guilt. Ida ends up staying in Mary's apartment, and tries to force Mary to take money, resulting in a brief physical comedy routine of putting it in each other's robe pockets. So Mary's place is a studio with a pull-out couch...I assumed there was a bedroom off-camera.

Rhoda is nevertheless concerned for her mother, focusing on whether she's taking her pills that she's always made a point of not taking as a way of generating her trademark guilt. After a few days, Ida's driving Mary crazy with her overbearing ways. It affects Mary's performance at work, and Lou faux threatens to fire her, which he backs down on when she cries.

Ida ultimately strongarms Mary into kicking her out, making her promise to write once a week. Then Mary heads to the department store where Rhoda's preparing the window display to try to get her to see her mother before she leaves, and Ida shows up outside the window with her back turned. Rhoda goes out to see her.

Back at Mary's, Rhoda opens the present that Ida brought for her, a coat that she bought with money that Rhoda's been sending her. As with scarves she gave to Mary, she assumes that a compliment means that Rhoda doesn't like it.

I do recall seeing Nancy Walker on Rhoda when I was little, but I primarily associated her with her Bounty commercials.

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50th Anniversary Delayed Viewing

The Mary Tyler Moore Show
"Divorce Isn't Everything"
Originally aired October 10, 1970

Wiki said:
Rhoda convinces Mary to join the "Better Luck Next Time Club," an organization for divorced people, so they can take advantage of its discounted charter flights to Paris. Guest star: Shelley Berman

The club meeting first comes up in the newsroom, and Rhoda later argues for joining it. It is specifically stated that neither of them is divorced. At the registration desk, the club's president, dentist Walter Udall (Berman), makes a big fuss about how great Mary's teeth look. (Decades actually showed a spot during the episode about how she'd done Pepsodent commercials at an earlier point in her career.) After getting hit on by a couple of creepy guys named Roy and Hal (Gino Conforti and Dave Ketchum), Mary and Rhoda just want to leave, but Udall informs them that the charter flights won't be coming up this meeting, so they have to sit through one where the members discuss the details of their divorces. Cut to afterward, when we learn that Udall got Mary elected vice president.

Mary has to make an appointment in Udall's office to discuss the situation with him. After he tries to engage her in talk about the importance of teeth vs. gums (he feels that gums are "where it's at"), she confesses to never having been married. There's some tension as he reacts to this news while proceeding with the examination, as he got her elected over his brother, but he ultimately stops the examination and insists that she come to the next meeting to step down in front of the members. But at the meeting, he wants her to lie again, telling the members that she reconciled with her husband. The other members, however, want to put it up for a vote, so she confesses to the full truth. Rhoda gets a good LOL moment when she's the first to stand up and accuse Mary of doing a lousy thing, but then admits to having done it herself, though she maintains the fiction of claiming that her divorce hasn't gone through yet. Then the unexpected happens--several members stand up in turn, each admitting to not actually being divorced either. It turns out that only Udall, his brother, and the receptionist were. Hal asks if anyone wants to start a new club.

Phyllis appears only via a one-sided phone call.

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RJDiogenes said:
She may have had scenes faceplanted on the cutting room floor. Or maybe she was in those recordings.

I figured it might have been in part because of all the face time her portrait got. What recordings?

Right! They wait until the suspects are all gathered together in the sitting room.

Indubitably, my dear RJ.

Which makes the opening scene kind of duplicitous from a storytelling point of view.

Kind of, but starting to have his flashbacks at the bar was part of his act. He was just really remembering the events while acting like they were traumatic. Or that would be my take on it. If anything, we were being given the clue that he was actually there.

Why doesn't he just rent an apartment? He's supposed to be a very successful photographer, isn't he?

I was under the impression that was the long-term plan, but he couldn't keep a short-term roof over his head long enough to look into it.

The good news is that he'll give her a Latin name when he discovers her.

Or "feelers," as Harvey calls them.

I guess Marcia won't be biting off this guy's head.

Bug collector humor--KLIK-KLIK.

So young! I hardly recognize her.

Yeah, she looked surprisingly younger, like it was ten years earlier at least. Farrah pretty much looked the same.

That's Shirley for you. Always one step ahead of her flock.

Well, she wasn't hatched in the opening credits...oh wait, she was.

RJDiogenes · Oct 30, 2020

2020 said:
Globe declares at the end of the session that they're not ready for marriage, and wants to see them again.

He files his notes under "G" for "Gold Mine."

Then Ann slips and alludes to the issues with Donald that she was holding back on, and they end up discussing his nostril-twitching and eating habits.

And Donald reluctantly admits to having been bitten by a radioactive gerbil.

Ann goes to see Donald at the apartment that he's looking at again.

I'd be more worried about these repeated rendezvous with Dick van Patten in a vacant apartment.

...which causes Ann to end the episode with the following question to her father: "When Donald and I get married, are you going to call me 'Hollinger,' too?"

Ooh, burn. That's almost like a cliffhanger.

As Ronald's about to leave, he asks Jane for her number in case things don't work out with Alice, and the two of them bond over their mutual clumsiness.

Classic LAS happyish ending. :rommie:

In "Love and the Visitor," Claudia (Anne Francis!) is returning home from a sojourn in Africa to her husband, Harrison (William Windom).

I love it already.

Harrison insists that Tiny has to go, but Tiny speaks his first words..."you" and "go"...then strings them together in a sentence to Harrison: "You go!"

At that moment, at the Cape, astronaut George Taylor is recruited to head the first interstellar space mission on Liberty 1.

This segment was written by Valerie Harper and her then husband, Richard Schaal...

Interesting. This was a good story. I wonder if she or they wrote anything else.

"My Friend, My Enemy"

My frenemy!

(Mark Richman)

A favorite of the Evil Clone Factory.

We get a lot of background info about Paris--he's from Cleveland

That's quite a comedown from the planet Vulcan.

Paris blamed his father for driving her away when he was too young to know her

But he can't seem to escape those daddy issues.

but fell for his assistant, Inga (Chris Holter), who was killed by the jealous mentor while rehearsing his act

Okay, Paris is already a mess-- does IMF not do psych evals? :rommie:

The episode ends on the happy note of Paris meeting Max, both having had their electrodes removed and been restored to normal.

It would have been cool if Paris and Max were always together after this. I think the subject of animal agents has come up before.

Enemy Mission: Foiled.

But, somewhere, the Control Voice is thinking, "I guess Jim decided not to accept this one."

Mary goes up to talk to her, which gives us our first look at Rhoda's apartment.

I loved that apartment, too. :rommie:

So Mary's place is a studio with a pull-out couch...I assumed there was a bedroom off-camera.

They've never shown Mary's bed before? This is an episode of firsts!

It affects Mary's performance at work, and Lou faux threatens to fire her, which he backs down on when she cries.

So much for spunk.

I do recall seeing Nancy Walker on Rhoda when I was little, but I primarily associated her with her Bounty commercials.

Nancy Walker was the go-to cranky old lady for decades. I think she was old for about fifty years.

It is specifically stated that neither of them is divorced.

That settles that.

the club's president, dentist Walter Udall (Berman), makes a big fuss about how great Mary's teeth look.

But is there anything about Mary Tyler Moore that isn't perfect? :rommie:

Hal asks if anyone wants to start a new club.

The Liar's Club.

I figured it might have been in part because of all the face time her portrait got. What recordings?

Wasn't she in the recordings from the bug in her apartment?

Indubitably, my dear RJ.

Kind of, but starting to have his flashbacks at the bar was part of his act. He was just really remembering the events while acting like they were traumatic. Or that would be my take on it. If anything, we were being given the clue that he was actually there.

True, but the viewer assumes in a solo scene like that that we're privy to the character's actual thoughts.

Bug collector humor--KLIK-KLIK.

Well, she wasn't hatched in the opening credits...oh wait, she was.

They are space aliens.

The Old Mixer · Oct 30, 2020

55 Years Ago This Week

Wiki said:
November 1 – A trolleybus plunges into the Nile at Cairo, killing 74 passengers.
November 2

Republican John Vliet Lindsay is elected mayor of New York City.

Quaker Norman Morrison, 32, sets himself on fire in front of The Pentagon; he dies of his injuries.

November 3 – French President Charles de Gaulle announces (just short of his 75th birthday) that he will stand for re-election.
November 5 – Martial law is announced in Rhodesia. The United Nations General Assembly accepts British intent to use force against Rhodesia if necessary by a vote of 82–9.
November 6 – Freedom Flights begin: Cuba and the United States formally agree to start an airlift for Cubans who want to go to the United States (by 1971 250,000 Cubans take advantage of this program).

The Old Mixer is still a full four years off, but his big sis should be in the works quite soon.

Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:

1. "Get Off of My Cloud," The Rolling Stones
2. "A Lover's Concerto," The Toys
3. "Yesterday," The Beatles
4. "Everybody Loves a Clown," Gary Lewis & The Playboys
5. "Keep On Dancing," The Gentrys
6. "You're the One," The Vogues
7. "Positively 4th Street," Bob Dylan
8. "1-2-3," Len Berry
9. "Rescue Me," Fontella Bass
10. "Taste of Honey," Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass
11. "Make Me Your Baby," Barbara Lewis
12. "I Hear a Symphony," The Supremes
13. "Let's Hang On!," The Four Seasons
14. "I Knew You When," Billy Joe Royal
15. "Ain't That Peculiar," Marvin Gaye
16. "But You're Mine," Sonny & Cher
17. "Everyone's Gone to the Moon," Jonathan King
18. "Treat Her Right," Roy Head & The Traits
19. "Liar, Liar," The Castaways
20. "Hang on Sloopy," The McCoys
21. "Run Baby Run (Back into My Arms)," The Newbeats
22. "Just a Little Bit Better," Herman's Hermits
23. "I Want to (Do Everything for You)," Joe Tex
24. "Round Every Corner," Petula Clark
25. "Say Something Funny," Patty Duke
26. "Not the Lovin' Kind," Dino, Desi & Billy

28. "Do You Believe in Magic," The Lovin' Spoonful
29. "The 'In' Crowd," The Ramsey Lewis Trio
30. "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," Johnny Rivers
31. "Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)," The Byrds
32. "Where Do You Go," Cher

35. "Respect," Otis Redding
36. "My Baby," The Temptations

38. "My Girl Has Gone," The Miracles
39. "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away," The Silkie
40. "Baby Don't Go," Sonny & Cher
41. "Some Enchanted Evening," Jay & The Americans

44. "I Found a Girl," Jan & Dean

48. "Make It Easy on Yourself," The Walker Brothers

50. "I'm Yours," Elvis Presley

54. "Act Naturally," The Beatles
55. "Universal Soldier," Donovan

61. "Let Me Be," The Turtles
62. "I'm a Man," The Yardbirds

72. "Mystic Eyes," Them

87. "It's My Life," The Animals
88. "I Can Never Go Home Anymore," The Shangri-Las

90. "Don't Think Twice," The Wonder Who?

Leaving the chart:

"Catch Us If You Can," The Dave Clark Five (11 weeks)
"Eve of Destruction," Barry McGuire (11 weeks)
"Help!," The Beatles (13 weeks)
"You've Got Your Troubles," The Fortunes (11 weeks)
"You Were on My Mind," We Five (15 weeks)

Recent and new on the chart:

"I Found a Girl," Jan & Dean
(Oct. 16; #30 US)

"It's My Life," The Animals
(#23 US; #7 UK)

"Don't Think Twice," The Wonder Who?
(#12 US; and I guess I don't have to tell you who...)

"I Can Never Go Home Anymore," The Shangri-Las
(#6 US)

And new on the boob tube:

Branded, "The Richest Man in Boot Hill"
12 O'Clock High, "Runway in the Dark"
Gilligan's Island, "Castaways Pictures Presents"
The Wild Wild West, "The Night of the Dancing Death"
Hogan's Heroes, "Movies Are Your Best Escape"
Get Smart, "The Day Smart Turned Chicken"

_______

55th Anniversary Fly-on-the-Wall Listening

Squiggy beware! On November 4, the Fabs record a number that won't be used on Rubber Soul:

_______

RJDiogenes said:
He files his notes under "G" for "Gold Mine."

Wouldn't that be "TG," for "That Gold Mine"?

I'd be more worried about these repeated rendezvous with Dick van Patten in a vacant apartment.

I love it already.

Interesting. This was a good story.

I thought it was a little lame myself, despite the cast.

A favorite of the Evil Clone Factory.

He does look kinda like a Kirby character...

I think the subject of animal agents has come up before.

It has, but don't ask me to name them offhand.

But, somewhere, the Control Voice is thinking, "I guess Jim decided not to accept this one."

You know what happened to Briggs...!

I loved that apartment, too.

It was pretty groovy.

Wasn't she in the recordings from the bug in her apartment?

The recording they played was of Banning's conversation with Wratten in the cell.

They are space aliens.

Now I'm picturing Partridge Coneheads...

J.T.B. · Oct 30, 2020

RJDiogenes said:
Nancy Walker was the go-to cranky old lady for decades. I think she was old for about fifty years.

Yeah, I remember being surprised that she was only 69 when she died. I figured she was in her 60s twenty years earlier.

The Old Mixer · Oct 31, 2020

50th Anniversary Cinematic Spooktacular

House of Dark Shadows
Directed by Dan Curtis
Starring Jonathan Frid, Grayson Hall, Kathryn Leigh Scott, Roger Davis, and Joan Bennett
Premiered August 24, 1970; Released October 28, 1970

Wiki said:
House of Dark Shadows is a 1970 American feature-length horror film directed by Dan Curtis, based on his Dark Shadows television series (ABC, 1966–1971). In this film expansion, vampire Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) searches for a cure for vampirism so he can marry a woman who resembles his long-lost fiancée Josette (Kathryn Leigh Scott).

Unrestricted by TV's censors, the film is far more graphically violent than its television counterpart, with dripping vampire bites and bloody deaths.

Well, this was certainly an interesting bit of business to check out...a feature film using most of the main actors from the TV show, but shot in cinematic quality and with more elaborate and realistic sets. They even used the theme from the TV show in the opening.

Wiki said:
The TV series was still in production while the film was being made. Some characters had to be temporarily written out of the show so that the actors would be available to appear in the movie. Barnabas, for example, was trapped in his coffin on the TV show by a failed writer who wanted to use the vampire's life story as the basis for a novel.

During the time of filming, several actors were written out of the TV series so that they would be available to shoot the movie. Kathryn Leigh Scott was absent from 30 episodes (986 to 1015); Jonathan Frid was absent from 28 episodes (983 to 1010); Grayson Hall was absent from 21 episodes (986 to 1006); John Karlen was absent from 21 episodes (990 to 1010); Nancy Barrett was absent from 20 episodes (991 to 1010): Louis Edmonds was absent from 17 episodes (991 to 1008); Don Briscoe was absent from 15 episodes (986 to 1000); Joan Bennett was absent from 15 episodes (991 to 1006); and David Henesy was absent from 9 episodes (993 to 1001).

The film's story takes considerable liberties in condensing the Barnabas storyline into a 90-minute film. The most notable change upfront is that Maggie Evans is now working at Collinwood as David's governess in place of Victoria Winters (who isn't in the film). And FWIW, David Henesy is in his early teens at this point, and David Collins seems less like he needs a nanny and more like he could use a good boarding school.

The preview version of the film included a scene where young David Collins pretends to hang himself. It was removed because there were concerns some children might "try this at home".

Willie also has a job on the grounds...apparently chewing the scenery, which John Karlen seems to be enjoying. Jason McGuire isn't in this version of the story, though Dennis Patrick is on board, now in the role of Sheriff Patterson. Willie here seems kind of weird and creepy but doesn't have the terrible rep that had everyone wanting to toss him out and suspecting him of everything on the show. And this story does away with the whole subplot of Willie writhing on a bed for a week or so. Barnabas just puts him right to work.

They put a bookkeeper named Daphne (Lisa Richards) in just to be the first victim...upon being freed from his coffin, Barnabas wastes no time going out for a stroll and a snack.

Dr. Hoffman is involved early on as the local doctor, who investigates the killings, inspecting the blood samples. There's a new character who plays a role similar to Doc Woodard as Barnabas's Van Helsing...a Professor Stokes (Thayer David), who suspects Barnabas early on and, unlike one of my favorite aspects of the series, openly brings up the subject of vampirism. The movie adds a couple more characters not from the show Jeff Clark (Roger Davis), who gets a prominent role as Maggie's boyfriend and the customary big damn hero; and Todd Blake (Donald Briscoe), Carolyn's boyfriend. Shouldn't one of these guys be named Burke Devlin? They kept Mrs. Johnson, but apparently played by a different actress.

Now that the Collinses have a bigger budget, they throw parties with more than the main cast. The music box features in this story, though I'm not sure offhand if it's playing the same tune as one of the versions used in the show.

Barnabas bites Carolyn early on, which ensues in a love triangle with her jealous of Barnabas's attention to Maggie; and Barnabas "kills" her for it, turning her into a vampire. David sees Carolyn after she's supposed to have died and been buried, and she subsequently attacks Todd. At that point, everyone knows exactly what she is. Todd uses TV Fu on the big screen, escaping the deputy guarding his bedside. The townsfolk use crosses to corner Carolyn...I can't recall that we ever saw anyone whip out one of those in the part of the show that I watched. Prof. Stokes puts a stake in her heart.

With the story so condensed, there aren't as many quiet, breathing moments where, for example, Barnabas gets to display his charm. It's pretty much all about the vampire threat from start to finish. Barnabas still finds the time to beat Willie after he tries to warn Maggie, though.

Collinwood still doesn't seem to have mirrors, but Dr. Hoffman discovers Barnabas is a vampire when she can't see him in her rather large compact. Julia goes to the Old House with cross in hand to offer to cure Barnabas. Barnabas pursues Maggie after the treatments have started to take effect, allowing him to keep a low profile activity wise, and to come out during the day, engaging in a leaf-peeping walk with Maggie. This defies Stokes's expectation, though the professor still confronts Barnabas with what he believes. But Julia also develops a romantic triangle thing for Barnabas and becomes jealous of Maggie, so she sabotages his injections, aging him dramatically, in which state he attacks Maggie. Biting her restores his vitality and appearance.

Jeff returns from a trip to Boston at this point, regretting having gone there. He joins in an open manhunt for Barnabas and Maggie, for which the sheriff hands out silver bullets...um, he's not a werewolf. Barnabas gets to Stokes and turns him into an undead minion who gets pumped full of silver by Jeff. Roger gets bitten as well and Jeff gives him the ol' impalement treatment.

Barnabas's pursuit of Maggie is completely different in this story; the abduction and brainwashing elements that were the core of the Barnabas story on the show factor in quite late and briefly, and after everyone knows what Barnabas is. When Jeff finds Maggie and Barnabas, Willie takes a crossbow bolt meant for his master...but then stabs Barnabas in the back with it, leaving it to Jeff to drive it all the way in, scoring the final kill.

While the film made a striking early impression, I came away somewhat disappointed...the subtle charm of the show was sacrificed in favor of more typical horror film spectacle.

Wiki said:
The film was released at the height of the TV show's popularity to great commercial success.

Nerys Myk · Oct 31, 2020

RJDiogenes said:
Nancy Walker was the go-to cranky old lady for decades. I think she was old for about fifty years.

I remember her as the maid on McMillian and Wife.

RJDiogenes · Oct 31, 2020

2020 said:
The Old Mixer is still a full four years off, but his big sis should be in the works quite soon.

I can't wait to see what produce she resembled.

"I Found a Girl," Jan & Dean

Time to settle down with her and retire, Jan & Dean.

"It's My Life," The Animals

Good stuff.

"Don't Think Twice," The Wonder Who?

What the hell?

(#12 US; and I guess I don't have to tell you who...)

Alvin?

"I Can Never Go Home Anymore," The Shangri-Las

I think the Shangri-Las invented Books-On-Tape.

Squiggy beware! On November 4, the Fabs record a number that won't be used on Rubber Soul:

I think I heard a couple of words at the beginning.

Wouldn't that be "TG," for "That Gold Mine"?

Haha, true.

I thought it was a little lame myself, despite the cast.

Well, it sounded good, with a bit of a Sci-Fi touch.

He does look kinda like a Kirby character...

Wow, he does, especially when he's older.

You know what happened to Briggs...!

A quaint little Village, from what I understand.

The recording they played was of Banning's conversation with Wratten in the cell.

Okay, I lost track of something somewhere.

Now I'm picturing Partridge Coneheads...

Or Eggheads. :rommie:

J.T.B. said:
Yeah, I remember being surprised that she was only 69 when she died. I figured she was in her 60s twenty years earlier.

Right, exactly.

2020 said:
Willie also has a job on the grounds...apparently chewing the scenery, which John Karlen seems to be enjoying.

I just found John Karlen in the trailer of a movie called Daughters of Darkness from 1971, which seems to be an attempt at an erotic Horror film-- one of those artsy jobs where nobody emotes save for the occasional scream.

He joins in an open manhunt for Barnabas and Maggie, for which the sheriff hands out silver bullets...um, he's not a werewolf.

Actually, silver bullets work on Vampires, too.

While the film made a striking early impression, I came away somewhat disappointed...the subtle charm of the show was sacrificed in favor of more typical horror film spectacle.

Which is often a problem with moving a TV show to the movies. My biggest disappointment with the Dark Shadows movies is that they are not in continuity with the TV show, so I can only look at them as novelties, at best-- kind of like JJ Trek, only not as awful.

Geoff Peterson said:
I remember her as the maid on McMillian and Wife.

I didn't know that. I don't recall ever watching that show, despite it being part of that Mystery Movie rotation thing.

The Old Mixer · Oct 31, 2020

50 Years Ago This Week

Wiki said:
November 1

The Club Cinq-Sept fire in Saint-Laurent-du-Pont, France, kills 146.

Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Zygfryd Wolniak and three Pakistanis and a killed in an attack on a group of Polish diplomats at the Karachi airport.

November 3

Democrats sweep the U.S. Congressional midterm elections; Ronald Reagan is reelected governor of California; Jimmy Carter is elected governor of Georgia.

Salvador Allende takes office as president of Chile.

The 1970 Bhola cyclone makes landfall in modern-day Bangladesh around high tide, causing $86.4 million in damage (1970 USD, $576 million 2020 USD) and becomes the world's deadliest storm killing over 500,000 people.

November 4

Vietnam War – Vietnamization: The United States turns control of a base to South Vietnamese control for the first time, transferring the Sóc Trăng Airfield to the ARVN.

Social workers in Los Angeles take custody of Genie, an abused girl who had been kept in solitary confinement since her birth, and begin her rehabilitation.

November 5 – Vietnam War: The United States Military Assistance Command in Vietnam reports the lowest weekly American soldier death toll in five years (24 soldiers die that week, which is the fifth consecutive week the death toll is below 50; 431 are reported wounded that week, however).

And it's one candle for The Old Mixer! Gosh, I sure do grow up fast...

Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:

1. "I'll Be There," Jackson 5
2. "We've Only Just Begun," Carpenters
3. "Fire and Rain," James Taylor
4. "Green-Eyed Lady," Sugarloaf
5. "Indiana Wants Me," R. Dean Taylor
6. "All Right Now," Free
7. "I Think I Love You," The Partridge Family
8. "Cracklin' Rosie," Neil Diamond
9. "Candida," Dawn
10. "Lola," The Kinks
11. "It Don't Matter to Me," Bread
12. "Somebody's Been Sleeping," 100 Proof (Aged in Soul)
13. "The Tears of a Clown," Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
14. "Montego Bay," Bobby Bloom
15. "Still Water (Love)," Four Tops
16. "It's Only Make Believe," Glen Campbell
17. "Cry Me a River," Joe Cocker
18. "Gypsy Woman," Brian Hyland
19. "Super Bad (Pt. 1 & Pt. 2)," James Brown
20. "El Condor Pasa (If I Could)," Simon & Garfunkel
21. "Express Yourself," Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band

23. "Engine Number 9," Wilson Pickett
24. "Deeper & Deeper," Freda Payne
25. "Stand by Your Man," Candi Staton
26. "See Me, Feel Me," The Who
27. "Look What They've Done to My Song, Ma," The New Seekers feat. Eve Graham
28. "Yellow River," Christie
29. "Lucretia Mac Evil," Blood, Sweat & Tears
30. "Our House," Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
31. "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," Diana Ross
32. "Julie, Do Ya Love Me," Bobby Sherman
33. "Let's Work Together," Canned Heat

35. "Share the Land," The Guess Who
36. "Heaven Help Us All," Stevie Wonder

38. "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" / "Patch It Up", Elvis Presley

40. "For the Good Times," Ray Price
41. "Out in the Country," Three Dog Night
42. "5-10-15-20 (25-30 Years of Love)," The Presidents
43. "After Midnight," Eric Clapton

46. "One Less Bell to Answer," The 5th Dimension

49. "Fresh Air," Quicksilver Messenger Service

57. "No Matter What," Badfinger

61. "Stoned Love," The Supremes

68. "He Aint Heavy...He's My Brother," Neil Diamond
69. "Only Love Can Break Your Heart," Neil Young

72. "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?," Chicago
73. "Stoney End," Barbra Streisand

75. "Be My Baby," Andy Kim

85. "Groove Me," King Floyd

97. "Amos Moses," Jerry Reed

100. "Beaucoups of Blues," Ringo Starr

Leaving the chart:

"Closer to Home (I'm Your Captain)," Grand Funk Railroad (12 weeks)
"Funk #49," James Gang (10 weeks)
"(I Know) I'm Losing You," Rare Earth (14 weeks)
"It's a Shame," The Spinners (15 weeks)
"Long Long Time," Linda Ronstadt (12 weeks)
"Lookin' Out My Back Door" / "Long as I Can See the Light", Creedence Clearwater Revival (13 weeks)
"Snowbird," Anne Murray (16 weeks)
"That's Where I Went Wrong," The Poppy Family feat. Susan Jacks (13 weeks)

New on the chart:

"Beaucoups of Blues," Ringo Starr
(#87 US)

"He Aint Heavy...He's My Brother," Neil Diamond
(#20 US; #4 AC)

"Be My Baby," Andy Kim
(#17 US; #24 AC)

"Stoned Love," The Supremes
(#7 US; #24 AC; #1 R&B; #3 UK)

"Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?," Chicago
(#7 US; #5 AC)

And new on the boob tube:

Hogan's Heroes, "Kommandant Schultz"
The Ed Sullivan Show, Season 23, episode 7
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Season 4, episode 8
Hawaii Five-O, "The Reunion"
Ironside, "Check, Mate and Murder: Part 2"
The Odd Couple, "I Do, I Don't"
The Brady Bunch, "The Treasure of Sierra Avenue"
The Partridge Family, "Danny and the Mob"
That Girl, "There Sure Are a Bunch of Cards in St. Louis" (Part 2)
Love, American Style, "Love and the Decision / Love and the Haunted House"
Mission: Impossible, "Decoy"
Adam-12, "Log 75: Have a Nice Weekend"
The Mary Tyler Moore Show, "The Snow Must Go On"

_______

RJDiogenes said:
I can't wait to see what produce she resembled.

I imagine about the same if we were to keep track...but smaller varieties of each.

Time to settle down with her and retire, Jan & Dean.

Eh, there was nothing special about this, but it's a fun little pop song. They are getting to the end of their hitmaking rope...but Jan Berry's car accident is getting pretty close as well.

Good stuff.

Definitely one of their classics.

What the hell?

Alvin?

Talk about a case of something being lost in translation! And I have to wonder how this got all the way to #12...must have been the novelty factor.

This would be a good place to note that my 55th Anniversary Master Shuffle, which includes the charting singles and the playlist with representative tracks from charting albums of interest, has a very strong Dylan presence. Even ignoring the various covers by other artists, having meaty tracks from Another Side of Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home, and Highway 61 Revisited coming up in the same shuffle as the general pop hits really drives home how his stuff stood out from the pack.

I think the Shangri-Las invented Books-On-Tape.

Here's something that my shuffle was missing--Teen Tragedy DRAMA!

I think I heard a couple of words at the beginning.

This instrumental has been brought to you by the numbers one, two, three, and four.

Wow, he does, especially when he's older.

The wretched spawn of Apokolips!

A quaint little Village, from what I understand.

Now there's a crossover idea...

I just found John Karlen in the trailer of a movie called Daughters of Darkness from 1971, which seems to be an attempt at an erotic Horror film-- one of those artsy jobs where nobody emotes save for the occasional scream.

That reminds me that Nancy Barrett was pretty hot in vampire mode up to a point.

Actually, silver bullets work on Vampires, too.

Only when people get their lore mixed up from what I recall reading back in the day, but you're probably more invested in the subject than I.

Which is often a problem with moving a TV show to the movies. My biggest disappointment with the Dark Shadows movies is that they are not in continuity with the TV show, so I can only look at them as novelties, at best-- kind of like JJ Trek, only not as awful.

FWIW, I also have the sequel on the DVR, which would be coming up next summer.

And my recording of additional episodes of the TV show is coming along. Decades got to the end of their now year-long package of episodes recently, and thanks to this weekend's holiday binge, which is in sequence with the now two-a-night weeknight episodes, they'll soon be coming back around to the gap between what I already watched and where I started recording. Not sure when I'm getting around to watching them, but I'll put the ones I've seen on in the background this weekend to refresh my memory a little.

[ETA: And what did the binge open with? A scene of Barnabas having just beaten Willie!]

For me, the Barnabas/Maggie storyline was all about investment in Maggie's ordeal, and the dramatic tension of Barnabas maintaining his secret with the family. Neither of those elements played out properly in the film.

[ETA: The Binge reminds me of a couple more elements that I liked about the series that weren't in the film version: How Frid's charm as Barnabas was such that you wanted to believe he was really the man he was pretending to be around the family, despite the things he was doing; and "Frantic to keep people away from Barnabas" Willie--"It's ahmost dahk--you gotta get outta heah, NOW!"]

I just learned as I was typing this post that we've lost a giant...
:wah:

RJDiogenes · Nov 1, 2020

2020 said:
And it's one candle for The Old Mixer! Gosh, I sure do grow up fast...

Take time to stop and smell the reruns.

"Beaucoups of Blues," Ringo Starr

Cute title, pleasant song.

"He Aint Heavy...He's My Brother," Neil Diamond

This is a great song and a decent cover. It starts off slow, but it builds nicely.

"Be My Baby," Andy Kim

And I thought he was a one-hit wonder. An adequate cover, I guess.

"Stoned Love," The Supremes

This is all right.

"Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?," Chicago

Ah, that early Chicago sound. Great stuff.

Talk about a case of something being lost in translation! And I have to wonder how this got all the way to #12...must have been the novelty factor.

Everybody thought it was the Chipmunks. :rommie:

This instrumental has been brought to you by the numbers one, two, three, and four.

The wretched spawn of Apokolips!

He was made for that role.

Now there's a crossover idea...

Actually it is a pretty cool scenario.

Only when people get their lore mixed up from what I recall reading back in the day, but you're probably more invested in the subject than I.

Genuine folklore is all over the map, and very different from the pop culture folklore of the late 19th century to the present, so your mileage may vary. Writers can pick and choose and, of course, everybody likes to put their own special spin on things. The general idea is that there's a purity to silver that is proof against evil in general, so silver can both kill and bind (in some stories, silver crosses are even more effective than regular crosses against Vampires).

FWIW, I also have the sequel on the DVR, which would be coming up next summer.

The sequel goes even farther afield. My memory is that the first was pretty Hammerish and the second was just kind of generic.

And my recording of additional episodes of the TV show is coming along.

And I'm still waiting for Decades to return to our Comcast.

[ETA: And what did the binge open with? A scene of Barnabas having just beaten Willie!]

I think he likes it. :rommie:

[ETA: The Binge reminds me of a couple more elements that I liked about the series that weren't in the film version: How Frid's charm as Barnabas was such that you wanted to believe he was really the man he was pretending to be around the family, despite the things he was doing; and "Frantic to keep people away from Barnabas" Willie--"It's ahmost dahk--you gotta get outta heah, NOW!"]

Yeah, Jonathan Frid was an unlikely, but amazing, leading man. DS would have been nothing without him. Actually, it was nothing without him.

I just learned as I was typing this post that we've lost a giant...

Yeah, I saw that when I got home yesterday. Poor guy had been fading away for a long time, but he will always be larger than life.

The Old Mixer · Nov 2, 2020

_______

50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 1)

_______

Hogan's Heroes
"The Gestapo Takeover"
Originally aired October 25, 1970

Wiki said:
Hogan resorts to blackmail after the Gestapo begin a takeover of the Luftwaffe Stalags.

The episode opens with Gestpo troops marching through the camp and their commander, Major Strauss (Joseph Ruskin), inspecting Klink's books. Strauss has Hogan brought in to announce that the Gestapo will be taking over the camp from the Luftwaffe, with Klink and Schultz staying on for a few weeks during the transition. Strauss's men quickly find one of the tunnels under the yard, which gets Hogan thrown in the cooler...where LeBeau uses another tunnel to smuggle in a gourmet meal complete with a little wine glass, as well as to take out orders from Hogan, who's hatching a plan. Hogan rubs in to Schultz that he and Klink are likely headed for Siberia. ("It's big, cold, east of here, and there are a lot of people named Ivan shooting at you all the time.") After Hogan is released either with or in spite of Klink's help, the prisoners begin to hatch the plan. Klink pays a secret visit to the barracks, where the prisoners reveal a bug that they put there themselves to get Klink to help Hogan make an escorted visit to Hammelburg, ostensibly so that the two of them can conspire in private about how to deal with Strauss.

Hogan arranges the distraction of a couple of women for Klink and Schultz so that he can actually conspire with an underground contact (Bruce Kirby). The contact visits the Stalag as a Swiss lawyer wanting to meet with General Mueller, accompanied by a fake aide of Mueller's (Forrest Compton), and arranges to speak to Mueller on the phone (rerouted to the prisoners' tunnel switchboard, with Newkirk imitating Mueller), as part of a ruse to have Strauss sign an agreement on the general's behalf involving executing Adolf Hitler and safe passage to Argentina. Hogan then gives Klink the document in a sealed envelope for delivery to General Burkhalter in Berlin. Burkhalter confronts the real General Mueller (Martin Kosleck), using the document as leverage to make the Gestapo leave the stalag. Burkhalter assumes that the document was arranged by Klink, who's at a loss to explain it...and in the coda, Hogan won't tell.

DIS...MISSED!

_______

Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
Season 4, episode 7
Originally aired October 26, 1970

The Wiki list of guest appearances said:
Vincent Price, Rod Serling, Orson Welles

I could tell from that list that we'd be getting a full-on Halloween-themed episode! Sterling and Price's bits seem separately taped, but Welles is played up as the special guest.

Serling opens the episode by introducing the show as Rowan & Martin's Boo-In (not included in the clip below), after which Dan and Dick bring Welles onstage:

Gary Owens also calls the show Boo-In in his Halloween-themed intro. A themed musical number follows. There's more of that, during which Lily does a very tasteful lady vampire.

The War of the Worlds radio broadcast is referenced in the first cocktail party segment, though Dan gets the year wrong:

Orson also does a skit as a horror radio program narrator:

Edith Ann's take on October 31.

Orson and Vincent are both in a brief Joke Wall segment.

An in-theme news segment:

Lily does her signature rapid-talking gag where she never finishes a sentence while gushing to Orson about The Shadow.

The episode closes with Orson and Wolfgang:

_______

Hawaii Five-O
"Force of Waves"
Originally aired October 28, 1970

Wiki said:
Five-O investigates the murder of a wealthy businessman in a boat explosion.

A whole episode based on--but wait, you don't know the half of it yet!

The businessman, Clark Sloan (Thomas Norton), calls McGarrett to a yacht club party to discuss something to do with gambling. Sloan wants to talk privately on his yacht, so they take a tender out to it...and the tender explodes!

*Bosun's whistle*
McGarrett in the drink! McGarrett in the drink!

A guy working on the dock whom McGarrett knows, Cal Anderson (John Vernon), dives in and pulls him out alive, but Sloan dies. With Steve laid up for a bit, it falls to Danno to start the legwork. He talks to Sloan's ex-wife (Ann McCormack), who isn't surprised that somebody killed him, and makes sure that we know that Clark had a son by her. Shortly after, McGarrett is released with his right arm in a cast.

A guy who was working on a boat with Cal at the time of the explosion, Neal Porter (James Daris), had been conspicuously nervous while climbing the boat's mast. He later breaks into Sloan's office and works on the safe. A watchman comes in, gets a look at Porter, and gets Flaslight Fu'ed. Porter is intercepted trying to drive out of the parking garage; and Five-O find the current Mrs. Sloan (Linda Marsh) in the car, wanting to see her lawyer. Once she's accompanied by said attorney, Richard Fairbirne (Dewey Martin)--with whom Maria Sloan was dancing at the party when her husband died--Danno is allowed to have a look at what was in the safe...a prenup. Maria is let go and insists that she loved her husband.

The team learn that Porter had gambling debts. Porter will admit to everything else, but insists he didn't murder Sloan...but Danno keeps the heat on him. Meanwhile, McGarrett becomes curious about and reads up on incidents similar to Sloan's death in the past, one of which was deemed an accident at the time, and attempts to make a connection. McGarrett spends some time with Cal, learns how Porter fell from a mast a year ago, and is now battling a fear of heights. Danno questions Maria alone and confronts her with the knowledge that Neal Porter introduced her to Clark Sloan, while she was still married to Porter--cut to the wave!

Maria says that Clark knew all about her and Porter, whom she was trying to help with his gambling debt in exchange for getting rid of the prenup. Then Fairbirne comes in and tries to play hardball, but Danno produces evidence that he gave Porter the combination to the safe, and has him booked...asking if he'd like to call a good lawyer. Meanwhile, Steve's helping Cal to fix up a dilapidated old boat that Steve inherited from an elderly client...but Steve has ulterior motives, sniffing out Cal's memory of having been on Maui at the time of one of the incidents. Cal's seems to genuinely lack any recollection about that or receiving a speeding ticket shortly before Sloan's death. In his cell, Porter tells Steve how Cal left the boat they were working on shortly before Sloan's death, supposedly to call his wife. Steve takes the opportunity to buoy Porter's confidence about dealing with his fear, and later has charges against Porter dropped. All of this triggers a background check on Cal in which Steve learns how Cal's father left his mother for a younger woman when he was a child, and his mother drowned while boating a year later, which may have been suicide. Cal turns out to have been in the vicinity for a number of previous incidents similar to Sloan's death, which all involved men who left their wives and children for younger women.

Steve consults a Dr. Landis (Grace Albertson), who provides exposition about the type of schizophrenia that Cal may be experiencing. Steve specifically asks what would happen if somebody forced Cal to confront the truth about his dual personalities, and she warns that it could push him violently over the edge...so of course that's Steve's plan. He brings Cal a part that needs fixed as an excuse to leave a copy of the speeding ticket for him to find. That night Cal meets Steve to work on the boat and Steve starts asking him questions about his parents' situation, causing him to recall a childhood incident in which he found that his toys had been destroyed, and Steve uses that as a launching point to bring up the various other incidents and Cal's whereabouts at the times that they occurred. Bringing Cal all way to the Sloan incident, Steve gets his alter ego to peek out and express his motivations, then asks Cal what he did with the explosives, and Cal attacks him. A melee ensues during which the rest of the team comes out of hiding, and Cal is subdued and put in the back of a squad car.

_______

RJDiogenes said:
Take time to stop and smell the reruns.

Can't stop--there are too many of them! And I see what you did there.

Cute title, pleasant song.

Digging a bit deep chart-wise, but I found that I was only missing a couple of Ringo's charting singles, this being one of them. Doesn't do much for me, though.

This is a great song and a decent cover. It starts off slow, but it builds nicely.

Sounds like "lull between major classic hits" time.

And I thought he was a one-hit wonder. An adequate cover, I guess.

In addition to not being able to find an official audio clip on YouTube, this wasn't available for download on iTunes...and I'm good with that.

This is all right.

This will prove to be the post-Diana Supremes' biggest hit.

Ah, that early Chicago sound. Great stuff.

Indeed, and you can tell that this came out in the '60s.

The sequel goes even farther afield. My memory is that the first was pretty Hammerish and the second was just kind of generic.

At least the second will have the benefit of being based on material that I'm not already familiar with from what I've seen of the show.

Yeah, Jonathan Frid was an unlikely, but amazing, leading man. DS would have been nothing without him. Actually, it was nothing without him.

Another thing I found myself enjoying again was how the actors would stumble all over their lines and just keep going.

RJDiogenes · Nov 2, 2020

The Old Mixer said:
Burkhalter assumes that the document was arranged by Klink, who's at a loss to explain it...and in the coda, Hogan won't tell.

I'd really love to see a post-war reunion between these guys. :rommie:

I could tell from that list that we'd be getting a full-on Halloween-themed episode! Sterling and Price's bits seem separately taped, but Welles is played up as the special guest.

What a great episode. I must have seen it, though I don't specifically remember, and I'm sure it had a big effect on my developing psyche. :rommie:

Orson also does a skit as a horror radio program narrator:

How does that guy not have whiplash? :rommie:

Lily does her signature rapid-talking gag where she never finishes a sentence while gushing to Orson about The Shadow.

Which is closer in time to them than Laugh-In is to us.

A whole episode based on--but wait, you don't know the half of it yet!

They should have made it a two-hour special.

McGarrett in the drink! McGarrett in the drink!

It's the chance you take when you're assigned to a planet that's two-thirds ocean.

Steve consults a Dr. Landis (Grace Albertson), who provides exposition about the type of schizophrenia that Cal may be experiencing.

The kind that's Multiple Personality Disorder? :rommie:

Steve specifically asks what would happen if somebody forced Cal to confront the truth about his dual personalities, and she warns that it could push him violently over the edge...so of course that's Steve's plan.

That's because it's not a two-hour episode-- no time for the subtle approach.

Bringing Cal all way to the Sloan incident, Steve gets his alter ego to peek out and express his motivations, then asks Cal what he did with the explosives, and Cal attacks him. A melee ensues during which the rest of the team comes out of hiding, and Cal is subdued and put in the back of a squad car.

Didn't they have enough evidence to just arrest the poor guy and remand him to psychiatric care?

Sounds like "lull between major classic hits" time.

It's a bit odd for him to be doing a cover, and so close to the original's release.

Another thing I found myself enjoying again was how the actors would stumble all over their lines and just keep going.

That's definitely part of the charm. :rommie:

The Old Mixer · Nov 3, 2020

_______

50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 2)

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Ironside
"Check, Mate; and Murder: Part 1"
Originally aired October 29, 1970

Wiki said:
Ironside meets an old flame while in Montreal and gets involved in the Separatist movement.

Team Ironside is in the French Quarter of the Great White North attending the International Congress of Criminologists convention. As they're arriving, there's a mailbox bomb explosion outside the airport. A man (Michael Sugich) delays Mark from mailing a letter just before the explosion and trips him to protect him from the blast. As the team drives to their destination, Bob, who hasn't been to Montreal in 20 years, has flashbacks to a pretty young woman coaching him in French (You Only Live Twice femme fatale Karin Dor!). Frank Rousseau, Deputy Director of the MPD (Emile Genest), is quick to distinguish these terrorists from the Separatists, who publicly denounce their actions. At the site of the convention, Bob meets another old acquaintance, mystery novel writer Ernestine Mugford (Hermione Gingold), who introduces him to noted criminologist Claude Gauthier (Ivor Francis). Meanwhile, at Radical HQ, the boss radical (Alan Bergmann) tells his young minions not to take chances trying to clear people from the area of the bomb.

Back at the hotel, Claude returns to his room to find it ransacked, and confirms that a package remains hidden in the toilet tank. Bob has more flashbacks to the girl, Jeanine, not wanting to come back to the States with him, saying that she didn't love him. Frank informs him that she was widowed two years ago. Another bomb blast goes off just outside the hotel's restaurant; a doorman says he saw Gauthier by the box before it went off.

Rousseau brings in Bergmann's character, political science lecturer Pierre Bouver, for questioning, correctly believing that he's the head of a local cell. At MPDHQ, Mark sees the man who saved him, Henri, and confronts him in private outside, asking if he planted the bomb. Henri considers them even because Mark hasn't ratted on him. And Bob runs into Jeanine, who tells him that her son, Robert, has been arrested. He turns out to be a young man we saw at bomb-building HQ (Alain Patrick), and Bob seems startled to find that he has a namesake of that age. She asks Bob to help Robert, and they kiss. Rousseau doesn't want to let Bob talk to Robert; when he does, it becomes clear that Robert's a believer, but he says that he didn't plant the bomb. But explosives are found in his car, which he says were planted, and he has no alibi.

Ironside learns that Gauthier was lured to the vicinity of the mailbox by a note at the hotel desk, and deduces that a radio-controlled bomb was used. The team subsequently learns his room was searched. It turns out that he'd given the package to Ernestine--a pawn from the 200-year-old Van Bassan chess set, which is worth $500,000, and was stolen from a safe deposit box six years prior.

Bob persuades Frank to let Robert out on bail. Jeanine visits Bob, and he asks why she named her son Robert. She admits that she actually loved Bob very deeply, and felt that she had to send him away.

Back at Bomb HQ, Robert wins the honor of taking a bomb to the St. Jean Baptiste parade a few days hence. The episode ends with a man (by process of elimination, I'm assuming William Lanteau, whose character is identified as Arnold Beckman) making a call at phone booth saying he found "him" and that "it" will be wrapped up tonight or tomorrow; he's carrying a bomb.

I don't know Montreal, but IMDb says that this episode was filmed on location, which I suspected from the not-faked outdoor shooting.

They seem to be splitting the difference with Karin Dor's age, convincingly making her look like a younger woman in the flashbacks and more mature in the present. Twenty years before the episode, she would have been 12.

The third young person at Radical HQ was Robert's very pretty girlfriend, Claudette (Maria Grimm).

_______

The Odd Couple
"Oscar's Ulcer"
Originally aired October 29, 1970

Wiki said:
Felix plays nursemaid when Oscar recovers from an ulcer.

The episode opens with a voiceover of Felix warning Oscar about his health over location footage of Oscar running around. At the weekly poker game, Felix knows something's wrong when Oscar folds with a full house. Felix calls a Dr. Melnitz (Bill Quinn) for a house call, who warns Felix that he has a nervous condition--"What, doctors can't have doctors?" Melnitz is taken aback by the sight of Oscar's bedroom, which he declares to be a "sick room". Felix answers all of the doctor's questions for Oscar about his symptoms, then is forced to wait outside. When leaving, the doctor declares that he won't make another house call unless Oscar cleans his room.

After getting the test results, Felix goes to Oscar's office to bring him a lunch of milk and baby food, throwing away his pizza. When Felix tries to explain what Oscar's body is telling him, Oscar retorts that his body is starting to remind him of his ex-wife. Seeing the tension that Oscar lives with in his office when an angry trainer comes in, Felix wants to cancel their date with a couple of ladies. They proceed with the date, but Marilyn and Donna (Timothy Blake and Marlene Tracy) are taken aback when Oscar and Felix drink milk while they have alcohol; though Donna is impressed that Felix makes his own ladyfingers. The date is ruined and the ladies leave when Felix tries to explain Oscar's condition and insists that they remove the tension from the situation by declaring "yes or no" up front.

Felix gets Oscar to agree to place himself in Felix's hands for one week. There's a bit more voiceover of them doing things on location. Back at the apartment, Felix tries to soothe Oscar with classical music. The guys come over on poker night, but Felix informs them that they're there to talk, not play. When they sit in a circle, Speed just wants to talk about poker. Felix won't let Murray talk about pulling over a nude woman, either. All of this only makes Oscar more tense, causing him to rush out of the apartment to declare his freedom.

Felix finds Oscar at a Mexican restaurant with a ball game on and a cute waitress in his lap. As Felix describes what's happening in Oscar's body, one of the other patrons leaves his table looking sick. Back at the apartment, the doctor makes another house call as Felix is packing his bag to leave, frustrated with Oscar's attitude. Melnitz disagrees with Felix's decision, feeling that Oscar needs somebody to yell at.

In the coda, Oscar's been without pain for two weeks, but has another flare-up when he sees Dr. Melnitz's bill.

_______

The Brady Bunch
"Call Me Irresponsible"
Originally aired October 30, 1970

Wiki said:
Greg wants money to buy a new car so Mike hires him as an office assistant at his architectural firm. Greg is fired on the first day after losing important blueprints at a newsstand. Mike convinces Ed Phillips to give Greg another chance, and Greg is rehired. He loses a second set of plans, but manages to find them.

Notes: Jack Collins begins a season-two recurring role as Ed Phillips. Susan Olsen (Cindy) does not appear in this episode.

Guest stars: Annette Ferra as Randy Peterson, Bob Peoples as Mr. Peterson, William "Billy" Benedict as the newsstand vendor, Barbara Morrison as the drama coach, Gordon Jump as the mechanic

Greg comes to see Mike in his den and says he has something important that he needs to say to both parents. He'll be 15 in a month, and wants to start working part time to save for a car...and he says that he wants to be an architect like his father, so he'd like to go the nepotism route instead of flipping burgers or something. He's not excited about just cleaning up the office, so Mike decides to let him do deliveries as well. Greg tries to get the other kids to chip in for the car, on the basis that they'll be riding in it.

Stopping at a newsstand (where we see a conspicuously fake comic hanging, titled The Bat Lady Comic Book) to get a car magazine, the lid falls off the cylinder and the designs fall out. Back at home, Greg gets browbeaten for his irresponsibility, though Carol tries to comfort him. Mike has to pull an all-nighter to recreate them from the original sketches. Marcia visits the boys' room to console Greg as well, though he gets defensive and she leaves upset. After Carol paves the way, Alice convinces Mike to give Greg a second chance, noting a major blunder she made early on in her service...so Mike has to convince Mr. Phillips, who is pleased with the ultimate outcome of Mike's redrawn plans.

On Greg's next delivery, his bike chain breaks and Mr. Peterson, the father of his Girlfriend of the Week, gives him a lift, but drives away before Greg realizes that the plans are still in the back of the station wagon. Greg is able to track down Mr. Peterson's car at an auto shop, and though he's late getting home, doesn't let on that anything went wrong.

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The Partridge Family
"Love at First Slight"
Originally aired October 30, 1970

Wiki said:
Now that their record is out, Keith finds himself with major girl trouble: he cannot keep them away from him! But his troubles really begin when he falls for the one who doesn't care who he is.

Guest stars: Lane Bradbury as Janet, Claire Wilcox as Cathy

Song: "Somebody Wants To Love You"

Keith now has a small group of teenage girls standing outside the home, and one, an underage girl named Cathy, has been invited inside by Shirley and is mooning over him. Keith doubts his female fans' sincerity, and wants a girl who isn't impressed that he has a record contract. He ducks into a women's underwear shop to hide from his pursuers and meets Janet, who says that she doesn't know who he is and acts all business. She did notice that a bunch of girls were chasing him, and declares she doesn't like show biz types. The shoe now being on the other foot, it's Keith who waits outside her store, and her ducking out the back to avoid him.

For the good of the band, Danny tries to intervene on Keith's behalf, but Janet tosses him out. Keith then confronts her and challenges her to come over for dinner to see that the family is just like everyone else. Cathy has also been invited by Shirley, which undermines Keith's plan. He drives the bus over to Cathy's house to uninvite her, but when he sees her reaction, he can't go through with it. He then takes a contemplative drive to the following song, which it sounds like he actually sang:
He then goes to Janet's shop and admits to having started to act phony just to impress her. She seems to be warming up to him at this point, but there's no payoff other than Keith admitting back at home that he was attracted to her for the wrong reason.

_______

RJDiogenes said:
What a great episode. I must have seen it, though I don't specifically remember, and I'm sure it had a big effect on my developing psyche.

I thought you'd appreciate the Orsonfest.

Which is closer in time to them than Laugh-In is to us.

Soberingly true.

It's the chance you take when you're assigned to a planet that's two-thirds ocean.

And your jurisdiction is right in the middle of one...

Didn't they have enough evidence to just arrest the poor guy and remand him to psychiatric care?

What they had was definitely circumstantial. I was under the impression that the idea was to get him help, but they didn't end the episode on that beat.

RJDiogenes · Nov 3, 2020

The Old Mixer said:
Frank Rousseau, Deputy Director of the MPD (Emile Genest), is quick to distinguish these terrorists from the Separatists, who publicly denounce their actions.

Canadian terrorism is not a subject you often see used for story material.

It turns out that he'd given the package to Ernestine--a pawn from the 200-year-old Van Bassan chess set, which is worth $500,000, and was stolen from a safe deposit box six years prior.

A red herring, or will this tie into the terrorist group somehow?

Jeanine visits Bob, and he asks why she named her son Robert. She admits that she actually loved Bob very deeply, and felt that she had to send him away.

Is this kid going to turn out to be Ironside Junior? :rommie:

The episode ends with a man (by process of elimination, I'm assuming William Lanteau, whose character is identified as Arnold Beckman) making a call at phone booth saying he found "him" and that "it" will be wrapped up tonight or tomorrow; he's carrying a bomb.

He's going to get that ancient pawn back or die trying!

The episode opens with a voiceover of Felix warning Oscar about his health over location footage of Oscar running around.

Oscar is a coronary waiting to happen.

When leaving, the doctor declares that he won't make another house call unless Oscar cleans his room.

Did doctors even still make house calls in those days?

The date is ruined and the ladies leave when Felix tries to explain Oscar's condition and insists that they remove the tension from the situation by declaring "yes or no" up front.

Not going on double dates with Felix would probably remove a lot of Oscar's stress. :rommie:

In the coda, Oscar's been without pain for two weeks, but has another flare-up when he sees Dr. Melnitz's bill.

The doctor needs to prescribe Oscar's Little Helper.

Stopping at a newsstand (where we see a conspicuously fake comic hanging, titled The Bat Lady Comic Book)

A few seconds of Googling gives me some hits about a comic with the same name in a Jerry Lewis movie, with Shirley MacLaine as the Bat Lady model. I wonder if they're related.

Greg is able to track down Mr. Peterson's car at an auto shop, and though he's late getting home, doesn't let on that anything went wrong.

A bit anticlimactic. It would have been better if the plans had gotten mixed up with Mr. Peterson's blueprints for a bomb he's building for the Canadian Separatist Movement.

an underage girl named Cathy, has been invited inside by Shirley

What th--?

He ducks into a women's underwear shop to hide from his pursuers

Victoria's Secret Hideout.

For the good of the band, Danny tries to intervene on Keith's behalf, but Janet tosses him out.

I'm shocked. :rommie:

She seems to be warming up to him at this point, but there's no payoff other than Keith admitting back at home that he was attracted to her for the wrong reason.

Everybody's learning valuable life lessons this week. Except Danny.

What they had was definitely circumstantial. I was under the impression that the idea was to get him help, but they didn't end the episode on that beat.

Yeah, it seemed a bit insensitive.

The Old Mixer · Nov 3, 2020

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50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 3)

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That Girl
"There Sure Are a Bunch of Cards in St. Louis" (Part 1)
Originally aired October 30, 1970

Wiki said:
Ann is working in a play in St. Louis and has difficulties while visiting Don's parents.

Don goes with her for the trip to his hometown. Mrs. Hollinger is still played by Mabel Albertson, and gets in her customary cattiness toward Ann...which includes not having saved dinner for her and Donald, assuming that they ate on the flight. I had to look it up, but not only has Mr. Hollinger been recast since we last saw him in Season 2 (now Frank Faylen), but he's also changed his first name (Bert)! Groups of the Hollingers' family and friends are planning to see Ann's play, which makes her nervous that they won't just be judging her as a fiancee, but as an actress.

Ann's staying in Don's old room while he volunteers to stay in the space above the garage that the Hollingers call a guest room. There she goes through some of his old things, including a teddy bear named Ba-Ba who's missing a couple of limbs and an ear. She's put off by Don too readily remembering the name of an old girlfriend, Janet (Catherine McKeown)...who ends up attending a party thrown by the Hollingers. Ann finds herself stuck being polite to a gabby guest (Art Metrano) while she's more concerned about Don becoming reacquainted with Janet across the room. Her spirits are lifted, however, by a humorous but very complimentary toast dedicated to her by Mr. Hollinger. A couple of the other guests are William Christopher and Susan Quick as Chippy and Heather Dolan, whom I only vaguely recall from last season's "I Am Curious Lemon".

Somewhere in here we learn that an aunt of one of the Hollingers is planning her own private party over dinner, which she wants to be a surprise, setting up an obvious plot beat for next week...which is confirmed in the coda, which in this episode appears after the To Be Continued moment, and serves as a preview of next week's episode. It appears that one of Don's old friends is a (probably real-life) member of the Cardinals, hence the episode title.

Marlo suddenly looks very tan in this episode--you'd think she was supposed to be in brownface!

"Oh, Donald" count: 9
"Oh, Mrs. Hollinger" count: 1

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Mission: Impossible
"Butterfly"
Originally aired October 31, 1970

Wiki said:
Paris must impersonate a kabuki artist and Willy must fight a jujitsu master in order to expose the murder of the Japanese wife of an American businessman by her isolationist brother (Khigh Dhiegh).

The episode opens with Mioshi Kellem (Lisa Lu) being taken aside and stabbed by her brother, Toshio Masaki (McGarrett nemesis Khigh Dhiegh), during an outdoor martial arts exhibition that her husband, Harry (Russ Conway), is watching. Harry goes looking for her and is caught over the body a small crowd of attendees that includes Inspector Akita (Benson Fong).

The miniature reel-to-reel tape on a motorboat that Jim's test-driving said:
Good afternoon, Mr. Phelps. Harry Kellem, an American businessman living in Japan, and chairman of the new Economic Treaty Council, has been arrested for the murder of his wife. We have reason to believe that Kellem was framed, and the murder actually committed by Mrs. Kellem's brother, Toshio Masaki, a powerful industrialist who is fanatically anti-American. In addition to personal hatred for Kellem, Masaki's motive is to discredit the Economic Council and shatter Japanese-American relations on the eve of the new treaty negotiations.

Your mission, Jim, should you decide to accept it, is to stop Masaki's plan and vindicate Harry Kellem. As always, should you or any of your IM Force be caught or killed, the secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. Good luck, Jim.

Why bother with self-destruction when Jim can just toss the tape spool into the drink?

The mission is to infiltrate Masaki's fortress-like estate and, lacking physical evidence of Kellem's innocence (which raises the question of whether there was any true evidence of his guilt--Ironside this ain't), make Masaki convict himself. Kellem is visited in his cell by his daughter, Nobu (Helen Funai); then by Attorney Jim, who gets Kellem's account on tape. Nobu goes to stay with Uncle Toshio, who privately tells his right-hand man, Shiki (James Shigeta), that he finds her mixed blood offensive. He then gives another underling an order for Kellem to be killed in his cell after his situation has been milked for maximum embarrassment but before the trial. Paris arrives at the estate as the Kabuki artist, while Barney sneaks over the wall via ladder and takes pictures of the grounds. Elsewhere, Willy practices his jujitsu, timed by Dana. Back at the estate, Paris, posing unconvincingly as a native, performs in Kabuki dress and makeup (the long shots with the singing obviously not being Nimoy in the makeup), then chats up Nobu. After the performance, Paris brings Masaki's attention to an American jujitsu champion whom Willy is posing as, while taking pictures with a watch camera; Masaki arranges to have a challenger fight Willy. Once in private, Paris gets to work making a Masaki mold. As an ominous clock-ticking sorta beat, Kellem is brought a meal by a guard who I assume was the guy Misaki gave the order to.

Dana calls Masaki as a witness to the murder who's trying to blackmail him; he arranges to have calls to his private line traced by Akita. Dana then disguises herself as Mioshi to stage some photos of the murder. While she's going over the wall, Manager Jim brings Willy to the estate for his fight with Masaki's challenger (from the cast list, I assume this was Fuji, whose character is billed as Osaki). While everyone's watching that, Paris rendezvouses with Dana and puts on his Masaki disguise. Barney films footage from where Dana told Masaki she was; but they're interrupted by one of Masaki's men strolling into the area to take a smoke break, following which the production resumes. Willy is soundly defeated and Masaki gloats a little. Back at the jail, the guard ominously visits Kellem again.

Dana calls Masaki and the call is traced, which the IMF is aware of. Shiki and a couple of goons pay her a visit and find her hidden film, leaving her with a threat. Masaki watches the film, which he recognizes as fake, though he's at a loss to explain it. He has a frame of Paris's exposed arm blown up. Shiki nabs Dana on the street and brings her to see Masaki, who shows her the large scar he has on that portion of his arm. She tries to bluff him that it just got lost in the film grain, and names her blackmail price as a half-million dollars.

Nobu continues to spend time with Paris, and doesn't notice that he doesn't look vaguely Asian, even with his false eyelids. After a sake date, Barney approaches her to tell her that he can prove her father's innocence. She meets Dana to watch the film, and is then asked to bid for it; she guesses that the other interested party is Masaki. Nobu and Paris go to Akita, whom Jim made a point of telling the team was an honest cop, and gives him Dana's phone number, which he recognizes. Akita tails Dana with Paris and Nobu in back.

In Masaki's office, Shiki shows his boss a forged letter of Kellem's confession. Dana meets Masaki but hasn't brought the negative, so Masaki brings in Osaki to persuade her. Akita then arrives with Nobu and Paris. Outside, Willy fights Osaki while Jim slips away with Dana. Back inside, Akita insists on seeing the film that Masaki has loaded in his projector; Masaki gets all sweaty, takes out the spool, and sees that it was blank, and thus a trick; but when Nobu cries out that he killed her mother, in the heat of the moment he admits to it. (Wo Fat he ain't.) Masaki tries to get Akita to sweep it under the rug, and when the inspector won't play ball, his accompanying officer, who's on the take, pulls a gun, but Paris disarms him.

Back at the station, Kellem is released and reunited with his daughter. Paris compliments Akita for being very perceptive...though he's not perceptive enough to notice that Nimoy's not Japanese. The episode ends with the team piling into a car while in no particular hurry...Mission: Accomplished.

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Adam-12
"Log 55: Missing Child"
Originally aired October 31, 1970

Wiki said:
Malloy and Reed investigate a missing child with a Band-Aid on her leg. Other calls include rescuing a cat and birds from a woman who was trying to get rid of them using gas, apprehending a man who stole a disability check from his uncle, and responding to an auto burglary turned homicide with a Hispanic family more concerned with how the officers would treat them. Jodie Foster guest stars.

The officers respond to a call about possible escaping gas. There's a crowd gathered outside the house, and Reed has to stop a woman from lighting a cigarette. The officers go in, covering their faces with handkerchiefs, turn off the stove, and open the window and doors. They find cats and a parakeet, but no people. Then the elderly resident, Patricia Filmore (Alma Platt), rushes in, talking about her intent to return when it was over. She was obviously trying to kill the pets, and explains that she's going to live in a home. The officers gently steer her toward alternative options for the pets without taking action against her.

Next they get a call about a 415 fight. The man who answers the door, Mr. Benton (Lester Matthews), says that a younger man crashed through his door, beat him, and stole his disability check. Not believing his story, they pass a note asking "WHERE IS HE?," and he silently points them to a room where they find the assailant, who jumps out a window but is subdued. Benton explains that the young man is his nephew (whose actor doesn't appear to be credited).

Then they see Mrs. O'Neill (Coleen Gray) about her titular daughter, Janet, who didn't get off her school bus. Janet's best friend, Mary Bennett (7-year-old Jodie Foster), says that Janet had been on the bus, but doesn't know where she got off. Reed broadcasts an APB for Janet, following which the officers scope out the previous stop, finding that it's very near the school. They proceed to the school and question music teacher Miss Farrell (Merriana Henriq), who finds that Janet left her books, indicating that she was never on bus. The officers go back to question Mary, who tells them that she and Janet were playing on the school's roof during recess and Janet was too scared to come down. They head back to school with Mrs. O'Neill and Mary and find Janet (Glenna Gayle Sergent) cowering on the roof. Reed carries her down.

Finally, they respond to an all-units call about a shooting in their vicinity. An ambulance is already on the scene, and Malloy requests Mac, a detective team, and a coroner. The fatally shot victim, lying outside a carport area, is identified as Big Rico, and one of the witnesses (Nacho Galindo, I presume) tells the officers that he heard the prolonged blast of a car's horn just before the shots. The officers find a car that was being hotwired, determining that the horn was triggered accidentally. Feeling that the witnesses are hiding something, they explain that homicide may have been justified in this case. A Mrs. Flores (Carmen Zapata) brings out son, Antonio (Ron Castro), whom the car belongs to, and Reed reads his rights. Antonio describes how he worked hard for a long time to save up for the car, and how he went down with his father's gun to scare the thief, but Big Rico came at him with a screwdriver. As Mac takes the youth away, Mrs. Flores, clutching her rosary beads, explains how turning in her son was an act of faith. Back at the station, the officers see Antonio being released, with Mrs. Flores smiling and lifting her beads toward them.

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The Mary Tyler Moore Show
"Toulouse-Lautrec Is One of My Favorite Artists"
Originally aired October 31, 1970

Wiki said:
Mary accepts a date with a very short visiting author. Guest star: Hamilton Camp

Ted has the flu (and isn't in the episode), so Mary has to fill in for him by conducting a filmed interview with Eric Matthews (Hamid Hamilton Camp, as he's billed here), the author of Are Men Obsolete? The idea is that she'll ask the questions and they'll edit Ted over her part later. This provides him with a great pickup line when he notes that he was supposed to go out with Ted after the interview: "Why don't I take you out afterwards, and we can edit Ted in later?" It's only after the interview is over, and Mary has agreed to the date, that he gets up from the desk and she sees that she's about a head taller than him.

She seems more bothered about the height difference than he is. There's a bit after they go back to her apartment where she makes a point of trying to be a step under him to even out their height. She also tries slumping and ditching her shoes, and learns that he carries a foam seat cushion in his briefcase in case TV studio chairs aren't high enough. Introducing her date to Rhoda, Mary accidentally identifies him as Eric Shrimp. The day after, she laments to Rhoda that she's a "height bigot," as she otherwise finds all of Eric's qualities attractive. For their next date, she decides to own the height difference (and wears a red dress with yellow trim that brings Captain Marvel to mind).

Back at the station, Murray, who notes that he used to be in radio (and that his hair went out about the same time that TV came in), subs for Ted on the news, complete with suit and wig. They end up editing him in Mary's place for the interview, and the bit where Eric follows up about his date proposal while on camera is left in, complete with Murray reading Mary's response. Murray gets hung up about not getting calls from viewers.

Awkwardness still ensues in Mary's follow-up date, with Eric noting that he bought his suit in the boy's department, being unable to reach her cupboards, and his feet not touching the floor when he sits down. He leaves her a manuscript for his next book, which he's dedicated to her. She loves the book, which is about being short, but by this point she's decided that she just likes Eric as a good friend. Eric and Rhoda have a competition about how unpopular they were in high school, which makes Mary feel awkward as she was the head cheerleader type that they're making a point of contrasting themselves against.

This was a cute episode, but it didn't really seem to go anywhere. It could have used a less wishy-washy resolution.

_______

RJDiogenes said:
A red herring, or will this tie into the terrorist group somehow?

Tune in next week--Same Iron-Time! Same Iron-Channel!

Is this kid going to turn out to be Ironside Junior?

The closest we got to a definitive answer on this was when Bob told Frank that Robert could have been his.

Did doctors even still make house calls in those days?

From what we see on TV and my own dim memory, I think it was still a thing, but fading fast.

A few seconds of Googling gives me some hits about a comic with the same name in a Jerry Lewis movie, with Shirley MacLaine as the Bat Lady model. I wonder if they're related.

Interesting...I'd assume then that it was a prop reuse.

What th--?

What I meant by "underage" is that unlike the girls waiting outside, this one was obviously too young for Keith...closer to Danny's age.

Somewhere in my note-taking, I lost a beat where Keith had to duck out of the house because the other girls' boyfriends had shown up wanting to see him.

Victoria's Secret Hideout.

scotpens · Nov 4, 2020

The Old Mixer said:
Hawaii Five-O
"Force of Waves"
Originally aired October 28, 1970

. . . Steve consults a Dr. Landis (Grace Albertson), who provides exposition about the type of schizophrenia that Cal may be experiencing.

RJDiogenes said:
The kind that's Multiple Personality Disorder?

Nowadays it's called "dissociative identity disorder." In any case, it's completely different from schizophrenia.

RJDiogenes · Nov 4, 2020

The Old Mixer said:
There she goes through some of his old things, including a teddy bear named Ba-Ba who's missing a couple of limbs and an ear.

Suddenly there's a burst of light and Harold Hollinger appears, telling Ann that Bert has corrupted the timeline and she must come with him to set things right-- and that Ba-Ba is the key to everything!

Marlo suddenly looks very tan in this episode--you'd think she was supposed to be in brownface!

Oops. They fixed Donald's parents, but mixed up Ann's.

Why bother with self-destruction when Jim can just toss the tape spool into the drink?

Keep America Beautiful!

(the long shots with the singing obviously not being Nimoy in the makeup)

I know he can sing. I've seen that Hobbit video.

Willy is soundly defeated and Masaki gloats a little.

Damn. Willy finally gets to do something really cool and he gets trounced?

She was obviously trying to kill the pets, and explains that she's going to live in a home.

Good thing she wasn't married.

Benton explains that the young man is his nephew

And Malloy clues him in on the gas technique used by the previous lady.

The officers go back to question Mary, who tells them that she and Janet were playing on the school's roof during recess and Janet was too scared to come down.

I hope she was at least going to bring her food until she grew up enough to climb down.

The idea is that she'll ask the questions and they'll edit Ted over her part later.

Ted's the only one allowed to do interviews?

She seems more bothered about the height difference than he is.

He's used to it. :rommie:

The day after, she laments to Rhoda that she's a "height bigot,"

Check your height privilege, Mary!

For their next date, she decides to own the height difference (and wears a red dress with yellow trim that brings Captain Marvel to mind).

Mary Tyler Marvel?

Murray, who notes that he used to be in radio (and that his hair went out about the same time that TV came in), subs for Ted on the news, complete with suit and wig.

Well, that's insulting. WJM is really beating up their staff in this episode. :rommie:

This was a cute episode, but it didn't really seem to go anywhere. It could have used a less wishy-washy resolution.

He should have hooked up with Rhoda. She wouldn't have been awkward about it. :rommie:

The closest we got to a definitive answer on this was when Bob told Frank that Robert could have been his.

Hmm....

scotpens said:
Nowadays it's called "dissociative identity disorder." In any case, it's completely different from schizophrenia.

Ah, I missed that. Must have been the ICD-10 update. :rommie:

The Old Mixer · Nov 4, 2020

RJDiogenes said:
Suddenly there's a burst of light and Harold Hollinger appears,

You looked that up!

telling Ann that Bert has corrupted the timeline and she must come with him to set things right-- and that Ba-Ba is the key to everything!

Save the teddy bear, save the world?

Oops. They fixed Donald's parents, but mixed up Ann's.

Damn. Willy finally gets to do something really cool and he gets trounced?

They set up that he wouldn't be a match for the pro, but just needed to hold his own convincingly. It was more realistic and less culturally insulting than having Paris pass himself off as a Japanese kabuki artist.

Ted's the only one allowed to do interviews?

I was thinking that Mary did just fine, they should have left her in. But it could be a union thing or something.

Mary Tyler Marvel?

Well, Sha-zam!

Well, that's insulting. WJM is really beating up their staff in this episode.

The disguise seemed to be Murray's idea.

He should have hooked up with Rhoda. She wouldn't have been awkward about it.

There ya go, that's all the tweaking that non-ending needed.

Hmm....

I'd like to think that he is, but if they're saving a definitive answer for Part 2, then I'd assume that he's not, because status quo.

Ah, I missed that. Must have been the ICD-10 update.

Another billing code zinger?

RJDiogenes · Nov 5, 2020

The Old Mixer said:
You looked that up!

I did.

Save the teddy bear, save the world?

I got that reference!

I was thinking that Mary did just fine, they should have left her in. But it could be a union thing or something.

Hmm, that could be.

I'd like to think that he is, but if they're saving a definitive answer for Part 2, then I'd assume that he's not, because status quo.

It would be quite a development.

Another billing code zinger?

Have I done that before? :rommie:

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