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50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 3)
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That Girl
"That Girl's Daddy"
Originally aired November 20, 1970
Wiki said:
Ann's father is feeling much younger after he is introduced to a younger lady. Ann thinks he's going to leave her mother.
A neighbor lady, Mrs. McCarty (Betty Kean), calls the police (one of the officers being Lew Gallo) on Mr. Marie, who's trying to jimmy his way into Ann's apartment...but That Girl shows up just in time for the title card. He ends up staying with Ann while Mrs. Marie is visiting her allegedly sick mother. Mr. Marie makes dinner for Ann and Donald, and actually cracks a joke to his future son-in-law about having already made his favorite dish. He has a "feeling old" moment when he realizes that he's being hosted by his daughter and her fiance. Ann's acting class friend, Jeanne (Corinne Conley), comes to grab a cab with Ann while Don stays at her place to play poker with Mr. Marie and four friends (wasted opportunity for an
Odd Couple crossover), including Charlie (Ralph Williams), who makes comments that further exacerbate Lew's midlife moment. When Ann returns, Jeanne starts getting friendly with Lew, asking him to walk her home.
Ann plays the part of the concerned parent, waiting for her father to come back, which isn't until after Ann goes to bed...and when he does, he has lipstick on his cheek. He raves about Jeanne and tells Ann that he's invited her to a planned dinner out with Ann the next night. Donald tries to talk Ann out of getting involved, but she meets Jeanne for lunch at Nino's to talk with her, during which Jeanne expresses her attraction to Lew. When Ann returns to her apartment, she finds that her father has dyed his hair, which brings her to the edge of tears...but is relieved when he says that he did it to please her mother, motivated by Jeanne helping him not to feel so old. And he's fine when Ann tells him that Jeanne won't be joining them.
"Oh, Donald" count:
3
"Oh, Daddy" count:
11
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Mission: Impossible
"Hunted"
Originally aired November 21, 1970
Wiki said:
While attempting to smuggle the ill leader of a black nationalist movement from the clutches of his country's murderous white settler minority, Barney is wounded by the secret police and forced to seek refuge with a deaf-mute seamstress.
This one goes straight into the tape scene before commencing with more teaser of the mission underway.
The miniature reel-to-reel tape in a camper trailer parked near a beach said:
Good morning, Mister Phelps. For the past ten years, the all-white government of African East Victoria has held Dr. Frederick Koldah prisoner. Now Koldah, black leader of a movement for the establishment of a biracial democracy, a symbol of freedom for all Africa, is seriously ill. Koldah has been transferred to a hospital in the capitol, where, according to our best information, he is receiving little or no treatment, and is under intensive interrogation.
Your mission, Jim, should you choose to accept it, is to go to Africa and rescue Koldah so that he can establish a government-in-exile around which his people can rally. As always, should you or any member of your IM Force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck, Jim.
Doug and another agent (an uncredited Dick Dial) infiltrate the hospital and get Koldah out the window via emergency chute to a waiting van below, but the other agent gets shot in the leg and separated from the others. He stumbles into the shop of seamstress Maryana "Gabby" Renfrow (Ta Tanisha) and collapses. While she's dabbing his face with a moist towel, she discovers that he's wearing a mask and peels it off to reveal...Barney! While Barney's in the back room, Gabby's cousin Luddy (talk about your Boomers--Herbert Jefferson Jr.) comes by and expresses an interest in the reward that Chief Inspector Banco (Ivor Barry) has offered for the wounded fugitive. Barney slips out back and Gabby goes after him, bringing him back while he pretends to be a drunk. He has an advantage here in that the police think they're looking for a white guy.
Meanwhile, the IMFers, once they've gotten Koldah into the care of another agent, go back and try to find Barney. Jim and Doug dress as police and even commandeer a vehicle, while Paris throws the search off by posing as the wounded fugitive (sans a face mask), making a point of being seen hobbling around the wrong area of town while keeping a step ahead of the law. He ends up getting in an altercation with a couple of guys at a blacksmith's shop and injuring some ribs. Barney is now being hidden in a secret room in Gabby's place and Barney brushes up on his sign language, learns about her father having been an close friend of Koldah, starts getting sweet on his savior, and speculates that her condition may be psychosomatic, caused by her father's death. Jim drops in to inspect the place in his role as a police officer, and Barney, while attempting to listen through the secret door in the fireplace, apparently doesn't hear enough of Jim's voice to recognize it.
Barney then tries to send Maryana to the IMF's Warehouse Digs of the Week, but the police are actively scouring the area when she gets there, so she doesn't go in. But Dana sees her and Jim recognizes her from Dana's description. Luddy drops by the shop again and finds Barney's blood-stained hospital clothes, so he calls the inspector. The IMF arrives as Maryana's struggling with him over the phone, are reunited with Barney, and take her with them.
Meanwhile, Paris has hobbled through the Not Southern Californian countryside to the IMF's planned helicopter extraction point, Not South Africa's scenic Not Morris Dam, and radios Jim. Jim's car is pursued by the real police while they race to the dam. The rest of the team get on the chopper first, then locate Paris, who's made his way to the top of the dam, and lower a rope ladder for him while under fire. Apparently Not South Africa doesn't have an air force, because at that point it's Mission: Accomplished.
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Adam-12
"Log 105: Elegy for a Pig"
Originally aired November 21, 1970
Wiki said:
This documentary-style episode shows Malloy telling the story of his best friend, Officer Tom Porter (Mark Goddard), who was killed chasing a suspect. Malloy reviews his and Porter's history together, including applying for the LAPD together (and Porter meeting his wife that day), graduating from the Police Academy together, and their history in the LAPD. Jack Webb provided the opening and closing narration.
This episode is quite the moody format-breaker. Jack Webb's opening announcement of the show's title and co-stars used to be used in a promo spot on Me or Cozi. After we see Tom shot during a rainy-night alley pursuit, Malloy arrives on the scene to see his friend's body and takes over the narration for the remainder of the dialogue-free episode. He and Reed go to Porter's home to inform his wife, Marge (Rachel Romen), that she's now a widow. Following her reaction, Malloy flashes back to happier days, when he and Tom applied for their jobs at City Hall, where Marge was working at the application desk. Pete walks us through their academy training, rolling off facts and statistics like it's all one, big
Dragnet episode intro. After graduation, we switch scenes to Tom and Marge's wedding. Malloy recalls his first partner, Officer Howard D. Browne, a.k.a. Brownie, but then flashes ahead five years to when he found himself in his mentor's place, on the day that he met Reed. Jim is Pete's partner when Tom kills a man in the line of duty for the first time.
We then get an odd bit of narrated police business with the pursuit of a model in a stolen car, following which we witness a happier visit to the Porter home, with Reed and Malloy bearing fried chicken, and we meet Tom's young son. Switch to another case where Tom, his partner, Reed, and Malloy pursue three escaped mental patients at a cement yard. We're basically getting the show's usual quota of calls, it's just they're all narrated by Malloy and involve Porter and his partner working with Reed and Malloy. Pete recalls Porter being awarded the LAPD's Medal of Valor, and at the ceremonial luncheon we see that Tom and Marge had a daughter as well. Then we come back to the rainy alley in the present, and move forward to Tom's funeral. Malloy and Reed are two of the pallbearers, and fold the flag, which Malloy presents to Marge, who hands it to her son. Malloy ends the episode with a downbeat, very Webbian elegy...
Officer Pete Malloy said:
And if there must be a final postscript to all of this, then let it here be noted: The coffin will soon be buried. He will be be forgotten except by a very few...out of sight, out of mind. And strangely enough, in view of current custom, no one will raise a placard to denounce his senseless murder. No one will raise indignant cries of protest at the shedding of his blood. No one will march in anger because of his death.
Webb repeats the episode title, and then the closing credits play, completely silent against a black backdrop. Goddard and Romen are the only credited guests, though there are lots of other actors in the episode with just as many lines.
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The Mary Tyler Moore Show
"Assistant Wanted, Female"
Originally aired November 21, 1970
Wiki said:
Mary reluctantly hires Phyllis to be her assistant in the newsroom.
Mary's so far behind on her work that Lou tells her to hire an assistant. Meanwhile, Phyllis, who was excited to be working again, has quickly lost her fill-in job as a receptionist in Lars's dermatology office, and guilts Mary into taking her on, but immediately goes into overbearing mode, which includes getting a dig in about how she has a master's while Mary left college after two years; and not allowing Mary to refer to her as her assistant. Lou declares that Phyllis is fired as soon as he sees her, but the ladies persuade him to give her a chance.
Phyllis is still outspoken about the menial nature of her tasks. She's a little star-struck by Ted though, which feeds his ego, and goes missing to help him work on his material. Lou catches Mary doing the tasks that Phyllis was meant to relieve her of.
Lou: Rule number one: Don't hire friends! I hired a friend once--know what happened? Worked out great! But that's me, you can't handle it!
Then Ted storms in, making a series of demands of Lou that Phyllis clearly put him up to, but Lou calls his bluff, starting to call a potential replacement.
Lou: Mary, she is dangerous...she's actually got Baxter convinced he's capable of human thought!
Lou orders Mary to fire Phyllis. She does so promptly back at the apartment, and Phyllis instantly assumes that it's because Mary was jealous of her attractiveness. In the coda, though, we find Phyllis in the midst of apologizing, having recognized all of her shortcomings...but she also asks Mary for a letter of recommendation.
John Amos makes his first appearance in the recurring role of weatherman Gordy Howard.
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What's his motive supposed to be? He seems pretty wealthy.
Smug superiority over the simple-minded fools for whom he toils?
I thought he was an independent operator.
Yeah, I think he's supposed to be a contractor, but I guess they can still relieve him of his position, however they describe it.
I had been about to joke about how the evidence was so clumsy and over the top-- but isn't heroin illegal even if you jokingly plant it as evidence against yourself?
It was "borrowed" police evidence, FWIW.
Maybe she should remember that Peter isn't really her brother.
I knew you'd say that.
