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50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 2)
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Adam-12
"Log 56: Vice Versa"
Originally aired March 11, 1971
Wiki said:
Malloy celebrates his birthday by having to let Reed drive 1-Adam-12 (due to Malloy allowing his driver's license to expire) and is nervous about his young partner driving the car. Calls include a bank robbery reported by the bank robber, a burglary involving several neighbors, an abandoned baby, a suicidal wife who killed her husband on their 22nd wedding anniversary, and a drug dealer selling his wares out of an ice cream truck.
Mac just happens to inspect the officers' drivers licenses before watch; when it turns out that Malloy thought his expired the following year, Reed can hardly contain himself. I'm surprised Mac didn't book Malloy right there for driving to work. Pete's less than enthusiastic to find himself responsible for the passenger-seat tasks that Reed normally performs. And while Pete does have some backseat driving moments, he doesn't make a big deal out of how his partner does that typical TV thing of constantly turning his head to talk to Pete, which Milner--hired in part for his "acting while driving" experience on
Route 66--notably doesn't do.
On patrol, the officers are flagged down by a young girl named Alma Stanley (Christine Matchett), who tells them about a man in an ice cream truck who tried to sell her marijuana...accidentally, as she'd asked for a dime bag of popcorn. Malloy radios in the description.
Next is a 211 in progress for all units in their area. The officers enter the bank, where hostages are lying on the floor and the man standing over them with a gun, dressed in a suit (George Furth), is calling it in as if he were one of the victims. When the officers announce themselves, he seems pleased and puts down his plastic gun. It turns out that he wants to be committed to psychiatric help for his gambling addiction, and his doctor refused to support him in doing so.
The call after that is a 459. Lars Lowell (Charles McGraw) lets the officers into his home to show them how it's been completely cleaned out while he was away for six weeks...even of minor household items. A neighborhood kid told him how one kid broke in to steal a TV set, then the neighbors all started coming in and helping themselves. He accompanies the officers to the house of neighbor Camille Gearhardt (Ellen Corby), who has his living room furniture right there in her own living room. It turns out that while the Lowells were away because Mrs. Lowell's father having a heart attack, the neighbors assumed that the Lowells had abandoned the house and left their belongings for the taking. Malloy disabuses her of that notion and reads her rights.
The following call is for a 415, shots fired. The officers find a woman outside her home sobbing with a gun in her hand (Marie Windsor). Adam-12 and the other units who arrive take cover behind their doors as she fires wildly, begging to be shot. Pete manages to sneak behind her and disarm her. Reed finds a victim inside.
Next the officers see George Lum (Keye Luke), who found a baby in a trash can...in a shopping bag that says "Packed with loving care".
Finally, the officers spot an ice cream vendor matching the girl's description, doing a deal with a shady-looking adult customer. Pete nabs the customer, who tries to run, while Reed takes the vendor. They find heroin on the customer and a stash inside the truck. Then Pete discovers that Reed ran over his hat after Malloy jumped out of the car.
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The Brady Bunch
"Alice's September Song"
Originally aired March 12, 1971
Wiki said:
Alice's dashing former high school boyfriend, Mark Millard (Stephen Dunne), shows up at the Brady doorstep wanting to rekindle their romance. However, Mark makes a shady financial offer, and Carol and Mike have Mike's friend from the district attorney's office check Mark out, and it turns out that Mark just wanted Alice's money, as he's pulled this on several other woman. When Mike and Carol start to confront Mark, he tries to escape, but hits his head on a frozen leg of lamb, that Sam the Butcher was stopping by to deliver.
Alice comes home from shopping with Carol to find a message written by Cindy that her old school flame Mark Millard called. Mike and the boys are building a model airplane when Sam drops by, which Carol frets over because Alice is getting ready for a date with Mark. Mike is tasked with getting rid of him, so he tries to warn Sam that Alice isn't expecting him without telling him what it's about. Alice comes down all dressed up and Sam thinks she overdressed for the Meat Cutters' bowling semifinals that he was planning to take her to. She explains that she has another date, and he suspects the milkman, then somebody in produce at the supermarket. After Sam leaves, Alice waits nervously for her intended date, who finally arrives with a corsage and compliments about how Alice has aged. Carol stays awake worrying when Alice is out very late; when she finally comes in around 1:30, she appears to be on cloud nine.
A series of dinner and dancing dates ensue, to Alice's pleasure. She tries to lose weight via exercise with the help of the girls, starts using a night mask, and effectively sports a makeover for the next date that we see. Over dinner at a fancy restaurant, Mark starts telling her about the business deal that he's in town working on. She comes home and tells Carol how he's letting her in on an investment opportunity that she doesn't know much about. Carol is concerned and has Mike check into it, to find that Mark's been gambling with the money of a series of wives. When Mark comes over for a date, Mike confronts him. When the doorbell rings, he tries to slip out the back to avoid Mike's friend from the D.A.'s office, and runs into Sam's leg of lamb. Alice revives Mark with her watering can. In the coda, Alice is back to less romantic dates with Sam.
This was a change of pace because the kids weren't the focus.
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The Partridge Family
"A Partridge by Any Other Name"
Originally aired March 12, 1971
Wiki said:
A series of coincidences leads Danny to believe he was adopted and there doesn't seem to be anything anyone can say to convince him he's a natural-born Partridge.
The kids have to dig through stuff in the attic to find birth certificates for a gig in Canada. Not only can they not find Danny's, but an old photo album has no pictures of him. Their booking agent, Marty Burnes (Bernard Fox), also comments on how Danny doesn't look like one of the clan. Danny sees a private detective, Harry Klein (Ned Glass), and talks to a hospital orderly (Jim Connell), to try to get to the bottom of his origins. The latter finds no record of Danny's birth at the hospital, so Danny takes interest in the one boy whose birth was recorded on that day, with a parent listed as M. Young. The others try to throw him a surprise party, but by this point he's convinced that he's adopted, and wants information about his real parents.
Shirley tries to explain that Danny was born out of town. The other kids scour the house for evidence of Danny being part of the family all along, and Shirley brings over a neighbor, Mrs. Reinbolt (Renie Riano), as a witness to his being brought home...but she thinks that Chris is Danny. Danny tracks down a Michael Young (Art Metrano) working at a construction site and embraces him as his daddy. Shirley and Reuben go to the hospital and learn about Danny's search for M. Young. A musical montage of Danny checking out other suspects ensues, to current hit single "Doesn't Somebody Want to Be Wanted". Shirley beats Danny to his last suspect via phone and gets there as he's arriving...and that last suspect turns out to be another dead end (Sid McCoy). Danny comes home with Shirley--finally convinced that he's not adopted--to find that the other kids managed to dig up another photo album with baby pictures of him.
The coda has the group driving to their gig and performing "I Can Feel Your Heartbeat".
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That Girl
"Soot Yourself"
Originally aired March 12, 1971
Wiki said:
As a member of an ecology-minded group, Ann is assigned to picket in front of the Newsview Magazine building where Donald works. Donald tries to make amends by inviting his boss to Ann's house for dinner.
Ann gets her picture in the paper wearing a gas mask, which she excitedly shows to Marcy...and explains while wearing it. Donald finds out when Mr. Adams (James Gregory in his last of four appearances in the role this season) brings him the paper. Donald acts sure that it isn't her, but when he calls to confirm, she's still wearing the mask. At Nino's, Ann explains how Donald's article on pollution inspired the group that she belongs to, which is now picketing against pollution. Ann starts getting all activist on him, insisting, for example, that he not take a cab back to work. Donald demands that she stop picketing
Newsview in the interest of his job, so Ann calls her group's leader about Plan B, which involves inviting Adams and his wife to her place for dinner.
Ann also asks her building superintendent, Mr. Stone (Peter Brocco), to turn off the furnace, which needs to be replaced. Meanwhile, back at the office, there's some awkwardness because Ann's story for inviting Adams involved a surprise party for Donald's birthday, which it isn't...while Donald tries to persuade Adams that they need to do more on the pollution issue. For the dinner, Ann makes a meal entirely out of leftovers, to avoid generating garbage. Far from the dinner being Donald's idea as described above, he's completely surprised when the Adamses (including Phyllis Hill as Mrs. Adams) come over for dinner. Once Mr. Adams is there, he's is completely wary to Ann's ploy, but is also receptive to Donald's plea that they do a follow-up article on pollution...then asks that they go to a warm restaurant for a proper meal. In the coda, Ann's pleased with the article in question.
"Oh, Donald" count:
7
"Oh, Marcy" count:
1
"Oh, Mr. Adams" count:
1
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The Odd Couple
"What Makes Felix Run"
Originally aired March 12, 1971
Wiki said:
To cure Felix of his neatness and help him win back his ex-wife, Oscar tries to turn him into a slob.
Oscar has Nancy Cunningham over to make him dinner while Felix is out having dinner with Gloria...but Felix comes home early and downtrodden, having pissed Gloria off by rearranging her furniture and rewashing her salad lettuce.
Oscar: You know, Felix, with you, being in love is ALWAYS having to say you're sorry!
Unable to sleep later, Felix pulls up a chair and sits in Oscar's bedroom doorway...where he relates a story from when he was five (Johnny Scott Lee), being watched by his visiting grandfather (Tony Randall), who chastised him for leaving soap on the sidewalk, which injured his parents. Oscar mixes him a strong drink, which knocks him out, and following up on something that they'd been talking about, Felix dreams of running into Oscar in heaven...where Felix can't help criticizing angel Oscar's much-improved cleanliness, and gets sent to the other place. After waking up, he begs Oscar for help.
Using Gloria and the kids as motivation, Oscar tries coaching a horrified Felix by making him put his shod feet on the table and bed and throw wrappers and articles of clothing on the floor. Then Felix gets a "be careful what you wish for" moment, when Oscar finally cleans his room...by dumping all of his garbage in Felix's! This puts Felix into a state of shock, so Oscar calls Nancy to make a house call. When Felix comes to, he saunters out casually with his shirt open and starts eating with his hands and picking crumbs off his chest. Even Nancy becomes concerned when he starts dunking (following which he tosses his coffee out on the floor), so she calls a colleague, who thinks that Felix is suffering a temporary schizoid aberration, and recommends splashing cold water on his face. Oscar sprays him with a seltzer bottle, and Felix comes to his senses...horrified at his own mess, but assuming that Oscar made it!
In the coda, Felix comes home from another date with Gloria's sundae all over his suit, because he made a comment about her weight.
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Love, American Style
"Love and the Fuzz / Love and the Groupie / Love and the Housekeeper / Love and Women's Lib"
Originally aired March 12, 1971 (season finale)
"Love and the Groupie" opens with wig-wearing rock star Rick Jagmund (Richard Dawson, doing a Beatlesque Liverpool accent here) and his manager Warren (Warren Berlinger) in their brass bed-equipped hotel room reacting to how Rick is constantly swarmed by fans. Warren wishes that he could get some of the attention, so Rick comes up with the idea of having him don the wig and pose as Rick while Rick slips out for some privacy. Warren is quickly visited by a maid named Joyce (Angel Tompkins), whom he initially assumes is a groupie sneaking in, even though she's all business. She's not impressed with him as Rick, so he removes his wig and tries to convince her that he's really Warren, but she thinks that he's Rick
and a phony. Then Rick comes back in the front through the mob of girls, who've sniffed him out, and backs up Warren's story. But when Warren leaves the room to change, Joyce becomes starstruck by the real Rick and comes on to him.
"Love and the Housekeeper" features Harry Guardino and Valerie Harper as newlyweds Harry and Barbara Watkins. She's supposed to be a housewife, but their place is a hopeless mess because she's slovenly and doesn't seem to know the first thing about housekeeping. Then she trips over the vacuum cleaner that she left out and gets amnesia, which includes being appalled by what she doesn't know is her own clutter, and insists on cleaning it up. Thus Harry lets her believe that she's actually his maid. When he comes home from work, the place and Barbara are completely transformed....but when he tries to get romantic with her, she proves to be all business. He allows her to continue believing that he's a divorcee, but tells her that they were a couple, and she's the reason that he left his wife. Barbara seems to enjoy this, but slips out and leaves him a Dear Harry note about not wanting to come between him and his wife. Then she comes back in the front as the old Barbara, not remembering anything after she tripped over the vacuum...and immediately starts messing the place up again. She finds the note, he has to explain what happened...and he seems to warm up to who she really is.
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Yeah, rights issues were a nightmare for some shows, like WKRP. And Bosom Buddies had to use a different theme on their DVD release (syndication, too, I think).
Also
Greatest American Hero, which had episodes based around the use of specific songs, which were replaced by generic ones.
I guess you could say that his hair came out...on top.
