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50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 2)
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Adam-12
"Log 106: Post Time"
Originally aired March 18, 1971
Wiki said:
Malloy and Reed investigate the theft of an offset press at a press shop, and later they find and apprehend the thief who was using the press to print winning bet slips at the track. Other incidents include finding an 80-year-old blind man with a rusty rifle barricaded in a condemned building (they get him to a home but he escapes and has to be returned), and a man with a fully street-legal Army tank causing concerns from citizens.
The watch begins with a 459 at a print shop, where a colorful proprietor named Jerry Mermaid (Morey Amsterdam) reports a stolen offset printer, along with 10 reams of pastel paper.
In the squad car, there's a bit about how Jean--who must be an Elvis fan--has been making Jim peanut butter and banana sandwiches, which he's been pawning off on a reluctant Pete.
The next call is for a 415 man with gun. The officers see Tom Beaten (Jason Wingreen), who's in charge of an urban renewal project. He and Heather Braun (Luanne Roberts), a social worker, them that an elderly tenant named Martin Endicott (E.J. André) is occupying the place with a gun. Malloy sneaks to a window, sees Endicott peeling potatoes, and crawls in. Endicott tells the officers that he's been living there for 27 years. Heather wants to place him in an old folks' home, and it turns out that he does need help because of very poor eyesight, and only knows his way around his home and neighborhood. The officers go to code seven while he's packing, where Sgt. Stone (Robert Patten) reports that prints indicate the press was stolen by a Basil Farrington (Maurice Dallimore). When they return to the apartment, they find that Endicott locked Heather in a closet and left. They promptly find him on the street, pushing a cart full of his belongings. They persuade him to check out the old folks' home, despite his assertion that nobody checks out of the place without a coffin. There he's welcomed at the front desk by a friendly lady his age, Norma Fisher (Lillian Bronson), who shows him around and whom he quickly takes to.
Back on patrol, the officers are bewildered to see a tank driving on the street, which pulls into a parking spot. When they question the driver (Woodrow Parfrey, unhelpfully credited as Man), he readily produces all of the appropriate paperwork, establishing that it's completely legal.
Finally, the officers see a yellow van running a red light, and pursue it onto an unfinished section of elevated freeway. The driver turns out to be Farrington, who has the press inside and has been making racetrack tickets--a scheme that he's proud of in his verbose, Londinium-accented way. So it turns out that the officers got lucky, just like they were assuring the skeptical Mermaid.
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The Brady Bunch
"Tell It Like It Is"
Originally aired March 19, 1971
Season finale
Wiki said:
Carol is invited to tell her family's story for Tomorrow's Woman Magazine, but the story is rejected for being too realistic. During a second interview, Carol exaggerates her "liberation" in the hopes of getting the article published. The truth about Carol's exaggeration is revealed when the editors visit the Brady home.
Mike wakes up in the middle of the night to find Carol down in his den writing on a pad, but she's secretive about what she's working on. Mike compares notes with Alice, who's also seen her writing alone. He learns from the girls that she's getting herself dolled up for a dinner date, about which she's also secretive. At the restaurant, Mike finds her with Mr. Delafield (not
that Richard Simmons), editor of
Tomorrow's Woman, and learns that she's writing a story for them. The kids are excited to hear about this, and Mike sets up a desk with an electric typewriter in his den to accommodate her. As she's trying to work at two-finger speed, the boys dig through the wastebaskets to see what she's writing. Upstairs, the girls play at being interviewed on television over a tea set. Even Alice hovers around the typewriter out of curiosity.
Carol sends her story and doesn't hear back for a week, at which point her manuscript is sent back with a complimentary rejection letter. Mike talks to Delafield, who tells him that they're looking for stories with a lighter, more positive angle, while Carol's story emphasized the family's problems. (Seems like she could have written up any particular episode and met his requirements.) She has another go at it, but nobody wants to give her honest criticism, until Marcia tells her that the new story is "too sweet and goodie-goodie". But it turns out that it's exactly what Delafield wants. He arranges a promotional photo shoot over tea at the Brady home, but comes an hour earlier than she was expecting, with a photographer and various other magazine staff, while she was still in the process of getting ready. The guests catch the girls arguing about something, while the boys walk in with Peter sporting a black eye and Greg scratching because of poison oak. Columnists Willie Witherspoon (Jonathan Hole) and Nora Maynard (Elaine Swann) scold Carol for not having told it like it is in her story, and Delafield, who values their input, decides to publish the original version of the article.
In the coda, Alice is busy writing her own story on a typewriter in the den.
Maybe I just got used to the show again, but it seems like Season 2 was lacking the sort of heartstring-tugging fare that the first season sometimes produced.
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The Partridge Family
"A Knight in Shining Armor"
Originally aired March 19, 1971
Season finale
Wiki said:
When the Partridges introduce a hip, multi-talented musician to a square, tone-deaf poet, no one expects them to score a hit—but somehow they manage to do just that.
Notes: This was Jeremy Gelbwaks' final episode as Chris Partridge.
Back-door pilot for the short-lived series Getting Together. An unaired version of this episode, titled "Words and Music", runs 33 minutes, and guest-stars Farrah Fawcett and Pat Boone.
The family (including Reuben on the couch) are awoken in the middle of the night by the sound of amplified instruments playing, and find Bobby Conway (Bobby Sherman) playing keyboard in their garage, accompanied by tapes of himself playing other instruments. It turns out that he'd been camping in their garage for the previous week while they were on the road, with the intent of leaving tapes for them. They're impressed with his music, but his Achilles heel is that he doesn't do lyrics. Danny remembers receiving a shoebox full of scraps with great lyrics written on them by a Lionel Poindexter, so the family and Bobby go to visit him. They find the awkward young man (Wes Stern) wearing a suit of armor as part of a promotional street job, and are amazed that he has a stove that's rigged to turn on via voice command (which actually turns the handle). They arrange for him to meet them where they're staying for one of their gigs, where he shows up wearing an ill-fitting waiter's suit with mismatched shoes, as he's planning to crash a Polish wedding. Keith accompanies Bobby in playing some of his music for Lionel, who doesn't have much of an opinion because of his tone-deafness; but he thinks that he could write lyrics for it nevertheless.
Bobby visits Lionel's place again to find him playing a record made to make his neighbors think that's having a party, and they discuss Lionel's lack of skill with girls. Bobby finds himself put off by Lionel's strangeness, which includes working multiple jobs, mysterious disappearances, and driving a hearse. He and the family then find that Lionel's been spending his money buying playground equipment for the orphanage where was raised...hence his ambition to make enough money to buy a swimming pool. With all of this random characters setup out of the way, Lionel finally produces his lyrics for Bobby's tune, to be christened "Stephanie," which Bobby tries out on piano, then the family plays at a little restaurant gig.
In the coda, Lionel and Bobby drive off in the hearse, having secured a deal to write more songs for the band.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Together
Sherman's and Stern's characters were reportedly based on the real-life songwriting team of Boyce and Hart, who had written hits for the Monkees ("Last Train to Clarksville", "Valleri"), Jay and the Americans ("Come a Little Bit Closer") and others. New music was a staple of the series, provided by much of the same team that had created the Partridge Family music. Most of these songs were from Sherman's album Getting Together, though a few songs were from his other albums (and some songs have never been released).
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That Girl
"The Elevated Woman"
Originally aired March 19, 1971
Series finale
Wiki said:
Stuck in an elevator, Donald and Ann reminisce about their last five years together as we see the last of "That Girl!" Note: This final episode of "That Girl" features clips from past episodes.
Ann is upset at Donald over an article that he wrote about women's lib, so she gets up on her soapbox of the (final) week again, and the clips ensue...first of Ann getting mugged in (Fake) Central Park, and Donald in drag working for the police. Here and Now Ann then switches to carrot tactic to persuade Don to attend a women's liberation meeting. As Donald comes up with examples of Ann having set their itinerary before, we flash back to the very early episode when they drove down to Brewster for Donald to meet her folks; then when she persuaded him to write a stage act for her. Their argument proceeds into the elevator, where they find themselves in the cliched sitcom situation with the elevator operator (Howard Storm), a bellhop (Jack Kissel), and a newlywed couple (John Cluett and Sherry Alberoni). The episode acknowledges the trope by having the operator ask if anyone's expecting just to be sure.
The clips continue with Ann getting her toe stuck in the bowling ball. Then Donald gets into odd jobs Ann has had, like selling shoes door to door (and falling for the sales pitch of an intended customer); and working at a department store (and being fired). She counters with a time that she hired staff to set up a personal audition in a producer's office. Donald brings up the time when she thought a federal agent was a hitman. (The Season 1 clips are really obvious from the hairstyles.) Finally, there's a clip from the first episode of Donald walking in when a desk salesman was hitting on Ann, and he thought she was wooing the man to get the desk ahead of him, when she was actually trying to get it for Donald. Back in the here and now, somebody hits the phaser-firing button and the elevator resumes operation. The other attendees of the women's lib meeting then fill the compartment, having canceled the meeting early because no men showed up...so Donald can proceed to his planned hockey game. The series ends on this note...
Donald: There's just one place they should keep girls out of....Women's liberation meetings.
"Oh, Donald" count:
11 (6 from clips)
"Oh, Daddy" count:
1 (clip)
That's right, Lew Marie was only in the final episode via a clip. It seems that the last one he appeared in was the bachelor party episode, which I'll be going back to. I read that Marlo Thomas deliberately chose not to end the series on the more obvious note of the wedding that the last season had been building up to, because she didn't want to send girls the wrong message.
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The Odd Couple
"What Does a Naked Lady Say to You?"
Originally aired March 19, 1971
Wiki said:
Felix's librarian girlfriend (Marj Dusay) was once busted for indecent exposure while an actress in a nude play.
Felix and Oscar are playing poker with Murray, Vinnie, and Speed, but Felix has to leave the game for a date with his new girlfriend, bespectacled Madelyn (Marj Dusay), whom he's so smitten with that he's temporarily gotten over Gloria. Murray wracks his brain for where he's seen Madelyn before, then remembers that he arrested her for indecent exposure at an off-Broadway play the previous week. When Oscar later presses Felix for info about her, it turns out that he's never been to her library branch. Oscar then goes to check out the pretentious avant-garde play,
Bathtub, to find that Vinnie and Speed are also there. In a bit of audience involvement, Madelyn enters from the aisle wearing only a towel, walks onstage, and "throws in the towel". Oscar pays a visit to her dressing room, and she admits that she's not a librarian.
Felix comes home and hits the bottle, having been told "the truth"...which is that Madelyn's taken a job at a library in Peru. Felix takes it so hard that Oscar tries to tell him the real truth, but Felix doesn't believe him, so Oscar takes him to the play, where Felix sees for himself...and gets a little too involved, dragging her offstage and putting his coat on her. During the ensuing hubbub backstage, Murray arrives with some fellow officers and they take the cast in. Madelyn is allowed to linger for a bit to talk with Felix, who asserts that he likes her for who she is not who he thought she was...though they still break up, apparently because she didn't trust him.
In the coda, Oscar takes a call from Gloria and sets up a date between her and Felix despite Felix's objections.
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I think I remember this episode. I must have started watching from the beginning, but just didn't realize it was a new show.
Maybe you picked it up in the rerun season...like Nixon.
He makes frequent appearances. He's the guy who played Zefram Cochrane in the movie.
Ah yes, that rang a bell. I went ahead and looked it up...turns out he only made three appearances, all in 1974.
Presumably the card table doesn't explode like a console on the bridge of the Enterprise.
Nope. Barney had previously exposited that his gimmick involved a chemically treated fabric on the table, so presumably it messed that up.
Yeah, that's a drag. I want international intrigue in mythical lands.
I'm also skeptical as to how the team dynamic will fare, as it appears that they don't get a replacement Rollin/Paris.
Was he ever?
Probably not, but at least enough later to fool somebody even younger than him.
[/targetedfemaleaudience]
). Back at the Laurel Canyon lair, Karen's cooled down and wants to return the baby, but finds that she's now a prisoner. Gordy hits a local market to get food for the baby. The Mods happen to be there, and ask him where they can find their old pal Gordy. Julie notices that he was buying milk and baby bottles, so they follow him to the lair. The guys sneak up to the house while Julie calls Greer. The kidnappers come out to split the scene because they know that the heat is on, and Pete and Linc take them down. In the Coda, the Mods walk off to their car with Karen and the baby to take them home.
