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55.5th-ish Anniversary Viewing (Part 2)
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Batman
"The Penguin's a Jinx"
Originally aired January 20, 1966
Bruce wakes up in time to get out of the trap by tossing a butane lighter into the furnace, which somehow causes the Penguin's TV monitor to go up in smoke; and the Penguin opts not to go after him, though he feels he's seen Bruce before. Bruce returns to the Batcave via the usual method and resumes examining the umbrella that the Penguin left as a false clue--now referred to as the "Batbrella"--which has a transmitter built into it so that the Penguin can eavesdrop on the Dynamic Duo's conversation. This seems particularly careless when Batman was just trying to use a bug on the Penguin, who had equipment to detect it...it could just as well be a tracking device, and it's convenient that Alfred has gone upstairs (via his service elevator) and that Bruce and Dick don't say anything to compromise their identities. The Dynamic Duo focus on the umbrella's bright colors, first dismissing an attempt on a jeweled meteor at the museum; then realizing that the Penguin must be after movie star Dawn Robbins (Leslie Parrish). (Good chuckle: When Robin mentions the Penguin's criminals' storeroom, and Penguin sends one of his henchmen into his exactly labeled Criminals' Storeroom.)
Arriving at her penthouse, the Dynamic Duo use the Batzooka to enable their climb; while the Penguin and his goons prepare to infiltrate from an adjacent rooftop, as laid out for them by Batman. But when the Dynamic Duo try to jump him from the next room, he tosses them a curveball--immobilizing them via their utility belts with an electromagnet. Dawn is successfully nabbed, and the Penguin listens in as the Dynamic Duo discuss the ransom conditions with Gordon in his office. The Penguin has too-coincidentally picked Stately Wayne Manor as the place of exchange, and hears Batman's plan to have him and Robin hide in suits of armor in the entry hall. The Penguin proceeds to the exchange, gassing Alfred and each of the suits, checking behind the visors afterward. He leaves Dawn and takes the money, but when he returns to his lair, out pop the Dynamic Duo, who, having been tipped off to the transmitter by the Penguin using Batman's exact words at the penthouse (which I didn't catch; going back, it was Batman referring to the Penguin's "fiendish, well-laid scheme"), left dummies in the armor and waited for his return. A climactic Batfight ensues, and O'Hara arrives to take the criminals in.
In the coda, Bruce throws a swank party at Wayne Manor, with Gordon and Dawn in attendance. Gordon gives us another piece of Batman's origin when he describes the purpose of Batman's costume to some guests. Dawn's agent, Mr. Jay (Dan Tobin), reveals to Bruce and Dick that she's now pining over the Caped Crusader.
Aunt Harriet was neither filled in about the ransom exchange, nor sent away for it.
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Gilligan's Island
"The Postman Cometh"
Originally aired January 20, 1966
Wiki said:
Gilligan and the Skipper hear on the radio that Mary Ann's boyfriend is getting married. Gilligan, Skipper, and the Professor try to boost her confidence by competing for her attention, each taking a different romantic approach. Mary Ann believes they are trying to tell her she is dying from eating poisonous mushrooms. Mary Ann dreams that she is a terminally ill patient on her favorite radio soap opera. When she is finally told, Mary Ann reveals she didn't think all that much of him. She only pretended there was a romance because she didn't want the others to think she had no one.
Mary Ann's been sending weekly letters out to her supposed boyfriend in bottles...which just brings up the question of where they're getting the bottles. Now the Skipper's using pedal power to recharge the radio's batteries, which is different from the method established early in Season 1. Both Gilligan and the Professor fail to tell Mary Ann the news while she's crying over a character on her soap opera having a terminal illness. The Professor pulls a Gilligan and puts the idea of the poison mushrooms in her head as a way of changing the subject. Ginger feels that Mary Ann needs the eligible male castaways to show a romantic interest in her, so she and Mr. Howell coach the Professor and Skipper.
Skipper: I've always thought that I should be a cowboy.
Mr. Howell: Somewhere there breathes a horse that is glad that you are not!
The men compete for Mary Ann's affections in character--Gilligan as a Frenchman, Skipper as a cowboy, and the Professor as Cary Grant. Afterward she overhears that it's a ruse and they're trying not to break some tragic news to her...and she thinks it's about the mushrooms. The next episode of her soap drives this notion home deeper. She tells the others that she knows what they've been trying to tell her and expresses her gratitude, but nobody comes out and says what they're talking about, so more misunderstandings ensue in that manner that's only sustainable on sitcoms. Then comes the dream sequence, with Mrs. Howell as her nurse, Mr. Howell as the disheveled doctor (I think maybe he's channeling Burgess Meredith here, though maybe it's somebody else), Gilligan as a French doctor, Skipper as a cowboy doctor, the Professor as Cary Grant as a doctor, and Ginger as a seductive nurse.
When the others wake her up, the misunderstanding comes out and they break the actual news to Mary Ann. Her reaction is to feel sorry for the poor girl.
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The Wild Wild West
"The Night of the Flaming Ghost"
Originally aired January 21, 1966
Wiki said:
Abolitionist John Brown appears to have returned from the grave after being hung by the neck. Jim and Artie are assigned to bring him in.
Artie's riding shotgun on a stage while Jim shares the passenger compartment with Will Glover (Harry Bartell), artist Carma Vasquez (Lynn Loring), and dress designer Barbara Bosley (Karen Sharpe). The coach is stopped by hooded bandits, and while Jim and Artie try to fight back, the stage takes off, but Carma and Barbara are taken by the bandits, and Jim's attempt to pursue on foot is stymied by walls of fire bursting up from nowhere. The bandits take the ladies to their lair, the fort set at Vasquez Rocks, a.k.a. Cestus III, where we learn that Carma's in cahoots with them, and the real target was Barbara. The bandit leader is her father, Luis Vasquez (Robert Ellenstein), who wants out of the scheme of the man he's working for (John Doucette)...who in turn puts Barbara to work making a shiny garment for him.
After dealing with Luis and his bandits again at a stable, Jim and Artie follow a tipoff from a kooky local about fire and brimstone having been seen in the vicinity of an old Indian burial ground. They see some of this for themselves in the distance at the start of their night ride, and when they get to the Rocks many miles distant, they find the ground smoking and sulfury...and encounter Barbara, who used a challenge to test the asbestos suit she made to get away. She tells them that her captor is none other than the violent abolitionist John Brown, who's supposed to have been hung in 1859. They take her back to the train for more info, then Jim pays a visit to Carma's personal cabin, to which Barbara had been taken as a waypoint. After some flirtation and a half-hearted knifing attempt, she describes how Brown, whose men are castoffs from various regions, plans to take out the Western US Army and seize cities. She then leaves Jim at the mercy of a couple of large rattlesnakes, which he promptly escapes from to follow her to "Harpers Ferry," as Brown calls the fort. He witnesses Brown demonstrating the asbestos suit, is caught, and continues to watch as Brown rouses his men with a speech.
After following up on the copper and kerosene thefts that had the agents on the coach in the first place, Artie goes to Carma's, finds a sketch of an unusual cannon, is held up by a couple of baddies, but gets away by using the still-present snakes as a distraction. At the fort, Brown tells Jim about his weapon of destruction, and Artie later arrives in the role of a drunk vagrant...but Carma, who has a good memory for faces, recognizes Artie from the stage, so Artie reunites with Jim in the stockade. Brown tries to plan with the men, but Vasquez raises his objections again, motivating Brown to agree to demonstrate his weapon against a cavalry unit. Jim and Artie use athletics and gadgets to bust out, and proceed to find the cannon. Jim is caught by Brown, but Artie gets over the wall to summon the cavalry...which is what Brown wants.
Brown and Vasquez, wearing asbestos suits, demonstrate the cannon for West, firing it through the gates, causing a fiery explosion. Then he finally admits to being John Obediah Brown, the namesake nephew of the original John Brown, who's trying to live up to the name. Jim busts loose, gets Vasquez's asbestos suit, and tosses an explosive barrel at the cannon, making it go up as the cavalry arrives, killing Brown.
In the train coda, Jim and Artie decide to let Carma go (cuz she's purdy) while also hosting Barbara.
It was pretty odd that the original Brown's cause wasn't a factor. He could have been any fictional criminal mastermind.
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Hogan's Heroes
"Hello, Zolle"
Originally aired January 21, 1966
Wiki said:
London asks Hogan’s team to keep German General Stofle occupied at Stalag 13 while the Allies attack his command post. Plans grow complicated when Gestapo agents make an inspection of the camp.
Klink has an old buddy, Afrika Korps general Hans Stofle (Gilbert Green), as a guest, and "Hansi" enjoys rubbing it in that he now outranks "Putzi". Shortly after Hogan radios London and gets his orders, he finds a beautiful woman (Britt Nilsson) hiding in the back of the general's car; and Major Zolle of the Gestapo (Gavin MacLeod, whom I've been seeing everywhere these days, usually on stuff that's on in the background) pays Klink a visit bearing anti-escape tech such as super-sensitive microphones and high-power flashlights. Hogan gives Klink the idea that the Gestapo is looking for the girl because she's seeing Himmler, and thus the general has to stay put and they have to keep the Gestapo too busy to search Klink's quarters. After the prisoners pull some tricks to thwart Zolle's search for tunnels and other escape routes, and LeBeau's attempt to drug the general ends up knocking out the girl when they drink from each other's glasses, Hogan pulls the Himmler ruse on Stofle, then offers to help smuggle him out of the camp disguised as a prisoner only to let Zolle find him...and at this point nobody, not even Klink, will admit to knowing who Stofle is. In the coda, Hogan stays out of the cooler by playing to Klink's ego, praising Klink for how he played Stofle and the Gestapo brilliantly.
In one scene, Schultz gives his weight as 295 lbs.
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Get Smart
"The Dead Spy Scrawls"
Originally aired January 22, 1966
Wiki said:
CONTROL tries to find the location of a KAOS communication center, which turns out to be in a pool hall. Appearance by Leonard Nimoy in a small role as a KAOS agent. Pool expert "Willie Marconi" is based on real life Pool expert Willie Mosconi. The title is a takeoff of "Dead Sea Scrolls."
Max and 99 are about to make contact with Agent 46 (Clive Wayne) at a bus station when 46 is shot by a KAOS agent
(Nimoy!) with a silent gun concealed in a briefcase, but manages to scrawl some symbols in wet cement. The hitman, Stryker, reports to his superior, Shark (Jack Lambert), at a pool hall that's his secret HQ, which includes a computer hidden under the table. CONTROL wants to find that electronic brain, and Parker's investigation of the symbols turns up the number of the depot's phone booth, where 46's informer (Don Brodie) takes calls. Max goes back to try to make contact, but thinks that the clueless newsstand vendor (Roy Engel) is the informer. When the real informer shows up, he gets shot with the briefcase but mutters some clues, which the Chief recognizes as pointing to the pool hall.
Max is briefed on pool by Willie Marconi (Harry Bartell), who suffers a series of injuries in return; and Parker whips up some pool-themed gadgets, including a remote-controlled cue ball, and a cue stick with a shotgun. Max goes to the pool hall, demonstrates his fake skill with the help of 99's lipstick remote, and challenges the Shark to a high-stakes game. During the 99-rigged game, Stryker comes in and tips the Shark off to who Max is. 99 and Max manage to shoot in the right combination of balls to reveal the hidden brain; Stryker tries to shoot Max with the briefcase but is shot by the pool cue; and Max and 99 knock the Shark out with the cue ball.
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Funny story about that is that a friend of mine in the early 80s had a younger brother who came in one time all excited about a new band he had discovered: The Ram Ones. You can guess the rest.
Shades of the Oneders.
Martha should have gotten to sing some backup like everybody else did.
Don't give early '70s Paul any ideas...
This is an odd one for him, but I like it. And I always enjoy his nonsense lyrics.
Can't wait to see what you think of "Mumbo"...
I never recognize it by name and always think it's going to be a cover from the Rock Opera. It's like a habit by now.
That's another thing...it's odd that they'd release a completely different song with that name while the JCS soundtrack was hot (at #9 on the album chart this week in 1971).
No, it's him. He always rubbed me the wrong way somehow even before I knew anything about him.
He seems to have that effect across generations. My departed ex-father-in-law, who was of the generation that would have been listening to Frank and his contemporaries, thought he was too much of a "wise guy".
It would have been funny if they used different actors for the parts, so that even their physique changed.
No way. I've just been arguing in the Journey through Pre-Trek thread how perfect West was for the role. Wouldn't have worked the same with two different actors.
ETA:
Eric Clapton Brutally Mocked for His Latest Anti-Vax Rallying Cry: Transitioned from ‘Delta Blues Artist to Delta Variant Artist’ (msn.com)
Funny story about that is that a friend of mine in the early 80s had a younger brother who came in one time all excited about a new band he had discovered: The Ram Ones. You can guess the rest. 
)
It was chosen for you and you wore it with honor.
