_______
55.5th-ish Anniversary Viewing (Part 1)
_______
The Ed Sullivan Show
Season 18, episode 22
Originally aired February 13, 1966
As represented in The Best of the Ed Sullivan Show
The world's second-hottest group--at a time when Brian and Charlie were alive, Bill was still in the band, and Keith wasn't undead yet--perform their just-released, not-yet-charting single, "19th Nervous Breakdown":
The Best of installment's next bit from this date is an audience bow for the often-appearing comedy team of Allen & Rossi.
Other performances, as listed on Metacritic:
The Stones, Ethel Merman, and Wayne Newton--that's Ed Sullivan in a nutshell!
_______
Branded
"Barbed Wire"
Originally aired February 13, 1966
Jason's loading up spools of barbed wire for an employer when local baron Holland Thorp (Rod Cameron) sends his toughs, led by foreman Kilgore (Lane Bradford), to deal with him. When Jason evens down the 3-to-1 odds and his employer, rival baron Roy Beckwith (Leif Erickson), shows up with his men, Thorp intervenes in the fight. He and Beckwith are old friends who are still on speaking terms, but Thorp sees the barbed wire as a threat to his way of life and livelihood, despite Beckwith's pleas, supported by Jason, that barbed wire is the future. (By contrast, I recall that Connors's previous Western hero incarnation was none too fond of the stuff either.) If Thorp insists on fighting progress, Beckwith warns, it'll trigger a range war--DRINK! (Sorry, there was a cattle baroness on Hell on Wheels who was always looking for any excuse to drop that phrase.) After having another talk with Jason while he's out on the range working on a survey and another speech from Jason about TEH PROGRESS!!!1, Thorp sends his men to surround and ambush the surveyors, opening fire just long enough to get their message across. Jason goes to confront Thorp personally, talking up progress and giving us another drink, only to soon finds himself surrounded by a clearly superior number of Thorp's men. After obligatorily dropping the Bitter Creek shoe, Thorp has his men beat Jason up, ties his upper body in barbed wire, and sends him walking back to Beckwith with a message about how he plans to drive his cattle through Beckwith's fence.
Thorp makes his move, having the cattle driven into a stampede toward the fence, while Beckwith and his men wait with rifles. Then Beckwith's daughter, Nell (Sherry Jackson!)--whose introduction was likely lost in a most shameful syndication edit--rides up and accuses her father of being just as stubborn as Thorp. She then grabs a pair of wire cutters and starts to cut down a section of the fence, and even Thorp and his men don't want to trample Sherry Jackson, but it's too late. Beckwith approaches to try to stop his daughter, but the wire she's cutting accidentally whips back and entangles him. The herd gets closer as she tries to free him, and Jason, now patched up, rides in to the rescue, cutting Beckwith loose and getting him behind cover so that the cattle can proceed through the open section of fence. Afterward, back at what appears to be the local ranchers' club, Beckwith has come to back down on the issue, and Thorp plays sore winner, crowing about his victory and wanting to hang some barbed wire on the wall as a trophy. Jason gives him a fourth speech about not being able to stop progress, and the other assembled ranchers end up turning their backs on Thorp and walking out behind Beckwith.
_______
12 O'Clock High
"Twenty-Fifth Mission"
Originally aired February 14, 1966
https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/the-classic-retro-pop-culture-thread.278375/page-94#post-12421699
After leading a successful twenty-fifth mission, Major Tom Parsons (Bradford Dillman) is laying it on thick to his crew that he's done flying and will be heading home. Back at Wing HQ, Britt is browbeating Gallagher and a couple of other top officers about not being able to take out factories for what appears to be the Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet, the Germans' experimental rocket-powered fighter. Gallagher thinks that the best option for hitting the target, which like so many tricky targets on the show involves flying down a narrow valley, is a precision, high-altitude nighttime strike, which would involve sending a low-flying pathfinder down to light the area with napalm flares. The man in his group who's got the qualifications for that sort of flying is...Major Tom Parsons.
Parsons is brought in to see Gallagher, and when he realizes that the mission Gallagher's discussing is meant for him, he insists on sticking to regulations, and isn't willing to volunteer for number twenty-six. Gallagher insists that in that case, Parsons will need to use the time before his rotation out to train somebody else to do the job. At the Star & Bottle, Parsons' old co-pilot, Captain Bruce Cowley (future sidekick to a wheelchair-bound detective Don Galloway), who recently got out of the hospital, is waiting with Tom's local ladyfriend, Naomi Rockford (Antoinette Bower), who visited Bruce regularly. Her sense that Tom plans to ditch her seems confirmed when he sends Sandy to tell her that he won't be coming. Bruce confronts Tom about how he plans to handle Naomi, and while Bruce has clearly come to care for her, he decks Tom at the suggestion that he should pick up where Tom's leaving off. Later, Gallagher introduces Parsons to the man he'll be training...Captain Bruce Cowley.
On their first training flight, Tom is clearly nervous about Bruce's ability to get the job done and live to tell about it. Meanwhile, Britt has learned that Parsons isn't going to do the mission himself and has him brought to Wing to play hardball concerning his record, which is full of incidents of not flying due to sickness (Would those count toward his twenty-five?) and questionable aborts; with the relatively few missions that he did complete having been milk runs. Britt out-and-out suggests cowardice, and declares that due to a technicality, one of the aborts doesn't count toward his number of missions...hence he's got one more to go. As in the short earlier review, I have to question how Parsons managed to establish himself as a uniquely qualified combat pilot with a record like that. Back in barracks, Parsons, who carries a rabbit's foot, has a private little breakdown. Britt actually plans to just have him fly another milk run, though Gallagher would still like to use him for the pathfinder mission. At the Star & Bottle, Sandy learns that the specter of luck also informs the attitudes of the men who'll be flying the last mission with Parsons--they think that he's already used up more than his share of the commodity, and is overdue for payment. Sure enough, once he's in the air, Parsons's bomber suffers mechanical issues resulting in the loss of an engine, and he's forced to return to base without credit.
On the ground, Parsons is paranoid that someone sabotaged his plane and roughs the crew chief up, then decks another officer who tries to intervene. But Sandy uncovers that the major's superstitious crew all packed extra ammo, which overloaded the plane, causing the malfunction. Tom is in Archbury starting to face the music with Naomi when Bruce comes to bring him back to base...and he has another nervous collapse, this time in front of them. Not Doc Kaiser (Barry Cahill) diagnoses Parsons as suffering from psychosomatic trauma, which Gallagher thinks may have contributed to his history. Gallagher won't have him on the mission now, but insists that he face court martial over the incident on the field for his own good.
Tom ends up picking a private fight with Bruce before the mission, decking him, and taking his place on the pathfinder plane. Gallagher doesn't find out about this until the group, which he's leading, is en route, and decides to go with the situation rather than risk an abort. Parsons has another attack as they close in on the target, but his bombardier manages to light his first fire. The plane takes flak and he wants the crew to bail, but they stay with him for the second lighting pass. Then he stays at the controls long enough for them to jump, bailing himself at the last moment after leaving his rabbit's foot on the steering column. In the coda, he's been picked up in the Channel after escaping from Germany with another of his men, and is ready to face charges for the incident...with Gallagher and Britt thinking that his heroic act will likely weigh in his favor.
This episode had a lot of fakey looking model work, which is unusual for the show up to this point.
_______
Batman
"A Riddle a Day Keeps the Riddler Away"
Originally aired February 16, 1966
Special Guest Villain
FRANK GORSHIN
as
THE RIDDLER
We now have our first return appearance by a Special Guest Villain, before they've even gotten to Catwoman.
King Boris (Reginald Denny) is arriving at Gotham International Airport when a girl (Susan Silo) hands him a bouquet of flowers that explode to unleash a riddle-inscribed flag dropping from a small parachute (much like the Joker's utility belt gimmick). There's only one other cop in the room with O'Hara this time when Gordon decides to use the Batphone. The Dynamic Duo work out that the Riddler's target is the priceless tiara that will crown the winner of the Miss Galaxy pageant, which King Boris is attending as a judge. The winner is Julia Davis of Southern City (an uncredited Joy Harmon), who's crowned with a phoney tiara equipped with a homing transmitter, which the "infernal Prince of Puzzlers" steals by popping out of a trap door in the stage; but outside at the Batmobile, he tosses the tiara back at the Dynamic Duo with two more riddles attached to it, which point them to the Royal Mushroom Club. At the hideout of the Riddler's current group of separately themed henchmen, the River Rats Gang--of which Silo's character, Mousey, is a member--the Riddler reveals that he's luring Batman and Robin into a trap.
At the club, a River Rat named Whitey (future Yang chief Roy Jenson) is serving as a waiter, and King Boris is touring the wine cellar when the Dynamic Duo arrive. Several corks pop out of bottles, distracting the crimefighters while Boris is abducted through a trap door, and two more riddles are left behind...which lead the Dynamic Duo to the gang's obsolete water and power plant hideout, where they make a Batclimb. The Count of Conundrums--who's somehow also obtained the replica statuette of the Queen of Freedom monument that Boris was scheduled to present to a museum--has nets dropped on them made of a sticky, spider web-like substance. The Dynamic Duo are tied blindfolded to a pair of facing drive shaft wheels, and are left with one last riddle before he has them turned on to let the centrifugal force do its work.
BATMAN AND ROBIN TO DIE??!!
THINGS CERTAINLY ARE TURNING THE WRONG WAY FOR THEM!!
IS THIS REALLY THE END?? UNBELIEVABLE!!
IF YOU CARE FOR BATMAN AND ROBIN, KEEP HOPING 'TIL TOMORROW NIGHT!! SAME TIME!! SAME BAT-CHANNEL!
_______
Coming back to this...
55.5th-ish Anniversary Viewing (Part 1)
_______
The Ed Sullivan Show
Season 18, episode 22
Originally aired February 13, 1966
As represented in The Best of the Ed Sullivan Show
Ed said:
The world's second-hottest group--at a time when Brian and Charlie were alive, Bill was still in the band, and Keith wasn't undead yet--perform their just-released, not-yet-charting single, "19th Nervous Breakdown":
The Best of installment's next bit from this date is an audience bow for the often-appearing comedy team of Allen & Rossi.
The Sullivan YouTube account has spared you this time. Even Grandma should have better taste than this, he types while wincing and shuddering.Ed said:
The Stones perform their smash, breakout, signature hit of the previous year, albeit with its iconic guitar riff toned down for the Wayne Newton crowd...who really shouldn't complain if they get their kicks from simulated cat strangulation.Ed said:
Other performances, as listed on Metacritic:
- The Rolling Stones - "As Tears Go By"
- Ethel Merman sings a medley of 'Annie Get Your Gun' songs ("There's No Business Like Show Business," "I Got the Sun in the Mornin' (and the Moon at Night)," "Anything You Can Do," and "They Say It's Wonderful")
- Sandy Baron - routine about dating
- Eddie Schaeffer - talks about his child
- Hal Holbrook (actor playing Abraham Lincoln) - recites Lincoln's second inaugural (anti-slave) speech
- Romanian Folk Ballet
The Stones, Ethel Merman, and Wayne Newton--that's Ed Sullivan in a nutshell!
_______
Branded
"Barbed Wire"
Originally aired February 13, 1966
Xfinity said:
Jason's loading up spools of barbed wire for an employer when local baron Holland Thorp (Rod Cameron) sends his toughs, led by foreman Kilgore (Lane Bradford), to deal with him. When Jason evens down the 3-to-1 odds and his employer, rival baron Roy Beckwith (Leif Erickson), shows up with his men, Thorp intervenes in the fight. He and Beckwith are old friends who are still on speaking terms, but Thorp sees the barbed wire as a threat to his way of life and livelihood, despite Beckwith's pleas, supported by Jason, that barbed wire is the future. (By contrast, I recall that Connors's previous Western hero incarnation was none too fond of the stuff either.) If Thorp insists on fighting progress, Beckwith warns, it'll trigger a range war--DRINK! (Sorry, there was a cattle baroness on Hell on Wheels who was always looking for any excuse to drop that phrase.) After having another talk with Jason while he's out on the range working on a survey and another speech from Jason about TEH PROGRESS!!!1, Thorp sends his men to surround and ambush the surveyors, opening fire just long enough to get their message across. Jason goes to confront Thorp personally, talking up progress and giving us another drink, only to soon finds himself surrounded by a clearly superior number of Thorp's men. After obligatorily dropping the Bitter Creek shoe, Thorp has his men beat Jason up, ties his upper body in barbed wire, and sends him walking back to Beckwith with a message about how he plans to drive his cattle through Beckwith's fence.
Thorp makes his move, having the cattle driven into a stampede toward the fence, while Beckwith and his men wait with rifles. Then Beckwith's daughter, Nell (Sherry Jackson!)--whose introduction was likely lost in a most shameful syndication edit--rides up and accuses her father of being just as stubborn as Thorp. She then grabs a pair of wire cutters and starts to cut down a section of the fence, and even Thorp and his men don't want to trample Sherry Jackson, but it's too late. Beckwith approaches to try to stop his daughter, but the wire she's cutting accidentally whips back and entangles him. The herd gets closer as she tries to free him, and Jason, now patched up, rides in to the rescue, cutting Beckwith loose and getting him behind cover so that the cattle can proceed through the open section of fence. Afterward, back at what appears to be the local ranchers' club, Beckwith has come to back down on the issue, and Thorp plays sore winner, crowing about his victory and wanting to hang some barbed wire on the wall as a trophy. Jason gives him a fourth speech about not being able to stop progress, and the other assembled ranchers end up turning their backs on Thorp and walking out behind Beckwith.
_______
12 O'Clock High
"Twenty-Fifth Mission"
Originally aired February 14, 1966
Xfinity said:
https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/the-classic-retro-pop-culture-thread.278375/page-94#post-12421699
After leading a successful twenty-fifth mission, Major Tom Parsons (Bradford Dillman) is laying it on thick to his crew that he's done flying and will be heading home. Back at Wing HQ, Britt is browbeating Gallagher and a couple of other top officers about not being able to take out factories for what appears to be the Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet, the Germans' experimental rocket-powered fighter. Gallagher thinks that the best option for hitting the target, which like so many tricky targets on the show involves flying down a narrow valley, is a precision, high-altitude nighttime strike, which would involve sending a low-flying pathfinder down to light the area with napalm flares. The man in his group who's got the qualifications for that sort of flying is...Major Tom Parsons.
Parsons is brought in to see Gallagher, and when he realizes that the mission Gallagher's discussing is meant for him, he insists on sticking to regulations, and isn't willing to volunteer for number twenty-six. Gallagher insists that in that case, Parsons will need to use the time before his rotation out to train somebody else to do the job. At the Star & Bottle, Parsons' old co-pilot, Captain Bruce Cowley (future sidekick to a wheelchair-bound detective Don Galloway), who recently got out of the hospital, is waiting with Tom's local ladyfriend, Naomi Rockford (Antoinette Bower), who visited Bruce regularly. Her sense that Tom plans to ditch her seems confirmed when he sends Sandy to tell her that he won't be coming. Bruce confronts Tom about how he plans to handle Naomi, and while Bruce has clearly come to care for her, he decks Tom at the suggestion that he should pick up where Tom's leaving off. Later, Gallagher introduces Parsons to the man he'll be training...Captain Bruce Cowley.
On their first training flight, Tom is clearly nervous about Bruce's ability to get the job done and live to tell about it. Meanwhile, Britt has learned that Parsons isn't going to do the mission himself and has him brought to Wing to play hardball concerning his record, which is full of incidents of not flying due to sickness (Would those count toward his twenty-five?) and questionable aborts; with the relatively few missions that he did complete having been milk runs. Britt out-and-out suggests cowardice, and declares that due to a technicality, one of the aborts doesn't count toward his number of missions...hence he's got one more to go. As in the short earlier review, I have to question how Parsons managed to establish himself as a uniquely qualified combat pilot with a record like that. Back in barracks, Parsons, who carries a rabbit's foot, has a private little breakdown. Britt actually plans to just have him fly another milk run, though Gallagher would still like to use him for the pathfinder mission. At the Star & Bottle, Sandy learns that the specter of luck also informs the attitudes of the men who'll be flying the last mission with Parsons--they think that he's already used up more than his share of the commodity, and is overdue for payment. Sure enough, once he's in the air, Parsons's bomber suffers mechanical issues resulting in the loss of an engine, and he's forced to return to base without credit.
On the ground, Parsons is paranoid that someone sabotaged his plane and roughs the crew chief up, then decks another officer who tries to intervene. But Sandy uncovers that the major's superstitious crew all packed extra ammo, which overloaded the plane, causing the malfunction. Tom is in Archbury starting to face the music with Naomi when Bruce comes to bring him back to base...and he has another nervous collapse, this time in front of them. Not Doc Kaiser (Barry Cahill) diagnoses Parsons as suffering from psychosomatic trauma, which Gallagher thinks may have contributed to his history. Gallagher won't have him on the mission now, but insists that he face court martial over the incident on the field for his own good.
Tom ends up picking a private fight with Bruce before the mission, decking him, and taking his place on the pathfinder plane. Gallagher doesn't find out about this until the group, which he's leading, is en route, and decides to go with the situation rather than risk an abort. Parsons has another attack as they close in on the target, but his bombardier manages to light his first fire. The plane takes flak and he wants the crew to bail, but they stay with him for the second lighting pass. Then he stays at the controls long enough for them to jump, bailing himself at the last moment after leaving his rabbit's foot on the steering column. In the coda, he's been picked up in the Channel after escaping from Germany with another of his men, and is ready to face charges for the incident...with Gallagher and Britt thinking that his heroic act will likely weigh in his favor.
This episode had a lot of fakey looking model work, which is unusual for the show up to this point.
_______
Batman
"A Riddle a Day Keeps the Riddler Away"
Originally aired February 16, 1966
Wiki said:
Special Guest Villain
FRANK GORSHIN
as
THE RIDDLER
We now have our first return appearance by a Special Guest Villain, before they've even gotten to Catwoman.
King Boris (Reginald Denny) is arriving at Gotham International Airport when a girl (Susan Silo) hands him a bouquet of flowers that explode to unleash a riddle-inscribed flag dropping from a small parachute (much like the Joker's utility belt gimmick). There's only one other cop in the room with O'Hara this time when Gordon decides to use the Batphone. The Dynamic Duo work out that the Riddler's target is the priceless tiara that will crown the winner of the Miss Galaxy pageant, which King Boris is attending as a judge. The winner is Julia Davis of Southern City (an uncredited Joy Harmon), who's crowned with a phoney tiara equipped with a homing transmitter, which the "infernal Prince of Puzzlers" steals by popping out of a trap door in the stage; but outside at the Batmobile, he tosses the tiara back at the Dynamic Duo with two more riddles attached to it, which point them to the Royal Mushroom Club. At the hideout of the Riddler's current group of separately themed henchmen, the River Rats Gang--of which Silo's character, Mousey, is a member--the Riddler reveals that he's luring Batman and Robin into a trap.
At the club, a River Rat named Whitey (future Yang chief Roy Jenson) is serving as a waiter, and King Boris is touring the wine cellar when the Dynamic Duo arrive. Several corks pop out of bottles, distracting the crimefighters while Boris is abducted through a trap door, and two more riddles are left behind...which lead the Dynamic Duo to the gang's obsolete water and power plant hideout, where they make a Batclimb. The Count of Conundrums--who's somehow also obtained the replica statuette of the Queen of Freedom monument that Boris was scheduled to present to a museum--has nets dropped on them made of a sticky, spider web-like substance. The Dynamic Duo are tied blindfolded to a pair of facing drive shaft wheels, and are left with one last riddle before he has them turned on to let the centrifugal force do its work.
BATMAN AND ROBIN TO DIE??!!
THINGS CERTAINLY ARE TURNING THE WRONG WAY FOR THEM!!
IS THIS REALLY THE END?? UNBELIEVABLE!!
IF YOU CARE FOR BATMAN AND ROBIN, KEEP HOPING 'TIL TOMORROW NIGHT!! SAME TIME!! SAME BAT-CHANNEL!
_______
Some of those lyrics would probably be considered objectionable by today's standards, but it's got a groovy, signs-timey sound.
Yes is in the house! I presented the full album track here, which is more familiar from decades of classic rock radio airplay; but the original single version was just the first part of the song, hence the "Your Move" main title.
I got this in deference to George and pre-COVID Eric having seen fit to work the duo.
It's a classic, but I still can't get too enthusiastic about Cat Stevens.
Fair enough, I guess. 1976's oft-reviled chart-topper "Silly Love Songs" was the first indicator that I'd someday be a Beatles fan, well before I had any idea who Paul was.
Coming back to this...
OTOH, I got a political ad by mail a few years back when our mayor, who'd been incumbent since 2001, was up for reelection. It has an "In 2001..." theme, listing facts about the year tailored to make it seem like a long time ago...and features a picture of HAL. I speak of it in the present tense because it's hanging on my fridge.
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Did I ever mention my story idea for a Zombie Apocalypse where Keith is Patient Zero?
