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50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 2)
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All in the Family
"Gloria and the Riddle"
Originally aired October 7, 1972
Mike yells at Gloria to sew a button on his shirt (I look back from the perspective of them later getting divorced and it doesn't surprise me one iota), and she tells him to do it himself. Gloria is further set off when Archie comes downstairs to complain to Edith about his Sunday breakfast. Mike comes back with an injury from trying to sew it on himself, and Archie subtly raises doubt about his masculinity. Gloria gets into a discussion about chauvinism, including the origins of the word. (Edith: "And he was a beautiful piano player, too.") This transitions into a riddle that Gloria was told by Tammy, a friend from the store who's working on a female fair exhibition. The riddle sounded familiar, possibly from having seen the episode before, but I didn't go in knowing the answer offhand.
Archie and Mike get some obvious but wrong guesses out of the way, then make a bet about who can come up with the answer first. I have to admit, I was stumped at first, too, until I read the Wiki description again after hearing the riddle...then it became dead obvious, especially within the context of the episode.
Tammy (Patricia Stich) drops in, and Archie is impressed with her ability to name old big band leaders from their initials. More feminist discussions ensue, including about chauvinist passages in the Bible and Koran and abortion, and Archie goes to Kelcy's Bar to get away from it all. He shares the riddle with the guys there--including Allan Melvin making his second appearance as Barney--then has to admit that he doesn't know the answer and was hoping they'd come up with it for him. When Archie comes home, Edith has figured out what was, in those times, a Gordian knot solution. Mike chastises himself for not having thought of that answer, but Archie rejects the entire notion of female surgeons.
Of course, nowadays there's another solution that Archie would be even more appalled by.
_______
Emergency!
"Virus"
Originally aired October 7, 1972
I'm always relieved when I watch the episode and can make sense of what's going on...
Perhaps having just missed Malloy in Rampart's corridor minutes ago, the paramedics arrive at the home of Mr. Hollister (dark, shadowy Dennis Patrick) and his daughter, Jenny (Crosby), the latter of whom is suffering from sudden, intense, flu-like symptoms and running a 105-degree temperature. At Rampart, the doctors rule out various known diseases, and Dixie learns that she's a USO dancer who's recently been all over Southeast Asia.
A couple of days later, Jenny's said to be going downhill as Squad 51 gets a call for a person trapped. Mrs. Brydon (Jean Allison) tells the paramedics that her 14-year-old son, Mickey (Philip Brown), who has disease of the inner ear, is having an attack 30 feet above them in his treehouse. Roy climbs up to assess his condition, and Johnny tosses a rope up to him, via which Roy raises his drug box. Johnny goes up to help, so Deputy Pauling (Vic Vallaro) relays instructions from Rampart, though he has trouble with the medical lingo. The engine arrives and the Stokes is sent up for Ricky to be carried down, while his mother promises to look into a surgery for his condition.
At Rampart, Tim Duntley (William Gray Espy)--a fireman from another engine who met DeSoto and Gage at the Hollister house--is brought in by his wife, Mattie (Skye Aubrey), suffering the same symptoms as Jenny. Squad 51 is responding to a call where they find the situation already under control when Brackett has them called in for a checkup with Dr. Morton, who engages in a little more AITF-style racial humor when he's unconcerned with catching it himself because "his people" don't tend to suffer from such ailments. Back on duty, Johnny remembers the pet monkey Jenny brought back with her from Asia, which he and Duntley had direct contact with, and calls it in to Morton, who informs them that Duntley is now critical.
Koki is brought in to Rampart, and Brackett learns from the now stable and conscious Jenny that he was recently sick. She reluctantly consents to letting them put Koki down so they can perform an autopsy that might save Duntley's life. Brackett wants to use a drug on Duntley that Atlanta hasn't approved of and Early considers too much of a gamble, arguing that they wait for more lab results. Brackett takes a break in the indoor set of Rampart's outdoor cafe area, where Mr. Hollister asks about Duntley.
Brackett then has a dizzy spell and sudden headache. Back inside, Nurse Lewis takes a call from Atlanta ordering use of the drug that Brackett was advocating, and Brackett collapses in an indoor break room. Meanwhile, Johnny seems fatigued when Station 51 and another truck are called for a man who appears to have had a heart attack on a painting scaffold. Johnny is lowered down to the crooked scaffold from the roof while increasingly exhibiting symptoms, then collapses to dangle under the platform by his safety harness, his helmet falling several stories to the parking lot below. A hale and hearty Roy is lowered down to the scaffold, where he first has the workman raised, then Johnny.
At Rampart, Brackett is still in work mode while himself confined to a bed, berating himself up for not having used that drug sooner without approval. Duntley's condition is worsening, while Jenny is recovering, believed to have developed some immunity from prolonged close contact with Koki, and we're informed that the cardiac patient died. In the ER, while watching Johnny being treated, DeSoto takes a call that Duntley died, and goes out to see Mattie, who's already been informed by Morton. Brackett gets the idea of using Jenny's serum, but Early asserts that they can't do that until she's recovered more fully. Then Early learns from Jenny that her dance troupe's choreographer also briefly had the bug but recovered, and has him fly in so a serum can be extracted. Cut to the serum being administered to Brackett and Gage, who share a recovery room in the coda, Odd Couple-style...Brackett complaining about all the attention Romeo's getting from his nurses.
I don't think I've noted that this season they've established a new station chief, Captain Hank Stanley (Michael Norell), who'll be filling that role through the rest of the series.
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The Mary Tyler Moore Show
"Enter Rhoda's Parents"
Originally aired October 7, 1972
Rhoda comes down to bring Mary up to her place because her parents are visiting, and Mary's never met her father. When the Morgensterns note the lack of guest accommodations in their daughter's pad, Mary recommends a nearby hotel. When Mary comments on Martin's attractiveness while he's outside, Ida gives an unenthusiastic response. Once she's alone with Rhoda, Ida shares her belief that Martin is having an affair, though Rhoda doesn't want to entertain the idea. Mary gives the Morgensterns a tour of the WJM newsroom while everyone's supposed to be out to lunch, though Murray is in and out working on something, and Lou turns out to be in his office when Ida opens the door to show it to Martin. The part of the scene outside the office is entirely done with a one-sided conversation while Ida is at the door, indicating that Walker and Asner weren't on set together. We proceed into Lou's office, where he chews out Mary via Rhoda. After Martin returns from the restroom chatting with a pretty young woman, Ida brings her bags to Mary's apartment.
Ida tells the ladies how she got into an argument with Martin when she confronted him about his alleged affairs and he denied having them. Now she refuses to go back to him until he admits that he doesn't love her anymore. Rhoda ends up sharing her modest bed with her mother. Ida comes by and the couple have a talk in Mary's apartment. Martin finally convinces Ida that she's wrong when he confesses with the preface that it's a lie. When Ida expresses her insecurities about whether Martin would have married her today, he comes up with the idea of "renewing their lease" by having a second ceremony right there in Minneapolis. Mary ends up hosting the reception at her place, where there's a gag in which Mary catches the bouquet, then Ida rethrows it directly to Rhoda.
This one has more of Mary running around the apartment in a really short nightie.
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The Bob Newhart Show
"Mom, I L-L-Love You"
Originally aired October 7, 1972
Bob gets a call from his mother over breakfast and lies to avoid talking to her. When Jerry comes to his office bearing basketball tickets, he probes Bob about what's bothering him, and Bob paints a somewhat overbearing picture of her. Settling into what's supposed to be a romantic evening at home, Bob learns that his mother called back, and confesses to Emily that he hasn't told his mother that he loved her since childhood. At Emily's urging, he calls her to invite her to dinner so that he can tell her, and only realizes afterward that he agreed to the night of the game.
When Friday evening comes and Jerry's taking Carol to the game, Bob makes an excuse to stay late at the office to avoid his mother, but he ends up getting home in time for his mother's arrival. She guilts him about not taking care of his childhood pets and Bob has to find excuses to go to the kitchen to come up for air periodically. Howard drops in to pick up his mail and Bob invites him to stay. Howard proves to be a hit with Eleanor, but eats up her time there, and Mrs. Hartley leaves without Bob having told her. He resolves to the next time he sees her, and then when she pops back in for something she forgot, he's about to let the opportunity go when Emily prompts him to indirectly say it...basically just tossing out the word "love" in another context.
There's a phone gag in the Hartleys' famous bed (the first time we've seen it, I believe) in which Bob answers a call from "Mom" and easily tells her that he loves her...but it turns out to be Emily's mom.
This one was pretty meh. The Eleanor Hartley character didn't pop for me.
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Mission: Impossible
"Leona"
Originally aired October 7, 1972
Mike Apollo (Dewey Martin) pays a visit to Louis Parnell (William Boyett) to give him distribution instructions for bribes to various officials. A suspicious Apollo finds a reel-to-reel recorder in Parnell's drawer, and while it appears to be off, tests it to find that it's voice-activated. Mac's stepped up in conventional law enforcement, but has gotten in over his head.
Casey's back, and so is Barney's 'stache! I noticed in this one how they were blocking Casey to hide her pregnancy.
Insurance Agent Jim flirts with Edith Thatcher (Pippa Scott), the secretary of Apollo's friend and rival Joe Epic (Robert Goulet), and arranges an appointment to see Epic about the case concerning his young wife Leona (Beverly Ralston), who died in a drowning accident a couple of months earlier on St. Patrick's Day. On the street, Casey makes an appearance before Epic in a Leona disguise and disappears into an IMF dry-cleaning truck. Jim sees Epic, casts doubts about the circumstances of Leona's death, and announces his intention to prove that Epic killed her for the relatively paltry insurance money. Later, as Apollo and Epic dine with Syndicate godfather Anton Malta (uncredited Will Kuluva), Jim is caught eavesdropping outside with a shotgun mic.
Trying to play the matter down, Epic has Jim let go, but then tells the others how he saw Leona. This and a hand-drawn map of the joint appearing to be in Epic's handwriting that Jim dropped to be found by Apollo's henchman Jules Cordova (Nate Esformes) gets Apollo suspicious enough to call on his mole in Epic's office, Miss Thatcher, to get a line on Jim. Along the way, Epic has received another visitation from Leona at home, as the IMF has set up an operations room behind his bar with a two-way mirror. Projected into the mirror, Leona pleads with Joe to avenge her. Jim conveniently makes another visit to Epic, at which Thatcher agrees to a date. Jim confronts Epic with new evidence that his motive for killing Leona was not money, but that she was having an affair. Epic angrily kicks him out, but then checks out the evidence. Meanwhile, another Apollo henchman, Ray Kelly (Bruce Watson), is roughing up Parnell for information.
Epic has the cabbie who was ferrying Leona around brought in--Willy--to get info about where he was taking her. Epic then bribes the doorman of the apartment--Barney--to learn the location of Leona's secret love nest. He searches the place and finds a picture of Apollo. Jim has his date with Edith, loosely talking after a few drinks about how he and Epic are actually in cahoots in a scheme to get rid of his competition. Epic arranges a conference with Malta and Apollo. Epic has Willy and Barney rounded up, and Apollo has Jim roughed up.
At the conference, Epic formally accuses Apollo of having an affair with and ultimately murdering his wife. He brings in Willy and Barney as witnesses, and Barney points out Apollo as a man who used to visit her. Apollo makes his counter-accusation that this is all a scheme with the insurance agent to frame him and take over his part of the operation. Jim is brought in, denies the scheming part, but reinforces the angle that Leona was having an affair and was killed by either Epic or her lover. The IMF trio are taken out of the room and overcome Cordova. Apollo has Parnell brought up from the basement to testify that he was with Apollo on the date of Leona's death. When Jim sees Parnell, he signals Casey, who's sitting outside in a car with a police detective (Dick Valentine). Conventional law enforcement raids the place, and the IMFers coolly walk in, Jim reassuring Epic that his wife had nothing to do with Apollo.
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50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 2)
_______
All in the Family
"Gloria and the Riddle"
Originally aired October 7, 1972
Wiki said:
Mike yells at Gloria to sew a button on his shirt (I look back from the perspective of them later getting divorced and it doesn't surprise me one iota), and she tells him to do it himself. Gloria is further set off when Archie comes downstairs to complain to Edith about his Sunday breakfast. Mike comes back with an injury from trying to sew it on himself, and Archie subtly raises doubt about his masculinity. Gloria gets into a discussion about chauvinism, including the origins of the word. (Edith: "And he was a beautiful piano player, too.") This transitions into a riddle that Gloria was told by Tammy, a friend from the store who's working on a female fair exhibition. The riddle sounded familiar, possibly from having seen the episode before, but I didn't go in knowing the answer offhand.
Now you see, there's this father and his son, and they're driving along in a car, and the car crashes, and the father is killed...and the little boy is badly injured, so they rush him to a hospital, take him into the operating room, the surgeon walks in and says, "I can't operate on this boy, he's my son." How come?
Archie and Mike get some obvious but wrong guesses out of the way, then make a bet about who can come up with the answer first. I have to admit, I was stumped at first, too, until I read the Wiki description again after hearing the riddle...then it became dead obvious, especially within the context of the episode.
Tammy (Patricia Stich) drops in, and Archie is impressed with her ability to name old big band leaders from their initials. More feminist discussions ensue, including about chauvinist passages in the Bible and Koran and abortion, and Archie goes to Kelcy's Bar to get away from it all. He shares the riddle with the guys there--including Allan Melvin making his second appearance as Barney--then has to admit that he doesn't know the answer and was hoping they'd come up with it for him. When Archie comes home, Edith has figured out what was, in those times, a Gordian knot solution. Mike chastises himself for not having thought of that answer, but Archie rejects the entire notion of female surgeons.
Of course, nowadays there's another solution that Archie would be even more appalled by.
_______
Emergency!
"Virus"
Originally aired October 7, 1972
Wiki said:
I'm always relieved when I watch the episode and can make sense of what's going on...
Perhaps having just missed Malloy in Rampart's corridor minutes ago, the paramedics arrive at the home of Mr. Hollister (dark, shadowy Dennis Patrick) and his daughter, Jenny (Crosby), the latter of whom is suffering from sudden, intense, flu-like symptoms and running a 105-degree temperature. At Rampart, the doctors rule out various known diseases, and Dixie learns that she's a USO dancer who's recently been all over Southeast Asia.
A couple of days later, Jenny's said to be going downhill as Squad 51 gets a call for a person trapped. Mrs. Brydon (Jean Allison) tells the paramedics that her 14-year-old son, Mickey (Philip Brown), who has disease of the inner ear, is having an attack 30 feet above them in his treehouse. Roy climbs up to assess his condition, and Johnny tosses a rope up to him, via which Roy raises his drug box. Johnny goes up to help, so Deputy Pauling (Vic Vallaro) relays instructions from Rampart, though he has trouble with the medical lingo. The engine arrives and the Stokes is sent up for Ricky to be carried down, while his mother promises to look into a surgery for his condition.
At Rampart, Tim Duntley (William Gray Espy)--a fireman from another engine who met DeSoto and Gage at the Hollister house--is brought in by his wife, Mattie (Skye Aubrey), suffering the same symptoms as Jenny. Squad 51 is responding to a call where they find the situation already under control when Brackett has them called in for a checkup with Dr. Morton, who engages in a little more AITF-style racial humor when he's unconcerned with catching it himself because "his people" don't tend to suffer from such ailments. Back on duty, Johnny remembers the pet monkey Jenny brought back with her from Asia, which he and Duntley had direct contact with, and calls it in to Morton, who informs them that Duntley is now critical.
Koki is brought in to Rampart, and Brackett learns from the now stable and conscious Jenny that he was recently sick. She reluctantly consents to letting them put Koki down so they can perform an autopsy that might save Duntley's life. Brackett wants to use a drug on Duntley that Atlanta hasn't approved of and Early considers too much of a gamble, arguing that they wait for more lab results. Brackett takes a break in the indoor set of Rampart's outdoor cafe area, where Mr. Hollister asks about Duntley.
Brackett: I've seen patients in worse condition--and they've been dead.
Brackett then has a dizzy spell and sudden headache. Back inside, Nurse Lewis takes a call from Atlanta ordering use of the drug that Brackett was advocating, and Brackett collapses in an indoor break room. Meanwhile, Johnny seems fatigued when Station 51 and another truck are called for a man who appears to have had a heart attack on a painting scaffold. Johnny is lowered down to the crooked scaffold from the roof while increasingly exhibiting symptoms, then collapses to dangle under the platform by his safety harness, his helmet falling several stories to the parking lot below. A hale and hearty Roy is lowered down to the scaffold, where he first has the workman raised, then Johnny.
At Rampart, Brackett is still in work mode while himself confined to a bed, berating himself up for not having used that drug sooner without approval. Duntley's condition is worsening, while Jenny is recovering, believed to have developed some immunity from prolonged close contact with Koki, and we're informed that the cardiac patient died. In the ER, while watching Johnny being treated, DeSoto takes a call that Duntley died, and goes out to see Mattie, who's already been informed by Morton. Brackett gets the idea of using Jenny's serum, but Early asserts that they can't do that until she's recovered more fully. Then Early learns from Jenny that her dance troupe's choreographer also briefly had the bug but recovered, and has him fly in so a serum can be extracted. Cut to the serum being administered to Brackett and Gage, who share a recovery room in the coda, Odd Couple-style...Brackett complaining about all the attention Romeo's getting from his nurses.
I don't think I've noted that this season they've established a new station chief, Captain Hank Stanley (Michael Norell), who'll be filling that role through the rest of the series.
_______
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
"Enter Rhoda's Parents"
Originally aired October 7, 1972
Wiki said:
Rhoda comes down to bring Mary up to her place because her parents are visiting, and Mary's never met her father. When the Morgensterns note the lack of guest accommodations in their daughter's pad, Mary recommends a nearby hotel. When Mary comments on Martin's attractiveness while he's outside, Ida gives an unenthusiastic response. Once she's alone with Rhoda, Ida shares her belief that Martin is having an affair, though Rhoda doesn't want to entertain the idea. Mary gives the Morgensterns a tour of the WJM newsroom while everyone's supposed to be out to lunch, though Murray is in and out working on something, and Lou turns out to be in his office when Ida opens the door to show it to Martin. The part of the scene outside the office is entirely done with a one-sided conversation while Ida is at the door, indicating that Walker and Asner weren't on set together. We proceed into Lou's office, where he chews out Mary via Rhoda. After Martin returns from the restroom chatting with a pretty young woman, Ida brings her bags to Mary's apartment.
Ida tells the ladies how she got into an argument with Martin when she confronted him about his alleged affairs and he denied having them. Now she refuses to go back to him until he admits that he doesn't love her anymore. Rhoda ends up sharing her modest bed with her mother. Ida comes by and the couple have a talk in Mary's apartment. Martin finally convinces Ida that she's wrong when he confesses with the preface that it's a lie. When Ida expresses her insecurities about whether Martin would have married her today, he comes up with the idea of "renewing their lease" by having a second ceremony right there in Minneapolis. Mary ends up hosting the reception at her place, where there's a gag in which Mary catches the bouquet, then Ida rethrows it directly to Rhoda.
This one has more of Mary running around the apartment in a really short nightie.
_______
The Bob Newhart Show
"Mom, I L-L-Love You"
Originally aired October 7, 1972
Wiki said:
Bob gets a call from his mother over breakfast and lies to avoid talking to her. When Jerry comes to his office bearing basketball tickets, he probes Bob about what's bothering him, and Bob paints a somewhat overbearing picture of her. Settling into what's supposed to be a romantic evening at home, Bob learns that his mother called back, and confesses to Emily that he hasn't told his mother that he loved her since childhood. At Emily's urging, he calls her to invite her to dinner so that he can tell her, and only realizes afterward that he agreed to the night of the game.
When Friday evening comes and Jerry's taking Carol to the game, Bob makes an excuse to stay late at the office to avoid his mother, but he ends up getting home in time for his mother's arrival. She guilts him about not taking care of his childhood pets and Bob has to find excuses to go to the kitchen to come up for air periodically. Howard drops in to pick up his mail and Bob invites him to stay. Howard proves to be a hit with Eleanor, but eats up her time there, and Mrs. Hartley leaves without Bob having told her. He resolves to the next time he sees her, and then when she pops back in for something she forgot, he's about to let the opportunity go when Emily prompts him to indirectly say it...basically just tossing out the word "love" in another context.
There's a phone gag in the Hartleys' famous bed (the first time we've seen it, I believe) in which Bob answers a call from "Mom" and easily tells her that he loves her...but it turns out to be Emily's mom.
This one was pretty meh. The Eleanor Hartley character didn't pop for me.
_______
Mission: Impossible
"Leona"
Originally aired October 7, 1972
Wiki said:
Mike Apollo (Dewey Martin) pays a visit to Louis Parnell (William Boyett) to give him distribution instructions for bribes to various officials. A suspicious Apollo finds a reel-to-reel recorder in Parnell's drawer, and while it appears to be off, tests it to find that it's voice-activated. Mac's stepped up in conventional law enforcement, but has gotten in over his head.
The miniature reel-to-reel tape in an antique shop said:
Casey's back, and so is Barney's 'stache! I noticed in this one how they were blocking Casey to hide her pregnancy.
Insurance Agent Jim flirts with Edith Thatcher (Pippa Scott), the secretary of Apollo's friend and rival Joe Epic (Robert Goulet), and arranges an appointment to see Epic about the case concerning his young wife Leona (Beverly Ralston), who died in a drowning accident a couple of months earlier on St. Patrick's Day. On the street, Casey makes an appearance before Epic in a Leona disguise and disappears into an IMF dry-cleaning truck. Jim sees Epic, casts doubts about the circumstances of Leona's death, and announces his intention to prove that Epic killed her for the relatively paltry insurance money. Later, as Apollo and Epic dine with Syndicate godfather Anton Malta (uncredited Will Kuluva), Jim is caught eavesdropping outside with a shotgun mic.
Trying to play the matter down, Epic has Jim let go, but then tells the others how he saw Leona. This and a hand-drawn map of the joint appearing to be in Epic's handwriting that Jim dropped to be found by Apollo's henchman Jules Cordova (Nate Esformes) gets Apollo suspicious enough to call on his mole in Epic's office, Miss Thatcher, to get a line on Jim. Along the way, Epic has received another visitation from Leona at home, as the IMF has set up an operations room behind his bar with a two-way mirror. Projected into the mirror, Leona pleads with Joe to avenge her. Jim conveniently makes another visit to Epic, at which Thatcher agrees to a date. Jim confronts Epic with new evidence that his motive for killing Leona was not money, but that she was having an affair. Epic angrily kicks him out, but then checks out the evidence. Meanwhile, another Apollo henchman, Ray Kelly (Bruce Watson), is roughing up Parnell for information.
Epic has the cabbie who was ferrying Leona around brought in--Willy--to get info about where he was taking her. Epic then bribes the doorman of the apartment--Barney--to learn the location of Leona's secret love nest. He searches the place and finds a picture of Apollo. Jim has his date with Edith, loosely talking after a few drinks about how he and Epic are actually in cahoots in a scheme to get rid of his competition. Epic arranges a conference with Malta and Apollo. Epic has Willy and Barney rounded up, and Apollo has Jim roughed up.
At the conference, Epic formally accuses Apollo of having an affair with and ultimately murdering his wife. He brings in Willy and Barney as witnesses, and Barney points out Apollo as a man who used to visit her. Apollo makes his counter-accusation that this is all a scheme with the insurance agent to frame him and take over his part of the operation. Jim is brought in, denies the scheming part, but reinforces the angle that Leona was having an affair and was killed by either Epic or her lover. The IMF trio are taken out of the room and overcome Cordova. Apollo has Parnell brought up from the basement to testify that he was with Apollo on the date of Leona's death. When Jim sees Parnell, he signals Casey, who's sitting outside in a car with a police detective (Dick Valentine). Conventional law enforcement raids the place, and the IMFers coolly walk in, Jim reassuring Epic that his wife had nothing to do with Apollo.
_______
Well, there was Pilot Mulcahy...
Probably not at this point.
The Wiki page gives amazingly little information about the disappearance-- apparently there was no thought of foul play, which is odd when you've got politicians involved.