_______
50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 2)
_______
Kung Fu
"Dark Angel"
Originally aired November 11, 1972
Wiki said:
Caine shows a recently blinded preacher, Serenity Johnson (John Carradine), how to rely on his other senses. Serenity, in turn, uses his new awareness to persuade Caine's closed-minded grandfather to accept the wandering monk.
Cue flashback...
Oh yeah, here it is, second regular episode...the beginning of Caine's quest to find his brother via meeting his grandfather. I'd forgotten that the preacher factored into it. Robert Carradine also guest-stars as Serenity's mute companion.
There's some arrow business in this one...Caine swats several aside with one hand before catching and breaking one.
Caine seems more canny here than he comes off in some episodes that I've recently seen on in the background, the way he deals with Serenity's desire for the gold.
Some good scenes exploring getting by without sight...and it makes sense for Caine to know about this, since he learned from Master Po. Apparently Serenity even got some of that Master Po-brand staff training somewhere between scenes.
A 10-day hunger/thirst strike sounds pretty badass, but can even a Shaolin survive that long without water? What objects did Grandpa Caine give Kwai Chang? The episode doesn't give us a good look. One seemed like a pocket watch and the other seemed very small...a cuff link?
Caine's grandfather doesn't seem to be quite old enough...33-year age difference, so he could be by a stretch, but it's not likely. He's only three years older than John Carradine.
_______
All in the Family
"Flashback: Mike and Gloria's Wedding - Part 1"
Originally aired November 11, 1972
Wiki said:
Flashbacks show the wedding of Mike and Gloria where Archie argues with Mike's Polish uncle Casimir (Michael Conrad) over how the ceremony should go.
Joining the flashback party...I think I saw at least the second part of this first-run, though it might have been a rerun.
The framing occasion is Mike and Gloria's second wedding anniversary. While the kids enjoy the cake Edith made, she pulls out a photo album of the wedding. In the ensuing reminiscing, Mike notes how Archie's insults toward him have softened since they met...
Archie: The night is young, Meathead.
...and argues that he's had an influence on Archie in the time that he's been living there. Edith supports this assertion.
Edith: Like you haven't said the word [racial epithet beginning with C] in almost a year.
A photo of Mike's uncle Casimir triggers a flashback to how Archie first met him while the wedding was being planned. In the flashback, bearded and slightly more groovily dressed Mike frets over the impending visit, as his uncle is very sensitive about Polish jokes, and Archie is warming up his repertoire. Casimir arrives to a warm reception from "Mickey," and Archie dances around Mike's concern by insulting various other ethnic groups, while having his preconceptions challenged over how the towering Casimir is both a florist and a former Marine lieutenant during the war. There's an argument over how Archie doesn't want Chinese food served (with that other C-word being tossed around a lot), following which Casimir takes exception when he learns that a Protestant minister is performing the ceremony.
Archie: I ain't goin' through with none of these ceremonies with all that mumbo jumbo, some Catholic priest sprinklin' incest over everybody!
Mike brings up how he'd just as soon not have either, as he's an agnostic.
Edith: You mean you want a rabbi?
Archie: It's worse than that, Edith--I think it means he can't have kids!
As the tension mounts, Mike proclaims that he and Gloria should just live together. Archie finally gets in the P-word, and Mike storms out, declaring that the wedding's off. Casimir assures Archie that the kids will get married, and that once they are, he's going to beat the hell out of Archie.
_______
Emergency!
"Trainee"
Originally aired November 11, 1972
FETV said:
An overconfident trainee hampers paramedic rescues of a boy who fell off a cliff, a drug overdose victim and a diabetic with insulin reaction.
Yeah, I've given up on the Wiki descriptions. This week's was a garbled mess.
The episode opens with Roy giving multiple citations to a junkyard owner (Jackie Coogan), who tries to grease the paramedics' palms and is set straight by Johnny; while the titular character, Ed Marlow (Robert Pratt)--formerly a special forces medic in Vietnam--sits in the cab reading the manual. (Boot looked a lot cuter filling the middle of the seat.) Afterward they drive upon a purse snatching and Johnny and Ed play Pete and Jim, pursuing the pair of suspects on foot, while Roy comforts the victim (Iris Korn). Johnny manages to grab the purse while his suspect is climbing over a wall, but finds that he's penned in with a vicious-sounding dog. Johnny makes it out and returns the purse, and we get our first bit of tension when Ed, having handed his suspect over to Deputy Howard, chastises Johnny for letting his get away. At Rampart, Roy muses that Ed may be overtrained for the job.
We see our first fire station roll call / daily briefing before Squad 51 is called to a lighthouse where a man has fallen off a cliff. Roy has the sailor manning the installation (Ron Henriquez) call a Coast Guard copter. The trio of paramedics climb down to the victim, Jerry Gamble (Anthony Eldridge), where Johnny can't radio out because of the cliff. Roy has to stop Ed from giving Jerry a shot meant to save his hand without consultation from Rampart. Johnny gets to the truck and uses dispatch as a go-between for contacting the hospital, while Ed continues to argue with Roy's instructions, because it's not how they'd did things in 'Nam. The copter arrives and reels Jerry up in a Stokes. At Rampart, Ed questions Brackett about Gamble's condition and confirms that his hand will need to be operated on, but Kel volunteers that the paramedics made the right choice because, had they attempted to treat the fracture, they could have punctured an artery.
The squad is next called to a home where a woman has overdosed on her prescription. Ed wants to take the initiative again by putting in an airway before getting authorization from Rampart, and his argument with Roy upsets the woman's husband. At Rampart, Ed watches in the ER as Bracket inserts a probe through the woman's mouth to extract debris from her bronchia and upper lungs. Out in the corridor, Ed asserts that the airway should have been inserted and Dixie contradicts him, noting that it would have further compacted the debris. Back at the station, Roy and Johnny read Ed the riot act about his lack of discipline and professionalism. Roy accuses him of having come to believe in 'Nam that he was just as good as a real doctor.
Brackett and Chief Sorenson (Charles H. Gray) come to the station for a meeting with Captain Stanley, DeSoto, and Gage about Marlow; while Ed cops an attitude with Chet out in the bay about how he did things in 'Nam and how DeSoto and Gage don't have the backbone to go against the rules. The squad is then called to another apparent overdose, this time at a car wash. Ed brings his attitude into the cab, making me
really miss Boot. At the location, the victim slugs an attendant who's trying to help him and Ed pursues him through the wash and subdues him. Ed insists that the man is an acid freak and attempts to dissuade Roy and Johnny as they follow procedure by taking his vitals and calling Rampart. As information is obtained, Roy surmises that the man may be suffering from insulin shock, and Early subsequently confirms from the patient's ID that he's diabetic. Ed is then too frozen in shock that he might have killed the man to assist in treating him.
In the coda, Chief Sorenson informs the station crew that Marlow is being reassigned back to firefighting at another station, but offers his respect for how Ed tried to become a paramedic, even if he wasn't cut out for it.
As antagonistic guest coworkers on Mark VII shows go, I found Ed to be too irredeemably unlikable and unprofessional. There was also an odd bit of station business after the first altercation with Ed where Roy and Johnny were engaged in lighthearted banter about who'd get to have Ed as his next partner...I had to wonder if maybe that scene had originally been intended for the opening, and they repurposed it to fall between calls.
_______
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
"Farmer Ted and the News"
Originally aired November 11, 1972
Wiki said:
Lou realizes he has made a big mistake after he signs a new contract that allows Ted to earn extra money appearing in TV commercials on several local stations.
We see Ted's dressing room--not sure if that's appeared before--as he's entertaining members of his fan club and Mary brings in a new contract for him to sign. It's snowing in Minneapolis again as Ted visits Mary's apartment to ask her about negotiating his contract and attempts to bribe her. (Where's Randolph Mantooth when you need him?) Ted brings his agent, elderly Bella Swann (Lorene Tuttle), to the station to talk to Lou. (It seems unlikely to me that Lou would be responsible for Ted's salary.) In lieu of a pay raise, Bella asks for an exclusivity clause to be removed, and Lou agrees, thinking that it's meaningless, as it's unlikely that Ted will be branching out to movies or Broadway.
Back at Mary's place, after Rhoda describes her idea for a new Christmas window display at the store, which she accompanies with imitations of the motions of the mechanical characters, Mary sees Ted selling a tomato slicer on TV and calls Lou, who's angry at having been suckered, not having realized that commercials were on the table. Lou lapses into depression as Ted branches out into selling more products and he's unable to find a way out of the contract.
Mary: He hasn't yelled at anybody in days, he's not drinking--This is terrible!
One of Ted's commercials then runs during the news itself, featuring Ted as the titular character, selling sausage. This snaps Lou out of his funk.
Mary: "Bring me some ice"--He's back!
Lou's tactic for getting out of the contract is to threaten to bust up Ted's face, and to offer him a slight raise. Ted accepts.
Ted's pre-raise salary--which Murray is livid over as it far exceeds his--is...wait for it...$31,000 a year!
_______
The Bob Newhart Show
"Don't Go to Bed Mad"
Originally aired November 11, 1972
Wiki said:
When the Hartleys have a fight, they resolve not to go to sleep until they've settled their differences.
Bob has Jerry over for Monday Night Football, and is taken aback by how Emily has made dinner for them...and Emily in turn is upset to learn why Jerry's come over. Emily ends up sullenly serving them on TV trays, and when she feels left out, Bob offers to explain the game to her, but she has trouble understanding and ends up going to bed early. Further upset to learn that this is going to be a weekly thing, on Tuesday night Emily pulls out "the vow" the Hartleys have made to never go to bed mad at each other, in order to make Bob discuss the issue. Bob's suggestion that they write down what's bothering them about each other backfires when Emily makes a lengthy numbered list, but Bob refuses to negotiate item 1, MNF. In the early morning, while Bob is nodding off in front of a movie, Emily agrees to drop it all and go to bed...but it turns out that it's time to get up for breakfast.
I not sure offhand if the start of MNF came up as a news item, but the episode is definitely treating it like it's a relatively new thing. They implied that it had been running the previous season.
_______
Mission: Impossible
"Hit"
Originally aired November 11, 1972
Wiki said:
The IMF plans to remove the remaining allies of an incarcerated Syndicate chief in order to obtain both the proof of his guilt in an unsolved murder and the identity of his secret partner known only as "The General." Robert Reed guest stars as a corrupt assistant DA.
Scheduled to begin his sentence the next day but not in custody, Sam Dexter (Dane Clark) is spending time with his ladyfriend Vicki Wells (Barbara Rhoades) when he gets a call from Arthur Reynolds (Reed, sporting a presumably fake 'stache and his pre-curly hair), tipping him off that Vicki was the one who squealed on him. While she's getting ready to leave, Dexter goes out and cuts the brake line of the car he lets her take, which results in her soon taking a dive off a Malibu cliff...the car bursting into flames on the way down, apparently just from having crashed through the railing.
The miniature reel-to-reel tape in the wheelhouse of a boat said:
Good morning, Mr. Phelps. The authorities suspect but have been unable to prove that crime syndicate chief Sam Dexter murdered his girlfriend Vicki Wells. Dexter is currently serving a prison sentence for tax evasion, and because of the murder investigation, he has been kept under close surveillance. Nevertheless, his criminal organization continues to extort millions of dollars in illegal revenues under the direction of Dexter's secret partner, known only as "The General." Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to discover the identity of The General and prove Dexter's guilt in the Vicki Wells murder, thereby smashing Dexter's crime syndicate. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck, Jim.
Note that "the authorities" are mentioned here rather than "conventional law enforcement," and Dexter is said to be head of
a crime syndicate, with no mention of
the Syndicate as a proper noun. In the briefing, Mimi credits Casey for having set up her identity as a cocktail waitress. A guest agent named Jack (apparently not listed in the credits) is to disguise himself as Dexter's right-hand man, Ben Murdock.
Jim, posing as a special prosecutor investigating Wells's death (which is said to have been from burning...you'd think careening off a cliff into the rocky shoreline below would have been the primary cause), has Dexter's friend Ben Murdock (Frank R. Christi) brought into Reynolds's office for some brief questioning. Afterward Jim claims to Reynolds that he has an eyewitness, so Reynolds leaves a letter in the restroom for Murdock tipping him off to this. In the yard of the prison where Dexter's interred, new inmate Willy chests newer inmate Barney (and his 'stache) in front of Dexter and his posse. Willy subsequently takes down Dexter's chief stooge on the inside, Gordon (Tony Young), in the pool room, and roughs up Dexter a little before Barney intervenes, fake-hospitalizing Willy. This gets Barney on Dexter's good side, but Barney acts uninterested.
Jim and Reynolds question Jim's witness, Mimi. Reynolds feeds her the description of a car that Dexter may have used, secretly verifying that she's fake. At prison, following a rebuffed overture by Dexter to Barney, Gordon finds that Barney was drawing an escape plan, which he's more interested in than Dexter is, breaking down into tears about how he's a lifer while Dexter will be getting out in a few months. Murdock tips Dexter off about Mimi, following which Reynolds confronts her in private about being part of a frame, following which Murdock goes up to her place to handle her, but is startled when his IMF double walks into the room, giving Jim the chance to sneak up behind him and take him out using the Famous Paris Neck Pinch. While Fake Murdock is walking to Reynolds's car, Willy fake runs him down, fake killing him.
Reynolds and Jim visit Fake Murdock in the hospital, where he's being tended to by Dr. Willy, who's really getting around in this segment of the scheme. With his fake dying words, Fake Murdock indicates that Mimi ran him down and the General is behind the frame. Jim and Reynolds question Dexter about the General, and when left alone, Reynolds expresses how he's convinced that the General is cutting Dexter out, which is supported by how Dexter's posse has recently been transferred. Jim and the warden (Judson Pratt) then enter with Conventional Law Enforcement to arrest Reynolds, having gotten the conversation on tape...the latest step in the IMF's plan, stated in the briefing, to isolate Dexter from his allies. Dexter refuses to talk, but approaches Barney about moving his escape up to that night, letting Dexter accompany him, and then doing a paid hit (Barney's fake reason for being locked up), following which Dexter will sneak back into prison. Going over Barney's escape route outside, Jim tells Willy for the audience's benefit that Dexter intends to kill Barney once the hit has been made.
Barney takes Dexter into his drainage tunnel escape route, but part of the tunnel collapses, causing things to go off-plan as Dexter persuades Barney to use a side tunnel with a different exit, then pulls a gun to make him steal the car of a couple of teenagers who drive up to make out nearby. The other IMFers now have to find out where Barney and Dexter are going, so Willy interrogates the real Murdock, indicating that his mob wants to take out the General, then gets a phone call of a fake lead regarding the General's true identity. Murdock too-easily undoes his bonds and tries to use the phone to call the General; the IMF get the number in their van and Conventional Law Enforcement swoops in to take Murdock away. Barney and Dexter proceed to a palatial residence where, after knocking out a manservant, they find the General (Jan Peters)--a former war hero--in his study, working at a computer hidden behind his bar. The armed Dexter indicates that he plans to kill them both, and Barney stalls him, partly by dropping some truthful details of the IMF's scheme. Jim and Willy get there in time to get the drop on Dexter, and the IMFers take him and the General away.
_______
Silver Star was one of Jack Kirby's latter-day works, in the early days of the direct market. I think I traveled too far down the obscurity spectrum again.
Ah.
Ooh, a loophole. "Jim, the second you hear the Palmolive theme, call in the Code Seven!"
Ah, right. I knew that, but I never saw the movie(s).
Nor did I, FWIW, but I recall the film getting a lot of publicity on TV that summer.
Oh, man, Barney in the wheel well in a cozy makeshift den. We need an M:I revival just for that alone.
"Conventional law enforcement has been unable to determine the means by which the flight crew will be taken out."
