Hershey's
Ah, I remember that tin...though it looks like they obscured the brand name.
The Classic/Retro Pop Culture Thread
- Thread starter The Old Mixer
- Start date
This week's guest JLAer had me digging up some of my earliest superhero comics to figure out exactly where my first issue of his mag fit in.
The superhero comic that opened the whole can of worms, cover dated Aug. 1975:
Detective Comics Vol 1 450 | DC Database | Fandom
Apparently the first comic I had with the Flash in it was my first issue of JLA, cover dated Dec. 1975:
Justice League of America Vol 1 125 | DC Database | Fandom
This might be my second superhero comic, unless I can think of something that fell in-between.
Probably my first Spidey comic and my first Marvel, cover dated Feb. 1976:
Spidey Super Stories Vol 1 15 | Marvel Database | Fandom
My first Superman comic, cover dated Mar. 1976:
Superman Vol 1 297 | DC Database | Fandom
Oddly, the cover doesn't ring much of a bell in this case, but the story synopsis does.
My first issue of the Flash's own mag (Apr. 1976):
The Flash Vol 1 241 | DC Database | Fandom
The superhero comic that opened the whole can of worms, cover dated Aug. 1975:
Detective Comics Vol 1 450 | DC Database | Fandom
Apparently the first comic I had with the Flash in it was my first issue of JLA, cover dated Dec. 1975:
Justice League of America Vol 1 125 | DC Database | Fandom
This might be my second superhero comic, unless I can think of something that fell in-between.
Probably my first Spidey comic and my first Marvel, cover dated Feb. 1976:
Spidey Super Stories Vol 1 15 | Marvel Database | Fandom
My first Superman comic, cover dated Mar. 1976:
Superman Vol 1 297 | DC Database | Fandom
Oddly, the cover doesn't ring much of a bell in this case, but the story synopsis does.
My first issue of the Flash's own mag (Apr. 1976):
The Flash Vol 1 241 | DC Database | Fandom
Well, his planet still had the smog and other pollution.
They were hopping up and down on the environmental bandwagon.
Which helped us to identify him on Lower Decks.
But did he go back to Earth to write about it? It just doesn't work out.
This episode was a little too all over the place.
Not that I'm aware of.
Had to go back and find a throwaway line indicating his likely survival.
It was underwhelming casting, though I guess it served the story's purpose of him being a nobody.
And the Bride of the Incredible Hulk!
If there's any truth to it, the alleged "either she goes or I do" makes me think one of the ladies.
I know, I looked it up to be sure.Hershey's
Last edited:
Interesting. We used to get that and I still don't recognize the packaging.Hershey's
I recognize all of those-- including the Spidey Super Stories.
That's true.
They got a lot of mileage out of it.
Giant Spock returned on Lower Decks? I'll have to give that a look.
I could probably work something out if I refreshed my memory of everything.
Definitely a bit over the line into Saturday Morning Cartoon Land.
Sorry about that.
Ah, right. She was all over the place in those days.
I was thinking Bonerz or Daly because of the triangle plot, which would probably have continued. On the other hand, it seems like only Suzanne Pleshette had the gravitas to issue that kind of ultimatum.
The individual issues?I recognize all of those-- including the Spidey Super Stories.
It was more of an Easter egg / sight gag than a full-on appearance...Giant Spock returned on Lower Decks? I'll have to give that a look.
Yes, although I'm not sure if I saw them on the rack, in a friend's collection, or just places over the years-- or a combination of all those.
Yeah, I Googled it. It sounds pretty sick. I definitely want to see it.It was more of an Easter egg / sight gag than a full-on appearance...
50 Years Ago This Week
October 30
October 31
November 1
November 2
November 3
Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:
Leaving the chart:
Recent and new on the chart:
"Let Me Serenade You," Three Dog Night
(Oct. 27; #17 US)
"Come Get to This," Marvin Gaye
(#21 US; #3 R&B; #51 UK)
"My Music," Loggins & Messina
(#16 US; #10 AC)
"Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)," Helen Reddy
(#3 US; #1 AC; #53 UK)
And new on the boob tube:
_______
Timeline entries are quoted from the Wiki page for the month and Mark Lewisohn's The Beatles Day by Day, with minor editing as needed.
_______
October 30
- The Bosphorus Bridge in Turkey was completed, connecting the continents of Europe and Asia over the Bosphorus for the second time, and for the first time since a pontoon bridge had been created by the Emperor Darius of Persia in 512 BC. Darius had lashed together 340 ships to create the temporary bridge. The opening of the 3,222 feet (982 m) long suspension bridge coincided with the fiftieth anniversary of the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey.
- The government of the Netherlands issued a nationwide ban on Sunday driving, beginning November 4, for private motor vehicles as a means of saving gasoline during the worldwide shortage of oil.
- The Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives voted, 21 to 17, to begin consideration of the possible impeachment of U.S. President Nixon. The vote was split along party lines, with 21 Democrats voting for and 17 Republicans voting against.
- The cause of action that led to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in FCC v. Pacifica Foundation began as the New York City radio station WBAI broadcast a recording of comedian George Carlin's "Seven dirty words" routine.
October 31
- Three Provisional IRA members escaped from Dublin's Mountjoy Prison, aboard a hijacked helicopter that landed in the exercise yard. The helicopter rescued IRA leader Seamus Twomey, along with J. B. O'Hagan and Kevin Mallon.
- Color television was introduced to New Zealand as the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation (NZBC) introduced transmissions using the Phase Alternating Line (PAL) system that was the standard in most of Europe, Asia, Africa and South America.
- A U.S. Secret Service agent testified to the Watergate grand jury that two of the nine subpoenaed Watergate tapes did not actually exist. One was a June 20, 1972, conversation that had taken place between U.S. President Nixon and John N. Mitchell, the director of the Committee for the Re-election of the President three days after the Watergate burglars had been arrested. The other was a conversation on April 15, 1973, between Nixon and White House counsel John Dean, the day before Dean was fired.
November 1
- Acting Attorney General of the United States Robert Bork appointed Leon Jaworski as the new Watergate Special Prosecutor to replace Archibald Cox, who had been fired on orders of U.S. President Nixon on October 20. Jaworski accepted after Nixon pledged that he would not attempt to interfere with the prosecutor's duties, and that he would not fire the prosecutor without a consensus of leaders in the U.S. Congress.
November 2
- The IMCO Conference for Marine Pollution, attended by 665 delegates from 79 countries, ended in London with the adoption of the MARPOL (Marine Pollution) convention.
- John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr sue Allen Klein and ABKCO in the Hight Court claiming misrepresentation. Klein counter-sues.
November 3
- At 12:45 (0545 UTC) in the morning local time, NASA launched Mariner 10 toward the planet Mercury. On March 29, 1974, the Mariner would become the first space probe to reach that planet).
- A passenger on National Airlines Flight 27 was blown out of the window of an airplane at an altitude of 39,000 feet (12,000 m) over the U.S. state of New Mexico, after the number 3 engine on the Douglas DC-10-10, exploded and fragments penetrated the fuselage. The jet had been en route from Houston to Las Vegas when the accident happened at 4:40 in the afternoon, and made a safe emergency landing in Albuquerque, New Mexico. According to the subsequent NTSB invedstigation, the cockpit voice recorder showed that the engine explosion happened immediately after the first officer asked the captain "Wonder— wonder if you pull the N1 tach will that— autothrottle respond to N1?" and the captain replied, "Gee, I don't know." The first officer then said "You want to try it and see?" Thirty-four seconds later, the explosion happened. An extensive search was unable to locate the passenger, machinist George F. Gardner of Beaumont, Texas, who had been sitting by the window in seat 17F.
Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:
Leaving the chart:
- "Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose," Dawn feat. Tony Orlando (16 weeks)
Recent and new on the chart:
"Let Me Serenade You," Three Dog Night
(Oct. 27; #17 US)
"Come Get to This," Marvin Gaye
(#21 US; #3 R&B; #51 UK)
"My Music," Loggins & Messina
(#16 US; #10 AC)
"Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)," Helen Reddy
(#3 US; #1 AC; #53 UK)
And new on the boob tube:
- Hawaii Five-O, "Why Wait Till Uncle Kevin Dies?"
- Adam-12, "Van Nuys Division: Pete's Mustache"
- Kung Fu, "The Squawman"
- Ironside, "The Helping Hand"
- The Brady Bunch, "My Brother's Keeper"
- Love, American Style, "Love and the Fortunate Cookie / Love and the Lady Prisoner / Love and the Opera Singer / Love and the Weighty Problem"
- Super Friends, "The Balloon People"
- Star Trek, "Once Upon a Planet"
- All in the Family, "The Games Bunkers Play"
- M*A*S*H, "The Trial of Henry Blake"
- Emergency!, "The Promotion"
- The Mary Tyler Moore Show, "Lou's First Date"
- The Bob Newhart Show, "Mister Emily Hartley"
_______
Timeline entries are quoted from the Wiki page for the month and Mark Lewisohn's The Beatles Day by Day, with minor editing as needed.
_______
Well, for a guy with an infamously bad memory who wasn't into DC, that's pretty impressive...
Who could have seen that coming? Maybe that other guy?
There's something I'd like to see.
Followed immediately by violent crowds of little old ladies marching through the streets.
Classic.
Terrible, yet awesome.
Including Glacia.
It's kind of amazing to think that the same species that produced the geniuses who designed and built that heavier-than-air flying engine also produced the same low-grade morons who blew it up in mid flight.
Not their biggest hit, but I never met a Three Dog Night song I didn't like.
Pretty forgettable.
I forgot about this. Kinda catchy.
Good one. One of the handful of Helen Reddy songs that I like.
True, but the subject is comic books and the time period is the 70s, which helps a lot.Well, for a guy with an infamously bad memory who wasn't into DC, that's pretty impressive...
_______
50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 1)
_______
Hawaii Five-O
"Tricks Are Not Treats"
Originally aired October 23, 1973
After a meeting of local "macks" in the back room of a Phoebe's Bar, flamboyant pimp J. Paul (Ron Glass) is shot at a stoplight by an assassin who was hiding in his backseat. The assassin delivers a message from Lolo--the loan shark to whom the local macks pay their taxes--before using his Five-O Special. Then, dressed for the beach and in bare feet, the hitman switches to a gaudily customized getaway Bug. J. Paul's pal "Darlin' Harley" Dartson (Glynn Turman) acts cool under McGarrett's questioning, but offers to try to keep a lid on the reaction to this by the other pimps. McGarrett then visits Lolo (Gregory Sierra) to lean on him. Back at HQ, the assassin's extra-casual attire proves to be an oversight, as Che has been able to produce a footprint from J. Paul's car that should help to identify the killer. Lolo's messenger, Plumber (Gerald Waialae), crashes a subsequent meeting at Phoebe's--in which Harley is trying to keep his word--to announce a new raise in the tax. Plumber's taunting about J. Paul causes a large pimp named Wunton (Wilfred Keale) to go berserk on the messenger and his two men, cracking one of their backs with a bear hug. When the police enter and are unable to get Wunton to back down, one of them shoots him. Plumber threatens Harley over the assault.
J. Paul's assassin turns up in Doc Bergman's morgue. When McGarrett makes a follow-up call to Dartson at his home, Harley expresses less willingness to play ball, figuring that if Lolo is willing to off his own man, nobody is safe. The macks assembled at Harley's agree to pool together their tax money to hire a pro from Detroit. Harley's wife, Semantha (Lynne Ellen Hollinger), who doubles as his secretary in keeping track of the girls, tries to talk him out of it for the good of their kids...then anonymously tips off McGarrett. Steve goes straight to Lolo with this intel, pressuring him to lay low on his yacht. Five-O tries to get anything they can on the hitman, which includes questioning Phoebe (Pat Morita). A Detroit police contact of Steve's comes through, identifying their visitor as a big-leaguer known as "Smart Alex" Gargossa, among various other aliases. While Five-O goes around showing mugshots of the hitman, Gargossa, already in town, takes a call from Harley, who arranges a time and place.
Five-O connects a conspicuous local purchase of an AR-15 with a starlight scope to the hitman; and the use of one of his known aliases leads them to his hotel room, which he's vacated. McGarrett becomes apprehensive that Lolo will have the hitman proactively dealt with to completely cow the macks. Lolo makes an appearance at a local restaurant to draw out the hitman, who's shot on a rooftop by a second assassin. Afterward, Lolo's right-hand man, Kuji (Seth Sakai)--who's led Lolo to believe that he was the hitman's killer while actually standing by--makes a call...reporting to Harley.
At a rendezvous, Kuji tips off Harley to Lolo's planned confrontation of the pimps at Phoebe's; and promises that when he's taken over Lolo's operation, the tax will come back down. Follow-up intel leads McGarrett to realize that the hitman from Detroit was a feint to make Lolo overconfident. Five-O converges on Lolo as he visits the macks at Phoebe's to taunt them with his survival and announce another increase in the tax...with extra on Harley. As Lolo's leaving, McGarrett pulls up in front of the entrance with his pistol drawn, ordering Lolo to get back inside. A scoffing Lolo moves forward enough for the hitman to get in his shot. The rest of Five-O and uniformed HPD surround the assassin on his rooftop, taking him out when he won't surrender. The hitman takes a dive onto the concrete drink, and McGarrett has Harley and Kuji booked (though I'm unclear what evidence they'd have on either).
_______
Adam-12
"Hot Shot"
Originally aired October 24, 1973
The officers are on patrol when a car almost causes an accident turning into oncoming traffic. The pulled-over driver, Reno West (Jed Allan), is familiar with Malloy, who had him put away for five years and recently got out (but hasn't met Malloy's "new partner"). Malloy tickets the cocky West and afterward explains to Reed that West was a burglar, to whom Pete applies the titular description for his flamboyant style and usually sharp M.O.
Back on patrol, Reed spots a 211 in progress in a market. After the officers pull over and get out, the robber fatally shoots the proprietor and fires his shotgun at them from inside. Reed pursues the suspect out the back door on foot; Malloy drives ahead to cut the suspect off coming out of a pedestrian underpass and wounds him in an exchange of fire. Mac arrives and calls for the suspect to surrender. Th suspect remains armed, and while Pete and Mac distract him on one end, Reed enters the other with his own shotgun and shoots him apparently dead. Nobody check for vitals, but Mac comments that the robber can't be more than nineteen.
On patrol for a new watch, Pete and Jim complain about an officer named Hicks leaving his food garbage in the car. The officers call in an abandoned auto that they come upon and discover that it's stolen and wanted for a 211. They subsequently get a call for a 484 at the public library. The librarian, Iris Kelly (Lurene Tuttle), tells them that a young woman stole a book, which she knows because of the newfangled metal strip-sensing system that they recently had put in. The suspect is long gone, but the officers spot West, who smoothly chats with them before leaving. When asked, Kelly tells them that he's been checking out books about rare items and valuable collectibles and looking at the society columns, all of which fits his old M.O.
The officers are then assigned to a family dispute with shots fired. The caller, Bill Porter (Jack Manning), tells them how he called on behalf of neighbor Helen Dixon (Dee Carroll), who's distraught because her out-of-work husband, George (Raymond Mayo), went berserk and barricaded himself in the house with a rifle, while their young daughter, Donna (Mia Bendixsen), is still inside. The officers sneak around to Donna's window and Reed tries to help her out, only to find himself in Dixon's sights. Dixon lets the officers take Donna to safety, then Mac has Reed get on Porter's phone to try to talk Dixon down. Reed puts Donna on to plead with her father, and he soon comes out with his hands up, hugging Donna before being cuffed.
End of episode. I recently came across an old post I made about this during a previous watch-through of the series...in a rare bit of serial-style continuity, the Reno storyline will be continued next week!
_______
Ironside
"House of Terror"
Originally aired October 25, 1973
There we go, there we go--perfectly timed for a change!
Dave Warren (Russell Wiggins) and Jennifer (Sharon Gless) agree to stay in a bedroom in a turn-of-the-century mansion reputed to be haunted on a $100 bet. The rest of their rowdy gang stay in the parlor outside and eventually hear a scream...entering the room to find the couple gone. It turns out that Jennifer is Randall's niece, which gets the Chief involved. The mansion's tidiness and good condition are handwaved as being due to a restoration project in progress. The team find no trace of trap doors and a conspicuous lack of prints from an intruder or the couple, just a candlestick with blood on it. While they investigate, the requisite mysterious occurrences happen, including a suit of armor doubling over, threatening to hit somebody with its weapon, and the elevator heading downstairs on its own. When the others all go down to investigate that, the Chief mysteriously disappears from the room, his chair tipped over. Unseen probing outside the house finds no tunnels or passageways.
Cut to the Chief waking up in the room in a more vintage chair, to find the others gone. He takes the elevator down to look around, finding the requisite brick wall behind a window. In the parlor, he notices a mantle painting of an old man tipping over in a wheelchair like the one he's in; and then discovers a set table with a name card made out for him. He tastes some champagne, and under a platter lid he finds a gun with a note telling him that it's his only way out. Then he starts having a seemingly hallucinatory experience in which the man in the painting drops out of it to fly around the room, mockingly calling his name.
While the team, examining architectural plans and armed with workers digging at the walls, find a passage leading to a basement exit; in what is clearly a duplicate mansion, Ironside continues to wheel around, returning to the bedroom and having another vision of the man in old age makeup on wires, who now accuses Ironside of having murdered him, causing Ironside to identify him as Griffith. The Chief starts writing a report to Randall, acknowledging that he's been drugged and noting that his version of the house seems like going back in time to when it was new (I couldn't tell the difference). Out in the hall, he notices that the suit of armor is upright and there's no sign of damage to the table that its sword fell into. Downstairs, he finds a panel with an operating old-style phone in it and gets through to the Commissioner, telling him that there are two houses and two Griffiths before he's cut off.
The team digs up a photo of the man who had the house built, Anthony Griffith, which leads Mark to dig through copies of a defunct newspaper, where he discovers that Anthony's twin brother, John, built a carbon copy of the house. (Fran mumbles something that sounds like it has "mob" in it along the way, which the closed captioning didn't even try to figure out.) Further investigation reveals that Anthony Griffith Jr., who was involved in bribery, corruption, ad such, died of a stroke in the '40s while being arrested by young Detective Sgt. Robert T. Ironside; and that he's survived by a son named Drew who'd now be in his late 20s. At the second Griffith Manor, the Chief writes another report, speculating that an attempt to cause him to become suicidal having failed, the objective must now be his murder. He returns to the parlor and address Mr. Griffith, following which he hears a scream and Jennifer comes jumping through a mirror, crying for help against a madman. The vision starts flying around again, which she sees. The Chief drops his gun and seems to go unconscious, following which one of the suits of armor approaches him to probe and is fended off. The Chief backs up to a suit holding a crossbow and, as his captor approaches, triggers it and shoots him. The reveal of the face is a bit underwhelming, as it's surrounded by a coif and we haven't seen the actor sans old age makeup since the first act, but it's revealed afterward that David was Drew Griffith, who was with his father as a boy when he died. In a Cave coda, the Chief also exposits how gas was used to initially knock him out for the abduction, and that the second house was rigged with a projection show.
Something that struck me with this episode is how hippie fashion seems to be fading away at this point. We had a scene full of young people in their 20s and it was all feathered hair and flared collars.
_______
The Brady Bunch
"Marcia Gets Creamed"
Originally aired October 26, 1973
Peter's, desperate to buy a stereo tape deck, is frustrated by his inability to find a job; and isn't happy when Marcia gets one at the ice cream parlor. Bobby and Cindy, OTOH, try to kiss up to their big sister for free ice cream. Marcia's boss, Mr. Haskell (Henry Corden), proves to have a generous family policy; and tries to woo Alice by making her a special sundae. Marcia encourages Haskell to take afternoons off by hiring Peter to fill in for him...but Peter promptly exhibits poor work ethic (I wonder if that's an issue of Shazam! that he's reading...), so Marcia takes it on herself to fire him.
This briefly causes tension back at home, but Carol intervenes. When Marcia has to break dates with her BOTW, Jeff (Holy Moley, it's Michael Gray!)...
...she has Mr. Haskell hire Jan, who proves to be the polar opposite of Peter. Then Jeff makes a point of bringing a new girlfriend (Kimberly Beck) to the parlor, so Marcia sprays them with whipped cream.
Immediately following this incident, Haskell comes in to announce that he's going back to working afternoons, and the employee he lets go is Marcia, because Jan's just a little bit better. While Marcia and Jan are hashing this out at home, Marcia gets a make-up call from Jeff, which motivates her to turn down an offer from Jan to step down to get Marcia her job back. Things even turn out good for Peter, who gets a pizza delivery job.
_______
The Odd Couple
"That Is the Army Mrs. Madison"
Originally aired October 26, 1973
Felix (who's now said to be allergic to animals--Remember when he was a dog lover?) is showing Myrna old photos when they come across one of Blanche's wedding, with Army-uniformed Felix in the photo, but no Oscar. Felix flashes back to the story, with Oscar leaving Blanche, whom he's been seeing for three years, to watch his disaster area apartment while he goes with Felix for their Army Reserve annual summer camp. The unseen drive there is set up as the first time Oscar meets Murray, who's also in the Reserves as an MP. Didn't Oscar first meet Murray in a previous flashback episode? At camp, Felix, who's a lieutenant, makes an example of enlisted man Oscar, ordering the other men to help him pass the next day's inspection. Oscar, who's become afraid of losing Blanche while he's away since he found out she was formerly engaged to a guy whom she's still inviting to parties, calls her to come to camp to marry her...in Abnerville, CT...which I understand is 45 minutes from the nearest Chinese place.
The Justice of the Peace (Richard Stahl) arrives in a volunteer firefighter's outfit, and a ceremony is promptly conducted with his daughter Crystal (Garry's daughter / Penny's niece, Lori Marshall) playing off-key piano. By the time the justice gets out his camera, Oscar has rushed off to prepare for the inspection, so Felix poses for the picture with Blanche. Oscar passes the inspection, but Col. Wyatt (Liam Dunn) rescinds Oscar's pass because Felix has reported how he damaged the pay phone that he called Blanche with (while trying to get more change). Felix smooths things over by sneaking Blanche into barracks and seeing to it that she and Oscar have the place to themselves.
Connecticut has National Guard centers, and proudly sports the Navy's primary sub base on the East Coast, but no Army bases.
_______
Love, American Style
"Love and the Other Mistakes"
Allegedly aired October 26, 1973
I'm not sure what's up with this segment. It exists, it's in the syndication package paired with another Season 5 episode; but both the Wiki and IMDb LAS episode lists agree that there was no new episode that aired on Oct. 26. IMDb, however, has a listing for just this segment, which is assigned this date, with no explanation. My working guess would be that maybe they played a rerun this week, but swapped this segment in place of one of the original ones.
Dan (Pat Harrington) is trying to talk his boss, fashion mogul Norman Levy (Herb Edelman), out of seeing his old flame Evie Carson (Abbe Lane) again, who was responsible for breaking up his marriage and whom Dan describes as a professional mistress. When Evie is greeted at Norman's office by champagne and roses, Leavy has Dan stay as he shows Evie a scrapbook he's been keeping of her being seen with various other high-profile figures. She's a bit uncomfortable, and as the visit goes on, it turns out that it's all part of the plan. Norman follows up by having her play a game called "Burning Bridges," which involves her calling all of the other guys she's been seeing and telling them where to get off. Once she's done that, he tosses away the champagne and roses and sends Evie on her way...but quickly comes to regret it and begs out the window for her to return.
_______
50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 1)
_______
Hawaii Five-O
"Tricks Are Not Treats"
Originally aired October 23, 1973
Wiki said:
After a meeting of local "macks" in the back room of a Phoebe's Bar, flamboyant pimp J. Paul (Ron Glass) is shot at a stoplight by an assassin who was hiding in his backseat. The assassin delivers a message from Lolo--the loan shark to whom the local macks pay their taxes--before using his Five-O Special. Then, dressed for the beach and in bare feet, the hitman switches to a gaudily customized getaway Bug. J. Paul's pal "Darlin' Harley" Dartson (Glynn Turman) acts cool under McGarrett's questioning, but offers to try to keep a lid on the reaction to this by the other pimps. McGarrett then visits Lolo (Gregory Sierra) to lean on him. Back at HQ, the assassin's extra-casual attire proves to be an oversight, as Che has been able to produce a footprint from J. Paul's car that should help to identify the killer. Lolo's messenger, Plumber (Gerald Waialae), crashes a subsequent meeting at Phoebe's--in which Harley is trying to keep his word--to announce a new raise in the tax. Plumber's taunting about J. Paul causes a large pimp named Wunton (Wilfred Keale) to go berserk on the messenger and his two men, cracking one of their backs with a bear hug. When the police enter and are unable to get Wunton to back down, one of them shoots him. Plumber threatens Harley over the assault.
J. Paul's assassin turns up in Doc Bergman's morgue. When McGarrett makes a follow-up call to Dartson at his home, Harley expresses less willingness to play ball, figuring that if Lolo is willing to off his own man, nobody is safe. The macks assembled at Harley's agree to pool together their tax money to hire a pro from Detroit. Harley's wife, Semantha (Lynne Ellen Hollinger), who doubles as his secretary in keeping track of the girls, tries to talk him out of it for the good of their kids...then anonymously tips off McGarrett. Steve goes straight to Lolo with this intel, pressuring him to lay low on his yacht. Five-O tries to get anything they can on the hitman, which includes questioning Phoebe (Pat Morita). A Detroit police contact of Steve's comes through, identifying their visitor as a big-leaguer known as "Smart Alex" Gargossa, among various other aliases. While Five-O goes around showing mugshots of the hitman, Gargossa, already in town, takes a call from Harley, who arranges a time and place.
Five-O connects a conspicuous local purchase of an AR-15 with a starlight scope to the hitman; and the use of one of his known aliases leads them to his hotel room, which he's vacated. McGarrett becomes apprehensive that Lolo will have the hitman proactively dealt with to completely cow the macks. Lolo makes an appearance at a local restaurant to draw out the hitman, who's shot on a rooftop by a second assassin. Afterward, Lolo's right-hand man, Kuji (Seth Sakai)--who's led Lolo to believe that he was the hitman's killer while actually standing by--makes a call...reporting to Harley.
At a rendezvous, Kuji tips off Harley to Lolo's planned confrontation of the pimps at Phoebe's; and promises that when he's taken over Lolo's operation, the tax will come back down. Follow-up intel leads McGarrett to realize that the hitman from Detroit was a feint to make Lolo overconfident. Five-O converges on Lolo as he visits the macks at Phoebe's to taunt them with his survival and announce another increase in the tax...with extra on Harley. As Lolo's leaving, McGarrett pulls up in front of the entrance with his pistol drawn, ordering Lolo to get back inside. A scoffing Lolo moves forward enough for the hitman to get in his shot. The rest of Five-O and uniformed HPD surround the assassin on his rooftop, taking him out when he won't surrender. The hitman takes a dive onto the concrete drink, and McGarrett has Harley and Kuji booked (though I'm unclear what evidence they'd have on either).
_______
Adam-12
"Hot Shot"
Originally aired October 24, 1973
Edited Wiki said:
The officers are on patrol when a car almost causes an accident turning into oncoming traffic. The pulled-over driver, Reno West (Jed Allan), is familiar with Malloy, who had him put away for five years and recently got out (but hasn't met Malloy's "new partner"). Malloy tickets the cocky West and afterward explains to Reed that West was a burglar, to whom Pete applies the titular description for his flamboyant style and usually sharp M.O.
Back on patrol, Reed spots a 211 in progress in a market. After the officers pull over and get out, the robber fatally shoots the proprietor and fires his shotgun at them from inside. Reed pursues the suspect out the back door on foot; Malloy drives ahead to cut the suspect off coming out of a pedestrian underpass and wounds him in an exchange of fire. Mac arrives and calls for the suspect to surrender. Th suspect remains armed, and while Pete and Mac distract him on one end, Reed enters the other with his own shotgun and shoots him apparently dead. Nobody check for vitals, but Mac comments that the robber can't be more than nineteen.
On patrol for a new watch, Pete and Jim complain about an officer named Hicks leaving his food garbage in the car. The officers call in an abandoned auto that they come upon and discover that it's stolen and wanted for a 211. They subsequently get a call for a 484 at the public library. The librarian, Iris Kelly (Lurene Tuttle), tells them that a young woman stole a book, which she knows because of the newfangled metal strip-sensing system that they recently had put in. The suspect is long gone, but the officers spot West, who smoothly chats with them before leaving. When asked, Kelly tells them that he's been checking out books about rare items and valuable collectibles and looking at the society columns, all of which fits his old M.O.
The officers are then assigned to a family dispute with shots fired. The caller, Bill Porter (Jack Manning), tells them how he called on behalf of neighbor Helen Dixon (Dee Carroll), who's distraught because her out-of-work husband, George (Raymond Mayo), went berserk and barricaded himself in the house with a rifle, while their young daughter, Donna (Mia Bendixsen), is still inside. The officers sneak around to Donna's window and Reed tries to help her out, only to find himself in Dixon's sights. Dixon lets the officers take Donna to safety, then Mac has Reed get on Porter's phone to try to talk Dixon down. Reed puts Donna on to plead with her father, and he soon comes out with his hands up, hugging Donna before being cuffed.
End of episode. I recently came across an old post I made about this during a previous watch-through of the series...in a rare bit of serial-style continuity, the Reno storyline will be continued next week!
_______
Ironside
"House of Terror"
Originally aired October 25, 1973
Wiki said:
There we go, there we go--perfectly timed for a change!
Dave Warren (Russell Wiggins) and Jennifer (Sharon Gless) agree to stay in a bedroom in a turn-of-the-century mansion reputed to be haunted on a $100 bet. The rest of their rowdy gang stay in the parlor outside and eventually hear a scream...entering the room to find the couple gone. It turns out that Jennifer is Randall's niece, which gets the Chief involved. The mansion's tidiness and good condition are handwaved as being due to a restoration project in progress. The team find no trace of trap doors and a conspicuous lack of prints from an intruder or the couple, just a candlestick with blood on it. While they investigate, the requisite mysterious occurrences happen, including a suit of armor doubling over, threatening to hit somebody with its weapon, and the elevator heading downstairs on its own. When the others all go down to investigate that, the Chief mysteriously disappears from the room, his chair tipped over. Unseen probing outside the house finds no tunnels or passageways.
Cut to the Chief waking up in the room in a more vintage chair, to find the others gone. He takes the elevator down to look around, finding the requisite brick wall behind a window. In the parlor, he notices a mantle painting of an old man tipping over in a wheelchair like the one he's in; and then discovers a set table with a name card made out for him. He tastes some champagne, and under a platter lid he finds a gun with a note telling him that it's his only way out. Then he starts having a seemingly hallucinatory experience in which the man in the painting drops out of it to fly around the room, mockingly calling his name.
While the team, examining architectural plans and armed with workers digging at the walls, find a passage leading to a basement exit; in what is clearly a duplicate mansion, Ironside continues to wheel around, returning to the bedroom and having another vision of the man in old age makeup on wires, who now accuses Ironside of having murdered him, causing Ironside to identify him as Griffith. The Chief starts writing a report to Randall, acknowledging that he's been drugged and noting that his version of the house seems like going back in time to when it was new (I couldn't tell the difference). Out in the hall, he notices that the suit of armor is upright and there's no sign of damage to the table that its sword fell into. Downstairs, he finds a panel with an operating old-style phone in it and gets through to the Commissioner, telling him that there are two houses and two Griffiths before he's cut off.
The team digs up a photo of the man who had the house built, Anthony Griffith, which leads Mark to dig through copies of a defunct newspaper, where he discovers that Anthony's twin brother, John, built a carbon copy of the house. (Fran mumbles something that sounds like it has "mob" in it along the way, which the closed captioning didn't even try to figure out.) Further investigation reveals that Anthony Griffith Jr., who was involved in bribery, corruption, ad such, died of a stroke in the '40s while being arrested by young Detective Sgt. Robert T. Ironside; and that he's survived by a son named Drew who'd now be in his late 20s. At the second Griffith Manor, the Chief writes another report, speculating that an attempt to cause him to become suicidal having failed, the objective must now be his murder. He returns to the parlor and address Mr. Griffith, following which he hears a scream and Jennifer comes jumping through a mirror, crying for help against a madman. The vision starts flying around again, which she sees. The Chief drops his gun and seems to go unconscious, following which one of the suits of armor approaches him to probe and is fended off. The Chief backs up to a suit holding a crossbow and, as his captor approaches, triggers it and shoots him. The reveal of the face is a bit underwhelming, as it's surrounded by a coif and we haven't seen the actor sans old age makeup since the first act, but it's revealed afterward that David was Drew Griffith, who was with his father as a boy when he died. In a Cave coda, the Chief also exposits how gas was used to initially knock him out for the abduction, and that the second house was rigged with a projection show.
Something that struck me with this episode is how hippie fashion seems to be fading away at this point. We had a scene full of young people in their 20s and it was all feathered hair and flared collars.
_______
The Brady Bunch
"Marcia Gets Creamed"
Originally aired October 26, 1973
Paramount Plus said:
Peter's, desperate to buy a stereo tape deck, is frustrated by his inability to find a job; and isn't happy when Marcia gets one at the ice cream parlor. Bobby and Cindy, OTOH, try to kiss up to their big sister for free ice cream. Marcia's boss, Mr. Haskell (Henry Corden), proves to have a generous family policy; and tries to woo Alice by making her a special sundae. Marcia encourages Haskell to take afternoons off by hiring Peter to fill in for him...but Peter promptly exhibits poor work ethic (I wonder if that's an issue of Shazam! that he's reading...), so Marcia takes it on herself to fire him.
This briefly causes tension back at home, but Carol intervenes. When Marcia has to break dates with her BOTW, Jeff (Holy Moley, it's Michael Gray!)...
...she has Mr. Haskell hire Jan, who proves to be the polar opposite of Peter. Then Jeff makes a point of bringing a new girlfriend (Kimberly Beck) to the parlor, so Marcia sprays them with whipped cream.
Immediately following this incident, Haskell comes in to announce that he's going back to working afternoons, and the employee he lets go is Marcia, because Jan's just a little bit better. While Marcia and Jan are hashing this out at home, Marcia gets a make-up call from Jeff, which motivates her to turn down an offer from Jan to step down to get Marcia her job back. Things even turn out good for Peter, who gets a pizza delivery job.
_______
The Odd Couple
"That Is the Army Mrs. Madison"
Originally aired October 26, 1973
Wiki said:
Felix (who's now said to be allergic to animals--Remember when he was a dog lover?) is showing Myrna old photos when they come across one of Blanche's wedding, with Army-uniformed Felix in the photo, but no Oscar. Felix flashes back to the story, with Oscar leaving Blanche, whom he's been seeing for three years, to watch his disaster area apartment while he goes with Felix for their Army Reserve annual summer camp. The unseen drive there is set up as the first time Oscar meets Murray, who's also in the Reserves as an MP. Didn't Oscar first meet Murray in a previous flashback episode? At camp, Felix, who's a lieutenant, makes an example of enlisted man Oscar, ordering the other men to help him pass the next day's inspection. Oscar, who's become afraid of losing Blanche while he's away since he found out she was formerly engaged to a guy whom she's still inviting to parties, calls her to come to camp to marry her...in Abnerville, CT...which I understand is 45 minutes from the nearest Chinese place.
The Justice of the Peace (Richard Stahl) arrives in a volunteer firefighter's outfit, and a ceremony is promptly conducted with his daughter Crystal (Garry's daughter / Penny's niece, Lori Marshall) playing off-key piano. By the time the justice gets out his camera, Oscar has rushed off to prepare for the inspection, so Felix poses for the picture with Blanche. Oscar passes the inspection, but Col. Wyatt (Liam Dunn) rescinds Oscar's pass because Felix has reported how he damaged the pay phone that he called Blanche with (while trying to get more change). Felix smooths things over by sneaking Blanche into barracks and seeing to it that she and Oscar have the place to themselves.
Connecticut has National Guard centers, and proudly sports the Navy's primary sub base on the East Coast, but no Army bases.
_______
Love, American Style
"Love and the Other Mistakes"
Allegedly aired October 26, 1973
I'm not sure what's up with this segment. It exists, it's in the syndication package paired with another Season 5 episode; but both the Wiki and IMDb LAS episode lists agree that there was no new episode that aired on Oct. 26. IMDb, however, has a listing for just this segment, which is assigned this date, with no explanation. My working guess would be that maybe they played a rerun this week, but swapped this segment in place of one of the original ones.
Dan (Pat Harrington) is trying to talk his boss, fashion mogul Norman Levy (Herb Edelman), out of seeing his old flame Evie Carson (Abbe Lane) again, who was responsible for breaking up his marriage and whom Dan describes as a professional mistress. When Evie is greeted at Norman's office by champagne and roses, Leavy has Dan stay as he shows Evie a scrapbook he's been keeping of her being seen with various other high-profile figures. She's a bit uncomfortable, and as the visit goes on, it turns out that it's all part of the plan. Norman follows up by having her play a game called "Burning Bridges," which involves her calling all of the other guys she's been seeing and telling them where to get off. Once she's done that, he tosses away the champagne and roses and sends Evie on her way...but quickly comes to regret it and begs out the window for her to return.
_______
The album was released in '72 and has already come and gone on the album chart at this point; but here's something interesting...Classic.
FWIW, I think he's padding the list out a bit by including "fuck" and "motherfucker" as separate entries.Wiki said:
Hey, you try flying one of these things (1:44)...RJDiogenes said:
These are both obscure, underwhelming entries by their respective artists.
This one definitely had some oldies radio presence, and evokes the sound of '50s and early '60s music pretty well.
This one wasn't familiar to me, but I'll probably get it. I like its sound, which reminds me of Donovan.
A Halloween title for a non-Halloween story. Does H50 even show their titles on screen?
Detective Harris.
Good grief! Detective Chano.
Geez, don't kill the messenger.
A little twist that seems to go nowhere.
Arnold.
All that seems pretty sloppy.
And that seems very risky.
He was set up? Is that supposed to explain why he was so sloppy?
Somehow they knew about the second assassin, but were not able to stop him in time. They must have evidence against Kuji, and are expecting him to turn on Lolo. The interesting thing about this episode is how everybody is a career criminal, but Five-Oh puts just as much effort into protecting them as they would anyone else.
They don't even bother to mention paperwork anymore.
Apparently the wife is not in a hugging mood.
Interesting. I wonder how that came about, since it doesn't seem to be advertised as continued. Maybe the story came out too long and they decided to spread it out with a little re-editing.
Cagney or Lacy, plus the secretary in Switch.
Did they ever say whose blood?
We're in a 1940s B-movie!
Nice touch, the vintage chair.
Good stuff.
Rookie mistake, Chief.
Okay, that's a bit much at this point.
Quickly deducing that someone needs the germs in his body to solve the population crisis.
Maybe it was shot on location at somebody's house and they wouldn't let them dress the set too much, which would also explain the previous handwaving.
It seems unlikely that that phone would be operating, or even compatible with current technology.
There we go. Show's over.
And presumably Jennifer is in on it as well, although I'm not completely sure.
Not to mention vintage phones that still work and suits of armor armed with crossbows that are loaded and cocked. Obviously I could rattle off a dozen plot holes and absurdities, but since this was an homage to old mystery movies, that's not only forgivable, but part of the fun.
Uh oh. Foreshadowing the Disco Apocalypse.
The censors were asleep at the switch for that one.
Never try to woo a woman whose boyfriend goes by "The Butcher."
And doesn't spray customers with whipped cream.
And they're all too busy to notice that there has been no sign of Greg-- who, in the coda, wakes up in an exact duplicate of the Brady house, which is strangely deserted.
I wouldn't put it past Felix to be allergic to specific breeds.
At this point I'm going to assume yes.
Yup, this relationship is doomed.
Nice callback!
There we go. Felix does have his moments.
Not after Oscar got through with it.
And no DVDs to check. You're probably right, though, but I wonder what the reason was.
Presumably Schneider, although he usually includes "Jr."
A frequently seen character actor-- and maybe a starring role that I don't remember.
Because getting back together with him is worth giving up all her other action?
Okay, that was weird.
That's hilarious, and well deserved.
Considering all the vocabulary that censors would never allow on TV, I never took the "seven words" thing very seriously. I think he just picked words that he had funny things to say about.
Life imitates comedy-- that hasn't even been written yet.
Interesting connection. I'm not sure I hear it.
Harris is welcome on Mal's boat; God ain't.
He was a nasty messenger.
It goes everywhere...McGarrett learns about the hitman from Detroit.
Who's never been attacked by tree.
The hitman wasn't very impressive.
But Lolo was taking proper precautions...or so he thought.
Yes, and maybe.
Lolo's dead. It's Harley they'd need dirt on.
Indeed.
Indeed...or reviews or boards of inquiry.They don't even bother to mention paperwork anymore.
There's no TBC card. And maybe.
Oh yeah, that's where I knew the name from.
Nope.
Indeed, though I wasn't clear whether his drink had been spiked.
Cap Kirked.
Or that the captor would leave it operational to be used.
No, she was a victim and the bait to get Ironside involved.
Good ol' Emergency! comes through on the hippie front this week.
I'm sure it would have sounded perfectly innocent back then...The censors were asleep at the switch for that one.
And invites all his friends over! Actually, Greg was polishing his car in the opening scene, while Peter bellyached about his job situation.
Nice callback!
Ah, him. Yeah, he wasn't billed with the Jr. here.
A recent suspect on Ironside, and occurs to have had later recurring roles on St. Elsewhere and The Golden Girls. Any starring roles were for shows that I've never heard of.
Apparently she was motivated to please him in the moment.
The opening melody made me think of "Mellow Yellow".
Cool. I don't think most shows did that in those days.
Nathan Fillion is working hard to bring back the crew. Book and his hair will be sorely missed if he succeeds.
Yeah, generally a nasty bunch in this episode.
I mean the character, though. She just drops a convenient, barely motivated tidbit and then vanishes.
Not capped. I'm guessing a reference to Karate Kid, which I didn't see.
I think that's what I meant.
That was probably her blood then.
Thank goodness.
I'm not sure, actually.
Yeah, looking over IMDB, I have no idea why I remember his name.
Pretty weak.
Ah, okay. I do kind of see it now.
Of the ones that I'm currently watching, H5O, Ironside, LAS individual segments, and TAS. And of course, the whole line of Quinn Martin shows both showed and announced the episode title.
If that ever comes together, I hope it's closer to the spirit of the series than that movie was.
To be fair, though, the main spokesman messenger baddie was nasty, which is what set the pimp off; we didn't get to know the minion who got his back cracked.
Her whole thing of trying to talk Harley out of hiring the hitman played out in more detail, though.
The sequel. I didn't watch the films, either, but the line was in all the trailers.
Well, it would've to me...
He must have been a good sugar daddy that she kept going back to him.
Okay, so I missed the 50th Anniversary release of Fleetwood Mac's eighth album 'Mystery to Me' which was released on 15-October-1973 and I'm posting their 2-November-1973 appearance on 'The Midnight Special' a couple of days early. The reason is thus. . .
Then, as now, shows can be taped weeks in advance in order to edit them.
Fleetwood Mac went on tour and taped their appearance shortly before 20-Oct-1973. The tour was to support their eighth album 'Mystery To Me', the fifth album featuring Christine McVie, the fourth to feature Bob Welch and the second album to feature Bob Weston.
It was backstage after this taping that Mick Fleetwood found out Bob Weston was having an affair with Fleetwood's wife Jenny Boyd, younger sister of Pattie Boyd, who, herself, was in the midst of separating from her husband George Harrison.
After one more appearance in Lincoln, Nebraska, Weston was sacked, and the remaining twenty-six dates canceled. Fleetwood and the McVie's flew back to England while Welch stayed in Los Angeles with the sound gear and equipment. Fleetwood told the rest of the band that the band was on 'hold' until he could try and salvage his marriage. The band members wouldn't meet again until September 1974, where Fleetwood and the McVie's moved to Los Angeles to record their ninth album, 'Heroes Are Hard To Find'.
Then, as now, shows can be taped weeks in advance in order to edit them.
Fleetwood Mac went on tour and taped their appearance shortly before 20-Oct-1973. The tour was to support their eighth album 'Mystery To Me', the fifth album featuring Christine McVie, the fourth to feature Bob Welch and the second album to feature Bob Weston.
It was backstage after this taping that Mick Fleetwood found out Bob Weston was having an affair with Fleetwood's wife Jenny Boyd, younger sister of Pattie Boyd, who, herself, was in the midst of separating from her husband George Harrison.
After one more appearance in Lincoln, Nebraska, Weston was sacked, and the remaining twenty-six dates canceled. Fleetwood and the McVie's flew back to England while Welch stayed in Los Angeles with the sound gear and equipment. Fleetwood told the rest of the band that the band was on 'hold' until he could try and salvage his marriage. The band members wouldn't meet again until September 1974, where Fleetwood and the McVie's moved to Los Angeles to record their ninth album, 'Heroes Are Hard To Find'.
Last edited:
Might as well name-drop Layla's other guy, too.
Last edited:
Might as well name-drop Layla's other guy, too.
Him, and Ron Wood of The Faces & Rolling Stones as well as George's dalliance with Maureen Starkey.
And I guess while we're on the subject - George wrote two songs during this period (1972-1973) that reflect on his separation/divorce from Pattie.
The first one has already been posted, but here it is again.
The second being this one - written for, but left off 'Living in the Material World', instead given to Alvin Lee with guitar and production by George
The irony being that at the same time Mick is learning about Jenny's affair with Bob Weston, and the break-up of 'Fleetwood Mac', George is recording his own version of 'So Sad' at his home studio - Friar Park Studio, Henley-on-Thames (FPSHOT); the first track laid down for the upcoming 'Dark Horse' album.
The first one has already been posted, but here it is again.
The second being this one - written for, but left off 'Living in the Material World', instead given to Alvin Lee with guitar and production by George
The irony being that at the same time Mick is learning about Jenny's affair with Bob Weston, and the break-up of 'Fleetwood Mac', George is recording his own version of 'So Sad' at his home studio - Friar Park Studio, Henley-on-Thames (FPSHOT); the first track laid down for the upcoming 'Dark Horse' album.
^^ So much Soap Opera!
The action shows seem to do it more than the comedies. The thing is that my Grandmother always liked to know the names of episodes, but she would doze off and miss the beginnings of shows. When she woke up, she would ask me, and most of the time I would have to say that I didn't know.
Yeah, I kind of blocked out the movie-- because now that you mention it I remember that they killed off Book anyway.
They should have given her an "I told you so!" moment at the end.
Good line.
Ditto for me, at that age-- but it can be surprising how far back some of that kind of slang goes. Like the 20s, or earlier.Well, it would've to me...
I think I know why they dumped that segment among the repeats.
_______
50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 2)
_______
Super Friends
"The Androids"
Originally aired October 27, 1973
It's actually identified in the episode as Hermes 20, launching from Cape Courageous, The Super Friends watch a smooth blastoff from the Hall of Justice; but the picture goes out and the rocket crashes back to dry Earth...the astronauts somehow surviving to walk away. Col. Wilcox and the Super Friends examine the crash site, finding a recorder with a message from a Doctor Rebos (Casey), warning that all space exploration must be stopped or the top-secret Venus probe will be next. For some reason, Clark Kent is assigned to cover a top-secret space launch for Galaxy Broadcasting System--his then-current job in the comics. To correct a previous statement, this would definitely be the first episode that I saw...I thought it involved Clark covering a space launch, and here it is! The Junior Super Friends accompany Clark, whose dual identity they are in on. While interviewing a mission control operative with a pad and paper (no camera crew in sight), Clark examines the place with his X-Ray Vision.
Outside, where Wonder Dog has to wait because he lost his security pass, Dr. Rebos and his Igor-like assistant, Loco (Frank Welker), drive up to the gate posing as reporters and make a show of taking Wonder Dog's picture while rewarding him with a phony plaque. Back at Rebos's lab, it's revealed that the Hermes astronauts were really androids, and Rebos gets to work on building one of Wonder Dog. Rebos returns to the base driving a tour bus full of androids, and the android (canoid?) Wonder Dog flashes his pass to be welcomed in. Once inside, he enters a top secret room and presses the "famous 'Don't press' button" to sabotage the mission.
Col. Wilcox calls the Super Friends to accuse Wonder Dog of being a traitorous double agent.
After Wendy and Marvin leave with Wonder Dog (who isn't arrested for some reason), Wilcox plays another message in which Rebos threatens a manned launch to Mars--where there's already a base under construction in the SF universe--before being interrupted by an operator wanting him to put in more change. While Wilcox is briefing the Super Friends about the base, the recorder comes back on, Rebos having gotten more change to continue his call...! Outside, Wendy and Marvin recall Wonder Dog's activities and determine that a double must have been involved. Wonder Dog sees Rebos and Loco driving by and chases the car to an auto yard, the JSF following...but the canoid Wonder Dog throws them off-track. The Super Friends go to work guarding the space installation, which includes Aquaman having swordfish knit a seaweed net around it. This proves not to be elephant repellant when it actually stops an attempted sub incursion by presumably android minions of Rebos.
Outside the installation, Rebos takes pictures from afar of Superman standing guard. Wonder Woman brings a pair of captured saboteur pilots to the Hall of Justice, and they're soon determined to be androids. Rebos builds an android of Superman, then sends a video warning directly to the Super Friends. At the cape, Rebos and Loco drive a catering truck to the base's fenced perimeter and take orders from the Super Friends. After checking Rebos's license, Batman orders chicken soup. The fake caterers separately approach Superman and serve him a plate of Kryptonite, stashing him in the truck to replace him with his android double, who gets into the base and busts into the master control room to sabotage it. The android returns to the Hall of Justice with the Super Friends, is sniffed out as an android, and escapes. Batman attempts to track down the suspicious catering truck.
The JSF return to the junkyard, where Loco takes them in to Rebos and they see all the androids, including of Superman and Wonder Dog. Rebos explains his motivation to see that the billions spent on the space program are redirected to helping the sick and poor on Earth, though the JSF defend the benefits of the space program. Batman finds and follows the android-driven catering truck, cornering it and saving Superman. Rebos reveals to the JSF that he plans to send his Superman android to destroy the Mars base. Guarded by android Wonder Dog, the JSF guilt him into leaving the room to get dog food for the real one, then quickly build an android female poodle, getting the android Wonder Dog to chase it out the window when he returns. The JSF return to the Hall of Justice and explain what's going on to the Super Friends, who pay a visit to Rebos and take out his sundry androids, with the help of Wendy and Marvin shutting off their power. Superman goes to Mars to stop his android double. On Earth, Batman lectures Rebos about effecting change through lawful means, and he the scientist expresses an interest in turning over a new leaf.
As the JSF return to school, Wonder Dog has an encounter with his double and the poodle-droid, who both shut down when he tries to start a fight over her.
Putting aside various absurd elements of this episode (some of which I didn't get into here), the big question is, if Rebos could create an android with Superman's powers, why did he have to wait until he could make it in Superman's likeness, and why not make his other androids that powerful? The episode may have indirectly answered the question by playing up at various points the power limitations of the androids, which tended to cause them to shut down regularly. It must have taken a lot of extra resources to get one to fly to Mars and still be able to destroy the base when it got there.
_______
Star Trek
"The Magicks of Megas-Tu"
Originally aired October 27, 1973
The ship is caught in a matter/energy whirlwind, and Spock manages to steer the ship into the eye of the storm. The space outside the ship gets a little Yellow Submarine, and the crew find that they're outside of normal space and time, where the laws of physics don't operate the same. As they're succumbing to lack of oxygen, a devil-like being called Lucien (Doohan) appears, saves them, and takes the Big Three to his planet, where he finds that he has to help maintain their bodily integrity.
Back on the ship, the crew determines that Lucien is using cloud cover to hide the Enterprise from his people. Spock figures out how to use the local tools to make things happen...mastering magic, and coaching the others to do the same. (Spock even draws a pentagram on the deck...) Lucien reappears to try to make them stop, and another presence enters the ship, denouncing that Lucien has brought human perfidy to their home. The crew soon find themselves transported to a recreation of 1600s Salem, Massachusetts, where they and Lucien are held in stocks and put on trial. Conducting the trial is Asmodeus (uncredited Ed Bishop), who tells of how his people were burned as witches on Earth.
What a difference from TNG-era Trek--Kirk's humility about humanity's improvement over the centuries.
The crew depart from the galaxy's center, reflecting on how they saved Lucifer from being cast out for a second time.
I won't even get into the obvious travel time discrepancy, as this wasn't the first or last time Trek would disregard such issues; and TOS was particularly vague about how fast the ship was supposed to be anyway.
_______
Emergency!
"Snakebite"
Originally aired October 27, 1973
The paramedics and Chet are returning from a four-day camping/fishing trip in a four-wheel drive when they come across the scene of a head-on collision on a barren desert road. The pickup truck driver is dead; while a woman and her young son in a station wagon are badly injured. Chet puts out flares and tries to flag down a passing vehicle. The first doesn't stop; the second promises to send an ambulance from a nearby town, if they have one. The woman, Joyce Varner (uncredited Toby Adler), who has a head injury and fractured leg, regains consciousness while Johnny sees to her; but the boy (uncredited Jack Paar) starts to go into shock while Roy applies pressure to what he thinks is a perforated jugular.
A hearse/ambulance from a small-town funeral home with a slack-jawed driver arrives and takes the firefighters and patients to a very small hospital with an absent doctor and highly flustered nurse, Ozella Peterson (Reta Shaw), who's resistant to all the irregular activity. At Rampart, while Brackett, Early, and Dix are all tied up at the base station...
...Johnny gets Morton on the line, though the doctor is also hesitant to authorize treatment, as the paramedics are off-duty and out of state. Then the local physician, Dr. Frick (Tony Haig), arrives, and we get a punchline for all of Nurse Peterson's stuffy uptightness...
After a break and a scene cut, Frick comes through, having successfully performed surgery with Nurse Peterson's assistance. When asked, he explains to the paramedics that he chose to work where he felt he was most needed.
When the trio are back on duty and Chet's trying to downplay the incident to the skeptical other firefighters, Station 51 and another engine and copter are called to a car full of teenagers that's gone over a mountain road cliff and can't be seen in the brush below. A fire road worker named Hector (Richard X. Slattery) is one the scene to describe what happened, and the copter spots the car, deducing from smoke that it's obligatorily bursted into flame. Against his better judgment, Hector bulldozes a path down the cliffside and the paramedics and firefighters follow on foot; while the copter, after touching down and getting a fill-up, dispenses foam to put out the fire. The crew gets to the badly smashed car and the paramedics see to the three victims--one male, two female--while getting Rampart on the biophone. The victims are carried up on Stokeses attached to lines and winches and loaded into the copter.
Once they're away, Johnny goes back down the cliff to retrieve his Handie-Talkie and suffers the titular injury in his right leg from a rattler. Johnny radios the others down and starts seeing to his own wound before being loaded into the tractor for a steep drive back up. Johnny is transferred onto the back of the engine and, with Roy having accompanied the victims on the chopper, calls in his own vitals and instructs the firefighters in assisting in his treatment, which include setting up an IV. As the engine is underway and Johnny tries to radio updates, he starts succumbing to the venom; while Roy stands by helplessly at Rampart's base station. When Johnny arrives, Brackett gets right to work on him, administering an anti-venom. Dix tries to comfort Roy while they wait for word if the anti-venom is effective. Ultimately it is, to everyone's relief--even Chet's.
In the coda, off-duty Roy and Chet visit Johnny, who's chatting up a nurse. Then Johnny gets a surprise visit from Mrs. Peterson, who's in town visiting her sister and brings Johhny a batch of cookies. Chet's perturbed that the nurse doesn't remember him.
This one was a nice change of pace, focusing on a couple of situations that played out longer rather than jumping between scattered vignettes. And Johnny was pretty badass.
_______
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
"Son of 'But Seriously, Folks'"
Originally aired October 27, 1973
After one of Ted's newswriters, Josh McBride (soon-to-be Chuck Cunningham Gavan O'Herlihy), leaves the station to work for Cronkite, former Chuckles writer Wes Callison (Jerry Van Dyke reprising his role from the titularly referred to episode) takes his place. Mary's uncomfortable with this because he's more into her than she is into him; and once Wes is on the job, he starts overbearingly imposing himself into her personal life. At the newsroom, an oddly costumed but unmade-up Chuckles (Mark Gordon) pops in wanting story advice from Wes about getting out of a nonsensical situation that he's devised.
Wes runs an idea by Lou that they broadcast the news in a more "natural" fashion from the newsroom as it happens. Bolstered by Lou's acceptance, Wes pops the question on Mary after a date, and she's convinced that he's just looking for an excuse to feel miserable again, knowing that she'll say no. The first newly formatted broadcast is already handicapped by Ted having to carry it and Lou and Murray being camera-shy. To make matters worse, Wes shows up drunk and brings his relationship drama with Mary on camera, which culminates in Ted grabbing an apologetic note that Wes writes to Mary and reading it on the air.
In the coda, Wes makes noise about going back to Chuckles and Mary offers him a consolation dinner date.
_______
The Bob Newhart Show
"Old Man Rivers"
Originally aired October 27, 1973
Carol informs Bob that she'll be off for a couple of days after having a minor procedure. From her vague description, Bob initially assumes that she's getting an abortion, but she explains that when she was young and belonged to a "social club," she got a tattoo in a very private place.
Jerry seems casually familiar with the butterfly, however. The Hartleys have Carol stay over the night before...and it turns out that Howard's acquainted with the butterfly as well. In recovery after the procedure, Carol is smitten with her surgeon, Dr. Scott Rivers...who turns out to be Corey (after a tease in which a younger doctor played by Don Fenwick is the first one to talk to her). (I wonder if Dr. Rivers removed her butterfly with...THE RAYS! *CLAP!*)
As advertised, Carol starts seeing Rivers...
Bob, Jerry, and Bernie greet Carol on her first day back with gag gifts and roses. It's to Bernie that Jerry delivers the titular description of Carol's lunch date...following which Jerry tries to have a talk with Carol about her new boyfriend's age.
Carol ends up winning the argument by pointing out the double standard from the man's perspective. Bob and Emily see a gangster movie with Carol and Scott, and afterward it comes up that Rivers has first-hand recollection of the '20s; and that what Carol describes as his antiques weren't antiques when he bought them. When Howard meets Scott, he assumes that the man is her father. Later Carol talks to Bob in his office about how other people don't accept her and Scott as a couple.
At the end of the informal session, Carol tells Bob that Scott's taking her home to meet his parents! In the coda, Carol and Scott are still seeing each other, describing how they and the elder Riverses went figure skating.
Jeff Corey was still going on 60 when this aired, so they were perhaps exaggerating his age a bit...though he was old enough to remember the '20s.
_______
50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 2)
_______
Super Friends
"The Androids"
Originally aired October 27, 1973
iTunes said:
It's actually identified in the episode as Hermes 20, launching from Cape Courageous, The Super Friends watch a smooth blastoff from the Hall of Justice; but the picture goes out and the rocket crashes back to dry Earth...the astronauts somehow surviving to walk away. Col. Wilcox and the Super Friends examine the crash site, finding a recorder with a message from a Doctor Rebos (Casey), warning that all space exploration must be stopped or the top-secret Venus probe will be next. For some reason, Clark Kent is assigned to cover a top-secret space launch for Galaxy Broadcasting System--his then-current job in the comics. To correct a previous statement, this would definitely be the first episode that I saw...I thought it involved Clark covering a space launch, and here it is! The Junior Super Friends accompany Clark, whose dual identity they are in on. While interviewing a mission control operative with a pad and paper (no camera crew in sight), Clark examines the place with his X-Ray Vision.
Outside, where Wonder Dog has to wait because he lost his security pass, Dr. Rebos and his Igor-like assistant, Loco (Frank Welker), drive up to the gate posing as reporters and make a show of taking Wonder Dog's picture while rewarding him with a phony plaque. Back at Rebos's lab, it's revealed that the Hermes astronauts were really androids, and Rebos gets to work on building one of Wonder Dog. Rebos returns to the base driving a tour bus full of androids, and the android (canoid?) Wonder Dog flashes his pass to be welcomed in. Once inside, he enters a top secret room and presses the "famous 'Don't press' button" to sabotage the mission.
Col. Wilcox calls the Super Friends to accuse Wonder Dog of being a traitorous double agent.
Col. Wilcox: How much dog food did it take to buy you off!?!
After Wendy and Marvin leave with Wonder Dog (who isn't arrested for some reason), Wilcox plays another message in which Rebos threatens a manned launch to Mars--where there's already a base under construction in the SF universe--before being interrupted by an operator wanting him to put in more change. While Wilcox is briefing the Super Friends about the base, the recorder comes back on, Rebos having gotten more change to continue his call...! Outside, Wendy and Marvin recall Wonder Dog's activities and determine that a double must have been involved. Wonder Dog sees Rebos and Loco driving by and chases the car to an auto yard, the JSF following...but the canoid Wonder Dog throws them off-track. The Super Friends go to work guarding the space installation, which includes Aquaman having swordfish knit a seaweed net around it. This proves not to be elephant repellant when it actually stops an attempted sub incursion by presumably android minions of Rebos.
Outside the installation, Rebos takes pictures from afar of Superman standing guard. Wonder Woman brings a pair of captured saboteur pilots to the Hall of Justice, and they're soon determined to be androids. Rebos builds an android of Superman, then sends a video warning directly to the Super Friends. At the cape, Rebos and Loco drive a catering truck to the base's fenced perimeter and take orders from the Super Friends. After checking Rebos's license, Batman orders chicken soup. The fake caterers separately approach Superman and serve him a plate of Kryptonite, stashing him in the truck to replace him with his android double, who gets into the base and busts into the master control room to sabotage it. The android returns to the Hall of Justice with the Super Friends, is sniffed out as an android, and escapes. Batman attempts to track down the suspicious catering truck.
The JSF return to the junkyard, where Loco takes them in to Rebos and they see all the androids, including of Superman and Wonder Dog. Rebos explains his motivation to see that the billions spent on the space program are redirected to helping the sick and poor on Earth, though the JSF defend the benefits of the space program. Batman finds and follows the android-driven catering truck, cornering it and saving Superman. Rebos reveals to the JSF that he plans to send his Superman android to destroy the Mars base. Guarded by android Wonder Dog, the JSF guilt him into leaving the room to get dog food for the real one, then quickly build an android female poodle, getting the android Wonder Dog to chase it out the window when he returns. The JSF return to the Hall of Justice and explain what's going on to the Super Friends, who pay a visit to Rebos and take out his sundry androids, with the help of Wendy and Marvin shutting off their power. Superman goes to Mars to stop his android double. On Earth, Batman lectures Rebos about effecting change through lawful means, and he the scientist expresses an interest in turning over a new leaf.
As the JSF return to school, Wonder Dog has an encounter with his double and the poodle-droid, who both shut down when he tries to start a fight over her.
Putting aside various absurd elements of this episode (some of which I didn't get into here), the big question is, if Rebos could create an android with Superman's powers, why did he have to wait until he could make it in Superman's likeness, and why not make his other androids that powerful? The episode may have indirectly answered the question by playing up at various points the power limitations of the androids, which tended to cause them to shut down regularly. It must have taken a lot of extra resources to get one to fly to Mars and still be able to destroy the base when it got there.
_______
Star Trek
"The Magicks of Megas-Tu"
Originally aired October 27, 1973
Wiki said:
Captain's log, stardate 1254.4: For years scientist have theorized that if our galaxy was created from a great explosion, then the center of the galaxy might still be creating new matter. The Enterprise is now on a science mission to investigate.
The ship is caught in a matter/energy whirlwind, and Spock manages to steer the ship into the eye of the storm. The space outside the ship gets a little Yellow Submarine, and the crew find that they're outside of normal space and time, where the laws of physics don't operate the same. As they're succumbing to lack of oxygen, a devil-like being called Lucien (Doohan) appears, saves them, and takes the Big Three to his planet, where he finds that he has to help maintain their bodily integrity.
Back on the ship, the crew determines that Lucien is using cloud cover to hide the Enterprise from his people. Spock figures out how to use the local tools to make things happen...mastering magic, and coaching the others to do the same. (Spock even draws a pentagram on the deck...) Lucien reappears to try to make them stop, and another presence enters the ship, denouncing that Lucien has brought human perfidy to their home. The crew soon find themselves transported to a recreation of 1600s Salem, Massachusetts, where they and Lucien are held in stocks and put on trial. Conducting the trial is Asmodeus (uncredited Ed Bishop), who tells of how his people were burned as witches on Earth.
What a difference from TNG-era Trek--Kirk's humility about humanity's improvement over the centuries.
The crew depart from the galaxy's center, reflecting on how they saved Lucifer from being cast out for a second time.
I won't even get into the obvious travel time discrepancy, as this wasn't the first or last time Trek would disregard such issues; and TOS was particularly vague about how fast the ship was supposed to be anyway.
_______
Emergency!
"Snakebite"
Originally aired October 27, 1973
Frndly said:
The paramedics and Chet are returning from a four-day camping/fishing trip in a four-wheel drive when they come across the scene of a head-on collision on a barren desert road. The pickup truck driver is dead; while a woman and her young son in a station wagon are badly injured. Chet puts out flares and tries to flag down a passing vehicle. The first doesn't stop; the second promises to send an ambulance from a nearby town, if they have one. The woman, Joyce Varner (uncredited Toby Adler), who has a head injury and fractured leg, regains consciousness while Johnny sees to her; but the boy (uncredited Jack Paar) starts to go into shock while Roy applies pressure to what he thinks is a perforated jugular.
A hearse/ambulance from a small-town funeral home with a slack-jawed driver arrives and takes the firefighters and patients to a very small hospital with an absent doctor and highly flustered nurse, Ozella Peterson (Reta Shaw), who's resistant to all the irregular activity. At Rampart, while Brackett, Early, and Dix are all tied up at the base station...
...Johnny gets Morton on the line, though the doctor is also hesitant to authorize treatment, as the paramedics are off-duty and out of state. Then the local physician, Dr. Frick (Tony Haig), arrives, and we get a punchline for all of Nurse Peterson's stuffy uptightness...
After a break and a scene cut, Frick comes through, having successfully performed surgery with Nurse Peterson's assistance. When asked, he explains to the paramedics that he chose to work where he felt he was most needed.
When the trio are back on duty and Chet's trying to downplay the incident to the skeptical other firefighters, Station 51 and another engine and copter are called to a car full of teenagers that's gone over a mountain road cliff and can't be seen in the brush below. A fire road worker named Hector (Richard X. Slattery) is one the scene to describe what happened, and the copter spots the car, deducing from smoke that it's obligatorily bursted into flame. Against his better judgment, Hector bulldozes a path down the cliffside and the paramedics and firefighters follow on foot; while the copter, after touching down and getting a fill-up, dispenses foam to put out the fire. The crew gets to the badly smashed car and the paramedics see to the three victims--one male, two female--while getting Rampart on the biophone. The victims are carried up on Stokeses attached to lines and winches and loaded into the copter.
Once they're away, Johnny goes back down the cliff to retrieve his Handie-Talkie and suffers the titular injury in his right leg from a rattler. Johnny radios the others down and starts seeing to his own wound before being loaded into the tractor for a steep drive back up. Johnny is transferred onto the back of the engine and, with Roy having accompanied the victims on the chopper, calls in his own vitals and instructs the firefighters in assisting in his treatment, which include setting up an IV. As the engine is underway and Johnny tries to radio updates, he starts succumbing to the venom; while Roy stands by helplessly at Rampart's base station. When Johnny arrives, Brackett gets right to work on him, administering an anti-venom. Dix tries to comfort Roy while they wait for word if the anti-venom is effective. Ultimately it is, to everyone's relief--even Chet's.
In the coda, off-duty Roy and Chet visit Johnny, who's chatting up a nurse. Then Johnny gets a surprise visit from Mrs. Peterson, who's in town visiting her sister and brings Johhny a batch of cookies. Chet's perturbed that the nurse doesn't remember him.
This one was a nice change of pace, focusing on a couple of situations that played out longer rather than jumping between scattered vignettes. And Johnny was pretty badass.
_______
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
"Son of 'But Seriously, Folks'"
Originally aired October 27, 1973
Wiki said:
After one of Ted's newswriters, Josh McBride (soon-to-be Chuck Cunningham Gavan O'Herlihy), leaves the station to work for Cronkite, former Chuckles writer Wes Callison (Jerry Van Dyke reprising his role from the titularly referred to episode) takes his place. Mary's uncomfortable with this because he's more into her than she is into him; and once Wes is on the job, he starts overbearingly imposing himself into her personal life. At the newsroom, an oddly costumed but unmade-up Chuckles (Mark Gordon) pops in wanting story advice from Wes about getting out of a nonsensical situation that he's devised.
Wes runs an idea by Lou that they broadcast the news in a more "natural" fashion from the newsroom as it happens. Bolstered by Lou's acceptance, Wes pops the question on Mary after a date, and she's convinced that he's just looking for an excuse to feel miserable again, knowing that she'll say no. The first newly formatted broadcast is already handicapped by Ted having to carry it and Lou and Murray being camera-shy. To make matters worse, Wes shows up drunk and brings his relationship drama with Mary on camera, which culminates in Ted grabbing an apologetic note that Wes writes to Mary and reading it on the air.
In the coda, Wes makes noise about going back to Chuckles and Mary offers him a consolation dinner date.
_______
The Bob Newhart Show
"Old Man Rivers"
Originally aired October 27, 1973
Wiki said:
Carol informs Bob that she'll be off for a couple of days after having a minor procedure. From her vague description, Bob initially assumes that she's getting an abortion, but she explains that when she was young and belonged to a "social club," she got a tattoo in a very private place.
Bob: You mean it isn't where I could see it?
Carol: Oh, Bob, it's not even where I can see it.
Carol: Oh, Bob, it's not even where I can see it.
Jerry seems casually familiar with the butterfly, however. The Hartleys have Carol stay over the night before...and it turns out that Howard's acquainted with the butterfly as well. In recovery after the procedure, Carol is smitten with her surgeon, Dr. Scott Rivers...who turns out to be Corey (after a tease in which a younger doctor played by Don Fenwick is the first one to talk to her). (I wonder if Dr. Rivers removed her butterfly with...THE RAYS! *CLAP!*)
As advertised, Carol starts seeing Rivers...
Jerry: Bob, she's robbing the wheelchair.
Bob, Jerry, and Bernie greet Carol on her first day back with gag gifts and roses. It's to Bernie that Jerry delivers the titular description of Carol's lunch date...following which Jerry tries to have a talk with Carol about her new boyfriend's age.
Carol: Jer, I don't think of him as old...I think of him as mature.
Jerry: If he was any more mature, he'd be...cheese.
Jerry: If he was any more mature, he'd be...cheese.
Carol ends up winning the argument by pointing out the double standard from the man's perspective. Bob and Emily see a gangster movie with Carol and Scott, and afterward it comes up that Rivers has first-hand recollection of the '20s; and that what Carol describes as his antiques weren't antiques when he bought them. When Howard meets Scott, he assumes that the man is her father. Later Carol talks to Bob in his office about how other people don't accept her and Scott as a couple.
Carol: Bob, do you know what it's like dating men your own age?
[Bob shakes head.]
[Bob shakes head.]
At the end of the informal session, Carol tells Bob that Scott's taking her home to meet his parents! In the coda, Carol and Scott are still seeing each other, describing how they and the elder Riverses went figure skating.
Jeff Corey was still going on 60 when this aired, so they were perhaps exaggerating his age a bit...though he was old enough to remember the '20s.
_______
Last edited:
