_______
50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 2)
_______
Super Friends
"Gulliver's Gigantic Goof"
Originally aired December 8, 1973
The Super Friends are watching the countdown for the first manned launch to Mars--didn't we have a Mars base a few episodes ago? The titular embittered would-be philanthropist (Casey) directs a hot air balloon to the rocket, which causes all communications with the space center to be lost...following which Colonel Wilcox (John Stephenson version) reports that everyone at the space center has disappeared. The Super Friends investigate, saving the now-unmanned rocket from disaster--for some reason being unmanned caused the launch tower to collapse, and a fueling mishap is averted when Superman tosses the rocket into space after detaching the capsule. In the capsule, they find the astronauts shrunken down to the described size...which, they find, is what happened to everyone else at the space center.
From his castle lair outside of Gotham City, Dr. Gulliver sends his next balloon to Harbor City, while monologuing to his cat, Igor, about how his sonic microwave reducer will shrink the people there. The Super Friends avert disasters involving affected nearby vehicles, including a falling plane and a sinking submarine--Guess who got that one? Oddly, when it looks like Wonder Woman's going to use her strength to prevent a pair of subway trains from colliding, they implicitly pull out another random power by depicting waves emanating from her hands.
Soule's Batman loses points for not knowing there was a castle outside of his own city--West woulda known that! Gulliver vacuums up the Dynamic Dou and imprisons them in jars, then rants to them about how his shrinking is meant to solve the population problem.
With ambitions to capture all of the Super Friends, Gulliver lures Superman into a trap by using the Daylight Bat Signal (however that works...projecting the insignia onto a cloud), making him think that the Dynamic Duo need rescuing, and uses a special minimizer on Superman that also reduces his powers, enabling his capture via butterfly net. Next he nabs Aquaman by luring him to a raft on top of a waterspout. Here Aquaman uses a customized jet water scooter to race to the scene. Finally, Gulliver leaves Igor in a basket outside the Hall of Justice as a gift to Wonder Woman, and as she's about to feed him milk, the cat uses the ray on her. Gulliver further rants about how he needs a star sapphire for a transmitter that will allow him to use his minimizer on everyone in the world via TV and radio.
Wonder Woman telepathically causes her unshrunken lasso back at the Hall of Justice to form a message that directs the JSF to the mansion of a millionaire named Vanderbulge (Alden), so that they're on the scene when Gulliver walks in, uses gadgets to get to the millionaire's sapphire (including a tuning fork device to shatter its unbreakable glass case), and the minimizer to shrink Vanderbulge and his guards. The JSF get away unshrunken and decide to call the only other Justice Leaguer who's not currently away on a space mission--our final guest hero for the season, Green Arrow (Alden), who's in Bornego responding to a distress call about giant ants. It turns out that the aunts are normal-sized, but the endangered photographers have been shrunk. Marvin gets through to GA on his Jeep's radio just as the broadcast shrinking ray hits him. Arrow fends off more ants and uses a thread and the Jeep's antenna as a bow from which he launches himself and the photographers to safety on an unshrunken arrow that sprouts a propellor, which he rides to the Hall of Justice after dropping off his passengers.
The JSF and (with GA riding on Wonder Dog) proceed to the government research center to consult with Wilcox and Doctor Curum (Dark), who pick up a coded message that Superman sends by shorting out Gulliver's transmitter with his X-Ray Vision, which gives them the coordinates to Gulliver's castle. While Gulliver plots to shrink people down even further to 1 inch, GA uses a newspaper boat and a shrunken grappling arrow to sneak into the castle. Seeing their fellow JLAer, the jarred Super Friends distract Gulliver, who's sent fleeing out of the room by a fireworks-emitting arrow. GA then activates the tuning fork device to free the heroes from their jars, and they manage to truss up Gulliver. Wonder Woman telepathically summons her plane, which the JSF happen to be sitting in, trying to think it into taking them to WW. Gulliver gets loose and the miniaturized Super Friends engage him in a running battle in which they use the device to shrink him down to their size. The Super Friends proceed to obligatorily lecture him, and the mad scientist reveals that he doesn't have a way of reversing the shrinking. Something Marvin says gives Superman the idea of rewiring the transmitting device to reverse the process, which starts to grow them too much before it's dialed back.
In the coda, there's a gag in which it's suspected that Marvin's been using Gulliver's handheld minimizer to enlarge his high school basketball team, though Marvin reveals that their winning streak owes to how they're now only playing against girls' teams.
_______
Emergency!
"Body Language"
Originally aired December 8, 1973
Johnny's fretting over what Roy surmises is a rejection when the station and other units are called to aid a crop-duster that's in the process of crashing as they arrive. They find the craft upside down and the pilot stops breathing. As Capt. Stanley determines that the plane was spraying parathion, a farmer named Walt (Frank Bonner) who tried to help free the pilot collapses and then struggles as Johnny tries to see to him. At Rampart base station, Morton having to multitask with the split paramedics.
At Rampart, a young patient (Joshua Albee) is self-conscious because he's on a walker, so he swaps with another boy (Michael Morgan) for his crutches, but Dixie catches them. By the time the pilot gets to the hospital, he's off his respirator but needs surgery for a chest injury. Roy helps a simple-talking man named Donald Lompok (Ronald Feinberg) who's having some difficulty at the registration desk. Brackett treats Lompok for an ear infection and clears him to leave, but Lompok insists on staying for a few days, so Brackett holds an impromptu staff consultation with Early and Morton. Lompok describes how he put mothballs in his ear to fend off a moth who was bothering him, following which the other doctors back Brackett's diagnosis.
At the station, Roy starts to get more details about something that happened at the movies with Barbara--whom Roy describes as Johnny's "problem of the week"--when the squad is called to aid an unconscious man at an observation park. A group of hippies is gathered around, and Roy tries to question a girl named Pam (Ronne Troup), who initially just recites poetry while seemingly under the influence. Roy eventually gets out of her that the guy was ingesting daffodil bulbs with his wine. At Rampart, we learn that the issue is overdosing on atropine, which Morton determines Pam is suffering from a milder case of.
The squad is called from Rampart to a horse ranch, where a rider who fell from his horse, Bill Stagg (Randy Boone), is propped up at a fence and blows off treatment; though the rancher, Doug Barton (Kenneth Tobey), tells them that Bill hit his head on a rock and was out for ten minutes. When Bill insists on getting back on his horse, the paramedics follow him down a dirt trail in the squad until he falls off, then call him in. He's examined for a possible skull fracture and taken in to Rampart. Doug describes Bill as the worst rider he's seen there in thirty years.
As the paramedics are returning from Rampart, they're assigned to join the engine in dealing with a traffic accident on Highway 101. They find a conscious woman (Julie Rogers) standing up in the front seat area of a car turned on its side. Roy pries out the driver of the other vehicle (Hank Jones), while Johnny takes out the woman's windshield so she can walk out. Both are young and start to take an interest in one another as Roy treats the man's head injury; and the pair end up sharing the cab of the tow truck. Afterward, Johhny voluntarily offers how he responded nonverbally when Barbara made a comment about marriage during the film, which she seems to have gotten the wrong idea about.
Johnny gets a call from Barbara at the station, but as he's trying to explain himself, the station is called to an auditorium where a rock musician named Eric has suffered a cardiac arrest from pills while his band, the Delerium Threemen, continued to jam while accompanied by a strobe light. The paramedics get Eric's heart going again and he's taken to Rampart, where Dix informs Roy and Johnny that their "weekend cowboy" plans to ride again.
In the coda, it's a new morning at the station and Johnny's in a better mood because he thinks he's gotten off the hook with Barbara, but Roy notes that what he's described Barbara as saying is just a postponement of the inevitable subject.
_______
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
"I Gave at the Office"
Originally aired December 8, 1973
When it comes up that Murray's daughter needs a summer job (making this not exactly a seasonal installment), Mary suggests that they hire her to do menial jobs in the newsroom...like make coffee. While Lou had agreed to the idea of such a hire, when he finds out that Mary's picked Bonnie Slaughter (Tammi Bula), he objects to her choice as he feels that having Murray's daughter in the newsroom will cramp his aggressive, swear-ridden style. "Uncle Ted"...
...introduces Bonnie to 19-year-old mailroom employee Rick Welch (young Bruce Boxleitner), which Murray objects to because Rick's four years older than her. (I couldn't find Bula's age, but she looks a little closer to legal than that.)
Lou takes Mary into his office when he learns that Murray's helping Bonnie do her work, and Mary correctly guesses what it's about.
And then Lou learns that Bonnie broke his personalized coffee cup, which one of his own daughters made for him at camp. What's worse, before Mary can comply with Lou's order, Ted has to improvise on the air for a gaffe that's not his fault for a change--Bonnie didn't deliver film for a commercial break. Murray tries to defend his daughter, and after Mary takes Bonnie out, Lou has to break the news to Murray, who wants to settle the matter man-to-man. When he sees how important it is to Murray, Lou agrees to let Bonnie stay, but Mary comes in to reveal that she's already let her go, which Bonnie takes better than Murray...though Murray offers to let Lou patch things up by taking him out for a drink.
In the coda, Ted's now making the coffee--which means that everyone's drinking tea--and Bonnie's gotten a job at a coffee shop near her school that all the boys go to.
_______
The Bob Newhart Show
"My Wife Belongs to Daddy"
Originally aired December 8, 1973
Bob's embarrassed about wearing a happi coat (which involves him making a reference to watching Kung Fu) when Emily's parents, Junior and Aggie Harrison, arrive at the door for a surprise visit. Bob becomes uncomfortable with his outgoing father-in-law, whom everyone else gets along easily with, and whom Emily acts more fun around. Junior's the one feeling awkward, however, when he has a brief encounter with Michelle Nardo at Bob's office. The only thing Bob can think of that might impress his father-in-law is getting a couple of tickets for a Bears game from Jerry, but Junior unknowingly one-ups him by announcing that an old friend has gotten him into the team owner's box, which he invites Carol and Jerry along for in addition to the Hartleys.
Bob's next idea is to take the in-laws to an expensive restaurant, and Jerry recommends one called Top of the Pile, after its location on an apparently fictitious insurance company building. The establishment isn't revolving as its motor is out of order; Bob is taken aback when he learns that Jerry wasn't exaggerating about the prices; and Junior one-ups him some more with first-hand knowledge of Italy. While the ladies are powdering their noses, Junior (signs o' the times alert) whips out a pipe at the table and confesses that he's been trying to impress Bob, whom he's envious of for having won Emily's heart. The men agree to stop trying to impress each other, but as both jump up to pick up the check, Bob accidentally pays for the party at the table next to them (hosted by Byron Morrow as a Mr. Devereaux), while still having to cover his own bill. In the coda, however, he feels that it was worth it...and learns that Emily hates the old number that her father likes to lead singalongs of.
_______
50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 2)
_______
Super Friends
"Gulliver's Gigantic Goof"
Originally aired December 8, 1973
iTunes said:
The Super Friends are watching the countdown for the first manned launch to Mars--didn't we have a Mars base a few episodes ago? The titular embittered would-be philanthropist (Casey) directs a hot air balloon to the rocket, which causes all communications with the space center to be lost...following which Colonel Wilcox (John Stephenson version) reports that everyone at the space center has disappeared. The Super Friends investigate, saving the now-unmanned rocket from disaster--for some reason being unmanned caused the launch tower to collapse, and a fueling mishap is averted when Superman tosses the rocket into space after detaching the capsule. In the capsule, they find the astronauts shrunken down to the described size...which, they find, is what happened to everyone else at the space center.
From his castle lair outside of Gotham City, Dr. Gulliver sends his next balloon to Harbor City, while monologuing to his cat, Igor, about how his sonic microwave reducer will shrink the people there. The Super Friends avert disasters involving affected nearby vehicles, including a falling plane and a sinking submarine--Guess who got that one? Oddly, when it looks like Wonder Woman's going to use her strength to prevent a pair of subway trains from colliding, they implicitly pull out another random power by depicting waves emanating from her hands.
Soule's Batman loses points for not knowing there was a castle outside of his own city--West woulda known that! Gulliver vacuums up the Dynamic Dou and imprisons them in jars, then rants to them about how his shrinking is meant to solve the population problem.
With ambitions to capture all of the Super Friends, Gulliver lures Superman into a trap by using the Daylight Bat Signal (however that works...projecting the insignia onto a cloud), making him think that the Dynamic Duo need rescuing, and uses a special minimizer on Superman that also reduces his powers, enabling his capture via butterfly net. Next he nabs Aquaman by luring him to a raft on top of a waterspout. Here Aquaman uses a customized jet water scooter to race to the scene. Finally, Gulliver leaves Igor in a basket outside the Hall of Justice as a gift to Wonder Woman, and as she's about to feed him milk, the cat uses the ray on her. Gulliver further rants about how he needs a star sapphire for a transmitter that will allow him to use his minimizer on everyone in the world via TV and radio.
Wonder Woman telepathically causes her unshrunken lasso back at the Hall of Justice to form a message that directs the JSF to the mansion of a millionaire named Vanderbulge (Alden), so that they're on the scene when Gulliver walks in, uses gadgets to get to the millionaire's sapphire (including a tuning fork device to shatter its unbreakable glass case), and the minimizer to shrink Vanderbulge and his guards. The JSF get away unshrunken and decide to call the only other Justice Leaguer who's not currently away on a space mission--our final guest hero for the season, Green Arrow (Alden), who's in Bornego responding to a distress call about giant ants. It turns out that the aunts are normal-sized, but the endangered photographers have been shrunk. Marvin gets through to GA on his Jeep's radio just as the broadcast shrinking ray hits him. Arrow fends off more ants and uses a thread and the Jeep's antenna as a bow from which he launches himself and the photographers to safety on an unshrunken arrow that sprouts a propellor, which he rides to the Hall of Justice after dropping off his passengers.
The JSF and (with GA riding on Wonder Dog) proceed to the government research center to consult with Wilcox and Doctor Curum (Dark), who pick up a coded message that Superman sends by shorting out Gulliver's transmitter with his X-Ray Vision, which gives them the coordinates to Gulliver's castle. While Gulliver plots to shrink people down even further to 1 inch, GA uses a newspaper boat and a shrunken grappling arrow to sneak into the castle. Seeing their fellow JLAer, the jarred Super Friends distract Gulliver, who's sent fleeing out of the room by a fireworks-emitting arrow. GA then activates the tuning fork device to free the heroes from their jars, and they manage to truss up Gulliver. Wonder Woman telepathically summons her plane, which the JSF happen to be sitting in, trying to think it into taking them to WW. Gulliver gets loose and the miniaturized Super Friends engage him in a running battle in which they use the device to shrink him down to their size. The Super Friends proceed to obligatorily lecture him, and the mad scientist reveals that he doesn't have a way of reversing the shrinking. Something Marvin says gives Superman the idea of rewiring the transmitting device to reverse the process, which starts to grow them too much before it's dialed back.
In the coda, there's a gag in which it's suspected that Marvin's been using Gulliver's handheld minimizer to enlarge his high school basketball team, though Marvin reveals that their winning streak owes to how they're now only playing against girls' teams.
_______
Emergency!
"Body Language"
Originally aired December 8, 1973
Wiki said:
Johnny's fretting over what Roy surmises is a rejection when the station and other units are called to aid a crop-duster that's in the process of crashing as they arrive. They find the craft upside down and the pilot stops breathing. As Capt. Stanley determines that the plane was spraying parathion, a farmer named Walt (Frank Bonner) who tried to help free the pilot collapses and then struggles as Johnny tries to see to him. At Rampart base station, Morton having to multitask with the split paramedics.
At Rampart, a young patient (Joshua Albee) is self-conscious because he's on a walker, so he swaps with another boy (Michael Morgan) for his crutches, but Dixie catches them. By the time the pilot gets to the hospital, he's off his respirator but needs surgery for a chest injury. Roy helps a simple-talking man named Donald Lompok (Ronald Feinberg) who's having some difficulty at the registration desk. Brackett treats Lompok for an ear infection and clears him to leave, but Lompok insists on staying for a few days, so Brackett holds an impromptu staff consultation with Early and Morton. Lompok describes how he put mothballs in his ear to fend off a moth who was bothering him, following which the other doctors back Brackett's diagnosis.
At the station, Roy starts to get more details about something that happened at the movies with Barbara--whom Roy describes as Johnny's "problem of the week"--when the squad is called to aid an unconscious man at an observation park. A group of hippies is gathered around, and Roy tries to question a girl named Pam (Ronne Troup), who initially just recites poetry while seemingly under the influence. Roy eventually gets out of her that the guy was ingesting daffodil bulbs with his wine. At Rampart, we learn that the issue is overdosing on atropine, which Morton determines Pam is suffering from a milder case of.
The squad is called from Rampart to a horse ranch, where a rider who fell from his horse, Bill Stagg (Randy Boone), is propped up at a fence and blows off treatment; though the rancher, Doug Barton (Kenneth Tobey), tells them that Bill hit his head on a rock and was out for ten minutes. When Bill insists on getting back on his horse, the paramedics follow him down a dirt trail in the squad until he falls off, then call him in. He's examined for a possible skull fracture and taken in to Rampart. Doug describes Bill as the worst rider he's seen there in thirty years.
As the paramedics are returning from Rampart, they're assigned to join the engine in dealing with a traffic accident on Highway 101. They find a conscious woman (Julie Rogers) standing up in the front seat area of a car turned on its side. Roy pries out the driver of the other vehicle (Hank Jones), while Johnny takes out the woman's windshield so she can walk out. Both are young and start to take an interest in one another as Roy treats the man's head injury; and the pair end up sharing the cab of the tow truck. Afterward, Johhny voluntarily offers how he responded nonverbally when Barbara made a comment about marriage during the film, which she seems to have gotten the wrong idea about.
Johnny gets a call from Barbara at the station, but as he's trying to explain himself, the station is called to an auditorium where a rock musician named Eric has suffered a cardiac arrest from pills while his band, the Delerium Threemen, continued to jam while accompanied by a strobe light. The paramedics get Eric's heart going again and he's taken to Rampart, where Dix informs Roy and Johnny that their "weekend cowboy" plans to ride again.
In the coda, it's a new morning at the station and Johnny's in a better mood because he thinks he's gotten off the hook with Barbara, but Roy notes that what he's described Barbara as saying is just a postponement of the inevitable subject.
_______
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
"I Gave at the Office"
Originally aired December 8, 1973
Wiki said:
Lou: Why am I totally out of it until I have my first cup of...[lifts empty coffee pot]...air?
When it comes up that Murray's daughter needs a summer job (making this not exactly a seasonal installment), Mary suggests that they hire her to do menial jobs in the newsroom...like make coffee. While Lou had agreed to the idea of such a hire, when he finds out that Mary's picked Bonnie Slaughter (Tammi Bula), he objects to her choice as he feels that having Murray's daughter in the newsroom will cramp his aggressive, swear-ridden style. "Uncle Ted"...
Murray: Bonnie, in no way is that man your uncle.
...introduces Bonnie to 19-year-old mailroom employee Rick Welch (young Bruce Boxleitner), which Murray objects to because Rick's four years older than her. (I couldn't find Bula's age, but she looks a little closer to legal than that.)
Lou takes Mary into his office when he learns that Murray's helping Bonnie do her work, and Mary correctly guesses what it's about.
Lou (in full sarcasm mode): That Bonnie has to go, Mary? That's positively uncanny. You and I are developing a nonverbal communication hitherto experienced only by certain birds and fish.
And then Lou learns that Bonnie broke his personalized coffee cup, which one of his own daughters made for him at camp. What's worse, before Mary can comply with Lou's order, Ted has to improvise on the air for a gaffe that's not his fault for a change--Bonnie didn't deliver film for a commercial break. Murray tries to defend his daughter, and after Mary takes Bonnie out, Lou has to break the news to Murray, who wants to settle the matter man-to-man. When he sees how important it is to Murray, Lou agrees to let Bonnie stay, but Mary comes in to reveal that she's already let her go, which Bonnie takes better than Murray...though Murray offers to let Lou patch things up by taking him out for a drink.
In the coda, Ted's now making the coffee--which means that everyone's drinking tea--and Bonnie's gotten a job at a coffee shop near her school that all the boys go to.
Mary: Oh, is she gonna break a lot of hearts.
Lou (while sipping coffee from the substitute cup that Bonnie gave him): Yeah...and a lotta cups.
Lou (while sipping coffee from the substitute cup that Bonnie gave him): Yeah...and a lotta cups.
_______
The Bob Newhart Show
"My Wife Belongs to Daddy"
Originally aired December 8, 1973
Wiki said:
Bob's embarrassed about wearing a happi coat (which involves him making a reference to watching Kung Fu) when Emily's parents, Junior and Aggie Harrison, arrive at the door for a surprise visit. Bob becomes uncomfortable with his outgoing father-in-law, whom everyone else gets along easily with, and whom Emily acts more fun around. Junior's the one feeling awkward, however, when he has a brief encounter with Michelle Nardo at Bob's office. The only thing Bob can think of that might impress his father-in-law is getting a couple of tickets for a Bears game from Jerry, but Junior unknowingly one-ups him by announcing that an old friend has gotten him into the team owner's box, which he invites Carol and Jerry along for in addition to the Hartleys.
Bob's next idea is to take the in-laws to an expensive restaurant, and Jerry recommends one called Top of the Pile, after its location on an apparently fictitious insurance company building. The establishment isn't revolving as its motor is out of order; Bob is taken aback when he learns that Jerry wasn't exaggerating about the prices; and Junior one-ups him some more with first-hand knowledge of Italy. While the ladies are powdering their noses, Junior (signs o' the times alert) whips out a pipe at the table and confesses that he's been trying to impress Bob, whom he's envious of for having won Emily's heart. The men agree to stop trying to impress each other, but as both jump up to pick up the check, Bob accidentally pays for the party at the table next to them (hosted by Byron Morrow as a Mr. Devereaux), while still having to cover his own bill. In the coda, however, he feels that it was worth it...and learns that Emily hates the old number that her father likes to lead singalongs of.
_______
Whereas it's now burned into my brain.
His anecdote was about how a group of Marines declined to evacuate on his boat, but asked him to bring them more rifles. When he returned, they were all dead.
I meant if it were released today, but, even so, the reason that he hasn't played it in four years is probably that he knows the Culture Warrior Vultures are ready to swoop down on him, claws extended.
He could always change the lyrics to age the subject in proportion. "You're sixty-six, you're beautiful, and you're mine."
But you do think that he goes into bars and blows people away.
The Walrus was Paul.or that John was a walrus.
