50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 2)
Shazam!
"The Athlete"
Originally aired October 12, 1974
Wiki said:
Kellie has her mind set on being a part of the all-boys Varsity Team. But there are two boys who will do anything in order to get her off the team...perhaps even by planting test answers in her locker.
I'm not gonna give any actor names because the end credits are in the second clip!
As Billy and Mentor are fishing in a pond, Billy specifies that he works for a TV station...and implies that Mentor does as well. A bit of comical mishap ensues as Mentor reels in what turns out to be a fish-shaped sign. Nearby, high school jocks Jack and Bob are driving by as they spot Kellie riding a horse along the side of the road and Jack, clearly one of those child actors gone wrong, decides to "have some laughs" with the "girl wonder"--whom Bob used to dig--by honking his horn to spook the beast, making Kellie lose control.
Cap offers her a ride in the van instead, and we hear an offscreen "Shazam!" as he changes back. At her family ranch, Kellie explains that the guys don't want her on the track team. (Apparently all girls in the Shazamverse have horse ranches.)
The Elders call, and Billy realizes he hasn't gotten in the cultural quota yet. For once, Billy should be ahead of the curve as they mention that everyone must prove their own self-worth, but he can help somebody to affect change in doing so...yet he still acts like it's as cryptic as usual. However, he's clued in enough to proceed to watch Kellie practice at her school's athletic field. Jack and Tommy taunt her while running alongside, Jack munstrously pushing her off the track, causing her to twist her ankle. Billy tries to talk some sense into them, having an obligatory if unnecessary Elder flashback; a second ensuing as he and Mentor talk to Kellie. Jack and Tommy overhear as one of Kellie's teachers,
Mrs. Magill, encourages her to give up athletics in favor of a scholarship for her schoolwork and more "ladylike" pursuits. Jack decides to ruin it all for her by planting test answers in her locker...Herman really didn't raise this boy right. A student coach named Tommy, who's supportive of Kellie's efforts, sees them leaving the girls' locker room.
Mrs. Magill promptly confronts Kellie with the test answers found in her locker (Why was it being searched?) and informs her that she's suspended pending an investigation, and thus won't be able to participate in the try-outs that day. After Mentor underscores that this will set girls' athletic progress at the school back by at least a year, Billy has an unprecedented third Elder flashback--perhaps compensating for the missing cultural quota. When Mentor floats the possibility that somebody else put the answers in the locker, Tommy tells them about the locker room encounter and confronts Jack and Bob alongside Mrs. Magill. Bob confesses to the "crummy thing" they did, and Magill suspends them instead.
With the try-outs about to commence, Billy changes to Cap to get Kellie back in time. He spots her tearfully riding her dirt bike and saves her from running into a tractor that stalls across the road by lifting the hitched tiller up over his head for her to ride under.
Star Trek
"The Counter-Clock Incident"
Originally aired October 12, 1974
Animated Series finale
Wiki said:
An unusual spaceship pulls the Enterprise into a "negative universe" where time seems to flow backwards.
Captain's log, stardate 6770.3: The Enterprise is on course for the planet Babel, where ambassadors from all Federation planets are waiting to honor the Enterprise's distinguished passenger: Commodore Robert April, first captain of the USS Enterprise, and for the past twenty years, Federation ambassador-at-large. Now 75 years old, Commodore April has reached mandatory retirement age.
April (Doohan) expresses an attachment to the bridge, though it's a different design from the pilots, whatever it would have been like in his days. What's more, Sarah April (Nichols) is said to have been the first doctor on a warp-driven starship, which is all kinds of problematic even with continuity that had been established to date. The ship is approaching the Beta Niobe supernova (from "All Our Yesterdays") when Spock detects a vessel on a collision course with them traveling at approximately Warp 36. They evade it and find that it's headed straight into the supernova. As they tractor beam the ship, reducing its speed to Warp 32, it makes visual contact...
Captain's log, stardate 6770.6: The Enterprise has passed into the most alien landscape I have ever seen. We are in some reverse universe where black stars shine in a white void. We are still in the tow of the alien ship, both of us having survived the extreme heat of the Beta Niobe nova.
Scotty indicates that all controls are working in reverse, and Dr. April notices that her withered Capellan flower is rejuvenating...becoming a seed in seconds. Spock notes that the chronometer is moving backward, as is everyone's aging; and they can now understand the alien woman, Karla Five (Nichols), who indicates that this is her universe and she accidentally traveled to theirs, which seemed in reverse to her. The reverse supernova in her universe has become a star, so she has the
Enterprise backward-follow her to her homeworld.
Captain's log, supplemental: We are proceeding to Karla Five's planet, Arret.
See what they did there? Spock theorizes that they need to find another star that's being born in this universe and dying in theirs. A landing party beams down to consult Karla's scientist son, Karl Four (Doohan), who's older than her. Comparing a map of the reverse galaxy to one of their own, Spock finds no coincidental novae, but April suggests they could help give birth to a new star at the right coordinates in the negative universe. They work out that they'll have to have Karla's more powerful but smaller ship tow them again.
Captain's log, stardate 6770.1: Time continues to flow backward for us. We have set course for a dead star in this anti-matter universe that corresponds with the nova Minara in ours. We're being pulled by Karla Five's unmanned vessel, which is equipped with enough positive matter armament to ignite the dead star into life...
Shat's delivery makes it sound like this log was cut off in mid-sentence.
Foreshades of TNG on the transporter solution! I have to assume that the dramatic acceleration of their reverse aging owed to how they were increasing speed while approaching the nova. Otherwise, you'd think that they'd reverse age at the same rate that they'd normally age. It would've been funny if reverse-aging Spock started shouting everything.
Once everyone's been restored to their proper ages, the
Enterprise receives a message from the Federation that they'll consider Commodore April's appeal to waive the mandatory retirement age and let him continue serving as ambassador-at-large. Kirk notices that Dr. April's flower is back in full bloom.
Dr. April: Our trip into the negative universe gave it a second life. It gave all of us a second life.
And there we have it, the final onscreen voyage of the five-year mission. That's all the Star Trek there is...until 1979.
Emergency!
"Communication Gaffe"
Originally aired October 12, 1974
IMDb said:
Roy and Joanne go on a TV quiz show. Roy and John respond to a holdup where both a policeman and a suspect have been shot, and another officer gives them a hard time over treating the suspect. A woman brings in her abused son for treatment. A man inhales too much nitrous oxide. The paramedics treat a boy suffering an allergic reaction to a bee sting. A pickup carrying kerosene collides with a station wagon and starts a brushfire.
Chet's acting a little vain because he got on the TV news the night before, causing Roy to share that he and Joanne are appearing on a quiz show. The squad and another engine are called to a shooting at a liquor store, almost getting into an accident with a sports car that blows through a stop sign. They're met outside the store by Lt. Crockett (James McEachin), who wants them to exclusively treat his wounded partner (John Elerick), chastising Johnny when he splits off to see to an also-wounded suspect. The detective pulls the same thing on Roy, declaring that policemen come first when Brackett asks for the suspect's condition and vitals; and, declaring himself in charge, ordering Roy to give his conscious partner some morphine for his leg wound. Roy informs him that it's a bad idea given that the officer also has a head injury from hitting the sidewalk; then has Crockett take the cuffs off the unconscious suspect so they can treat him, which includes applying defib. As the wounded officer is being loaded in the ambulance, he expresses remorse about his first shooting, but Crockett insists that he shouldn't feel anything about it. Crockett rides in the front of the ambulance, eager to question the suspect about his partner who got away.
As the patients are separated at Rampart, Crockett flashes his badge and tries pulling the same routine with Dix, who stands up to him. After he's seen that his partner is being taken care of, Crockett intercepts Brackett in the hall, wanting to question the suspect.
Brackett: Sorry.
Crockett: Why not?
Brackett: Because he just died.
Must be Friday.
Lyla Caine (Brooke Bundy) brings her young son, Robbie, to Rampart with facial injuries and a story about an accident in the garage. Dix remembers him having been in before for a fractured finger, and Brackett examines the boy's body to find various other injuries and bruises. He expresses an interest in talking to the boy's father, Brock, though Lyla seems worried about upsetting him. (Not to be insensitive, but they just did a child abuse story last season.)
In the squad, Johnny's trying to come up with an angle for Roy and Joanne to prepare their answers, which will test how well the spouses know each other, when the paramedics are called to an apartment where a woman (Jennifer King, I presume) tells them that her husband/boyfriend Arnie has lost consciousness while blowing up balloons for a party. The paramedics find that he was using nitrous oxide. He comes to from oxygen, refuses an IV (which involves another release form), and explains that he was planning to pop the balloons as a prank to get everyone high.
Brock Caine (Denny Miller) comes to see Brackett, who finds that the defensive father's story about the injured finger doesn't match his wife's. Brackett gives Brock his diagnosis that Robbie is the victim of child abuse. This shocks Brock, who insists that he's never hit Robbie...but when Lyla is brought in, she confesses, describing how she loses control when the boy gets to her. (Last season it was Mariette Hartley.) Brackett questions her about her own recent injuries, and it turns out that she's been suffering head pain since she was in a car accident months ago.
The crew is discussing the quiz show over a meal at the station when Crockett comes in, acting more friendly and relaxed but asking Roy and Johnny if they noticed anyone leaving the scene as they arrived at the liquor store. They remember the car that they almost ran into, but are unable to recall any details other than the color when the squad is called to help an unconscious 12-year-old boy whom they determine was stung by a bee while he and a friend were taking a shortcut through the wilderness. They're stymied when Early orders an IV because the parents aren't on hand to authorize it. Crockett, who came along with them, puts his badge-tossing to good use, declaring that he's placing the boy in protective custody and authorizing the treatment, which enables the paramedics to pull him through in time. At Rampart, Crockett gets a little more detail about the car, determining that it was probably stolen; and deftly avoids Dix.
At the station, while Roy and Johnny are working under the squad, Johnny's insecurity about how well he and Roy know each other, in contrast to how well Roy and Joanne know each other, comes up for the third time. Back at Rampart, Lyla has had a clot successfully removed, and tries to explain her behavior to Robbie, who's more concerned about her. Back at the station, Johnny has just informed Roy that Crockett caught his suspect when the crew is called to an accident at a canyon. They find a station wagon and pickup truck having both gone downhill after a collision, the truck overturned and on fire and drums of kerosene that the truck was carrying scattered around. Roy tends to a passenger who got out of the wagon, and while the engine crew and another unit are putting out the truck and trying to contain the spreading brush fire, the driver of the pickup is found. Finally, they get to the driver of the wagon, who's pinned between his seat and the wheel. Marco pries him out with the assistance of a motor officer (uncredited Scott Gourlay), following which the wagon falls downhill. The Battalion 5 commander (Paul Bryar) arrives and takes charge of the brush fire situation, directing other units in containing it, which includes calling in a copter for water drops. When the explosion of a kerosene drum damages the station's hose, Johnny calls in a drop to help them get the truck driver out of the canyon.
When they return to the station, Roy is relieved by his substitute, Dwyer (Brian Cutler), and rushes to the show as the station crew is called to another situation. After they return, the crew gathers around the set to watch the show in progress. A picture issue contrivedly keeps Joanne from appearing on their screen or ours. Johnny's answer about Roy's favorite vegetable disagrees with Joanne's, but when the picture returns for Roy's appearance, his answer is a third vegetable...proving that neither Joanne nor Johnny knows Roy as well as they think they do.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
"The Outsider"
Originally aired October 12, 1974
Wiki said:
The gang is displeased when Lou hires a young consultant named Bob Larson to raise ratings for the newscast.
Also directed by Peter Bonerz. The newsroom staff is put off at being summoned to a meeting in Lou's office at 8:00 in the morning, where he tells them that because their ratings have dipped below their usual level of "absolutely terrible," he's hiring a program coordinator...whom he insists to Mary will only be there to make suggestions, and at all levels. The staff are having a powwow about the situation in Ted's dressing room when Lou brings in Larson (Richard Masur), who's only two years out of journalism school. They soon find themselves inundated with memos and unwanted changes to the format of the show. Even Sue Ann is affected by the situation, outraged that news announcements are being made over the audio of her show. When Mary goes in to talk to Lou about it, he plays a "What if I told you...?" game to rub her nose in the revelation that the ratings have gone up by a point in the two weeks that Larson's been on the job.
Soon everyone's feeling much better about the situation, and Mary decides to throw a party for Larson to make up for the bad reception he got. The running gag about Mary's parties continues when Lou likens the idea to the bonding formed by shared suffering during the war. But at the party, as Mary makes a toast to Bob, who's about to leave early to pick someone up at the airport, he drops the bomb that he's leaving WJM. The next morning, when confronted at the newsroom, Bob says that he's done all he can for the station given its limited resources. This sinks morale again, though Mary tries to put a positive spin on WJM just being a "nice, friendly little station". She then boosts Murray and Ted's morale by suggesting that the station had received a complimentary letter about the show from Eric Sevareid a week before Larson was hired...though she admits to Lou afterward that it was only a "What if I told you...?"
There's a little subgag about a poem-reading weatherman...I wonder who that is these days now that John Amos has his
Good Times gig? Also, between the Cronkite episode and the Eric Sevareid reference, it strikes me that the show implies that WJM is a CBS affiliate without ever coming out and saying it.
The Bob Newhart Show
"Sorry, Wrong Mother"
Originally aired October 12, 1974
Wiki said:
Ellen tries to get Howard's son Howie (Moosie Drier) to like her.
This one also goes back to the old opening where Emily's role is concerned; though Bob's still flipping up his door sign instead of answering the phone. Maybe the New Emily didn't take. Was Steve Austin in the focus group?
Bob gives Michelle Nardo a hand puppet through which she can express her issues with her father. As she's leaving, Carol makes a reference to former Sullivan recurring act Señor Wences. Meanwhile, Ellen's meeting Howie for the first time, and Howard still needs to break the news about his new relationship. Howie initially gives her the cold shoulder. In an attempt to make a good impression, Ellen treats him and the Hartleys to ice cream at Uncle Yummy's, where the party is waited on by a guy named Dave (John Ritter wearing a probably fake handlebar mustache and talking like a kid's show character), and Howard puts on the pressure for Ellen to win Howie over. Just after Howard makes the announcement about him and Ellen, which is met with a sulking reaction, the staff make a show of teasing Bob for not having accepted the challenge to eat a very large specialty sundae dubbed "the Whale".
Afterward, Bob suggests that Ellen do something with Howie "without Howard breathing down your neck". Aunt Emily takes Howie to the aquarium but is unable to get anything out of him about his feelings toward Ellen. Then she leaves him in Bob's office while she uses the restroom and Bob sits on the couch and tries using the puppet as a stand-in for Ellen, learning would prefer his father to marry Aunt Emily. Bob tries to explain how Howard marrying Ellen would actually make the Hartleys his family. Ellen is soon frustrated to find that she's competing with Emily. When she has to opportunity, she starts to put her foot down with Howie while also offering to take him to the aquarium; and when Howard tries to steer her elsewhere, Bob tells him to shut up.
Just a random check, or did somebody call it in for some reason?
It was a follow-up to a burglary prevention talk they gave, as part of their new team policing gig. There was a series of burglaries in the woman's neighborhood, which was apparently the same one that Gary popped up in later.
He could very well be considered handsome by other pigs.
They don't have a lot of continuity on this show, but when they do it's major league.
Apparently the character's name slightly changed, but they were trying.
Does he have copies of Watchtower handy for those that do answer?
Is this part of his Neighborhood Watch activities?
Yes, and he was being chastised for not calling it in as soon as he spotted something suspicious, in favor of continuing to investigate the scene himself. And the suspicious activity he'd initially spotted was Malloy in civvies standing around talking into a paper bag.
Maybe they were looking for a
Team 12 spinoff.
I have to wonder if there was any then-current authenticity to the Team 12 setup, or if it was just an eleventh-hour format change. While it's a cute idea, it doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense in terms of Mac's role. He had been in charge of a division of patrol car officers. Now he's in charge of four guys, including one patrol car crew. In this setup, how many Macs would they need for all of the patrol car crews?
And I think it will remain that way until Radar leaves.
Radar leaves? I don't remember that.
That's heartbreaking, watching from the future.
I have to wonder if the writing was on the wall and they were priming the audience.
Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb.
Bat-Capped, old chum!
Yep...only thing I know him from offhand.
Maybe he's a real syndicate leader making a cameo appearance. "Hawaii Five-0? I love that show!"
He's an actor of the era who comes up routinely in Asian roles.
Cars explode, but bombs don't.
True.
His hair is wearing him for protection.
If the personalities are so distinct, you'd think the senator would just comply.
His alter ego was clearly asserting its will.
Well, it was probably clear that he was dealing with a couple of idiots who really cared about the dog. He should have reduced Oscar's fine, too.
Oscar was comically perturbed at this development in the end.
Yikes. That's an unusual occurrence.
It reminded me of OHMSS, other than Fran's regular character armor.
And did he dig out the slug and have it analyzed? No, because it's from his gun. Not really, because he would have used a throwaway.
He said that the slug was taken by the police, which probably checked out, or he wouldn't have been telling the Chief.
He's kind of trigger happy. He might want to consider a career change.
His short fuse was repeatedly commented upon...with a bit of a hint that he may have finally started seeing the light at the end, IIRC.
So Frost died in the fall, not by being shot?
Apparently.
How did Fran get involved with this guy?
They were introduced by the writer.
Okay, so Parsons and Frost committed the robbery and Parsons wanted Frost dead now that he had been paroled so that he could keep all of the money-- but Frost didn't even seem to be trying to contact Parsons, and Parsons had been paying Frost's wife a stipend.
The premise was that Frost was expecting his cut now that he was out.
Parsons used Jamie to feed tips to Jim and Frost, so that he could kill Frost and Jim would get blamed-- but then Jim killed Frost accidentally anyway.
Jim presumably didn't, which means that Parsons must have been there.
And they never really addressed the fact that Jim was a really bad cop who Fran should have sent to Canada.
He's no doubt going there anyway...though we could waive the Canada fate given that the show's ending so soon anyway. At least Fran didn't marry him in the same episode.
Interesting. It just kind of sounds like Chicago lite to me.
You don't get an ethereal/psychedelic vibe off of it?
Okay, that does make sense.
Also, Suzy protested that she didn't have time for a social life between work and school.
Some shots of George 
