50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 2)
The Six Million Dollar Man
"The Deadly Replay"
Originally aired November 22, 1974
Peacock said:
Steve attempts to re-test the experimental plane that caused his near-fatal accident. When suspicious things begin to happen, Oscar reveals to Steve that his first crash might not have been an accident. Steve chooses to proceed with the experiments, hoping to lure the saboteurs into the open.
Steve flies to Edwards AFB in an F-104 Starfighter, having been summoned by his old NASA friend Jay Rogers (Robert Symonds), who shows him the rebuilt HL-10 that Steve crashed in his origin. Wanting to lift the curse from the experimental plane, Jay asks Steve to make the single flight that's been authorized. Back at OSI, when Steve expresses a personal need to try the flight again, Oscar reveals that things were found in the wreckage that didn't add up, leading him to believe that the crash wasn't an accident.
Steve returns to Edwards nevertheless (this time in a T-38 two-seat trainer), where he reacquaints with more old friends: his former Air Force crew chief, Walter "Shadetree" Burns (dual-franchise redneck sheriff Clifton James); Ted and Andrea Collins (Jack Ging and Lara Parker)--the latter of whom seems to be in flight medicine/psychology, and is happier to see Steve than the former--and gadget-maker Carl Amison (Jack Manning). (This is starting to feel like a list of suspects.) Jay announces that Steve will fly a simulation of the crash flight first to make sure he's psychologically up to the new test flight. During a golf game with Shadetree, Steve wins a bet on a shot via bionic cheating (with sound effect). During a dance at a club, Andrea pleads with Steve not to fly the HL-10. Outside, a drunken Ted--resentful of Andrea's eyes for Steve--tries to start a fight, which Steve easily circumvents. Somewhere, a mysterious figure gets a call from his inside man and makes clear that Steve Austin has to be dealt with so that the HL-10 project is scrapped to make way for his own design.
The next day, a hung-over Ted seems contrite. During the simulation, Steve starts having origin flashbacks and making mistakes, with visual clues that he's not in his right state of mind. After the simulation is aborted, he smashes a control panel and passes out. Oscar's there when he's awake, wanting to take Steve back to Washington. Steve believes that he was drugged and wants another crack at the simulator to prove it.
The second simulator flight goes smoothly, and it's decided that Steve's ready for the real thing. In private, Oscar and Steve fill in Jay about the sabotage angle; their list of suspects, based on long-term involvement with the project, being the obvious list of suspects, including Jay. (Even if one squints past the overall lack of this episode's guest characters in the pilot, it sticks out that Rudy, who was filling Andrea's role in that story, isn't involved.) Against Oscar's objections, Steve insists on going through with the flight, willing to serve as bait to get to the bottom of what happened. In the hangar, somebody predictably tampers with the HL-10.
While being fixed up with telemetry monitors, Steve encourages Andrea to invest herself in her future with Ted. The flight proceeds, with what's probably a lot of the same footage used in the pilot, including takeoff hooked to a B-52 and a Starfighter chase plane. As Steve's about to separate, Oscar's surprised to find Ted rooting for him.
Ted: I may not like him down on the ground...probably never will. But when he's up there, he's the man. Dig it?
Steve climbs to 83,000, and, his fuel expended, descends in a glide. As the descent begins, the stick slams forward again...Shade estimating that the stick is under so much pressure that it would take the strength of ten men to manipulate it. It's determined that the stick was sabotaged via an access door that was checked out by Amison, who's placed under arrest. Steve refuses to bail and bends the stick's shaft as he struggles with it. This time he brings the craft in for a successful landing. Once on terra firma, a heavily perspiring Steve takes his hands off the stick to reveal that it's been crushed.
Amid much rejoicing, Ted gives his blessing for Andrea to kiss Steve. Oscar reveals that Amison was working for an industrialist named Creighton, the two of them also having been responsible for the crash two years prior. Jay indicates that proper testing of the bird will commence, now that it's been determined not to be faulty / a jinx.
Shazam!
"The Delinquent"
Originally aired November 23, 1974
Edited Wiki said:
Billy must teach a loner attending an outdoor summer camp to believe in himself.
At the camp, surly loner Norm Briggs (Jackie [Earle] Haley...
hurm) eschews chow and slips away for a solo canoe ride...losing his paddle, capsizing while trying to retrieve it, and not being able to swim. Fortunately for the accident-prone residents of the Shazamverse, Billy and Mentor are always camped out nearby. Cap flies through and down from the clouds, even though Billy was within line of sight and shouting distance of Norm, diving into the water and speed-swimming the lad to shore (while Bostwick clearly holds onto a board that's probably doing the propelling), where camp counselor Frank Carlin (Hilly Hicks) waits.
Cap: Fortunately, you only swallowed about half that lake, son.
Cut to Frank telling Billy and Mentor that Norm's not a bad kid, but wises off (his opinion of the camp's chow being a recurring subject) and gets into trouble. Billy thinks that Norm's looking for attention, and after some butting in from the Elders about needing to teach someone to first like himself before he can like others, Billy hatches a plan to boost Norm's confidence by volunteering to teach a confidence-boosting wilderness survival course. When buddies are picked, Norm's the odd man out, so he's left to pair up with Billy. During the hike, Billy starts to bond with Norm, and encourages him to be the first to try rappelling down a cliff. Norm loses his footing and, despite being securely tethered, begins to panic. After an Elder flashback, Billy encourages Norm to figure out for himself what he needs to do to regain his footing and climb back up.
Back at the camp, Norm overhears Billy and Mentor talking with Frank about how the plan is working. Feeling betrayed, Norm runs off into the woods alone with a pack. After being clued in by one of the other kids (Larry Michaels), Billy pursues on his dirt bike. Billy catches up with Norm, who resists Billy's aid and accidentally pushes him down an incline. Norm's first instinct is to split, but after a time-filling little flashback of things that just happened, goes back to render aid to Billy, starting to bring him back to consciousness. Then a bear approaches out of nowhere. (The shit really hits the fan when Billy's the one having the mishaps!) Norm attracts the creature's attention to lure it away from Billy, but finds himself stuck between a bear and a wet place. Then a search party led by Frank and Mentor calls out, and Norm responds. As Billy's coming to and changes to Cap, Mentor--equipped with a bow and quiver because he'd been practicing archery--reluctantly resolves to shoot the bear to save Norm. Cap lands in time to catch the arrow. As Norm leads the others back to where he left Billy, Cap rushes back to change. As Billy, he tells the others how Norm lured the bear away. It's Mission: Accomplished as the kids take interest in hearing the story from Norm himself.
Cap: Hi. Today you saw how Norm finally had the courage to trust Billy...and most important, trust himself. He learned a valuable lesson that we can all share: before we can like others, we must first like ourselves. See you next week.
Emergency!
"Camera Bug"
Originally aired November 23, 1974
Edited IMDb said:
Johnny takes up photography and pesters the station crew for candid shots. The firemen assist a teenager suffering from smoke inhalation during a fire at a school he doesn't attend. A woman is bitten by a scorpion; a fellow fireman mistakes stomach problems brought on by his chili for a heart attack; and a truck driver hauling dynamite is pinned in his vehicle when it catches fire. Dixie and Dr. Brackett assist in the delivery of a baby at a restaurant during their lunch hour.
Motivated to outdo a Sunday magazine photo supplement about a day in the life of a policeman, Johnny brings his camera to the station and pesters Roy and the rest of the crew by trying to force moments while distracted by his expensive camera's learning curve. Station 51 and other units are called to a fire at an elementary school. Although school's not in session, the firefighters find and drag out an unconscious teenage boy (uncredited Ty Henderson) who was hiding in a closet and begins to go into respiratory arrest from smoke inhalation. He's rushed to Rampart, where Officer Vince shares his deduction with Doc Morton that the kid is a vandal. After the young man, Willie, comes to, he becomes violent trying to escape and has to be restrained by Brackett. Morton intervenes, having a one-on-one in which he tries to tough-talk Willie into turning his life around, which is informed by Morton having come from a similar background. Then Willie's distraught mother (uncredited Adrian Ricard) arrives, and that's the last we hear from Willie.
Meanwhile, Squad 51 is sent to Station 68, where a firefighter named Bob Taybord (Ron Masak), who's a friend of Roy's, has collapsed with chest pains in the kitchen (same set as 51's). It turns out that he's not having a heart attack, just indigestion from tasting the overly spicy chili he was making. Back at Rampart, Dix has been having a generally bad day, which includes dealing with a patient named Mr. Johnson (uncredited Olan Soule) who got out of his hospital bed to complain about how his $12 shirt was ripped up while he was being treated. (Bet she's longing for that cushy office about now.) Brackett invites her to lunch at a fancy restaurant to lift her spirits.
At Station 51, Johnny continues his amateur photojournalism as Roy's trying to work under the squad's hood. After Roy accidentally exposes Johnny's film by opening his locker door (which has a Smokey the Bear poster inside), Squad 51 is sent to an apartment complex where an airline stewardess named Trudy Benson (Dianne Harper) has found her roommate, Rachel, unconscious for unknown reasons, Trudy dismissing the possibility of drugs. Rachel's taken to Rampart, where it's deduced that she was stung by a scorpion that she unknowingly brought back in her clothes from a run to Mexico. Realizing that the arachnid is still in the apartment and unable to get ahold of Trudy by phone, the paramedics rush back and rummage through Rachel's things to find the scorpion, which Johnny grabs with a pair of ice tongs.
Kel and Dix are just settling in at the restaurant when the owner, Maurice (Peter Leeds), brings Brackett to an unused dining section to see to a pregnant woman named Margaret Dowell (uncredited Mary Rings) who came in off the street. While she's only in her eighth month, Brackett determines that the baby's going to drop any minute, and starts preparing for delivery, assisted by Dix.
Maurice: Oh, don't you need some boiling water and things like that?
Brackett: No, that only happens in the movies.
Though Brackett has to save the emerging baby girl from the umbilical cord being wrapped around her neck, the delivery is a success. Kel and Dix then find that their lunch time is over and head back to the hospital. Back at Station 51, the photo session has resumed.
Chet: Hey, I got an idea, why don't you take a picture of us all jumping up and down on your camera?
Just as Johnny's annoying the captain with his flash, the station is called to a truck that's gone into a ravine. (Must be Tuesday.) The crew climbs down to the overturned, flaming truck to see to the driver (uncredited Angelo De Meo), only to find that the truck is carrying twenty cases of dynamite to a nearby dam construction project. The driver is rescued by cutting the steering wheel with the jaws, while Stanley determines that it would be best to let the truck burn, as, contrary to expectation, that will apparently prevent the dynamite from exploding.
In the coda, Roy reports that the stewardess and the truck driver are both going to be okay, and Johnny's pleased to have sold an action shot from the last rescue, only for Chet to reveal that he took it by pointing out that Johnny's in the shot.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
"A Boy's Best Friend"
Originally aired November 23, 1974
IMDb said:
Ted is against his mother living with her boyfriend instead of marrying him.
Ted's initially elated about his mother finally getting married, announcing it to the whole newsroom (including some extras) in Lou's office. And while he's looking forward to finally having a father, Georgette can tell that he has reservations about losing his mother, which are causing psychosomatic pains. Ted throws himself into arranging the ceremony, only to call his mother and learn that the wedding is off, but the relationship isn't...his mother and her "gentleman friend" are planning to shack up.
Ted is very upset about this, and Lou insists that he needs to have a man-to-man with his mother's companion. Ted insists that Lou be there, but when Walter Tewksbury turns out to be a respectable and unthreatening looking elder gentleman (Nolan Leary), an amused Lou splits so he can laugh in private. Ted is relieved to learn that Walter and his mother aren't ruling out marriage, they just don't want to rush into the commitment. And Ted becomes intrigued to learn that Walter's well-off and willing to loan him money anytime. Walter also offers to take Ted to a baseball game, which plays into his longing for a father figure. Ultimately, Ted asks Walter for a hundred bucks just because it makes him feel good to have somebody giving it to him.
In the newsroom coda...
Ted: Hey, it just occurred to me that my mother's living in sin. Does that make me a...
Mary: No, Ted, that doesn't make you one.
Murray: But we'll always think of you as one anyway.
The Bob Newhart Show
"An American Family"
Originally aired November 23, 1974
Wiki said:
Bob and Emily's Thanksgiving plans are threatened when Bob's mother gets into an argument with Emily's father.
The Hartley trio are fussing over getting the apartment in order ahead of the Hartley parents coming for Thanksgiving. When they arrive the night before, we meet Herb Hartley for the first time (Barnard Hughes). Then Emily's parents, Junior and Aggie, arrive unexpectedly, bearing a 35-pound turkey and their own side dishes, which conflicts with Martha's own turkey and just-so plans.
The clash of overbearing parents causes some brief tension between Bob and Emily in the bedroom. The next day, as Bob, Emily, and Ellen are preparing dinner, both sets of parents call with excuses to bow out, while promising to show up for dessert. Jerry and Carol arrive as planned, as does Howard, who's disappointed as he'd been fretting about making a good impression on Ellen's parents.
The Harrisons arrive first for dessert as planned, Junior ruining their alibi when he mentions not having had dinner. Howard is leaving for a flight when the Hartley parents arrive, so he barely has a chance to say hi to them as he rushes out, leaving them to ask who he is. Martha wants to leave when she finds that the Harrisons are there, but Herb intervenes, giving Martha and Junior a frank talk about the respective good and bad qualities, which helps them to patch things up...a little too well, as the two of them start falling over one another with apologies and compliments. In the coda, we learn that Junior got on Martha's bad side again by overestimating her age.
I remain underwhelmed by the character of Bob's mother. She's played up as more overbearing than actually comes out in the performance.
It landed safely in Kansas the next day.
I was hoping that Gilligan would find it in the lagoon.
Yeah, we had a pretty bad economy back there in the good old 70s.
Heck, it's one of the decade's defining features, up there with disco.
And this is the release that I remember. Classic Bowie, strong nostalgic value.
The one that sounds like John's on it, but he isn't.
I'm pretty sure this is my first time hearing this. It's okay.
New to me as well, though I would have heard it on his Greatest Hits compilation, which my ex had on CD.
I think I remember this from the Time-Life tapes or Lost 45s. It's okay. Zero nostalgic value.
The title rings more of a bell than the song itself. I'll get this as it appears to be the last of Mac's modest string of hits.
Good one. Catchy with some nostalgic value.
Most ear-catching about this is the blatant use of the riff from "I Feel Fine," which is lampshaded with a reference in the lyrics to sounding like John, Paul, and George.
Very good. Strong nostalgic value.
Now
this is what a number one sounds like (glancing over at the Carpenters' cover of "Please Mr. Postman").
Squiggy says, "Nice try."
Squig can bite me.
That reminds me, we saw the episode of
Adam-12 with Reed brown bagging it yesterday.
Nice. If only I could channel that power into picking lottery numbers.
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