Post-50th Anniversary Viewing
Ironside
"The Rolling Y"
Didn't air February 6, 1975
Syndicated series finale
Frndly said:
Cattle rustling is the charge against Ironside's friend, a parolee who swears he is innocent.
In Medina County, a trio of dirt bikers with a waiting truck break onto the grounds of rancher Paul Pacheco (William Bramley) to rustle cattle, but end up exchanging shots with the owner. One of the bikers, Porter Yarborough (the former secretary's son, William Katt), mainly hangs back during the action, but as they're getting away, another biker, Jody Peters, hits a bump and falls into a ravine; while Porter rides on in front of the car of Sheriff Callahan (the former secretary's husband and William's dad, Bill Williams). Porter returns to the art shop of older city girl Veronica Zradna (Marjorie Battles), where we get an infodump that he just got off parole under Chief Ironside, following being charged with throwing a brick at a cop during a student protest.
Porter goes to the city the next day to show his paintings to artist Emil Victor (Freddie Roberto) at the Cave, and is accepted as Victor's student. Back in Medina, Peters is in critical condition and the sheriff goes talking to Porter's father, rancher Clint Yarborough (John Larch), at the titular homestead; and then to Veronica. She calls Ironside to warn Porter, then the Chief calls Mr. Yarborough only to be angrily told to mind his own business, which is practically an invitation to a master detective. The Chief and Ed arrive at the Yarborough ranch just in time to see Porter--following a confrontation with his father, who found $2,000 in cash in his room--being taken into custody by Deputy Earl Muncey (Shelly Novack), who informs Porter that Jody is dead. Yarborough blames Ironside for what's become of his son, apparently a believer that the effect is responsible for the cause.
The Chief tries to get Yarborough to help him help his son, but Mr. Y assumes his son is guilty and was rustling to finance the art career that he doesn't support. The Chief finds the sheriff standoffish, but the deputy gives him the facts of the case, including bullet forensics. Ed talks to Pacheco for his account of the incident, and is told of how the raids have become a regular thing, hundreds of heads having been stolen in recent months. Ed then talks to Veronica, who tells him that the money was from her. After he leaves, the third party in the rustling (Albert Cole, whose character is billed as Al Cole), who's been watching her place from the gas station he works at across the street and is answering to an unseen party about the investigation, goes in to question Veronica about what she's been telling the cops. She vocally deduces that he was involved in the rustling, which motivates him to take her into the back room at knifepoint. At a motel room, castings of the bike tracks compared with Pacheco's account indicate that one of the surviving bikers wasn't close to the action, and the other was. Fran arrives to report that somebody else got Porter out on bail before she made it to the county seat, and that he's now staying with Veronica.
Ed returns to Veronica's place to find Porter sitting over her body, though the estimated time of death casts doubt that he could have done it. Porter tells the Chief, his father, and the sheriff that Jody had invited him along that night; that he didn't know what he was getting involved in or who was driving the truck; and that he was trying to get away from them to notify the law. In private afterward, the Chief reveals to Mr. Y that Veronica was paying Porter to do paintings, and that all of the portraits he did were of his father, encouraging Mr. Y to reciprocate the unexpressed affection by telling his son that he was the one who paid for a lawyer and bail. Porter and his father have a talk afterward about Porter not being interested in his ranching legacy; but the sheriff arrives to take Porter back in after the driver of the truck is found and says that Porter was his contact. Ed finds Al's bike, which sports identifying damage incurred during the incident, at the gas station. For reasons unclear to me, the Chief and Ed suspect that there was another, unidentified party involved who got to the driver; and that they want Porter dead.
Mark arrives in town and gets himself arrested by the deputy for DUI and resisting arrest, to be locked up in the cell next to Porter's. The Chief lets Mr. Y in on his attempt to determine which jailhouse insider is out to silence Porter and make it look like a suicide. The two of them stake out the sheriff's office by night in separate vehicles while communicating via handheld radio; while Ed catches Al returning for his bike and shoots him into crashing when he tries to ride away. Inside the office, a shadowy figure checks that Mark's out and then wakes up Porter, revealing himself to be Deputy Muncey. When Porter doesn't want to cooperate with a staged self-hanging, Muncey threatens to take him outside and shoot him on the grounds that he was trying to escape. But when the deputy's back is to the other cell, Mark grabs him and puts a concealed weapon in his back, following which the Chief and Mr. Y walk in. The sheriff deduces that Muncey was helping the rustlers to evade him, and Al Biker implicates the deputy when Ed brings him in along with a weapon that will match bullets fired at Pacheco.
In the series' final coda, Mr. Y reveals that he's had a barn cleared out to serve as Porter's studio, and Porter declares his intention to work at home rather than study under Emil Victor. The series' final shot is of the van ascending a dusty road while leaving the titular locale.
All in the Family
"Everybody Does It"
Originally aired February 8, 1975
Wiki said:
The Stivics show Archie the error of his "borrowing" nails and an electric drill from work.
Archie's upset to learn that Edith's invited Irene over for dinner (without even a handwave for Frank), and further that they're having fish in deference to her Catholicism because it's Friday. It comes up in front of the kids that Archie brought home nails from work to use for a household project, and they point out the wrongness of this...though Mike indicates that Gloria isn't innocent herself as she brings home free samples from the cosmetics counter. When Irene comes over, it turns out that she's allowed to eat red meat on Fridays and was expecting the usual Friday-night meatloaf. Mike brings up Archie taking the nails from work, and while Archie tries to play it down, Edith comes in asking why he has a power drill in his lunchbox. Irene takes him to task for this, noting that he could face prosecution, and then leaves. This upsets Edith so that she refuses to serve the main course. While the kids try to pile on the guilt, Archie makes a show of sitting down to salad and bread...which is enough to get Meathead to take a seat and join him.
Mike: Gloria, we tried to make a point. We lost. Accept defeat, eat.
As the main topic continues, Archie underscores Mike's hypocrisy.
Archie: Oh, listen to this commie pinko over here. He's worried about the bosses now.
Mike gets on the wrong side of the sermon when he takes a collect phone call that he never intended to accept from a friend in Chicago so that he can deliver a prearranged coded message without anyone paying for the call.
As Archie proceeds with his project the next day, Edith tries to persuade him to go over and apologize to Irene. When he attempts to make a point that it would be okay for a lumberyard worker to take home the large piece of plywood that he bought, Edith doesn't agree.
Archie: That's 'cause I'm talkin' to you in English, and you're listenin' to me in Dingbat!
Archie ends up breaking the drill bit but doesn't want to get Irene involved in fixing it for fear of his boss finding out. As the kids continue to work on Archie about both the theft and Irene, Archie becomes worried that she'll tell the boss if he doesn't make up with her, so he has Edith invite her over for dinner again. She comes over expecting the apology, which Archie manages to get out despite being hovered over by Edith. Archie then bluntly goes into trying to make a point that he wouldn't snitch on her if she borrowed a drill, and she counters by starting to work out the figures of how much it would cost the company if every employee stole a small amount of supplies every week (sounding very much like the bosses). Archie catches that she pulls a company pen out of her purse, but when he tries to accuse her of theft, it gets thrown back at him.
Edith: I gave it to her, you've got a drawer full of 'em.
So it's okay to take advantage of property that you know was stolen if somebody else did the stealing? Anyway, Irene realizes why Archie really wanted her over and walks out insulted again.
Archie decides to cover his butt by returning the drill first thing on Monday (not mentioning that he'd still owe them for the bit), but when he goes out to the back porch, finds that somebody stole his piece of plywood.
It turns out that we have already seen the last of Frank, as Vincent Gardenia's final appearance was "Edith's Christmas Story" in '73. From something I read, it sounds like they may be Chucking him at this point. (Betty Garrett won't be around too much longer, either.)
One thing the Soviets did really well was their Venus exploration program. That being said, one of their Venera misfires just crashed back to Earth after more than fifty years within the last couple of weeks or so. Just had to rub it in a bit.
Did it land on a Pacific island that used to have a resort where the Harlem Globetrotters played against robots?
Bad enough that the government didn't inform her, but the Post didn't either? Or did they not know his identity?
I was wondering about that. They were probably just trying to keep his identity confidential.
My hometown. I'll understand if you don't want to come visit.
I thought that might be of interest.
Speaking of hometowns, I found something else nifty in
Detective #450...a letter from South Bend, Ind.
Not their best, but a good one. No nostalgic value, because my brain has not assigned it a date stamp for some unknown reason.
Maybe because it became better known with later exposure? Anyway, rock classic, the band coming into its earlier peak period.
I don't remember this one. I'm not a big fan of Ambrosia. I recognize the band name, but I can't think of any of their songs.
I had to look it up, but they'll have bigger and more memorable soft rock hits in '78 and '80.
Now we're talking. Very good. Strong nostalgic value.
Particularly strong nostalgic value here as my sister had the single, which we used to get a real kick out of as kids.
Also very good. Sweet and bittersweet. Strong nostalgic value.
Can't say I was particularly familiar with this one, but it's got a good sound and the lyrics are interesting once looked up.
Hypocrisy is foundational to all ideologies.
But rarely as blatant and self-serving as now...this weekend offering a particularly good example.
Fonzie lost his virginity to Mrs C while Howard was overseas, and the result was Joanie. This show just gets weirder and weirder the more we talk about it.
And then along comes Fonzie's cousin Chachi....
Has it ever specifically been said that he saw combat?
Not that I've caught. He was a mess sergeant.
Oh, I knew that. It was actually named after Bikini Atoll, the site of an atom bomb test, to give the impression that wearing it made you not just a bombshell, but an atomic bombshell. The "bi" part was just serendipitous.
It's a given that the bikini was around, as Ralph was referencing it.
I suppose, but it kind of reached its crescendo in the 60s, I think.
I dig where you're coming from, man.
But she wore the corsage all the way home? 
