50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 1)
The Six Million Dollar Man
"Divided Loyalty"
Originally aired November 30, 1975
Edited Wiki said:
When a scientist who defected to Russia for love wants to return to the US, Steve is assigned to bring him back.
In Washington, Edna Jackson (Johana DeWinter) negotiates with Oscar to arrange the refection of her brother Leon (Michael McGuire), who's willing to face serving time because he wants his 14-year-old son, Alex (Radames Pera) to enjoy the freedom of the United States. The OSI's incentive is getting Jackson's solar research out of the enemy's hands. We get the unusual device of an M:I-reminiscent voiceover briefing by Oscar while a first-person-perspective figure who's supposed to be Steve studies photos and conveniently points on a labeled map to booby-trapped points of interest that surround the mansion near the Finnish border where the Jacksons are being kept while Leon finishes his work (
see first three photos). Cut to Steve on the ground and approaching the mansion, evading sensor beams that he can see with his bionic eye. On the estate, Leon informs his son that they'll be leaving sooner than expected--the Jacksons being scheduled to return to their home that day. But Alex is close with a uniformed type named Boris (Ned Romero) who tells him war stories, with whom the boy shares his father's odd behavior.
Meanwhile, Steve is spotted jumping a fence and shot at by a plainclothes ground guard named Gottke (Lawrence Levine), who sounds the alarm. The officer in charge of security, Captain Ledvin (Curt Lowens), attributes what Gottke saw to the flask in his pocket. Steve jumps into the study of Jackson, who's expecting him. When Alex comes in, Leon fills him in on what's going on, but Alex doesn't want to leave, feeling closer to Boris than his research-focused father. The boy reluctantly complies, however, accompanying the adults as Steve overpowers a couple of guards to sneak them out. When they get to their escape Jeep, Alex covertly punctures the radiator with a pocket knife. The escapees are seen and pursued.
When the Jeep overheats on the Not California road, Steve figures out what happened and privately confronts Alex. Steve proceeds to help the Jacksons evade the sensor beams, and hides the Jeep by pushing it down a wooded hillside. While Steve's scouting around in the woods surrounding Lake Mayberry, Alex makes a break for some nearby guards, who forcefully subdue Leon with a rifle butt when he goes after his son and tries to fight them off. After Steve takes the guards out, Leon announces that he's now blind, to his son's tearful regret.
The escapees take another Jeep to a nearby storage shed, where Steve examines Leon's eyes and assesses that the blindness is probably temporary. Along the way he gets in a little bionic strength in front of both Jacksons--Leon not seeing it and Alex not making anything of it--and says some things that get father and son on the road to reconciliation. Leon tells Alex how he defected for love of Alex's mother, and after she died in childbirth, he cut off his feelings and buried himself in his work, which included shutting out Alex; and how getting Alex to the West was his way of finally doing something for his son. As the fugitives proceed with their escape, they find their route out blocked.
Steve has them proceed to a gorge with a grappling-hooked rope and a barrel of sand under his arm. He swings the rope across the gorge, then goes back with the barrel to an area of woods roll it down a hill and set off Chekhov's Mapped Minefield as a diversion. Returning to the gorge, Steve crosses by hand, dangling from the rope with Leon on his back...his normal hand needing a break at one point. While Steve's crossing back, Boris finds Alex. Alex tries to reason with Boris, but Boris attempts to force Steve at gunpoint to bring back Leon. Steve drop-kicks him and proceeds with carrying Alex over. Boris comes to, aims his weapon at them, but can't bring himself to fire, instead calling out his good wishes to Alex.
In the Washington coda, Leon's sight is restored and an unseen Secretary puts him on probation, so he and Alex can live with Edna while Leon shares his research. Steve encourages Alex that in his new home, he can be anything he wants.
All in the Family
"Archie's Civil Rights"
Originally aired December 1, 1975
MeTV said:
Archie gets a lesson in civil liberties when he's arrested using outlawed tear gas to protect himself against a mugger.
Gloria's having breakfast with Edith while Mike's at a teacher's conference in Albany (i.e., isn't in this one). They're discussing Archie's horoscope (Taurus, of course) when he comes in and declares that he was mugged. While the ladies are tending to a cut on his hand, he tries to tell the story despite Edith's tangents. Eventually he manages to convey how he was held up by a young white man with a switchblade, but drove him away with a tear gas squirter. After Gloria leaves to call Mike, the Bunkers get aa visit from Officer Gorsky (Frank Campanella), who's there to complete the report after Archie called in about the incident. When Archie gets to the tear gas, the officer takes interest and finds it himself to have a look at it; then rather heavy-handedly takes a little too much pleasure in citing Archie to appear in court for possessing the magazine-ordered device without a permit (void where prohibited by law). This even raises Edith's ire, such that she yanks a donut that she gave him out of his mouth.
The night before Archie's appearance, neither he nor Gloria, who's in his corner on this matter, can sleep. (It makes you wonder how they would've played it if Rob Reiner hadn't been doing an episode of
The Rockford Files.)
Archie: Well, nothin' makes sense in this country since General Eisenhower was sleepin' in the White House.
After an awkward syndication edit, Archie shows up in court with the family and his arm in a sling. His next rude awakening comes when he sees
Judge Frances MacKenzie (Paulene Myers)...though it turns out this is only an arraignment to set a trial date. Archie makes a point of showing off Gloria's condition, and mentions that he knows Sammy Davis Jr. The judge recommends that Archie get a lawyer for the trial, and Archie just gets himself in deeper when he volunteers that he used the weapon, which is a felony assault. Archie then becomes outraged to learn that the mugger got off because his rights were read to him in English, which he doesn't speak.
Archie: Well, no bum that can't speak perfect English oughta stay in this country, he oughta be de-exported the hell outta here!
Gloria approaches the judge to protest regarding her father's civil liberties.
D.A. (Charles Siebert): That woman is out of order, Your Honor!
Archie: Well, only for the next few weeks, then she'll be back to normal again.
While attempting to prove that Archie's civil rights were protected, it comes to the judge's attention that the officer searched for the sprayer without a warrant, and she immediately dismisses the case. Archie pulls his arm out the sling to shake the judge's hand.
M*A*S*H
"The Gun"
Originally aired December 2, 1975 (Now on a new night!)
Frndly said:
Frank steals a wounded colonel's rare Colt .45, and lets Radar take the rap when it's discovered the gun is missing.
Houlihan is outraged when Radar comes into her tent to wake her up because of an incoming ambulance, which is carrying a couple of casualties from a road accident, one of whom is Colonel Chaffey (Warren Stevens). After Potter tells a WWI story in the OR, the colonel's chrome six-shooter with a bone grip--which was taken by Radar as a matter of routine as he was unloaded from the ambulance--becomes a subject of conversation. Burns is later awakened for a bus of incoming wounded, and takes an interest in the colonel's gun as Radar--who's better at twirling it--is putting another weapon in the locker. When the colonel comes to, he expresses his gratitude to B.J. and asks about his Colt .45. Radar is sent to retrieve the gun and finds that it's missing. Frank has swiped the gun and shows it off to Margaret, who's turned on by it.
Colonel Potter reads
Stars and Stripes with an article about a West Point cheating scandal that happened in August 1951; but Eisenhower is referenced as being president in the same scene. Radar reports the stolen gun, noting that Burns was with him when he last saw it. When Potter informs Radar that he could face fifteen years for stealing the weapon, Radar notes that he'd be in his 30s, which Gary Burghoff actually was. Potter talks to Chaffey, who wants the head of the "noncompoop" responsible. The guys press a panicky Ferret Face about it, guilting him about Radar taking the rap.
Hawkeye: I'm very fond of Radar, Frank. He's both the child and pet I never had.
Radar hits the Officer's Club, getting smashed while still working on his first mug of beer and unloading his troubles on Klinger. Potter makes a P.A. announcement offering no questions asked for the weapon's return, while also putting an unconscious Radar to bed, complete with giving him his Teddy bear. Frank sneaks in for the locker keys and makes a ton of noise trying to put it back. Reconscious Radar stumbles into the ward to still-drunkenly confront Chaffey about the charges. Radar pretends to use his Teddy bear as a gun just as a gunshot rings out, following which Frank limps into Margaret's tent with a superficial wound to his foot. He tries to claim thaat he caught somebody else returning the gun, though she's obviously not fooled. Frank's takeaway is, "When you steal something, don't ever try to return it."
The next day, Chaffey acknowledges Radar's innocence while being loaded into a Jeep with his leg in a cast, and Potter tries to talk him into putting the gun in a museum. Radar finds that one of the symptoms of his hangover is due to Potter having accidentally switched glasses with him. In the coda, the guys tease Frank about his mysterious limp.
Hawaii Five-O
"A Touch of Guilt"
Originally aired December 4, 1975 (Also on a new night!)
Wiki said:
The investigation of a stabbed college football star points to a gang-rape cover-up and a U.S. Senator's son.
In a bar at closing time, a college football trio known as the Big Three--Bink Avery (Richard Masur), Alex Scofield (Adam Arkin), and Kim Hughes (Lance Hool)--drunkenly harass waitress Lani Okano (future Mrs. Ansara #3 Beverly Kushida), and she rebuffs Kim in a humiliating manner. Out in the parking lot, they nab her, take her to a beach, and warm up by tossing her around between them like a pigskin. After they're finished they drop her off at the bar, telling her that nobody will believe a nobody. She stabs Kim in the gut with a screwdriver and screeches off. Alex comes up with a cover story that an unknown bar customer did the stabbing and feeds it to the writhing Kim.
The next day, Bink wakes up to find his ID choker is gone...Lani having yanked it off at the beach; following which Chin drops in on him for questioning. Alex's father, a senator, flies in lawyer Hal Zimmerman (Michael Collins) to handle the matter. Alex gives him the bloody screwdriver, but Zimmerman isn't interested in the details of what really happened, just covering it up. Five-O finds that the trail of blood in the parking lot doesn't match the trio's story. Lani goes to a hospital, but is too ashamed to tell the desk nurse the nature of her problem in front of the others in the waiting room. Zimmerman approaches a Mr. Malano (Winston Char) about rounding up a paid patsy to take the rap for the stabbing. Malano is wary of dealing with Five-O, but comes up with a willing lowlife, David Matsui (Les Fong), and briefs him on his story. Chin goes to the hospital to question Kim, who semi-coherently gives him the prepped story. Questioning the bar staff about the incident, Danno questions Lani when she walks in; she confirms that the guys were there but gets too upset to continue, so he brings her in to talk to Steve in private. Under his gentle, encouraging questioning about what she saw, she tearfully confesses that she was the stabber, and why.
Five-O compares the two stories and sets out to verify Lani's.
Steve: I don't have to tell you, this is a tough one. No syndicate, no mainland connections, no masterminds--only three drunken football players and a frightened little local girl who was suddenly pushed into the limelight.
Zimmerman has a photo of Matsui distributed to the guys. Danno's keeping an eye on the beach of interest when a scavenger (William Croarkin) finds Bink's charm with a metal detector. Steve brings in Alex and Bink for questioning about Lani. Now they both have more detailed descriptions of the fake assailant that match, which arouses suspicion. At Lani's home, her humiliated father (frequent Five-O flier Seth Sakai) angrily confronts her with a newspaper story about the alleged rape; while her mother (Ethel Azama) encourages her to act normal and pretend nothing happened so that people will forget the matter faster. On the street, HPD spots Matsui, who leads them on a partly rooftop chase, but ultimately allows them to apprehend him. Danno and HPD search his place and find the planted weapon, and Bink points out Matsui in a lineup.
Che gets to work and the evidence all matches the guys' story too patly. Steve questions whether Lani's telling the truth, but nobody from the bar remembers seeing Matsui.
Steve: It's just a little scary. Because if and when a lie can be twisted to make it look like the truth, so neatly that even our legal system doesn't pick up on it, that's scary. That's terrifying.
Superman, where are you now? Steve decides to play the long game and give the guys a chance to slip up. He talks to Zimmerman, who dismisses Lani's accusation as political fireworks. Wanting to bury the scandal, Lani's father tries to force her to tell the police that she lied.
He drags her to the station, and while the desk officer (James Benton) tries to get Lani to speak for herself, her father insists on doing the talking. When she retracts the story, Steve smells what Zimmerman's game is. Tailing Bink, Duke and Chin watch as he searches the beach for his charm, then heads to a jewelry store to replace it, which causes Danno to recall the old man finding it. When questioned, the scavenger holds back, figuring he has something valuable, then pawns the choker...but Danno's waiting at the pawn shop with his badge.
Lani faces herself in the mirror while having flashes to the rape; then gets up with resolve and takes a snub-nose revolver out of a drawer. Alex returns to his place with Bink to find Lani waiting for them with the gun drawn. She tries to force them to call the police with the truth, but Alex plays it cool. Five-O arrives with their new evidence.
Steve talks her down by showing her the choker and gently hands her off to Danno; then confronts Bink with how he bought a duplicate. Bink, who exhibited the titular emotion at various points in the episode, confesses over Alex's protests.
Steve: You bet you did it! Now book 'em, Danno!
After Steve vouches for the D.A.'s ability to go toe-to-toe with Scofield's lawyer, Lani agrees to make another statement.
Kick those censors' butts.
Even for a Frank film?
"Jeepers Creepers!" grumbles Claudette Colvin, somewhere.
Looked up.
Does neutrality need to be recognized?
If you want other countries to treat you as neutral, yeah.
I had no idea that Mighty Mouse was the first Saturday-morning cartoon. It was one of my favorites almost ten years later.
I think my primary exposure to Mighty Mouse was in color.
I'm not familiar with this one, but it's nice and catchy.
The first pop charter of the group that will evolve into the Coasters.
I do know this one and it's nice and catchy.
I wasn't as familiar with this one, but it is.
Sixty years later, it had evolved into the hoverboard. In one timeline, at least.
Different principle.
Classic from the Man in Black-- and source of one of the greatest lines ever.
"I shot a man in Reno...?" The live version from the Folsom concert in '68 is on the RS list.
This was still a popular Christmas staple when I was a kid.
The kid sounds pretty proud of himself.
Uber Classic. It should be a lot higher than #351.
Hey, it made the list. This song is the source of the second clip used on Buchanan & Goodman's 1956 novelty record "The Flying Saucer". "That was the Clatters' recording, 'Too Real'!"
And yet textbooks continued to say forty-eight long enough for me to get bad info as a little science nerd.
Sometimes the schools take a while replacing those.
A Christmas classic with a little added 50s cool.
The Drifters' version is probably best known to later audiences for its use in
Home Alone.
Wow. It's weird thinking of them getting together in the 50s. They're so 60s.
Same with the Beatles. I wouldn't have known that Simon & Garfunkel got together a couple of years before Lennon & McCartney.
"We have tee shirts and bumper stickers that say so."
That implies effort.
Yeah, but the part I didn't know was all those cable stations. I was completely unaware of cable existing in those days.
Oh, it definitely did. Our house briefly had early cable in the early '70s.
The only time I watched
Donny & Marie was when Kristy McNichol was on. I had a little crush.
We had the figures and a stage/dressing room playset that came with a floppy record that let you act out a routine. I may have mentioned this, though I might have gotten the playset mixed up as a
Sonny & Cher accessory.
Ah, that's right, I can watch it on Paramount+. I think I will do that.
"These seasons will self-destruct in five seconds."
Enough to tantalize kids on the brink of puberty.
"Is she wearing a diaper?"
There's always Boo Berry.
Which I've never actually had. I don't really like fruity cereals.
In more recent years the General Mills Monster Cereals have only been available during the Halloween season...and I didn't see them this year.
Right, exactly. It felt like Uhura and Pike had different subspace phone plans or something.
A Very Happy 100th to Dick Van Dyke! Keep on truckin', Dick! 
