That's a good point, and probably true. People have always romanticized amoral sociopaths who purport to be fighting the system, from Wild West gunslingers to President The Donald.
_______ 50th Anniversary Viewing _______ First, a belated bit of last week business: Hogan's Heroes "Clearance Sale at the Black Market" Originally aired September 28, 1968 (Season 4 premiere) The guys are using Schultz as a "300-pound carrier pigeon" to unwittingly carry messages to and from a barmaid that he's been flirting with, who's actually a contact. Of course, their whole operation depends on Schultz's gullibility, so they have to help him when Major Kiegel (Gavin MacLeod) tries to get Schultz transferred. Hogan goes into town and tries to blackmail Kiegel while the others wait outside to get pictures of Kiegel trying to escape with his merchandise, discrediting the major so that Klink revokes the transfer. An IMDb reviewer pointed out that Schultz's new love life was extramarital. _______ Mission: Impossible "The Heir Apparent" Originally aired September 29, 1968 They seem to be doing away with the portfolio scene this season, going straight to the briefing, with the in-episode series logo and accompanying credits being shown afterward. Guests include Rudy Solari, who'll also be making his Trek appearance this week. He's playing Zageb, chief of your friendly neighborhood secret police. Rollin's disguises are almost as obvious as Artie's. And this time Cinnamon gets in on the old age makeup game, too. There's a smidgen of a potential fail factor in this scheme, as it relies on Barney's ability to solve a puzzle box and code it for Cin...all while Willy pesters him. One nifty bit of business is Rollin slowly removing his disguise in plain sight in the cathedral while everyone's attention is on "Celine" (Cinnamon). The church scenes include a musical motif that sounds in part like a harpsichord version of the title theme. Overall, this one didn't really have anything grabbingly "a-ha" in the execution of the scheme. It relied too much on two long-term impersonations involving unconvincing age makeup. And the end felt a bit implausible and squicky. It's one thing for the IMF to pull elaborate con jobs on bad guys in charge, but in this case they were pulling one on the innocent populace of a country...making them believe that their Anastasia-like lost princess was alive and using their fake version to manipulate polictical events "for their own good". And once that genie was out of the bottle, it seems unlikely that Fake Celine would be able to just go back into hiding with no follow-up, being such a public figure. One has to wonder if there wasn't an unshown component of the mission to fake her re-death. _______ The Avengers "Sepet Sucpre Cncehc Sypare" / "Super Secret Cypher Snatch" Originally aired September 30, 1968 (US); October 9, 1968 (UK) Just assume that it's the armor intro from here on unless I indicate otherwise. In the teaser, you'd think the guy in the helicopter could have helped...they outnumbered the guy on the bike. Mother's in this one, spending all of his scenes sitting in a luxurious roadster. Cypher secretary Myra is played by Angela Scoular, who'll go on to appear as Ruby in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Other guests include Ivor Dean from The Saint as Ferret, an MI-12 man. The episode pokes some fun at Bondian gadgetry. It turns out that the window cleaners are using a hypnotic gas that makes everyone freeze in place and, with the help of a tape recording, think afterward that they had a normal but rainy day. In the climax, Steed disguises himself as one of the cleaners, whose standard attire includes a white derby. Saw that coming. _______ Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In Season 2, episode 3 Originally aired September 30, 1968 This installment features more automat gags. Dan: I hear Governor Reagan said that if he were ever elected president, he would bring peace to the world. Abbe Lane: Seems like a terrible price to pay. Another Charlie & Mitzi segment: Abbe Lane's puppy poem: Mod World looks at Man Against Machines: (Watch for a Special Guest Impersonation at the end.) _______ Ironside "The Sacrifice" Originally aired October 3, 1968 Featuring Ricardo Montalban as a first-billed guest whose character, Sgt. Al Cervantes, is set up as a way too obvious murder suspect from the get-go. It turns out that there is a clever twist to that...close to the truth but not quite the whole story...and my Scooby Sense was on the mark in suspecting early on a conspicuously placed but lower-billed guest character. Before we learn the truth, we're taken through a tangled web that involves the victim, an illegal abortionist, having stolen some papers from the boss of the abortion ring that he was a part of; a slick attorney (Robert Alda) working for the abortion ring leader who tries to cut a deal with Cervantes to trade an alibi for the papers; and an architect (Phillip Pine) whose daughter died from blood poisoning after getting an abortion from the victim. Her beau (and I think the baby's daddy, though I don't recall if they established that outright) was that conspicuously placed character...one of the few people that Cervantes would have been willing to take the heat for. Mark was the one who ID'ed Cervantes as having attacked him at the scene of the crime, based on his distinctive white-handled revolver and polished shoes, so I was glad for him that he wasn't barking up the wrong tree. There was just a little more to it...Cervantes was trying to make himself the obvious suspect. Mark's observation about Cervantes's footwear leads to a running gag of Ironside making comments about how Mark himself never shines his shoes, culminating in Ed and Eve losing a bet when Ironside notices at the end that Mark has changed that. At one point in the story, a headline over Cervantes' picture reads "POLICE BRUTALITY"...that phrase is coming up in the shows a lot lately. _______ Star Trek "The Paradise Syndrome" Originally aired October 4, 1968 Stardate 4842.6 See my post here. _______ Adam-12 "Log 11: It's Just a Little Dent, Isn't It?" Originally aired October 5, 1968 The cable info for my recordings from Cozi had the order and titles of this one and next week's episode switched. I'd gotten halfway through "Log 131: Reed, the Dicks Have Their Job and We Have Ours" before I realized I was watching the wrong episode. So I went ahead and finished that one ahead of schedule, then moved on to this week's actual episode. If we were to take the aired-out-of-order log numbers as indicative of a chronology, this would be the second episode. I'm not sure how that would work out, but there must be some big enough Adam-12 fans out there who've actually tried it. If one were taking the log numbers seriously, there are still some pretty low ones going on as late as Season 3 (the last season to use them)...I wonder if maybe they'd at least reset annually? This one starts with a briefing room scene at HQ that sets up some of the episode's situations. Proceeding outside, Reed has his offscreen fender bender literally the first time that we see him get behind the wheel. What ensues reminds me of the regular formula that Emergency! will come to use, in which each episode usually has a comical subplot of Gage obsessing over something trivial. In this case, Reed spends the entire episode worrying about the consequences of his damage to the car, and Malloy takes it all in stride while getting in a bit of ribbing here and there. They respond to a call from a Mrs. Getz, who's being harassed by a neighbor, Mr. Claver, because she testified against his son. Claver has a history of being difficult with cops, being quick to make claims of assault and harassment. After they talk to Mrs. Getz, they find a group of kids gathered around the squad car who ask all sorts of questions, and one of them rubs it in about the dent. The next call involves a disturbed man with a gun who's in a woman's house holding her baby. The mother is TOS guest Barbara Baldavin. Malloy very cooly and professionally talks the man down, getting him to drop his gun and saving the child. Following that, another Code 7 is approved! Their streak won't last long. That night they get called back to Mrs. Getz's neighborhood, and catch Claver trying to get away from having thrown rocks in the woman's window. Gene Dynarski plays one of the concerned neighbors at the scene. In order to do things by the book, the woman who witnessed the act has to make the arrest, though they cut away before we see it happen. The coda has Malloy approaching Lt. Moore about the dent, weighing in that it's "about the size of a reprimand". _______ Get Smart "Closely Watched Planes" Originally aired October 5, 1968 In this episode, the Chief gets the news about the engagement.... The Chief: You know how CONTROL feels about agents marrying each other. Max: I know, Chief, but she's a girl! The mission briefing continues with a who/how/why gag that's vaguely reminiscent of "Who's on First". On the plane, 99 searches the pockets of a sleeping magician and pulls out a seemingly endless series of scarves tied together. It turns out that the enemy agents include both the pilot and copilot as well as a stewardess and maybe the magician. The agents are dumping the couriers out of the plane from a trap door in the restroom. The climactic fight takes place in a rather roomy cockpit. After Max has knocked out the pilot and the copilot, he proceeds to ask if anyone on board knows how to land the plane. _______ Hogan's Heroes "Klink vs. the Gonculator" Originally aired October 5, 1968 The guys fool Schultz into thinking the rabbit trap is a "gonculator," and Schultz tells Klink about it. Pretending to know what a "gonculator" is, Klink tells General Burkhalter about it, who also pretends that he knows what it is. All so they'll bring Major Lutz, the electronics expert who's trying to defect to England with his homing device, to Stalag 13 without arousing suspicion. The guys fake the Gonculator seemingly overloading and incinerating Lutz while Lutz gets away in the tunnel. _______ Perhaps...that thought had crossed my mind. More innocently, it could be seen as helping to popularize less lethal outlaw hero fiction such as Smokey and the Bandit and The Dukes of Hazzard.
Oh, it was probably just innocent flirting, not actual philandering. I'm sure Schultz needs a little ego boost now and then. I always wanted to see an episode where Phelps has a hard time deciding on who to use, puzzling over each picture, muttering under his breath about the pros and cons, perhaps while drinking a beer, digging back into the discarded pile occasionally and changing his mind, and then finally deciding on a team in the final act, but when he calls them they're all busy. But... but... he's got the magical rubber masks made from the rubber of the rare Chaney tree of the remote upper Amazon. I guess that didn't make Willy any more endearing to you. They should have played stripper music. Even more terrible when he fails. That seems pretty edgy for Ironside. Yeah, that was another really hot button topic at the time, though less lurid than abortion. Sort of like Stardates. He was the master of that sort of thing. Presumably always over water, or else bodies dropping out of the sky might have been a clue.
_______ 50 Years Ago This Week Star-Spangled Latin Jazz Link Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week: Leaving the chart: "Born to Be Wild," Steppenwolf (13 weeks) "Light My Fire," The Doors (23 weeks total; 6 weeks this chart run) "Magic Bus," The Who (9 weeks) New on the chart: "Porpoise Song," The Monkees (#62 US) "Keep On Lovin' Me Honey," Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell (#24 US; #11 R&B) "Always Together," The Dells (#18 US; #3 R&B) "Little Arrows," Leapy Lee (#16 US; #38 AC; #11 Country; #2 UK) New on the boob tube: The Ed Sullivan Show, Season 21, episode 2, featuring Tony Bennett, Woody Herman, The Goetchis, Flip Wilson, and Tiny Tim Mission: Impossible, "The Contender: Part 1" The Avengers, "You'll Catch Your Death" Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Season 2, episode 4 That Girl, "Eleven Angry Men and That Girl" Ironside, "Robert Phillips vs. the Man" Star Trek, "And the Children Shall Lead" Adam-12, "Log 131: Reed, the Dicks Have Their Job and We Have Ours" Get Smart, "The Secret of Sam Vittorio" Hogan's Heroes, "How to Catch a Papa Bear" And new on the silver screen: _______ He was letting her embrace him, which was how she slipped messages into the back of his belt (causing Newkirk to comment that she must be an orangutan). And I always wanted to see him choose not to accept a mission in the first place. Three-minute episodes! Guess they've gotta give him something to do when there isn't something heavy that needs lifting. We'll see if he makes a habit of it. Maybe for TV in general at the time, but Ironside is pretty grounded in its subject matter. They tried to dump Max over land. Hanging on for dear life by the roller towel was a good bit of physical humor.
Hmm. Psychedelic Monkees. Sometimes they smoked their bananas. I don't remember this one at all. I don't remember this either, but it's decent. I don't remember this one, either, and I kind of like it that way. Well, I suppose he's not big on will power.... I wonder if he has a way of letting them know, or if they just wait around to see what happens. "Well, as we feared, the government in Foreignlandia has collapsed-- I guess Jim didn't want any part of that one." I don't remember if I ever actually watched an entire episode. I'm not familiar with the supporting characters so probably not.
Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for 55 years ago this week: 55 Years Ago Spotlight Sam's most recent hit, just leaving the chart this week: "Frankie and Johnny," Sam Cooke (Charted July 27, 1963; #14 US; #2 AC; #4 R&B; #30 UK) Meanwhile, another song that references hippies (1:59+), by some of the usual suspects: "Crossfire!," The Orlons (Charted Sept. 28, 1963; #19 US; #25 R&B) _______ Wild Wild 51st Anniversary Viewing _______ "The Night of Jack O'Diamonds" Originally aired October 6, 1967 Guess the rail lines don't extend south of the border...Jim and Artie ride into town on horseback in this one. An imposter army officer has them hand the horse over to him, but it turns into a three-way struggle when a party of bandits steals it from the imposters. The imposter is apparently working for the blue-uniformed Imperial French Army. Vasquez Rocks? Check. Jim brought a piton-firing pistol for descending them via wire. And Cuban cigar bombs for the bandits. Bandit leader El Sordo (Frank Silvera) shows a different side when he learns that the horse is a gift for Juarez...at that point, Jim and El Sordo fight over who's better suited to hold off the Imperialistas off while the other rides out on the horse. Jim eventually wins that contest, but El Sordo meets up with Artie and they go back to help him. After the battle, El Sordo pretends to die in order to get the drop on Jim and Artie and rob them. Artie briefly assumes the guise of an infamous bandit named "Pancho" in this one. None of this episode takes place at night. _______ It has a good sound, if derivative. I was surprised to read that this is a Goffin and King composition. We're loaded with obscuros this week. It has a decent sound, but it doesn't really pop for me. This was a case where I was happy not to be able to find the original available for digital download. I was wondering about that myself. Practically speaking, I'd think the former. But I wonder if there are unexpressed consequences for rejecting missions. Maybe that's why Briggs was canned. "We're sorry, Dan, but you've turned down three missions. You can't handle the impossible!" ETA: It looks like some of the on demand video changes on the MeTV site were a temporary glitch--That Girl is back! Catch-up review TK. ETA: From the letters page of Amazing Spider-Man #67, cover date Dec. 1968...
_______ 50th Anniversary Viewing Addendum _______ "The Hi-Jack and The Mighty" Originally aired October 3, 1968 The opening has Ann practicing serving drinks on a teeter-totter board while Donald offers advice to her imaginary passengers. Donald comes on her first flight to keep her company during her layover, and the other stewardess, not knowing she's Ann's boyfriend, gets flirty with him. Mr. Marie also comes, uninvited, because of the seeming impropriety of Ann and Donald going away together. Only on a sitcom...they might as well have gone to Hawaii together while they were at it. Ann spots a gun on a taciturn Latino man, Mr. Gracie. The other passengers start to get nervous based on the vocal worries of Mr. Marie, who loudly reacts when Donald whispers to him about the man with the gun. Even after talking to the captain, he won't shut up about the plane getting hijacked. Eventually the other passengers gang up on Mr. Gracie, take his gun, and gag him. Just as Ann's basking in the glory of having saved the plane, they learn the truth, that he's not just a PI, but one hired by the airline to prevent hijackings. The passengers turn on Ann, forcing her to take a seat for the rest of the trip. "Oh, Donald" count: 4 "Oh, Daddy" count: 5 "Oh, Captain Riley" count: 1 _______
Yeah, that's a weird one. I've never heard this one, and it does have a bit of that leftover 50s sound. I've heard that they were going to meet Emmet Brown in Season 5-- but then, cancellation. Sounds like outlaw graffiti. "The Day of Jack O'Diamonds." I wonder if they ever broke format. I was going to say. Impossible missions need a guy who can't say no. That's good. It also explains all those dead links. "This letter will self destruct when you tear it up." You'd think he'd be better at keeping his hardware hidden. Man, there's a story that takes on a whole new meaning in retrospect.
_______ 50th Anniversary Cinematic Special _______ Romeo and Juliet Starring Leonard Whiting, Olivia Hussey, Milo O'Shea, Michael York, and John McEnery Directed by Franco Zeffirelli Premiered March 4, 1968 (UK); US release: October 8, 1968 Winner of 1969 Academy Awards for Best Cinematography (Pasqualino De Santis) and Best Costume Design (Danilo Donati); Nominated for Best Picture and Best Director (Franco Zeffirelli) But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? So here it is, the one they had us watch in English class! Ideally I would have reacquainted myself with the written version before watching the film, but it's a busy new 50th anniversary season, so I'm mostly making do with just reviewing the film as its own thing. During my second viewing, I was glancing over the text of the play to get a better idea of what was kept and what was cut. Overall I'd say they did an artful job of pruning the text to suit the film. Cutting out extraneous exchanges that were probably meant to supply humor based on now-esoteric double entendres and punnery; trimming scenes that didn't need so much exposition to convey what was going on; nipping and tucking exchanges that were kept, which sometimes even involved swapping the odd line between characters, and sometimes rearranging the dialogue to better keep things moving. You all know the basics of the story: Love at first sight... ...first kiss... ...yada yada yada... ...last kiss. The young leads, Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey, are both compelling and believable. I had to question how quickly the characters jumped into illicit marriage, but Juliet's parents were trying to push her into another marriage at the time. And Friar Laurence offered some appropriate skepticism about the situation before agreeing to wed them. Mercutio's quite the scene-stealer...a lot of that evidently owes to the Bard, but John McEnery delivers on it. Two of the more prominent older actors are also quite entertaining...Milo O'Shea as Friar Laurence and Pat Heywood as the Nurse. Leonardo's song seems to be the most substantial addition to the story, providing the words to the love theme in the score, which, as orchestrated by Henry Mancini, will be the source of a #1 single in 1969. One of the more notable cuts...there's no mention of Romeo's previous, unrequited flame, Rosaline, until the scene between Romeo and Friar Laurence (Act II, Scene III). Oh my god, he killed Michael York! Well, somebody had to.... To York's credit as Tybalt, he did look genuinely shocked and regretful when he realized that his blade had gone through Mercutio. I don't have a distinct recollection one way or the other, but I have to assume that the version they show in schools is edited to remove the nudie scene. One casualty of the film's edits to the original that I noticed was Juliet's more persistent attempts to tell her enraged father about the marriage. They also cut out an expository scene of Romeo acquiring his poison; in the film, that he's carrying it comes out of nowhere. Romeo's slaying of Paris at the tomb seems to be the most substantial cut, but it doesn't seem to be at all necessary to the story at that point, other than to further the tragedy. I thought that reading the passage in which the Friar flees the tomb might lend it some context to make him look less bad for leaving Juliet alone under those circumstances, but it didn't. In the original, he does get an expository soliloquy afterward in which he gets to express regret (and give a recap of everything that the audience just watched, in case somebody got up to go to the bathroom). The way it plays in the film just makes it look like he's most concerned about covering his own ass. It might have seemed a little pat, but it's regrettable that they didn't include the part at the end where Montague promises to erect a statue of Juliet and Capulet offers to return the favor... Montague But I can give thee more: For I will raise her statue in pure gold; That while Verona by that name is known, There shall be no figure at such rate be set As that of true and faithful Juliet.Capulet As rich shall Romeo's by his lady's lie; Poor sacrifices of our enmity! _______ Evidently not in the original series. They did miss the opportunity to give us The Night of the Wild Wild West Reunion Movie. Of course, it's always possible that Dan was caught or killed...and disavowed! Route 66 and some other '60s shows they used to have there are still gone. I never got around to catching that Marlo Thomas guest appearance on My Favorite Martian. Shades of this week's Avengers, in which the threat is powder in envelopes that kills people.
What?! Re-writing Shakespeare? Sacrilege! Don't they know this guy invented thinking? Kids those days. An underage nudie scene at that. That would have been the perfect title for it (minus the "Reunion Movie" part-- I hate self-referential titles like that). That's the sort of thing that Gold Key could have shown us, if they cared. Still a bunch of dead links, too. And no Sci Fi.[/quote]
Text-wise, not a rewriting. More of an editing. I like it. Something closer to the actual title would be The Night of the Wild Wild West Revisited...but that sounds clunkier to me, even though it's shorter. Checked the Decades schedule out of curiosity...looks like they won't be doing a Dark Shadows Binge for Halloween this year. They'll be doing Thriller for the two weekends prior.
Revisited is okay. But anything like Star Trek: The Motion Picture or Twilight Zone: The Movie or Friday The 13th: The Series and so on is the kind of thing I don't like. Too bad about Dark Shadows, but Thriller is a good show and it's pretty obscure. I have it on DVD, so I can put it on if I'm in the mood.
...to Bill Clinton, to George H.W. Bush, to Woodrow Wilson, to Warren Harding to .... Arguably the best-remembered track from the Head soundtrack. Its an appropriately spacey-minded song and yet another big departure from what used to be "typical" Monkees music (Kirshner era).
_______ 50th Anniversary Viewing _______ The Ed Sullivan Show Season 21, episode 2 Originally aired October 6, 1968 As represented in The Best of the Ed Sullivan Show Our Best of installment opens with Tony Bennett performing "Get Happy" backed by the Woody Herman Band, including a clarinet solo by Woody. Tony then switches to the gentler "Hushabye Mountain," accompanied by an acoustic guitarist. The song appears to have been from a 1968 album of his, and Tony says that it's about visiting San Francisco, name-dropping his signature hit along the way. Woody Herman & Band then perform an instrumental called "Hard to Keep My Mind on You". On to the Goetchis, two men wearing white Spanish-style suits performing unicycle stunts, aided by a female assistant. Flip Wilson tells a story about how Ray Charles came to his base when he was serving in the Air Force to perform in a parade and a friend named Freddy got in trouble with the commanding general for not saluting. tv.com has Tiny Tim listed as performing other songs on this date, but I wasn't able to find a date on which he did perform these, and as everything else in the Best of installment lines up with this date, including that Tiny Tim appeared, I'm treating the following as being from this date. In his intro, Ed describes Tim as "the first...the real love child." Tim then performs "I Wonder How I Look When I'm Asleep," which appears to be an old 1920s number, followed by "a little duet with myself," the Sonny & Cher hit "I Got You Babe," which he does using two voices. Tony Bennett returns to perform an uptempo song called "There Will Never Be Another You" (not to be confused with "I'll Never Find Another You" by the Seekers), followed by "Who Can I Turn To," a slower song with lots of held notes. Afterward Ed offers some praise from Jerry Vale that "with all singers, you are automatically classified as number one." Also in the original episode according to tv.com: _______ Mission: Impossible "The Contender: Part 1" Originally aired October 6, 1968 This time Jim has a contact (Bruce Geller) and codephrase so he can take a small rental boat out to get his assignment. And the usual manner is...throwing the tape spool in the water. It doesn't smoke up, fizz, or anything...it just sinks. And the portfolio is back in this one. The basic mission premise seems a bit lame. Stop mob-rigged fights because they could be used as a propaganda tool by our enemies? And there's nothing to back up the claim that the guy they're after, Buckman, is cornering the market on professional sports...all we see is one penny-ante rigged boxing operation. The IMF enlists the help of Richy Lemoine, an ex-fighter with injured hands, whom Barney is going to impersonate. Disguised Barney is actually Greg Morris in makeup, not the actor playing Lemoine. They try to lampshade this by having one of the thugs of the week notice that he looks different, chalking it up to his injuries, but it seems unlikely that Barney could fool a room full of sports reporters. Likewise, Rollin claims to be the guy that Lemoine injured himself saving in the Army, but you'd think that person's identity would be a matter of public record. Willy gets to put his physicality to good use as Barney's workout buddy. And "Bobby" Conrad has more than a cameo--he factors into two full scenes and an after-commercial continuation of one of them...and knocks Barney out along the way! Sugar Ray gets a pretty meaty bad guy role as the henchman, at one point offing an honest boxer who won't throw a fight by pushing him into an empty elevator shaft. Ernie, one of the guys that Cin latches onto, is Robert Phillips (not to be confused with the titular character in this week's Ironside), who played "Space Officer" in the Orion illusion in "The Cage"; and washed-up ex-boxer turned janitor Kid Wilson is Biff Elliot, a.k.a. Schmitter from "The Devil in the Dark". "To Be Continued Next Week" hits the screen as it looks like Phelps is going to be caught hiding under the ring, where he was planting a gas device of Barney's. _______ The Avengers "You'll Catch Your Death" Originally aired October 7, 1968 (US); October 16, 1968 (UK) This time around we're back to the usual repetitive series of deaths, involving a virus powder being sent to people in otherwise-empty envelopes. At one point they tease us into thinking that Steed's stupid enough to open one of the suspicious envelopes that's sent to him, but pan up to reveal that he's wearing a gas mask. Col. Timothy (Roland Culver, who played the Foreign Secretary in Thunderball) funds the clinic, but isn't in on the scheme and quickly falls in with Steed for the bad guy-busting in the climax...even getting in a knockout blow via what appears to be another hardened derby like Steed's. Steed kills the doctor in charge with one of the envelopes that he had on him. We learn here that Mother answers to somebody named "Grandma". _______ Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In Season 2, episode 4 Originally aired October 7, 1968 Dan & Dick allude to The Jerry Lewis Show being on NBC Tuesday nights. The news intro is done in the style of a Bond song, and includes France Nuyen. This week's Fickle Finger of Fate goes to the Senate Judiciary Committee: I hadn't mentioned it before, but in the season premiere, Dave Madden introduced a running gag of people throwing rice to indicate being turned on. They're starting to get a lot of use out of it at this point. Super Nude Potpourri: A song paying tribute to the Fourth Estate: France Nuyen's "That's Not Funny" Joke Wall: The episode also had several bits of France and Goldie one-on-one, doing what I'd have to describe as a "dueling airheads" schtick. (Mind you, I'm describing the material they were being given, not the women themselves.) _______ "Eleven Angry Men and That Girl" Originally aired October 10, 1968 Ann's taking her civic duty very seriously, studying up on court cases, while Donald's more concerned about Ann not being done in time to go on a trip to see her parents. As one might have guessed, Ann is the holdout who causes the jury to be sequestered in a hotel overnight. A hippie juror named Talley accidentally goes to her room thinking it's his; while another juror, an older man named Packard, comes by trying to hit on Ann. The hippie comes back over for his toothbrush just as she's showing Mr. Packard out, while a prudish older female juror across the hall looks on, aghast. The jury is deliberating as to whether a man hit his wife with an ashtray. Ann acts out a demonstration that swings everyone on the jury into declaring him not guilty, based on his handedness and the side of the face that she lost teeth from. But when Mr. Franklin is declared not guilty, Mrs. Franklin loudly protests in the courtroom, upon which Mr. Franklin spontaneously recreates the incident, hitting her with another ashtray, but in a backhanded manner, which proves that he could have done it in the first place and probably did. I guess I shouldn't find this funny given the subject matter, but conceptually it was a good comedic twist. Donald's parents aren't actually in the episode, but his mother maintains an offscreen presence via one-sided telephone conversations. "Oh, Donald" count: 1 _______ Ironside "Robert Phillips vs. the Man" Originally aired October 10, 1968 Guesting Paul Winfield as the character in the title, a black activist who's charged with murdering an appliance store co-owner named Stavely during a recent riot that Phillips incited. The episode opens with what looks like a mix of actual riot footage and some more obviously shot for the episode. The activists are reluctant to talk in order to help Phillips for fear of incriminating themselves or others who were involved in the looting. The episode plays up Mark being caught in the middle of the racial tensions. He takes a hard time from the activists for being Ironside's "fetchit boy"; while some of the white folks in the story question his loyalties, including Gene Lyons's Commissioner. One scene begins with Stavely's widow refusing to let Mark in her house. At the end of the scene, she asks Ironside for a ride into town, but... I recognized Jack Hogan, who plays surviving store owner Ed Barnard, from his role as a recurring police detective introduced in this week's Adam-12. It turns out that Barnard had been selling inventory and making large withdrawals, planning to run off with his mistress, the store's bookkeeper, who briefly appeared early in the episode. Ironside coerces a confession out of him with the alternative of leaving him to a small mob of activists waiting outside, but it turns out that the Chief had two undercover officers in the crowd keeping things under control. Davis Roberts (Dr. Ozaba from "The Empath") has a small role as Phillips's attorney, Peters; while Arnold Williams, who'll go on to play the cab driver in Live and Let Die, appears in several scenes as a very vocal but unnamed activist. Evoking MLK in contrast to the activists; protesters facing off against police in riot gear; a local group of racists who call themselves the "Law and Order Commission"...this episode feels very 1968. _______ Star Trek "And the Children Shall Lead" Originally aired October 11, 1968 Stardate 5029.5 See my post here. _______ Adam-12 "Log 131: Reed, the Dicks Have Their Job and We Have Ours" Originally aired October 12, 1968 This episode introduces us to Reed's envy of police detectives, which will factor into his future. Jack Hogan's Sgt. Miller and his partner serve as the object of Reed's envy for the purpose of this week's story. Watching them, I can't help but think that it might have been cool to have Friday and Gannon as the guest detectives, though I can see why they didn't go there...the friendly ribbing going on between the patrol officers and detectives might have made one duo or the other look bad. This episode also marks the first appearance of Robert Donner as recurring stool pigeon Teejay. We get more beats of Reed in training as Malloy has to repress his eagerness to investigate a murder scene, for fear of tainting the crime scene before the dicks get there. Later, Malloy makes the point that the detectives are committed to particular cases on a much longer basis, contrasting it to the usual variety of calls that he and Reed respond to in any given episode. Cases in point: dealing with an irate snack bar proprietor who wants Malloy and Reed to do something about the people parking in his lot but won't post the proper signs; intervening in the comical feuding of a married couple, the Beuhlers (Bob Hastings and Eunice Christopher), who'll be popping up again in this year's Christmas episode; and chasing a suspicious vehicle belonging to some parole violators, who are caught in possession of smack. Reed is satisfied in the climax that the latter is purely their bust. The coda has Malloy and Reed touching base with the detectives at HQ to find that their colleagues wasted a lot of time investigating only for the killer to walk into the station and voluntarily confess. I recognized Joseph Mell, who plays the manager of the seedy hotel where the body is found, as "Earth Trader" from the aforementioned Orion illusion in "The Cage". _______ Get Smart "The Secret of Sam Vittorio" Originally aired October 12, 1968 This one proved to be quite timely, coming on the heels of my having belatedly watched the film. The most noteworthy differences here are that Connie and Floyd have been in jail for 30 years, rather than dead; and Connie wears pants. The narrator of the home movie footage that Max and 99 watch at the beginning evokes the lyrics of "Route 66" in describing Connie and Floyd's trail of robberies. Connie and Floyd are being transferred wearing their old gangster clothes? Holy Gotham penal system! The episode gets in a dig at My Mother the Car. The climax is cute, involving Max, 99, Connie, and Floyd inadvertently exchanging places one at a time in a room with multiple doors. I hadn't been watching for it, but it may have all been done in one take. _______ Hogan's Heroes "How to Catch a Papa Bear" Originally aired October 12, 1968 Newkirk is captured while attending a meeting with resistance leaders in Hogan's place, and the Germans try to use him as bait to lure in Hogan. Meanwhile at the camp, the guys perpetrate a ruse to make Klink and Schultz think that Newkirk is sick in bed. By contrast, the operation to free Newkirk and blow a munitions dump along the way plays relatively straight, if a little implausibly easy. _______
I was beginning to worry that you didn't survive Night of the Living Dead. I miss being able to watch these Ed Sullivan episodes. I may have to buy some DVDs. Tiny Tim is an underappreciated talent. "Ferry 'cross the Mersey?" "Hi, Jim." It's made of fish food. Why not just have Greg Morris play Lemoine, too? Aw, it's not a custom job? I'm disappointed. It just gets weirder and weirder. Eventually they all must answer to "Mitochondrial Eve." There would undoubtedly be much Internet outrage if this came out today. I have clearly underestimated Ironside. I watched it seldom and I don't recall it having any reputation for doing stories like this and the previous one. Great idea, though. Good thing Super-Nude never got arrested. The boys just make it look easy.
_______ 50 Years Ago This Week Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week: Leaving the chart: "The House That Jack Built," Aretha Franklin (9 weeks) "Light My Fire," Jose Feliciano (12 weeks) "Special Occasion," Smokey Robinson & The Miracles (9 weeks) "Street Fighting Man," The Rolling Stones (6 weeks) "The Weight," The Band (7 weeks) "You're All I Need to Get By," Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell (12 weeks) New on the chart: "Pickin' Wild Mountain Berries," Peggy Scott & Jo Jo Benson (#27 US; #8 R&B) "Hi-Heel Sneakers," Jose Feliciano (#25 US; #31 AC; #44 R&B; originally a #11 hit for Tommy Tucker in 1963) "Bring It On Home to Me," Eddie Floyd (#17 US; #4 R&B; originally a #13 hit for Sam Cooke in 1962) "Chewy Chewy," Ohio Express (#15 US) "Love Child," Diana Ross & The Supremes (#1 US the weeks of Nov. 30 and Dec. 7, 1968; #2 R&B; #15 UK; video from the Sept. 29 season premiere of The Ed Sullivan Show) New on the boob tube: The Ed Sullivan Show, Season 21, episode 3, featuring The Beach Boys, The Muppets, Richard Pryor, Denny McClain, and Pearl Bailey Mission: Impossible, "The Contender: Part 2" Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Season 2, episode 5 That Girl, "7¼" (Part 1) Star Trek, "Is There in Truth No Beauty?" Adam-12, "Log 91: You're Not the First Guy's Had the Problem" Get Smart, "Diamonds Are a Spy's Best Friend" Hogan's Heroes, "Hogan's Trucking Service...We Deliver the Factory to You" And new on the silver screen: _______ Having the shows posted on Friday is liable to prove the exception, not the rule. And I was planning to try NotLD in a couple weeks...I'm currently in the middle of Barbarella. We should stage a sit-in or something. Occupy Weigel! Good answer! I was wondering that! Particularly as they had "Bobby" handling his fight training. I had to go back in the episode to make sure they hadn't introduced Col. Timothy as having a history with Steed or his organization.
I've never heard this before. With a title like that, I wanted to like it more than I actually did. This is a good one. I don't think I've actually heard it in decades. I don't remember this one either. Meh. The same as their other one, only not as good. This was always a weird one. An attempt at a socially relevant song, but still stuck in the past. One of those symptoms of a transitional time, I suppose. For a while, I didn't think he was going to speak at all. I've never seen it, but geez-- Josh Randall, Napoleon Solo, Tony Vincenzo, and Stanley Roper! Yeah, NotLD is better for Halloween. I should dig out Barbarella, too. I've been meaning to watch it straight through. I wonder who we should actually occupy. Would it be Weigel or NBC or the local affiliate? Probably not Comcast.
_______ Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for 55 years ago this week: 55 Years Ago Spotlight Accounts vary as to the exact origin point, but a word is coined by the British press to describe the pandemonium surrounding this and/or other contemporaneous appearances: "Beatlemania". Some items currently in or approaching the Top 10 that haven't been covered yet: "Cry Baby," Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters (Charted Aug. 17, 1963; #4 US; #1 R&B) "I Can't Stay Mad at You," Skeeter Davis (Charted Sept. 7, 1963; #7 US; #2 AC; #14 Country) "Mean Woman Blues," Roy Orbison (Charted Sept. 7, 1963; #5 US; #8 R&B; #3 UK; originally recorded by Elvis Presley in 1957) "Busted," Ray Charles (Charted Sept. 7, 1963; #4 US; #3 R&B; #21 UK) And appearing on Sullivan this week: In addition to: Lesley Gore: "She's a Fool" Mr. Pastry (physical comedian, acts out dancing at a crowded ball) Szony and Claire (dancers) Tony Bennett: "Moment of Truth"; "Don't Wait Too Long" and... The Baranton Sisters _______ Wild Wild 51st Anniversary Viewing _______ "The Night of the Samurai" Originally aired October 13, 1967 Sounds a lot like last week's premise with the names changed. Jim and Artie are also riding into town again, but this time it's San Francisco, where they're attacked by a group of samurai...and it's night, so truth in advertising! Also, the train pops up later in the episode. Historical note: The stolen sword had been "borrowed" from Japan by Admiral Perry. Looking for a swordsman of the skill of the main assailant in the ambush, Jim goes to a Kenjutsu academy being run by Gideon Falconer, a Euro-American played by Paul Stevens, whom I primarily know for being the guy who looks like he was separated at birth from Martin Landau. Doing some undercover work as a sailor in a bar, Artie splits what he's leading people to believe is a tube carrying the sword into a pair of Roman candles to ward off attackers. Confronting a mysterious villain who appears to be sitting in a large chair with its back to him, Jim turns the chair around to discover that it has a phonograph-style horn embedded in it, projecting the bad guy's voice. Jim also uses his sleeve gun in this one. Jim and Artie employ a trap door that underground broker Hannibal uses to dispose of bodies to elude some gunmen employed by another baddie. Jim's climactic sword fight with the real bad guy is cut short when Falconer falls back onto a spike in the wall. Irene Tsu makes for a fetching seeming heroine. Red West, who'll go on to work with Conrad as a regular on Black Sheep, makes a small appearance as a seaman. We learn in the coda that the handle of the sword was concealing a fortune in diamonds, but that angle is pretty much a throwaway. _______ 50th Anniversary Cinematic Special _______ Barbarella Starring Jane Fonda, John Phillip Law, Anita Pallenberg, Milo O'Shea, Marcel Marceau, and Claude Dauphin, with David Hemmings and Ugo Tognazzi Directed by Roger Vadim Released October 10, 1968 As for me...this film had a very, very sign o' the times vibe that had me wanting to like it, but it was dragged down some by sequences that seemed interminable, like any time Barbarella navigated her ship through a psychedelic concert projection, or the scene with the creepy dolls. Then there's the scene in the chamber of the birds...somebody thought it was sexy to see a woman bitten and/or pecked to death, apparently. Movies! didn't cut the film for time, but it did blur out any naughty bits, including those that were evidently peaking through costumes. The cheesy-ass costumes are actually a form of humor in themselves, especially the male ones as a sort of parody of the female ones. When I saw that Marcel Marceau was in the film, I didn't expect him to have a speaking role! (His character’s voice was dubbed, FWIW.) The back-and-forth about futuristic sexual mores and doing it the old-fashioned way is pretty funny...though the futuristic sex scene with Dildano is bordering on being one of those interminable sequences. The scene with Barbarella in the "Excessive Machine" was pretty sexy. The soundtrack, composed by Bob Crewe and Charles Fox and performed by the Bob Crewe Generation, is definitely a big contributor to the sign-o'-the-times vibe. As a songwriter, Crewe apparently contributed to several hits of the era, most notably some of the biggest hits by the Four Seasons and Frankie Valli. His Bob Crewe Generation had a hit of their own with the instrumental "Music to Watch Girls By" (charted Dec. 31, 1966; #15 US; #2 AC). Overall, this film wasn't playing in the same league as 2001 or Planet of the Apes, but it was worth a visit for what it had to offer. _______ Hasn't made much of an impression on me yet. This was Peggy Scott & Jo Jo Benson's only Top 30 hit, though they had a couple of other Top 40s, and all did well on the soul chart. Pretty sure I posted it when Feliciano came up on Kung Fu last year.... And I thought you hated Feliciano. Anyway, this was his second and lesser of two Top 30 hits. This was Eddie Floyd's biggest hit on the pop chart, though his earlier "Knock on Wood" (charted Sept. 10, 1966; #28 US; #1 R&B; #19 UK) gets more airplay. Their third and second most successful of four Top 30 hits. And we're saved from what could have been another week of obscuros by the return of the Supremes, who bring the eleventh of their twelve number ones! And it's a bit of a comeback for them, following two singles that didn't manage to get into the Top 20. But... Stuck in the past how? Other than being a 50-year-old song, of course.... Who? Oh, you mean General Moore. Weigel. They swapped multiple Decades affiliates to Start TV. ETA: By fortuitous coincidence...or perhaps as rough anniversary business on their part...Movies! has three movies in its schedule that I'd been planning to rent for 50th or 51st anniversary viewing: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (11/04, 5:30 pm EST) Cool Hand Luke (11/06, 2:30 pm) Bullitt (11/07, 10:00 am)
I don't remember this one and I'll forget it soon. Shooby dooby doo bop, it sounds like the 50s. Not his best, but it's Roy Orbison. Now we're talking. Yeah, I love that stuff. Ever read Howard The Duck? That reminded me of Winky Man. Ah, I remember her from Planet of the Prehistoric Women. Ew. Alfred Hitchcock must have stopped by the set. I've really got to dig out my DVD and watch this soon. Maybe with a better lead actress.... Really? Could be. You know how it is with short-term versus long-term memory. Did I say that? I don't really have strong feelings one way or the other. He makes me think of Las Vegas lounge acts and cheap K-Tel record collections. The song reinforces the stigma of having a single parent. Lines like "never meant to be" and "never quite as good" and, worst of all, "I had no name." Women changing their names is one of my major pet peeves. Now that I think of it, this song might be why it's one of my major pet peeves, or at least one reason. And so many others.... Okay. I'll try. The only one I've seen is Guess Who's Coming To Dinner and it's fantastic. It's got one of my favorite Sidney Poitier lines in it.
_______ 50th Anniversary Album Spotlight _______ Cheap Thrills Big Brother & The Holding Company Released August 12, 1968 Chart debut: August 31, 1968 Chart peak: #1, October 12 through November 9 and November 30 through December 14, 1968 #338 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time I hadn't been getting around to doing this spotlight for a variety of reasons, not least of which is that I'm afraid that I just couldn't get into the album that much. My takeaway experience of owning Janis's Greatest Hits CD for years was that I only really liked the two major signature songs that I already knew. This album, despite the high critical praise, doesn't change that. "Combination of the Two" is a catchy enough upbeat opening number. I'm assuming that's Sam Andrew delivering what passes for the main lyrics. Janis takes the lead for another band original, "I Need a Man to Love," which falls squarely in the blues rock category. Good, moody guitar. George Gershwin's oft-covered "Summertime" is generally kinda snoozy for my tastes, and the Big Brother version was never an exception, though it's grown on me a little. I guess they did psychedlicize it up a bit. The album's only hit single, "Piece of My Heart," is of course one of those aforementioned signature songs. Fun fact: It's a cover, originally recorded in 1967 by Aretha's big sister, Erma Franklin. Erma's version only got to #62 on the Hot 100, but did better on the soul chart, reaching #10. (Charted Aug. 31, 1968; #12 US; #344 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time) Side Two opens with "Turtle Blues," which, as the title attests, is a straight-up blues song...in this case with the added novelty factor of the crowd noise being of clinking glasses and background conversations, evoking the atmosphere of the song being performed in a bar or club. "Oh, Sweet Mary," for which Andrew and Joplin share vocals, and all of the band members share writing credit, is, by contrast, more straight-up San Francisco-style psychedelic rock. The album concludes with its longest track, a 9-1/2 minute cover of Big Mama Thornton's "Ball and Chain," which the band had performed at the Monterey Pop Festival in '67. As with "Summertime," I guess you could say that there's some psychedelic flavoring in there. Overall assessment: It's alright, but wouldn't be high on my list of period albums to put on for the heck of it. Next up should be Sweetheart of the Rodeo by the Byrds. _______ I was primarily familiar with it from Janis's cover. It sounds even more like early '60s Neil Sedaka. Compare and contrast to "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do". Digging deeper into Roy than the stuff oldies radio usually played, the results can be a bit spotty, but this one has the benefit of Elvis association. I also find digging deeper into Ray to be a bit spotty, but this one is enjoyable. Can't say that I did. I was pretty young when it was current. I think Fonda did just fine. Good combination of comic timing and projection of sexuality, often simultaneously. Not very positive associations. My impression was that it was a big deal that popular music was even going there at the time, especially a Motown group like the Supremes. Acknowledging that such situations exist is a step in the direction of lifting the stigma. _______ Have H&I on low in the background, to see Werner Klemperer pop up on a Have Gun - Will Travel. Think I've mentioned this before, but he's one of those actors that I just can't separate from his signature role. My mind's eye literally fills in the monocle!