_______ Kitchen Sink Review Business _______ Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for 55 years ago this week: _______ 12 O'Clock High "The Loneliest Place in the World" Originally aired September 13, 1965 The Season 2 opener is dedicated to introducing our newcomers to the main credits: Paul Burke as Lt. Col. Joe Gallagher (star billing) Chris Robinson as Sgt. Sandy Komansky ("also starring" billing) Andrew Duggan as Brig. Gen. Ed Britt (guest star billing, but recurring for the remainder of the series) Still also starring from last season: Frank Overton as Maj. Harvey Stovall Outside the opening credits, Barney Phillips will still be recurring as Maj. Donald "Doc" Kaiser, but he's not in this episode. The teaser is dedicated to killing off General Savage in the most awkward way possible...without ever seeing Robert Lansing's face or hearing his voice. Most of the incident is told from the POV of Gallagher's bomber, and Savage's radio is said to be out (which also covers why it's left to Gallagher to approve of the stray B-17, secretly manned by Germans, entering formation with Savage's squadron). After Savage's bomber is shot up, we cut into his cockpit, to find its crew (including Sgt. Komansky) reacting to Savage having been killed while the general's body remains just out of the shot. (We see what's supposed to be his shoulder, but it's not even clear if there's an actual actor in the pilot's seat or if it's just a dummy.) Later at the base, when General Britt dramatically removes Savage's photo from a board showing the 918th's chain of command, his hand completely covers it the entire time. Lt. Col. Gallagher is temporarily serving as Savage's deputy commander when the incident happens. Gallagher's briefing with General Britt doesn't sugar coat Gallagher's contentious relationship with Savage, which is good continuity. Paul Carr appears as Lt. Col. Heindorf, a candidate for taking over command of the squadron. But he and Robert Colbert's Lt. Col. Bailey get on Britt's bad side when he walks in on them plotting a revenge mission against the German ambushers. Gallagher is the only on-camera contender who doesn't want Savage's job, but he nevertheless delves into his responsibilities as acting commander. Britt clearly feels that Gallagher is the man for the job, but he has to prove that to Gallagher. Meanwhile, Sgt. Komansky, the only survivor from Savage's bomber, clearly blames Gallagher for the incident. Apparently Komansky has a bad reputation in the group for having a chip on his shoulder when it comes to officers, which includes having evaded a promotion opportunity himself. Bailey doesn't want Komansky assigned to his bomber because he's a "sour apple." Gallagher is put to the test when he gives an order (following a new directive from higher up) to shoot down another suspicious B-17 on his next mission...but it turns out that despite the straggler's complete failure to use any method of communication, it was in fact manned by an American crew. Nobody in charge holds Gallagher responsible, but Gallagher blames himself. Komansky and Gallagher find themselves as rivals for Claudine Longet's character, a Free French operative in England. (Fortunately, she's not armed.) During a confrontation at her place, where a drunk Gallagher goes looking for companionship following the incident in the latest mission, Komansky goads Gallagher into laying hands on him for the opportunity to report the incident. On the next mission, Gallagher needs a flight engineer and Komansky is available, so he recruits the sergeant in spite of the charges. There's another straggler incident...only this time it is the German impostor crew, which Heindorf lets into the formation. Heindorf's plane is shot up (yet he isn't killed, which is surprising considering that he's being played by Paul Carr), and Gallagher risks his own bomber to give Komansky the opportunity to shoot the Germans down. Back at base, General Britt bawls Gallagher out over his actions and, when Gallagher refuses to back down, Britt immediately orders Gallagher's permanant assignment as group commander and promotion to full colonel. Komansky withdraws his charge, admitting to having provoked Gallagher, and is formally assigned to Gallagher's crew. And so all of our regular players are in place for the new season. This was a pretty meaty episode...lots of stuff going on, and a thorough exhibit of Burke's dramatic chops. _______ Apparently Claudine Longet, who was married to Andy Williams at the time, had a recording career a bit later in the decade, with three singles that made the Hot 100 (including a cover of "Good Day Sunshine" in 1967) and two that bubbled under (including a cover of "Here, There and Everywhere" in 1967). Her highest charter was: "Love Is Blue (l'amour est bleu)" (Charted Feb. 24, 1968; #71 US; #28 AC; the original/definitive version of this will be popping up as 50th anniversary business in the first chart for the coming year) _______ The Monkees "The Card Carrying Red Shoes" Originally aired November 6, 1967 An episode full of characters doing Boris & Natasha accents isn't helped by the main guest character being named Natasha. The episode does have the novelty of the climactic music sequence not being set to a Monkees song... Mike's only appearance in the episode: "She Hangs Out" (B-side of "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You") "The Wild Monkees" Originally aired November 13, 1967 This time, the story-disconnected song sequence is the episode's teaser: "Goin' Down" (B-side of "Daydream Believer") That was different...Micky stretching his musical legs. I like the vaguely psychedelic touches in the video. It's not knee-slappingly hilarious, but I'm starting to find the Monkees' style of staying in situation-assumed character(s) to be kind of endearing...e.g., their "club meeting," held in private. The biker ladies, OTOH, weren't strong on staying in character, taking the first opportunity to get glammed up and wear nice clothes, which made them a bit unconvincing in their roles. "Star Collector" Trivia point that I didn't catch, but read on IMDb: This is the first episode to feature Mike without his wool hat. _______ At least when the Bradys went on vacation, they actually went somewhere! I was going for a Casey Kadence, but I'm not sure if it came through in the writing. Interesting. I've dabbled a bit in that era for my collection...I have a 2-hour playlist covering the '20 and '30s, and another 2 hours covering the '40s. Compare and contrast to 11 hours for 1967 alone. So maybe there might be some interest in a Rudy Vallée post. (He's appearing as guest villain Lord Ffogg in Batman's Londinium 3-parter.) I don't have any first-hand experience other than vaguely recalling his name as being that of a singer (perhaps due to some sort of childhood exposure in the '70s), but apparently he was a big deal in the music world of the '20s and '30s, one of the first crooners, predating even Bing.
In this era, I've found that there will often be multiple covers of a new hit song bumping around in lower reaches of the Hot 100. Miss Longet will also be popping up in a Rat Patrol multi-parter that's coming up soon in the 51st Anniversary Viewing.
This was a dialed-in episode, only saved (somewhat) by Micky and Peter's constant (and clever) breaking of the fourth wall, with Dolenz's "Not bad for a long haired wierdo, 'at, America?" / "Ward, I don't want to be a chicken!" (meaning production executive Ward Sylvester) and Tork's "It can't be you every week" (to Davy about Natasha's interest in Peter). Slick Jeff Barry track. The first recorded version of this song appeared on Rhino's 1991 box set, Listen to the Band: As mentioned a few weeks ago, the fifth and final appearance of Henry Corden--this time as Blauner the hotel manager, instead of the long gone (by that time) Mr. Babbitt. Well, not really stretching, as every member had musical interests beyond the standard rock fare, with traces of said interest appearing on each new album. Micky was interested in jazz (he employs a bit a scat in this song), blues and other genres, so he was a natural for songs of this kind. Music snobs (aka "professional" A-holes) rarely give credit for this song being one of the first rock tracks to use the Moog synthesizer, with their "Daily Nightly" (appearing on the same album) very likely being the first. Yeah, but they took Alice. Alice?? That's like the One Day at a Time characters taking Schneider on a trip. For all I know, that probably happened....
Didn't catch that one. I didn't say that it was a stretch, but that he was stretching his legs, as in exercising. But at least they took her to Hawaii and the Grand Canyon, instead of to redressed versions of the usual sets!
Well why not bring her? All he has to do is say he brought her, she doesn't actually have to be there.
Alice was a member of the family! Harsh. But they would have had to pay him. I remember that. Yeah, no glamour for this bunch. That must be the version I'm familiar with. I remember liking this song circa 1970, but I don't remember who did it. Oddly, I may be remembering an Andy Williams cover version, if that's possible. That was odd. Da doo ron ron? That was not great. Yeah, more of a Micky solo there, but pretty good. Of this batch, this is the one that sounds most like the Monkees to me, but it's minor. In retrospect, yes. In terms of social change, the 20s was very much like the 60s, on a smaller scale, especially for women, and it carried over into the early 30s (as the 60s did into the 70s). Popular culture also went through a similar period of uncensored freedom-- witness Pulp magazines and Pre-Code movies. Ultimately, the Depression killed it all. I can't say I know much, except that he had a Beatles-like effect on women, so a post about him should be interesting.
The aforementioned Paul Mauriat instrumental version was a #1. I'd post, but it's coming up as 50th anniversary business in a little over a month. It looks like Longet's version was one of at least three covers that popped up lower in the Hot 100 in the immediate aftermath of Mauriat's. Alright, FWIW...we have a music career spotlight that's even more oldschool that Ethel Merman's.... _______ Rudy Vallée One of the sites that I use for chart information lists 71 Top-20 singles by Rudy Vallée & His Connecticut Yankees between 1929 and 1939, including these four chart-toppers: "Honey" (1929) "Stein Song (University of Maine)" (1930) "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" (1932) "Vieni...Vieni..." (1937) His last hit (billed as "Rudy Vallée with orchestra") was actually a wartime reissue of one that he'd done with the Yankees in 1931, motivated by the popularity that the song gained following its use in Casablanca: "As Time Goes By" (1943; #2 US)
It was definitely not the instrumental that I remember, but I don't know if it was something on the radio or on one of the 8-Tracks we had. That classic 20s sound. I'm sure I know this song, but a version by a female vocalist. Well, that's an odd one-- although maybe not, considering the youth culture of the time. This one is a classic, of course, and certainly a sign of the times. I don't think I've ever heard this one before. Another classic. And the theme is very interesting-- people being overwhelmed by progress and wanting to get back to the basics-- in 1931.
_______ 51st Anniversary Viewing _______ The Rat Patrol "The Gun Runner Raid" Originally aired November 28, 1966 This is a half-decent little half-story (I'm probably gonna wish I'd saved that one for later), with the Patrol pretending to play along with the slimy arms dealer's offer to cut them in; the situation between the arms dealer and his wife; and the threat of Dietrich dropping by, which doesn't pan out (he isn't in the episode). This one had some dramatic potential that could have used more room to develop. Imagine, for example, if the arms dealer had the sort of pull to enforce a truce, and Dietrich sat at the dinner table with the Troy and Moffitt. _______ "All About Ann" Originally aired December 1, 1966 Of course, this is something of an idiot premise episode, but with some heart. Marlo does good insecure/heartbroken Ann, but it seems like they've already gone to the "threatened break-up with Donald" well a time too many. It also seems like something of a conflict of interest for Donald to be writing up his girlfriend in his magazine. This one had a location shot of Ann feeding pigeons in the park, I assume Central. "Oh, Donald" count: 2, plus an "Oh, Judy" and an "Oh, Donald" from Judy. _______ Revisiting this... Lloyd's still working! I heard him on Cousin Brucie tonight. Revisiting this... I neglected to include some chart information...the version that was released on the single B-side charted separately the week of Nov. 18, bubbling under at #104. I love the song for that...not just being a song about the Depression that came out during the Depression, but the referencing of then-recent events such as World War I and the skyscraper boom. I have Bing's version (also a #1):
Where would sitcoms be without misunderstandings? The skyscraper boom is the other half of the best-of-times-worst-of-times equation of the era. There was a strong Futurism movement as well. In one of my stories that's set in the early 30s, a woman says, "The world’s tallest building is being built... airships are filling the skies... a new planet has been discovered in the heavens. The future is here, now!" The people of the past didn't see themselves as being in the past-- what looks quaint to us was the cutting edge to them. That's probably the best version.
Cut to Rudy Vallée singing through a megaphone...then shaking his fist at those damn punks and their newfangled electric microphones!
Yeah, ya gotta be old enough to remember. Claudine played Ben Gazzara's girlfriend in two episodes of Run For Your Life and performed a bossa nova tune in Blake Edwards' 1967 comedy The Party starring Peter Sellers. I'd say her singing, with that little baby-girl voice and Elmer Fudd lisp, is definitely an acquired taste. Rudy Vallee also became a pretty good character actor in his later years. He was especially known for playing comic roles like the pompous, stuffed-shirt company president J.B. Biggley in both the stage and film versions of How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
Next thing you know they'll have electric clarinets or banjos or something. If he hadn't always refused to scrub, he could have gone far. I remember SNL (I think) doing a parody using gunshot sound effects and the "agony of defeat" clip from World of Sports.
A lisp is what Sylvester has, pronouncing "s" like "th." Elmer Fudd's speech impediment is called rhotacism. Well, actually it's both rhotacism and lambdacism, because he turns both R and L sounds into W sounds.
_______ 50th Anniversary Viewing _______ Mission: Impossible "The Council: Part II" Originally aired November 26, 1967 OK, so Fake Wayne needing to get out of the country for fake-shooting Barney's fake marshall is all part of the plan. Fake Wayne gets fake cosmetic surgery that makes him look like Rollin. All so Rollin can get some alone time with Wayne's safe. Meanwhile, the abducted and unconscious Real Wayne gets some actual cosmetic treatment to look like Rollin, for after the un-switcheroo...so the IMF operative who's a plastic surgeon who also happens to have experience having resuscitated a patient puts both of his talents to use. Despite all the elaborate set-up of the first part, the story still has the IMF gang benefiting from omniscient planning. In particular, it's awfully convenient that attempting to off Fake Wayne involved a mob boss shoving him out into a corridor where he could easily try to escape. I want to say that the double-twist on the disguise angle gave this one some good M:I flair that helped make up for the story's shortcomings...but Christopher 2010 makes a good argument that the whole makeover angle was itself a plot shortcoming, as they were ultimately going to put the real Wayne back in place to be killed. Still, this series's groove is doing elaborate schemes, and I think it works best if you don't think too hard about whether the elaborate schemes make sense, so long as they're executed with panache. TOS guest: One of the elevator switches makes the "hitting the phaser button" noise. _______ The Man from U.N.C.L.E. "The Gurnius Affair" Originally aired November 27, 1967 Open Channel Damn Lick of Sense, This Doesn't Make a Given the show's tongue-in-cheek nature, I can't help seeing the German prison commandant insisting that nobody can escape from his prison and that nobody has in 25 years (which would have been during the war) as spoofing Hogan's Heroes. This week's tacked-on female guest character is played by Judy Carne, who's about to become a regular occupant of TMFU's current timeslot in the coming year, as a cast member of the show's mid-season replacement, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. This is effectively another example of the babysitting formula...Solo is sidelined with her while Illya carries out his infiltration. It's very contrived that one of the former Nazis just happens to be a double of Illya (which is also played up as too much of a surprise reveal) to enable Illya to infiltrate the group. And pretty unlikely given the age factor. Illya portrays Nexor's lookalike son, but it's not made clear if the actual Nexor had been replaced by a lookalike son (which wasn't part of Waverly's briefing) or if it's an artifice of Illya's impersonation (in which case, how was this misinformation conveyed to the Nazi leader?). The hair alone seems like a rather unlikely choice for an aging ex-Nazi or a neo-Nazi offspring. And where does the son's rank come from? Self-assumed? Being his father's son wouldn't give him his father's experience. The Nazis' scheme involves projecting "mind waves" long distances via a telescope--Even if telescopes weren't made to look up into space, there's that annoying curvature of the Earth business to deal with. And of course, the whole observatory lair blows up from shooting up the control room. And if Gurnius is the leader of the operation, why is everyone wearing an "N" insignia? For "Nazi"? Episodes like this make M:I episodes with a few holes in the IMF's scheme look really good. There's a difference between wondering if a convoluted operation is really worth all the trouble and wondering what the hell the writers were thinking throughout the hour. TOS guest: Joseph Ruskin as a THRUSH representative. _______ The Rat Patrol "The Violent Truce Raid" Originally aired November 27, 1967 Seems like that title might have been more appropriate for the Season 1 episode "The Moment of Truce Raid." This one actually has a couple of moments of truce, both of which go awry. Dietrich plays a substantial role in the episode. Guesting Bruce Glover (Mr. Wint, Diamonds Are Forever) as an American lieutenant who dies bringing the bad shipment to the Patrol's attention, and Howard Caine (Maj. Hochstetter, Hogan's Heroes) as the British major. This one has a few daytime scenes filmed on the desert set. Well, their desert set is more convincing than Trek's planet sets, at least. Overall, I'd say that this one pretty much hit the mark for what works on the show. _______ Batman "The Foggiest Notion" Originally aired November 30, 1967 The patrons of the Three Bells Pub are alternately described as mods and hippies; whatever they are, they don't strike a particularly American hippie vibe. This one had middle installment issues...the plot did move forward somewhat, with Batman learning the truth about Lord Ffogg, and Batgirl and Robin being captured. But the bit about Batman having his memory stolen and then quickly restored by Alfred was pure, water-treading filler. It seems a bit inconvenient for Alfred to have to lug out Barbara's suitcase each time she wants to change to Batgirl. Couldn't she just stash it somewhere nearby? And it might be a bit less conspicuous to conceal if it didn't have a bat-logo on it.... Am I misremembering a Batfight with "Olde English" sound effects? Is that in the third part? THWACK-ETH! _______ Ironside "A Very Cool Hot Car" Originally aired November 30, 1967 Sign o' the times: A bitter old retired cop references LSD. Not terribly cutting edge, as Dragnet was basing stories on the drug culture last season. We also get a pair of complicit auto salvage heirs who are brightly-dressed "flower people." Mark plays a substantial undercover role in the investigation, even though he's the one member of Team Ironside who's not a cop. It's a bit contrived that Ed doesn't see the guy who forced him off the road...particularly as there's no worthy surprise identity reveal involved. I was getting the vibe that one of the guest characters inside the force was in on the operation, but nothing of the sort emerged. Guess I'm used to the murder mystery formula. Oooh, Harrison Ford's in the next one...! _______ "The Mailman Cometh" Originally aired November 30, 1967 I'm probably beating a dead horse at this point, but I have to note that the opening involves Donald taking Ann out to eat at a restaurant that she describes as costing the same as a round trip to Boston. Don Penny carries a good deal of the comedic weight in this one as Seymour, the overeager, underexperienced agent. Looking him up, I found this interesting... IMDb also claims that he wrote for The Monkees, but I don't see any episode writing credits to his name. Other guests include William Boyett (Sgt. MacDonald, Adam-12) in a small, uncredited speaking role as a photographer. "Oh, Donald" count: 3+; She gets in about as many "Oh, Seymour"s, but I wasn't counting those along the way. _______ Tarzan "Mountains of the Moon: Part 2" Originally aired December 1, 1967 As one might have guessed, Rosanna McCloud is Ethel Merman's character. M:I isn't the only series doing long recaps in this era...we get one here that clocks in at around 6:40! I think they went a little too "Western" with this one. I was willing to buy the natives on horses circling the wagons like Indians...but the bad guys have a stagecoach; and at the end of act III, the colonial cavalry comes charging in, complete with bugler! On the subject of the pilgrims taking up firearms... This episode has a pretty timely message about using violence in the name of an ultimately peaceful cause, coming as it does on the cusp of the year in which the counterculture shifts to violent demonstrations. While McCloud and her followers are genuinely conflicted about the situation, Harry Townes's colonial officer is played up as something of a parody of trigger-happy military types... William Marshall's chief character has a teeny-tiny Theoden moment before his tribesmen charge the pilgrims. Tarzan gets a tribal trial by combat against Whitehead, the bad guy who played the pilgrims and tribesmen against each other with his land-selling scam. Tarzan badass moment: He voluntarily leaves his hands tied behind his back! Jai and Cheeta don't pop up in the second part, either. _______ Star Trek "Friday's Child" Originally aired December 1, 1967 Stardate 3497.2 See my post here. _______ The Prisoner "Hammer into Anvil" Originally aired December 1, 1967 (UK) The very famous Patrick Cargill is back (Does anybody here get Help! references?), but this time he's Number Two! It doesn't sound like Cargill did Two's voice in the opener. I take it this would be one of those less essential episodes that they made to fill out the season. It's 12th of 17 in production order. It feels different from the get-go...Six getting involved in another prisoner's situation and Two being reactive about it. Cargill does what he can to keep the episode afloat in amusingly depicting Number Two's spiral into paranoia, but it's a bit tedious spending an hour getting to something that we could tell was coming from the first act. The part where Two proves that it was Number Six on the phone via voice pattern, when we already knew that, seems downright gratuitous; as does the brawl with 14. It makes sense in-setting that Six would have enough experience dealing with Twos at this point that he could play one so masterfully, but we have maybe a half-hour's worth of story here, if that, and the flawless execution of Six's scheme undermines the premise of the series. The closest thing in the episode to a good, Prisoner-style twist is how Six gets Two to turn himself in...sort of the same thing conceptually as Six, Kirk, or Mike Nesmith talking a computer into self-destructing. The use of the Bizet piece as a recurring motif in the score was a nice touch, for what it's worth. Overall, even a relatively weak Prisoner episode is pretty watchable compared to the weaker fare of other series of the era. It's a small British TV world...I thought there was something striking about Number 73, the suicide victim... It turns out she was Hilary Dwyer (later Heath), who also played the girl in the scold's bridle in The Avengers, "Murdersville." Finally, Anbo-Jyutsu is no longer the silliest fictitious martial art that I've been exposed to...now I've seen Kosho, an aesthetically displeasing eyesore of a martial art that uses trampolines, crash helmets, and a small pool of water...or is it acid? (Can it please be acid this time, Christopher?) _______ Get Smart "That Old Gang of Mine" Originally aired December 2, 1967 If Batman had been on the same network, they might have had a crossover opportunity here. The foggy London street in the teaser turning out to be a hotel room was a nice bit of surreal business. Other good bits were Max's Churchill impression and British CONTROL's Umbrella of Silence filling up with pipe smoke. As half-hour heist caper stories go, this one plays out better than some Rat Patrol episodes in the same vein. TOS guest: Sid Haig, but he seems to be in everything. _______ I'm old enough to remember had I been exposed to that news item, but young enough to have apparently not been. Yeah, her talent is borderline at best. One can see why she didn't break out of the lower reaches of the chart. I had been inclined to include at least one more example of her musical wares for comparison, but she was sharing a post with a couple of Monkees episodes. So here's her other Hot 100-charter: "Hello, Hello" (Charted May 27, 1967; #91 US; #8 AC) Well, she did make the Top 10 of what was then known as the Easy Listening chart! The Wiki page that I linked to previously mentioned that, and how SNL had to make an on-air apology for it at the time. The description of that skit rings a vague bell...I wouldn't have seen it in original broadcast, but perhaps a rerun or series retrospective special. OTOH, I could just be getting it conflated with the ski jump sequence in For Your Eyes Only. I would have had all of those...I had to take speech classes as a tyke. I remember that I'd actually hear words with those sounds wrong...e.g., I once got "thinking" confused with "sinking."