Post-50th Anniversary Viewing
Happy Days
"R.O.T.C."
Originally aired October 8, 1974
When the guys goof off during drill exercises, Lt. Col. Binicky (Dave Ketchum) fires Charlie Talbott (Richard Kuller) from his position as squad leader and, going down the line, selects a reluctant Richie for the position. Potsie and Ralph think they've got it made and take the squad for a panty raid of the girls' locker room. Richie goes to his father for an excuse to get out, but Mr. C, a former mess sergeant, thinks it's a great leadership opportunity, and advises Richie to make his men love him. Richie thus tries buttering up Ralph and Potsie at Arnold's, but they tune him out when he talks about the need for discipline on the field. Richie then goes to Binicky, who gives Richie the opposite advice, that he has to make his men hate him. Thus Richie tries being stricter on the field, threatening to put the guys on report if they don't fall in line, but he's weak about it and they all take an opportunity to run off behind his back.
Back at Arnold's, Pots and Ralph make a show of giving Richie the cold shoulder. Richie's next source of advice is the Fonz, who's working on his bike outside. Fonzie demonstrates on Wendy, the recurring carhop (Misty Rowe), how to get what he wants by playing it cool; but Fonzie becomes angry when he learns that Rich put his friends on report, accusing him of being a fink. Back at home, Howard advises Richie to stick it out. (A reference to
The Caine Mutiny gives Tom Bosley an opportunity to engage in his Bogie impersonation.) That night, Richie has a
Gilligan's Island-style dream sequence in which the Fonz, acting as judge and prosecutor, puts him on trial for being a fink. Richie's family and friends, all in uniform, testify against him (Joanie briefly sporting a Groucho disguise in association with a reference to wanting to watch one of his movies in an earlier scene). Even Wendy is in the dream, which ends with Richie facing a whipped cream firing squad.
Back on the school field, Richie tears up the report and levels with the guys about what he's been going through. A shamed Potsie and Ralph speak for the others in agreeing to put in a good performance at a review ceremony, following which Richie promises to quit. The squad comes through, but Richie's moment is ruined when he lets the applause divert his attention from directing their marching, resulting in Chekhov's Row of Sprinklers Running in the Background also coming through.
In the soda shop coda, Fonzie congratulates Richie for fouling up, and Potsie announces that he's been made the new squad leader, giving Richie the opportunity to join Ralph in proactively giving him the cold shoulder.
Planet of the Apes
"The Legacy"
Originally aired October 11, 1974
The fugitives are trekking through the California hills when they spot Postapocalyptic Mayberry for what turns out to be the first time in production order.
Burke: I've forgotten what a city looks like.
This version has some human squatters living in the ruins, including another dog. Conveniently, the first building nameplate one of the fugitives dusts off is that of the Oakland Science Institute, which Virdon takes great interest in. Inside, they open a powered vault door to find what looks like either a computer bank or a vintage Coke machine. It projects a hologram of a scientist (Jon Lormer) made when the destruction of civilization was imminent. The futuristically robed figure tells of scientific knowledge having been preserved in vaults in various cities, but the projector runs out of juice before he can divulge where the Oakland vault is. (Note that here, the astronauts describe the tech as being way ahead of their time.) To Galen's bewilderment, the humans get to work gathering materials to construct a battery and are spotted and pursued by an ape patrol. After they split up, Virdon injures himself running through the rubble and attempts to take refuge with a young woman under a stairway (Arn [Zina Bethune]); but he's ratted on by a boy who spotted him and offers the info for food (Jackie Earle Haley pretending to be Kraik).
Urko and Zaius arrive to question Virdon, and argue over methods. Either Gorilla Captain (Robert Phillips) or Gorilla Sergeant (Wayne Foster) recruits the boy to be put in a makeshift cell (the interior of a ruined building with loosely barred but high windows) with Virdon and Arn to gather intel about where the other fugitives are. (He's not stuck in there with them...) While Virdon becomes suspicious that he's being kept alive for a reason, Zaius, marveling at a photo of Virdon's family that the colonel had on him, reasons that Virdon will come to see the woman and boy as his own family.
Virdon befriends the boy, who shares his name and doesn't understand baseball metaphors. (Harry Truman doesn't come up.) Virdon convinces him that their food has to be rationed equally and with enough to spare for the next day. When Virdon alludes to his friends, Kraik too-eagerly asks questions, but Virdon stays mum on the subject for the boy's own good. Virdon carves a model airplane and tells Kraik about where he comes from. When Kraik boasts of his food-scrounging abilities, Virdon lets on some about what he's after. Then Arn starts asking questions about the things Virdon's been talking about, which motivates Virdon to spill more info about what he found and where it's at. After Virdon confronts Kraik about having stolen the model, the boy smashes it and runs away screaming in timeless angry child fashion, then slips out and offers the gorillas his info.
All the while, obeying orders from before they split up, the other fugitives have been back at the institute, where Burke's been building the battery.
When the boy returns, Arn tells him that Virdon built the now-repaired plane for him, and Kraik confesses to what he did. Virdon figures that his friends wouldn't be at the institute anymore, but fears that the apes will find the message, so he enlists Kraik's aid in busting out...taking out a gorilla with his superior TV hero pilot fighting skills. Zaius figures that the other fugitives would have left something behind to tell Virdon where to go and is taken to the institute. Virdon & surrogate family get there first and Virdon starts to play the message, but has to turn it off and hide as the apes arrive. Zaius fiddles with the now-exposed machine and activates the recording, which tells of how the vault is hidden in a railway station. Kraik knows a way to get there quicker underground while Zaius's party has to navigate the debris-strewn streets.
Meanwhile, the other fugitives are already there, Burke turning on various computer machines that are still powered and still using reel-to-reel tapes. Virdon arrives and painfully insists that they have to abandon their informational gold mine. The apes find the blinky machines spewing out printer paper, but Zaius insists that this forbidden knowledge has to be destroyed as it threatens their civilization. We cut from the paper being burned as it continues to spew to the place going up like it ran over a pothole in Hawaii.
Virdon drops off his cellmates at a farm where Arn used to live but had been avoiding since the death of her rebel husband, and the fugitives hit the road again.
All in the Family
"Lionel the Live-In"
Originally aired October 12, 1974
The Bunkers are awoken after midnight by a loud argument at the Jeffersons'. Archie threatens out the window to call the cops, disturbing the Stivics in turn. Soon after things quiet down, Lionel rings the doorbell, wanting to borrow money from Mike for a hotel because his father's been giving him a hard time about Jenny. Louise and George soon follow separately in robes, the former insisting that Lionel come home while the latter persists in his assault.
George: I don't want no daughter-in-law that's a zebra!
Louise: Why not? She don't mind a father-in-law who's a jackass!
Against Archie's wishes, Edith offers them coffee. When Archie tries to set an example for George by claiming that he considers Mike to be a son, George dares him to tell Mike--who's standing nearby in his pajamas eating a cold bowl of leftover spaghetti--that he loves him, and Mike teases Archie about staying silent. Gloria suggests that Lionel stay on the Bunkers' couch, and Archie finds himself maneuvered into insisting that Lionel can when George argues that Archie would never let him.
Over breakfast, Archie becomes concerned about Lionel's impact on the grocery bill. Lionel offers to find a hotel, but Edith insists that he stay, an idea that Louise agrees with, wanting a few days to straighten George out. Archie sits Lionel down and tries to make a point about where his old man is coming from by telling a story about Al Jolson's situation with his old man in
The Jazz Singer. Lionel does his usual bit of playing dumb while letting Archie make an ass of himself; and asks if he can call Archie his uncle.
George later comes over with a suitcase and money for a hotel, wanting to get Lionel out of the Bunkers', but Louise takes the money. George suggests to Louise that can try having another son.
Louise: You'd better call parcel post...'cause I've stopped makin' deliveries!
Archie: I don't wanna hear this!
Archie makes a ploy by claiming that he's planning to keep Lionel in the attic and adopt him. This actually works in getting George to talk to Lionel and ultimately apologize. After Archie makes a comment about striped children, Lionel's happy to accept the offer to return home. After the Jeffersons leave, Archie explains to Edith that what he did was an example of diplomacy.
Archie: That's when you get somebody to do somethin' he don't wanna do by promisin' him to do somethin' that you ain't got no intention of doin'.
However, Archie takes religious-based exception when Edith likens him to Kissinger (Archie slipping in the H-word).
EGW appears to be over, as Sherman Hemsley's found his character's voice.
TRANQUILIZERS, FULL INTENSITY!!!!!
The thing is, in the series the apes freely roam around and set up shop in ruined cities.
He could be hanging around in that abandoned subway tunnel with a long, white beard.
"Ever tried monkey meat...?"
Special Guest Ape: Raymond Burr
In the audience with Banshee and Prof. X: Len Wein, Dave Cockrum, and Phantom Girl.
View attachment 45954
