_______
50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 1)
_______
Hawaii Five-O
"Good Night, Baby--Time to Die!"
Originally aired February 15, 1972
McGarrett shows up at the hotel suite home of a Carol Rhodes (Beth Brickell) in the middle of the night and starts to inspect the place, then relates in a brief narrated flashback sequence how L.B. Barker (William Watson) has escaped from prison. She wants to pack and up and run, but he discourages her. She then gets a threatening call from him, promising she'll be dead by sunset. McGarrett challenges him from the other line.
A cadre of uniformed police arrive by day to set up camp, Carol's hotel floor is vacated, and McGarrett sets up a command post with Duke manning the phone. We learn that Barker was involved in a robbery involving jewels that were never found, and was convicted of killing his partner, Wayne McCabe. We also learn that Five-O was formed in '59 and Steve was returning from a mental health vacation in '68 (which is when the series started). Carol was Barker's mistress when she was 17 and/or in 1968. (If the character was supposed to be that age in 1968, then she's 10 years younger than the actress.) Carol ran out on Barker when a job went wrong and was taken in by an older museum curator named Alfred Townshend, who left her everything when he was found dead after the robbery of rare jewels at his museum by Barker. McGarrett gets updates regarding Barker sightings, which include that he's acquired wheels and a rifle, with accompanying visuals and ominous music. He's subsequently reported to be heading toward them on foot.
Steve has marksmen set up along the police perimeter. By this point Carol's been hitting the booze and flirts with Steve while trying to get him to join her, but he's all business. McGarrett shares that he thinks Townshend was involved in the jewel robbery; and asserts that Barker's whereabouts were known at the time of Townshend's murder...leaving Barker's partner McCabe as the likely killer. Carol 'fesses up to knowing about Alfred's involvement, and how the stones were taken from him when he was killed. Barker calls again, and Carol tries to keep him on the line so they can trace the call (which of course doesn't work), and we're shown that he was at a phone booth within sight of her hotel.
Danno reports that a cop at a delivery entrance was slugged. We're shown Barker hiding in a hamper and climbing up a chute from the laundry room. Carol starts to panic and Steve shows her all the cops stationed in the hallway outside her apartment. Continuing to go over the case, McGarrett listens to a recording by a junkie friend of McCabe's who was a witness on the night of his murder. The junkie mumblingly describes how Wayne fired at Barker; Barker killed Wayne; and an unidentified third person rushed in and grabbed Wayne's gun. Barker claimed self-defense in court, but couldn't prove it as Wayne's gun wasn't found. McGarrett believes that somebody put blanks in McCabe's gun so Barker would get put away for shooting him, and starts pressing Carol about how somebody saw to it that everyone involved in the robbery was dead or put away for life. Meanwhile, we see Barker climbing and jumping along balcony railings, then lowering himself from on a rope. As McGarrett checks the balcony for a noise, the armed Barker drops down on him and knocks him out.
Barker makes himself a drink and talks about how he's going to kill Carol. She stalls him by admitting to having killed Alfred because he was going to blow the whole thing, and claims that she intended to share the loot with him. She also confesses that she recently returned the jewels to the insurance company through a third party for half a million bucks. She wants to off McGarrett, but Barker stops her, then reveals that McGarrett was playing possum and Barker has been cooperating with Five-O...the whole affair having been staged to get Carol's confession on tape, with Barker having been making calls from an office in the hotel. Officers come in and Danno takes her to be booked.
While I had trouble following the junkie's big infodump and had to go back and rewatch that, I saw the two big twists coming a mile away--that Carol was the one Steve was after, from how things were playing between them and the revelation of a mystery person involved; and following that, that Barker's escape and pursuit was staged, and that the surrealistic flashes of his actions weren't actually happening in the story.
_______
Adam-12
"Sub-Station"
Originally aired February 16, 1972
Malloy and Reed arrive at their temporary assignment in a private vehicle, where desk sergeant Ron Carter (Sid McCoy) takes them to Lt. Tom Ashton (Robert Dowdell), who rolls off some Fridayesque statistics while describing their duties, and assigns them the temporary callsign Zebra-12.
Airport security man Noel Simmons (Joe E. Tata) takes the officers to a lounge where a passenger named Tyrone Jeffers (Frank Sinatra Jr.) is holding a stewardess (Francine York) hostage, demanding an audience with a specific producer who wouldn't see him in a previous visit. Jeffers initially stays concealed behind a corner while letting the stewardess do the talking (apparently to save the actor's reveal), but Malloy lures him out with a phone, claiming that the producer is on the line, then pounces from behind and disarms him after Reed leaves the room. As Jeffers is dragged away, all that the insanely desperate actor cares about is his fake call. In the aftermath, the stewardess, Kathy Benson, gets friendly with Malloy.
The officers are then assigned to bust an incoming pot courier. Disguised as rent-a-car workers, they stake out the baggage claim area and tail the ride of the man who picks up the bag of interest via mopeds. A black & white arrives to block the station wagon the suspect is riding in, and the undercover officers arrest a group of five couriers.
An injured woman named Sharon Wells (Lenore Stevens) is found lying on a property near the airport boundary. She reports how she was assaulted by a limo driver. A overparked limo is found that has blood in it, and the officers meet with U.S. Marshal Chuck Stanton (Jed Allan), who leads them to where the tracked-down suspect is nervously waiting for a flight. When the boarding of his flight is announced, he approaches the detector, then makes a run for it; officers run him down, cuff him, and reveal the tear in his shirt made by his victim.
_______
The Brady Bunch
"Cindy Brady, Lady"
Originally aired February 18, 1972
Well, it does seem like a while since we've had a Cindy episode, but she's got the same basic problem as Bobby. At least Jan has someone to look down on...she should focus on that more. Cindy's issue gets going from Jan and Marcia being dismissive of Cindy's maturity for things like wearing fancy hairstyles and going on dates. The parents catch Cindy with her hair teased trying on one of Carol's dresses, and try to encourage her to enjoy the age she's at, as the growing up will come soon enough. Cindy has a talk with a robe-and-curlers-clad Alice in her room--I think this may be the first good look we've gotten of it--and Alice demonstrates the cream, mud, and chin sling she has to use to keep herself looking young. Cindy ends up getting a candy bar wrapped in a note from a secret admirer. This is followed by gifts of scraggly picked flowers and a hair ribbon, and Cindy really gets into the attention. The admirer calls her...and we see that he's Bobby in a phone booth, disguising his voice. Cindy takes the opportunity to make a date.
Bobby tries to leave her a Dear Jane note with candy bar about moving to Europe, but accidentally locks himself outside, to be discovered by Mike. The parents insist that Bobby has to 'fess up to Cindy as he's setting her up for a big letdown, but he can't bring himself to do it, so at school he offers Tommy Jamison a Kennedy half-dollar to come over bearing scraggly flowers for the date. When Cindy comes downstairs all dolled up to meet her admirer, we get a brief revisit of the "Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet". But Cindy's attempt to put on mature airs proves to be a turn-off for Tommy, so Cindy lets her pigtails down and admits to still being into childish things like lizards and teeter-totters. When the parents come home to find Cindy on her date, Bobby's got some 'splainin' to do, but Tommy ends up returning the half-dollar on the basis that he doesn't need to be paid, as Cindy's pretty neat. Bobby argues to the parents that this constitutes a happy ending.
In the coda, Alice is standing on a table because a gift lizard has escaped.
As a reminder, Eric Shea is the younger brother of Christopher (Linus) Shea, and played the kid who was repeatedly crying out for outlaw Shame in that villain's Batman two-parter.
_______
The Partridge Family
"Promise Her Anything, But Give Her a Punch"
Originally aired February 18, 1972
This one has no teaser on Antenna, so we pick up with Danny having bought twelve boxes of Girl Scout cookies from Gloria Hickey, whom he claims to hate, and the elder members of the family realize he's in love. Mom has a talk with him, which is interrupted mid-sentence by an ill-placed commercial. Danny tries out asking Gloria to the dance on Laurie. Being 11 (a bit younger than the actor), he thinks that a punch in the arm is a good pick-up. Danny gets all dressed up for Gloria coming over so he can ask her (I didn't catch why she was coming), but he chickens out and runs up to his room. A misunderstanding ensues when Gloria (Patti Cohoon) asks Laurie about asking her brother to the dance, she tells Gloria that he has a crush on her, and it turns out she's talking about Keith.
Shirley and Keith have to break the news to Keith. Contrary to the Brady family's policy of absolute honesty, Shirley doesn't want Danny to know...though he finds out anyway, and is mad at Keith, pulling retaliatory pranks on him. When Keith can't reason with him, Mom has another talk, in which she encourages Danny to fight for Gloria. Gloria returns and Keith answers the door. He tries to talk up Danny, but she thinks Danny is icky. Danny comes out and tries to challenge Keith, who blurts out that he's not interested in Gloria, causing Gloria to run off heartbroken. Gloria returns later to ask Danny to the dance because he was willing to fight for her. Cut to the family performing "I Would Have Loved You Anyway" in the gym for Gloria's Girl Scout troop, with Keith singing directly to Gloria while Danny glowers. After the performance, Keith gets ready to sign autographs, but the Girl Scouts mob Danny.
Afterward we get an account of how awkwardly the dance went, which included Danny ignoring Gloria and exchanging punches in the arm with her.
_______
The Odd Couple
"A Night to Dismember"
Originally aired February 18, 1972
Felix brings Oscar to Nino's Italian Restaurant (a That Girl tie-in?) for a surprise divorce anniversary date with Blanche while she's in town for a family wedding.
Felix leaves them to proceed awkwardly, and they get into argumentative flashbacks about the New Year's Eve party that launched their breakup. Once again Oscar is depicted living in the current apartment set, so it seems that the Season 1 apartment has been retconned out of existence. Blanche's flashback recalls how she was completely trusting until she caught Oscar in the unusually neat bedroom fooling around with a bubbly blonde tennis champion named Trudy (Joan Van Ark). Oscar's account has him trying to spend time with Blanche while she makes a spectacle of herself being the life of the party. Trudy passes out from drinking while Blanche is leading a conga line...
...and Blanche catches Oscar trying to lie Trudy down in the bedroom while Trudy half-consciously tries to make moves on him. Oscar goes after Blanche to try to straighten things out, and catches her fooling around with a football player (Arch Johnson, I think) in the kitchen (who was only in the background getting ice in Blanche's flashback). While Blanche's flashback had Oscar getting down on one knee begging forgiveness and Felix being judgmental of Oscar's behavior, Oscar's flashback has both points the other way around.
Felix returns to the restaurant and they ask him to settle the difference. Felix remembers having swooped in to save the party with his good spirits, though both of the others remember him suffering from his sinuses when he walked in the door. Oscar takes the drunken Trudy to the bedroom and Felix tries unsuccessfully to cover for him. Felix catches Blanche crying on the football player's shoulder in the kitchen, and unintentionally brings Oscar's attention to the matter. Felix tries to intervene in their argument, telling them both that they should get down on their knees. Back in the present, Felix and Blanche find common ground in disputing Felix's account and acknowledging how wrong they are for each other.
_______
50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 1)
_______
Hawaii Five-O
"Good Night, Baby--Time to Die!"
Originally aired February 15, 1972
Wiki said:
McGarrett shows up at the hotel suite home of a Carol Rhodes (Beth Brickell) in the middle of the night and starts to inspect the place, then relates in a brief narrated flashback sequence how L.B. Barker (William Watson) has escaped from prison. She wants to pack and up and run, but he discourages her. She then gets a threatening call from him, promising she'll be dead by sunset. McGarrett challenges him from the other line.
A cadre of uniformed police arrive by day to set up camp, Carol's hotel floor is vacated, and McGarrett sets up a command post with Duke manning the phone. We learn that Barker was involved in a robbery involving jewels that were never found, and was convicted of killing his partner, Wayne McCabe. We also learn that Five-O was formed in '59 and Steve was returning from a mental health vacation in '68 (which is when the series started). Carol was Barker's mistress when she was 17 and/or in 1968. (If the character was supposed to be that age in 1968, then she's 10 years younger than the actress.) Carol ran out on Barker when a job went wrong and was taken in by an older museum curator named Alfred Townshend, who left her everything when he was found dead after the robbery of rare jewels at his museum by Barker. McGarrett gets updates regarding Barker sightings, which include that he's acquired wheels and a rifle, with accompanying visuals and ominous music. He's subsequently reported to be heading toward them on foot.
Steve has marksmen set up along the police perimeter. By this point Carol's been hitting the booze and flirts with Steve while trying to get him to join her, but he's all business. McGarrett shares that he thinks Townshend was involved in the jewel robbery; and asserts that Barker's whereabouts were known at the time of Townshend's murder...leaving Barker's partner McCabe as the likely killer. Carol 'fesses up to knowing about Alfred's involvement, and how the stones were taken from him when he was killed. Barker calls again, and Carol tries to keep him on the line so they can trace the call (which of course doesn't work), and we're shown that he was at a phone booth within sight of her hotel.
Danno reports that a cop at a delivery entrance was slugged. We're shown Barker hiding in a hamper and climbing up a chute from the laundry room. Carol starts to panic and Steve shows her all the cops stationed in the hallway outside her apartment. Continuing to go over the case, McGarrett listens to a recording by a junkie friend of McCabe's who was a witness on the night of his murder. The junkie mumblingly describes how Wayne fired at Barker; Barker killed Wayne; and an unidentified third person rushed in and grabbed Wayne's gun. Barker claimed self-defense in court, but couldn't prove it as Wayne's gun wasn't found. McGarrett believes that somebody put blanks in McCabe's gun so Barker would get put away for shooting him, and starts pressing Carol about how somebody saw to it that everyone involved in the robbery was dead or put away for life. Meanwhile, we see Barker climbing and jumping along balcony railings, then lowering himself from on a rope. As McGarrett checks the balcony for a noise, the armed Barker drops down on him and knocks him out.
Barker makes himself a drink and talks about how he's going to kill Carol. She stalls him by admitting to having killed Alfred because he was going to blow the whole thing, and claims that she intended to share the loot with him. She also confesses that she recently returned the jewels to the insurance company through a third party for half a million bucks. She wants to off McGarrett, but Barker stops her, then reveals that McGarrett was playing possum and Barker has been cooperating with Five-O...the whole affair having been staged to get Carol's confession on tape, with Barker having been making calls from an office in the hotel. Officers come in and Danno takes her to be booked.
While I had trouble following the junkie's big infodump and had to go back and rewatch that, I saw the two big twists coming a mile away--that Carol was the one Steve was after, from how things were playing between them and the revelation of a mystery person involved; and following that, that Barker's escape and pursuit was staged, and that the surrealistic flashes of his actions weren't actually happening in the story.
_______
Adam-12
"Sub-Station"
Originally aired February 16, 1972
Wiki said:
Malloy and Reed arrive at their temporary assignment in a private vehicle, where desk sergeant Ron Carter (Sid McCoy) takes them to Lt. Tom Ashton (Robert Dowdell), who rolls off some Fridayesque statistics while describing their duties, and assigns them the temporary callsign Zebra-12.
Airport security man Noel Simmons (Joe E. Tata) takes the officers to a lounge where a passenger named Tyrone Jeffers (Frank Sinatra Jr.) is holding a stewardess (Francine York) hostage, demanding an audience with a specific producer who wouldn't see him in a previous visit. Jeffers initially stays concealed behind a corner while letting the stewardess do the talking (apparently to save the actor's reveal), but Malloy lures him out with a phone, claiming that the producer is on the line, then pounces from behind and disarms him after Reed leaves the room. As Jeffers is dragged away, all that the insanely desperate actor cares about is his fake call. In the aftermath, the stewardess, Kathy Benson, gets friendly with Malloy.
The officers are then assigned to bust an incoming pot courier. Disguised as rent-a-car workers, they stake out the baggage claim area and tail the ride of the man who picks up the bag of interest via mopeds. A black & white arrives to block the station wagon the suspect is riding in, and the undercover officers arrest a group of five couriers.
An injured woman named Sharon Wells (Lenore Stevens) is found lying on a property near the airport boundary. She reports how she was assaulted by a limo driver. A overparked limo is found that has blood in it, and the officers meet with U.S. Marshal Chuck Stanton (Jed Allan), who leads them to where the tracked-down suspect is nervously waiting for a flight. When the boarding of his flight is announced, he approaches the detector, then makes a run for it; officers run him down, cuff him, and reveal the tear in his shirt made by his victim.
_______
The Brady Bunch
"Cindy Brady, Lady"
Originally aired February 18, 1972
Wiki said:
Well, it does seem like a while since we've had a Cindy episode, but she's got the same basic problem as Bobby. At least Jan has someone to look down on...she should focus on that more. Cindy's issue gets going from Jan and Marcia being dismissive of Cindy's maturity for things like wearing fancy hairstyles and going on dates. The parents catch Cindy with her hair teased trying on one of Carol's dresses, and try to encourage her to enjoy the age she's at, as the growing up will come soon enough. Cindy has a talk with a robe-and-curlers-clad Alice in her room--I think this may be the first good look we've gotten of it--and Alice demonstrates the cream, mud, and chin sling she has to use to keep herself looking young. Cindy ends up getting a candy bar wrapped in a note from a secret admirer. This is followed by gifts of scraggly picked flowers and a hair ribbon, and Cindy really gets into the attention. The admirer calls her...and we see that he's Bobby in a phone booth, disguising his voice. Cindy takes the opportunity to make a date.
Bobby tries to leave her a Dear Jane note with candy bar about moving to Europe, but accidentally locks himself outside, to be discovered by Mike. The parents insist that Bobby has to 'fess up to Cindy as he's setting her up for a big letdown, but he can't bring himself to do it, so at school he offers Tommy Jamison a Kennedy half-dollar to come over bearing scraggly flowers for the date. When Cindy comes downstairs all dolled up to meet her admirer, we get a brief revisit of the "Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet". But Cindy's attempt to put on mature airs proves to be a turn-off for Tommy, so Cindy lets her pigtails down and admits to still being into childish things like lizards and teeter-totters. When the parents come home to find Cindy on her date, Bobby's got some 'splainin' to do, but Tommy ends up returning the half-dollar on the basis that he doesn't need to be paid, as Cindy's pretty neat. Bobby argues to the parents that this constitutes a happy ending.
In the coda, Alice is standing on a table because a gift lizard has escaped.
As a reminder, Eric Shea is the younger brother of Christopher (Linus) Shea, and played the kid who was repeatedly crying out for outlaw Shame in that villain's Batman two-parter.
_______
The Partridge Family
"Promise Her Anything, But Give Her a Punch"
Originally aired February 18, 1972
Wiki said:
This one has no teaser on Antenna, so we pick up with Danny having bought twelve boxes of Girl Scout cookies from Gloria Hickey, whom he claims to hate, and the elder members of the family realize he's in love. Mom has a talk with him, which is interrupted mid-sentence by an ill-placed commercial. Danny tries out asking Gloria to the dance on Laurie. Being 11 (a bit younger than the actor), he thinks that a punch in the arm is a good pick-up. Danny gets all dressed up for Gloria coming over so he can ask her (I didn't catch why she was coming), but he chickens out and runs up to his room. A misunderstanding ensues when Gloria (Patti Cohoon) asks Laurie about asking her brother to the dance, she tells Gloria that he has a crush on her, and it turns out she's talking about Keith.
Shirley and Keith have to break the news to Keith. Contrary to the Brady family's policy of absolute honesty, Shirley doesn't want Danny to know...though he finds out anyway, and is mad at Keith, pulling retaliatory pranks on him. When Keith can't reason with him, Mom has another talk, in which she encourages Danny to fight for Gloria. Gloria returns and Keith answers the door. He tries to talk up Danny, but she thinks Danny is icky. Danny comes out and tries to challenge Keith, who blurts out that he's not interested in Gloria, causing Gloria to run off heartbroken. Gloria returns later to ask Danny to the dance because he was willing to fight for her. Cut to the family performing "I Would Have Loved You Anyway" in the gym for Gloria's Girl Scout troop, with Keith singing directly to Gloria while Danny glowers. After the performance, Keith gets ready to sign autographs, but the Girl Scouts mob Danny.
Afterward we get an account of how awkwardly the dance went, which included Danny ignoring Gloria and exchanging punches in the arm with her.
_______
The Odd Couple
"A Night to Dismember"
Originally aired February 18, 1972
Wiki said:
Felix brings Oscar to Nino's Italian Restaurant (a That Girl tie-in?) for a surprise divorce anniversary date with Blanche while she's in town for a family wedding.
Oscar: Aren't you the guy that got the survivors of the Hindenburg together?
Felix leaves them to proceed awkwardly, and they get into argumentative flashbacks about the New Year's Eve party that launched their breakup. Once again Oscar is depicted living in the current apartment set, so it seems that the Season 1 apartment has been retconned out of existence. Blanche's flashback recalls how she was completely trusting until she caught Oscar in the unusually neat bedroom fooling around with a bubbly blonde tennis champion named Trudy (Joan Van Ark). Oscar's account has him trying to spend time with Blanche while she makes a spectacle of herself being the life of the party. Trudy passes out from drinking while Blanche is leading a conga line...
Flashback Felix: Such a dusty dance...
...and Blanche catches Oscar trying to lie Trudy down in the bedroom while Trudy half-consciously tries to make moves on him. Oscar goes after Blanche to try to straighten things out, and catches her fooling around with a football player (Arch Johnson, I think) in the kitchen (who was only in the background getting ice in Blanche's flashback). While Blanche's flashback had Oscar getting down on one knee begging forgiveness and Felix being judgmental of Oscar's behavior, Oscar's flashback has both points the other way around.
Felix returns to the restaurant and they ask him to settle the difference. Felix remembers having swooped in to save the party with his good spirits, though both of the others remember him suffering from his sinuses when he walked in the door. Oscar takes the drunken Trudy to the bedroom and Felix tries unsuccessfully to cover for him. Felix catches Blanche crying on the football player's shoulder in the kitchen, and unintentionally brings Oscar's attention to the matter. Felix tries to intervene in their argument, telling them both that they should get down on their knees. Back in the present, Felix and Blanche find common ground in disputing Felix's account and acknowledging how wrong they are for each other.
_______
