The Classic/Retro Pop Culture Thread

[DarrenTR1970]

"China Grove," The Doobie Brothers (#15 US)

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[RJDiogenes]

Larry G. Smith, 31, American race car driver and 1972 NASCAR Winston Cup Rookie of the Year, was killed in a crash at the Talladega 500 race in Alabama.

Is it just me, or were an awful lot of racing car drivers killed in those days?

U.S. President Richard M. Nixon delivered a nationally-televised address about the Watergate scandal for the first time, calling on the nation to end its "continued backward-looking obsession with Watergate" and to focus on "matters of far greater importance to all of the American people."

"Let's put all the crimes I committed behind us."

The format would be adapted for American audiences as Three's Company in 1977.

Same thing that happened with All in the Family (which I think was adapted from a show called Til Death Do Us Part ).

U.S. Baseball star Willie Mays, wrapping up his career with the New York Mets, hit the 660th and final home run of his Major League Baseball career in a game against the Cincinnati Reds.

This is something I remember, despite having no interest in sports whatsoever.

The victory was taken away two days later for cheating, after race officials found that the user's car had an electromagnet that allowed it to be pulled forward as the track's metal starting plate fell, allowing him a slight head-start against the other competitors.

But he got a commendation for original thinking.

"China Grove," The Doobie Brothers

Classic Doobies.

"Yes We Can Can," The Pointer Sisters

This is a good one that I haven't heard in a very long time.

"Higher Ground," Stevie Wonder

Classic Stevie.

It's all more or less the same as far as Sol's concerned...when the young folk were saying "Don't trust anyone under 30" in the late '60s, the under-30s consisted of a mix of Boomers and late Silent Generation. And younger Silent Generationers who were rock stars in the '60s, such as the Beatles, would ultimately come to be more strongly associated with the Boomers than with their own generation. The societal dividing lines are arbitrary.

Or blurred, anyway. And it was "over 30."

 

[The Old Mixer]

_______

Post-50th Anniversary Viewing

_______

The Mod Squad
"The Sentinels"
Originally aired September 14, 1971
Season 4 premiere

A drama about an ironic link between murder, a stolen car and a threatened epidemic.

A pair of hoodlums attempt to nab a hip-looking young payroll messenger named Angel Rodriguez (Alex Curi) for the briefcase handcuffed to him. A struggle ensues and one of them ends up shooting him while a woman watches from a building across the street. Pete's at a taco stand with the other Mods when he gets a payphone call about Angel--an old friend and parolee whom Pete helped get his job. Pete visits Angel on his deathbed, getting a vague description of the culprits and thanks for his help before he has to leave. Pete ignores a call from Greer, who assigns the other Mods to find a stolen blue-gray Plymouth that was transporting a cage of lab pigeons who have psittacosis, a.k.a. parrot fever. The audience sees that the car just happens to be the one used by the would-be payroll thieves--Keech Thompson (the shooter; Scott Marlowe) and Nick Fraser (Hal England). The car is spotted be CLE and pursued; Nick flees on foot, and the Mods find the trunk empty.

Pete checks in at HQ insisting that he be put on the case of finding Angel's killers, and Greer agrees. Prints lead to the apartment that Nick shares with his wife, Lila (Lynne Marta), which Julie and Linc visit...Julie claiming to be the owner of the car who wants her birds back, and Linc an eyewitness to the car theft. Nick collapses and is taken to the hospital, where he's diagnosed with encephalitis (which parrot fever is said to be a form of, whether or not that's true). Greer tries playing it straight with Nick to enlist his cooperation, but Nick is suspicious that Greer just wants to pin the car theft (and, unspoken, the murder) on him. Elsewhere, Keech has given the pigeons to his kid brother, Paulie (Stephen Hudis). Keech learns what happened from Lila, threatens to kill her if she says anything about the car or birds, and deduces that Lila's visitors were cops when Linc's cover doesn't check out. Meanwhile, Pete has worked his way through suspicious neighborhood residents to locate a friend of Angel's named Aurelio (Richard Romanos), and persuades him to help find someone who saw the murder.

Aurelio turns up the witness, Marina (Poupee Bocar; implied to be a prostitute, as she didn't want to come forward about what she was doing in the presumably abandoned factory building), and Pete learns that the car matches the one the other Mods are looking for. On a follow-up visit to Lila, Julie gets Keech's name, but is then carjacked by Keech at gunpoint outside, and tells him about the disease. Linc sees them driving by and commandeers a running station wagon nearby to pursue; when he intercepts them, Keech clocks him with the gun and flees on foot to tell Paulie to put the pigeons back in the little cage. Pete reports in and the others realize that Nick and Keech have been covering up a murder; while Greer gets a call that Nick has died. The Mods converge on Keech's place, but Paulie, not trusting his hoodlum big brother, has run away with the birds.

Keech evades pursuit while looking for Paulie, and Greer has the area cordoned off and searched; while Paulie, showing signs of illness, takes refuge in an abandoned building. Keech chases Paulie up to the roof, where Linc catches up and his stunt double treats Keech's to the usual business. Paulie grabs the gun to stop Keech from taking the pigeons, and both Linc and Keech try to be straight with him. Paulie drops the cage, Keech gets his gun back, it turns into a scuffle again when Pete arrives, and the pigeons almost get loose; Linc takes down Keech and Pete carries Paulie off to get medical attention.

In the coda, a recovering Paulie is released from the hospital, and Linc gives him some new pigeons before the Mods walk off the hospital grounds.

_______

Ironside
"The Priest Killer"
Originally aired September 14, 1971
Season 5 premiere

Ironside teams up with Father Samuel Cavanaugh [George Kennedy] to capture a murderer. This 2-hour episode serves as a crossover with the series Sarge.

From the Wiki for that half-season series:

Kennedy stars as Samuel Patrick Cavanaugh, a San Diego police detective sergeant who decides to retire and enter the priesthood after his wife is murdered. Sarge had initially studied for the priesthood prior to his police career, but his seminary studies were interrupted by military service in the Marine Corps during World War II.

The series, which ran in 1971-72, was preceded by a pilot titled Sarge: The Badge or the Cross (February 22, 1971 airdate), which set the premise for the subsequent series. One week before the show's fall premiere, on September 14, 1971, Cavanaugh traveled to San Francisco because of the death of a friend and fellow priest. His investigation caused him to cross paths with the characters from Ironside in a two-hour special that consolidated the two series' consecutive time slots. This has been subsequently seen as a TV-movie, The Priest Killer.

The version shown on GetTV, while run in Ironside's two-episode timeslot, is in TV movie format, sans Ironside's usual opening...and with the onscreen title rendered as Priest-Killer. It's also shot in a more TV-cinematic quality...notably, the lighting in the Ironsidecave isn't as flat, and some scenes use moodily dramatic lighting and shots. The story opens with "people's priest" Father Dennis McMurtry (Robert Sampson), a celebrity for social activism, getting a lot of press attention at the launch party of a book about him (Where's the author?)...while a not-fully-obscured Anthony Zerbe buys a rifle. McMurtry visits the Chief, talking about how his controversial status is getting him transferred out of the neighborhood where he feels he's done good. McMurtry then pays a visit to his new post, the Church of the Redeemer, and falls victim to the titular figure, who fires from the balcony.

Team Ironside (now minus Eve, whose replacement isn't on duty yet) are on the scene along with uniformed CLE as family and friends gather, including Father Cavanaugh, in from San Diego to officiate at the funeral. The Chief questions Father Denny's friend Martha Gordon (Louise Latham), an architect who was working on a housing project with the priest. At the funeral, Cavanaugh delivers a brief but personal eulogy, following which he's approached in private by Father Miles (Peter Brocco), the priest whom McMurtry was replacing. Miles wants absolution for a confession that he took; and while he can't give details because it's under the seal, he indicates that the parishioner expressed a disturbing amount of hatred. Later at the retreat where he's now assigned, Miles is approached by the unseen titular figure, who shoots him and then another priest who comes upon the scene.

Cavanaugh had been planning to leave town the following morning, but hears about the murders on TV. He goes to the church to question the sacristan (Charles Seel) about parishioners who may have made the confession. Afterward, Ed pops up to escort Cavanaugh to the Ironsidecave. The Chief accuses Cavanaugh of withholding evidence, and the father explains that it's a matter of confidentiality. Mark drops Cavanaugh's series-titular nickname, and the Chief agrees to stay out of the father's way for a spell while Cavanaugh follows up on what he knows. Team Ironside conducts their own investigation, which starts with them considering if Miles could have been the originally intended target; and trying to find Miles's maiden sister, Harriet.

Cavanaugh pays calls on parishioners (his investigation being punctuated by interludes of quirky encounters with people on the street who desire priestly attention for one reason or another), including Vincent Wiertel (Zerbe), who says he hasn't been in the Redeemer for years, and insists that he didn't leave the church, the church left him. Afterward we see Wiertel attending a warehouse meeting of a neo-fascist organization, following which he confronts the chapter leader, Harrison Davis (David Huddleston), about his reasons for wanting to leave that organization; his belief in the ideal of purification; and his interest in Davis selling him confidential laboratory work...which, along with Davis chiding Wiertel for abandoning the church, is a lot to unpack in one scene. Davis refuses to sell his lab work, and Wiertel approaches him from behind with a wrench.

TI finds Harriet Miles (Ann Doran) when she comes to town to retrieve her brother's body; and she tells them of a letter he wrote to her concerning an unnamed parishioner who was devout but full of hatred, and believed that "the church could only be saved by destroying the people in it". Downstairs at police HQ, where we don't normally see the team working, Cavanaugh drops in wanting access to some files; the Chief tests his theory on the father that the confessor intended to murder Miles in the first place to cover up his confession; and when the murder of Harrison Davis comes up as an aside, Cavanaugh recognizes a cross found on the scene as having been worn by Wiertel. Ed and Cavanaugh search Wiertel's place, which is decorated like a shrine, and find a sketch of the interior of a distinctively triple-rowed church.

At the warehouse where Davis was killed, the assembled detectives find that Wiertel broke into a cabinet, likely stealing something unknown. The Chief theorizes that Wiertel took something with which he plans to kill a gathering of priests, and the way that it was stored makes explosives unlikely. Cut to Wiertel praying at a church that's planning for such a gathering; then going to a junkyard to kill rats in a station wagon with a lit candle. The Chief receives a follow-up visit from Martha Gordon in which she mentions a crisis conference that she was planning to attend with McMurtry regarding their pueblo project...to be held at St. Augustine Seminary, which Cavanaugh has identified as having a chapel interior matching the drawing. Ironside talks with the Archbishop (Regis J. Cordic), who's unwilling to cancel the conference.

Wiertel pays a follow-up visit to the chapel in which he tampers with the wicks of the candles. The Chief investigates chemical orders that Davis made to find that they could be used to create a potent nerve gas. The Chief is looking into Viertel's background, which includes a history of violent episodes and having briefly studied for the priesthood; and has officers investigate places associated with toxic chemicals, including the junkyard, where a bum complains about dead rats in a station wagon that he sleeps in. The candle is found, which is reported to Ironside. The Chief calls Ed, who's staking out the mass where the priests are gathered from the outside; while Cavanaugh, who's observing from the inside, begins to have a hallucinogenic episode. Ed rushes in to slap him to his senses, and the two of them clear the place while putting out the candles.

Sarge says his goodbyes to the team and is driving back to his hotel when he finds that Wiertel is in the back seat with his rifle. Cavanaugh keeps Vincent talking while driving around randomly, which is noticed by Ed, who's tailing the father on a hunch of the Chief. Wiertel has Cavanaugh get out of the car on the waterfront, and the father points out Team Ironside's vehicles quietly converging on them from a distance. After getting Vincent to unload about a not especially cruel or unusual punishment by a nun in Catholic school that nevertheless lives on in his deranged mind as a source of trauma, Cavanaugh talks Wiertel into considering surrender. As the father walks to the team to negotiate, Vincent drops his rifle, runs after Cavanaugh, and begs on his knees for the priest not to leave him. Wiertel is apprehended; pull out and credits.

I can see why the series didn't work; it has an interesting premise, but Kennedy is pretty dry and flat here compared to Burr, undermining his screen presence. I can also see why they apparently never cut this into a two-parter for syndication--the pacing of the first half is downright glacial, and probably wouldn't stand up as a separate episode. Once things do get moving, the story relies on a few too many lucky breaks in the case.

_______

Is it just me, or were an awful lot of racing car drivers killed in those days?

Or a Wiki contributor making a point of reporting them all.

"Let's put all the crimes I committed behind us."

If only he were being so half-truthful. From that straight-on camera angle, you can't see his nose growing.

Same thing that happened with All in the Family (which I think was adapted from a show called Til Death Do Us Part ).

And Sanford and Son.

But he got a commendation for original thinking.

Could've made a good science fair project.

Classic Doobies.

Yep.

This is a good one that I haven't heard in a very long time.

A complete obscuro to me, though I already had it. As one would expect, the single version was shorter, but the full-length version is what made the compilation album that I bought it from. It's proving to be somewhat catchy.

Classic Stevie.

Stone-cold, peak period, and funky as hell.

Or blurred, anyway. And it was "over 30."

 

[RJDiogenes]

A struggle ensues and one of them ends up shooting him while a woman watches from a building across the street.

I assume they didn't get the briefcase off of his arm the way I'm envisioning.

Pete's at a taco stand with the other Mods when he gets a payphone call about Angel

How did that work? Is he known to hang around that payphone?

a stolen blue-gray Plymouth that was transporting a cage of lab pigeons who have psittacosis, a.k.a. parrot fever.

It seems unlikely that infected lab animals would be just left in a parked car, even in 1973.

Pete checks in at HQ insisting that he be put on the case of finding Angel's killers, and Greer agrees.

Once again, Pete has a grudge and once again Greer indulges him.

Lila (Lynne Marta)

Genesis II.

encephalitis (which parrot fever is said to be a form of, whether or not that's true)

Well, encephalitis could be a symptom of parrot fever (I don't know anything about it), but not a form of it. Sounds like they did some research but didn't understand it.

Elsewhere, Keech has given the pigeons to his kid brother, Paulie (Stephen Hudis).

I'm sure this makes more sense in the show, but it seems kind of weird for a murderous thief to be gifting his brother with some feathered friends.

Pete learns that the car matches the one the other Mods are looking for.

It's a small world, after all.

Linc sees them driving by and commandeers a running station wagon nearby to pursue

"Step aside, citizen, this is official business!"

Paulie, not trusting his hoodlum big brother, has run away with the birds.

"My birdies! Mine!"

Paulie, showing signs of illness, takes refuge in an abandoned building.

Hopefully not the one where Marina works.

it turns into a scuffle again when Pete arrives, and the pigeons almost get loose

Stop that pigeon! Stop that pigeon!

Paulie is released from the hospital, and Linc gives him some new pigeons

Hopefully plushies. I don't think I'd trust this guy with real pets.

It's also shot in a more TV-cinematic quality...notably, the lighting in the Ironsidecave isn't as flat, and some scenes use moodily dramatic lighting and shots.

Team Ironside seems to be guest stars in another guy's movie rather than having their own season premiere.

a lot of press attention at the launch party of a book about him (Where's the author?)

Maybe he hired a holy ghost writer. Hahaha.

he confronts the chapter leader, Harrison Davis (David Huddleston), about his reasons for wanting to leave that organization

"I didn't leave neo-fascism, neo-fascism left me."

"the church could only be saved by destroying the people in it".

That has a familiar ring to it.

Ironside talks with the Archbishop (Regis J. Cordic), who's unwilling to cancel the conference.

"This is an important bureaucratic function. We'll just have to risk the deaths of all involved."

The Chief investigates chemical orders that Davis made to find that they could be used to create a potent nerve gas.

So much for the secret formula.

Ed rushes in to slap him to his senses

"Snap out of your drug-induced state!"

After getting Vincent to unload about a not especially cruel or unusual punishment by a nun in Catholic school

An experience shared by everyone I've ever known who's been to a Catholic school.

Once things do get moving, the story relies on a few too many lucky breaks in the case.

Yeah, much seems contrived, especially that sketch.

Or a Wiki contributor making a point of reporting them all.

Could be. I know nothing about auto racing.

If only he were being so half-truthful. From that straight-on camera angle, you can't see his nose growing.

And Sanford and Son.

Ah, right, Steptoe and Son.

Could've made a good science fair project.

I wonder if they would have accepted his research.

 

[The Old Mixer]

_______

Post-55th Anniversary Viewing

_______


"The Night of the Bubbling Death"
Originally aired September 8, 1967
Season 3 premiere

Searching for the stolen U.S. Constitution, West comes up against a lethal woman, a whip-wielding bodyguard and a pool of boiling acid.

Jim and a nervous US Archives curator named Silas Grigsby (William Schallert) ride into the town of Panhandle, which has warning signs posted that it doesn't fall within U.S. jurisdiction. Artie's embedded as one-eyed a varmint, passing Jim a little intel during a confrontation. Then West and Grigsby are accosted by a pair of toughs, one with a knife, the other with a whip (NFL player and future M*A*S*H actor Timmy Brown, sporting a bare chest and bandolier as a character named Cartwheel). Jim takes them out, Cartwheel putting up a particularly competitive fight, while Carlotta Waters (Madlyn Rhue) calmly rides up to take West and companion blindfolded to the OUL (Obligatory Underground Lair) of the man West is there to see...having to enter down an elevator, through a vault door, and across a bridge over a chamber of titularly described acid. Their host, whom West later learns is named Victor Freemantle (Harold Gould), allows Grigsby to inspect the item of interest that is now in his possession--the US Constitution, which the curator verifies is the real thing. Freemantle's demands include a ransom of gold bullion and recognition of the Panhandle Strip as a sovereign territory. When Jim tries to take on Freemantle's men, he's knocked out by Cartwheel.

West comes to outside and at the mercy of Cartwheel, but Artie, still in character, negotiates for first crack at him and helps him make a break. Back at the train, while Jim gets his shirt off for a spell, Artie identifies Freemantle as a revolutionary who plans to annex Texas, and the two of them study a model Artie's made of the interior of the old conquistador gold depot through which Jim was taken to the OUL. Needing to find their way back in for the document and Grigsby, Artie rides into Panhandle as a whiskey salesman, with Jim hanging underneath his wagon. Artie distracts the locals with his act and some help from gadgetry, while Jim slips out and makes his way into the fortress...letting Artie in through a gate after he makes an escape via a trick basket and unmuttonchops himself. The agents split up and Jim is caught sneaking around by Carlotta, who makes a show of being willing to help West to her own advantage, but is chloroformed by Artie when she's about to pull an alarm rope behind Jim's back.

The agents find the armory and make their way to a concealed door that Artie pries open with tools concealed in his jacket; then find the elevator, which they determine is wired to an alarm, so they cut a hole in the bottom and winch themselves down. Getting through the vault door with explosive help, they find that the bridge over the acid corridor is gone, so Jim uses his piton pistol to set up a line and makes his way over with a pulley wheel. Jim enters the chamber with the document, which he frees from its display case and rolls up to put in a tube. We go into the final act break on the underwhelming note of Artie having been figuratively unmuttonchopped in absentia, as Freemantle and Cartwheel realize that the whiskey salesman was West's partner, and thus the agents have infiltrated the fortress.

After a careful elevator ride, Freemantle, Cartwheel, and a trio of goons catch up with the agents just as Jim has made his way back over the acid, and Artie has determined that the document he's brought with him is a fake. After Freemantle drops a clue to the real parchment's location, the agents take out the goons (Cartwheel going down a little too easily this time), and Freemantle is knocked into the titular security precaution. Searching Carlotta's room, the agents finally make sense of the clue and find the E Plebnista hidden within her vanity mirror; following which they break their way out of the fortress with the help of a smoke-dispensing backpack under Artie's jacket and an ensuing exchange of fire, during which Clint's unconvincing double takes a bullet and a dive off a balcony.

In what appears to be the train coda, Jim has just locked the document in a secret compartment when Carlotta enters to return Grigsby in exchange for immunity. But the curator is outed as an accomplice when he identifies the copy as the forgery that it is, having previously authenticated it. Carlotta and Grigsby pull guns on the agents, who tell them where the document is but warn Grigsby not to try to open the compartment himself...which he does, only for the dual pistol display on the desk to swivel around and shoot him. In the actual coda, Artie ships his model of the fortress to a Mexican museum; Arabella the carrier pigeon brings word that the Panhandle Strip has been annexed by Mexico; and Jim sits down to write a letter to Carlotta, who's now serving time in a women's penitentiary in Texas.

And that brings us full circle with previously covered episodes of WWW.

_______

I assume they didn't get the briefcase off of his arm the way I'm envisioning.

Nope.

How did that work? Is he known to hang around that payphone?

Such arrangements weren't unheard of at the time, especially on TV.

It seems unlikely that infected lab animals would be just left in a parked car, even in 1973.

Maybe the driver stopped to get a newspaper.

Once again, Pete has a grudge and once again Greer indulges him.

Hey, at least Pete wants to work! Julie's really lowered Greer's bar.

I'm sure this makes more sense in the show, but it seems kind of weird for a murderous thief to be gifting his brother with some feathered friends.

Hey, murderous thieves love their kid brothers, too!

It's a small world, after all.

You could say that it's a Mod, Mod World...

"Step aside, citizen, this is official business!"

The driver stopped to get a newspaper.

I don't think I'd trust this guy with real pets.

Kinda harsh on the kid.

Team Ironside seems to be guest stars in another guy's movie rather than having their own season premiere.

Well, it was Ironside's setting and cast, while Sarge reportedly left his series supporting cast in San Diego.

"This is an important bureaucratic function. We'll just have to risk the deaths of all involved."

Pretty much. It had been too long since they had such a gathering, too much planning and preparation involved...

Yeah, much seems contrived, especially that sketch.

And Martha popping back up to supply a break after being played up early in the story only to disappear and otherwise serve no purpose (She had a closing beat in which Sarge helped her come to terms with her pseudo-romantic attachment to Father Denny); and Sarge happening to be on hand to see the evidence in a seemingly unrelated murder; and Ironside posting police to investigate junkyards to no apparent end (They knew where the chemicals came from; but why would they expect Wiertel to take the chemicals to a place associated with chemicals?); and probably another thing or three I could find browsing back over the episode description.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Silas Grigsby (William Schallert)

Soon-to-be substitute Artie.

West and Grigsby are accosted by a pair of toughs, one with a knife, the other with a whip

If West and Grigsby are going to an arranged meeting with Freemantle, then why are they being accosted? Another gratuitous scuffle!

Carlotta Waters (Madlyn Rhue)

Marla McGivers, I think.

having to enter down an elevator, through a vault door, and across a bridge over a chamber of titularly described acid.

Ooh, he splurged on the Deluxe OUL.

Victor Freemantle (Harold Gould)

Feather's father, among other things.

the item of interest that is now in his possession--the US Constitution, which the curator verifies is the real thing.

Which one? And how did he get it?

Freemantle's demands include a ransom of gold bullion and recognition of the Panhandle Strip as a sovereign territory.

That's a little steep. Plus which, the US would just take it all back once the Constitution is safe.

Back at the train, while Jim gets his shirt off for a spell

Gotta let the boys breathe.

Artie identifies Freemantle as a revolutionary who plans to annex Texas

He's very ambitious for a guy with a handful of toughs and a femme fatale.

they find that the bridge over the acid corridor is gone

Fun fact: Paul Simon was watching that night and was suddenly struck with inspiration.

We go into the final act break on the underwhelming note of Artie having been figuratively unmuttonchopped in absentia, as Freemantle and Cartwheel realize that the whiskey salesman was West's partner, and thus the agents have infiltrated the fortress.

"This whiskey is not watered down and it's priced fairly. The man is a fraud!"

After a careful elevator ride, Freemantle, Cartwheel, and a trio of goons catch up with the agents just as Jim has made his way back over the acid, and Artie has determined that the document he's brought with him is a fake. After Freemantle drops a clue to the real parchment's location, the agents take out the goons (Cartwheel going down a little too easily this time)they break their way out of the fortress with the help of a smoke-dispensing backpack under Artie's jacket and an ensuing exchange of fire, during which Clint's unconvincing double takes a bullet and a dive off a balcony.

Wait, who's Clint? There are still goons fighting them even after their boss has been dissolved?

Carlotta enters to return Grigsby in exchange for immunity.

They were just going to take the Constitution back to Washington? Gentlemen, the adventure is not over if the femme fatale has escaped with the National Archivist.

But the curator is outed as an accomplice

I knew it. If it was stolen from the National Archive, it had to be an inside job. I'm surprised Jim didn't have him under suspicion all along.

Jim sits down to write a letter to Carlotta, who's now serving time in a women's penitentiary in Texas.

That seems a bit odd.

And that brings us full circle with previously covered episodes of WWW.

Aww, bummer.

Such arrangements weren't unheard of at the time, especially on TV.

Yeah, but this seemed more random than arranged.

Maybe the driver stopped to get a newspaper.

If you're transporting pathological parrots, wouldn't you want to use something like a sealed van with quarantine protocols, manned by several guys, and not leave it unattended? Come to think of it, where were they transporting them?

Hey, at least Pete wants to work! Julie's really lowered Greer's bar.

"Say, if you guys aren't too busy...."

Hey, murderous thieves love their kid brothers, too!

It sounds kind of touching when you put it that way.

The driver stopped to get a newspaper.

A lot of people in Squadworld like to leave their cars running while grabbing a newspaper.

Kinda harsh on the kid.

Trust has to be earned.

And Martha popping back up to supply a break after being played up early in the story only to disappear and otherwise serve no purpose (She had a closing beat in which Sarge helped her come to terms with her pseudo-romantic attachment to Father Denny); and Sarge happening to be on hand to see the evidence in a seemingly unrelated murder; and Ironside posting police to investigate junkyards to no apparent end (They knew where the chemicals came from; but why would they expect Wiertel to take the chemicals to a place associated with chemicals?); and probably another thing or three I could find browsing back over the episode description.

Yeah, I was thinking about the junkyard search, too.

 

[The Old Mixer]

50th Anniversary Cinematic Special

Battle for the Planet of the Apes
Directed by J. Lee Thompson
Starring Roddy McDowall, Claude Akins, Natalie Trundy, Severn Darden, Lew Ayres, Paul Williams, and John Huston
Premiered June 13, 1973

Battle for the Planet of the Apes is a 1973 American science fiction film directed by J. Lee Thompson from a screenplay by John William Corrington and Joyce Hooper Corrington, based on a story by Paul Dehn. The film is the sequel to Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) and the fifth and final installment in the Planet of the Apes original film series....In the film, after conquering the oppressive humans, Caesar (McDowall) tries to keep the peace amongst the humans and apes, but uprisings endure.

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Told as a flashback to the early 21st century, with a wraparound sequence narrated by the orangutan Lawgiver [Huston] in "North America – 2670 A.D.",

The opening bookend includes footage from the previous two films. Paul Williams gets an "and introducing" opening credit.

this sequel follows the chimpanzee Caesar years after a global nuclear war has destroyed human civilization. Living with his wife, Lisa [Trundy], and their son, Cornelius [Bobby Porter], Caesar creates a new society while trying to cultivate peace between the apes and remaining humans. Caesar is opposed by an aggressive gorilla general named Aldo [Akins], who wants to imprison the humans who freely roam Ape City while doing menial labor.

The class and characteristic distinctions between the different types of apes have been established by this point, right down to the costuming seen in the first two films, which take place much farther in the future. And as previously discussed, it beggars suspension of disbelief that a mere generation after the previous film, apes have come this far from having just gained the power of speech. The apes' highest law is established at this point in the film as well.

After defusing followers of Aldo who attacked a human teacher Abe [Noah Keen] for saying "No" to apes,

Caesar: I am the law.​

Caesar ponders if his own parents could have taught him how to make things better. MacDonald [Austin Stoker], Caesar's human assistant and the younger brother of MacDonald (from Conquest of the Planet of the Apes), reveals to Caesar that his brother told him of archived footage of Cornelius and Zira within the underground, now radioactive ruins of what is known as the Forbidden City from the last film. Caesar travels with MacDonald and his orangutan advisor Virgil [Williams] to the Forbidden City to find the archives.

Notably, MacDonald, brother of MacDonald, wants to show Caesar the tape of his parents describing the future they come from, as a wet blanket with which to smother Caesar's dreams of apes and humans eventually living as equals. The preparation for the journey includes establishing the orangutan Mandemas (Ayres), who's pretty philosophical for an armory keeper.

It is revealed that mutated and radiation-scarred humans are living within the city, under the command of Governor Kolp [Darden], the man who once captured Caesar.

Also established here are Kolp's assistants, Alma (France Nuyen) and Mendez (Paul Stevens). Kolp recognizes Caesar on security cam and assumes that he's back in town for conquest; he also recognizes MacDonald, brother of MacDonald. A reference to the events of Escape from the Planet of the Apes taking place in 1973 draw attention to how the near future of that film's setting is the present of this film's release.

Reportedly, Mendez was part of a larger attempt to set up Beneath the Planet of the Apes, in which there were various references suggesting that "Mendez" was a name that had been used by mutant rulers for generations. A sequence setting up the world-destroying bomb was cut.

Caesar and his party view the recordings of his parents, learning about the future and Earth's eventual destruction before they are forced to flee when Kolp's soldiers hunt them.

The recordings awkwardly consist of still pictures of Zira and Cornelius shown over sound clips from Escape. Caesar wrongly assumes from the recordings that apes will destroy Earth in the future...while the mentioned gorilla warfare was a motivating factor, ultimately it was Charlton Heston who pushed the button. Despite having their own firearms, Caesar's party employs nonlethal means to aid their escape from mutants who've been ordered to shoot to kill...a fire hose and smoke grenades. Kolp wants the talking apes found so they can be exterminated, against Mendez's counsel. The film plays up that there's a divide between those who desire peace and hateful and suspicious warmongers on both sides.

Fearing the mutant humans may attack Ape City, Caesar reports his discoveries. When Caesar calls MacDonald and a select group of humans to the meeting, Aldo leads the gorillas away.

Kolp's scouts find Ape City. Believing Caesar is planning to finish off all mutant humans, Kolp declares war on Ape City despite his assistant Méndez's attempt to get him to see reason.

The scouts witness the ape meeting and mistake it for a war council.

Aldo plots a coup d'état in order for the gorillas to take control.

When Aldo gets to the part about smashing Caesar, the gorillas who had been animatedly murmering in agreement suddenly get quiet.

Cornelius overhears from a nearby tree, but is critically wounded when Aldo spots him and hacks off the tree branch he is on with his sword. The next day, after a gorilla scouting pair are attacked by Kolp's men, Aldo takes advantage of a grieving Caesar's absence to have all humans corralled while looting the armory.

The corralling is perhaps meant to evoke the internment of Japanese Americans in WWII. Mandemas refuses to open the armory to Aldo, but the gorillas storm the place. Heather Lowe plays a fetching human doctor.

Cornelius eventually dies from his wounds, leaving a devastated Caesar with the revelation that Cornelius was not hurt by humans.

Actually, that bomb isn't dropped at this point, though MacDonald has discovered that the branch was cut. Caesar is shocked to find the humans corralled.

When Kolp's ragtag force launches their attack,

Driving into battle with a combination of Jeeps, motorcycles, military trucks, old cars, and a school bus. Probably due to budgetary constraints, we never see the apes riding horses.

Caesar orders the defenders to fall back. Finding Caesar lying among dozens of fallen apes, Kolp expresses his intention to personally kill him. The apes, however, are merely feigning death and launch a counterattack that captures most of the mutant humans. Kolp and his remaining forces try to escape, only to be slaughtered by Aldo's troops once they are out in the open.

Aldo confronts Caesar about releasing the corralled local humans and orders the gorillas to kill them. When Caesar shields the humans and Aldo threatens him, Virgil, having learned the truth from MacDonald, reveals Aldo's role in Cornelius's death.

Jake (Michael Stearns): What's the matter with them?
MacDonald (brother of MacDonald): I guess you might say they just joined the human race.

[Apes chanting]: Ape has killed ape! Ape has killed ape! Ape has killed ape!​

Enraged with Aldo for breaking their most sacred law, "ape shall never kill ape", Caesar pursues him up a large tree, their confrontation resulting in Aldo falling to his death.

With Caesar realizing that apes are no different than their former human slaveowners, he agrees to MacDonald's request for humans to be treated as equals, co-existing in a new society. They store their guns in the armory; Caesar and Virgil reluctantly explain to the armory's overseer, an orangutan named Mandemas, that they will still need their weapons for future conflicts and can only wait for the day when they will no longer need them.

The scene returns to the Lawgiver, saying it has now been over 600 years since Caesar's death. His audience is revealed to be a group of young humans and apes, the Lawgiver noting that their society still waits for a day when their world will no longer need weapons, while they "wait with hope". A closeup of a statue of Caesar shows a single tear falling from one eye.

I'm not sure what to make of the ending of the film and the film series. I think my initial impression upon seeing the film years back was that the circle of the films had been broken, and thus it was a hopeful ending, but a weak one, not being willing to see things through to the doomed future of the first two films. But is that statue's tear one of joy, or one of sorrow that things will ultimately fall that way? If the latter, it feels like there's at least one untold chapter of how apes and humans went from living as equals to mute humans being treated as animals. It seems like that would more naturally have been an outcome of the destruction of human civilization as depicted in this film, as implied in the earlier films.

The film received generally negative reviews from critics.

From the details that I read, the critics of the time might have been a little harsh on the film. It's watchable, though marred in part by two weak antagonists. I'm not sure how much of Akins's performance is his own choice and how much owes to him being smothered in the ape prosthetics and given cringily primitive dialogue. While Darden is a little too Comic Book Guy to take seriously even as the leader a ragtag band of post-apocalyptic irradiated humans. He was maybe going for Bond villain here, but his performance veers into being the wrong type of laughable. Austin Stoker is perhaps underserved in the billing order...he has a meatier role in the film than Trundy, and a more substantial one than Ayres.

_______

If West and Grigsby are going to an arranged meeting with Freemantle, then why are they being accosted? Another gratuitous scuffle!

Wouldn't be WWW without them.

Feather's father, among other things.

Had to look that up.

Which one? And how did he get it?

The one from the Archives, I presume. They were treating it as a singular object.

He's very ambitious for a guy with a handful of toughs and a femme fatale.

Aren't they all? He was the big cheese in Panhandle, though.

Wait, who's Clint?

Oops, Cartwheel. IMDb and Wiki both list the character as Clint Cartwheel, though he was billed in the episode as Cartwheel and I didn't catch him being called Clint.

That seems a bit odd.

That Jim's writing to her, or that she's in a penitentiary in Texas?

If you're transporting pathological parrots, wouldn't you want to use something like a sealed van with quarantine protocols, manned by several guys, and not leave it unattended?

You'd think.

Come to think of it, where were they transporting them?

To a lab, no doubt.

A lot of people in Squadworld like to leave their cars running while grabbing a newspaper.

The second case actually happened onscreen; so I was speculating that the pigeon car might have been swiped in the same manner.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

@The Old Mixer
I'll have to do some research, but there's a synopsis of Paul Dehn's "Battle. . ." floating around online that's much more brutal than the softened version that wound up onscreen and would have "closed the circle" as it were with the death of Caesar midway through the film and the rise of the Lawgiver and the enslavement of the humans.
A lot of those elements found their way into 2017's "War for the Planet of the Apes".

 

[RJDiogenes]

The class and characteristic distinctions between the different types of apes have been established by this point, right down to the costuming seen in the first two films, which take place much farther in the future.

Over a thousand years, I think.

And as previously discussed, it beggars suspension of disbelief that a mere generation after the previous film, apes have come this far from having just gained the power of speech.

Also that their society is so similar to what it was in the original film-- although showing that their society is so stagnated and ossified may be making a statement about their potential.

Notably, MacDonald, brother of MacDonald, wants to show Caesar the tape of his parents describing the future they come from, as a wet blanket with which to smother Caesar's dreams of apes and humans eventually living as equals.

They were a half century ahead of their time with that metaphor.

Reportedly, Mendez was part of a larger attempt to set up Beneath the Planet of the Apes, in which there were various references suggesting that "Mendez" was a name that had been used by mutant rulers for generations.

Ironically, like Caesar-- both in ancient Rome and the Apes movies.

The recordings awkwardly consist of still pictures of Zira and Cornelius shown over sound clips from Escape.

It seems unlikely in the extreme that this technology would still be functional.

while the mentioned gorilla warfare was a motivating factor, ultimately it was Charlton Heston who pushed the button.

And the Mutants who preserved the bomb-- another case of extremely fragile technology remaining operative.

The film plays up that there's a divide between those who desire peace and hateful and suspicious warmongers on both sides.

Something else that hasn't gone out of style.

Driving into battle with a combination of Jeeps, motorcycles, military trucks, old cars, and a school bus.

At least this is technology that could theoretically be maintained.

I'm not sure what to make of the ending of the film and the film series. I think my initial impression upon seeing the film years back was that the circle of the films had been broken, and thus it was a hopeful ending, but a weak one, not being willing to see things through to the doomed future of the first two films. But is that statue's tear one of joy, or one of sorrow that things will ultimately fall that way?

I like that the ambiguity of the ending leaves room for further exploration. This is pretty much where the Marvel black-and-white series by Doug Moench and Mike Ploog picks up. That was a great series, at least for a while.

If the latter, it feels like there's at least one untold chapter of how apes and humans went from living as equals to mute humans being treated as animals.

It would have been great to see more films that continue with the original continuity, rather than a reboot. I'd like to have seen that the cycle was different, though not necessarily broken, and have it circle back again.

He was maybe going for Bond villain here, but his performance veers into being the wrong type of laughable.

From the Planet of the Apes, With Love.

Wouldn't be WWW without them.

True.

Had to look that up.

Very obscure, yet the first thing that popped into my head for some reason.

The one from the Archives, I presume. They were treating it as a singular object.

That's what I was thinking. In real life, there's a bunch of them, some in private collections, but that would have reduced its value as a MacGuffin.

That Jim's writing to her, or that she's in a penitentiary in Texas?

That Jim's writing to her. They barely spoke, let alone bonded.

To a lab, no doubt.

Yeah, that's true. They could have been coming from the airport or something.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

The 'PoTA' timeline is full of contradictions.

In the first movie, Taylor leaves in 1972 and arrives in 3978. So two thousand six years. In that time, mankind fell and the primates ascended to the top of the ladder. There's no indication as to when man fell in that time frame.

In the second movie, Brent discovers the ruins of Manhattan, and, by all appearances, the fall of man was most likely within Taylor and Brent's lifetime as the ruins are late 20th century and something that Brent recognized. Taylor's knowledge of the Alpha-Omega bomb also point to a late 20th century nuclear exchange. If Taylor didn't know what it was, it would have been constructed after he left.

Then, in the third movie, the timeline gets pushed forward again. Cornelius says that a plague wipes out dogs and cats. Man takes primates as pets, and for the first two centuries that's what they are. Over the next three centuries, the apes are taught to be servants of man until one day an Ape named Aldo said the words 'No'.

That means mankind still exists up until the 26th century circa 2500-2599.

Meaning mankind fell sometime between the 26th and 40th centuries - about 1400 years.

There's an episode of the TV series where, in the ruins of San Francisco, Virdon and Burke find an encyclopedia with a picture depicting the New York city skyline in the 26th century, which tracks with what Cornelius said in 'Escape'; that man fell after the 26th century. So, the TV series could exist in the timeline as described by Cornelius. Mankind fell after the 26th century, lingered until the 31st, the time of the series, then collapsed completely by the time of the first movie, 900 years later.

Then 'Conquest' and 'Battle' loop back around to 'Beneath', and have the fall of man and the rise of the Apes happening earlier than as described by Cornelius; sometime in the late 20th/early 21st century.

So, there's definitely some ambiguity as to when man fell and the apes rise.

 

[The Old Mixer]

_______

Post-50th Anniversary Viewing

_______

The Mod Squad
"Cricket"
Originally aired September 21, 1971

An autistic and withdrawn boy who has accidentally shot Julie is sought by the Squad in order to save him from a murderer. (Note: This episode was remade as an episode of Charlie's Angels.)

I saw the beginning of the CA episode first run and didn't continue watching because it freaked me out.

Julie goes to the Pacific Sanitarium to pick up the titularly pseudonymed boy (Lee Harcourt Montgomery), whom she's been working with, for a day at the park. This includes teaching him musical notes, and rowing a swan boat in the lake while helping him deal with his fear of darkness by telling a story about a prince waking up a princess by bringing her gifts. Back on shore, they're playing hide and seek when Cricket runs into a man in a suit (Victor Holchak) and picks up his dropped gun. The man runs to his car and drives off when he hears Julie approaching, and Cricket, apparently thinking that the gun is a toy, raises it to show her and squeezes the trigger, grazing her temple; while a park attendant (John Dennis) watches from afar. At the hospital, a doctor informs Greer and the guys that Julie should recover with no permanent effects; and a police detective informs them that a man's body was found near the scene of the shooting.

At the sanitarium, Dr. Stafford (Paul Kent) tells the Mods how Cricket was found abandoned when he six, and Julie was the only one who could get through to him, encouraging to talk for the first time in three years. The term "autistic" never comes up; Pete describes Cricket as retarded, though Stafford doesn't believe in using that term. The only clue to his mother's identity is a timecard that she wrote an apologetic note on the back of; and the doctor believes that under the circumstances, Cricket might try to return to her. On the streets, the distraught Cricket brightens up when he finds companionship with a stray, Benji-type mutt. He takes his friend to the rear entrance of a restaurant called Minelli's that's closing up for the night, and finds himself locked in the kitchen...the memory of Julie's voice helping him to deal with his fear of the dark. In the morning, he picks several flowers from vases and puts them in a paper bag; then bursts out when the manager and an employee enter. The busboy pursues to see the boy accepting a ride from a pretty blonde (Andrea Cagan) who's headed to the beach that Cricket was studying a bus stop sign for.

The timecard's printer points the Mods to Minelli's, where they learn which way Cricket went. Meanwhile, we learn that the gunman is an investment counselor named Glen Buchanan, who leaves his office when he sees a story in the paper with a picture of Cricket. At the beach, Cricket--informed by Julie's story--adds seaweed and a seashell to his collection. When the girl starts asking him questions, he has a flashback to shooting Julie and flees; and the Mods subsequently catch up with and question her. Back at the hospital, a conscious Julie only cares about finding Cricket, not the killer...but Buchanan finds her, claiming to be Cricket's father.

Cricket heads to a beach house where his mother, Gillian Francis (Susan Howard), is now with a man named Cliff (Joel Lawrence)--and immediately recognizes the boy as her son, Bobby...inviting him in and explaining to Cliff how she was pressured by her ex, Hal, to give up Bobby. Bobby slips away after taking another item matching one in Julie's story--his mother's wedding ring. At the hospital, Julie shares everything she's been told about Cricket's whereabouts with Buchanan. He's there when she gets a call from Pete from the Francis home, informing her of the boy's true identity. Only after sharing her belief that the boy is headed back to the park to try to revive her does Julie realize that the alias Buchanan is using doesn't match the boy's name, and calls Gillian to learn that Bobby's father is dead.

Julie takes a cab to the park and tells the cabbie to call Greer. Bobby unpacks his treasures on the swan boat while recalling Julie's story, then has a vision in which the wounded Julie rises up from the spot where she fell. He's startled back into the real world by the arrival of Buchanan, whom he recognizes and tries to run from. Seeing Buchanan wrestling with the boy, Julie jumps him, and he overpowers and tries to strangle her when the Mod Stunt Doubles arrive and pursue. Linc's double apparently finds Buchanan's unworthy of drop kicks, though Pete's gets in a barrel roll; and Greer, whose double doesn't run as fast, sees to Julie. Cricket and Julie are happily reunited, and Julie meets the happy doggy (who, for the record, didn't move into camera from the onshore spot where Cricket left him while his young master and Julie were being assaulted).

At the sanitarium, Greer exposits that the murder victim was seeing Buchanan's wife, and indicates that he's helping Stafford to see that Gillian is given another chance with Bobby; Julie offers her help with getting to re-know Bobby to Gillian. Julie, Gillian, Bobby, and Still Unnamed Pooch walk on the lawn toward Greer and the guys.

This episode contributes to a probably unintended trend...when Julie does get a story that focuses on her, it usually involves off-duty activities. Her stunt double does seem to be getting roughed up more this season, though.

_______

Ironside
"Contract: Kill Ironside"
Originally aired September 21, 1971

Ironside discovers a contract signed to take his life—and the man who signed it has never fouled up.

The opening credits are back, now listing Barbara Anderson's replacement, "Elizabeth Baur as Officer Fran Belding"...though she's not on duty yet. I hope the Chief didn't get saddled with a Julie...

Mark and Ed are being extra protective of the Chief because he's scheduled to testify before a grand jury, making him leave a charity symphony early...though outside, they witness a rocket being fired into the Ironsidemobile's windshield. This is taken to be a warning not meant to have killed anyone, and the M.O. matches an unidentified contract killer who's been operating since '54. Ed talks to the wife (Joyce Jameson) of a mobster who dumped her and fled the country when he was given such a warning from this killer, who has a reputation for not being human. Meanwhile, we meet the killer, Marvin Bosner (James Olson), who appears to be a normal insurance salesman with an ordinary family--including his elderly father (Charles P. Thompson), wife Gloria (Marion Ross), teenage daughter Susie (Reneé Tetro), and younger son Eddie (Stephen Hudis)...all of whom are unaware of his true profession.

The Chief visits the man he's due to testify against, Alvin Kresser (George N. Neise), to confront him about the contract; following which Ed tails and surveils Kresser, from which he picks up a partial number for a long distance call to Chicago that is otherwise mic-blocked by a truck. Ironside is confronted by Commissioner Randall for going after the hitman; while Bosner is confronted by his mob contact, Joe Rossi (Philip E. Pine), about his warning shot, and objects when Rossi wants to saddle him with a partner of less refined methods, John Oliver (Frank Hotchkiss). Bosner returns to Frisco ostensibly for a convention, and looks into renting an office with a view of the Ironsidecave, but sees the team moving the Chief to temporary quarters at a prison...where the Chief plans to set a trap for the killer in the library. Bosner's countermove is to temporarily put out of commission and pose as a social worker named Willard Parks (Robert Osterloh) to gain access to the facility.

Learning under false pretenses from the desk sergeant, Morrison (Len Wayland), about Ironside's routine of visiting the library, Bosner stakes the place out while planting a device on the water fountain; but Morrison tips off the Chief afterward. As Team Ironside approaches the library, Bosner imagines his moves in his head, which include the gas canister going off and him taking out Ironside with a silenced pistol in the confusion. But Oliver unexpectedly shows up with two accomplices disguised as guards; fires his sawed-off shotgun into the now-bulletproof library doors, wounding himself; and is remotely locked inside the library by the Chief when he goes in through another entrance. Bosner quietly slips out to send a call of complaint to Rossi. The Chief knows that they've got the wrong hitman; the real Parks is found to help work up a sketch of Bosner; and Bosner's nametag from the convention is found in Parks's briefcase. At his hotel, Bosner calls home to learn that his father's in bad shape and returns to Chicago before Ironside catches up with him. Sitting at his father's deathbed, Bosner confesses to his uncommunicative Papa about what he really does and breaks into tears as the old man passes away. Afterward, Bosner resolves to finish his job with no further mistakes.

On the day of Ironside's testimony, Bosner is back in town, hiring a flunky and preparing a gun concealed in an 8mm movie camera. The flunky is caught with a rifle on a roof overlooking the courthouse, but the Ironside takes him to be a decoy. The Chief is scanning the crowd inside for the real McCoy when Bosner is approached by a random tourist (Ned Wertimer) who wants Bosner to take a picture of his family with his camera, then points the swapped movie camera at Bosner, resulting in an altercation that catches the Chief's attention. Bosner is pursued upstairs, briefly using a woman as a shield, but Ironside beat him to the roof via elevator and shoots the hitman when he raises his camera. Bosner's dying thought is of Gloria waiting for him at home.

_______

@The Old Mixer
I'll have to do some research, but there's a synopsis of Paul Dehn's "Battle. . ." floating around online that's much more brutal than the softened version that wound up onscreen and would have "closed the circle" as it were with the death of Caesar midway through the film and the rise of the Lawgiver and the enslavement of the humans.

That sounds a lot more like what I would have expected from this chapter.

Also that their society is so similar to what it was in the original film-- although showing that their society is so stagnated and ossified may be making a statement about their potential.

Well, they ended up learning to ride horses...but I think it says more about the budget than any creative intent.

They were a half century ahead of their time with that metaphor.

The metaphor was my contribution.

It seems unlikely in the extreme that this technology would still be functional.

Granted there's been a nuclear war, but it's only been about 30 years, I think.

I like that the ambiguity of the ending leaves room for further exploration.

Glad that it's not just me finding the ending to be ambiguous.

This is pretty much where the Marvel black-and-white series by Doug Moench and Mike Ploog picks up.

That sounds interesting.

From the Planet of the Apes, With Love.

The one he actually reminded me of was Drax from Moonraker.

That Jim's writing to her. They barely spoke, let alone bonded.

Once again, my not getting into it in my summary doesn't mean that it didn't happen. They shared several scenes, including one in her bedroom, in which she engaged in femme fatale flirtation, but the Jim knew better than to trust her.

Then, in the third movie, the timeline gets pushed forward again. Cornelius says that a plague wipes out dogs and cats. Man takes primates as pets, and for the first two centuries that's what they are. Over the next three centuries, the apes are taught to be servants of man until one day an Ape named Aldo said the words 'No'.

If all of this info was in Escape (I don't recall offhand), then it sounds like this was the outlier; though it does support the idea that ape history was altered by Cornelius and Zira's time travel. I also don't recall if they lampshaded it in Escape, but it doesn't track that Cornelius knew so much about man's history in the first place; he was as surprised as anyone that Taylor could talk. Zeus was the one secretly in the know.

lingered until the 31st, the time of the series, then collapsed completely by the time of the first movie, 900 years later.

Is that when the series took place? Didn't the series have a Dr. Zeus? Was he supposed to be an ancestor? At any rate, knowledge of humans being as intelligent as apes and naturally able to talk would have to have been completely erased from the apes' oral history between the series and the first film. I was under the impression from the first film or two that the Lawgiver had a hand in that.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

If all of this info was in Escape (I don't recall offhand), then it sounds like this was the outlier; though it does support the idea that ape history was altered by Cornelius and Zira's time travel. I also don't recall if they lampshaded it in Escape, but it doesn't track that Cornelius knew so much about man's history in the first place; he was as surprised as anyone that Taylor could talk. Zeus was the one secretly in the know.

Here's a transcript of the dialogue in question

Otto Hasslein: Cornelius. This is not an interracial hassle, but a search for facts. We do not deny the possibility of man's decline and fall. All we want to find out is how apes rose.
Cornelius: Well, it began in our prehistory with the plague that fell upon dogs.
Zira: And cats.
Cornelius: Hundreds and thousands of them died. And hundreds and thousands of them had to be destroyed in order to prevent the spread of infection.
Zira: There were dog bonfires.
Cornelius: Yes. And by the time the plague was contained, man was without pets. Of course, for man, this was intolerable. I mean, he might kill his brother, but he could not kill his dog. So humans took primitive apes as pets.
Zira: Primitive and dumb, but still twenty times more intelligent than dogs or cats.
Cornelius: Correct. They were quartered in cages, but they lived and moved freely in human homes. They became responsive to human speech and, in the course of less than two centuries, they progressed from performing mere tricks to performing services.
Interrogator: Nothing more or less than a well-trained sheepdog could do.
Cornelius: Could a sheepdog cook, or clean the house, or do the marketing for the groceries with a list from its mistress, or wait on tables?
Zira: Or, after three more centuries, turn the tables on their owners.
Hasslein: How?
Cornelius: They became alert to the concept of slavery. And as their numbers grew, to slavery's antidote which, of course, is unity. At first, they began assembling in small groups. They learned the art of corporate and militant action. They learned to refuse. At first, they just grunted their refusal. But then, on an historic day, which is commemorated by my species and fully documented in the sacred scrolls, there came Aldo. He did not grunt. He articulated. He spoke a word, a word which had been spoken to him time and again without number by humans. He said: "No".
Hasslein: So that's how it all started.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

Is that when the series took place? Didn't the series have a Dr. Zeus? Was he supposed to be an ancestor? At any rate, knowledge of humans being as intelligent as apes and naturally able to talk would have to have been completely erased from the apes' oral history between the series and the first film. I was under the impression from the first film or two that the Lawgiver had a hand in that.

The ship left Earth on 19-August-1980 and crashed landed on 31-March-3085. The book with the picture of the New York city skyline is dated 2505.

So, 580 years between the time the photo was taken and the start of the series, and, if we were to accept that the first two movies and TV series are part of the same continuity then 893 years pass between the two.

Part of the reason I suspect Virdon and Burke are part of the same timeline as Taylor and Brent is that they're surprised to find that apes can talk in the future; otherwise, they would be walking around going, 'Hey, this is the future that those two talking apes described back about ten years ago.'

Since they don't, that means the timeline was altered after they left, even though Cornelius and Zira arrived before their departure. Effect before cause.

A possible timeline. . .
C. 1970s
Construction of the Alpha/Omega bomb. (Note: Taylor has a higher security clearance than Brent, so therefore, has knowledge of it.)

14-January-1972
Taylor and crew leave Earth for Alpha Centauri. (Note: Taylor says 'six months' have passed for him and the crew when the movie starts.) The ship's chronometers read 14-July-1972 (Ship Time) and 23-March-2673 (Earth Time).

Approximately six months later (C. July-August 1972?)
Communication is lost with Taylor's ship. A rescue mission with Brent and 'Skipper' is launched. (Note: Communication with Taylor's ship must be lost sometime after 14-July-1972 for the 'six months' to work both ways.)

19-August-1980
Virdon, Burke and 'Jonesy' leave for Alpha Centauri.

1981
A plague brought back from a returning space probe wipes out all cats and dogs. (Note: The monument in 'Conquest' is dated '1981' and Armando described the plague as happening 'ten years ago'. The plague might be the same in both timelines.)

C. 2000 +/-
Man takes primates as pets.

c. 2200 +/-
". . .in the course of less than two centuries, they progressed from performing mere tricks to performing services."

2505
Photo of New York/Manhattan skyline taken.

c. 2500 +/-
". . .after three more centuries, turn the tables on their owners."

C. 2500-2600
Fall of man and rise of the apes. (Nuclear exchange or natural/ecological disaster?) (Note: Was the fall of man due to a conflict with the apes or a conflict between nations? Zaius says man made a desert out of once a paradise but he could be covering up the apes involvement in the conflict. Also note: The number of Mendez statues that Zaius destroys doesn't reach back far enough to the early 21st century to when 'Battle' takes place. Counting the number of statues and the reign of each Mendez you only arrive at 500 or so years. Did the mutants find a way to extend their life spans? For that matter, was the Alpha-Omega bomb a museum piece the mutants found a way to reactivate. Maybe what Brent stumbled across some sort of museum recreating 20th century New York/Manhattan? The distance Brent and Nova travel doesn't line up with the New York subway system.)

23-March-2673
Earth time according to the ship's chronometer. (Mankind fallen?)

31-March-3085
Virdon, Burke and 'Jonesy' crash-land on the 'Planet of the Apes'. (Note: Virdon and Burke crash land on the West Coast of the United States. San Francisco and Oakland are seen in the series. Maybe the nuclear exchange was limited as both San Francisco and Oakland show no signs of a nuclear bomb being used but more abandoned and decay. Also note: Several times throughout the course of the series, dogs are seen with humans. One might assume in the intervening five hundred years, scientists were able to bring back (through cloning?) limited species of canines.)

25-November-3978
Taylor crash lands on the 'Planet of the Apes'.

Between 'PoTA' and 'Beneath'
Cornelius and Zira are tried for heresy. (Note: It must be at this time that Dr. Zaius tells Cornelius and Zira the true history of the Planet of the Apes for the two to have knowledge of past events.)

Milo discovers Taylor's ship at the bottom of the lakebed, recovers it and begins repairs.

C. May-June 3979
Brent and 'Skipper' crash land on the 'Planet of the Apes.' (Note: All things being relative - if Brent and 'Skipper' left six months after Taylor, then they would arrive six months later. One must take into account how long it takes for Taylor's wound to heal. Also, based on a deleted scene from 'PoTA' where it's revealed that Nova is several weeks pregnant. Therefore, at least several weeks pass between Taylor's arrival and his discovery of the Statue of Liberty.)

Cornelius, Zira and Milo escape Earth in Taylor's spaceship.

BOOM!!!

Is this perfect? No. But I do believe that Cornelius and Zira's arrival in the past created an alternate timeline where the fall of man and the rise of apes was accelerated.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I saw the beginning of the CA episode first run and didn't continue watching because it freaked me out.

I remember that Charlie's Angels episode. I was also thinking that the episode about the car bomb was very similar to the series premiere of Starsky & Hutch. I wonder how many scripts the Spelling studio reused.

and squeezes the trigger, grazing her temple

I wonder if this has ever actually happened in real life.

a doctor informs Greer and the guys that Julie should recover with no permanent effects

"She'll be back to not working in no time."

Pete describes Cricket as retarded, though Stafford doesn't believe in using that term.

"We reserve that terminology for politicians."

The timecard's printer points the Mods to Minelli's

But somehow this lead was never followed when the kid was abandoned.

Back at the hospital, a conscious Julie only cares about finding Cricket, not the killer...but Buchanan finds her, claiming to be Cricket's father.

Rather than going to the police.

inviting him in and explaining to Cliff how she was pressured by her ex, Hal, to give up Bobby.

But never went back for him. How long ago was he abandoned that he could find the restaurant and the beach house?

Bobby unpacks his treasures on the swan boat while recalling Julie's story, then has a vision in which the wounded Julie rises up from the spot where she fell.

That's kind of cool and spooky.

Julie meets the happy doggy (who, for the record, didn't move into camera from the onshore spot where Cricket left him while his young master and Julie were being assaulted).

The dog is probably thinking this new boy is more trouble than he's worth.

Greer exposits that the murder victim was seeing Buchanan's wife

Did they figure out how he was able to shoot the guy in the park with nobody hearing the gunshot and with no witnesses, aside from the park attendant who apparently never said a word?

Julie, Gillian, Bobby, and Still Unnamed Pooch walk on the lawn toward Greer and the guys.

Dognappers!

This episode contributes to a probably unintended trend...when Julie does get a story that focuses on her, it usually involves off-duty activities.

She's more suited to social work than police work, it seems.

The opening credits are back, now listing Barbara Anderson's replacement, "Elizabeth Baur as Officer Fran Belding"...though she's not on duty yet. I hope the Chief didn't get saddled with a Julie...

This is taken to be a warning not meant to have killed anyone, and the M.O. matches an unidentified contract killer who's been operating since '54.

Is this meant to psych out the intended victim or give him a chance to voluntarily back out of testifying?

who has a reputation for not being human.

Sadly, that won't happen on Ironside.

Gloria (Marion Ross)

Mrs C.

Bosner is confronted by his mob contact, Joe Rossi (Philip E. Pine), about his warning shot, and objects when Rossi wants to saddle him with a partner of less refined methods, John Oliver (Frank Hotchkiss).

Geez, talk about micromanaging.

Bosner imagines his moves in his head, which include the gas canister going off and him taking out Ironside with a silenced pistol in the confusion.

Providing some misleading footage for the previews, no doubt.

But Oliver unexpectedly shows up with two accomplices disguised as guards; fires his sawed-off shotgun into the now-bulletproof library doors, wounding himself; and is remotely locked inside the library by the Chief when he goes in through another entrance.

This is the guy who the mob wants to oversee the expert who hasn't failed in twenty years?

Bosner quietly slips out to send a call of complaint to Rossi.

"Sorry, Bosner, he's my wife's nephew."

Sitting at his father's deathbed, Bosner confesses to his uncommunicative Papa about what he really does and breaks into tears as the old man passes away. Afterward, Bosner resolves to finish his job with no further mistakes.

Okay, this is mighty weird.

Ironside beat him to the roof via elevator and shoots the hitman

The Chief gets to do the shooting! I didn't even know he carried a gun.

Bosner's dying thought is of Gloria waiting for him at home.

Bosner is definitely an unusual character.

The metaphor was my contribution.

Ah. Good editorializing then.

That sounds interesting.

It was excellent. Both Moench at Ploog were at their peak. Some of the issues were printed directly from Ploog's pencils, because they were so detailed.

Once again, my not getting into it in my summary doesn't mean that it didn't happen. They shared several scenes, including one in her bedroom, in which she engaged in femme fatale flirtation, but the Jim knew better than to trust her.

Ah, okay, that makes sense then.

but it doesn't track that Cornelius knew so much about man's history in the first place; he was as surprised as anyone that Taylor could talk. Zeus was the one secretly in the know.

One possibility is that this Cornelius and Zira were not from the same future that we saw in the first two movies.

But then, on an historic day, which is commemorated by my species and fully documented in the sacred scrolls, there came Aldo. He did not grunt. He articulated. He spoke a word, a word which had been spoken to him time and again without number by humans. He said: "No".

This could also support the notion that this is a different Cornelius and Zira. Unless these fully documented sacred scrolls were actually secret scrolls, later shown to them by Zaius, as you say-- although it's odd that he would do that while trying them for heresy.

Maybe what Brent stumbled across some sort of museum recreating 20th century New York/Manhattan?

That's a great idea.

Milo discovers Taylor's ship at the bottom of the lakebed, recovers it and begins repairs.

Now this is something that has always strained credulity, because it's so at odds with the technological level of the apes in the first two films. It could be more evidence that the Cornelius and Zira in Escape are from an alternate future-- perhaps one in which apes have access to mutant technology.

 

[The Old Mixer]

_______

Post-50th Anniversary Viewing

_______

The Mod Squad
"Home Is the Streets"
Originally aired September 28, 1971

A former addict helps the trio catch a cop killer--her own stepfather.

A pair of undercover narcotics detectives attempt to bust Karl Milligan (Cameron Mitchell) during a deal, but he shoots them both--the first in a struggle over his gun while seizing advantage of a distraction; the second deliberately. With one officer dead and the other looking to follow, a driven Greer assigns Pete to recruit Milligan's stepdaughter, Deborah Martin (Brooke Bundy)--a former dealer whom Greer was offering a suspended sentence following a case that involved her saving Pete's life--to risk falling prey to her old lifestyle by going undercover. After expressing her feelings of betrayal, she reluctantly switches from the clothes that she wears feeding animals at the zoo to far less child-friendly working attire. Elsewhere, a desperate Milligan attempts to liquidate his stock via a car dealer accomplice named Artie Steur (Buddy Lester); when Artie won't do business with him because the word is out about what he's done, Milligan whacks him with his gun butt and steals his wallet. While Steur's being wheeled into the hospital, he implores Greer to get Milligan.

On a boardwalk, Pete shadows Deb as she goes back into working mode and mingles with her old contacts, asking about Karl's whereabouts. When a group of young thugs accosts her, Pete jumps in and gives them the business, which includes a flying kick. Milligan subsequently breaks into the shabby digs of one of Deb's contacts, a user named Angie (Eve Plumb's real-life big sister, Flora, Flora, Flora!), wanting current contact info for Deb...and Angie plays hardball with him, turning the tables for his being a tough dealer in the past. Milligan calls Deb to arrange a get-together; Pete accompanies her to a payphone where he's to follow up with her, but Deb--feeling some loyalty to Karl for having treated her now-dead mother well--has a breakdown, refusing to answer the phone and crying that she wants to die.

Pete reports to Greer that Deb gave him the slip, but goes back to her place to help her pack up. The other Mods catch them leaving--Linc informing Pete that they stalled as long as they could, and Julie taking Deb to her place. Linc hits the boardwalk trying to find Milligan without using Deb by asking around looking to score. This catches the attention of Angie, with whom Karl is currently staying with in exchange for samples of his stock. Karl calls Linc via pay phone at a food stand that Linc's been hitting. Meanwhile, Chief Metcalf is putting pressure on Greer to make his "three kids" deliver.

While Greer and the guys go to meet Milligan, he shows up at Julie's place with gun drawn, having somehow found Deb there. Julie tries to make a break for it when he searches her purse and finds her ID, and he slugs her unconscious, then has Deb tie her up with her own curtain beads. Karl sends Deb to meet Linc inside a funhouse for the deal, but shows up himself after all, hearing Deb tell Linc that Karl has Julie, and accuses her of being a Judas. Greer rushes in with CLE and Karl, disoriented from all the pressure he's been under, fires wildly at the surrounding Mods and uniformed officers from a pit that he ends up in. Then Deb convinces him to drop his gun and surrender.

In the coda, Deb says some parting words to Pete; Greer takes Deb home so she can make her court date the next day; and the Mods drive off the amusement pier.

George Murdock is in the end credits, but if there's a George Murdock in this episode, it ain't that one.

_______

Ironside
"The Professionals"
Originally aired September 28, 1971

Ironside pursues a gang of credit card thieves.

Lt. Carl Reese (Johnny Seven in a frequently recurring role established the previous season) visits the Ironsidecave to listen as Gil Peters (Michael Baseleon), head of security for International Credit Cards, describes a new organized theft racket in multiple cities that victimizes young, middle-class men who are mostly from out of town. (The meeting is held at a card table that's said to have replaced the pool table in Mark's room.) This is accompanied by cuts to one of the victims (David Frank) being told about a party by his cab driver (Joe Yarby [Michael Lerner]), only to be found dead the next day by a motel maid.

At the scene, the deceased is identified as Danny Fremont. The motel manager (Lindsay Workman) describes how a man and two girls had been occupying the room before the victim was brought in. Elsewhere, the other man in the room (Frank Richards [Jeff Morris]) has Yarby accompany him as he explains to the big man, Al (James Drury), how the latest victim was conked for good by the usual mickey. Al chastises Richards for having gone through with the card theft, which links the death to their operation. Still elsewhere, Commissioner Randall wants the matter cleared up promptly, while not being willing to have public advisories posted that would make the city look like unsafe for convention-goers.

The Chief: No city was ever safe for people who accept invitations to strange rooms.​

Peters brings in Billy Mathers (Tom Hallick), a recent victim who survived as intended, to be pressed for details not included in the police report that he falsified for fear of getting in trouble with his boss. Mathers is able to identify the cab company used, and the Chief sends Ed out to take some rides. Ed ends up in the cab driven by Yarby, but the cabbie makes him as a cop and remains tight-lipped when asked about where an out-of-towner might find a good time. Yarby promptly reports to Al that the heat is on, and Al calls the people he answers to. When Mathers isn't able to find a match for the cabbie among the registered pictures of the company's drivers, the Chief theorizes that the cab is a phony, and consults the company manager, Vic Hancock (Brett Parker)--also eager to avoid bad publicity--regarding how to identify the counterfeit. The Chief ultimately volunteers to have the police department reimburse Hancock for keeping his cabs off the street for a night--an option that Randall isn't pleased with, and ultimately can't get approval for.

Peters agrees to have his company foot the bill, and the operation proceeds. Team Ironside and Reese scour the streets, their search being hindered by fog...but Yarby has a police radio that picks up their communications. He parks his cab and Reese tries to arrest him, but is knocked out by Al's heavy, Jerry Barker (Cliff Emmich), and abducted. The cab parks in its unsanctioned garage and the crooks get to work on altering the cab's appearance...driving it out as a non-cab with a different paint job.

Reese is taken to Al for interrogation--Al being under pressure by his bosses to find out exactly what the police know. With Reese missing, Ironside has the other cabs put back on the street to throw the baddies off. Having obtained multiple aliases that Frank registered into motels under from the handwriting used at the motel of the murder--aliases that tend to use recurring first and last names in different combinations--Team Ironside calls around to motels and finds a currently registered likely hit. They have CLE officers bust the joint so they can follow Frank as he slips out to make a pay phone call to Al. Ed commandeers the phone after the number is dialed and poses as a wrong number dialer, asking for his own name...which, when repeated on the other side, tips off Reese, who subsequently stalls by offering phony details of his investigation. Ed doesn't hang up, enabling the connection to be traced. Having gotten all that they can out of Reese, Al gets the order to have the cop knocked off, and Jerry is about to strangle Reese with his tie when the team busts in.

In the coda, Reese offers to take everybody out to dinner with his credit card.

Yes, Elizabeth Baur is "credit only" again this week...but peeking ahead, it looks like they've been saving her for an origin story. Tune in next week!

_______

Here's a transcript of the dialogue in question

Otto Hasslein: Cornelius. This is not an interracial hassle, but a search for facts. We do not deny the possibility of man's decline and fall. All we want to find out is how apes rose.
Cornelius: Well, it began in our prehistory with the plague that fell upon dogs.
Zira: And cats.
Cornelius: Hundreds and thousands of them died. And hundreds and thousands of them had to be destroyed in order to prevent the spread of infection.
Zira: There were dog bonfires.
Cornelius: Yes. And by the time the plague was contained, man was without pets. Of course, for man, this was intolerable. I mean, he might kill his brother, but he could not kill his dog. So humans took primitive apes as pets.
Zira: Primitive and dumb, but still twenty times more intelligent than dogs or cats.
Cornelius: Correct. They were quartered in cages, but they lived and moved freely in human homes. They became responsive to human speech and, in the course of less than two centuries, they progressed from performing mere tricks to performing services.
Interrogator: Nothing more or less than a well-trained sheepdog could do.
Cornelius: Could a sheepdog cook, or clean the house, or do the marketing for the groceries with a list from its mistress, or wait on tables?
Zira: Or, after three more centuries, turn the tables on their owners.
Hasslein: How?
Cornelius: They became alert to the concept of slavery. And as their numbers grew, to slavery's antidote which, of course, is unity. At first, they began assembling in small groups. They learned the art of corporate and militant action. They learned to refuse. At first, they just grunted their refusal. But then, on an historic day, which is commemorated by my species and fully documented in the sacred scrolls, there came Aldo. He did not grunt. He articulated. He spoke a word, a word which had been spoken to him time and again without number by humans. He said: "No".
Hasslein: So that's how it all started.

Just found a YouTube clip of this scene as well. So the last three films are definitely an altered timeline--assuming Cornelius's knowledge of the history was accurate--which makes it harder to invest in those films.

Part of the reason I suspect Virdon and Burke are part of the same timeline as Taylor and Brent is that they're surprised to find that apes can talk in the future; otherwise, they would be walking around going, 'Hey, this is the future that those two talking apes described back about ten years ago.'

What they divulged about the future wasn't made public, was it?

Maybe what Brent stumbled across some sort of museum recreating 20th century New York/Manhattan? The distance Brent and Nova travel doesn't line up with the New York subway system.)

That wouldn't explain how the Statue of Liberty got to Malibu.

Is this perfect? No.

Informative and insightful, though.

"She'll be back to not working in no time."

But somehow this lead was never followed when the kid was abandoned.

Perhaps there was no police investigation.

How long ago was he abandoned that he could find the restaurant and the beach house?

About three years.

Did they figure out how he was able to shoot the guy in the park with nobody hearing the gunshot and with no witnesses, aside from the park attendant who apparently never said a word?

Good question. I had to go back and look--Greer says at the scene that the victim could have been shot somewhere else and dumped in the park. It's notable that the park attendant only popped up to see Cricket firing the gun (and Greer did question the attendant).

Is this meant to psych out the intended victim or give him a chance to voluntarily back out of testifying?

More the latter, I think. It was exposited that there were two mob figures who'd left the country over threats from the hitman.

Providing some misleading footage for the previews, no doubt.

Probably, now that you mention it.

This is the guy who the mob wants to oversee the expert who hasn't failed in twenty years?

Rossi claimed that he never sent the guy, he'd done it on his own initiative.

Okay, this is mighty weird.

They were playing up that he was human, and very invested in the ordinary side of his life--just very compartmentalized.

The Chief gets to do the shooting! I didn't even know he carried a gun.

It's in the opening credits every week!


From the episode:


It's a cinch that he can't lean on a stunt double who does flying drop kicks!

One possibility is that this Cornelius and Zira were not from the same future that we saw in the first two movies.

That's reaching too far for me.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

What they divulged about the future wasn't made public, was it?

I don't know if the proceedings were televised, but Zira says that they come from Earth's future and Cornelius says that they left before the war between the gorilla's and the other side. Also, in 'Conquest' the newscaster says that the apes are being led by the child of the two future apes. So, I'm sure knowledge that Cornelius and Zira came from Earth's future made the news.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

Here is Paul Dehn's original outline for 'Battle. . .' which he submitted before illness forced him to withdraw from the project.

Set in 'Modern City' - the same city as in Conquest (this name for the city is used in all versions of the script, including the final one) - in 2004 A.D., the opening scene is of human workers going about their early-morning tasks, reminiscent of the situation of the apes in Conquest - human males dressed in red uniforms, human females in blue. Some of the human servants are cleaning an imposing statue of 'Caesar I'. Nearby, a flag is unfurled representing the new ape society - a yellow background with the head of an ape (Caesar) rising from symbolically blood-red flames. Caesar is in a futuristic dressing-room with his human valet George, being prepared for his public, while MacDonald (the character from Conquest) is by his side, wearing his own clothes, unlike other humans. Caesar refers to MacDonald as his servant. They are all preparing for a very special occasion in the city.

Caesar, with MacDonald, goes to address the Council, consisting of three chimps led by the young, intellectual, idealistic Pan; three gorillas led by Aldo; and two orangutans led by Zeno who hold the balance of power between the other two factions. Caesar makes a speech to the council announcing the thirteenth anniversary of 'The Night of Fires' - his glorious revolution. He tells them that 90% of mankind is now under ape control, with only pockets of human resistance to the north. A conversation ensues where MacDonald suggests humans should be entitled to a seat on the council; almost all the apes reject his proposal.

Proceeding to Breck's former Civic Center to address the "Citizens of Ape City", the Councilors pass by the general populace - gorillas dressed in black, chimps in green, orangutans in orange-brown. In a playground a female human called Lindy teaches a group of ape children. Suddenly, a human dressed in an old-style suit steps in front of the procession from a public lavatory. When he is asked why he is not wearing the correct attire, he challenges Caesar's right to pass such a law, and further threatens to destroy the city if the apes attempt to harm him.

Taken away to be interviewed by Aldo, Caesar and MacDonald, the stranger reveals he has come as a messenger from someone called 'Nimrod' who has the means to destroy the city if his messenger is harmed. Meanwhile, in a tent to the far north, Nimrod ("a grizzled giant by John Wayne out of Royal Dano" according to the outline), dressed in the battered uniform of a US Army General, listens to the conversation with two aides, while outside a number of humans work on a vast array of old cars and other vehicles. Aldo orders gorilla guard Brutus to begin to torture the stranger but he finds a hidden microphone. Furious, and without any qualms, Caesar orders the stranger shot dead.

Realizing the consequences, Caesar orders an ape evacuation of the city to the human-built bunkers underground, with any remaining space to be allocated to only the most useful humans. Lisa is forced to choose between her two human maids, Mary and Anna. The humans listen to the public broadcasts as the chosen few are summoned to the underground entrance at Caesar Avenue & Armando Street - Clement (Clem), a veterinarian now known as a doctor to the apes, Bradford (Brad), a carpenter, Melinda (Lindy), the teacher, Alexander (Lex), a psychiatrist, etc. Lisa looks away as Anna is given entry but Mary is turned away. Lex ruefully says goodbye to his room-mate Frank, a radio technician, but Frank suddenly strangles Lex and takes his identity disc, desperate to survive. The humans left behind form a mob and begin looting the empty city, some breaking into a bank vault in search of money.

Nimrod's two aides are pilots who fly their worn old plane with its nuclear missile towards the city, their mission is probably one-way judging by the state of their plane and the amount of fuel they carried. They drop the bomb not knowing if they will be able to clear the explosion. A silent but blinding explosion of light levels the city and everything in its path as a mushroom cloud stretches into the sky.

Some months later, radiation scared humans scavenge the remains of the city for food. They find their way into the bunkers the apes had fled to, now abandoned (these, we are told, are the ancestors of the mutants from Beneath.). An elderly religious school supervisor, 'Mother Agnes', leads a group of bedraggled children on a trek to search for a sanctuary. A child called Matilda finds a blade of grass, and they take hope. They meet the survivors who had been in the bank vault, led by Jud. They all head north to find other humans, but all are captured by a gorilla patrol, except for a man called Danny who hides in a nearby cave. There he meets Frank/Lex conspiring with a scarred mutant about the situation among the apes leaders. Caesar trusts 'Lex', not knowing he is an imposter and is plotting against him.

Nearby, a new Ape City is being built by human slaves, the arena from Beneath.. is being hewn from the rock, and a newly-agricultural society has developed around it. They have found the need to be self-sufficient. Caesar is suffering from terrible headaches, possibly caused by the same brain-expanding condition which afflicted the chimp Nero in Armando's circus. His human advisors suggest helping him rest by injecting him with pentothal (as was his mother). Lisa gives birth to Caesar's child (she was already newly-pregnant at the time of the bombing), who they name 'Cornelius Armando'. Sensing an opportunity, 'Lex' switches the labels on the doctor's medicines, and when the doctor injects the weakened Lisa, shortly after giving birth, with the wrong medicine, she dies. In the confusion, 'Lex' grabs the baby and runs away. Aldo orders his cavalry to find 'Lex'; his police to arrest the doctor; and his infantry to herd all the other humans into their compound. Lex takes the baby to the mutant's cave ("Mutantville"), radios Nimrod and is told that Nimrod's forces are heading south in their makeshift convoy to meet them and finish the war against the apes.

In the bunkers under Modern City, a mutated couple look after the baby chimp, treating it like their own deceased child. Furious with rage and grief, Caesar proposes cutting out the tongues of all humans to end their conspiring - to the horror of Pan, the reluctant agreement of Zeno, and the enthusiasm of Aldo. Zeno studies anatomical charts with a young, personable female orangutan called Zaia ("possibly an ancestress of Dr Zaius"). They discuss humane ways of making humans mute, but deciding lobotomizing the humans would remove their usefulness; surgically severing the vocal chords would be of more value. Outside, the cavalry commander reports back to Aldo and Caesar that they have failed to find 'Lex' or the baby, and called off the search because of a huge, moving dust cloud to the north. MacDonald, the doctor, and Aldo, in that order, realize there might be more significance to the moving cloud.

Having delivered the baby chimp to its new guardians in Modern City, 'Lex' visits the armory where Danny, a gunsmith by trade, is now supervising the creation of missiles and weapons by a workforce of horribly mutated humans. The two remark on the fact that they are the only 'humans' in the city.

Threatened that an untrained Zaia would cause unnecessary pain and injury to her patients, the doctor prepares to demonstrate the vocal chord procedure on a human volunteer - MacDonald. Meanwhile, the coffin that Brad has built for Lisa has secretly been fitted with a transmitter. As Caesar says goodbye to Lisa by the graveside, alone, 'her' voice whispers to him and tells him to let the humans go free for the sake of their son's safety. He runs to the surgery and order a halt just in time to save MacDonald. But Aldo and Zeno believe Caesar has lost his mind and become unreliable. Aldo draws his gun to shoot him, but MacDonald jumps into the path of the bullet, dying. A second shot from Aldo kills Caesar.

Almost immediately, Nimrod's army invades the settlement. His first missiles destroy the human compound - deliberately, because they are 'collaborators'. The few human survivors, including the group of children, flee to the nearby mutant cave, while Aldo leads the defense in a great battle somewhere between Modern City and Ape City. From the cave mouth, Danny launches a missile device at the ape army which does not explode, but his mutant colleague tells the apes that the nerve gas within will make them all sterile. The apes withdraw, fearful of the consequences for the future. Nimrod greets the mutant leader in the cave and tells him that his real name is General Mendez (a footnote says "we met Mendez XXVII in Apes II"). The mutant reveals that in truth the missile was empty.

Back at the Ape City, Zeno and Aldo announce that they will hereafter be joint rulers and that the area infected by the missile will be a 'Forbidden Zone' for the sake of the survival of the ape races. Zeno also begins a series of anti-human proclamations, the basis of the 'Sacred Scrolls' (it is revealed that Zeno will become 'The Lawgiver' from Planet.). The human and mutant survivors remain in the cave system and make it their home. Out of the cave mouth, Matilda and the other children release baby Cornelius to fend for himself in the wilderness.

John Williman Corrington and Joyce Hooper Corrington, who had just finished the script for Charlton Heston's 'The Omega Man', were brought on board to lighten up the outline and basically ended up writing a completely new script. The one that ended up on the screen

 

[RJDiogenes]

Karl Milligan (Cameron Mitchell)

Omnipresent character actor.

While Steur's being wheeled into the hospital, he implores Greer to get Milligan.

"Arrest that scofflaw, but please allow me to continue in my lawless activities."

a user named Angie (Eve Plumb's real-life big sister, Flora, Flora, Flora!)

That's interesting.

Deb--feeling some loyalty to Karl for having treated her now-dead mother well--has a breakdown, refusing to answer the phone and crying that she wants to die.

Ouch. That did not go well at all.

Julie tries to make a break for it when he searches her purse and finds her ID, and he slugs her unconscious

Right after she just recovered from her last head injury.

then has Deb tie her up with her own curtain beads

Talk about adding insult to injury. Luckily those things wouldn't hold a housecat.

Karl sends Deb to meet Linc inside a funhouse for the deal

That sounds cool.

Greer rushes in with CLE and Karl, disoriented from all the pressure he's been under, fires wildly at the surrounding Mods and uniformed officers from a pit that he ends up in. Then Deb convinces him to drop his gun and surrender.

Sounds like they're both a bit fragile. I wonder why they made her his stepdaughter rather than his daughter.

and the Mods drive off the amusement pier.

Into the drink?!?

(The meeting is held at a card table that's said to have replaced the pool table in Mark's room.)

I wonder what that's all about.

Al chastises Richards for having gone through with the card theft, which links the death to their operation.

He seems to be a little more intelligent than the usual villain.

The Chief: No city was ever safe for people who accept invitations to strange rooms.

Words to live by.

The Chief ultimately volunteers to have the police department reimburse Hancock for keeping his cabs off the street for a night--an option that Randall isn't pleased with, and ultimately can't get approval for.

That sounds like a logistical nightmare. Aren't cabbies technically independent contractors or something?

Yarby has a police radio that picks up their communications.

They kind of should have foreseen that, I think.

The cab parks in its unsanctioned garage and the crooks get to work on altering the cab's appearance...driving it out as a non-cab with a different paint job.

I was wondering why they didn't do that at the first sign of trouble, although I expected them to just switch to a different cab company.

Reese is taken to Al for interrogation--Al being under pressure by his bosses to find out exactly what the police know.

Al is no longer smart, pressure or not.

Ed commandeers the phone after the number is dialed and poses as a wrong number dialer, asking for his own name...which, when repeated on the other side, tips off Reese

That's a good move.

Having gotten all that they can out of Reese, Al gets the order to have the cop knocked off

Very disappointing, Al. You had a good start and went off the deep end.

Yes, Elizabeth Baur is "credit only" again this week...but peeking ahead, it looks like they've been saving her for an origin story. Tune in next week!

I'm intrigued!

That wouldn't explain how the Statue of Liberty got to Malibu.

Damn, that's true.

Perhaps there was no police investigation.

Considering how the show has treated kids in the past, this would not surprise me.

About three years.

So a six-year-old remembered all these details from when he was three. Hmm. Maybe?

Good question. I had to go back and look--Greer says at the scene that the victim could have been shot somewhere else and dumped in the park.

That makes sense, although it makes me wonder how the guy dropped the gun to begin with.

More the latter, I think. It was exposited that there were two mob figures who'd left the country over threats from the hitman.

Very interesting.

Rossi claimed that he never sent the guy, he'd done it on his own initiative.

Okay, that's kinda nuts.

They were playing up that he was human, and very invested in the ordinary side of his life--just very compartmentalized.

Between this and his tendency to give his victims a chance to flee, he's kind of an interesting character.

It's in the opening credits every week!

Well, yeah, but that's from The Before Times.

From the episode:

I wonder how many times he got to fire a gun. Perry Mason never used a gun.

It's a cinch that he can't lean on a stunt double who does flying drop kicks!

Not drop kicks, but they could have given him some action scenes. There was a wheelchair-bound character in Tales of the Gold Monkey who was crippled in real life who had some action scenes and did his own stunts. It was very cool.

That's reaching too far for me.

Well, it would explain a few things. And it also fits with my Oscillating Time Loop theory.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Talk about adding insult to injury. Luckily those things wouldn't hold a housecat.

If you wrapped enough of them multiple times, they might be surprisingly hard to break.

That sounds cool.

It wasn't operating.

Into the drink?!?

Not that we saw.

They kind of should have foreseen that, I think.

It did seem like a glaring oversight. You'd think that undercover detective types might have some means of keeping their communications more private.

I was wondering why they didn't do that at the first sign of trouble, although I expected them to just switch to a different cab company.

The higher-ups kept saying to keep the operation going.

Al is no longer smart, pressure or not.

I was thinking the same thing.

That's a good move.

Though it relies on Reese being kept within earshot of the phone.

So a six-year-old remembered all these details from when he was three. Hmm. Maybe?

No, a presumably nine-year-old remembered all those details from when he was six.

That makes sense, although it makes me wonder how the guy dropped the gun to begin with.

Could have fallen out of his waistband...but that begs the question of why the safety was off.

Well, yeah, but that's from The Before Times.

Before what?

I wonder how many times he got to fire a gun. Perry Mason never used a gun.

Perry Mason only thought he was a cop.

Not drop kicks, but they could have given him some action scenes. There was a wheelchair-bound character in Tales of the Gold Monkey who was crippled in real life who had some action scenes and did his own stunts. It was very cool.

My memory of that show is extremely vague at this point; I'd have to look that up.

 

[RJDiogenes]

If you wrapped enough of them multiple times, they might be surprisingly hard to break.

Yeah, I suppose so.

It wasn't operating.

That could make it even spookier.

It did seem like a glaring oversight. You'd think that undercover detective types might have some means of keeping their communications more private.

Like handy-dandy walkie-talkies.

Though it relies on Reese being kept within earshot of the phone.

Better than Linc relying on "solid."

No, a presumably nine-year-old remembered all those details from when he was six.

Ah, okay, I guess I lost track of the ages.

Before what?

Before the wheelchair, when he was still on active duty.

Perry Mason only thought he was a cop.

Oh, no, Perry had a much higher opinion of himself than that.

My memory of that show is extremely vague at this point; I'd have to look that up.

Highly recommended. It's in my top tier of shows, like Star Trek, Outer Limits, Night Stalker, et cetera....