Post-50th Anniversary Viewing
Planet of the Apes
"The Surgeon"
Originally aired October 25, 1974
Edited Wiki said:
Virdon is shot by a gorilla patrol. Galen and Burke take him to a medical center outside Central City, where he must undergo an operation involving a blood transfusion, a procedure ape doctors believe to be impossible.
The episode opens cold with the shooting, no character business preceding it. The fugitives manage to get away with wounded Virdon.
Virdon: Our Blue Cross expired about a thousand years ago.
Galen recommends a medical center where he knows the chief surgeon, Kira (Who's gonna tell that they're using Jacqueline Scott again?), who has a contentious relation with her Machiavellian and romantically forward superior, Leander (future third Rudy Martin Brooks). When Galen approaches her, she questions his recent activities and he tells her how he discovered the truth that humans and apes are supposed to be equals. Having come away with borrowed medical garb for smuggling Virdon into the hospital, Galen and Burke commandeer a wagon for posing as Dr. Adrian and his human servant. In the human ward, the senior human hospital worker, Travin (Michael Strong), informs them that humans don't get medical treatment beyond rest. Accordingly, Kira finds a lack of human anatomy in the ape medical texts. (Seems a bit forced that the apes don't even have the equivalent of veterinarians for the human servants they rely upon so much.) To Kira's disbelief, Galen gets the idea to acquire a human-written medical text...from Zaius's study.
Galen mentions favoring old-fashioned methods such as leeches when trying to sell himself to Leander as a colleague. Travin questions the things he hears Virdon saying while having a fever dream. Burke forcefully intervenes when he sees a human named Lafer (uncredited Ron Stein) disciplining Travin's daughter (Jamie Smith Jackson), now a nameless pariah whom even her father disowns, declaring her to be evil (seems to be a recurring theme). Urko takes an interest when the wagon driver reports to him of having been attacked by a human and chimp working together. Virdon wakes up with Kira caring for him while the other fugitives are going into the city undercover, driving an ambulance wagon. She's upset at the danger Galen is putting himself in over Virdon. The other fugitives get into Zaius's place by claiming that he had a heart attack when he's not home; and after grabbing the text, carry out a bust that Zaius keeps of himself or a similar-looking orangutan on a litter. Kira is highly skeptical upon examining the contents of the book, thinking that its advanced medicine supposedly written by humans reads like fiction.
When Kira diagnoses that the operation could cause severe blood loss, Burke suggests a transfer. She indicates that apes tried this unsuccessfully, and he informs her of the need to find blood of a compatible type. Burke tries recruiting the human workers for blood tests on Adrian's behalf, which gives him the opportunity to speak directly to the girl. He finds that she's the only eligible donor after Lafer ran off. She and her father explain that she was declared evil when it was her blood that killed her brother in the previous attempt at a donation.
Travin: She killed him with her evil blood!
Burke explains the blood type thing again and the operation proceeds, with medicine advanced enough that the apes have cloth masks and Gilligan-tech respirators. Galen sells the strange procedure to Leander as his technique, and the senior doctor expresses his intrigue and offers to help...which puts them in the position of having to continue Galen's imposture during the procedure. Leander demands to see the book when Burke reads from it, then tries to slip out to report treason, but Galen forces him to stay. In the city, Urko investigates the burglary at Zaius's, arguing that his forbidden books should be burned, and learns that a surgical book is missing.
Virdon's heart stops on the table and Leander helps to restart it with a serum; following which Zira extracts the bullet and they close up. Urko promptly arrives and the fugitives slip out while Travin and Leander cover for them, the latter motivating Urko to leave by claiming that the surgical room is a plague ward. As a conscious Virdon is about to be wagoned out, he learns that the girl's name is Arna; and Kira indicates that she's had the same "accident" that Galen described to her earlier, of colliding with the truth.
James's little brother David briefly appears as an ape credited as Dr. Stole. Seems like they're makin' it--wouldn't you like to be a Naughton, too?
On the subject of Alan's surname seeming too made up:
Learn about the Virdon Family Crest, its Origin and History. Where did the Virdon surname come from? Where did the family branches go?
www.houseofnames.com
And the toy line spelled it Verdon, which is common enough to get a Wiki entry.
en.wikipedia.org
All in the Family
"Gloria's Shock"
Originally aired October 26, 1974
Edited Prime Video said:
When yet another argument erupts between Archie and Mike, Mike states that he does not want children. This leads to an even bigger argument between Mike and Gloria.
The episode opens with Archie and Edith returning home from the funeral of Joe Hoffsinger.
Archie: He's gonna be incremated....And they're gonna keep his ashes around the house in one o' them silver urinals.
When Archie casually expresses his belief in heaven, this leads to an argument with Mike about religion that transitions into being about overpopulation and kids like Joe's son being ungrateful to the people who brought them into this world. From Edith's silent but very expressive reaction to a comment Mike makes about most kids being brought into the world because somebody forgot to make a trip to the drugstore, Gloria learns that she was a "surprise package". But the part that upsets her is Mike's offhanded declaration that he doesn't intend to have kids, a decision he'd come to since they got married but never discussed with her. Archie is equally upset for his own reasons.
Archie: That kid that you don't wanna have happens to be my grandson!
Gloria falsely claims that she hasn't been taking the pill for some time to evoke a reaction from Mike and make the point that they should be discussing these sorts of decisions. The discussion continues up in the bedroom, where Mike apologizes for not consulting her but stands his ground on the decision.
Gloria: When we got married, you promised me two things, Michael Stivic, a home and a family! Now I find out that you meant my home and my family!
Mike brings up the ecology as a reason for not bringing kids into the world, giving Gloria and the audience a lecture about how hairspray is destroying the ozone layer. He tells her that he's open to adoption, but she feels it's important for her to have a child of her own first, leaving them at an impasse.
Gloria: Michael, don't you touch me unless you mean business.
The argument comes back downstairs as Irene's briefly visiting so she can weigh in, getting into a bit about the Catholic perspective on birth control. After she leaves, Edith admits her disappointment, describing the sorts of things that she'd always imagined doing with her grandchildren.
Mike: Where'd you get the idea that that's how family life is?
Archie: She's always watching The Waltons.
Edith: Oh, my, Mike, if the Waltons thought like you, they wouldn't even have a TV show.
In the kitchen, Edith tells Gloria of how she expected to have more years of kids through her grandchildren, but unintentionally brings Gloria to see Mike's perspective when she expresses her belief that having babies is what women were made for. As Mike and Gloria are making up over the shared belief that she should be valued as a person first, Archie consoles Edith that Gloria will have the final say on the matter...while also encouraging her to find an opportunity to toss Gloria's birth control pills out the window.
Yeah, but I mean why wasn't it used in places like Afghanistan or Iraq? Seems like it might have been useful.
I'd guess political reasons. Does seem like it might have done some good clearing caves, if it worked that way.
The current Doctor is the thirteenth to star in the show, but taking the phrase "to portray Doctor Who in the show of the same name" literally there's also: Paul McGann, reprising his role from the movie; the William Hartnell lookalike who portrayed the First Doctor in the Peter Capaldi era; the War Doctor; also, I think a second actor played another early Doctor in one of the Doctor crossovers back in the day; also, it was implied that Doctor Ruth was a future Regeneration of the Doctor. That's why I say it's debatable, because there's a couple of ways interpreting the phrase.
I'll take your word for it, but seems like they might have been going for the number who'd starred in the show.
Wow, it was released on
reel-to-reel tape. Maybe that's what those future scientists were listening to.
Better audio quality is to be found
here, I think, if you want a hit of nostalgia.
Interesting. I mentally totally misremembered the narrator's voice. But I haven't had that record in decades.
I'm pretty sure I've never had either. I'm not big on seafood.
Ah, I thought you were speaking from personal experience.
No, but you know how I like to come up with explanations.
But Corneilus and Zira not having visited in 1973 ruins by Ape Fu patch.
Ayyyyyy...! 
I'll note that she didn't kick him out...
I'm jealous, too. And of course, Virdon's would-be love interest looked pretty glamorous for the setting. They just gave her subtler makeup.
