Best Episodes of Famous TV Series

[SWC75]

WAGON TRAIN 1/20/64 The Geneva Balfour Story

There were two famous “on the trail” TV westerns: ‘Wagon Train‘ (1957-65) and ‘Rawhide’ (1959-66). The first was the story(s) of people moving across the west from Missouri to California in a wagon train. The second was the story of cattle drives from Texas north to Missouri, (Although they made tit o Minnesota one year). Both were great shows. Wagon Train had the advantage that you can get more stories from people than from cows. Rawhide had to get their drovers involved in the problems of people they met along the way when they would have no time for it as they were trying to get a herd of cattle to market. But you can either complain about things like or go along with it and enjoy the show and both shows had interesting stories and strong casts and great characters.

I was in New York City some years back to take in some of the plays. I got back to my hotel after seeing them and wasn’t tired yet so I flipped on the TV and there was an episode of Wagon Train, a show I hadn’t seen since it want off the air back in the 60’s. It was about a frequent crisis for both shows: finding water. Within 5 minutes, I was thinking like a member of the Wagon Train, trying to figure how to get to the next water hole. I realized that none of the plays I’d seen, as good as they were as theater, had the same impact: I was never transported to the local of the play. I had always been aware of boing in a theater. Now I was trying to get through the desert with the ‘Wagon Train’.

Wagon Train - Wikipedia

I looked through the Wagon Train episodes on the IMDB and believe this is the one I was watching on that occasion:

"Wagon Train" The Geneva Balfour Story (TV Episode 1964) ⭐ 7.7 | Western

1h 15m | TV-PG

www.imdb.com

One of the things that stuck me is that the wagon master, Chris Hale, (John McIntyre, my all-rime favorite character actor), decides he must lie to the people on the train about the peril of their position to give them hope. When they find out that he has done so, they want to lynch him. He puts the noose on his neck himself but give them a speech about the necessity of hope. (What Dino Babers would call “belief without evidence”.)

And this on is on You-Tube! Re-watching it, I find that the issue was more about food than water, (a disturbed young women had burned the wagon with their food supply), but it’s the same dramatic situation and Hale’s speech at the end is worth the journey.

 

[CA Monk]

Hey SWC75 (and others), I'd be interested in your episode selection(s) for my favorite TV analgesic: Hogan's Heroes. I recognize that it was a spoofy, goofy thing far from reality, but I always reveled in the sanitized, can't fail universe it depicted - the way I'd like life to be more regularly.

I've even contemplated some kind of Hogan's Heroes fantasy camp for adult saboteurs. You and your team would sleep in a barrack and compete with other teams in completing some late night clandestine mission. The accommodations would be spartan, but comfortable and the camaraderie would bristle with gung-ho, can-do attitudes. Note: Can't be allergic to grease paint.

I've said much more than I care to admit to, c'est la guerre.

 

[SWC75]

Hey SWC75 (and others), I'd be interested in your episode selection(s) for my favorite TV analgesic: Hogan's Heroes. I recognize that it was a spoofy, goofy thing far from reality, but I always reveled in the sanitized, can't fail universe it depicted - the way I'd like life to be more regularly.

I've even contemplated some kind of Hogan's Heroes fantasy camp for adult saboteurs. You and your team would sleep in a barrack and compete with other teams in completing some late night clandestine mission. The accommodations would be spartan, but comfortable and the camaraderie would bristle with gung-ho, can-do attitudes. Note: Can't be allergic to grease paint.

I've said much more than I care to admit to, c'est la guerre.

I used to watch Hogan's Heroes and thought it was one of the funniest shows on TV, (right next to "Get Smart"). But I don't recall any specific episode that stood out over the rest. What would be your selection for the best episode of Hogan's Heroes?

 

[CA Monk]

I used to watch Hogan's Heroes and thought it was one of the funniest shows on TV, (right next to "Get Smart"). But I don't recall any specific episode that stood out over the rest. What would be your selection for the best episode of Hogan's Heroes?

I can't really site one or 2 definitive or representative episodes. I just found joy in the characters, the predicament and some of the writing. I especially liked shows that dealt with food (LeBeau usually as chef) or when they built a new set and went to the Hofbrau or London or to a German baroness's castle. I sometimes wish the show had taken itself more seriously and presented hour long episodes involving more apparent risk.

The good guys and bad guys were easily discerned and the show always managed to present a beautiful woman playing the part of a patriotic agent or dastardly collaborator. All got their just deserts according to their loyalties. And the symbols, uniforms and insignias always made my little boy militaristic heart go pitter-patter.

Some of the references could be quite literary: Eliza crossing the ice. I wish it wasn't cancelled so unceremoniously in '71 w/o a reunion or a reboot (Bob Crane's death in '79 and John Banner's earlier scotched that).

The incongruity of it all is beautifully preposterous.

I wrote a story about my peculiar attraction to Hogan's Heroes. It's on my website. It's non-monetized and has no ads. It's my canvass and just for fun. Some may care to read it:

Hogan’s Heroes: Keeping it Real (sort of) | davidhardiman.com

davidhardiman.com

 

[SWC75]

I can't really site one or 2 definitive or representative episodes. I just found joy in the characters, the predicament and some of the writing. I especially liked shows that dealt with food (LeBeau usually as chef) or when they built a new set and went to the Hofbrau or London or to a German baroness's castle. I sometimes wish the show had taken itself more seriously and presented hour long episodes involving more apparent risk.

The good guys and bad guys were easily discerned and the show always managed to present a beautiful woman playing the part of a patriotic agent or dastardly collaborator. All got their just deserts according to their loyalties. And the symbols, uniforms and insignias always made my little boy militaristic heart go pitter-patter.

Some of the references could be quite literary: Eliza crossing the ice. I wish it wasn't cancelled so unceremoniously in '71 w/o a reunion or a reboot (Bob Crane's death in '79 and John Banner's earlier scotched that).

The incongruity of it all is beautifully preposterous.

I wrote a story about my peculiar attraction to Hogan's Heroes. It's on my website. It's non-monetized and has no ads. It's my canvass and just for fun. Some may care to read it:

Hogan’s Heroes: Keeping it Real (sort of) | davidhardiman.com

davidhardiman.com

Well, that's what this thread is set up to do: show the best example of the series in homage to it and to introduce those who may not have been familiar with it to the show so they might become fans, too.

This episode guide might help you: Hogan's Heroes (TV Series 1965–1971) - IMDb

 

[CA Monk]

Sorry. I’ll discontinue the peripheral discussion. Didn’t think we needed to be so rigorous in our posts on matters such as these.

 

[upperdeck]

Hogans Heroes, Mission Impossible, Wild Wild west filled a lot of empty days as akid

 

[Chip]

A few of mine off the top of my head. If you asked me next week, I might say something else for some of these. Except for Sopranos...that one is etched in stone for me.

Sopranos: Pine Barrens

The Wire: Middle Ground

Breaking Bad: Salud

Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Grand Opening

Seinfeld: The Opposite

Mad Men: The Wheel

I get anxiety watching Pine Barrens. I drive through that area now on the way to the shore in the summer and it's the only thing I can think about.

Good call on Seinfeld, probably my favorite. "My name is George, I'm unemployed and I live with my parents". "I'm Victoria, hi!"

Cheers: What is...Cliff Claven

 

[SWC75]

Sorry. I’ll discontinue the peripheral discussion. Didn’t think we needed to be so rigorous in our posts on matters such as these.

Sorry if I sounded draconian. If you just wanted to say you liked Hogan's Heroes, that's fine. I'll continue with my idea of naming what I think are the best episodes of my favorite shows. I liked HH a lot and may pick one myself when I get around to it.

 

[SWC75]

RAWHIDE 4/16-23/64 “Incident at Deadhorse”

‘Rawhide’ was a sort of cousin of ‘Wagon Train’ in that both were about trail drives: one was about getting people to California from Missouri, the other about getting “beeves” to market in Missouri or points north. The shows actually weren’t related: different studios and networks. But if you liked one, you’d surely like the other.

Rawhide also has an episode that ends with a noose around a strong man’s neck. ‘Incident at Deadhorse is a two-part that opens with a remarkably creepy scene in which a hand emerges from a pile of rocks. It’s the hand of Burgess Meredith, who was buried alive under those rocks by supporters of a powerful rancher, (Broderick Crawford), who has been found guilty of murdering the man who killed one of his three sons and is now to be hung – by Meredith, a professional hangman who sees his work as a calling and is very particular about how it is to be done. Crawford is not only popular with the local town’s population but the subject of their sympathy. His ranch is also the only reason the town exists. They don’t’ want to see him hung, as a judge has decided he must be.

Meredith is found by some of the drovers who bring him back to camp and nurse him back to health. They get to like him, especially when he saves one of them from a snakebite. They then accompany him into the town and find out how hostile the populous is to the man. It winds up with the possibility of a full-scale battle between the law and the drovers and the townspeople, including Crawford’s remaining two sons. Concerned that they will be hurt and with similar motivations to William Shatner in the Defenders episode that began this thread, Crawford mounts the scaffolding Meredith has carefully prepared and puts the noose around his neck himself. It ends with another dramatic speech about right and wrong. The episode has its improbabilities but packs a wallop nonetheless.

Rawhide (TV series) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

"Rawhide" Incident at Deadhorse: Part I (TV Episode 1964) ⭐ 8.4 | Western

1h | TV-PG

www.imdb.com

and
"Rawhide" Incident at Deadhorse: Part II (TV Episode 1964) - IMDb

I couldn’t find an on-line video of the episode, but Rawhide still plays on cable, (I often watch all or part of a morning episode on Me-TV.

 

[SWC75]

ROUTE 66 11/10/61 “The Mud Nest”

‘Route 66’ brought the western concept of the traveling hero who encounters stories from the people he meets along the way to television in a contemporary, (1960’s) setting. Only they had t wo heroes. It wasn’t a wheel. The two protagonists traveled around the country, (not just the titular road0, just to have adventures while they were young. They did whatever jobs were available to pay their way and stayed wherever they were welcome and could afford to. The stories were totally open-ended. They could be serious dramas or wacky comedies or anything in between. There was no over-riding plot arc, (unlike The Fugitive, which had its hero trying to find the guy who murdered his wife before the police inspector could find him). The writer just had to write a good story and figure out a way to get his two stars involved in it. The show, which, unfortunately was filmed in black and white, used actual locations around the country and local people in supporting bits, giving it more authenticity than other shows.

Here is my review of this particular episode, which I posted to the IMDB:

“This is my favorite episode of this series- or any other. The final scene is the finest dramatic scene I've ever seen in any TV show, movie or play. And again, its' the type of story very few TV series could have or would have told.

The boys are headed for Baltimore but run out of gas in the town of Hester. The people there take one look at Buz and announce to him that he's one of the much-feared Colby clan. Tod suggests to Buz he might actually be a Colby: the was a foundling, left with an orphanage in New York City. He convinces a reluctant Buz to search out the Colbys, who do not disappoint. The head of the clan is played by Lon Chaney Jr., (the first of three appearances on the show) and three of the four siblings are played by George Maharis' actual bothers and a sister. They set upon Buz to see how tough he is and he beats them up, once by one. Chaney says "You're a Colby all right" and the grim fight for survival turns into a warm homecoming. They find out that 25 years ago Dorothea Colby left the farm for the big city: Baltimore and give Buz a picture of what she looked like then. That's the first of three parts of the show. The second part is a sort of procedural that takes place in Baltimore.

That has some significance for fans, (like me) of "Homicide: Life on the Streets" that was filmed there thirty years later. Once wonders if some of the same locations appeared in that show. The same poster who had shots of "First Class Mouliak" locations has some for this episode as well: The Mud Nest - Route 66
Ed Asner, (making his third of five appearances), plays a detective in the Bureau of Missing persons who gives the boys a crash course in how to look for someone in a big city. He's a guy who takes pride and pleasure in his work. I can relate. I used to work for the Social Security Administration and one of my jobs was to find people who might be entitled to benefits. We also occasionally got requests to help locate long lost relatives and we could help so long as we didn't give out any information without permission: we'd try to use our records and other sources to locate the person and if we could, we'd contact them and find out if they wished to hear from the interested party. If they did, we transmitted the necessary information. It was probably the most fun and interesting part of the job.

The boys poke around Baltimore and find a veteran stripper, (played by Sylvia Miles, who later had a similar role in "Midnight Cowboy". She was actually only 28-29 when this would have been filmed, per the IMDb but you know about actresses' birth dates. She looks more like 45- 50. (Buz finds out 'he' was born in September 1937 and says he's "about 25". George Maharis was born 9/1/28, so he was 33 at the time). Miles wants to make friends but blows it when she makes an insensitive comment about how much Dorothea "hated that kid". The boys leave the strip joint with their heads down, Tod apologizing for getting Buz into this. As they walk down the street, they pass a religious mission with a big neon sign saying "GOD IS LOVE", a great piece of direction by James Sheldon.

Then comes the final scene. Asner had had the picture ‘aged’ and it looks just like a famous local resident, a woman surgeon. He takes them to the Johns Hopkins Medical Center, where she works. Buz goes into the operating theater alone to meet the woman he has come to believe is his mother. He starts with one of Sterling Silliphant's poetic analogies. Somehow the surgeon, (Betty Field), senses why he's there. They look at each other intently and Buz stops with the poetry and tells of his longing for his mother, how he'd like to meet her and help her. He doesn't quite ask why she gave him up, why she "hated that kid". Field waits patiently and then goes into her story. She had no money and hated the father of the child, (it suggests he was a child of rape). She hated to look into his little face and see the father. She kept him warm and fed but couldn't love him. Then comes the bombshell: One day her son died in his crib. She felt so guilty that she went to the head of nursing at the hospital and just said that she wanted to spend the rest of her live helping people and never hating anyone again.

They again look at each other, Buz realizing that this woman is not his mother and also that he is not her son. But he is the image of the man her son could have been and she was what his mother, whoever and wherever she is now, was when she gave him up. She puts her hands on Buz and tells him to see and feel them as if they were the hands of his mother, asking for forgiveness and expressing her pride in the man he has become. The scene is never maudlin due to the excellent writing and the way the lines are delivered so we can read between them. I have literally never seen anything better.”

Route 66 (TV series) - Wikipedia

"Route 66" The Mud Nest (TV Episode 1961) - IMDb

 

[KaiserUEO]

Magnum PI: Did You see the Sunrise Pts 1 & 2

Quick synopse on Pt 1:

The past comes back to haunt T.C. when an old war buddy arrives claiming that the brutal Colonel who held them captive in a Vietnamese P.O.W. camp is after them once again. Initially, T.C. doesn't take the warning seriously, but he and Magnum soon find themselves in a heart-pounding race against the clock to find their would-be killer before he finds them.

Longer Pt 2:

The third season premiere in this detective series set in Hawaii, starring Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum, a former naval officer turned private investigator. In the second half of this two-part episode, Magnum is stunned and guilt-ridden by Mac's death by car bomb and furiously accuses Colonel Buck Greene of being somehow involved. Elsewhere, Higgins catches Rick taking bets on the following week's race, and T.C. seems confused when Rick reminds him that he has never met Nuzo, as he was not present during their escape from Duc Hue in the war. Magnum broods over his lost friend and tells a startled Higgins that the Ferrari has been destroyed, and Admiral Hawkes questions Greene about the bombing, wondering why Magnum was targeted for death. T.C. blames the mysterious Ivan for Mac's death, sure that he has somehow tracked them down a decade after the war in an effort to "clean his record." T.C. and Magnum find Nuzo, who also seems to be suffering a delayed form of trauma, and T.C. swears that they are being followed. Lieutenant Maggie Poole tells Greene that tracking down the rogue bomber will prove next to impossible, given the sheer number of veterans with whom Magnum and Mac might have served, and Greene follows the three vets in a chopper.

Magnum narrowly avoids being shot by a sniper and furiously confronts Greene when he lands, then learning that his name is involved in a criminal plot known as "Operation Reunion," which prompted Greene to recruit Mac to stop Magnum from finding and killing Ivan. Magnum, angry over Mac's unnecessary death, refuses to explain about the "vendetta" involving himself, T.C., Nuzo and Ivan, despite Hawkes' frustrated protestations that an important Japanese delegation is soon to arrive in the midst of the unknown Russian plot. Poole drives Magnum home and, exasperated by Greene's sexist attitude towards her, agrees to help him track down Mac's killer without involving the colonel. Elsewhere, an increasingly antsy T.C. begs Rick to loan him his car, and Poole helps Magnum to identify the "Ivan" from whom they escaped back in Vietnam. Higgins' off-handed comments about "The Bridge on the River Kwai" then lead Magnum to realize that Ivan intentionally allowed them to escape their confinement. Magnum then examines Nuzo's military record and finds that he is not the man with whom he escaped Duc Hue, realizing that the real Nuzo likely died in the war and an operative of Ivan's has been posing as the American soldier ever since. He realizes that the fake Nuzo has been drugging T.C. in order to brainwash him into killing the Japanese prince – while believing that he is the elusive Ivan -- and elsewhere, the fake Nuzo is seen dosing T.C. before Ivan suddenly appears, taunting T.C. with the memory of his friend Cookie, the gunner killed in Vietnam, and instructing him to kill "him," Ivan, on the following day at "Quan Loi." T.C., unaware of his actions, accompanies Fake Nuzo to the barracks, where he boards a chopper and flies to the Valley of the Temples, but Magnum and Rick pursue him, and Magnum gets the idea to use their old call signs to convince the entranced T.C. to abort his "mission" before anyone is killed. T.C. is sent to Walter Reed for "deprogramming" and the fake Nuzo is captured, but Magnum learns that Ivan has been given diplomatic immunity by the State Department out of a desire to avoid further antagonizing Russia. Angered by this, Magnum captures Ivan and holds him at gunpoint, though Ivan smugly states that the principled Navy vet would never kill an unarmed man, regardless of his past actions. Magnum, however, merely echoes Mac's last wish to see the sun rise, and the episode concludes as Magnum shoots at Ivan point-blank. Freeze the frame of Magnum’s gun going off at the camera (safely unlike Baldwin).

Crazy to think that in season 3, they made Magnum a cold blooded killer. It worked, a very good tv show became a great one.

 

[SWC75]

Magnum PI: Did You see the Sunrise Pts 1 & 2

Quick synopse on Pt 1:

The past comes back to haunt T.C. when an old war buddy arrives claiming that the brutal Colonel who held them captive in a Vietnamese P.O.W. camp is after them once again. Initially, T.C. doesn't take the warning seriously, but he and Magnum soon find themselves in a heart-pounding race against the clock to find their would-be killer before he finds them.

Longer Pt 2:

The third season premiere in this detective series set in Hawaii, starring Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum, a former naval officer turned private investigator. In the second half of this two-part episode, Magnum is stunned and guilt-ridden by Mac's death by car bomb and furiously accuses Colonel Buck Greene of being somehow involved. Elsewhere, Higgins catches Rick taking bets on the following week's race, and T.C. seems confused when Rick reminds him that he has never met Nuzo, as he was not present during their escape from Duc Hue in the war. Magnum broods over his lost friend and tells a startled Higgins that the Ferrari has been destroyed, and Admiral Hawkes questions Greene about the bombing, wondering why Magnum was targeted for death. T.C. blames the mysterious Ivan for Mac's death, sure that he has somehow tracked them down a decade after the war in an effort to "clean his record." T.C. and Magnum find Nuzo, who also seems to be suffering a delayed form of trauma, and T.C. swears that they are being followed. Lieutenant Maggie Poole tells Greene that tracking down the rogue bomber will prove next to impossible, given the sheer number of veterans with whom Magnum and Mac might have served, and Greene follows the three vets in a chopper.

Magnum narrowly avoids being shot by a sniper and furiously confronts Greene when he lands, then learning that his name is involved in a criminal plot known as "Operation Reunion," which prompted Greene to recruit Mac to stop Magnum from finding and killing Ivan. Magnum, angry over Mac's unnecessary death, refuses to explain about the "vendetta" involving himself, T.C., Nuzo and Ivan, despite Hawkes' frustrated protestations that an important Japanese delegation is soon to arrive in the midst of the unknown Russian plot. Poole drives Magnum home and, exasperated by Greene's s e xist attitude towards her, agrees to help him track down Mac's killer without involving the colonel. Elsewhere, an increasingly antsy T.C. begs Rick to loan him his car, and Poole helps Magnum to identify the "Ivan" from whom they escaped back in Vietnam. Higgins' off-handed comments about "The Bridge on the River Kwai" then lead Magnum to realize that Ivan intentionally allowed them to escape their confinement. Magnum then examines Nuzo's military record and finds that he is not the man with whom he escaped Duc Hue, realizing that the real Nuzo likely died in the war and an operative of Ivan's has been posing as the American soldier ever since. He realizes that the fake Nuzo has been drugging T.C. in order to brainwash him into killing the Japanese prince – while believing that he is the elusive Ivan -- and elsewhere, the fake Nuzo is seen dosing T.C. before Ivan suddenly appears, taunting T.C. with the memory of his friend Cookie, the gunner killed in Vietnam, and instructing him to kill "him," Ivan, on the following day at "Quan Loi." T.C., unaware of his actions, accompanies Fake Nuzo to the barracks, where he boards a chopper and flies to the Valley of the Temples, but Magnum and Rick pursue him, and Magnum gets the idea to use their old call signs to convince the entranced T.C. to abort his "mission" before anyone is killed. T.C. is sent to Walter Reed for "deprogramming" and the fake Nuzo is captured, but Magnum learns that Ivan has been given diplomatic immunity by the State Department out of a desire to avoid further antagonizing Russia. Angered by this, Magnum captures Ivan and holds him at gunpoint, though Ivan smugly states that the principled Navy vet would never kill an unarmed man, regardless of his past actions. Magnum, however, merely echoes Mac's last wish to see the sun rise, and the episode concludes as Magnum shoots at Ivan point-blank. Freeze the frame of Magnum’s gun going off at the camera (safely unlike Baldwin).

Crazy to think that in season 3, they made Magnum a cold blooded killer. It worked, a very good tv show became a great one.

Magnum, P.I. - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

"Magnum, P.I." Did You See the Sunrise? (TV Episode 1982) ⭐ 9.0 | Action, Adventure, Crime

1h 33m | Not Rated

www.imdb.com

Watch Magnum, P.I. - Season 3 | Prime Video

A private investigator who works when he wants, lives in a beach front estate in Hawaii, drives a posh Ferrari, runs up an unlimited tab at a swank bar, and charms attractive women in peril - that's the lifestyle of Thomas Magnum, aka Magnum, P.I. The highly successful mystery/action/drama...

www.amazon.com

 

[SWC75]

THE FUGITIVE 1/4/66 “Not With a Whimper”

This is my all-time favorite TV series. I first watched it on A & E in the early 90’s. It was on just as I came home from work and I found myself rushing home from the office so I would miss as little of it as possible. The premise: an innocent man facing a death sentence chasing around the country looking for a guy who actually did it while being chased with an unsympathetic policeman from whom he escaped, the amazing performance of David Janssen, deprived of the normal tools of an actor because his character didn’t want to be recognized so he said as little as possible, looked down and tried to fade into the background yet conveying the psychological pain and desperation of the man nonetheless, the fact that he’s a compassionate doctor whose instincts are to stay and help people, the poetic laments of the deep-voiced William Conrad and the amazing music of Pete Rugolo were an extremely potent brew. The show drew on emotions no other series I’ve watched did, with one exception: alienation and poignancy combined with suspense. The one comparison was The Twilight Zone, where the heroes find themselves trapped in a nightmare and have to find a way out. Richard Kimble was trapped in a four- year long nightmare. The show even used musical cues for The Twilight Zone, perhaps as an homage to the earlier show or simply because they fit so well.

After the A&E showing, it was decided to make a major action movie based on the show starring Harrison Ford and they did an excellent job. The movie had advantages over the TV series in budget, action and the exciting pace. The TV has advantages in time to tell its story and those feelings of alienation and poignancy.

The episode that had the biggest impact, if you’ve been watching through the four season, is the famous final one, “The Judgement”, which was the most watched single show in the history of American television until the “Who Shot JR” episode of ‘Dallas’ a dozen years later. When Lt. Gerard, finally convinced of Kimble’s innocence but wounded by the ‘One-armed Man’ hands his gun to Kimble and tells him, “Go get him” and when Conrad intones at the end “August 29, 1967: The day the running stopped”, the waves of catharsis that wash over you are enormous and unmatched in TV history. But if you’ve not been with Dr. Kimble in all of his travels leading up to that, its impact is somewhat less.

For that reason, I’ve chosen the episode that had the biggest impact on me before this. This one had the most excitement and suspense. The writers loved to put Kimble in all kinds of awkward and dangerous situations but none of them topped this one. A wheelchair bound doctor who was a mentor of his has become an early environmentalist and has edged into eco-terrorism: he’s arranged to have a box containing a bomb to a polluting factory. What he didn’t know was that his school-teacher daughter would take her class on a field trip to tour the factory. He asks Kimble to get the bomb back. One rebellious kid finds the box and runs off with it, not knowing what’s in it and refuses to part with it. Meanwhile the doctor’s nurse ahs called the police who now surround the building. Kimble must get the box away from the kid, defuse the bomb and escape from the police.

This episode strangely reminded me of the ending of the James Bond movie “Goldfinger”, in which Bond has to defeat Oddjob and then defuse a nuclear bomb in the bowels of Fort Knox. Bear with me on that: the kid is Oddjob. Instead of being a martial opponent, his immaturity and rebelliousness becomes the obstacle the hero must overcome.

The Fugitive (1963 TV series) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

"The Fugitive" Not with a Whimper (TV Episode 1966) - IMDb

Go to the 4:18:00 mark:

 

[FreakTalksAboutSU]

Ozymandias

 

[Cusester]

I couldn't name a particular episode but I always enjoyed F Troop. The origin of the name of the tribe, the Hekawis, still elicits giggles from me.

 

[SWC75]

I couldn't name a particular episode but I always enjoyed F Troop. The origin of the name of the tribe, the Hekawis, still elicits giggles from me.

The Hekawis: A Field Study

Here’s another post in honor of Native American Heritage Month. When I was a very young kid (perhaps the years between kindergarten and second grade) my sister and I would have to spend a co…

travsd.wordpress.com

 

[storange]

Bob Newhart Show - Over the River and Through the Woods

Is that the William and Mary/ Moo Goo Gai pan episode. If so , fantastic !!!

 

[MSOrange]

Is that the William and Mary/ Moo Goo Gai pan episode. If so , fantastic !!!

yep that's the one! Just cracks me up! Must watch every Thanksgiving on Hulu

 

[storange]

The Office “The Coup”
WKRP “ As God is my witness ………..Fly
( I know it was mentioned but deserved a repeat)
Parks and Rec. Flu Season ,

 

[SWC75]

DRAGNET 8/26/54 “Big Producer”

There are two ‘Dragnets’, (not counting the silly 1980’s spoof movie). I grew up with 60’s Dragnet, (1967-70), in color, stiffly performed, (Jack Webb walked like he had an iron rod stuck down his back) and full of lectures against left wing politics and the counter-culture. It was filmed in a silted fashion that resembled a training film. I didn’t get to see 50’s Dragnet (1951-59) until years later. It was a revelation. Joe Friday still lectured the bad guys alot but they were usually just common criminals and that’s what the stories tended to be about. Jack Webb was younger and less mechanical. It was in black-and-white, which made it seemed more like a movie. Magazine photographers used to say, “Use black and white for drama, color for excitement”. This was a drama. Webb had grown up during the days of old Hollywood and his career began when Film Noir was king and TV and radio dramas reflected similar themes. Early Dragnet had all kinds of cinematic touches that are absent from the later version.

This really comes out in this 1954 episode, “Big Producer”, (for some reason Webb titled all his episodes “Big” something). It’s about pornography, or what passed for it in 1954. Far worse things are now perfectly legal and readily available – on this machine! (Not that I would know…) It’s fun to see Martin Milner playing a 17-year-old high school student. He turned 23 that year and had just spent two years in the Army. 14 years later, he would become officer Pete Malloy in ‘Adam-12’, a spin-off of 60’s Dragnet. You’ll also see Carolyn Jones, (Morticia in the Tv series ‘The Addams Family”), in an early role.

But the star of this is veteran character actor Ralph Moody, the titular, (pun intended) ‘Big Producer’, who likes to talk about how big is used to be. He gives Friday and his partner, (Ben Alexander as Officer frank Smith), a tour of the dilapidated old studio where he made great films in the old days. Webb even provides a soundtrack that could have been from those old films, The deluded producer thinks he’s back in the old days. But it turns out he’s fallen on hard times and reduced himself to pornography. He retunes to reality and it crushes him. He’s led off to jail in his own version of “Sunset Boulevard”, (in which Webb had appeared as an actor). The result is a poignancy that 60’s Dragnet ever never attempted.

Dragnet (1951 TV series) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

"Dragnet" The Big Producer (TV Episode 1954) ⭐ 7.4 | Crime, Drama, Mystery

30m | Not Rated

www.imdb.com

Dragnet was a radio series before it was a TV show. Here is the 1952 radio version of “The Big Producer”:

Dragnet | Ep141 | "The Big Producer"

 

[upperdeck]

ROUTE 66 11/10/61 “The Mud Nest”

‘Route 66’ brought the western concept of the traveling hero who encounters stories from the people he meets along the way to television in a contemporary, (1960’s) setting. Only they had t wo heroes. It wasn’t a wheel. The two protagonists traveled around the country, (not just the titular road0, just to have adventures while they were young. They did whatever jobs were available to pay their way and stayed wherever they were welcome and could afford to. The stories were totally open-ended. They could be serious dramas or wacky comedies or anything in between. There was no over-riding plot arc, (unlike The Fugitive, which had its hero trying to find the guy who murdered his wife before the police inspector could find him). The writer just had to write a good story and figure out a way to get his two stars involved in it. The show, which, unfortunately was filmed in black and white, used actual locations around the country and local people in supporting bits, giving it more authenticity than other shows.

Here is my review of this particular episode, which I posted to the IMDB:

“This is my favorite episode of this series- or any other. The final scene is the finest dramatic scene I've ever seen in any TV show, movie or play. And again, its' the type of story very few TV series could have or would have told.

The boys are headed for Baltimore but run out of gas in the town of Hester. The people there take one look at Buz and announce to him that he's one of the much-feared Colby clan. Tod suggests to Buz he might actually be a Colby: the was a foundling, left with an orphanage in New York City. He convinces a reluctant Buz to search out the Colbys, who do not disappoint. The head of the clan is played by Lon Chaney Jr., (the first of three appearances on the show) and three of the four siblings are played by George Maharis' actual bothers and a sister. They set upon Buz to see how tough he is and he beats them up, once by one. Chaney says "You're a Colby all right" and the grim fight for survival turns into a warm homecoming. They find out that 25 years ago Dorothea Colby left the farm for the big city: Baltimore and give Buz a picture of what she looked like then. That's the first of three parts of the show. The second part is a sort of procedural that takes place in Baltimore.

That has some significance for fans, (like me) of "Homicide: Life on the Streets" that was filmed there thirty years later. Once wonders if some of the same locations appeared in that show. The same poster who had shots of "First Class Mouliak" locations has some for this episode as well: The Mud Nest - Route 66
Ed Asner, (making his third of five appearances), plays a detective in the Bureau of Missing persons who gives the boys a crash course in how to look for someone in a big city. He's a guy who takes pride and pleasure in his work. I can relate. I used to work for the Social Security Administration and one of my jobs was to find people who might be entitled to benefits. We also occasionally got requests to help locate long lost relatives and we could help so long as we didn't give out any information without permission: we'd try to use our records and other sources to locate the person and if we could, we'd contact them and find out if they wished to hear from the interested party. If they did, we transmitted the necessary information. It was probably the most fun and interesting part of the job.

The boys poke around Baltimore and find a veteran stripper, (played by Sylvia Miles, who later had a similar role in "Midnight Cowboy". She was actually only 28-29 when this would have been filmed, per the IMDb but you know about actresses' birth dates. She looks more like 45- 50. (Buz finds out 'he' was born in September 1937 and says he's "about 25". George Maharis was born 9/1/28, so he was 33 at the time). Miles wants to make friends but blows it when she makes an insensitive comment about how much Dorothea "hated that kid". The boys leave the strip joint with their heads down, Tod apologizing for getting Buz into this. As they walk down the street, they pass a religious mission with a big neon sign saying "GOD IS LOVE", a great piece of direction by James Sheldon.

Then comes the final scene. Asner had had the picture ‘aged’ and it looks just like a famous local resident, a woman surgeon. He takes them to the Johns Hopkins Medical Center, where she works. Buz goes into the operating theater alone to meet the woman he has come to believe is his mother. He starts with one of Sterling Silliphant's poetic analogies. Somehow the surgeon, (Betty Field), senses why he's there. They look at each other intently and Buz stops with the poetry and tells of his longing for his mother, how he'd like to meet her and help her. He doesn't quite ask why she gave him up, why she "hated that kid". Field waits patiently and then goes into her story. She had no money and hated the father of the child, (it suggests he was a child of rape). She hated to look into his little face and see the father. She kept him warm and fed but couldn't love him. Then comes the bombshell: One day her son died in his crib. She felt so guilty that she went to the head of nursing at the hospital and just said that she wanted to spend the rest of her live helping people and never hating anyone again.

They again look at each other, Buz realizing that this woman is not his mother and also that he is not her son. But he is the image of the man her son could have been and she was what his mother, whoever and wherever she is now, was when she gave him up. She puts her hands on Buz and tells him to see and feel them as if they were the hands of his mother, asking for forgiveness and expressing her pride in the man he has become. The scene is never maudlin due to the excellent writing and the way the lines are delivered so we can read between them. I have literally never seen anything better.”

Route 66 (TV series) - Wikipedia

"Route 66" The Mud Nest (TV Episode 1961) - IMDb

never watched this, but i caught a few episodes in the last couple of years.. made me think of adam 12.

 

[upperdeck]

DRAGNET 8/26/54 “Big Producer”

There are two ‘Dragnets’, (not counting the silly 1980’s spoof movie). I grew up with 60’s Dragnet, (1967-70), in color, stiffly performed, (Jack Webb walked like he had an iron rod stuck down his back) and full of lectures against left wing politics and the counter-culture. It was filmed in a silted fashion that resembled a training film. I didn’t get to see 50’s Dragnet (1951-59) until years later. It was a revelation. Joe Friday still lectured the bad guys alot but they were usually just common criminals and that’s what the stories tended to be about. Jack Webb was younger and less mechanical. It was in black-and-white, which made it seemed more like a movie. Magazine photographers used to say, “Use black and white for drama, color for excitement”. This was a drama. Webb had grown up during the days of old Hollywood and his career began when Film Noir was king and TV and radio dramas reflected similar themes. Early Dragnet had all kinds of cinematic touches that are absent from the later version.

This really comes out in this 1954 episode, “Big Producer”, (for some reason Webb titled all his episodes “Big” something). It’s about pornography, or what passed for it in 1954. Far worse things are now perfectly legal and readily available – on this machine! (Not that I would know…) It’s fun to see Martin Milner playing a 17-year-old high school student. He turned 23 that year and had just spent two years in the Army. 14 years later, he would become officer Pete Malloy in ‘Adam-12’, a spin-off of 60’s Dragnet. You’ll also see Carolyn Jones, (Morticia in the Tv series ‘The Addams Family”), in an early role.

But the star of this is veteran character actor Ralph Moody, the titular, (pun intended) ‘Big Producer’, who likes to talk about how big is used to be. He gives Friday and his partner, (Ben Alexander as Officer frank Smith), a tour of the dilapidated old studio where he made great films in the old days. Webb even provides a soundtrack that could have been from those old films, The deluded producer thinks he’s back in the old days. But it turns out he’s fallen on hard times and reduced himself to pornography. He retunes to reality and it crushes him. He’s led off to jail in his own version of “Sunset Boulevard”, (in which Webb had appeared as an actor). The result is a poignancy that 60’s Dragnet ever never attempted.

Dragnet (1951 TV series) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

"Dragnet" The Big Producer (TV Episode 1954) ⭐ 7.4 | Crime, Drama, Mystery

30m | Not Rated

www.imdb.com

Dragnet was a radio series before it was a TV show. Here is the 1952 radio version of “The Big Producer”:

Dragnet | Ep141 | "The Big Producer"

when I listen to my Xm radion in the car there are about 4 shows I look to see if they are on radio classics.. Dragnet. Johnny Dollar, 6 shooter with jimmy stewart, and Gunsmoke.

Sometimes I find Superman.

Drives my kids crazy.

 

[SWC75]

PERRY MASON 6/21/58 “The Case of the Terrified Typist”

To borrow Dino Babers’ phrase, ‘Perry Mason’ was a show that was consistently good rather than occasionally great. It was a highly formulamatic show, with the situation that leads to a murder being introduced to us in the first 20 minutes, (often with Mason already involved in some capacity). Then comes the murder, (with Mason sometimes discovering the body himself), the arrest of his client, a meeting with the confident prosecutor and private detective Paul Drake bringing Mason bad news. Then comes the trial while Drake and sometimes Mason or even his secretary, Della Street, continuing to investigate. Finally, Mason realizes who did it and why and zeros in on the perp, putting them or someone who knows it’s him on the stand and dramatically breaking them down in court. It was a very successful formula but it tends to mean that the Mason episodes are almost always a 7 or an 8 on a scale of 10. You can be sure it will be interesting enough and well-done enough to entertaining but they were unlikely to produce a ‘very special’ episode you’d remember vividly years later.

They did try to break away from the formula from time to time. There was a case Mason tried behind the Iron Curtain, representing a client while on a trip to Europe. There was one in Hawaii. There was a much-advertised episode called “The Case of the Deadly Verdict” where he loses a case! – and then wins it on appeal after he figures out who his client is protecting. But years before that, there was a more interesting case that was ‘lost’ and I think it’s the best episode this series ever served up.

Joanna Moore, (Tatum O’Neal’s mother, by the way), shows up in perry’s office and says she is a typist sent over by an agency. She spends the day there typing up several documents for them and leaves suddenly. It turns out there has been a theft at a diamond company one floor above and she may have ben the thief. There’s murder involved and Mason is hired to defend the company executive accused of it. Things are not going well and Mason begins to suspect why: the defendant may not be what he claims to be. That’s just a hint of the many twists in this labyrinth of an episode.

Perry Mason (1957 TV series) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

"Perry Mason" The Case of the Terrified Typist (TV Episode 1958) ⭐ 8.3 | Crime, Drama, Mystery

52m | TV-PG

www.imdb.com

Amazon Sign-In

www.amazon.com

 

[SWC75]

BURKE’S LAW 9/27/63 “Who Killed Mr.X?”

Burke’s Law was the great “guilty pleasure’ of my youth. Here’s a review I put on the IMDB nearly two decades ago:

“The earliest shows I remember watching were kiddie shows or things my parents liked. I was about age 10 when "Burke's Law" came on and it was the first show I decided I really liked after I began to form my own tastes. It was a light but sophisticated murder mystery show that was more comedy than drama. It was the first of the "all-star" cast whodunits and lead to the later "Murder She Wrote", "Matlock" and "Diagnosis Murder", which were created by some of the people responsible for "Burke's Law". Levinson and Link, the creators of "Columbo", also wrote may of the scripts for "Burke's Law". The show was Aaron Spelling's first big hit, so it has quite a pedigree.

What really made it interesting was the eccentric characters who made up the suspects. They were played by an eclectic group of character actors taken from the usual TV "repertory" group, the stars of other shows, former and even current movie stars, silent movie stars and even people from the independent film movement and the British theater and films, who were happy at the American TV exposure and quick paycheck they got for performing a few scenes on the show. You can see oddities like Basil Rathbone listening in pain to John Cassavetes doing a "beatnik Hamlet", Sterling Holloway trying to blackmail Cassavetes, William Demarest running a hotel for ex-Vaudvillians where an acrobatic act earns their keep by cleaning the chandeliers, a convention of police chiefs, each one modeled on a famous fictional detective, (it anticipates Neil Simon's "Murder by Death"), a fake Russian aristocrat who really isn't fake but figures that no one will believe him anyway so he pretends to be a fake, etc, etc.

Gene Barry, one of several Cary Grant imitators on TV at the time, (see Craig Stevens in "Peter Gunn", John Vivien in "Mr Lucky"), is perfect for the lead role, better than Dick Powell in the pilot, which was made two years before as part of Powell's anthology series. Powell would have played the lead in the show but died of cancer before he could undertake the role. They say acting is reacting and Barry is the greatest reactor in TV history, the perfect guy to play off of all the eccentrics. Gary Conway, who should have become a much bigger star, (he was later in "Land of the Giants"), Regis Toomey, the gorgeous Eileen O'Neill and Leon Lontoc offered excellent support.

Unfortunately, somebody, (Spelling? The network?), decided to junk the show by turning it into an under-financed, back-projected spy show. Burke suddenly abandoned LA and is mansion and Rolls-Royce to become a James Bond style agent who traveled the world for a secret government organization headed by someone called "The Man". It was a tepid version of "The Man From Uncle" and was placed opposite what turned out to be the greatest of all spy shows," I Spy", which was in color and filmed in actual locations around the world. The local ABC affiliate in Syracuse declined to even show "Amos Burke Secret Agent" and from what I saw of the episode in syndication, I can't blame them.

Amazingly, the program had a third incarnation and the by now fabulously successful Aaron Spelling brought it back in 1994. Burke was back in LA chasing crooks in his Rolls, but with a son to help him. they dusted off the old scripts for the new shows. Only occasionally did we see the old spark of creativity, such as a victim freezing to death on the hottest day of the year, an ambulance chasing lawyer getting run over by an ambulance, Ephraim Zimbalist Jr. as a greedy tycoon practicing his golf drive from the rook of his building, (who cares who it falls on?), and Brian Keith as an ex-marine turned romance novelist who puts on a dress to get in the mood to write. Still is was a lot better than the other new murder mystery which followed it, "Diagnosis Murder" with Dick Van Dyke. Unfortunately, the network kept the wrong one, (I doubt they cried about it, as it went on for years).

Without the original "Burke's Law", there would have been no "Diagnosis Murder". The original remains the best whodunit in TV history and one of the most entertaining shows of all time.”

One of the strengths of the show is that while it was mostly light entertainment, it wasn’t so far divorced from reality that it couldn’t turn serious at times. In the second episode broadcast they do just that for a truly poignant ending. Along the way, Burke deals with a dead body at a merry-go-round, Elizabeth Montgomery as a ‘kept woman’, a Howard Hughes-like tycoon who hasn’t been to his office in 13 years, a parrot voiced by Mel Blanc, another kept woman who wants to build a monument to the killer, a third who gets violently angry, a business associate who collects piranhas and a lonely old woman who thinks it’s still 1930.

Burke's Law (1963 TV series) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

"Burke's Law" Who Killed Mr.X? (TV Episode 1963) ⭐ 8.1 | Action, Adventure, Crime

50m

www.imdb.com