What did you watch this week in classic TV on DVD(or Blu)? (12 Viewers)

[The 1960's]

And for something totally different... I’ve been watching on and off The Twilight Zone marathon on Decades this weekend. I didn’t watch too much on Friday as the episodes they curated were not some of my favorites. But on Saturday, they had many many of the better ones. And there’s no obvious to me any good reasons for the order of episodes. This morning have been more great ones and one of my favorites, Nick of Time is on now.

Do you think Nelson is enjoying the Decades New Years Twilight Zone marathon?​

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Will there be many more Twilight Zone photo essay’s in 2022?​

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[Nelson Au]

Well done Neal.

 

[Charles 22]

Ha, ha! Yes, the Mystic Seer says it has already been decided.

I’m surprised the curator has scheduled Nightmare at 20,000 Feet as the next episode. So it’s nice to see both Shatner episodes back to back.

Though I’m trying to not watch as these are not looking as good as the Blu Rays and they are edited.

My, my, you're on sort of a cliche roll. I guess I started it with my nick of time comment, which pretty much came from singing the body electric.

 

[Charles 22]

Speaking of the body electric, I have the electricity I found with this photo (body on the left):

 

[Charles 22]

About Mike Hammer, I decided to check it on amazon UK, and this is what I came up with. Unfortunately, it's a USA import, since it's in NTSC and not PAL. I also checked the older Keach series, and it also is in NTSC. So yes, UK won't do you any good there.

 

[Rustifer]

Episode Commentary
Adam-12
"The Impossible Mission" (S1E1)

Officer Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) is considering leaving the force after 7 years of duty. He's decided being an LA cop has the morass compass of Henry VIII's marriage counselor and about as rewarding as being Medusa's hairdresser. Having been assigned rookie Jim Reed (Kent McCord) just adds to his disgruntlement. Officer Reed is fresh out of the police academy, graduating in the top ten of his class of eleven. His knowledge of actual policework is nearly as robust as his understanding of Chinese train schedules.

But the LA Police Force needs veterans like Officer Malloy to train recruits like Reed, if only in how to avoid shooting themselves in the groin while climbing into a squad car. Reed is as green as guacamole, so he practices saying "One Adam-12, Roger" over and over so as to appear proficient. This provides him no help as their first call is to see a woman who's complaining that her son's pet salamander has crawled up under her skirt. If Malloy only had a dime for every time he heard that one...

Malloy is saddled with a new recruit; Reed confuses headquarters with a Motel 6; Enjoying his daily cup of Ovaltine

The day progresses with a series of such minor incidents as to wonder why Los Angeles even needs a police force. It does, however, afford Malloy and Reed the opportunity to tool around the suburbs in their 1967 Ford Galaxy and peep into windows for housewives who habitually vacuum in the nude. On occasion, the officers also flip on their lights and siren to chase down and terrorize children on tricycles. It's over a lunch of chili fries and jalapeno poppers that Malloy confesses to Reed that his former partner was killed three weeks earlier, probably for having a similar diet of lunch options. Malloy is racked with guilt, as well as indigestion, thus considering changing his profession to a more simple career--like lampshade decorating.

A shootout in the park convinces Malloy that Reed needs his mature guidance if only to make it to breakfast the next day. Although Reed captures the perps singlehandedly, Malloy chews him a new one for recklessness and endangering his top billing in the series.

The Moral: Officer Malloy eventually retires as Sergeant in Charge of the headquarter's restroom facilities.

 

[Nelson Au]

I just got the first season DVD of Adam 12 over the weekend! I’ll probably try to check it out very soon!

 

[Purple Wig]

Cannon - The Investigator. Season 4 episode with a great cast. Cannon is hired to investigate police corruption in a small town after a reporter is killed. Hari Rhodes as the mayor initially appears trustworthy, but Cannon never warms up to or trusts Cameron Mitchell as the Police Chief or Keith Andes as the newspaper editor, despite both of them apparently getting him out of jams. In contrast to the usual upbeat ending, even after the case is solved Cannon retains his distaste for the others and seems to ooze contempt for this corrupt cesspool he’s been summoned to. This episode seems to have been filmed in 1974 and both Mitchell and Andes appear significantly older than their late 60’s appearances, Mitchell gone grey and Andes thinning. I’ve always liked Andes and need to check out This Man Dawson.

Barnaby Jones - Terror On A Quiet Afternoon. S6E21. Dee Wallace guest stars as Amy Vickers, a young bank teller who is being pursued and terrified by a psychotic, rich customer played by John De Lancie, later better known as Q on Star Trek TNG. His idea of courtship involves such mischief as pinning her against a wall, holding a knife to his own throat and placing it in her hand. She seeks help from Barnaby but he's got an important trial and J.R. is only to happy to help a pretty damsel in distress. After he witnesses an ugly incident of harassment, J.R. is determined to stick close, and escorts Amy on a drive north to deliver some medical documents to her father. De Lancie and his his two henchmen, Elliot Street and Chris Mulkey, run them off road to an isolated cabin where the terrorizing begins. Street and Mulkey aren't quite as depraved as these henchmen usually are; though not averse to some over the top behavior, they're mainly looking for kicks and aren't thrilled when the situation escalates. I'm used to seeing Street in earlier roles where's he usually long haired and playing either an innocent (Room 222), or a mentally handicapped person (Hawaii Five 0). Here he's relatively clean cut, dressed in a classic California get up still lingering from earlier years (off white levis, cream colored suede or denim jacket) and is probably more well balanced than De Lancie. Mulkey, later of Twin Peaks, is the most sympathetic of them. It's not difficult to imagine them as friends or contemporaries of the Brad Pitt character in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood gone to seed in tandem with the decay of society. J.R. and Vickers find time for romance amidst the action, which would be unacceptable in today's world of "power dynamics". Although, is it J.R. that has the power as her protector, or Vickers as his employer. Luckily this is an different world where romance is built on chemistry rather than analyzing a statistical breakdown of the potential partner on an electronic screen. Walter Graumann's direction keeps the pace moving and the action gripping. Barnaby eventually figures out what's happening, and after finally extracting some information from a local cop who seems unable to add 2 and 2 or even count to 2, heads to the scene. De Lancie is convincing as the unlikeable stalker, you're rooting for him to get caught from the first moment he appears. These later season episodes seem to be a little darker and more in line with what I remember of the show from being a kid, which makes sense as I would have been more likely to have been watching it in 77. De Lancie was once filming a movie or series in my friend's low key neighborhood, I was walking up to the driveway when suddenly he emerged from a small motor home and nodded.

The Streets Of San Francisco - Blockade. S2E17. Don Stroud and hapless accomplice Charles Martin Smith kill Cheryl Ladd. Smith is disturbed and argues with his mother, Ida Lupino, a lot, but we're not sure how big of a part, if any, he played in her death. Some clever sleuthing on Mike Stone's part leads him to Stroud, who bolts from the scene, and holes up with Smith, Lupino, and Patty McCormack. If it was 5 years earlier we might have seen Stroud and McCormack ride off together in a sort of Mini Skirt Mob/Angel Unchained hybrid with "the man" in pursuit, but here she's a nice girl in trouble and Stroud is no sympathetic antihero in this role, just a jerk. Though I used to know a girl who had a thing for Stroud, and she would have liked him here.

Firing Line with WIlliam F. Buckley - How Does It Go With The Black Movement?. Episode 80, January 23, 1973, Buckley and guest Huey Newton have a go at one another in a generally respectful manner, and both come off well regardless of which side you might be more sympathetic to.

 

[bmasters9]

Saw two episodes from the second go of Emergency! last night: "Problem" (OAD Saturday, Sept. 16, 1972 on NBC [incidentally, the same night that The Streets of San Francisco premiered on ABC with its pilot film], and "Kids" (OAD Saturday, Sept. 23, 1972 on NBC [when Streets officially started its regular run on ABC w/"The Thirty-Year Pin"]).

Also, Emergency! was on Saturdays at 8 on NBC in 1972-73, and Streets was on ABC one hour later on that same night in that same season (at least until the top of 1973, when it moved to Thursdays).

 

[Jeff Flugel]

Saw two episodes from the second go of Emergency! last night: "Problem" (OAD Saturday, Sept. 16, 1972 on NBC [incidentally, the same night that The Streets of San Francisco premiered on ABC with its pilot film], and "Kids" (OAD Saturday, Sept. 23, 1972 on NBC [when Streets officially started its regular run on ABC w/"The Thirty-Year Pin"]).

Also, Emergency! was on Saturdays at 8 on NBC in 1972-73, and Streets was on ABC one hour later on that same night in that same season (at least until the top of 1973, when it moved to Thursdays).

Coincidentally, I just ordered S1 of Emergency! yesterday, Ben. Haven't seen an episode since the series originally aired, so am looking forward to reacquainting myself with the show.

 

[bmasters9]

Coincidentally, I just ordered S1 of Emergency! yesterday, Ben. Haven't seen an episode since the series originally aired, so am looking forward to reacquainting myself with the show.

I purchased the all-in-one of it yesterday at Wal-Mart; I'm looking forward to getting more into it myself (haven't seen all that much in my now two-score-and-one years on this Earth).

 

[Rustifer]

Episode Commentary
Twilight Zone
"A Piano In The House" (S3E22)

Barry Morse takes a break from fruitlessly chasing his Fugitive through every small town in the country to play the role of Fitzgerald Fortune in this TZ episode. Fitz is an acerbic theater critic with the moral turpitude of Wile E. Coyote and is married to a woman half his age. He buys his young wife Esther (Joan Hackett) a hideous old player piano for her 26th birthday and has it installed in their Downton Abbey-styled living room.

It soon becomes apparent that every time the piano rolls through one of its old-timey tunes, the demeanor of the listener drastically changes. This is first demonstrated on Fritz's butler Marvin (Cyril Delevanti), a gentleman old enough to have witnessed the signing of the Magna Carta, and a face like an elephant's scrotum sack. Usually a morosely dour man, Marvin suddenly begins to happily hop around the room to the piano's "I'm In The Mood For Love", only to fall back to his melancholy self as soon as the music stops.

This phenomenon continues with the visit of Fritz's young, handsome friend Gregory (Don Durant) who, upon hearing the piano ramble though another golden oldie, tearfully admits to an already-suspecting Fitzgerald that he's in love with his wife Esther. Fitz cruelly makes sure Ester is present to hear this confession. The debacle continues as Fitz ushers in all the guests to Ester's birthday party to gleefully witness their various reactions to the piano's tunes. In short order, Esther gets disgusted with her husband's Svengali-like misuse of the piano's hypnotic affect on the visitors. Especially after she witnesses the sadly comical dancing of her friend Marge--whose weight is that of the Queen Mary's anchor--believing she's a young, svelte ballerina.

Fitz is ticked pink; Esther realizes she's married to a dickwad; Marvin is not amused...

The tables are turned when Fitzgerald accidently plays a song that causes him to admit he's a gigantic ass mongle with love for no one or nothing. Aghast, the group quickly departs as if he's just unleashed a particularly nasty digestive explosion.

A Likely Ending: When old Marvin hears the piano blare out "Crocodile Rock", he buys an old gold Chevy and a place of his own.

 

[Rustifer]

Firing Line with WIlliam F. Buckley - How Does It Go With The Black Movement?. Episode 80, January 23, 1973, Buckley and guest Huey Newton have a go at one another in a generally respectful manner, and both come off well regardless of which side you might be more sympathetic to.

Unique addition to the thread, Alan! Two opposing politicos approaching each other in a "respectful" manner is certainly something from the past.

 

[Rustifer]

Glad to see that the pilot telefilms are on YT in nice quality, along with some episodes from the three distinct Stacy Keach Mike Hammer sojourns...the 1983-84 episodes are entirely new to DVD, but the pilot movies were previously released about 15 years ago...thanks Neal for the YT links...but I still have to have it on DVD, and ViaVision always does a great job...hopefully with more new-to-DVD stuff to come...

Thanks much, Randall, for the pictorial reminders of the Mike Hammer beauties that Stacy Keach seemed to always encounter. For some odd reason, my wife enjoyed this series as much as I did--mostly, I suspect, because of Mr. Keach.
Hey, I guess if I can ogle, so can she.

 

[Purple Wig]

In addition to more Barnaby Jones and Streets of San Francisco, a few episodes of Run For Your Life, For The People, the Interns, and Switch. And inspired by the Don Stroud appearance in my last recap, I watched him in the biker film Angel Unchained. A good couple days for wee hour viewing.

 

[bmasters9]

Now 1/6 in on the second go on Emergency!-- I started on the second go because I heard that this is where Emergency! started getting good.

 

[Purple Wig]

Felony Squad - Flame Out. A cafe owner calls James Best a “punk who thinks the world owes you just cause you got loud mouths and you need a haircut”. After replying “Hey man, you’re losing your cool”, Best kills the man over a dime. He takes his partner Tom Lowell along for some other misadventures including luring a woman to a drive in so they can watch her eat before it all ends with a shoot out at a tower. Best was 40 years old at the time but appears to be playing an early 20’s character, and pulls it off, a testimony to his skill. A few years after this he slid into a string of Sheriff roles, ultimately ending up as Rosco Coltrane on The Dukes Of Hazzard which was probably what most people my age first associates him with. Felony Squad is an action packed, fast paced half hour with some great location scenery.

 

[Charles 22]

Spot the Snake: The Final Journey

I'm referring to the aforementioned task of spotting the man who does the Snake Oiler voice in Speed Racer. I still don't know who he is, but this guy is quite prevalent within the series, as usually he will play at least one spare change type character within each episode. The voice isn't pure Snake entirely, but just small variations, and also there definitely are pure Snake in some of them.

You can say, Snake lived on, even though in the Alpine Race, you could sort of say he died. I cannot recall if his Car Acrobatic Team is in the rest of the series at all, except the last one or two, but as those featured Captain Terror prominently from what I recall, I don't think Snake was in that one either.

One thing really dopey about this series, is Speed drives around town all the time in the Mach 5. A race car on ordinary roads? Let nothing stop Speed from making toilet paper runs! Yet the family at least has a jeep they can use.

 

[Rustifer]

Episode Commentary
Bachelor Father
"Uncle Bentley and the Lady Doctor" (S1E3)

Only in the late 1950's could a series forge a skirt-chasing bachelor, his teenage niece and an oriental housekeeper into an ideal family unit. This golden era of TV was prolific in spreading disinfectant over the American life experience as nothing but sunshine, lollipops and rainbows. Archie Bunker, Homer Simpson or Walter White didn't exist yet to burst the bubblegum dome of the "ideal" family.

John Forsythe stars as Bentley Gregg, a Beverly Hills attorney who's idyllic bachelor existence is interrupted when he assumes guardianship over his teenage niece Kelly (Noreen Corcoran). Making sure the wheels of the household grind smoothly is Peter (Sammee Tong), a nondescript American-Oriental who serves as Bentley's well-heeled but independent-thinking houseboy. Remember--in 1957--one could hardly expect membership in the Beverly Hills Tennis Club without your own personal houseboy.

In this episode, Kelly is experiencing teenage angst that will require some psychological guidance. Is it drug use? Unbridled sexual encounters? Suicidal tendencies? None of that--c'mon, it's 1957 TV fer chrissakes. Kelly is profoundly guilting of NOT KEEPING HER ROOM CLEAN! By Neptune's salty nipples, Bentley feels forced to seek professional help--not for Kelly, but for himself so as to better understand the cluttered mind of the teenage girl. Fortunately, he finds pretty psychologist Dr. Ruskin (Mary Webster) to not only straighten his mind, but also his Fruit of the Looms. Being a perpetually horny bachelor, Bentley is pathologically driven to probe the depths of Dr. Ruskin.

Bentley's life is about to change; Kelly, Bentley, Peter; Dr. Ruskin has some pointed ideas

Back to Kelly's messiness, Bentley hopes to trigger a sense of neatness responsibility in his niece by creating his own clutter around the house--discarded clothes, dishes, condoms, Hustler magazines, etc. Although Peter's staunch Asian perception of order is shattered, the exercise is completely lost on Kelly. Bentley's experiment eventually backfires when his fitness as Kelly's guardian is questioned over his extreme slovenliness.

It's a cute episode, due mainly to John Forsythe's practiced smoothness and Sammee Tong's comical but strong assertions of his own values. Noreen Corcoran, however, is a bit of a shallow waste as a "normal" teenager.

 

[The 1960's]

Yesterday morning I watched The New Mike Hammer More Than Murder (1984). I realized within moments that because the download was only 360p I wasn’t seeing it in it’s true 720p definition so for the first time I streamed it using my new BluRay Region-Free player via YouTube and it looked and sounded fantastic. If the DVD looks this good who needs BluRay!

The pacing and the NYC location made it worth watching. Not enough to purchase the DVD series, not at it’s current price anyway. But I thought it was real slick production. The only thing that bothered me was the excessive violence and particularly the excessive violence and murder of beautiful women. All in all I’m glad I watched it and I can see why all The Mike Hammer series are so well liked. Thanks Randall for turning me on to this! Btw, Stacy Keach reminds me of John Russell.

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