What are you watching?

The Wild Wild West - The Night of Fire and Brimstone-- Jim and Artie have to go through a mine in search of a captive. I liked it.

Police Woman - "Fish" In this episode they seem to have broken with the tradition a bit since usually the female co-stars are made to look as non glamorous as possible but somehow they didn't do that with Connie Van Dyke as a mobster's girlfriend who goes to jail. Pepper has to follow her into lock up in what is a truly fake looking set--the walls look like they are made of cardboard and decorated by a kindergarten class. I heard a theory that some shows like the WWW were cancelled because of restrictions on violence and yet Bill shoots two people dead. Anyway, the gangster's girlfriend exits the show by a drug overdose administered by a lesbian inmate (she provides the non glamour quota). In the scene, it looks like they used a stand in for Connie because she isn't wearing makeup at all it looked like they were trying to a point (like she has to wear makeup all day but not at night--while Pepper always look good). BTW the star really has some fine makeup--they really seem to go the extra mile in this one to give her perfect skin.

MATLOCK - Pilot - It's been a long time since I have watched this show. Griffith owns the whole thing because everyone else is such a blank and Linda Purl wasn't cast yet. Matlock's suit looks identical to Kolchak's.

IRONSIDE

Seeing Is Believing - 5 witnesses see someone beat up a guy--the sketch looks exactly like Sgt Ed Brown. He has no alibi because he was off at a cabin trying to write an article abut the Chief. I figured they would use him as two different people but they didn't. They found someone who had a slight resemblance to Don Galloway (who co-wrote the script). Audrey Totter was listed as a guest star. Early on we see a bar patron who says she was a show business person. One thinks--omigod--she has really changed! But it wasn't her. She shows up later and easy to recognize.

You might enjoy my The Wild Wild West reviews, especially if you continue on. My first review was for Season 1 Episode 13, and I definitely got more thorough for Seasons 2-4.

CANNON - Perfect Alibi-- --Richard Anderson hires Frank to find out why his ex-partner robbed his safe, which is hard to fathom since he is currently in prison. The local sheriff LQ Jones is skeptical about the theory that Whit Bissell the warden is forcing prisoners to commit robberies before they can be paroled. Some quirky humor in this.

COOL MILLION - Assault on Gavaloni - Jefferson Keyes (James Farentino), ex-CIA, is hired by Wilfred Hyde-White (Hollywood's resident "eccentric Brit") to steal a painting and gets Pamela Franklin to assist. This series is pretty dull. Only lasted 5 episodes.

MANNIX - Memory Zero---I had serious deja vu watching this like I had seen it before but apparently not. The secretary of a rival PI who was murdered needs Joe's help but she is rather a ditz and can't remember anything important. Frank (brother of Joseph) Campanella appears as his cop associate who has to hide his chili lunch since Mannix is inclined to help himself to it.

It occurs to me that every episode of The Invaders says "architect David Vincent" and yet we never see him doing any architecting ever.

IRONSIDE - Message From Beyond -- In the series premiere episode, the Chief is mad that his sure bet at the race track is disrupted by a theft.
Kent McCord appears as a motorcycle cop. We learn Ironside has a coffee pot that was last cleaned during the Truman administration and he is angry that Eve washed it since it had a particular flavor he liked.

THE WILD WILD WEST - The night of the Spanish Curse--fair but not great episode about Cortez and his bullet-proof conquistadors.
Jim West should never try to dress up as one of them--he looks so out of place. He shoots a couple of them in the head too.

MANNIX - With Intent To Kill- A hard-nose cop is getting death threats and his wife hires Joe to find out why. The cop doesn't like it. An unconscious Mannix is almost killed in this one by a car driving over him--he is saved by a woman arriving in time to block the killer blow.

BARETTA- Walk Like You Talk --Odd episode where his partner who is high on speed seems to agree to taking a $40 000 bribe from drug mule Conrad Janis and is forced to wear a wire to spy on fellow cops. Baretta is brought before a panel to testify because a fellow cop who dreams of being a Hollywood writer makes up some stories about him. In the end Fred eats some matzo balls.