What are you watching?

Sloane wrote the lyrics of The Andy Griffith Show theme song.

COLUMBO: The Most Dangerous Match - Is this the only one where Columbo is actually in the room when the murder takes place? Could be. Premiered 50 years ago this month.

CANNON: "Cain's Mark" Frank is hired by the mother of an ex-con to help her son after he gets caught in the warehouse of her other son's castings business. Turns out that son (Bradford Dillman) is selling guns on the black market. Before the case is solved with the help of a blind man holding a live grenade, Frank ends up framed for assault and in jail (he asks about the food).

MCMILLAN & WIFE - Two Dollars on Trouble to Win - A horse racing murder mystery that feels like it limps to the finish line although there's a scene where Rock Hudson is trapped in a garage with the exhaust tank of a car spewing out the fumes and he has to figure out how to break the window on a Rolls Royce--finally taking apart a shelf and using the wood to smash the window. One funny scene where John Astin as Sykes, the police forensics expert gets momentarily confused by two thermos containers--one is his lunch drink and the other is evidence in a poison case.

Premiered on April 1st, 1973.

IRONSIDE- Split Second to an Epitaph -- Two-parter in which Ironside may get a chance to walk again if he survives a surgery and can avoid being killed by the perpetrator of a robbery murder which he witnessed. The police sketch of the killer (Don Stroud) keeps changing--three different versions of the sketch gets used through out the episode. Burr gets a few good dramatic monologues and to argue with a younger version of himself in a dream sequence about a dead guinea pig which could be the clue to preventing his own murder. . Also, his valet Mark Sanger really gets to prove his loyalty to the boss when he needs to do mouth to mouth resuscitation on Ironside. NO fakery--we see a big closeup of it.


HARRY O - Ballinger's Choice-- Harry helps the wife of an old friend who went missing after he survived a car crash which killed a woman. Harry interviews her 16-year-old daughter--asking if the missing husband was having an affair with the mother. No, says the daughter, he was having an affair--with her. Of course, David Janssen has his usual stone-faced reaction while the case gets complicated by another murder. Ends with a boat chase through the San Diego naval yard. At one point, as Janssen is driving (a borrowed vehicle that looks like a reject of Columbo's car) into a auto shop, we see someone waving to the camera.

MANNIX S 6 Cry Silence-- Anthony Zerbe is an ex-priest who thinks someone is trying to kill him so he goes to Mannix for answers. He reveals that he took the confession of a man who said he had murdered someone--and Zerbe wants Mannix to get word to the man that his vow of silence remains even though he is no longer a priest--thus he doesn't need to try to kill him. Never mind that he already broke the vow by telling Mannix. Mannix suspects the manager of a clinic for blind veterans is the killer--but it turns out that the actual killer is Geoffrey Lewis--a professional hitman hired by the manager to kill a girlfriend so as to prevent marital breakup. This is a strange plot. And at one point someone calls Mannix "Jim." Jim? I don't think this would have happened if he had stayed with Wickersham and Intertect.

Gargoyles - Season 1 (1994-95)

The first 13 episodes of season 1 might just be some of the most fun and entertaining tv seasons I have seen for very long. Knew little (if any) of the show, beside that it was supposedly a more serious and darker animated take on the Disney television series of the 80s and 90s. Probably inspired or influenced by similar ones, like Batman: The Animated Series (1992-95) but cannot help but feel there is also some Beauty and the Beast (1991) in there as well.

Anyway, the show includes a very solid 5 introduction episodes called: Awekening Part 1-5 in which we get to see how these powerful creatures of the night once lived "happily" among the humans in Scotland, about 1000 years ago, but due to constant war and betreyals, a small clan of Gargoyles ends up getting put to "sleep" for quite some time. When they wake up, they are now all of a sudden transported into our time, New York City along with every stone taken from their Castle, only now shipped over to a huge hise rise skyscraper. 

The transition into this chaotic and overcrowded city will then be a huge test for the clan, but also how they have to learn trust the humans all over, which is easier said than done, when one of the first men they come in contact with, might just be one of the most evil humans they have ever met. Thankfully, there is also the complete opposite, in which a tough but fair female NYPD officer, shows that things are not just black and white.

Beside the impressive voice talent, the variety of the main characters, who all have to cope with their new life and also each others, the city of New York feels so much more alive than most other animated cities I can think of, and even more impressive is that most of it happens during night time.

I really like how there is a continuation in the plot and characters, they learn and makes mistakes, and the bad guys are truly evil, but the solution is not just another beat down and the hero saves the day, as it is not that easy, and yeah, I really feel like I have missed out on something big here, but as mentioned not long ago, I doubt it was ever shown on Norwegian tv back in the day. And somehow, there has not been a whole lot of talk about it either. 

Noticed that Disney has put out 2 or 3 of their Volumes DVDs, but where I am not sure it means every episodes and in the right order, as several times these Disney animated shows put out on DVD, seems kind of hasty and not something a lot of love and care has been given to them. Hopefully that is not the case with Gargoyles, as if season 2 continues on where the first left off, I would love to have the show in my tv collection.

All in all, while not all 13 episodes where a 10/10, few hit below 7,5/10, and yeah, I think this is where I end up with:

9,5/10

Over halfway through with Season 2 of Gargoyles, and while it opened up pretty strong, one cannot ignore the whole "World tour" episodes, which feels more like fillers, just to stretch the season into a much longer one, than any of the others. 
The animation is still good for most of the part, and while I do like the new character of Angela, the rapidly mediocre plots involving all these mystical monsters and all of a sudden super villains arriving all over the place, it kind of drags down the pace, and where I could easily watch 5-6 episode a day, or more, now I am having difficulty managing to get through more than 1 or 2. 

Hopefully the story will soon return back to Manhattan, as time kind of stands still with all these random adventures within European cities. 

CANNON - Sky Above, Death Below - S 2 - Cannon investigates the death of a union official. Begins with him leaving a play with Elaine Devry where the actors were naked. Seems like they are setting her up as a recurring character the way she is introduced here.


BANACEK - Let's Hear It for A Living Legend -- Football player disappears in the middle of a game. Has one of the funniest Polish proverb reactions when he says to Conrad Janis, "If you aren't sure it's potato borscht, it may mean orphans are working in the mine." Janis has a perplexed expression and says, "are you sure you said it right?"

PETROCELLI Shadow of Fear - a woman (Anne Archer) goes to Tony asking him to accompany her to the police since she confessed to murdering someone. She says her ex-husband (named Mr Archer ironically), a no good fellow, was in town looking to shake her down for money since her new husband (William Windom), a really kind, good man, doesn't know she had been married before. But when they go to the police, Tony is informed that a) the woman did not kill her first husband--she shot a suit of clothes hanging in the hallway, and b)her new husband did--the body was found at their home. But she swears he is innocent. Tony believes he is innocent too--but he can't figure out how to get him off. Has a good twist I must say.


LAND OF THE LOST - Ep 3 Dopey. This sure is a cute show. I was looking forward to revisiting this one. The sounds of Dopey crying and the theme song they give him. Such good dinosaur animation as well for this.


PROJECT UFO-- The Joshua Flats --- This show does not hold up well--the leads are so dull but the ufo sequences are weird and cool.

I've been working my way through The Twilight Zone and MASH. I'd like to start up Taxi eventually.