Tom Holmberg

J.J. Ramberg. It's odd that MSNBC has only been hiring cute young women as hosts. Maybe they think they need to to compete with Fox's blonde bimbos. It's not that the MSNBC women are totally untalented, but they seem to have been jumped ahead of where they should be in this stage of their careers. Where's the Barbara Walters of the industry (not that I actually liked Barbara Walters, but she paid her dues to get to where she was).

"The Pasadena Caper." (Episode 23) "The Little Old Ladies from Pasadena." Shades of "Arsenic and Old Lace," in this largely comic episode, so far the first to take this tack. Stu is hired by Rachel Baker to find her long-lost son, Peter Baker, missing for a year and a half. Peter's car is found in the drink off a pier in Long Beach with a body inside. Peter was insured for $100,000 with double indemnity for accidental death. Stu visits the Baker home, a large decrepit Pasadena mansion that the Munsters or the Addams Family would be happy to live in, occupied by elderly Rachel Baker (Hallene Hall, oddly Hill played a member of Jack Benny’s Pasadena fan club, obviously she was typecast!), his client, Lavinia Diamond (prickly Elizabeth Paterson, Mrs. Trumbull on “I Love Lucy” and many character roles), her equally elderly housekeeper, and Leo (Pat Comiskey, former pro boxer), their seven-foot, muscle-man handyman. Suspicious, Stu fakes an injury to his sacroiliac so he can stay on in the Baker mansion. Jeff impersonates Stu's doctor while he does the legwork investigating the Bakers. Someone turns on the gas to Stu's room, trying to suffocate him. Later when Rachel and Lavinia try to give him breakfast, he tells them Dr. Jefferson prescribed a special diet-for fear of being poisoned-which Kookie delivers along with the latest news. Jeff finds out that Peter was a lush and a bully. Mr. Garrett (the ubiquitous famous face Olan Soule), the insurance man handling the life insurance policy, reveals that Harry Diamond (the oddly named Murvyn Vye, Broadway star and Hollywood tough guy), Lavinia's son, was the insurance agent who sold the life insurance policy to Peter despite the fact Peter was a bad insurance risk. It also turns out that Harry went missing a week after Peter disappeared. Coincidence? I think not. Still doing Stu's legwork, Jeff picks up Kim Diamond, Harry's ex-wife, who's working as a cigarette girl at a rough bar. Leaving her apartment after questioning her, Jeff is attacked and beaten and told to keep his nose out of other peoples' business. Meanwhile at the Baker mansion, Stu finds a secret passage that leads to Peter's room, which has been locked since he disappeared. The next morning, while Kookie takes the old biddies to Peter's funeral, in the Kookie Kar, no less, Stu searches the house. Stu finds recent stamps postmarked La Hermosa, Mexico, Jeff tells him he found an envelope postmarked from there too at Kim Diamond's. In La Hermosa, Jeff picks up Harry's girlfriend, terrible torch-singer Erin O'Day (thankfully uncredited), and brings her back to LA, to lure Harry to the US. Harry shows up at the Baker place and goes immediately to Peter's room, which he has the key for. Stu is waiting to confront him and solve the case. As Stu waits for the police to come to pick everyone up, the two old ladies try to poison Stu one last time. An entertaining "dark old house" story, with lots of humor, which works well as a change of pace. Adding humor to their cases became a trademark of the show, until Season 6.

"The Fifth Stair" (Season 1, Episode 22) "Dial J for Murder." Former Jeff Spencer girlfriend Margot Wendice (Julie Adams, had a long career guest starring on TV shows including 5 77SS appearances,“The Creature from the Black Lagoon”, WB once insured her legs for $125,000.) hires Bailey & Spencer to investigate a blackmail attempt over a letter Jeff wrote her, years ago, before he went to Korea. It was Margot's husband, sociopath Tony Wendice (Richard Long again, for some reason WB was really pushing his career), who had found the letter and was behind the blackmail attempt, hires a professional killer (bad guy actor Richard Devon) to kill his seemingly unfaithful wife (and get his hands on her fortune). On the night of the plot, Jeff shows up at the Wendice house to explain to Tony that there is nothing between him and Tony's wife. Tony isn't home, already working on his alibi, but a nosy neighbor overhears Jeff talking to Margot. The professional killer, who turns out to be an incompetent professional killer (you never get your money's worth when you just pick out a killer off the street), ends up being killed by Margot instead. Rushing home, Tony plants evidence to make it look like Jeff and Margot killed the killer, before phoning the police. The police arrest Jeff and Margot, convinced they're guilty based on the planted evidence. Kookie follows Tony to the killer's apartment, where Tony retrieves his murder down payment. Suspicious, Stu and Kookie investigate the Wendice apartment, discovering that the key the police have (part of the planted evidence) isn't to their home. Kookie finds the hidden key and a search of the apartment turns up the murder payment. Stu now suspects Tony and devises a plan along with the police to nab Tony for the murder. Stu, somehow, explains every step of Tony's plan to Tony, pretending its a story Tony can tell the police to get his wife, and Jeff, off for the crime. In the end the key to the crime is the hidden key and Kookie gets in a great last line. Good straight forward story, not really a mystery because we know who did what, more like a Columbo mystery-will Stu get the goods on the real killer before Jeff ends up in prison. The teleplay was based on the play by Frederick Knott, “Dial M for Murder”, made into a film by Hitchcock, which might explain its economy of storytelling.

"In Memoriam" (Season 1, Episode 21) "You Only Die Twice." Philandering publisher Noel Reynolds (Alan Marshal, dapper leading man and Errol Flynn look-alike, Marshal died of a heart attack while appearing with Mae West in "Sexette" at age 52. Coincidence? I think not.) is awakened after a night partying by the delivery of a funeral wreath with his name on it. Condolence callers point out Reynolds' "In Memoriam" in the morning edition of the LA paper. Reynolds hires Bailey & Spencer to uncover the source of the phony obit. Stu picks up a tail as soon as he leaves his offices. At the obituary department of the newspaper (with its funereal editor), Stu discovers that name of the buyer of the obit is bogus. Stu's tail, Col. Jose Vargas (suave heavy Joe De Santis, who usually played ethnic types), an agent of a Latin American military junta, questions Stu about a book Reynolds is publishing, the Sebastian manuscript. Vargas is bribing and threatening Reynolds against publishing the manuscript, the memoir of a man killed by the junta. Reynolds' estranged wife, Lisa Reynolds (Noreen Nash, wife of James Whitmore), fears her husband isn't going to publish the manuscript, which she has championed. Reynolds get Bailey to tag along for protection to the Hacienda Club, where's he's going to meet with Vargas. Bailey falls for the beautiful damsel with car trouble gag again and is knocked unconscious and dumped in Malibu. By the time Stu makes it back to Reynolds' penthouse apartment, Gil is there investigating Reynolds' murder. (B&S lose another client they are supposed to protect.) Lisa Reynolds hires Stu to find the Sebastian manuscript. Calling his office, Stu discovers its been burglarized and when he gets home he finds that his apartment has been burglarized too, convincing Stu that Vargas doesn't have the manuscript. Stu visits overly artsy poetess Edith Kerr (Dolores Donlon, voluptuous actress in 50s and early 60s TV, appeared in five 77SS episodes), married mistress of Reynolds who was supposed to meet with Reynolds after the Vargas meeting for a night of adultery. While suffering through Edith's pretentious poetry, her jealous, meatpacker husband, Harry Kerr (Bart Burns, long-time character actor, co-star of the 1950s "Mike Hammer" series), comes home and kicks Stu out. In a discussion with Lisa about her husband's affairs with his female authors, the name of Estelle Ward comes up. Stu recalls that there was an In Memoriam for Estelle on the same page as Reynolds'. Lisa explains that Estelle was killed in a car accident when Reynolds was driving. Following up on Estelle's only living relative aunt Martha Ward (famous face Ellen Corby, best known as Grandma Walton in "The Waltons"). Martha, who worked as the cleaning lady in Reynolds' apartment building, reveals that she set Reynolds up to be murdered. Stu catches the killer, ties Vargas up and recovers the manuscript (with help from Jeff). A good, pulpy plot, with enough twists and turns to keep the viewer's interest. Also featured is some of the signature 77SS humor, beautiful dames, and the whole cast shows up. Pretty much the template of the 77SS formula. The standard 77SS opening is introduced.

Having grown up in the 60s, I avoid complaining about this generation or that, having heard a steady stream of it myself. I more feel sorry for them because of helicopter parents, the idea that everyone and everything is bad for them, that way too much is at their fingertips, that way too much time is spent on a screen instead of amusing themselves or each other, etc. The best memories are of mistakes I made, or stupid things I did because I was a kid (and often paid a price for), not something somebody gave me. In thirty years are they going to be saying, "If only I'd spent more time staring at my phone"?

"Lovely Alibi" ((Season 1, Episode 20) "A story ripped from today's headlines..." Another of Stu's old OSS buddies, almost as numerous as Stu's old flames, drunken wretch, police sgt. Ed Bird (extremely famous face, Claude Akins, who appeared in almost 100 movies and close to 200 TV shows, playing bad guys and cops equally, best known as "Sheriff Lobo") almost kills two fellow bar patrons in an alcohol-induced brawl. As a result, Bird gets put on 30 days leave (things haven't changed all that much in dealing with police misconduct), giving him time to hire Stu to help investigate mobster Vic Gurney (famous face, bad guy actor Stephen Brodie). Gurney is tied to a cold murder case Bird is obsessed with. Stu invites Bird and his showgirl girlfriend Jill Franklyn (Andra Martin, WB contract player and "girl next door" type married to "Bronco" star Ty Hardin) to dinner at Dino's, where Stu requests Frankie Ortega play their new song titled "77 Sunset Strip" (a jazzy version this time, complete with vocals, but no finger snaps). Leaving Dino's, Bird runs into Gurney and they exchange words. On the way home, Bird pops the question but Jill doesn't respond. The next morning Bird finds Jill missing. Stu and Bird question a witness, Mrs. Cranston (Constance Davis), who could finger Gurney for the murder. She tells them she saw a woman come out of the house where the murder took place. Bird returns to police HQ and gives his info to not-Gil Lt. Dan Giles (Stacy Keach Sr., father of Stacy and James Keach, played Professor Carlson on "Get Smart"). Giles reveals that Doris, a showgirl friend of Jill's has provided the police with an alibi for Gurney and that Jill was with them at the time of the murder. Stu has Roscoe bird-dog Bird in a pub crawl through LA's dive bars. Drunk, Bird is knocked out, splashed with more booze, and makes it look like Bird crashed his car in a drunken joyride, leading to his dismissal from the force. The next morning Stu visits his friend to find him hung-over, At the Club Solitaire, where Jill works as a showgirl, Stu and Bird get more dirt on Jill. The manager says "Red" Helburn (Wayne Heffley, busy bit player), who knew Jill in the old days, might know where she is. It turns out that Helburn is living in the missing Jill's apartment. Bird immediately punches Helburn out. Later he finds out that Helburn id actually Jill's brother. Witness Mrs. Cranston identifies showgirl Doris, Gurney's amorata, as the woman who was at the murder scene. At Gurney's Stu and Bird find Helburn beaten to a pulp by someone other than Bird. Helburn steers them to Jill's hideout, where Gurney and his hood are headed. Stu and Bird arrive first and Jill reveals that Gurney had planted her with Bird to keep him informed on his activities, but she later refused to double-cross Bird. Trapped in the house Jill, Stu and Bird have to outwit the armed mobsters. Today, Claude Akins character would be considered a bad cop. Here we are supposed to sympathize with him, even though he's violent and drunk in three quarters of his scenes. Does anyone believe his marriage with Jill will be a happy one? Or that the police would promote him to Lt.? There's an unusual amount of driving scenes in this episode, like they didn't have enough story to fill an hour. The story is pure noir. Roscoe, Kookie and Suzanne get minimal screen time. Stu buys a spectrograph, which future forensic scientist Kookie thinks is a "watch fob."

"Eyewitness." (Season 1, Episode 19) "The Boy Who Cried Bear." Shades of Season 6, the episode begins with a Stu voice over introducing the story. Stu's outside the Sunset Medical Offices waiting for his client, Kathy Williams, to return from her husband's, Dr. Emory Williams (Robert Douglas, frequent villain in historical dramas and director of many WB and other shows, including 12 77SSs), offices. Stu is involved in a divorce case, which all P.I.s hate. Across the street, Dennis the Menace (Jay North), left home alone by his aspiring actress mother, Audrey King (Patricia Barry, "All My Children", Guiding Light", "Days of Our Lives", married to producer Philip Barry, she worked on many of her husband's TV project, such as "The Alcoa Hour"). Hearing fire sirens, the little whippersnapper rushes out onto the balcony of his Sunset Blvd. apartment with his telescope, climbing over the balcony rail onto the roof of the building for a better look, he sees what he thinks is a bear killed by a hunter (his imagination stimulated by a comic book the little rascal was reading). In reality, he saw Dr. Williams accidentally kill his full-length mink-wearing wife after she caught him making out with his nurse, Alice Blake (Barbara Lang, a tragic actress who seemed unable to get a break in life. Check out her bio on IMDB.). Shocked at the sight of the bear the audacious little scamp falls from the roof, fortunately, if improbably, landing on an umbrella, which breaks his fall. Dr. Williams and Nurse Blake had observed the accident and conclude that the young jackanapes was an eyewitness to murder. Stu calls an ambulance (presumably from his car, but it’s not clear, and time seems to be compressed) and accompanies the enfant terrible to the hospital. From the hospital, Stu calls Kookie in to take his place protecting Mrs. Williams and escort her home (on 77SS having Bailey & Spencer protect you is almost a sure death sentence). Nurse Blake leaves the offices disguised in Mrs. Williams’ full-length mink and gives Kookie the cold shoulder, fleeing in a taxi. The next morning the papers report on the little rapscallion’s lucky escape, leading Dr. Williams to concoct a plan to get Audrey out of the apartment so he can silence the little brat. Of course, Audrey has no qualms leaving the obviously irresponsible menace alone. Instead, the unruly child walks to 77SS to hire Stu to prove there was a hunter who killed a bear. At the B&S offices, Stu ironically refers to Dennis repeatedly as "Mr. Wilson." Nurse Blake meets with Hugh Wilson (Dean Harens), impudent child’s father, at Dino's to ostensibly to buy insurance, but actually to pass off tickets to Pacific Ocean Park, a local amusement park. She's recognized by Kookie as the woman he saw leaving Sunset Medical Offices. Clued in, Stu follows her back to her house, where Nurse Blake claims she was taken to the hospital in an ambulance on the night in question Stu calls the ambulance companies until he locates the ambulance that supposedly took "Nurse Blake" to the hospital. They reveal that they never examined their patient as Dr. Williams was along for the ride. Before Stu or Hugh Wilson can turn up at the young demon's apartment, a cab driver arrives saying Mr. Wilson's (Dennis's) father sent him to take him to Pacific Ocean Park to meet him there. When Stu and the actual Mr. Wilson arrive to find Dennis gone, Stu rushes to Pacific Ocean Park to rescue his young client. Dr. Williams joins young rogue on a sky ride (the Ocean Skyway), where he tries to pump the distracted waif for info. The mischievous urchin escapes and ends up at the inevitable funhouse, where every amusement park story ends, with Dr. Williams hot on his heels. Somehow, Stu winds up at the funhouse too (again unexplained), leading to a three-way chase though the rather cheesy horrors of the house of fun. The plot line of the boy who sees a crime and no one believes him is a hoary one, but it works okay here though the plot is full of holes. If you think about it, except for the murder this could be the plot of a "Dennis the Menace" episode. Dennis sees a bear in Mr. Wilson's house. Jay North here basically is the same as Dennis the Menace. Kookie gets to reel off more jive talk, Dad. The rest of the cast is missing. Interesting is that there doesn't seem much concern about how Dennis' mother is always leaving him alone at night. Today she'd be arrested for negligence. Pacific Ocean Park operated until the late 60s and Davy Jones’ Locker was a funhouse there, though in the episode it’s all stock footage and the funhouse was a stage set.

When I moved my cable provider switched, and the new one unfortunately doesn't carry a lot of the retro channels, including Cosi, Decades, BUZZR and Antenna. But that time slot for "DVD" is the pits. "DVD" and "I Love Lucy" are among the greatest TV shows of all time, they should get more respect.

And "The Dick van Dyke Show"

I call those sort of teeth "Chiclets" (though I thought that up, it's apparently a real thing!). https://www.quora.com/What-are-chiclet-teeth

Or jockstraps!

These "Retro" channels eternally push forward what's retro. They start out with "Sgt. Bilko" and end up showing "The Office". Nothing wrong with "The Office", but I wouldn't mind seeing shows like "Love that Bob" or "The People's Choice" or "Fractured Fairytales", etc. on one of the channels.

Many pop singers have untrained voices and damage their vocal chords just singing normally. Singing like that is outright dangerous.

The lead singer's gonna hurt himself singing like that.

Yes, they're like ads for incest! I'm expecting one where she joins him in the shower.

"Dark Vengeance." (Season 1, Episode 17) "This is your brain on drugs." John Cosgrove (Jerome Thor, star of the early 50s show "Foreign Intrigue"), host of the public affairs show "The Cosgrove Report", is shot and blinded by the narcotics mob in a effort to silence him. Cosgrove is railing against "The Mainline Men", "The Killers in Silk", "The Dealers in Death" on his show. A close friend of Cosgrove's, Stu opens an investigation to find the man behind the attempted killing. While commiserating with Cosgrove Stu meets Cosgrove's secretary, Margot (Adele Mara, former singer with pre-Charo Xavier Cugat, B movie actress and wife of 77SS creator Roy Huggins) Questioning a witness to the shooting who's been intimidated into silence, Stu picks up a tail, gang member Banjo (Jonathan Haze, actor, director, producer, chief cook and bottle washer, best known as Seymour in Roger Corman's "The Little Shop of Horrors"), who picks up a tail by Jeff. Discovering that Banjo's drug contact is a pin boy at local bowling alleys, Stu makes the rounds of the lanes, only to have Banjo bowl a strike before Stu can question him. Getting the name of the pin boy and an address at the bowling alley, Stu takes Kookie to the address, which turns out to be a 1950s TV version of a wild party attended by hep cat, the Seagull, who talks to much and is knocked off by Trigger (Michael Harris), and trigger is knocked off to close the circle. Getting no closer to the mob's Mr. Big, Stu takes Margot, who is a recovered addict on a couple of dates, unsuspectedly setting her up for the dope mob. Meanwhile Mr. Big, Vincent Barrett (famous face Barry Kelley, busy Hollywood bad guy), hires Jeff to do some investigating on a made-up case. The mob rehooks Margo on the junk. Knowing that it was Cosgrove's continued reports on the dope mob that got Banjo killed, Stu holds back info from Cosgrove. On the nog, Margo agrees to set up Stu to get a fix, but gets a conscience at the last minute. Cosgrove secretly gets his sight back. Jeff gets chloroformed by the mob and held in an abandoned warehouse. Barrett calls Bailey & Spencer and Cosgrove recognizes the voice as Mr. Big. Everyone winds up at Barrett's packing heat and its just a question of who'll shoot first. An over-the-top "message" episode (unusual for 77SS, which usually avoided them) which is entertaining mainly for its hyperbolic storyline. * "Conspiracy of Silence." (Season 1, Episode 18) "Where's Blutto when you need him?" San Juan College coed Helen Charles is murdered in a nearby park after running away from her date. Jeff, undercover as a student (wearing J.R.s sweaters to prove he’s a student, sort of like Susan Randall wearing glasses to prove she was an art student in a previous episode), has been hired by Johanna Martin's otherwise inattentive father (William Ching, “D.O.A.”) to protect his daughter after she received threatening notes. Prof. Carlos Traynor's (famous face Gerard Mohr, usually played heavies due to his resemblance to Bogart, also the voice of Reed Richards in the 1960s “Fantastic Four” cartoons) English lit class, which seems to be the only class Jeff actually attends, is attended by Johanna and all the over-sexed (and over-aged) coeds on campus. The professor gives the class their big writing assignment. At a Traynor get-together Johanna makes time with Jeff, standing up her ex-beau Tom Mallard (Tom Gilson, promising actor, shotgunned by his estranged Playboy Bunny wife during a domestic violence incident). Also at the party are the somewhat weasely Nevin Williams (Robert Ivers, “G.I. Blues”) and Eloise Taynor (Maureen Leeds), the Prof.'s wife. Later that night, at the local college hangout, the Green Dragon, someone tries to run down Johanna. Jeff visits the local police for more dope on the Charles murder. The police chief says all the suspects had alibis for their whereabouts and that Nevin was the last person to see Helen alive. The police assume the killer was the usual suspect, a transient. Back at Traynor's class, Jeff announces his writing assignment is going to be about the Helen Charles murder, to the shock of the student body and the displeasure of Traynor. That night, after getting a bad kiss from Jeff, Johanna wanders through the darkened campus to meet Prof. Traynor. The next day, as Jeff begins his investigation of the Charles case, he gets into a fight with Tom Mallard. Back at the Green Dragon, Jeff tries to get information from Nevin. Later at Johanna's sorority, Jeff is told Johanna went for a walk in to the scene of the crime. Following her, Jeff gets knocked out (as usual). On awakening, he discovers a key. Being at a college town, investigating a college murder, Jeff calls in the perfect assistant, Roscoe. He gives Roscoe the list of suspects to dig up dirt on and I.D. the key. While Jeff is cluing Roscoe in, Mallard breaks into Jeff's room to read the first draft of Jeff's true crime paper. In one day Roscoe manages to get more information that Jeff has gotten since he started on the case. At the Green Dragon Roscoe finds out that the number one suspect in the Charles murder is actually Johanna and number two is Traynor, who has had affairs, according to campus scuttlebutt with both Helen Charles and Johanna. At the next Taynor party, Eloise Traynor is poisoned. Jeff confronts Johanna, confessing he's a P.I. hired by her father. Nevin sneaks into Jeff's room while Jeff is sleeping to finger Mallard. Jeff visits Mr. Traynor. When Johanna makes a date to meet Prof. Traynor in the fatal park, Jeff and the police are set to capture the real killer. Somewhat similar to “The Heartbeat Caper”. An average episode that takes place in an unusual setting for 77SS.

The one kind of ad that actually does outrage me are those for tax relief companies that have people who owe $50,000 to the IRS, but the company supposedly gets the debt reduced to a mere $500. I'm sure those people are happy, but everybody else in the United States, who actually dutifully pay their taxes every year, feel like fools and suckers.

"The Girl Who Couldn't Remember." (Season 1, Episode 16) Mobster Silky Callahan (George N. Neise, played villains in “Three Stooges” shorts ) is gunned down by some out-of-town professionals in his house (a la Bugsy Siegel) with Lorraine (Nancy Gates, "Suddenly") witnessing the hit, after getting a $10,000 payoff. Fleeing the scene of crime, Lorraine hits her head on a lamppost, getting TV's most ubiquitous disease, amnesia. Stumbling onto Hollywood Blvd. she sees Dr. Langton's (Brad Weston, 2nd of eight 77SS appearances) office. Langton treats her injury and contacts his old buddy, Jeff Spencer, to help the unknown woman rediscover her identity. There's $10,000 in cash in her purse and a matchbook with the initials "SC." Jeff enlists Kookie's help to keep an eye on the girl with the "smog in the noggin", who they name Sandra Carter. Jeff takes Lorraine's fingerprints and goes to LAPD HQ to get a match and check out the missing persons files. At the same time Gil is questioning Silky's common-law wife Florence (Scream Queen Kathleen Hughes) and her lawyer Sid de Forest (Harvey Stephens, former leading man and Broadway star reduced to TV walk-ons). We discover that Lorraine was really Mrs. Silky Callahan, and the $10,000 was to buy a divorce settlement. Jeff questions Florence, who plays dumb. Afterwards, eager to get her claws on Silky's ill-gotten gains, Florence promises mob shyster de Forest half the inheritance to inform his underworld clients of Lorraine's existence. Mitch (John Vivyan, best known as TV's "Mr. Lucky") and out-of-town goon number two stake out the offices at 77SS, following Jeff back through time to downtown 1940s LA (courtesy of some WB stock footage) and Lorraine's hotel. Mitch goes to Lorraine's room pretending to be her husband, armed with some faked photos of him and Marian/Lorraine. Kookie checks the fake husband out, while Jeff turns up followed by out-of-town goon number two. Jeff wrestles the gun from out-of-town goon number two and ties him up, showing up at Lorraine's room in the nick of time. A middle of the road episode with a familiar plot, in which Jeff is still seemingly uncomfortable in his role. Kookie gets to comb his hair and talk beat, reet?

I didn't watch that on the theory that Stu went overseas. It's possible I saw it before, but I don't remember it. I'll have to watch it next time around. They were definitely trying to figure out the relationships of the main characters. Jeff still is trying to be the hard-boiled dick, he lightens up later.

A show about the actual Romanovs might be interesting. This? I'll watch the first episode and see, but I have doubts. I get a "John from Cincinnati" vibe.

"Hit and Run." (Season 1, Episode 14) "Double Indemnity." One of just a handful of Suzanne-centric episodes. Jewelry importer Mike Lamson (Phillip Terry, the 3rd Mr. Joan Crawford) died in a car accident on the same day that Suzanne's brother and the Lamson's chauffeur Marcel disappeared. Suzanne asks Jeff to help her locate her brother. After a visit to the Lamson residence, Jeff takes Suzanne to Dino's for dinner, show more than an employer employee interest in the attractive Suzanne. (Frankie Ortega plays a great cha cha version of the 77SS theme song.) It turns out that Hollywood costumer designer Mrs. Lamson (Carole Mathews, who usually was cast as a hard-boiled dame) owes her broker considerable amount of money on a stock transaction. She hopes to use some of the money from the double indemnity life insurance policy to pay off the debt and live handsomely. Jeff tasks Roscoe to check up with Marcel's race track cronies (he'd previously been found guilty in a scheme by a gang passing phony winning betting slips) to see if they've seen or heard from Marcel. Jeff questions not-Gil police Sgt. Egan (character actor Francis de Sales) about the accident in which Lamson's body was burned beyond recognition. When questions Lamson's acquaintances they all say he didn't have an enemy in the world. Roscoe reports back that Marcel was seen hanging out with a beatnik chick named Barrie (this week) who frequents the local beatnik coffeehouses. Jeff takes Kookie with him to act as interpreter on a tour the coffeehouses (a good job for the argot slinging Kookie). They discover Barrie (a stoned out Louise Glenn) at the Chez Paulette. Jeff tries to question her, which is not easy, even with Kookie translating. He tries to soften her up by playing his trademark slap guitar. At Zenith Studios Jeff questions Mrs. Lamson again, who is becoming concerned about Jeff's persistence. Jeff has Kookie tail Mrs. Lamson, who visits the Valley Hotel near the studio. Jeff has a snack at the hotel, taking a matchbook as a souvenir. Back at Mrs. Lamson's office Jeff concedes he's getting nowhere fast and conveniently leaves the matchbook on her desk. At the Lamsons' insurance company Jeff offers to save them the double indemnity pay off if they pay the firm of Bailey & Spencer a nice fee. Mrs. Lamson calls Suzanne saying her brother just contacted her and to meet her at the studio. Jeff follows her to Mrs. Lamson's office after putting on his shoulder holster. At the office Jeff finally puts two and two together. A chase through the studio and some gun play brings the case to a close. I didn't appreciate Kookie calling Suzanne "The French wench." It seemed out of character. Throughout the episode Jeff is obviously trying to make time with Suzanne, even making a tentative proposal, which Suzanne rejects. It would have ruined some of the dynamic of the show if they had pursued this line, so fortunately they didn't. Dead End kid, Bobby Jordan, had a cameo as the auto mechanic. The Chez Paulette was the name of an actual Sunset Strip coffeehouse that was located across the street from Dino's. When Jeff visits he speaks briefly to the owner, played by the actual owner of Chez Paulette, Max Lewin. The Chez Paulette was an elite coffeehouse frequented by the younger Hollywood set, Marlon Brando, James Coburn, James Dean, Jack Nicholson, Steve McQueen, and the like. Sally Kellerman and Rue McClanahan were both waitresses at the actual Chez Paulette.

Something made me wish the automatic sliding door would cut her in half when she was hanging half in and half out. Now THAT would be a commercial!

I tried doing a search, but it came back with no hits (though I can't believe this hasn't been discussed), but if I was an inventor why the hell would I go to George Foreman for advice? I think I'd go to a patent attorney.

I still find Sue Randall attractive. I liked her in "Desk Set", a movie that always seems to be more relevant to today whenever I see it (with the dangers of AI taking away jobs). It's a pity she died at such a young age.

"Hit and Run." (Season 1, Episode 13) Kookie borrows Stu's T-Bird for a date with the cute college student Chick Hammons (the beautiful Susan Randall, looking cute in a pair of cat's-eye glasses). On the way there Kookie passes the scene of a hit-and-run accident. Soon after he's chased and tried to be run off the road by a big black car, that crashes, barely missing a pedestrian. Kookie rushes to the scene of the accident to find the woman driver badly disfigured by the crash. Kookie asks the lucky pedestrian to call an ambulance while he stays with the injured driver. The police arrive and immediately assume that hot-rodder Kookie, being a "punk kid" (despite his actual age, as Kookie even points out), was the cause of the accident. The police also reveal that Kookie's witness never called them. At the station the police give Kookie the third-degree until Stu shows up to bail Kookie out. The accident victim was former actress Liz Murray (Gloria Robertson, in a thankless role she spends wrapped like a mummy, perhaps explaining her short career in movies and TV) trophy wife of wealthy contractor Robert Clark Murray (famous face Robert H. Harris, who, despite his background was often cast as a variety of ethnic types). Stu and Kookie go to visit Murray, who seems more concern about his wife's good-looks than her well-being. Murray informs them that he intends to prosecute Kookie and sue Bailey & Spencer for negligence. Later Murray visits his distraught wife at the hospital and she tells him that she had planned to tell him that night (after hat shopping) that she was going to leave him and return to her acting career. Stu enlists Kookie's girlfriend Chick, an art student, to produce a drawing of Kookie's missing witness. Meanwhile the missing witness finds Murray first and blackmails him to keep quiet and leave town. With the finished drawing, Jeff calls Kookie in to do his usual canvassing of skid row for info on the missing witness. Murray drops into 77ss to inform Stu and Kookie that he'll drop his case if Kookie takes the blame, otherwise he'll sue the pants off of them. Kookie decides "It ain't honest" and Stu agrees. Murray has the missing witness cooped up in a skid row flophouse. The witness decides he wants more of Murray's filthy lucre. A fight ensues and Murray accidentally kills the witness. Stu shows up at the flophouse (tipped off by Roscoe's sleuthing) just as the police show up. Together they go to question the mystery man, only to find him dead. A search of the room locates $500. The police show up at the Murray's with Stu to question Liz and the truth comes out. Kookie, no longer under a cloud of suspicion, finally gets his date with Chick (lucky dog!). The episode demonstrates that, given something to work with, Edd Byrnes was a pretty good actor. I think I mentioned that as a young boy I thought Beaver's teacher, as played by Sue Randall, pretty hot. Not at all like my teachers who tended to be old maids (but probably weren't really that old). No Gil, despite homicide being involved. No Suzanne. The Kookie Kar makes another welcomed appearance, though.