It Got By The Censor/In Jokes

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

I Dream of Jeannie, "My Master, the Author," Season Two Episode 16.
At the very start of the episode Jeannie and Major Nelson enter an art gallery. Jeannie spies a painting and dashes over to examine it more closely, exclaiming -
"Oh look master. It is an original 'Ansara'."
Barbara Eden's husband of course was the actor Michael Ansara, who played King Kamehameha in another episode of I Dream of Jeanie.
Syrian born Ansara played Kang the Klingon on three different Star Trek series. Star Trek, Deep Space Nine and Voyager.
Barbara Eden is a direct descendant of Ben Franklin.

Michael Ansara was in several of his wife's episodes of I DREAM OF JEANNIE. The most famous is probably him playing the Blue Djinn in the season 2 premiere episode - the first one broadcast in color. Then there was him playing King Kamehameha (in season 3 I believe) and also some famous movie star I think in another episode. He was also very good as Hawaiian mobster Piro Manoa in the excellent season 5 opener of HAWAII FIVE-O - "Death is a Company Policy". In that one Duke (Herman Wedemeyer) is set up in an elaborate frame-up that makes it appear as if he's the leak and inside man to the mob underworld.

Speaking of I DREAM OF JEANNIE I often wondered why BEWITCHED was the huge hit (I think it regularly ranked in the top 5 or so every season) but JEANNIE I don't even think broke the top 20 for any of its 5 seasons. They were the 2 supernatural comedies which seemed to be competing with each other and it looks like BEWITCHED easily won that competition. But I personally found BEWITCHED kinda dull and lacking the sharp humor and wit and zaniness of JEANNIE. It was just another family-based sitcom (of which there were so many), with witchcraft thrown in. But on JEANNIE the setting was NASA, it was set during the space-race, it felt more unique. Plus Dr. Bellows always noticing strange things going on and never being able to prove it was a great premise and it never got old. Whereas Endora's endless spells on Darrin got old really quick. At least for me. So she turns him into a cat, then a dog, then a frog, etc. Boooring... At least Dick York had a certain energy to him that saved some of those episodes. The Dick Sargent episodes are practically unwatchable. So yeah, JEANNIE for me was a much more exciting and funny show! Plus that great Hugo Montenegro theme!

Ivan,
I agree with you about Bewitched being inferior to I Dream of Jeanie. I would add to your points that Bewitched was purposely oriented to a more female demographic, at least according
to some writer who had done pieces on the series. I would concur because my sister and her friends really liked it.
I will admit Paul Lynde was hilarious on it, just as in Bye Bye Birdie he stole every scene.
Jeanie did more 'out there' low comedy like the Stooges, which was right up my alley as a kid.
And for some reason my father didn't mind watching it with me and my 4 older brothers as Barbara flounced around in her genie garb.
To this day she gets letters from smitten 14 year old boys, you'd think they'd do the math and realize she is in her 90's. Still, every year she comes to the Jersey shore and leads a
parade down the boardwalk.

 Pahonu wrote:
"Ansara was great in a Rockford Files episode called Joey Blue Eyes.
This was even before David (The Sopranos) Chases’s scripts led us to believe that LA was teeming with East Coast mobster types. LOL"

Hi Pahonu,
Ansara and Jim Garner had a real chemistry, you could see they were enjoying playing against each other.
I can't recall anymore which movie or TV series I saw it in back in the 80's, but it revolved around how the LA cops took some arriving big shot East Coast hoods for a ride around Union Station
and explained they could stop the car now and the hoods could get out and catch the next train for the East.
Or the ride could continue out to the desert and they would never be heard from again.
It was a fictional version of a real event.
Two years ago I could have lent more detail and the show mentioned - I am(or was) famous for my memory - but I am still foggy from the damn COVID.
But the good news is I can watch Rockford Files again as between not watching it for a good 6 or 7 years - it had become too familiar thru repeat viewings - and COVID
I no longer recall every episode in detail.

[Pahonu]

I Dream of Jeannie, "My Master, the Author," Season Two Episode 16.
At the very start of the episode Jeannie and Major Nelson enter an art gallery. Jeannie spies a painting and dashes over to examine it more closely, exclaiming -
"Oh look master. It is an original 'Ansara'."
Barbara Eden's husband of course was the actor Michael Ansara, who played King Kamehameha in another episode of I Dream of Jeanie.
Syrian born Ansara played Kang the Klingon on three different Star Trek series. Star Trek, Deep Space Nine and Voyager.
Barbara Eden is a direct descendant of Ben Franklin.

Michael Ansara was in several of his wife's episodes of I DREAM OF JEANNIE. The most famous is probably him playing the Blue Djinn in the season 2 premiere episode - the first one broadcast in color. Then there was him playing King Kamehameha (in season 3 I believe) and also some famous movie star I think in another episode. He was also very good as Hawaiian mobster Piro Manoa in the excellent season 5 opener of HAWAII FIVE-O - "Death is a Company Policy". In that one Duke (Herman Wedemeyer) is set up in an elaborate frame-up that makes it appear as if he's the leak and inside man to the mob underworld.

Speaking of I DREAM OF JEANNIE I often wondered why BEWITCHED was the huge hit (I think it regularly ranked in the top 5 or so every season) but JEANNIE I don't even think broke the top 20 for any of its 5 seasons. They were the 2 supernatural comedies which seemed to be competing with each other and it looks like BEWITCHED easily won that competition. But I personally found BEWITCHED kinda dull and lacking the sharp humor and wit and zaniness of JEANNIE. It was just another family-based sitcom (of which there were so many), with witchcraft thrown in. But on JEANNIE the setting was NASA, it was set during the space-race, it felt more unique. Plus Dr. Bellows always noticing strange things going on and never being able to prove it was a great premise and it never got old. Whereas Endora's endless spells on Darrin got old really quick. At least for me. So she turns him into a cat, then a dog, then a frog, etc. Boooring... At least Dick York had a certain energy to him that saved some of those episodes. The Dick Sargent episodes are practically unwatchable. So yeah, JEANNIE for me was a much more exciting and funny show! Plus that great Hugo Montenegro theme!

Ivan,
I agree with you about Bewitched being inferior to I Dream of Jeanie. I would add to your points that Bewitched was purposely oriented to a more female demographic, at least according
to some writer who had done pieces on the series. I would concur because my sister and her friends really liked it.
I will admit Paul Lynde was hilarious on it, just as in Bye Bye Birdie he stole every scene.
Jeanie did more 'out there' low comedy like the Stooges, which was right up my alley as a kid.
And for some reason my father didn't mind watching it with me and my 4 older brothers as Barbara flounced around in her genie garb.
To this day she gets letters from smitten 14 year old boys, you'd think they'd do the math and realize she is in her 90's. Still, every year she comes to the Jersey shore and leads a
parade down the boardwalk.

 Pahonu wrote:
"Ansara was great in a Rockford Files episode called Joey Blue Eyes.
This was even before David (The Sopranos) Chases’s scripts led us to believe that LA was teeming with East Coast mobster types. LOL"

Hi Pahonu,
Ansara and Jim Garner had a real chemistry, you could see they were enjoying playing against each other.
I can't recall anymore which movie or TV series I saw it in back in the 80's, but it revolved around how the LA cops took some arriving big shot East Coast hoods for a ride around Union Station
and explained they could stop the car now and the hoods could get out and catch the next train for the East.
Or the ride could continue out to the desert and they would never be heard from again.
It was a fictional version of a real event.
Two years ago I could have lent more detail and the show mentioned - I am(or was) famous for my memory - but I am still foggy from the damn COVID.
But the good news is I can watch Rockford Files again as between not watching it for a good 6 or 7 years - it had become too familiar thru repeat viewings - and COVID
I no longer recall every episode in detail.

Hey Dobie,

Sorry to hear about the COVID fog. My wife has a coworker who has really struggled with it for the last few years. It’s a pretty big problem if you’re a teacher trying to focus on the details of a lesson.

I almost added a comment on the story you refer to in my original post. The LAPD took some major liberties with their policing powers and the mob after WWII. The Gangster Squad was formed in 1946 and targeted Bugsy Siegel, Mickey Cohen, Jack Dragna, among others, using violence, or the threat of it, that would have gotten them indicted today. The movie Gangster Squad shows this as does Bugsy, with Warren Beatty. In one example I read about years ago it was even more blatant than the story you told. They literally “greeted” one of them at gunpoint getting off a train at Union Station and “escorted” them straight to an outgoing train, plus added a few bruises for the ride.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

I Dream of Jeannie, "My Master, the Author," Season Two Episode 16.
At the very start of the episode Jeannie and Major Nelson enter an art gallery. Jeannie spies a painting and dashes over to examine it more closely, exclaiming -
"Oh look master. It is an original 'Ansara'."
Barbara Eden's husband of course was the actor Michael Ansara, who played King Kamehameha in another episode of I Dream of Jeanie.
Syrian born Ansara played Kang the Klingon on three different Star Trek series. Star Trek, Deep Space Nine and Voyager.
Barbara Eden is a direct descendant of Ben Franklin.

Michael Ansara was in several of his wife's episodes of I DREAM OF JEANNIE. The most famous is probably him playing the Blue Djinn in the season 2 premiere episode - the first one broadcast in color. Then there was him playing King Kamehameha (in season 3 I believe) and also some famous movie star I think in another episode. He was also very good as Hawaiian mobster Piro Manoa in the excellent season 5 opener of HAWAII FIVE-O - "Death is a Company Policy". In that one Duke (Herman Wedemeyer) is set up in an elaborate frame-up that makes it appear as if he's the leak and inside man to the mob underworld.

Speaking of I DREAM OF JEANNIE I often wondered why BEWITCHED was the huge hit (I think it regularly ranked in the top 5 or so every season) but JEANNIE I don't even think broke the top 20 for any of its 5 seasons. They were the 2 supernatural comedies which seemed to be competing with each other and it looks like BEWITCHED easily won that competition. But I personally found BEWITCHED kinda dull and lacking the sharp humor and wit and zaniness of JEANNIE. It was just another family-based sitcom (of which there were so many), with witchcraft thrown in. But on JEANNIE the setting was NASA, it was set during the space-race, it felt more unique. Plus Dr. Bellows always noticing strange things going on and never being able to prove it was a great premise and it never got old. Whereas Endora's endless spells on Darrin got old really quick. At least for me. So she turns him into a cat, then a dog, then a frog, etc. Boooring... At least Dick York had a certain energy to him that saved some of those episodes. The Dick Sargent episodes are practically unwatchable. So yeah, JEANNIE for me was a much more exciting and funny show! Plus that great Hugo Montenegro theme!

Ivan,
I agree with you about Bewitched being inferior to I Dream of Jeanie. I would add to your points that Bewitched was purposely oriented to a more female demographic, at least according
to some writer who had done pieces on the series. I would concur because my sister and her friends really liked it.
I will admit Paul Lynde was hilarious on it, just as in Bye Bye Birdie he stole every scene.
Jeanie did more 'out there' low comedy like the Stooges, which was right up my alley as a kid.
And for some reason my father didn't mind watching it with me and my 4 older brothers as Barbara flounced around in her genie garb.
To this day she gets letters from smitten 14 year old boys, you'd think they'd do the math and realize she is in her 90's. Still, every year she comes to the Jersey shore and leads a
parade down the boardwalk.

 Pahonu wrote:
"Ansara was great in a Rockford Files episode called Joey Blue Eyes.
This was even before David (The Sopranos) Chases’s scripts led us to believe that LA was teeming with East Coast mobster types. LOL"

Hi Pahonu,
Ansara and Jim Garner had a real chemistry, you could see they were enjoying playing against each other.
I can't recall anymore which movie or TV series I saw it in back in the 80's, but it revolved around how the LA cops took some arriving big shot East Coast hoods for a ride around Union Station
and explained they could stop the car now and the hoods could get out and catch the next train for the East.
Or the ride could continue out to the desert and they would never be heard from again.
It was a fictional version of a real event.
Two years ago I could have lent more detail and the show mentioned - I am(or was) famous for my memory - but I am still foggy from the damn COVID.
But the good news is I can watch Rockford Files again as between not watching it for a good 6 or 7 years - it had become too familiar thru repeat viewings - and COVID
I no longer recall every episode in detail.

Hey Dobie,
Sorry to hear about the COVID fog. My wife has a coworker who has really struggled with it for the last few years. It’s a pretty big problem if you’re a teacher trying to focus on the details of a lesson.
I almost added a comment on the story you refer to in my original post. The LAPD took some major liberties with their policing powers and the mob after WWII. The Gangster Squad was formed in 1946 and targeted Bugsy Siegel, Mickey Cohen, Jack Dragna, among others, using violence, or the threat of it, that would have gotten them indicted today. The movie Gangster Squad shows this as does Bugsy, with Warren Beatty. In one example I read about years ago it was even more blatant than the story you told. They literally “greeted” one of them at gunpoint getting off a train at Union Station and “escorted” them straight to an outgoing train, plus added a few bruises for the ride.

Pahonu,
I can't say I feel sorry for the thugs, though I understand you have to protect the rights of all so the innocents don't suffer.
Just by happenstance after I read your post I watched the 1977 Hawaii Five-O episode "Blood Money is Hard To Wash" from season 9.
The writers had to be inspired by the Gangster Squad, I kept thinking of your post while watching it.
Dane Clark is a newly arrived mainland hood intent on taking over the islands crime scene for the mob. McGarrett greets Clark with a list of departure times for planes back to the
mainland as well as other more severe tactics.

I'm a very happy camper, "freevee" is showing the complete run of Hawaii Five-O, I will now get to see all the missing season 10, 11 and 12 episodes that are no longer part
of the rerun packages that channels such as H & I run. It's been at least 30 years since I saw any of them. Book me some "freevee" viewing, Dan-o!

[Pahonu]

I Dream of Jeannie, "My Master, the Author," Season Two Episode 16.
At the very start of the episode Jeannie and Major Nelson enter an art gallery. Jeannie spies a painting and dashes over to examine it more closely, exclaiming -
"Oh look master. It is an original 'Ansara'."
Barbara Eden's husband of course was the actor Michael Ansara, who played King Kamehameha in another episode of I Dream of Jeanie.
Syrian born Ansara played Kang the Klingon on three different Star Trek series. Star Trek, Deep Space Nine and Voyager.
Barbara Eden is a direct descendant of Ben Franklin.

Michael Ansara was in several of his wife's episodes of I DREAM OF JEANNIE. The most famous is probably him playing the Blue Djinn in the season 2 premiere episode - the first one broadcast in color. Then there was him playing King Kamehameha (in season 3 I believe) and also some famous movie star I think in another episode. He was also very good as Hawaiian mobster Piro Manoa in the excellent season 5 opener of HAWAII FIVE-O - "Death is a Company Policy". In that one Duke (Herman Wedemeyer) is set up in an elaborate frame-up that makes it appear as if he's the leak and inside man to the mob underworld.

Speaking of I DREAM OF JEANNIE I often wondered why BEWITCHED was the huge hit (I think it regularly ranked in the top 5 or so every season) but JEANNIE I don't even think broke the top 20 for any of its 5 seasons. They were the 2 supernatural comedies which seemed to be competing with each other and it looks like BEWITCHED easily won that competition. But I personally found BEWITCHED kinda dull and lacking the sharp humor and wit and zaniness of JEANNIE. It was just another family-based sitcom (of which there were so many), with witchcraft thrown in. But on JEANNIE the setting was NASA, it was set during the space-race, it felt more unique. Plus Dr. Bellows always noticing strange things going on and never being able to prove it was a great premise and it never got old. Whereas Endora's endless spells on Darrin got old really quick. At least for me. So she turns him into a cat, then a dog, then a frog, etc. Boooring... At least Dick York had a certain energy to him that saved some of those episodes. The Dick Sargent episodes are practically unwatchable. So yeah, JEANNIE for me was a much more exciting and funny show! Plus that great Hugo Montenegro theme!

Ivan,
I agree with you about Bewitched being inferior to I Dream of Jeanie. I would add to your points that Bewitched was purposely oriented to a more female demographic, at least according
to some writer who had done pieces on the series. I would concur because my sister and her friends really liked it.
I will admit Paul Lynde was hilarious on it, just as in Bye Bye Birdie he stole every scene.
Jeanie did more 'out there' low comedy like the Stooges, which was right up my alley as a kid.
And for some reason my father didn't mind watching it with me and my 4 older brothers as Barbara flounced around in her genie garb.
To this day she gets letters from smitten 14 year old boys, you'd think they'd do the math and realize she is in her 90's. Still, every year she comes to the Jersey shore and leads a
parade down the boardwalk.

 Pahonu wrote:
"Ansara was great in a Rockford Files episode called Joey Blue Eyes.
This was even before David (The Sopranos) Chases’s scripts led us to believe that LA was teeming with East Coast mobster types. LOL"

Hi Pahonu,
Ansara and Jim Garner had a real chemistry, you could see they were enjoying playing against each other.
I can't recall anymore which movie or TV series I saw it in back in the 80's, but it revolved around how the LA cops took some arriving big shot East Coast hoods for a ride around Union Station
and explained they could stop the car now and the hoods could get out and catch the next train for the East.
Or the ride could continue out to the desert and they would never be heard from again.
It was a fictional version of a real event.
Two years ago I could have lent more detail and the show mentioned - I am(or was) famous for my memory - but I am still foggy from the damn COVID.
But the good news is I can watch Rockford Files again as between not watching it for a good 6 or 7 years - it had become too familiar thru repeat viewings - and COVID
I no longer recall every episode in detail.

Hey Dobie,
Sorry to hear about the COVID fog. My wife has a coworker who has really struggled with it for the last few years. It’s a pretty big problem if you’re a teacher trying to focus on the details of a lesson.
I almost added a comment on the story you refer to in my original post. The LAPD took some major liberties with their policing powers and the mob after WWII. The Gangster Squad was formed in 1946 and targeted Bugsy Siegel, Mickey Cohen, Jack Dragna, among others, using violence, or the threat of it, that would have gotten them indicted today. The movie Gangster Squad shows this as does Bugsy, with Warren Beatty. In one example I read about years ago it was even more blatant than the story you told. They literally “greeted” one of them at gunpoint getting off a train at Union Station and “escorted” them straight to an outgoing train, plus added a few bruises for the ride.

Pahonu,
I can't say I feel sorry for the thugs, though I understand you have to protect the rights of all so the innocents don't suffer.
Just by happenstance after I read your post I watched the 1977 Hawaii Five-O episode "Blood Money is Hard To Wash" from season 9.
The writers had to be inspired by the Gangster Squad, I kept thinking of your post while watching it.
Dane Clark is a newly arrived mainland hood intent on taking over the islands crime scene for the mob. McGarrett greets Clark with a list of departure times for planes back to the
mainland as well as other more severe tactics.

I'm a very happy camper, "freevee" is showing the complete run of Hawaii Five-O, I will now get to see all the missing season 10, 11 and 12 episodes that are no longer part
of the rerun packages that channels such as H & I run. It's been at least 30 years since I saw any of them. Book me some "freevee" viewing, Dan-o!

Enjoy the episodes! I ran through them about 6-7 years ago when they were all on Netflix, I think it was. The last two seasons aren’t great, but if it’s been a long time, it should be fun. My favorites are probably Stringer and the two-parter Number One with a Bullet from season 11 and the season opening two-parter A Lion in the Streets from season 12. Unfortunately, season 12 went downhill from there.

I don’t recall the episode you just watched from memory, but it sounds familiar. The mob hasn’t had much success out west, other than Las Vegas. LA and Seattle still have some minor activity, I’ve read, but nothing like Vegas. I’ve never read anything about them in Hawaii. The current Hawaiian Syndicate is definitely not of Italian descent. Many are Tongan and Samoan, etc…

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

I Dream of Jeannie, "My Master, the Author," Season Two Episode 16.
At the very start of the episode Jeannie and Major Nelson enter an art gallery. Jeannie spies a painting and dashes over to examine it more closely, exclaiming -
"Oh look master. It is an original 'Ansara'."
Barbara Eden's husband of course was the actor Michael Ansara, who played King Kamehameha in another episode of I Dream of Jeanie.
Syrian born Ansara played Kang the Klingon on three different Star Trek series. Star Trek, Deep Space Nine and Voyager.
Barbara Eden is a direct descendant of Ben Franklin.

Michael Ansara was in several of his wife's episodes of I DREAM OF JEANNIE. The most famous is probably him playing the Blue Djinn in the season 2 premiere episode - the first one broadcast in color. Then there was him playing King Kamehameha (in season 3 I believe) and also some famous movie star I think in another episode. He was also very good as Hawaiian mobster Piro Manoa in the excellent season 5 opener of HAWAII FIVE-O - "Death is a Company Policy". In that one Duke (Herman Wedemeyer) is set up in an elaborate frame-up that makes it appear as if he's the leak and inside man to the mob underworld.

Speaking of I DREAM OF JEANNIE I often wondered why BEWITCHED was the huge hit (I think it regularly ranked in the top 5 or so every season) but JEANNIE I don't even think broke the top 20 for any of its 5 seasons. They were the 2 supernatural comedies which seemed to be competing with each other and it looks like BEWITCHED easily won that competition. But I personally found BEWITCHED kinda dull and lacking the sharp humor and wit and zaniness of JEANNIE. It was just another family-based sitcom (of which there were so many), with witchcraft thrown in. But on JEANNIE the setting was NASA, it was set during the space-race, it felt more unique. Plus Dr. Bellows always noticing strange things going on and never being able to prove it was a great premise and it never got old. Whereas Endora's endless spells on Darrin got old really quick. At least for me. So she turns him into a cat, then a dog, then a frog, etc. Boooring... At least Dick York had a certain energy to him that saved some of those episodes. The Dick Sargent episodes are practically unwatchable. So yeah, JEANNIE for me was a much more exciting and funny show! Plus that great Hugo Montenegro theme!

Ivan,
I agree with you about Bewitched being inferior to I Dream of Jeanie. I would add to your points that Bewitched was purposely oriented to a more female demographic, at least according
to some writer who had done pieces on the series. I would concur because my sister and her friends really liked it.
I will admit Paul Lynde was hilarious on it, just as in Bye Bye Birdie he stole every scene.
Jeanie did more 'out there' low comedy like the Stooges, which was right up my alley as a kid.
And for some reason my father didn't mind watching it with me and my 4 older brothers as Barbara flounced around in her genie garb.
To this day she gets letters from smitten 14 year old boys, you'd think they'd do the math and realize she is in her 90's. Still, every year she comes to the Jersey shore and leads a
parade down the boardwalk.

 Pahonu wrote:
"Ansara was great in a Rockford Files episode called Joey Blue Eyes.
This was even before David (The Sopranos) Chases’s scripts led us to believe that LA was teeming with East Coast mobster types. LOL"

Hi Pahonu,
Ansara and Jim Garner had a real chemistry, you could see they were enjoying playing against each other.
I can't recall anymore which movie or TV series I saw it in back in the 80's, but it revolved around how the LA cops took some arriving big shot East Coast hoods for a ride around Union Station
and explained they could stop the car now and the hoods could get out and catch the next train for the East.
Or the ride could continue out to the desert and they would never be heard from again.
It was a fictional version of a real event.
Two years ago I could have lent more detail and the show mentioned - I am(or was) famous for my memory - but I am still foggy from the damn COVID.
But the good news is I can watch Rockford Files again as between not watching it for a good 6 or 7 years - it had become too familiar thru repeat viewings - and COVID
I no longer recall every episode in detail.

Hey Dobie,
Sorry to hear about the COVID fog. My wife has a coworker who has really struggled with it for the last few years. It’s a pretty big problem if you’re a teacher trying to focus on the details of a lesson.
I almost added a comment on the story you refer to in my original post. The LAPD took some major liberties with their policing powers and the mob after WWII. The Gangster Squad was formed in 1946 and targeted Bugsy Siegel, Mickey Cohen, Jack Dragna, among others, using violence, or the threat of it, that would have gotten them indicted today. The movie Gangster Squad shows this as does Bugsy, with Warren Beatty. In one example I read about years ago it was even more blatant than the story you told. They literally “greeted” one of them at gunpoint getting off a train at Union Station and “escorted” them straight to an outgoing train, plus added a few bruises for the ride.

Pahonu,
I can't say I feel sorry for the thugs, though I understand you have to protect the rights of all so the innocents don't suffer.
Just by happenstance after I read your post I watched the 1977 Hawaii Five-O episode "Blood Money is Hard To Wash" from season 9.
The writers had to be inspired by the Gangster Squad, I kept thinking of your post while watching it.
Dane Clark is a newly arrived mainland hood intent on taking over the islands crime scene for the mob. McGarrett greets Clark with a list of departure times for planes back to the
mainland as well as other more severe tactics.

I'm a very happy camper, "freevee" is showing the complete run of Hawaii Five-O, I will now get to see all the missing season 10, 11 and 12 episodes that are no longer part
of the rerun packages that channels such as H & I run. It's been at least 30 years since I saw any of them. Book me some "freevee" viewing, Dan-o!

"Blood Money Is Hard to Wash" is a top 5 episode from season 9 for me. Dane Clark is fantastic in it as Victor Jovanko (love that last name!) and I just love how increasingly irritable and unstable he becomes as McG squeezes the noose around his neck tighter and tighter. McG really takes harrassment to a whole other level. Of course the creep deserves it! Everywhere he looks he's got one of McG's men surveilling him. It starts with Jovanko trying to bribe McG and then escalates to multiple murder attempts on the top cop. So many great zingers in the episode too. "Hawaii is like Cleveland with coconuts" and some great lines from Jovanko about McG. Can't recall them right now. Terry Kiser and Jo Ann Worley are also good in the guest cast.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

IVAN wrote:
"Blood Money Is Hard to Wash" is a top 5 episode from season 9 for me. Dane Clark is fantastic in it as Victor Jovanko (love that last name!) and I just love how increasingly irritable and unstable he becomes as McG squeezes the noose around his neck tighter and tighter. McG really takes harrassment to a whole other level. Of course the creep deserves it! Everywhere he looks he's got one of McG's men surveilling him. It starts with Jovanko trying to bribe McG and then escalates to multiple murder attempts on the top cop. So many great zingers in the episode too. "Hawaii is like Cleveland with coconuts" and some great lines from Jovanko about McG. Can't recall them right now. Terry Kiser and Jo Ann Worley are also good in the guest cast."

Ivan,
I love what you wrote, especially your take on how Dane Clark wilts under McGarrett's pscyh campaign plus Jo Ann Worley's performance. Outside of Laugh In and Dobie Gillis - and spying her once in
the Oak Bar -this is the only thing I have seen her in.
I wanted to get her autograph at the Oak on a bar napkin but the girl I was with insistently talked me out of it; she was gone a week later along with my one shot to say hello and score Jo Ann's autograph.
Pahonu noted the last two seasons aren't that great but I'm on season 10 now and that isn't exactly going gangbusters either. Something just seems to be missing from the series, it doesn't snap,
I keep waiting for those terrific moments that occurred right before suddenly fading to the shot of ocean waves, then a commercial. Oh well, I can't wait to see the William Smith episodes
which I haven't seen since they were on CBS. When I was a kid I idolized him in "Laredo", and of course there was his memorable turn on Rockford where Jim leaves him tied up on a men's room
floor for any would be molesters at hand, the look on Smith's face priceless as he realizes his predicament.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The Friends of Joey Kalima" -
Steve McGarrett: If women are so smart, why do they dance backwards?

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

Pahonu noted the last two seasons aren't that great but I'm on season 10 now and that isn't exactly going gangbusters either. Something just seems to be missing from the series, it doesn't snap,
I keep waiting for those terrific moments that occurred right before suddenly fading to the shot of ocean waves, then a commercial.

You hit it square on the head, Dobie, when you mentioned those commercial breaks with the ocean wave. That's what really sets season 10 apart from the earlier seasons and that's what immediately got my attention when I was going through season 10 on Netflix some 12 years ago or so. All too often these "commercial waves" come in when nothing particularly shocking or exciting is happening on screen. Too often you find yourself yawning during these "wave" breaks because nothing exciting is happening. It's simply time for a commercial break. This was never the case during the earlier seasons. Sure, there were some exceptions but by and large the "wave" breaks came in during something pretty exciting happening on screen. Something that made you perk up. Season 10 was the first season where this no longer seemed to be the case. That's why most folks agree that season 10 is where the show for the first time seemed to lose some major steam and displayed a pretty big step down in quality. You can definitely feel it. Even though the core 4-man team from season 9 is still there (McGarrett, Danno, Chin, Duke) you can tell that this DOES NOT feel like an extension of season 9. In fact there was a change in producers and writers right at the start of season 10. Robert Janes is probably the #1 new name that you see from here on out that you didn't see before. He wrote like half the episodes this season. Writers like Jerome Coopersmith or directors like Michael O'Herlihy are gone by this point. I don't know if it was the new writers/producers or just the general trend TV took at the time but the show definitely felt different starting with season 10. More laid-back, lack of urgency, not as gripping. Seemed like they were coasting, reusing a lot of plot points from earlier seasons but with none of the excitement or sense of danger. McGarrett began to slow down, started being more preachy and philosophical. Lots of special favors for the governor this season that McGarrett had to handle (often to his dislike), many dealing with various high society or snooty friends of the governor.

I know that different folks have different opinions about when Five-O was at its peak. Generally season 6 is considered to be the show's peak - some of the most disturbing episodes aired during that season ("One Big Happy Family" and "Nightmare in Blue" in particular). Then there was a slight drop in quality starting with season 7. Some feel that the show rebounded with season 8. Personally I feel that season 7 is stronger than season 8 and that season 9 is stronger than season 8 also. But these are minor quibbles. The bottom line is that even if there was some drop in quality it was pretty insignificant. Those seasons still offered some knock-out episodes. Not so with season 10. My favorite from this season is "Tsunami". But that's about it. All the others are watchable in their own right but none of them really grab you in any significant way. There was a clear downward shift with season 10. No doubt about it.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

The In Joke Wanted Poster Strikes Again!

77 Sunset Strip - "Adventure in San Dede" (Season 5 episode 10) Dec. 14,1962

This is a fun tongue in cheek episode, deftly skewering the American detective in exotic South America plot line, as in many Robert Mitchum films.
One of the best in the series.

The prison itself is a 3 story Burbank motel that they turned into a prison by merely putting one searchlight and two bored guards looking down onto the motel courtyard from the 3rd floor.
One side of the courtyard is completely open to the street! This is so over the top phony, it obviously was done for laughs.

About 24 minutes in there is a scene in the shabby Prison Commandant's Office.
On the wall behind Jeff Spencer(Roger Smith) and J.R. Hale( Robert Logan) is a wanted poster for 500 pesos featuring a sombrero clad man.
Actually he is movie comedy legend Lou Costello, in a still swiped from Mexican Hayride(1948).

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

"Caution: Easter Bunny Crossing" Season 11 Episode 25 (March 29, 1970)

Art Metrano and his 3 comically inept brothers, hoods from NYC, are about to waylay a shipment of silver.
Art is cutting down a tree to block the road but it falls the wrong way -

Art: "Well what do I know about chopping trees? How many trees grow in Brooklyn?"

This in joke is a reference to the once widely known book 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn'.

That title was also used in a Bugs Bunny cartoon when Bugs is cornered in an ally by a pack of tough Bowery Boys type dogs sporting derbies.
When Bug picks up a book to hurl at them in self defense, the dogs suddenly stop and run off to their new destination, the book title
revealed to be, of course, 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn'.

This Bonanza episode is fondly remembered by fans for the sight of the huge Dan Blocker(Hoss) hopping around in a Easter Bunny costume, later engaging the outlaws in battle by throwing
colored hard boiled Easter eggs at them. Once seen you will never forget the biggest bunny to ever come down the pike.

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All in the Family Season Seven Episode 13 "The Baby Contest" -

"They can't vote, Edith. Your relatives all live over in Jersey, with all the other people that don't care about life."
...Archie Bunker