A school teacher comes under fire for something. This episode is a great example of how a crowd can get whipped up into a frenzy. This episode shows kids Trick or Treating on Halloween. I would think this episode could possibly be one of the earliest references to razor blades being put into apples at Halloween. Even nowadays people warn kids about that topic. There is a very scary sequence in which a trailer home is being attacked by a crowd of angry people. This is scary because it is VERY true that people can be whipped up into a frenzy and be influenced by other people into doing things that are best not done.
2 Reviews
Powerful Episode
kgraovac30 November 2023
This is one of the best-written episodes of Season 3 and a series' best. If you're looking for lots of action or intrigue, you won't find it here. But is IS an excellent character study as well as a subtle "message" show that is just as relevant in 2023 as it was in 1970, with all the controversy these days surrounding public education and activist educators with an agenda.
One of Julie's former teachers is suspended for teaching sex education, unwillingly finding herself a pariah in a smear campaign involving an upcoming election. Skeletons are pulled out of her closet and a spiteful child's vicious lies bring things to a boiling point, where a lynch mob is out for blood.
We see some friction in this episode between Julie and Greer when she defies an order and leaks her name to the press, but Pete and Linc have her back.
Jo Van Fleet is excellent as the controversial teacher Miss Crabtree. I only remember her from playing a shrieking harridan on ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS and as the housemother on SATAN'S SCHOOL FOR GIRLS and you really feel sorry for her here.
This was the first TV gig for Jewel Blanch, who plays the little witch responsible for stoking the hate mob. Her co-hort with a conscience, Cindy Eilbacher, was already an experienced child actress by this point - even appearing in the infamous MY MOTHER THE CAR (1965-66).
One of Julie's former teachers is suspended for teaching sex education, unwillingly finding herself a pariah in a smear campaign involving an upcoming election. Skeletons are pulled out of her closet and a spiteful child's vicious lies bring things to a boiling point, where a lynch mob is out for blood.
We see some friction in this episode between Julie and Greer when she defies an order and leaks her name to the press, but Pete and Linc have her back.
Jo Van Fleet is excellent as the controversial teacher Miss Crabtree. I only remember her from playing a shrieking harridan on ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS and as the housemother on SATAN'S SCHOOL FOR GIRLS and you really feel sorry for her here.
This was the first TV gig for Jewel Blanch, who plays the little witch responsible for stoking the hate mob. Her co-hort with a conscience, Cindy Eilbacher, was already an experienced child actress by this point - even appearing in the infamous MY MOTHER THE CAR (1965-66).
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