The obligatory plane crash and survivors story, but a successful variation on the oft-repeated theme. Captain Greer's assignment is to transport aged and dying gangster Tony Lando to a place where he can divulge his great secret in a grand gesture. Greer inexplicably arranges to fly Lando on a commercial flight and on a bargain basement airline. That ill-conceived plan quickly goes awry, of course.
Pete, Linc, and Greer go it alone this time, leaving Julie behind I suspect to complete filming her many scenes in "Hello, Mother, My Name is Julie." Filmed on location, "Flight Five" is a more ambitious than average episode and likely required more time, though the location is nearby Bronson Canyon.
The guest cast is presented in a lineup as each man presents himself at undercover airline steward Pete's ticket counter. In addition to Lando and his mouthpiece Max, there's the self-important surgeon, the freaked-out first-time flyer kissing his mezuzah, and the returning Vietnam vet, who gets a hearty handshake and "welcome home" from Pete in what may have been an eyebrow-raising scene for the program's counterculture demographic.
On the heels of that comes Linc's own discordant scene. Linc, undercover flight engineer, asks the black pilot why he's not flying for a major airline. Slapping down the race card, the embittered pilot replies, "For the same reason Satchel Paige isn't in the Baseball Hall of Fame." Instead of taking the opportunity to knock the chip off the pilot's shoulder, Linc blithely agrees with him, which not only tacitly condoned the pilot's racism but shined a light into an ugly corner of Linc's character.
Fortunately, the audience isn't given time to dwell on these conflicted attempts at character development as the action quickly escalates. The plane is hijacked, forced to crash land, and the survivors soon learn the truth. Caught between the good guys and the bad guys are the stuffed-shirt surgeon Jay Milton and the radio repairman and professional nebbish Sol Albert, played perfectly by Russ Conway and Marvin Kaplan. So effective and endearing was Kaplan's comedic Sol Albert that he was invited back the following season to reprise his role in "And in This Corner, Sol Alpert."
The villains of the piece can be divided between the sympathetic bad guy seeking redemption and the unrepentantly rotten ones. Broken-down mobster Tony Lando has only six months to live and has found religion, praying for his erstwhile enemy Greer and clutching the miraculous medal (the Catholic complement to Kaplan's Jewish mezuzah). Tony has forgiven his nemesis Greer for sending him to prison so long ago. Through this ordeal, Tony, like the good thief Dismas, has found salvation. Mocking Tony's prayers is Bobby Willoughby, glancing conspiratorially to his latter-day Judas accomplice.
A highlight of the episode is the humbled Dr. Milton guiding Linc through a life-saving surgery. "Surgery's not a mystery, just mechanics," says Milton, encouraging his reluctant student. The scene does flirt with parody when Pete dabs away the sweat beads from Linc's face, underscored later by Pete calling Linc "Dr. Kildare." But the soberness of the scene prevails, and I hoped this bond forged between Linc and Greer would be remembered and referenced in future episodes.
"Flight Five Doesn't Answer" is a consistently suspenseful and entertaining episode that Pete and Linc bring in for a smooth landing with memorable last lines: "After today, man, I really believe that the best things in life are free. Just being alive." Amen to that.
PS: If you enjoyed this episode's plot, it was reworked for the first season SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN episode "Survival of the Fittest." Among the similarities: phony servicemen aboard the plane with orders to assassinate a prominent figure, a character named Bobby, an amateur has to perform emergency surgery under the guidance of an older, wiser character, and in the end the comic relief learns she had boarded the wrong plane. (One big minus for the SMDM story was its being larded with a soapy romance, but outweighing that misstep was its boasting William Smith as a guest star!).
Pete, Linc, and Greer go it alone this time, leaving Julie behind I suspect to complete filming her many scenes in "Hello, Mother, My Name is Julie." Filmed on location, "Flight Five" is a more ambitious than average episode and likely required more time, though the location is nearby Bronson Canyon.
The guest cast is presented in a lineup as each man presents himself at undercover airline steward Pete's ticket counter. In addition to Lando and his mouthpiece Max, there's the self-important surgeon, the freaked-out first-time flyer kissing his mezuzah, and the returning Vietnam vet, who gets a hearty handshake and "welcome home" from Pete in what may have been an eyebrow-raising scene for the program's counterculture demographic.
On the heels of that comes Linc's own discordant scene. Linc, undercover flight engineer, asks the black pilot why he's not flying for a major airline. Slapping down the race card, the embittered pilot replies, "For the same reason Satchel Paige isn't in the Baseball Hall of Fame." Instead of taking the opportunity to knock the chip off the pilot's shoulder, Linc blithely agrees with him, which not only tacitly condoned the pilot's racism but shined a light into an ugly corner of Linc's character.
Fortunately, the audience isn't given time to dwell on these conflicted attempts at character development as the action quickly escalates. The plane is hijacked, forced to crash land, and the survivors soon learn the truth. Caught between the good guys and the bad guys are the stuffed-shirt surgeon Jay Milton and the radio repairman and professional nebbish Sol Albert, played perfectly by Russ Conway and Marvin Kaplan. So effective and endearing was Kaplan's comedic Sol Albert that he was invited back the following season to reprise his role in "And in This Corner, Sol Alpert."
The villains of the piece can be divided between the sympathetic bad guy seeking redemption and the unrepentantly rotten ones. Broken-down mobster Tony Lando has only six months to live and has found religion, praying for his erstwhile enemy Greer and clutching the miraculous medal (the Catholic complement to Kaplan's Jewish mezuzah). Tony has forgiven his nemesis Greer for sending him to prison so long ago. Through this ordeal, Tony, like the good thief Dismas, has found salvation. Mocking Tony's prayers is Bobby Willoughby, glancing conspiratorially to his latter-day Judas accomplice.
A highlight of the episode is the humbled Dr. Milton guiding Linc through a life-saving surgery. "Surgery's not a mystery, just mechanics," says Milton, encouraging his reluctant student. The scene does flirt with parody when Pete dabs away the sweat beads from Linc's face, underscored later by Pete calling Linc "Dr. Kildare." But the soberness of the scene prevails, and I hoped this bond forged between Linc and Greer would be remembered and referenced in future episodes.
"Flight Five Doesn't Answer" is a consistently suspenseful and entertaining episode that Pete and Linc bring in for a smooth landing with memorable last lines: "After today, man, I really believe that the best things in life are free. Just being alive." Amen to that.
PS: If you enjoyed this episode's plot, it was reworked for the first season SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN episode "Survival of the Fittest." Among the similarities: phony servicemen aboard the plane with orders to assassinate a prominent figure, a character named Bobby, an amateur has to perform emergency surgery under the guidance of an older, wiser character, and in the end the comic relief learns she had boarded the wrong plane. (One big minus for the SMDM story was its being larded with a soapy romance, but outweighing that misstep was its boasting William Smith as a guest star!).
