uber_geek Reviews

Hart to Hart: The Wayward Hart (1983) Season 4, Episode 18

A different kind of mystery

[9/10 · 15 May 2021]

It's Max's turn to go on vacation. They kid him a bit about being so predictable as he always goes to Vegas, when he leaves, when he calls to check in, etc. They give him a Cuban cigar, which he decides to save it for when he wins The next day, after Max leaves, the Harts find out the cigar has pesticides and the cigar store owner, who had smoked one, dies.

To make things worse, they find that Max has decided to get out of his rut and go somewhere else. So the hunt is on to find him before he smokes his winning cigar.

It's a different kind of Hart to Hart where there aren't any nefarious bad guys wanting to kill Jennifer, Jonathan or both. But Max isn't easy to find as he's joined a private porker game in a secret location. Amanda Blake (Miss Kitty in Gunsmoke) makes an appearance although it's short and not a lot of lines. It's nice to see her, never the less.

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson: Bob Hope/Michael Landon/Freddie Prinze/Don Rickles/Carol Wayne (1974) Season Unknown, Episode Unknown

One of the most hilarious Carson shows!

[10/10 · 27 April 2021]

Even though some of the jokes are more for the "inside" audience of affiliates who are attending, this show is a riot. Bob Hope comes on only briefly, but has to leave. But Don Rickles, Michael Landon and 19 y-o up-and-comer, Freddie Prinze, were hysterical. Note: You will not hear jokes like this today--lots of ethnic humor and politically incorrect.

There is no music on this show as there was a strike going on at the time. It's a shame when you know both Freddie Prinze and Carol Wayne both died at tragically young ages.

Hart to Hart: Murder Is a Man's Best Friend (1980) Season 2, Episode 4

Freeway is the only star in this dud episode

[5/10 · 27 March 2021]

The best thing about this episode is Freeway...and Max to a lesser degree. The bad guys plot is not really clear. At first it's like they're making an addictive dog food so once the dog is hooked, he'll attack his owner to get it and won't eat anything else. So it seems the only motive is supposed to be money, (although in reality, people would probably get rid of their dog if it did that.)

Max takes Freeway in the park and they end up participating in a tryout for a dog food commercial. He doesn't believe Freeway will touch it because Max makes him a homemade dinner, but Freeway gobbles it down. Max also gets several sample cans of the food as well as of course, winning a spot in the commercial. So you wonder: is Freeway going to snap at the Harts or Max? Freeway never does that, but he won't touch even Max's special, homemade dinner after they run out of the canned food. He's also acting very lethargic. The Harts eventually meet up with the bad guys as the company is (of course) one of theirs. The woman is just weird and you wonder what steroids she's taking as she seems really aggressive and wants to get Jonathan in a "clinch." The guy is in a wheel chair, insinuating that an accident with the woman put him there. There's also a marketing man who is involved until he finds out that they plan to create people food also and after he wants out; they kill him before he can warn the Harts.

Meanwhile the Harts host a party. Stanley Friesen (the stereotypical accountant) is now a semi-regular. He and a couple of other guests bring out what they think is pate from the kitchen, but it's actually the dog food. They can't seem to get enough and their behavior confirms the Harts' suspicions of the dog food affecting Freeway's personality. The rest is the typical formulaic getting the bad guys and foiling their plot. But this is hardly the world takeover using people's pets, which is where it sounded like it was going in the beginning.

60 Minute Makeover (2004– )

Hideous

[1/10 · 24 August 2020]

It's a 60 minute makeover and it looks it. Honestly, the one I saw, with Terri Dwyer, they had so many "art" mirrors, I thought they were going to hang a disco ball in the bedroom. The friend that got the surprise was polite, but it looked like she wasn't that sure that she liked it.

The Wild Wild West: The Night of the Diva (1969) Season 4, Episode 20

Could have been better with just one change...

[7/10 · 17 February 2020]

It makes no sense that it's obviously a man playing Caroline Mason up until the end. A woman with a lower voice register could have certainly played this and made the twist all the more interesting. Also if the character's vocal cords were damaged during a fire, it's pretty certain that her face would have been also, just like the Phantom of the Opera.

A Royal Christmas Ball (2017 TV Movie)

Nothing Good About This

[3/10 · 14 December 2019]

Ingo Rademacher is definitely easy on the eyes, but this script is a dog. Topping that, they didn't even bother to get an actor to play Lily who had blue eyes. (It is genetically impossible for two blue-eyed people to have a brown-eyed child.) Even overlooking that, the script is formulaic and predictable.

Small Town Santa (2014)

Better than the ratings suggest

[7/10 · 14 December 2019]

This is a charming TV movie. First off, Paul Hopper (Santa) is perfect in the role. I don't know why we haven't seen more of him. Mark Boyd superbly plays a down and out former real estate agent Raynor who makes of with the Baby Jesus from the church so he can spend Christmas in a warm cell instead of out in the cold. Sheriff Rick Langston is the Grinch of the story as his ex-wife is not letting him come over for Christmas to see his daughter. The Sheriff goes home to find a man claiming to be Santa making a sandwich in his house and arrests him. The story that unfolds is more about the belief in goodness and love and not shutting yourself off from the magic in life. There is, of course, a budding romance and everyone in the end get what they really want (and need).

The Cool Kids (2018–2019)

Great cast, but the writing's abysmal

[3/10 · 22 January 2019]

It's a real shame that such a great cast of comedic actors have such ridiculous lines to deal with. It sounds like the work of someone in high school. In fact, the main writer's bio shows that this is the only show he's worked on. Maybe actors David Alan Grier,Martin Mull, Vicki Lawrence and Jamie Farr should work on the scripts.

I'd also like seeing other comedic guest stars pop in.

Murdoch Mysteries: Winston's Lost Night (2013) Season 6, Episode 2

Unequally Yoked

[4/10 · 3 July 2017]

This episode missed on several points. You have a young Winston Churchill at approx age of 26, who finds himself in his room allegedly passed out from a drinking binge. His friend is found dead in the same room with Churchill having no memory of what happened.

While most of Murdoch episodes do stick to historical truths, this episode swerves off into political correctness, having Churchill praising the equivalent of modern-day Islamic extremists. While on their bar hopping, he discovers that he made a speech, shaming the treatment of Muslims regarding their religion. This was not the case factually as Churchill was not an admirer of Islam.

But it ends up being an episode where Churchill and Murdoch go from place to place finding out what trouble the former got himself into. Churchill is portrayed as a pompous bore and a drunk.

Dr. Ogden (who can't seem to decide what she wants to do these days) pops in to try out her new found psychology to save the day. Murdoch is elated when she tells him that Darcy wants to get the annulment over and they are going to court today. All they have to do is lie to the judge and tell him the marriage was never consummated.

Later Murdoch finds that she can't bring herself to lie to the judge. But when he brings up the issue of divorce conflicting with his beliefs, she curses God and basically expects Murdoch to give up his Catholic beliefs for her. They are obviously unequally yoked as he is profoundly religious and she's, at best, agnostic. But, like Adam, he gives in to his Eve and decides in matters of love, any love has to be right. I liked their budding romance up until then.

Passengers (I) (2016)

Boring and Contrived

[5/10 · 15 January 2017]

The more I think about this movie, the more irritated I get that it wasn't better. Passengers is neither a good sci-fi nor a good romance. There are also way too many plot holes. It's Castaway meets Titanic.

Jim is an engineer who has a budget class ticket to the Homestead Colony planet that will take 120 years to reach. The ship holds 5,000 total passengers, plus a crew, all in suspended animation. After a meteor shower takes some of the systems down, his pod wakes him up prematurely--90 years prematurely.

As a castaway on the ship with only a robot bartender to talk to, he spends the first year trying to fix his pod and then trying to get to the crew, who are unfortunately behind a fortress he can't breach. And he's drinking...a lot of drinking to the point he almost walks outside the ship without a suit to end it all. Then he sees Aurora in her pod and falls for her. He reads her profile and fights his desire to wake her up, knowing it's an eventual death sentence since they're decades away from their destination. Of course, he succumbs, but tells himself and the bartender that he'll tell her that he's the reason she awoke prematurely...eventually.

After the shock of waking up 89 years early, wears off somewhat, Aurora hits it off with Jim. She's a writer who planned to travel to round trip to Homestead and then back to earth, even though she would arrive home some 250 years later. Just as everything seems to be going great, she finds out what Jim did out of loneliness and wants nothing to do with him (understandably).

And that's one problem: Jim was so selfish, he was willing to destroy someone else's life just for his need to have a human companion.

Another problem is why anyone would want a trip that would take 120 years and your family and friends back on earth will be long gone. Aurora's father has died, but you see a video of a going away party her friends gave her, sad in the knowledge they'd never see her again. You don't get much backstory on Jim, except that he wants to be needed for his skill set instead of living in the throwaway society of Earth.

Unlike the audience, Jim seems to be too preoccupied with winning back Aurora to notice that the ship's systems are starting to fail. Suddenly Gus (Laurence Fishburne) appears, who's the ship's engineer and also a victim of a pod malfunction. Almost immediately, however, he is in medical distress because of his early awakening and his sole purpose seems to be to give Jim and Aurora a bracelet that will allow them access to the ship's restricted areas so Jim can fix the problem before the ship explodes.

The first part of the movie is extremely monotonous and it doesn't take much to make Jim start to go off the deep end. You've got to wonder why the robot bartender is activated when it's supposed to be 90 more years before the first people wake up. The rest of the movie stretches both physics and imagination as Jim and Aurora try to fix the ship before it blows up.

Star Trek: Voyager: Prey (1998) Season 4, Episode 16

Why hasn't the crew mutinied?

[4/10 · 29 October 2016]

Janeway is the worst captain. You'd think the priority would be to get back to the alpha quadrant. I can understand some exploration along the way, but Janeway keeps insisting that they stop and involve themselves with species that are known to be hostile instead of getting the heck out of their space. First it was the Borg and now it's the Hirogen and species 8472. What happened to the prime directive?

In this episode, Seven was clearly right--both of these species are extremely dangerous and no doubt the winner of the "hunt" would then turn on the helpful crew who healed them. What gets me is Janeway is acting in a reckless manner. But it's amazing that the crew, particularly Tuvock, Belanna and Tom Paris who are logical and/or have been renegades previously put up with a captain who acts like this. Especially now that they've heard from home! But they act like drones. Only Seven is making sense.

The Wild Wild West: The Night of the Human Trigger (1965) Season 1, Episode 12

Falls Flat

[4/10 · 1 May 2016]

Even Burgess Meredith can't help this one.

Meredith plays an absent-minded heavy who is saddled with two sons who are dumb as a box of rocks. As much as I normally love WWW's crazy plot twists with megalomaniac world conquerors, this one falls as flat as Orkney Cadwallader (Meredith)'s plot to seize control by causing earthquakes.

In addition to his sons, he has a daughter who is clever, but is also preoccupied with finding a proper suitor. She spends most of her time either fawning over West or wanting to kill him. There's no love lost on her father, either, whom she sees a limiting the number of potential beaus.

Most of the early episodes were well written, but this one fizzles out like wet dynamite.

Cheyenne: The Mutton Puncher (1957) Season 3, Episode 3

You're a Whole Lot of Woman Too, if You Don't Mind My Saying So

[9/10 · 24 April 2016]

So says Cheyenne after meeting Thora Flagg, once widowed and once divorced from a gambler as she explains. Cheyenne has just gotten off the trail as foreman with his friend Ben Creed. He refuses to continue on because he realizes Creed is a scoundrel who pays his men a bonus, but then buys drink and holds poker games where he cheats his men out of their wages, forcing them to sign up for another drive. Creed tricks Cheyenne by having him waylaid and then coming to the rescue, so he feels obligated to Creed.

Meanwhile, they come across Thora Flagg who's wagon has overturned with her underneath and help the crusty gal out. Cheyenne soon believes Creed and Thora have a lot in common, especially after she wins Cheyenne's help with her herd in a poker game. She tricks Creed into thinking she's a novice poker player and then cheats him at his own game.

But while Cheyenne admires grit and cleverness, he is floored when the herd he's suppose to help get to market isn't cattle, but sheep!

This story is one of the best of the series...and you must watch until the end to see the final plot twist.

Murder, She Wrote: Who Killed J.B. Fletcher? (1991) Season 7, Episode 14

Delightful Episode with an All-Star Cast

[10/10 · 27 November 2015]

In this episode, Angela Lansbury is joined by a group of classic movie and TV actresses, including former child actresses Margaret O'Brien and Jane Withers.

Jessica Fletcher has just gotten off a book signing tour in Dallas, TX only to hear her name in a news report stating that she had been arrested and released in a nearby town. She travels there only to have to prove to the gruff, suspicious Sheriff Tanner (Earl Holliman) that SHE is the real J.B. Fletcher by buying a drugstore paperback with her photo on the back. She finds out the name of the impostor's friend who bailed her out and finds they are both members of the J.B. Fletcher Literary Society. It turns out one of the women owns a print shop and made all the members fake photo IDs for fun with J.B. Fletcher's name. She learns the impostor's husband is a state senator whom she didn't want to embarrass with the arrest and so used the fake ID.

It gets worse when the impostor makes an accusation to the wrong person and is killed, causing the news to announce the death of Jessica Fletcher. In addition to realizing friends and family are going to think she's dead, the real Jessica has to deal with her credit cards being canceled as well as solving the mystery of what turns out to be three deaths. Helping her, of course, are her exuberant fans from the J.B. Fletcher Literary Society, sometimes with means that aren't totally legal.

Max Baer makes a short, but well done, guest appearance and you realize it's a shame he was type-cast as Jethro.

McMillan & Wife: The Devil You Say (1973) Season 3, Episode 2

Waste of Wynn's and Klemperer's talents

[4/10 · 28 May 2015]

This is a Halloween themed episode that falls flat. Keenan Wynn and Werner Klemperer are guest stars in a very hokey episode about devil worshiping cultists who are after Sally. The episode has no redeeming value and is a total waste of Wynn's and Klemperer's talents. It's not campy or funny and it's certainly not scary; there are no real plot surprises or twists. It starts out when Mildred opens a door at the hospital only to see someone being strangled, but when others arrive to her screams, no one is there. At first, it seems like Mildred's being "gas-lighted," but then the plot jumps to satanic cults, past life regressions and other nonsense. At that time in the 70's, scary movies involving witchcraft and satanic cults were becoming popular. Later that same year (1973), The Exorcist was released. Unfortunately, this was an overall poor and unbelievable plot for this show.

Murder, She Wrote: The Great Twain Robbery (1990) Season 7, Episode 8

A Disappointment for Jessica Fletcher Fans

[5/10 · 8 March 2015]

Angela Landsbury makes a brief appearance and then disappears. We are left with the character of Dennis Stanton, insurance investigator. Even with Keith Michell and Roy Dotrice, the story falls flat. It revolves around a forged manuscript, allegedly written by Mark Twain, (ridiculously entitled 'Wild, wicked wench'). The manuscript is authenticated and on display, about to go on auction when it's conveniently destroyed by a fire. Dennis Stanton (Michell) investigates since it's his company that insured the manuscript for 5 million.

I don't know if Angela Landsbury had to be absent for another commitment or they were trying to create a spin-off. But it doesn't work.

Rawhide: Incident in the Garden of Eden (1960) Season 2, Episode 32

A Great Episode for Eastwood Fans

[9/10 · 13 September 2014]

Wishbone gives Rowdy money to purchase 150 replacement cattle before Mr. Favor returns. (Now as to why you would purchase more cattle, unless you think you'll make a good profit on them in the end is a bit odd to me as you're going to lose some on a trail drive. But maybe something happened to lose that many that they don't know want Mr. Favor to know about.)

Rowdy comes to a town where the saloon seems to be more of an English pub and Rowdy quickly becomes a fish out of water with their expressions and mannerisms. When asks about the whereabouts of the man, Ashley, who is the owner of the herd he wishes to purchase, he is told Ashley won't sell the cattle to him. Undaunted, he runs into Ashley's daughter Laura (played by the exotic looking Debra Paget) who has heard of his interest and is eager to make the sale so she and her father can travel back to England. She takes him to their home, which is a huge Georgian style mansion.

Ashley turns out to be a very nice English gentleman who welcomes Rowdy to his home, but who seems unwilling to sell him the cattle without talking to his foreman, Winch (played by John Ireland). Ashley, however, insists on Rowdy dining with them and staying the night. Since the herd will meet them near there, he reasons business discussions can come later. There's a very funny scene where the butler insists on helping Rowdy dress for dinner in a loaned black tux and white tie while his own dirty clothes are being washed and *shudder* pressed!

From there, the show becomes a mystery of what hold a foreman has over the old gentleman. I won't give anything away because it's well worth watching.

Remington Steele: Elegy in Steele (1984) Season 2, Episode 16

Lame 10 minute plot stretched into 60

[4/10 · 18 May 2014]

I'm a big fan of the show, but they sure missed on this one! Major Descoine spent time in jail because of the Remington Steele detective agency, while his wife committed suicide rather than do jail time and wants revenge. While Mildred is on an early lunch date, Descoine shows up and tells them they will be dead by noon. He then pitches a smoke bomb and runs out the office. They see him in the elevator as the elevator doors close, but instead of one taking to the staircase, while the other calls the police (as anyone sensible would do). They spend time analyzing the scarf that he left behind as a clue and that leads to a country club.

From then on, the show becomes an unexciting game of cat and mouse with Descoine being aided by his daughter, Minor. Descoine is always one step ahead and has, even more unbelievably, managed to steal one of Laura's childhood diaries. This gives him the location to a childhood hideout, a drainage area that seems unlikely for Laura to have played in considering her reaction to the rats they find. They also seem to have the idea that if they just make it to noon and stay alive, they will somehow be free and clear. It's all very contrived and not remotely believable, even for this show.

Thriller: A Good Imagination (1961) Season 1, Episode 31

Another Excellent Thriller from the Pen of Robert Bloch

[10/10 · 17 May 2014]

Robert Bloch, best known for writing the Hitchcock-produced Psycho, has always been one of my favorite authors. This one doesn't disappoint and Edward Andrews portrays bookstore owner Frank Logan in his usual outward milquetoast manner containing an evil streak. Frank's problem is his wife Louise has a bad habit of taking up with young male lovers.

Because of her dalliances, there's empathy for Frank's character as his wife and her lovers think he's none the wiser and they can just assault his dignity. But Frank is an avid reader and his beloved selection of books give him ideas on how take out her current boyfriend and get away with it. Afterwards, he torments his wife by indirectly hinting his involvement, which causes Louise, through her brother, to hire a private detective to look into the matter. Frank soon dispatches both of them, making it look like an accident before moving Louise out to a remote area home for her "health." When Louise yet again takes another lover, this time the good-looking, local handyman, Frank plots an ingenious method from an Edgar Allen Poe tale to take care of the two lovers and rid himself of his unfaithful wife. There's a nice twist at the end that I won't give away here.

The Love Boat: El Kid/The Last Hundred Bucks/Isosceles Triangle (1978) Season 2, Episode 13

Dabney Coleman and Rue McClanahan make this episode worth watching

[7/10 · 27 April 2014]

The synopsis for this is wrong regarding matching titles to their stories, btw.

"El Kid" had Robert Urich and his real-life wife Heather Menzies-Urich as a couple going to Mexico to pick up an adopted baby. Now this really makes no sense because most people would have flown down and back. They've set up the cabin like a nursery, complete with crib! What if the baby became sick and needed something more than a ship's doctor? Of course, what happens is they get down there and the Padre tells them that the mother decided to keep her baby. In a little Padre bait-and-switch, he tells them there's another child who needs a home, a boy named Pepito (who just swiped Urich's sunglasses) and who is basically a sticky-fingered thief. After remarkably little convincing, they decide to take him instead. Plot from there is predictable.

However, "The Last Hundred Bucks" with Dabney Coleman and Rue McClanahan make the episode worth watching. Coleman is Van Milner, an ad exec who had been fired from the company he created and hasn't found work for over a year due to age discrimination. He decides to blow the rest of his money on a cruise. He runs into a friend, Wes and his wife, who have brought along a friend, April (McClanahan). April's mind can't seem to get off her business (she's in charge of a hospital), even while on vacation. The couple set her up with Van hoping she be distracted away from her business worries. None of the other three realize Van will soon be down to his last hundred bucks. As Van and April are falling for each other, Van makes the mistake of tell his fair-weather friend Wes of his plight and asks him for a job. April who has been worrying about marketing the hospital talks to Van about hiring him. But Wes pulls her aside later and tells her about Van before he can tell her himself. Wes makes it sound like Van may be romancing her just to get a job. She breaks up with him and a despondent Van puts his last hundred dollars on a roulette table and amazingly (yes, but it's Love Boat) wins back several thousand dollars while April looks on, flabbergasted. Even more so when he takes his winnings and give it to April for the hospital. Of course, everything works out from there.

The third story is a bit of silliness called the "Isosceles Triangle" where the Captain and Doc vie for Julie's friend, played by Connie Stevens. Gopher and Issac have a bet on who will win.

The Big Bang Theory: The Alien Parasite Hypothesis (2010) Season 4, Episode 10

Not their best

[4/10 · 26 July 2013]

Full disclosure--I really dislike the character of Amy Farrah Fowler. While the guys are nerdy, but funny, she is just weird and not funny. And why are the women on this show with brains (with the exception of Bernadette) purposely made to look homely and expressionless? In this episode Amy veers away from her usual lesbian leaning commentary when she becomes attracted to one of Penny's old boyfriends. Of course, she can't figure out "what's wrong" and why she feels the way she does. Is she sick? She and Sheldon try to diagnose her problem--hence the title.

Meanwhile Wolowitz and Koothrappali are in a debate as to which of them would be the hero vs. the sidekick if they got super powers. Yeah--that's it. It's very disappointing and has none of the usual clever banter.

Bachelor Father: Bentley and the Woodpecker (1961) Season 4, Episode 17

Overly silly episode in an otherwise good series

[5/10 · 19 May 2013]

After laughing at his neighbor's seeming overreaction to a woodpecker keeping him awake at night, the neighbor is able to shoo the bird in Bentley's direction. Then Bentley finds he's not only dealing with a noisy bird but a nosy reporter who humorously chronicles his attempts to get rid of the bird.

While I enjoy this series, this episode becomes unbelievable silly because, of course, woodpeckers don't actually peck/feed at night. (If there had been a light left on that confused the bird, that might have worked.) From personal experience, woodpeckers will hammer on your gutters the minute the sun starts coming up, like an alarm clock, however.

Thriller: Portrait Without a Face (1961) Season 2, Episode 14

So many holes you could shoot an arrow through it!

[6/10 · 8 October 2012]

I watched this primarily because I saw John Banner was going to be in it. I like a good mystery/suspense and this looked like a good locked room type mystery with a little of the supernatural thrown in. Unfortunately it deploys cheats (not playing fair when giving you the clues necessary to solve the mystery) and by having reveals that are impossible because of previous facts asserted.

Narcissistic artist, Robertson Moffat, gets an arrow to the head by a hooded shooter with a bow and arrow who stood on a balcony and shot through an open skylight. Several months after his death, a gallery representative, Arthur Henshaw, comes to take some of the paintings back, presumably to sale. The wife unlocks and opens the studio door and tells him he can take any and all that he wants, even the blank canvas. Of course when Arthur looks at that canvas there's a partially finished painting showing the upper torso painted of the dead artist in the crime scene. As the story goes on more of the painting gets filled in and the killer will soon be revealed. Furthermore an expert in Moffat's art (Banner) incredibly concludes that it must be the artist although he can't believe that's possible.

I agreed with the other reviewer--the cackling sister was extremely annoying. Leaving her out would have improved the story. Then, just before the revelation of who-done-it, Arthur confesses that he has been the artist of the supernatural painting of the crime scene in order to trap the killer. However it's never explained how 1) Arthur got into the room to paint the first part when the door was locked by the only key to the studio, which the wife now has (this fact is stressed early on); 2) Conveniently, Arthur just happens to be an expert at copying other painter's styles and so was able to fool Banner's character; 3) Why the killer uses a bow and arrow to kill Moffat when he or she could have taken a much more direct method and still left no fingerprints.

Quincy M.E.: Memories of Allison (1981) Season 7, Episode 1

Interesting Start, but Leads to a Lackluster Ending

[5/10 · 2 September 2012]

This Quincy started out as an interesting case of amnesia when a frightened, young woman takes a fall down an escalator being perused by someone no one else sees. She can't remember anything about her life, including her name and shows signs of short termed memory loss...(although it seems she doesn't have a problem remembering Quincy's name.) The doctor says it's a hysterical amnesia she should start to remember things in time.

SPOILERS START HERE: Quincy, who witnesses the fall and helps the woman, is immediately smitten with her. The first night in the hospital, someone enters her room, but is caught by police before he can kill her. The man is a hired killer and it's speculated that she must be in serious trouble. Quincy allows her to stay at his cabin as they try to figure out who she is. On the way to the cabin (and this is an inexplicable coincidence) she recognizes the street they're on and has him stop at an abandoned field. A neighbor who still lives there recalls a house fire and a young girl who jumped to avoid the flames, but broke her leg. Since Quincy had told her she'd had a mended broken leg, she thinks she may be the girl Allison, but the neighbor says she looks nothing like her. Subsequently when they look for her birth record, nothing is found.

At this point, I thought this was going to be something where the family was in witness protection and maybe she recognized someone involved with the fire; perhaps she being the sole survivor, they were coming after her and that's what caused her to blank out. Personally I think that would have been more interesting.

But no, we need a body and autopsy, she ends up suddenly dead (she is in witness protection as she testified as an adult against her boss and has had plastic surgery.) No explanation is given on how they found her. The last 15 minutes are Quincy coming up with a convoluted and highly questionable solution as to who killed her. It was almost like one writer wrote the first half and then handed it over to another with no discussion on the plot.

The Big Valley: The Jonah (1968) Season 4, Episode 6

Schlemiel or Schlimazel?

[10/10 · 25 February 2012]

I was never a Marty Allen fan, but he plays a sweet and lovable, but unfortunate character of Waldo Diefendorfer, a man who seems to cause catastrophe just by his presence wherever he goes. When he gets into town, a man who recognizes him steers him to where the Barkley's are hiring.

But is Waldo a schlemiel or a schlimazel? For those who don't know Yiddish, a schlemiel is a bumbler or clumsy oaf while a schlimazel is a very unlucky person. The schlemiel spills the soup, but the schlimazel is the one the soup spills on. Waldo seems to be a bit of both as most of the actual bad luck seems to those around Waldo. True to form, once he starts at the Barkley's, a string of bad events occur. The rest of the workers think he's a jinx and want him to leave, but Audra thinks that if he had a little faith in himself his luck would change. Some will find this episode corny, but I find it one of the best of the series...humorous and sweet.