A hired assassin bears a remarkable resemblance to Tod.A hired assassin bears a remarkable resemblance to Tod.A hired assassin bears a remarkable resemblance to Tod.
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Storyline
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- TriviaThis segment was filmed in the fall of 1963 and scheduled to air on CBS November 29, 1963. Because the storyline was extremely coincidental to the November 22, 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, CBS pulled the segment. The segment has appeared in syndication. As of this posting, Chattanooga, Tennessee-based Retro Television Network (RTV) aired the episode on November 11, 2011, which was shown after the show's two-part finale.
Featured review
scheduled for 11/22/63 "I'm Here to Kill a King"
The story about this episode is far more amazing than the episode itself, which is amazingly bad. It was originally scheduled to be shown on the day President Kennedy was shot, (some sources say it was scheduled for 11/29 but most sources show "A Cage in Search of a Bird" was shown on that day). Many sources say this episode was shown on March 20, 1964, a week after the intended finale, the two part "Where There's A Will There's a Way", which would really be ending with a whimper rather than a bang, since neither episode is very good. Other sources say that "I'm Here to Kill a King" was never shown on the network and was not seen until the show was syndicated years later. It might have been better not to show it at all.
The problem with it, aside from its poor quality is that it's about an assassination attempt. That makes its intended broadcast day ironic in the extreme. It's also that staple of 60's TV series that were running out of good story ideas, a "Double Trouble" episode. The lead actors in a series get tired of playing the same character all the time and the writers come up dry so they inevitably come up with an episode in which there is a perfect double for the lead character- a look-alike and sound alike so close to the original that even his family and friends can be fooled. The one difference is that the double is opposite in character to the hero. The hero gets blamed for his misdeeds while the hero's friends can't understand why their friend has changed so much. There's the inevitable split-screen confrontation between the yin and the yang and a violent confrontation at the end, with the hero wondering what it would be like to be the opposite of what he is. The lead actor gets to show his acting chops and the audience gets to wonder if there is such a thing as person who looks and sounds so close to yourself that he could so easily impersonate you. The story is so based on this corny idea that it usually has little substance or credibility of its own, as is the case here.
Another problem with the story in this episode is that it's not organic. It's a series about two guys who motor around the country, get various jobs and meet people on the job and in the community in which they are temporarily living. The stories tend to rise from those people and that community. They are of the place where the story transpires and reveal something about the location. This episode has an excellent location: Niagara Falls, but it has nothing to do with that location except as a backdrop and the people of the area are extras in the story.
Instead, it's a story of a visiting Arab potentate whose chief aide, (Robert Loggia) wants him assassinated. He hires a guy who happens to look exactly like Tod Stiles, who is in town with his pal Linc looking for a birthday present for Linc's mother. There Linc encounters the assassin, who happens to be in the same store and he talks to the man as if he was Tod. This clues the bad guy in that he has a look-alike and he figures that's convenient. He finds Tod and kidnaps him, which sets up the split screen sequences. Todd and his "evil twin" have some conversations about their contrasting outlooks on life. Martin Milner is suitably oily and arrogant to make a convincing bad guy. As Tod he mostly looks on with a shocked expression, especially when the assassin coolly shoots an agent pursuing him. . The bad guy doesn't kill Tod, which would seem the logical thing to do. Instead he handcuffs him to a metal bar in a boat and then goes out to kidnap Linc, who conveniently has a job repairing those binocular viewers at the lookout points around the falls, which gives the assassin a perfect opportunity to impersonate Tod and get a shot at the Arab King as he views the falls.
The DVD places this episode in its original intended slot so I'm reviewing it in that order. But what a dumb show it would have been for this great series to go out on!
The problem with it, aside from its poor quality is that it's about an assassination attempt. That makes its intended broadcast day ironic in the extreme. It's also that staple of 60's TV series that were running out of good story ideas, a "Double Trouble" episode. The lead actors in a series get tired of playing the same character all the time and the writers come up dry so they inevitably come up with an episode in which there is a perfect double for the lead character- a look-alike and sound alike so close to the original that even his family and friends can be fooled. The one difference is that the double is opposite in character to the hero. The hero gets blamed for his misdeeds while the hero's friends can't understand why their friend has changed so much. There's the inevitable split-screen confrontation between the yin and the yang and a violent confrontation at the end, with the hero wondering what it would be like to be the opposite of what he is. The lead actor gets to show his acting chops and the audience gets to wonder if there is such a thing as person who looks and sounds so close to yourself that he could so easily impersonate you. The story is so based on this corny idea that it usually has little substance or credibility of its own, as is the case here.
Another problem with the story in this episode is that it's not organic. It's a series about two guys who motor around the country, get various jobs and meet people on the job and in the community in which they are temporarily living. The stories tend to rise from those people and that community. They are of the place where the story transpires and reveal something about the location. This episode has an excellent location: Niagara Falls, but it has nothing to do with that location except as a backdrop and the people of the area are extras in the story.
Instead, it's a story of a visiting Arab potentate whose chief aide, (Robert Loggia) wants him assassinated. He hires a guy who happens to look exactly like Tod Stiles, who is in town with his pal Linc looking for a birthday present for Linc's mother. There Linc encounters the assassin, who happens to be in the same store and he talks to the man as if he was Tod. This clues the bad guy in that he has a look-alike and he figures that's convenient. He finds Tod and kidnaps him, which sets up the split screen sequences. Todd and his "evil twin" have some conversations about their contrasting outlooks on life. Martin Milner is suitably oily and arrogant to make a convincing bad guy. As Tod he mostly looks on with a shocked expression, especially when the assassin coolly shoots an agent pursuing him. . The bad guy doesn't kill Tod, which would seem the logical thing to do. Instead he handcuffs him to a metal bar in a boat and then goes out to kidnap Linc, who conveniently has a job repairing those binocular viewers at the lookout points around the falls, which gives the assassin a perfect opportunity to impersonate Tod and get a shot at the Arab King as he views the falls.
The DVD places this episode in its original intended slot so I'm reviewing it in that order. But what a dumb show it would have been for this great series to go out on!
helpful•51
- schappe1
- Jan 31, 2016
Details
- Runtime50 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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