Colonel Austin's adventure here doesn't involve spies, mafia-connected gangsters (or "syndicate connected" in the parlance of TV lingo at the time) any sort of the traditional adversaries that he normally faced.
This time around, Steve's chief adversary is a sullen Chicano teen, Carlos (played by an actor seemingly in his early 20s). Steve has agreed with a member of the Big Brothers program to mentor Carlos. Carlos lives with his older sister (an adult) and much-younger brother (she apparently has custody of both and is working; their parents' status is not addressed, but they are presumably deceased or otherwise out of the picture).
Carlos isn't much interested in what Steve has to say about staying on the right track. He figures he just has to hustle to survive, including possibly doing petty theft and he's willing to risk gambling debt to a local street-gang leader, Smiley.
Steve figures that Carlos needs a dose of perspective: literally-- so he arranges to take Carlos on a jet plane ride at an Air Force base. (Stock footage is used for all of the flying scenes). Steve inspires Carlos to consider sticking with high school long enough so he can graduate and hopefully join the Air Force, but there's that issue of the threat of Smiley. A game of pickup basketball provides the backdrop to the climax of the episode.
Particularly for the 1970s, certain episodic television series could be counted on to have a "relevance"/"special social topic" episode or two during the season. In Charlie's Angels and Starsky & Hutch there were once episodes focused on a child abuse case, for example. In this case, you could call this the "wayward urban youth" episode, though more specifically focused on a racial minority in this post-civil rights era. Carlos' neighborhood is assumed to be inner-city Los Angeles, but clearly is part of the Universal Studios' backlot.
Kenneth Johnson wrote this episode, and he is known for eventually becoming the showrunner for the Incredible Hulk TV series. His style of writing to provide a micro-soap opera for Steve to interact with and eventually depart (Oscar is scarcely in this episode) is a kind of parallel to what follows with the adventures of David Banner.
This time around, Steve's chief adversary is a sullen Chicano teen, Carlos (played by an actor seemingly in his early 20s). Steve has agreed with a member of the Big Brothers program to mentor Carlos. Carlos lives with his older sister (an adult) and much-younger brother (she apparently has custody of both and is working; their parents' status is not addressed, but they are presumably deceased or otherwise out of the picture).
Carlos isn't much interested in what Steve has to say about staying on the right track. He figures he just has to hustle to survive, including possibly doing petty theft and he's willing to risk gambling debt to a local street-gang leader, Smiley.
Steve figures that Carlos needs a dose of perspective: literally-- so he arranges to take Carlos on a jet plane ride at an Air Force base. (Stock footage is used for all of the flying scenes). Steve inspires Carlos to consider sticking with high school long enough so he can graduate and hopefully join the Air Force, but there's that issue of the threat of Smiley. A game of pickup basketball provides the backdrop to the climax of the episode.
Particularly for the 1970s, certain episodic television series could be counted on to have a "relevance"/"special social topic" episode or two during the season. In Charlie's Angels and Starsky & Hutch there were once episodes focused on a child abuse case, for example. In this case, you could call this the "wayward urban youth" episode, though more specifically focused on a racial minority in this post-civil rights era. Carlos' neighborhood is assumed to be inner-city Los Angeles, but clearly is part of the Universal Studios' backlot.
Kenneth Johnson wrote this episode, and he is known for eventually becoming the showrunner for the Incredible Hulk TV series. His style of writing to provide a micro-soap opera for Steve to interact with and eventually depart (Oscar is scarcely in this episode) is a kind of parallel to what follows with the adventures of David Banner.
