Special Announcement!!!
I have a lot to celebrate and I think one of you lucky guys or gals deserves a prize.What do I have to celebrate? Well, this blog has reached over 30,000 page views since I started it. Which in the world wide web may not be huge, but it makes me very happy. So, since I have hit over 30,000 page views and I am covering the third episode of the third season, I think I will give away a set of the Adam-12 Season 3 DVD's. The 2-disc set I am giving away also comes in a collectible tin.
Fancy, isn't it? |
SIGNED BY KENT McCORD!!!
Now, just to prove that I didn't sign it myself, here's a terrible photo I took of Kent signing the DVD at the Hollywood Show in Los Angeles on October 31, 2015:
Don't ask me what that guy in the background is doing. |
-Fill out the "Contact Form" to the right with your name, e-mail, and a message that says "Please enter me in the drawing for the DVD's" (or something like that) and hit "send". One entry per e-mail address, please.
-Or e-mail me at ritamalloylxi483@gmail.com with the same information. One entry per e-mail address, please.
-You can send me 100 e-mails from the same address if you want, but I will only enter each e-mail address into the drawing once.
-I will not accept entries through Facebook, the comments section of the blog, Tumblr, Instagram, carrier pigeon, fax, letter, text, or in person.
-All e-mails must be received by Friday, December 4, 2015. Any e-mails received after December 4, 2015 will not be entered in the drawing!
-The winner will be announced in my Sunday, December 6, 2015 blog post.
Good luck!!!
OK, now that I have that out of the way, let's get to "Log 95: Purse Snatcher".
Episode 55
Officer Brinkman has a purse snatcher problem in his district. Since Reed and Malloy have cleaned up all of the crime in their own district, they lend him a hand.A purse snatching has just occurred in 1-Adam-11's district. While Brinkman and his partner handle the investigation at the scene, Reed and Malloy will attempt to catch the three suspects who were last seen running through an alley. When 1-Adam-12 reaches the alley, Reed gets out to search for them on foot while Malloy drives around to the other end.
In the alleyway they find the purse, but they are too late to catch the suspects.
[I could go for some gum, maybe there's some in here.] |
[If you find any Doublemint, toss a piece my way.] |
Brinkman must be a common name in the LAPD, because this is not the Officer Brinkman we came to know and love during Season 1. |
This is the Officer Brinkman I remember. |
Reed remembers the kid, a Benjie something. But, he doesn't think he'd be able to pull off today's caper, he'd be in Juvenile Hall. |
Malloy doesn't think it will be easy to catch Tremain now that he is an experienced criminal. |
Benjie is unsurprisingly not happy to see his old friend Officer Malloy. He brags to the cop that busted him that he was released from the Hall after only two days. The teenager tries to establish himself as a tough customer to the officers. He scoffs at the idea of his Probation Officer rehabilitating him and brazenly orders his two friends around.
"Benjie Tremain can take care of Benjie Tremaine." |
"I'm a tree..." |
Malloy warns Benjie that someday he'll get in over his head and be in real trouble. |
"Why aren't you in school today?" "Well, you see, I have this sore throat." |
"Real leader, isn't he?", observes Reed. "Yeah, only question is, 'what's he leading 'em to?'," asks Pete. |
Malloy doesn't like the sound of this either. |
Brink"woman" here will be the bait for the purse snatchers. "Aw, Brinkman, you're beautiful," exclaims Pete. |
These are LAPD officers dressed as women to catch purse snatchers in 1960. I'm hoping the drag is better in the Hollywood Division. |
During the stakeout Pete and Jim keep watch over Brinkman in a UC car while he waits for someone to come steal his purse.
Benjie and his crew stop and size up their victim. Their motive is about as subtle as Brinkman's makeup.
That's Pete and Jim in the Vista Cruiser. |
Of course Benjie runs and Jim takes off after him. |
While Mac and his partner stop Paul. |
Brinkwoman gets her man, Artie. |
Jim chases Benjie into an alley and grabs the him as the youthful offender tries to climb over a fence. Pete arrives in the undercover station wagon to assist his partner.
He then forcefully snatches the purse out of Benjie's hands. |
Brinkman has exceptional penmanship. |
"You stink!" |
"When will you learn Benjie?" |
"Just like always, huh, Mr. Tremain. Well, I wouldn't release Benjie to you even if I could. Now, your boy is in deep trouble. Can you understand that?" |
You can see the eruption building inside Malloy as Tremain speaks. |
"No, sir, we call it experience." |
Jim thinks, "typical Pete" after he hears about his partner's weekend. |
On Cameron Street a pedestrian has just been struck by a car driven by a middle-aged man named Brian Michaels. Reed talks to Michaels while Pete checks out the injured man.
Reed listens as Michaels tells him that the pedestrian ran out from between two parked cars. |
Pete finds an intriguing piece of paper on the stricken man. |
It's ticket for jaywalking that was issued to the pedestrian a half an hour ago. |
"Ticket sure didn't have the educational value it was supposed to." |
Pete and Jim return to patrol and soon receive a hot shot call from the male link operator, there's a 211 in progress at the liquor store at 1620 Northgate Avenue.
When 1-Adam-12 arrives at the scene a young man runs out of the store with an employee chasing after him.
It's Benjie and he's got a gun! (Is he wearing a windbreaker? Has he graduated from the School of Hard Knocks and is now able to wear the official Mark VII bad guy uniform?) |
Pete stops to check the liquor store clerk for a pulse as backup arrives. |
Meanwhile, Benjie has run into a dark alleyway surrounded by high fences. Reed remains on the other side of the fence and orders the troubled young man to throw the gun out.
The officer's forceful command doesn't convince the teenager to give up his weapon. Instead, he fires two shots that hit the fence near Reed's head.
Malloy thinks talking may be the best way to start. Reed tells his partner to give it his best, but doubts Benjie will listen. |
"You said it, 'nowhere', I was going nowhere when I got here!" |
Through Mark VII magic, Mr. Tremain is quickly delivered to the scene. He's shocked and confused by the nightmarish turn of events. He asks Pete for help in finding the right words to say to his son.
"I don't know, you're his father." |
[You stand here, sir. Us guys with the guns will be way over here.] |
Malloy tries to stop him from going into the alley, but Mr. Tremain runs in anyway. |
Pete and Jim cover Mr. Tremain while he confronts Benjie. [You can't see us, we're behind a tree.] |
Pete takes the gun from a shaken Mr. Tremain. |
"Why, God, why?" laments Mr. Tremaine. |
"It's a little late to ask God, mister. Maybe you better ask yourself." |
The End
Oh, where to begin? Let's start with what I liked. I liked the ending scene of this one. This part of the story is dramatic and well-played. Gary Morgan as Benjie is a bit over the top here, but he is playing a hysterical teenager. McCord's panting, nervous Reed; Milner's calm and collected Malloy; and Myron Healy's bewildered senior Tremain are all adeptly portrayed in this tense scene. The fenced-in, dead-end alley as a metaphor for Benjie's life is a nice touch, too.
Other than that, I wasn't too enthralled with "Log 95: Purse Snatcher". Just like "Log 35: Easy, Bare Rider", this episode also contained a scene that just seemed out of whack with the rest of the story. The auto versus ped call really stood out as a public service announcement inserted into the episode. At least last week's scene about the reserve officer somewhat related to the story.
While this is a show about cops and criminals, it doesn't seem that the writers ever met any juvenile delinquents. Maybe I'm being too harsh, but I think that experienced purse snatchers like Benjie and his crew would carry out their crimes in a more clandestine manner. They're practically shouting, "Hey, we're going to steal her purse!" when they are on that sidewalk. Also, did bad kids spend time pitching nickels in the street in 1970? This just seems like an incredibly archaic past time for modern day delinquents.
Also, this is the third tale in five weeks that involves a troubled teenager and their clueless, self-absorbed parent. I know that when these shows first aired there was an entire week between each episode, but I think even 1970 audiences would have noticed this pattern. I do think Mr. Tremain is the worst of these parents, he seems particularly unwilling to help his son. At least Mr. Erickson was willing to bribe the police for his son and M'Liss's parents were willing to write checks to fix her problems. Mr. Tremain doesn't even attempt a misguided tactic to save his son. Hopefully its a long time before we see this type of story again.
Since I didn't find much to like in the sad tale of young Mr. Tremain, I give "Log 95: Purse Snatcher" a rating of:
I always did love it when Pete breaks up seeing Brinkman in drag!
ReplyDeleteHe's just precious when he does that. I wonder if maybe they hadn't seen that getup until that scene. Martins reaction was just perfection.
DeleteBrinkman in drag is good. Wells in drag would have been perfect. I do love Milner's reaction and the way his voice changes when he says, "Brinkman, you're beautiful."
DeleteI love that part too. And then when he's all being polite and opens the door for him. Lol
ReplyDeleteThe way Mark VII spelled that kids name makes me grind my teeth. It should be spelled like the dog. Lol.
You're so right about that! Spell it like the dog or not at all!
DeletePitching nickels??? I'm not even sure what that past-time is, but I thought it was something from the 30's or 40's eras. Also, was the date with the stewardess the one they saved from a hostage situation at LAX in a previous episode? See, I do watch them on COZI TV.
ReplyDeleteHey, Mom! Since I am covering S3 E3 here and that LAX episode with Francine York as the stewardess being held hostage by Frank Sinatra, Jr. happens in S4, that's actually a future episode. But, I also thought of that episode when Pete mentioned his date with a stewardess. Pete seems to like women in uniforms: Sally the nurse, a stewardess, that girl from the airline counter. I wonder what Judy in season 7 does for a living?
DeleteI thought she was a teacher?
DeleteBeing born in 1965, I do remember the older boys pitching pennies when I was in grade school. It was always something they shouldn't have been doing, and would hide when the principal or a teacher would have come around. You're supposed to be the closest to the wall, or something like that. I remember my dad telling me they did that when he was a boy. He was born in 1919, so it was long ago. And I'm with Quinn. That spelling gives me a headache.
ReplyDeleteYou have no idea how much of a headache that spelling of Benjie is, Blogger keeps wanting to autocorrect it to "Bennie"!
Delete"The mean "Backlot" section of town. "
ReplyDeleteYou are so funny!
The kid's acting is big, but I think he is very good. The scenes he is in are very dramatic and he is a pretty angry kid, so i think it fits.
Am I the only one around here who has ever seen a Gangster movie?? Pitching pennies/nickles is always in gangster movies. It also happens another time in Adam-12. lol
Even though the Tremaine kid, directs his anger mostly at Malloy, there are several moments between the kid and Reed that I like. After the stakeout, when Reed catches him, they look at each other like there is some kind competition going on. Reed bested him, putting him in his place after Ben-ben thinks he will be able to outrun Reed and benj is very unhappy about it. That's how it looks to me anyway. it it subtle, but very cool.
They do reuse names a lot. I like that though. In an episode, yet to be reviewed on this blog, the name, "Brinkman," comes up in a context,
other than being one of the cops.
I was totally going to ask you what the guy in the background was doing?
My favorite interaction between Benjie and the "boys" is when Pete forcefully snatches Brinkman's purse out his hands. Milner is very convincingly angry in that scene. I wonder how many times he did something like that at home with his kids.
DeleteI remember that guy in the background, he was at Kent's table at the very end of the night. He was a probation officer. He looks like he is smelling his hand.
OMG and congrats on the 30,000 page views!
ReplyDeleteThanks! Hopefully most of them are from real people and not spam-bots!
Deletehey!!!!! The Mustang!!!
ReplyDeleteI always think of the part where the officers tell Benjie's friends they can go, and one of them says 'Wait up, Benjie' in this kind of little girl tone. If Benjie is so tough, why was he hanging out with these guys?
ReplyDeleteThe station wagon isn't a Vista Cruiser, but a '69 Mercury Colony Park wagon, another car (along with the gold and white Mustang and a '65 AMC Ambassador sedan, gold with a black top) that appears in many episodes.
ReplyDeleteWhy is everyone so baffled from pitching pennies or nickles. Born in '66 and going to school in Ventura, Ca. I remember pitching various coins in between classes in Jr. High and Highschool it was frowned upon as throwing coins to see who lands closest to a wall or curb without hitting the wall or curb first is still considered "gambling", lol. I do not believe it attributed to any one of us becoming more of a delinquant than we already were, lol. Why is no one giving Myron Healy any accolades for his perfomance in this episode, i think Mr. Heaky offsets "Benjies" (i hate the spelling also) campy acting, but thats part of the charm of the series, it seems a bit out of place in 2019 but was fine for the time in late 60's early 70's. Side note, in '72 or '73 on a camping trip with my parents to "Tinta Canyon" off Hwy 33 north of Ventura, I met Myron Healy he signed an 8x10 headshot pic and gave it to me and as a child of 6 or 7 i thought that was the GREATEST thing since sliced bread!! From then on i looked for Mr. Healy in all Adam 12 episodes and to this day still research and enjoy from his filmography, appreciate the blog brings up great memories yhat are great to talk about. Congrats on 30,000 but the last comment i see was made in 2015 i hope you are still writing this blog, thanks
ReplyDeleteKeely, when are you going to start up the blog again?
ReplyDeleteI think she's pissed off because Kent McCord spurned her advances.
DeleteCompletely agree with Tex that Myron Healy's performance was one of the best things about this episode. It seemed on track to be a pretty decent show, including the Malloy cut-up after seeing the undercover colleague; but I thought it was a bit over the top and unMalloy like that he gets so stern and preachy to Benjie's dad, who yes was a jerk and no help in turning his kid around; but he's also now mourning a son. That sounded like Jack Webb's kind of ending. We'll see more of that this season, too.
ReplyDelete