Post by zimmerman on Jul 2, 2013 15:53:23 GMT -5
Welcome to Crotty's Genocide Club. The only truly liberal establishment of its kind. We'll kill anyone--no questions asked, particurlaly in three."--Furman Crotty
The five-star top-notch episodes of WWW kept on coming in Feburary of 1968, as the abridged Third Season wound down, with TNOT Amnesiac, WWW's spin on the amnesia plot that seemed to appear on every television Western drama of the 1960's. The season before, 1966-67, had "The Big Valley's take on Amensia, "The Man From Nowhere", which had my (almost) namesake Jarrod suffer with said plight. That episode was very heavy on the drama, while WWW's take on the subject is more loaded with action.
Ed Asner, pre-Mary Tyler Moore Show, makes a memorable appearance as Furman Crotty, a man who could be the male version of Emma Valentine, as he is determined to kill everyone in his plan to "Single-handedly level this great nation into one huge sand pile to rebuild it to only be inhabited by machines, and me." He also would like to bronze babies, does not want anyone messing with his food, and gets depressed when he has to kill family members. I really like his wardrobe, which includes a lemon-yellow shirt and dark green vest. Earlier in the season, he appeared on the by-now canceled "Iron Horse" in a very dramatic episode written by John Kneubehl as the husband-to-be of a mail-order bride on the train trip that carries a murderer that a-deputized Dave Tarrant (Gary Collins) brings on the La Bonne Chance, and also has Ben Calhoun (Dale Robertson) having trouble with his eyes after being drugged by whiskey for the bulk of the episode.
Sharon Farrell, herself a victim of amnesia a few years after this episode was made, is fine, not great, as Cloris Colter, the kindly, yet ditzy, saloon girl who raises plants to earn respect. She is not one of my favorite females in the series, but she does get brownie points for doing her best to help James. I did feel for her when she got hit by the smallpox as James and Artie were doing their best to escape.
Claude is one of the funnier villians in the series. He just automatically assumes that James is listening to him and takes his clothes without asking. He seems to be more interested in his mule than he is about James, though. . Also, I wonder if he threw his old shirt away after he acquired James' by illegal means.
Artie does not get to do much in the disguise department in this episode. He only gets to a few tricks as the magician, and gets to knock somebody out with his explosive flowers. Thankfully, he did not go whole-hog with the magic bit in this episode.
Kevin Hagen, later kindly Doc Baker on Little House on The Prarie, only appears for a few moments as Silas Crotty before Furman kills him. He is really good in the stage scenes.
The initial scene when the shirtless, unconscious James wanders into town, is preceded by footage of a Western town at night that was also used in an episode of "Gunsmoke" a few years after this was made.
The scene with the buzzards reminded me of the artwork on Switchfoot's 2009 CD Hello Hurricane.
James and Artie's teamwork, in their quest to get the scale to their combined weight of 462 pounds, is very well-done and suspenseful, making you root for our heroes every time you watch this episode. I also enjoy the goofy tag as well.
Also worth noting is the music, which features a lot of suspenseful moments, and Henry Mancini-esque sounding passages, masterfully done and composed by longtime session guitarist Mundell Lowe, who played on many of Rosemary Clooney's big hits of the early-1950's, including "Come On A My House"
He also played on the album built around Eydie Gorme's big hit "Blame It On The Bossa Nova", and a year after this episode aired, worked extensively with Peggy Lee, co-composing "Lean On Me" with her, and also working with her on her "Is That All There Is?" LP
A few years later, he also worked on the movie "Billy Jack" from which came the song "One Tin Soldier"
good episode.
8 out of 10 from me.
The five-star top-notch episodes of WWW kept on coming in Feburary of 1968, as the abridged Third Season wound down, with TNOT Amnesiac, WWW's spin on the amnesia plot that seemed to appear on every television Western drama of the 1960's. The season before, 1966-67, had "The Big Valley's take on Amensia, "The Man From Nowhere", which had my (almost) namesake Jarrod suffer with said plight. That episode was very heavy on the drama, while WWW's take on the subject is more loaded with action.
Ed Asner, pre-Mary Tyler Moore Show, makes a memorable appearance as Furman Crotty, a man who could be the male version of Emma Valentine, as he is determined to kill everyone in his plan to "Single-handedly level this great nation into one huge sand pile to rebuild it to only be inhabited by machines, and me." He also would like to bronze babies, does not want anyone messing with his food, and gets depressed when he has to kill family members. I really like his wardrobe, which includes a lemon-yellow shirt and dark green vest. Earlier in the season, he appeared on the by-now canceled "Iron Horse" in a very dramatic episode written by John Kneubehl as the husband-to-be of a mail-order bride on the train trip that carries a murderer that a-deputized Dave Tarrant (Gary Collins) brings on the La Bonne Chance, and also has Ben Calhoun (Dale Robertson) having trouble with his eyes after being drugged by whiskey for the bulk of the episode.
Sharon Farrell, herself a victim of amnesia a few years after this episode was made, is fine, not great, as Cloris Colter, the kindly, yet ditzy, saloon girl who raises plants to earn respect. She is not one of my favorite females in the series, but she does get brownie points for doing her best to help James. I did feel for her when she got hit by the smallpox as James and Artie were doing their best to escape.
Claude is one of the funnier villians in the series. He just automatically assumes that James is listening to him and takes his clothes without asking. He seems to be more interested in his mule than he is about James, though. . Also, I wonder if he threw his old shirt away after he acquired James' by illegal means.
Artie does not get to do much in the disguise department in this episode. He only gets to a few tricks as the magician, and gets to knock somebody out with his explosive flowers. Thankfully, he did not go whole-hog with the magic bit in this episode.
Kevin Hagen, later kindly Doc Baker on Little House on The Prarie, only appears for a few moments as Silas Crotty before Furman kills him. He is really good in the stage scenes.
The initial scene when the shirtless, unconscious James wanders into town, is preceded by footage of a Western town at night that was also used in an episode of "Gunsmoke" a few years after this was made.
The scene with the buzzards reminded me of the artwork on Switchfoot's 2009 CD Hello Hurricane.
James and Artie's teamwork, in their quest to get the scale to their combined weight of 462 pounds, is very well-done and suspenseful, making you root for our heroes every time you watch this episode. I also enjoy the goofy tag as well.
Also worth noting is the music, which features a lot of suspenseful moments, and Henry Mancini-esque sounding passages, masterfully done and composed by longtime session guitarist Mundell Lowe, who played on many of Rosemary Clooney's big hits of the early-1950's, including "Come On A My House"
He also played on the album built around Eydie Gorme's big hit "Blame It On The Bossa Nova", and a year after this episode aired, worked extensively with Peggy Lee, co-composing "Lean On Me" with her, and also working with her on her "Is That All There Is?" LP
A few years later, he also worked on the movie "Billy Jack" from which came the song "One Tin Soldier"
good episode.
8 out of 10 from me.