Elroy Schwartz wrote this tense episode, the brother of Sherwood Schwartz, behind such shows as the BRADY BUNCH and GILLIGANS ISLAND. Although he wrote comedy, he did an excellent job with this nail biter, perhaps one of the best of the season. In a way, it begins like a MANNIX episode, as business man Arthur Franz
plants a bomb in his partner's new blue Lincoln, all because he's seeing his wife on the sly. What happens when the car is stolen? He never thought of that. I refer to Mannix only because there were lots of cars blown up on that show, and since MOD SQUAD was also shot on the Paramount lot, you know this car was doomed. Greg Mullavey (always sly and cool) plays the leader of the hot car ring who has the car painted yellow. Next we follow the Squad as they frantically attempt to track it down. To make it even more interesting, it turns out that Mullavey arranges for a family to drive the Lincoln across country, and the bomb is set to go off at 5pm. Holy smokes. Veteran Ned Glass has a good role as the guy who paints the car. One big goof here (which has happened to Mannix if you're keeping count). Julie gets slugged hard and is knocked out by Mullavey, yet is later seen without as much as a bruise on her face? If you're into details, you'll see that the trim on the Lincoln was painted yellow, which means they may actually have painted the new car? It looks like the ending was shot up in the high desert, probably around Lancaster. California as the cops track the Lincoln on a remote highway.
Recommended. SEASON 3 EPISODE 17 dvd box set.