The story begins with a young sailor and his bride-to-be, Jim and Betty, en route to an elopement, stopping for gas. When nobody comes out to pump their gas (Remember those good ol' days?) they honk and call out. A woman hears them and calls out for help. It seems her husband has gone to fetch a doctor because their baby (as usual on this series, the baby is never seen) cannot breathe and is feared to be dying (Do ya think?). Not knowing what to do, the woman is simply letting the infant die in the next room while she walks around fretting.
The young couple respond to her plea, and the sailor goes into the bedroom-off camera-and momentarily returns saying the baby will be fine. She thanks him for being a hero, but he just wants to get out of there-saying they can't keep the justice of the peace waiting. (In most depictions, people come up unannounced to the justice in these situations and get an instant wedding ceremony. Guess Jim and Betty made an appointment.) They were eloping because her father didn't approve of the marriage and they didn't want him to have a clue where they were, so he couldn't stop them.
Meanwhile, the highway is being patrolled by our own Dan, in plain clothes as usual. He spots a car speeding and pursues, and after the car stops, learns he is a doctor on an emergency call-to save that baby we heard about. Dan drives him the rest of the way. They arrive, and while the doc goes into the bedroom to see how the baby is doing, the mother tells Dan how this sailor "breathed into the baby's mouth." I understand she didn't know the term "mouth-to-mouth," but I don't know how she knew this because she didn't watch him at all in the earlier scene.
Seconds later, the doctor comes out and tells Dan they have a problem-the baby has a deadly form of spinal meningitis and anyone who's been close to him or someone else who has been close to him, will die in just hours if they don't have a certain, unnamed, shot soon. He treats the mother, and Dan then tries desperately to find out about the sailor and his bride, but gets little from the mother because she didn't know which way they were headed, nor their names or anything, other than that they were eloping.
They got to the justice-of-the-peace, played by Olan Soule, the choir master on Andy Griffith and lab technician on Dragnet, who performed the ceremony.
The newlyweds were going to a cabin not too far away. After they got there, Jim changed to his civilian clothes and promptly headed for a general store for some supplies.
Knowing of the elopement, Dan tracked them through finding the right justice, and got their names. He got the newspapers to put the story about how they need to get a shot within hours on the front page of that afternoon's edition-incredibly quickly, seemingly too quick for even an extra, let alone changing the front page for that afternoon.
Once the justice got them to know about where to go, and, since they had names, the bride's father arrived, eager to help. When he revealed he had no idea where they had gone, Dan gave him a lecture about being more understanding of his daughter, etc. He asked to go along with Dan, Sergeant Williams, and the doctor with the serum. They found the general store and eventually got the talkative owner to admit he had a young man there who fits the description, but he had no way of knowing he was a sailor. He knew the man was headed for a nearby cabin atop the nearest mountain.
Dan and the bride's father left to look for the cabin, leaving behind the doctor with the vital serum. But when they showed up, the bridge saw her father and the couple, for some reason, panicked. Even though it was too late to prevent the wedding, they took off in their car, driving recklessly to escape the pursuing police car with sirens roaring, until they finally decided to come to a halt, with Dan and the father rushing up, soon followed by the doctor who administered his medicine to both and we had a happy ending.
The car chase seemed superfluous. The way they tracked the pair down was too easy. The newspaper being able to put this story on page one, given to the man-who didn't see it-when he stopped at the store around 4 p.m. When it was almost 3 when the papers were first notified about this news. Then or now, they can't change the makeup of page one that quickly for papers that are already delivered to stores-especially remote, rural stores-before 4 p.m. There is no way the doctor could have determined the baby had this disease as quickly as he did.
But the biggest thing that made no sense. The baby was either choking or couldn't breathe (we heard both, I think) and the father leaves the baby to go retrieve a doctor. If someone is choking badly, there probably isn't enough time to rush them to a doctor, but why on earth wouldn't dad have taken the kid with him? Presumably with mom holding the infant, trying to help him breathe?
Since time was so important to give the serum to the couple, it made no sense to leave the doctor at the store while Dan and father drove up the rest of the mountain. Take him with you, Dan!
Then, it seemed really awkward at the ending, as Dan as soon as he approached their convertible, just started telling them they need the doctor here to give them shots. There was no explanation as to why, not even a mention of the disease.
In the end, it seemed like they had this convoluted script clumsily designed just to set up this frantic search for a nice young couple, complete with a most-improbable car chase scene. Thus I have to give this episode a weak score of 3.
The young couple respond to her plea, and the sailor goes into the bedroom-off camera-and momentarily returns saying the baby will be fine. She thanks him for being a hero, but he just wants to get out of there-saying they can't keep the justice of the peace waiting. (In most depictions, people come up unannounced to the justice in these situations and get an instant wedding ceremony. Guess Jim and Betty made an appointment.) They were eloping because her father didn't approve of the marriage and they didn't want him to have a clue where they were, so he couldn't stop them.
Meanwhile, the highway is being patrolled by our own Dan, in plain clothes as usual. He spots a car speeding and pursues, and after the car stops, learns he is a doctor on an emergency call-to save that baby we heard about. Dan drives him the rest of the way. They arrive, and while the doc goes into the bedroom to see how the baby is doing, the mother tells Dan how this sailor "breathed into the baby's mouth." I understand she didn't know the term "mouth-to-mouth," but I don't know how she knew this because she didn't watch him at all in the earlier scene.
Seconds later, the doctor comes out and tells Dan they have a problem-the baby has a deadly form of spinal meningitis and anyone who's been close to him or someone else who has been close to him, will die in just hours if they don't have a certain, unnamed, shot soon. He treats the mother, and Dan then tries desperately to find out about the sailor and his bride, but gets little from the mother because she didn't know which way they were headed, nor their names or anything, other than that they were eloping.
They got to the justice-of-the-peace, played by Olan Soule, the choir master on Andy Griffith and lab technician on Dragnet, who performed the ceremony.
The newlyweds were going to a cabin not too far away. After they got there, Jim changed to his civilian clothes and promptly headed for a general store for some supplies.
Knowing of the elopement, Dan tracked them through finding the right justice, and got their names. He got the newspapers to put the story about how they need to get a shot within hours on the front page of that afternoon's edition-incredibly quickly, seemingly too quick for even an extra, let alone changing the front page for that afternoon.
Once the justice got them to know about where to go, and, since they had names, the bride's father arrived, eager to help. When he revealed he had no idea where they had gone, Dan gave him a lecture about being more understanding of his daughter, etc. He asked to go along with Dan, Sergeant Williams, and the doctor with the serum. They found the general store and eventually got the talkative owner to admit he had a young man there who fits the description, but he had no way of knowing he was a sailor. He knew the man was headed for a nearby cabin atop the nearest mountain.
Dan and the bride's father left to look for the cabin, leaving behind the doctor with the vital serum. But when they showed up, the bridge saw her father and the couple, for some reason, panicked. Even though it was too late to prevent the wedding, they took off in their car, driving recklessly to escape the pursuing police car with sirens roaring, until they finally decided to come to a halt, with Dan and the father rushing up, soon followed by the doctor who administered his medicine to both and we had a happy ending.
The car chase seemed superfluous. The way they tracked the pair down was too easy. The newspaper being able to put this story on page one, given to the man-who didn't see it-when he stopped at the store around 4 p.m. When it was almost 3 when the papers were first notified about this news. Then or now, they can't change the makeup of page one that quickly for papers that are already delivered to stores-especially remote, rural stores-before 4 p.m. There is no way the doctor could have determined the baby had this disease as quickly as he did.
But the biggest thing that made no sense. The baby was either choking or couldn't breathe (we heard both, I think) and the father leaves the baby to go retrieve a doctor. If someone is choking badly, there probably isn't enough time to rush them to a doctor, but why on earth wouldn't dad have taken the kid with him? Presumably with mom holding the infant, trying to help him breathe?
Since time was so important to give the serum to the couple, it made no sense to leave the doctor at the store while Dan and father drove up the rest of the mountain. Take him with you, Dan!
Then, it seemed really awkward at the ending, as Dan as soon as he approached their convertible, just started telling them they need the doctor here to give them shots. There was no explanation as to why, not even a mention of the disease.
In the end, it seemed like they had this convoluted script clumsily designed just to set up this frantic search for a nice young couple, complete with a most-improbable car chase scene. Thus I have to give this episode a weak score of 3.
