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scorchedear
Reviews
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.: Change Partners (1967)
An in-joke about Jim Nabors private life?
There's a funny scene inside a car during the double-dating I wonder wasn't a sly in-joke. The quartet get inside Sgt. Carter's car; Carter assumes his girlfriend Bunny would naturally want to sit in the front seat next to him, instead he double-takes to find Gomer in the front seat next to him. Carter naturally had put his arm around the seat expecting Bunny to be there. Bunny, impatient for them to get going, yells at Carter to start driving and, noting Carter's arm around Gomer, implores Carter to keep his hands to himself (!). The look on Carter's face is priceless as he realizes he had his arm around Gomer and not his girlfriend Bunny, and recoils instantly.
The casting of the girlfriends (Bunny, LouAnn) by the makers of this show is spot-on, especially in this episode as Bunny and Carter discover they really are best suited to each other.
Route 66: Journey to Nineveh (1962)
You Are Not Obsolete!
A reviewer incorrectly states this episode's slapstick comedy was "obsolete" in 1962. Nothing could be further from fact! Not only were The Three Stooges riding high on their comeback, Jerry Lewis was a major movie box-office draw; Red Skelton was enjoying continued TV success; this episode boasts a brief appearance by John Astin, then-soon to co-star on TV's I'm Dickens-He's Fenster, another throw-back to classic comedy. It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) is an orgy of broad, physical comedy. The still-living Stan Laurel was awarded an honorary Oscar thanks partly to the revival movie archivist Robert Youngson presented in his popular compilations containing Laurel & Hardy among others. Bob Denver & Alan Hale imitated L&H on TV's hit, Gilligan's Island. Definitely this type of humor is a departure for Route 66, yet many a recent dramatic TV series has made one or more light-hearted episodes in contrast to more serious episodes. This one happens to boast two "old-school" greats. I'd have rated it a "9" if Joe E. Brown had been allowed his trademark wide-open mouthed "HEY!!!" Buster Keaton gets the lion's share of the hijinks in a nice continuation of his long-established cinema persona as the nearly luck-less sap who just can't seem to ever get a break. I liked his appearance here better than the Twilight Zone episode he starred in (speaking of serious TV shows to sometimes make a humorous departure or two).
Batman: The Catwoman Goeth (1966)
James Brolin Looks Like Christian Bale
Pre-fame James Brolin, as the annoying cop who tries to give Batman a hard time, looks like Christian Bale! It struck me that Batman of this era is every bit as off-the-wall as the villains, which is really not that far from the contemporary notion Batman as "crazy." Crazy like a fox, but still just the flip-side of the same twisted coin. The Dark Knight is every bit as self-possessed & egotistic as his villainous counterparts, without the wacky edge of the 1960s TV series.
The Batman opening featuring the comic book likenesses perfectly sets up this series; not since Peter Gunn had a TV theme song rocked with such adrenalin-pumping intensity. During the show, the theme is goosed during the fight scenes for even greater impact.