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vranger's Replies
About that time Lucille Ball had appeared on The Tonight Show and told Johnny Carson that she received radio communications through a filling in a tooth. I believe she reported overhearing both music from a radio station, and communications between spies.
So this is probably what that episode was doing a take-off on.
Well, there are still mainframes, and server farms/clusters that take up rooms and rooms. Star Trek: TNG introduced the "data pads" which later iPads and other tablet computers somewhat resemble.
Some of us in the neighborhood had the rifles. This led to an entry on my list of "Times I almost died".
We lived a few miles out from a small town, on a cul de sac at the end of a long residential road. Woods surrounded our house on three sides. Two other kids from up the road and I were playing Man from UNCLE in my front yard, which was basically pine straw from the numerous pine trees in the yard.
I got shot. Before I fell, I sneaked a peak to see if I was about to fall on a pine cone or sharp stick. Nope. Laying right where I was about to fall was a six foot diamondback rattlesnake -- coiled up sleeping. He might have roused if I had fallen on top of him!
I backed off quickly! I called for my grandmother, who was watching us that day. She came out of the house with my grandfather's pistol, ready to kill the snake, but it had already awakened and moved off into the woods, where it disappeared.
It didn't seem like a big deal when I was 9 years old. Remembering it now gives me the shivers. LOL
We're watching the series on DVD and just came to that episode. LOL
Actually, two things killed the show. First was the writer's strike. While the idea was gold and Bill Bixby both talented and popular, the show couldn't survive several absolutely terrible scripts. Second, it was programmed opposite two popular, established shows -- one of which was Gunsmoke. Character focus had nothing to do with The Magician only lasting one season.
TV history is littered with promising series that couldn't overcome established competition. If The Magician had softer competition, the ratings might have risen to a level that would have given it a second chance, and then with better writing in that second season, who knows?
Tex, yes they did ditch the jet. However, the premise for the last half of the season wasn't a Vegas lounge act. They had Tony Blake performing at his own venue in LA, The Magic Castle, where he lived on the top floor. These segments also had cameos by actual performing illusionists, including frequent appearances by Mark Wilson, the "consultant" who was training Bill Bixby for the series.
The Illusion of the Lost Dragon. He defeats the puzzle of the door's lock. This was presaged earlier in the episode when he opened the bad guy's puzzle box after a few moments of inspection.
Any list that doesn't even mention Joe Mannix has to be from someone who's wet behind the ears. LOL
I watched the earlier episodes several months ago, but I seem to remember a scene in which bad guys had to drop on everyone else, and Dennis came out of another room and did something to save the day. I'll have to rewatch the early shows and get the details.
In one episode the owl divebombs a bad guy to distract him as he holds a gun on Tony.
This did finally become available, and I bought it in September of last year.
The sound is good, but the video is not top quality (which a disclaimer as the DVDs load will warn you of).
Sadly, the writer's strike sorely affected the quality of the stories. They're fun to watch with both Bill Bixby and the magic element, but there are plot holes that will make you cringe.
In one episode, four thieves rob a benefit on the Queen Mary. Near the end of the robbery, three of the thieves find the fourth unconscious on the floor of the room where the money is being taken to safety. They just leave him there, and he is never mentioned again. LOL
A few minutes later, the remaining three robbers climb into what is described as a "three passenger helicopter", with a pilot. So that makes four, and evidently the plan would have been for five!
Later on, Anthony Blake finds one of the bandits' house, with the helicopter parked right outside, even though he wasn't the pilot. Arrgggggh!
He was trained during this show by a real performing magician, Mark Wilson. Wilson had his own TV show several years earlier, which IIRC was a kid's show. He would generally use magic to rescue his assistant/wife from some danger.
Wilson is listed in the credits of "The Magician" as the "magic consultant", and appeared in a few shows over the last half of the series, generally in a brief shot near the end, doing some sleight of hand.
No. Only a very few years before All in the Family, conservatives in Congress passed the Civil Rights Act. Virtually every conservative voted FOR the law, while Dems were only 50/50. Nothing has changed.
Democrats are the bigots with low expectations. Republicans believe everyone is capable of learning and holding a job ... a viewpoint that is being proven day by day with the record good employment numbers for demographic sectors of our population who have sometimes struggled.
Leia was "spunky". Plus, she'd had a bad day -- what with her home world being blown up and all. ;-)
It's not that unusual for hackers and con artists to wind up working in security.
No, in no place in this country would George "go to jail" for the stolen money. There is ample evidence that the money was lost, and not embezzled. And George wasn't even the one who lost it, as would quickly come out.
But there is little doubt the Board would insist that his uncle be permanently retired.
And by the way, Nav's list is complete and utter hogwash. I pity people like that.
The added a LOT of gray at the temples for the "last age of George", and some wrinkles too.
This has nothing to do with moral statements in the story, and everything to do with a clever director's instincts to keep the story on film tight. Potter could not have been "caught" before the final scene, and the final scene was the best final scene. No need to drag on to an anti-climax.
Some of your comment is on target, but that is NOT what caused the housing bubble. The housing bubble was caused by banks making obviously bad loans. Part of that was fraud within the banks, as mortgage officers had incentives to close loans, and part of it was legislation started by Frank and Dodd which forced banks to make more bad loans.
An additional factor was localized inflation of real estate values. Real estate was high demand in parts of California, for example, but when demand dropped, the market could not sustain the inflated property values. Your discussion of supply and demand applies, but you applied it to an invalid context, rather than what really happened.
The housing bubble only negatively affected specific markets. Where I live, it only created a pause in the increase of value for existing homes, rather than causing a decrease in their value.
FYI, the mortgage market has returned to much more strict requirements than those which allowed the avalanche of bad mortgages that created the crisis.
That's your fantasy. There's isn't enough content in the movie exploring Mary's character to support your contention. Was she portrayed as a supportive, loving wife? Yes. Is that "idealized"? Hardly. For every supportive, loving wife, there is a supportive, loving husband ... often in the same household. And you find both all around you, in any era.
In fact, your description of the character as, essentially, a submissive wife is completely refuted by her earlier scenes, which portray her as vivacious and aggressive.
She willingly gave up her honeymoon not because of someone's perverse notion of mid-20th Century sexual politics, but because the ENTIRE MOVIE is about the good people spread through self-sacrifice.