A while back my husband and I were watching some TV shows on the laptop. Every once in a while we get a kick out of watching an old show like McMillian & Wife or McCloud or something. He asked me which shows I liked as a kid, and I had to say that I really enjoyed Emergency! Funny this is, I would have been very very young to really get what was going on with the show. (Must have been all the cute boys on it that got me.)
In this age of instant gratification, we decided to view an episode. A quick search on Netflix got us a random episode from the first season in 1972. It was titled “Botulism.” It really brought back some memories. It was dated and silly, and I loved every minute. Dig the conversation between Dr. Kelly Brackett (Robert Fuller) and Dixie McCall, R.N. (Julie London):
In looking back, I realized why this show stuck out for me: Randolph Mantooth. He played John Gage (one of the paramedics) and I’ve just loved him ever since. He was just on an episode of Criminal Minds not too long ago.
After that, my husband said there was one episode from Quincy he’s always wanted to see. It also involved botulism. A quick Internet search showed that the particular episode (21) was shown in 1980 during Quincy‘s fifth season and was called “Deadly Arena.” Do you remember Quincy? That great Jack Klugman show?
I do remember the show but had no idea it actually went on for five seasons! As we watched it, my husband remarked that his dad could not stand Quincy because Jack Klugman never seemed to show his top teeth. He was strictly a bottom tooth actor. (Mark my words, now that I’ve told you this you will never look at Jack Klugman the same.) Besides that, he’s the worst over-actor since William Shatner, and I mean that in an awesomely cheesy way. Everything on Quincy is a crisis. “What do you mean the test results are not in! They MUST. GET. HERE!”
Quincy was definitely the CSI of its day, but the thing that struck me was how much of a swinger he was. Who knew?
As we finished watching these shows (and laughing our fool heads off), I had to wonder: what was it back then with all the botulism?
