Sam Leaps Into:
Captain Ron Miller, a Vietnam veteran who lost his legs.
Objective:
Stop his hospital roommate from committing suicide. Save his marriage.
Date:
8-10-68
Location:
San Diego, California
Memorable Quote:
Sam, I think it's time that you rise to the occasion, if you get my drift. ~Al
Highlight:
Sam, I think it's time that you rise to the occasion, if you get my drift. ~Al
Highlight:
Everything involving the rude and disrespectful male nurse, especially the moment when Sam stands up to confront him. Great stuff and a creative and fun little wrinkle to add to the episode.
Lowlight:
Lowlight:
The wife is really something -- first she turns her back on Sam when she's talking, then she's prickly and frigidly cold, and to finish it off she tells Sam there's another man in her life and that she's moving on from him.
One redeeming quality: she's played by Judith Hoag aka April O'Neil in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, an underrated movie from my formative years.
Other thoughts, observations, and questions I didn’t ask when I was in fourth grade:
- I changed my mind from a few posts ago -- I like the new, energetic Season 5 theme song even better than the old one.
- Fun to see Jen Aniston (her friends call her Jen) in one of her early roles.
- Nice shake from Sam after punching out the nurse.
Final Analysis:
This one started a little slow but I really liked the second half, including Al's message of encouragement to Billy (even though he couldn't hear it), Sam's rescue of Billy, everything involving the nurse, and the revelation that Sam ends up with Kiki (Aniston) and that her brother is alive and on his way home. Ranking it 15 out of 76.
This one was decent. Very surprising to me that you didn't find it "too depressing" but I tend to like shows and films with a dark emotional appeal. It's usually not hard to tell even in their early work which young actors and actresses have "star power" and I definitely could see some in Jennifer Aniston, who had actually played Ferris Bueller's sister two years before this in the 1990 TV adaptation of "Ferris Bueller" which made the fatal mistake of going up against "MacGyver" on Monday nights before quickly meeting its maker. And I never would have recognized him without seeing the actor's name in the credits but the actor playing Billy is Michael Boatman, who you are probably not familiar with but played Carter on the late 90s Michael J. Fox sitcom "Spin City". Crazy how much younger he looked four years before that show premiered.
ReplyDeleteAs you said, the story was slow at times, especially in the first half which nearly lost me, but like you I loved the male nurse with the enormous chip on his shoulder (probably not that uncommon) and Sam's comical stunt with the floating legs before knocking him out. And I figured out at the point of the massage that Sam would end up with Kiki. There were plenty of reasons to feel sorry for the wife that left him but she sure squandered her goodwill quickly. Hilarious how she had the nerve to get indignant when Kiki was giving Sam a massage even though she had "met someone else" herself and was hours away from leaving Sam. I was less convinced at Sam's logic in "letting Billy get this suicide thing out of his system" by letting him flout around in the pool for a couple of minutes before extracting him. I'll rate this one between "Genesis" and "Miss Deep South".
Yeah you're right about Aniston, you can tell that she's got talent. I vaguely remember the Ferris Bueller tv show and have never seen Spin City.
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