TV and Movies

[Pearlee]

"THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY" starring David Janssen with co-stars Julie Sommars (repeat Fuger, the other epi with Wm Shatner), Tony Musante, Ludwig Donath, Arlene Martel, Jan Merlin, Noam Pitlik

Interestingly, this epi first aired on Dec. 20, 1966, exactly 55 years ago to the day when it airs on Dec. 20th at 2: a.m. ET.

IMO this is a really good epi! I like this one a lot and have seen it many times.

Kimble (who again looks great in his blue denim shirt and corduroy pants) finds work in an upholstery repair shop. (These are the days when people got things repaired rather than just throwing them away and getting new ones). His coworkers include a family of Hungarian refugees who take Kimble under their wing and let him stay with them. The elderly father is grumpy and we quickly learn that he, like Kimble, has a secret and fears the police.

The police are looking for an escaped  murderer, Billy, who also works at the  shop and has been dating family member Carla. At first, both Kimble and the family patriarch, Josef, think the police are looking for them.

Carla, her brother and her sister-in-law all want to become American citizens but  Josef keeps them on the move from state to state because he fears being captured by the police. 

The police stake out the family's apartment thinking Billy will seek refuge wirh Carla. Meanwhile, they discover Kimble's true identity. Billy does show up at the apartment and takes Carla hostage.  More drama ensues when the police come to arrest Kimble and Billy shoots and wounds one of them.

There is a lot going on in this epi. The acting is very good, esp the patriarch Josef's. There is more violence in this epi than usual. I thought the Epilog narration  was good and an obvious sequel to Act IV.

Some reviewers criticized Carla having no accent while the rest of the family had Hungarian accents. That never bothered me 

(even though I did notice it from my first viewing as a teen) because I wrote it off as Carla being younger and more "Americanized" than the other family members, i.e. she made more of an attempt to lose any accent she had. 

@twinsister  Note the pulling down window shades (we all had window shades), the rounded refrigerator doors, the busy wallpaper, and most nostalgically of all,  the sound of dialing a landline phone and hearing it ring. Ahhh the good old days!

There is a lot to this epi that I did not give away (on purpose) so you can enjoy the plot as it unfolds. I hope you like it as much as I do. 

[Pearlee]

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@Pearlee wrote:

Interestingly, this epi first aired on Dec. 20, 1966, exactly 55 years ago to the day when it airs on Dec. 20th at 2: a.m. ET.

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I'll bet when Janssen filmed this epi, he never thought it would still be on TV 55 years later!

[Tique]

Epilog Pictures

[Pearlee]

@Tique   Wonderful photos, thanks so much for adding them to the thread.

Does anyone else remember Tony Musante's one-season show Toma?  I do. He wanted out after one season and was succeeded by Robert Blake's Barretta.  Both shows were from TF's Roy Huggins.

[twinsister]

I thought this was a very good episode. I did find that Kimble being invited to stay with them after they just met, was implausible.

As mentioned in another post, I think Carly should have had a bit of accent, considering they all arrived in the country at the same time.  

I liked the small American flags on the chest near the front door.  It was a nice touch to their desire to be citizens.

I'm a bit confused with the epilog.  Was Kimble standing outside the place where they were being sworn in as citizens?  How did he know that was taking place?   I thought he would have left town in a hurry and not hang around.

@Pearlee - Yes to remembring the window shades, the rounded refrigerator door (ours were), the busy wallpaper, etc.   Also did Carly put money in the washing machines?  It looked like she did.

[Pearlee]

@twinsister   I'm glad you enjoyed  the epi too. Yes, there was a little metal box on top of the washers where she put money in. I agree it's implausible to ask Kimble to stay with them, although it was just for dinner at first -- which they enjoyed -- and when it got so late for Kimble to find another place, since they seemingly liked him Josef as him to stay. Kimble seemed to enjoy the family which, except for Josef, was warm and welcoming. 

I'd have to go back and look but I think Kimble was just in front of some kind of governmental bldg in the Epilog, in some other city.  

I liked all the ironies in Josef's many statements to Kimble, before he found out Kimble was a doctor, and the pained look on Kimble's face at them.  I liked that this epi was much more character-driven than most of Season 4. And Carla was so caught up in Billy that she wasn't swooning over Kimble.

Notice the social issues in these mid-60s shows now, last week Viet Nam and this week abortion (a subject which probably would never have been mentioned in the early shows). 

As I said in my first post, i thought the acting was very good, esp Josef's (that was quite a comb-over hairdo he had!)

[twinsister]

@Pearlee - Glad you mentioned about Carla not swooning over Kimble.  I thought about that while watching and forgot to say it in my post.  Those females are few and far between!

Very true about the social issues being highlighted.  Times were changing.

[twinsister]

@Pearlee  - I forgot to say that I vaguely remember a show called Toma.   I don't think I watched, but I did watch Barretta.