The Ballad of Andy Crocker (1969 TV Movie)
3/10
Coming Home from Vietnam
30 August 2010
"When a Vietnam veteran returns from serving his country in the war, his homecoming is hardly a hero's welcome. In fact, things couldn't get much worse: his girlfriend is now married to another man and his cycle repair shop is on the verge of bankruptcy. He is now left with putting the scattered pieces of his life back together," according to the DVD sleeve description, "He was supposed to return as a hero!" This ABC-TV Tuesday "Movie of the Week" stars handsome Lee Majors (late of "The Big Valley").

To his credit, Mr. Majors and his "Andy Crocker" character seem way to smart for the story. We are led to believe Majors would come home from Vietnam after over ten years and immediately take up with Peter Haskell's sitar-strained hippies, then expect sexy Jill Haworth to accompany him on a motorcycle trip home to Texas, where curvy girlfriend Joey Heatherton (as Lisa) would have been waiting for them with open arms. Meanwhile, back in Los Angeles, Farrah Fawcett was dating Tommy Smothers.

And, Majors left his "Used Bikes" shop, acquired when he was a teenager, in the hands of ditzy Jimmy Dean (as Mack), a singer without a song. Righteous Brother Bobby Hatfield (as Joe Bob) and Motown's Marvin Gaye (as David Owens) are other singers appearing without a note, and Agnes Moorehead (from the popular "Bewitched" series) has a cameo. After Majors beats up Mr. Dean, his father asks, "Son, when are you going to grow up?" Good question. Stay tuned for "Marcus Welby, M.D."

*** The Ballad of Andy Crocker (11/18/69) George McCowan ~ Lee Majors, Joey Heatherton, Jimmy Dean, Bobby Hatfield
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