GaryPeterson67

Well, it only took six episodes. Six episodes before Nanny's mask slipped and we saw who she really is and what she's really all about. She has never been more sinister.

Let's face it: All the worlds Nanny's stage and all the men and women merely her players. The chess pieces Nanny moves about with each passing whim and caprice include the Everetts, of course, but also the Fowlers, the Kirkebys, and a couple of random deliverymen. In her fury at being one-upped by the Professor, Nanny skips the tree frog pretense and directly summons a thunderstorm. It's not nice to fool Mother Nature... but worse to beat Nanny at her own game and then gloat about it.

I mean, what's the plot of this episode? Nanny is celebrating spring and by Dumbledore's beard everyone better celebrate it with her... or else! But Hal wants to play Grampa Munster in his basement laboratory. Butch and Prudence want to take in the Sci-Fi Spectacular triple-feature kiddie matinee. And the Professor has a scheduled work meeting with a colleague.

"Oh, Professor! Today's much too nice to work," says Nanny, in desperate need of some reality therapy, which the Professor provides in rebuttal, "Believe it or not, Nanny, the university expects me to do my job even in the best of weather."

"Oh yeah? We'll just see about that!" is the thought racing across Nanny's determined and darkening mind. When will the Professor learn that it's Nanny's way or the highway?" She hides the Prof's keys, she has a delivery truck inexplicably park behind the car, she kills the motor. Does she care that precious Prudence and Butch will be disappointed missing the movies? No. Does she care that it's unprofessional for the Professor to miss this meeting? No. Does she care only about herself and her whimsical agenda for the day? Yes, and every knee must and shall bend to Nanny's indomitable will.

In the episode's most embarrassing moment, Hal hollers for help when his chemistry experiment bubbles over. Nanny created the problem so of course she quickly provides the solution. Wait, I thought Hal was an astronomy nut? But observing through his telescope a distant galaxy's sun going supernova wouldn't provide the urgency or pretext for Nanny's know-it-all intervention, so presto-chang-o, he's a chemistry nut for this show.

But Nanny, oh, how those best laid plans of witches and wizards oft go astray. A ding of the doorbell and the X-factor arrives: Francine bearing fudge-nut brownies for her would-be beau Hal. But this lovesick kitten doesn't fit Nanny's narrative. She has to go. And it's child's play for Nanny to employ another catspaw in her scheme by having Mrs. Fowler conveniently appear to remove the annoyance. Nanny, smug in her victory clearing the last hurdle, is confident nothing can now stand in the way of her getting her way.

Uh, hasn't Nanny heard that "pride goeth before the fall"? Or do they not teach the Bible at Hogwarts? The Professor, growing wise to Nanny's thwarting everyone's plans and her recklessly overplaying her hand by presumptuously packing picnic baskets, snatches victory from the jaws of defeat by insisting they luncheon at City Park where Dr. Kirkeby is sure to be found.

Alas, the Professor's victory is pyrrhic. You shouldn't have gloated, Prof. That just made her mad. Her face set like a flint, Nanny plays her trump card: summoning a literally out-of-the-blue thunderstorm, one so reflective of her ruffled feathers Butch calls it a hurricane!

An unspoken ceasefire is called before Nanny's rage results in an earthquake. Nanny and the Everetts return home to picnic on the living room floor. Dr. Kirkeby and his wife will be dropping by presently. Both sides appear content with their modest face-saving measures of victory. And in a generous show of noblesse oblige, Nanny has the pinball machine destined for the faculty lounge rerouted to their home for the day.

Wait, "noblesse oblige"? Isn't that what royalty bestows upon commoners? Yes, and that's what we have here, albeit American style. In a plot twist akin to the classic 1963 film THE SERVANT, the Professor's sovereignty over his own home has been usurped by his hired help. Their roles have been reversed. Beginning with the keys disappearing from his hand to the eyeball-to-eyeball showdown in the car, the Professor knows he's being played. But what can he, a mere Muggle, do in the face of wizardry? Especially wizardry in the person of a capricious woman? A woman who awoke on a spring morning and declared everyone will celebrate springtime with me in whatever way I decide; the Everetts' trivial plans, ambitions, and dreams be damned!

This episode was distressing and disconcerting in its implications about Nanny's character, revealing the thin line wavering between Nanny's benevolence and malevolence. From changing buses from local to express through changing the very laws of nature by summoning storms, Nanny is not one with whom to trifle. Or to cross by exercising an independent pursuit of happiness contrary to her plans. Yeah, I'll be watching the remaining 48 episodes... but only from behind the couch and under my invisibility cloak!

Dick Van Dyke stars in one of the best Christmas episodes ever of a sitcom. It has suspense, laughter, police procedure, Christmas carols, and even a guest appearance by Mary and Joseph! Top that, Mary, Rhoda, and Phyllis!

Dick gets a speeding ticket driving home from Las Vegas on Christmas Eve. Small-town Nevada Sheriff Lloyd Gough and Deputy Hal Hickman relish wrangling an out-of-stater on trumped-up charges, sticking Dick with a whopping hundred-dollar fine for going ten miles over the limit. A Ben Franklin was real money in '72, and Dick isn't carrying that kinda cabbage for these cash-and-carry cops who don't take American Express.

Having a main character locked up in a small-town jail is a tried-and-true TV trope. Seeing Dick sent to the slammer stirred up memories of two earlier shows: The "Danny Meets Andy Griffith" episode of THE DANNY THOMAS SHOW that served as the pilot for Andy's own iconic series. In a parallel to Dick's plight, Danny gets put in the pokey by Sheriff Taylor for running a stop sign. And in the DOBIE GILLLIS Christmas episode "Deck the Halls," Herbert T. Gillis finds himself behind bars for cracking up under the unbearable crassness of a commercialized Christmas. Great shows all, but of the three, Dick Van Dyke takes home the gold.

After some witty repartee with Lloyd Gough of GREEN HORNET fame, it's a one-man show as Dick is locked up and left alone in his cell. Even this burg's answer to Otis is sprung since he plays Santa at the community center. Dick paces like a caged animal and does a dead-on Jimmy Cagney impression, channeling late-show screenings of WHITE HEAT. Help arrives in a Davis ex machina moment... but hope fades as they're a little late and a few dollars short.

The show's producer Bernie Orenstein puts in a cameo as a Jewish lawyer coming to set the captives free on the very night another Jewish man came to set the captives free. Whether or not intentional, it's also interesting to note that the amount paid the lawyer by the two men totaled $24, which is the date of Christmas Eve but could also represent the 12 Tribes of Israel plus the 12 Apostles. Makes ya think.

Hope Lange was MIA until the tail end of the show, off bringing Christmas cheer to Captain Gregg at Gull Cottage, I suspected as a dedicated fan of her earlier series. Fannie Flagg literally phones it in, seen only in a hilarious telephone exchange with Dick that ranks with the best of Bob Newhart. Of the supporting cast, it's Nancy Dussault who shines brightest when singing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas."

And lest ye forget this was Christmas 1972, a couple hippies named Joseph and Mary visit the jailhouse and bless viewers with a beautiful rendition of "Joy to the World," their blended harmonies rivaling those of the legendary Carpenters. They seamlessly wove into the show and brought to the fore the real story and meaning of Christmas. Interestingly, Dave Leahy and Jenny Yates were not actors but real musicians. Phoenix-native Yates especially enjoyed a successful career.

So was this a sitcom or a variety show? Well, a little of both, hearkening back to the genuine original DICK VAN DYKE SHOW episodes where the cast would go all Mickey and Judy and put on a show.

And speaking of genuine originals, Dick Van Dyke hit the century mark on December 13, 2025, and to celebrate I was delighted to find this lost treasure posted on YouTube by a generous fan. I had never before seen an episode of this underappreciated series and am now eager to see the remaining 71 episodes (bring on a DVD set, already!). While Dick's erstwhile co-star Mary Tyler Moore was making it after all in her own sitcom, this laugh-loaded and inspiring episode proved Dick was alive, well, and in there clowning and holding his own.

If the weeping Indian and Woodsy the Owl haven't already convinced you that pollution is bad... this episode recounting a distant planet's paying the price for polluting their world probably won't either. And didn't we just get this "give a hoot, don't pollute" agitprop pushed on us two weeks ago in "Dr. Pelagion's War"? Is this SUPERFRIENDS or YOGI'S GANG? Ham-fisted Hanna-Barbera goes for an ecological uppercut in this second round... but it's no TKO.

I forgot just how much screentime Marvin, Wendy, and Wonder Dog chew up this season. It's really their show with the Superfriends lending support. Okay, Aquaman builds a wall of whales and Superman and Wonder Woman team up to bring water to parched Dairyland. Talk about hicksploitation! I mean, is this the 1970s or the 1930s? I was waiting for Tom Joad and Grandpa Walton to turn up at the water trough. I suspected the animators hadn't spent much time on the ground east of Hollywood.

Meanwhile, back in Gotham City... Professor Von Knowalott looks a lot like a lost brother of Cain and Abel from DC Comics' House of Secrets and House of Mystery mags. And what a typically obtuse academic droning on about the rotation of planets while the world burns. But seriously, how did this creep already know Wendy but had to be introduced to the Flash? Hmm...

And in the first tugged thread of this episode's unraveling from reality, the Flash rebuilds the collapsed Taj Mahal brick by brick until it's once again Seven Wonders-worthy. Uh, since when did the Flash have super-strength? Or the ability to shoot from his hands "super-ultrasonic vibrations" that can shatter stone?

On that disconcerting note, inconsistencies and goofs include Wendy and Marvin wearing helmets while on the moped during the opening traffic jam, then letting their freak flags fly when riding it later when the tires melt on the hot asphalt. But how come the dump truck's tires didn't melt or the fire hydrant's water turn to steam?

I almost included as a goof Wonder Woman bringing the Dairyland farmers a glacier of seawater. But my Spidey-sense tingled as I typed, so I tabbed over to google it and... who'da thunk it? Glaciers and icebergs are composed of freshwater! (And if anyone objects to my invoking a Marvel character in a review of a DC show... Kolbar started it when he fawned and gushed over the JLA, "I have marveled at their feats of strength, courage and wisdom.")

Looks like we've got another Agatha Christie mystery! Wonder Dog goes for a ride while Wonder Woman takes a powder and Robin flies the coop. Did you notice Wonder Woman and Robin are present when Aquaman talks about the volcanic island Malaba... but they're inexplicably MIA when the Superfriends go there and are AWOL for the rest of the show? Hmm, there's a fanfic plot here....

So why did Supes choose Wonder Dog over Wonder Woman? Adding insult to injury, Flash later steals the Amazing Amazon's spot in the shoulder-to shoulder power pose when they confront the episode's antagonist. Gee, talk about toxic masculinity. Why, I bet it was Andrew Tate not Barry Allen under that mask! (And he sure didn't sound at all like Ted Knight despite the credits.)

This was an okay episode that got better when it went bonkers. I trace the crazy train' wobbling on the tracks to (a) the old firetruck transforming into a spaceship and/or (b) Superman swinging that solar satellite into the sun.

Like Bud Dry, why ask why, right? Like why if Kolbar wanted to remain inconspicuous he would retrofit an antique firetruck into a spaceship? I mean, why not an AMC Gremlin or Ford Pinto? Nobody would look twice at those (already regretting their first looks!). Why ask why the satellite was equipped with defense devices tailor-made for attack by a flying-through-space person? And don't ask why there was already waiting and ready enough copper wire to encircle the globe several times! No wonder the penny went zinc a decade later. And do you think any of that copper wire was recovered? Scrappers were snipping and selling it as fast as Flash could lay it down.

That crazy train is one big rolling railroad, and as Jethro Tull sang it, "Old Charlie stole the handle / And the train, it won't stop going, no way to slow down!" I mean, how else to describe Ted Baxter's informing us that "Using Malaba's molten lava, Superman forges a giant glass bubble to transport his friends swiftly through space..." Uh, did this Kryptonian McGyver remember to pack oxygen? Covid-karen Kolbar's mask ain't gonna save him from suffocating (or from Covid). And of all days for Aquaman to have enjoyed a pickled tuna and sardine omelette with black coffee for breakfast. My kingdom for a Dynamint!

As insane as that scene was, peak bonkers was Superman's *inhaling* the smog on Solar Terrarium! Holy emphysema, Supes, why not just blow it away without sucking in the equivalent of a million Marlboros? Even Bill Clinton knew not to inhale!

Plot twist: Marvin gets the MVP this episode. He proved himself surprisingly competent and daring, from writing the note to making the connection to his father's electronic garage door. He wasn't perfect, losing the photographs (how did Kolbar get them, anyway?) and refusing Wendy's suggestion they summon the Superfriends when they spotted Kolbar in the observatory. "We might lose him," says Marvin. Not if you and Wonder Dog watched him while Wendy stepped into the next room, duh.

I was too worn out to wonder how cleaning up the beachfront and the blowing papers from the street would restore the meteorological balance of this unhinged planet that--typical of this show--got off scot-free from attempted genocide of earth. I mean, Lupis and Kolbar planned to kill every living creature on our planet so they could claim it as their own and colonize it! I've heard of the Great Replacement, but this was that nutty notion on steroids.

Actually, this was the exact plot of the classic sci-fi series THE INVADERS: "The Invaders: alien beings from a dying planet. Their destination: the Earth. Their purpose: to make it *their* world." Hey, Supes, forget Wonder Dog and find freakin' David Vincent!