Sorry for the delay - I got distracted.
Banacek: WTHR-DT2 - 13.2 - Mon, 3/24, 8:00 PM 1 hr 30 min
"Project Phoenix"
9/27/1972, Crime, Drama
After a valuable, experimental vehicle is stolen from the train that was transporting it, the insurance company has no idea how it disappeared without a trace, so the company recruits Banacek to find the vehicle before an insurance payout is issued.
I'm watching it now. Geez, I love those fictional impossible crimes! This episode might have made John Dickson Carr smile....
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💕 JimHutton (1934-79) and ElleryQueen 👍
I've got all of them [still] sitting on the DVR.
Comcast is pushing me go to their X1 operating system, but it'll require them rerunning cable throughout my house. But they're not going to do anything about transferring things from the [current] DVR. I've pointed out that if one of the suits went to one of the technical departments and said, "My son is leaving home and has a DVR full of material. Please convert it for me." You know they'd do it.
I like that episode because of the hot woman (Joanna Pettet?) I'm of the mind that all highly intelligent women are hot.
"When you're good at something, never do it for free."Joker, "The Dark Knight"
The women in these episodes are lovely. No eye candy for me, though.
Oh well. I know which TV show to watch if I want eye candy.... 😁
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💕 JimHutton (1934-79) and ElleryQueen 👍
Joanna Pettet's abs were the stuff of legend in this episode.
shareIt was interesting to see Stafford Repp, Batman's Chief O'Hara, playing a police chief WITHOUT any Irish accent (despite the fact that his jurisdiction was probably somewhere in Massachusetts).
The stolen car is a slightly disguised AMX that was either a production model or one of the prototype AMX show-cars. Early in the episode, someone seems to say that "Concord" is a brand name associated with the company that made the stolen car. Somewhat ironic if you know what happened to American Motors less than a decade later.
I think the writers cheated a bit. If the train cars had separated, the air-brake line would have gotten detached in two places, so the train would have gone into emergency (i.e., the brakes would have activated), alerting the security crew that something was amiss.
Maybe some other railfan can answer this: In the scene where Banacek and another investigator are standing/sitting on a double-track mainline and Banacek notices a surprisingly new-looking nut and bolt in the rail next to him... where is that railroad line?
(And, oh yeah, Joanna Pettet was damn fine.)
It starts in a few minutes on MeTV - which had a "Columbo" episode a few days ago with (the damn fine) Ms. Pettet.
So it goes.
I'll probably watch it again tonight - if nothing else for Joanna Pettit, my favorite of "the Banacek girls".
So it goes.
I'm watching it again now-- partly for that reason. Ah, there she is. Oh, my... yes, this was absolutely a good decision. Daaayumn!
Yes, they definitely DO say that "Concord" is the name of the car company that plans to market the Phoenix (the slightly disguised AMX). You don't suppose that a few years down the road, when Concord was being created from the remains of AMC, someone was trying to come up with a name for the new company and they just happened to remember this episode...? Nahh...
The Phoenix car was said to have a feature called a 'compensator'. As described in this episode, it would work much like the electronic stability control that began to be used in cars and SUVs about 25 years after this episode first aired.
Meanwhile... When Banacek chases the hobo through the railroad yard and corners him in a boxcar, the sign on the bridge nearby says 'Boston', but I bet the yard is really in L.A. or nearby. The area looks similar to a photo I once saw of a Southern Pacific yard, and the hobo is riding a train whose switch engine and caboose appear to be Santa Fe equipment. Anyone know where this really was?