This Must Be the Alamo
During
a heat wave, Chief Clifford is called away and leaves Sgt. Broadhurst in
charge. A football gambling ring that scores with “inside dope on injuries”
loses a little black book and begins eliminating witnesses in a search for it,
leading to an assault on precinct headquarters.
Irrefutable Negative
“Return
to the Alamo” exactly one year and one week later carried forward the work to
the fullest McCloud potential, but even here it’s a flabbergasting
production, excruciatingly funny when it’s not exquisite, and handled by TV
veteran Kessler (I Dream of Jeannie, The Monkees) with cool
professionalism (which is to say, he misses nothing).
This
peculiar style of extenuated comedy requires the finest acting, and for
television there must be exceedingly quick takes. The model is in the range of Captain
Newman, M.D., a sequential comedy by comparison.
Kessler
adopts the classic technique for this virtuoso melding of plot strands, and is
always there at the scene for each new development, or monitoring pivotal
junctures (which are given as conversational meetings in the squad room between
two or more characters).
Obviously
the study to be made is of Walter Doniger’s adaptation of these means to the
three-ring circus of discrete simultaneous tales or facets this became.
Kessler’s treatment is the solid basis, the “irrefutable negative.”
He
has no leisure to design shots, but none are faulty; at the same time, the
features of the comedy spell out what was required: a sure hand at registering
a string of nuances as thin as beaten gold or Stan Laurel.
|
Van Johnson Dan Kiley Ray Danton Chet Mason Jack Kelly Manny Donner Laraine Stephens Shannon Taylor Marc Hannibal Elton Packer Gregory Sierra Patrolman Rico Cross Eugene Roche Rockford Robert Weaver Scoop Henderson Michael Pataki Officer Rizzo Booth Colman Medical Examiner Mary Carver “Queen” Mary Clete Roberts Newsman |
Written by Glen A. Larson Directed by Bruce Kessler |
38009, 3.24.74
(Sgt. Broadhurst is temporarily assigned a squad car.)
SGT. BROADHURST: I want my detective’s car back.
CHIEF CLIFFORD: Everything changes when you get to
be the boss. You have no more personal friends, no more buddies, no more
sidekicks. That’s the way it has to be.
SGT. BROADHURST: From now on, this is The Alamo, and
there is no back door!
(Inspecting the crime scene.)
SGT. BROADHURST: (Holding up wine bottle.) Think this is good?
DET.
SIMMS: Château Lafite! (He pronounces it “Lafeety”.) That must
be an off-brand, I never heard of that.
SGT.
BROADHURST: (With irony.) Must be.
SGT. BROADHURST: Boy, with this kind of help, who
needs criminals? The system alone will whip us!
McCLOUD: Well, to tell you the truth, Chief, we’re just jumpin’ around
here like ticks on an angry skunk.
OFC. RIZZO: Well, I’m not saying nothing. Even
McCloud outranks me.
SGT. BROADHURST: What is this, a siege?