Little Girl Blue is 50!

Tonight 50 years ago, CBS aired S05E20 "Little Girl Blue".

In this episode, it's the return of some guests and some already shot footage. :p

Two bungling kidnappers, Luther (Ron Feinberg) and Frank (Jackie Coogan), take a girl from her bedroom. Debbie (Brook Graham) knows Luther and Frank since the pair were hired by Debbie's mom, Eadie (Tisha Sterling), to do odd jobs. Luther isn't all there and depends on Frank to keep him straight. This is due to a head injury suffered during the Korean War. Eadie gets that and has no problem with Luther. However, Eadie does give McGarrett fits when they try to talk to Luther during the crisis.

The already shot footage comes from Season 4's "...And I Want Some Candy And A Gun That Shoots". In that show, a sniper takes out a pair of police officers and is eventually taken out by Danno. Needless to say, there's a lot of gun fire in both episodes.

It seems Eadie hired Luther and Frank to pull off the kidnapping, but it's none other than her own mother, Debbie's grandmother! Marian Scott (Nina Foch) seems to be a character from old money and is a serious muckity-muck on the islands. In the end Luther points her out as the one who hired the pair for the kidnapping. During the course of things, Frank croaks from a heart attack.

Mr. Mike does a much better job than I including listing the reused scenes: https://www.fiveohomepage.com/5-0log5.htm#116

I like this episode and shows how creative older television shows could be. It would be very easy to look at "...And I Want Some Candy" and blow it off. The network considered it "too violent" to re-air but it is in the syndication package and aired on MeTV when that network had Five-O on its schedule. I also believe H&I has the episode in its slate of those to be aired (I'm pretty sure they aired it during the first cycle). The same holds true for "Little Girl Blue". But to re-use that much footage and put another spin on the story is pretty cool, in my opinion.

I feel for Luther in this episode - the poor guy is just following Frank. When Frank kicks it, Luther is really stuck. This is especially true when Debbie escapes and runs down the mountain to her mom. Fortunately, Five-O digs up the background on Luther and McGarrett is able to pierce the fog of war's past to talk Luther down. I actually like that exchange and shows us that McGarrett isn't one to go in with guns blazing as the first option. :)

Happy 50th, "Little Girl Blue"!! :cool:

Thanks for the Anniversary episode Bobbi! Little Girl Blue I think would be somewhere in the middle range of Classic HFO 🌊 episodes. Probably in that 130-150 range. It's similar to The Payoff in that in squeezes everything out of the script. It could easily bogged down up on the mountain 🏔️ but Frank's heart attack, the creative way McG gets Luther down off the mountain, and the twist ending with Mrs. Scott involved...I think it's a good watch. There are so many excellent episodes in the Classic HFO 🌊 catalog. Little Girl Blue probably would rank higher if it was on another show. I liked Debbie's performance...The young girl kidnapped by Frank and Luther. Eadie also was a caring and worried mother in a difficult situation.
Also, a JC salute to the late Ron Feinberg as Luther. I enjoy him in his roles whether it's Pray Love Remember or No Bottles...No Cans...No People... Coogan, I remember him killed off quick by Ossie Connors as a loose end in Which Way Did They Go? Might give Little Girl Blue 2 ⭐⭐and a Half stars. Happy Valentine's Day to the HFO Forum regulars and newer writers here. JC

I haven't watched this one for a while, I'm going to add it to my to-do list