One Born Every 50 Years!

[Bobbi]

Yesterday, 50 years ago, CBS aired S06E17 – "One Born Every Minute".

Sorry for the delay, Real Life got in the way.

The episode centers on a group of grifters led by Joe Connors (Ed Flanders). Included in his motley crew are Cindy Imala (Lynnette Mettey), locals Big Mardo (Jimmy Borges), Sunada (Tommy Fujiwara) and Elfidio (Doug Mossman).

How it works is that Cindy cozies up to a mark and the others present a case full of diamonds. The bunco artists get their victim to fork over lots of money and the crew takes off. While the plan is straightforward the way they pull off their stunts is over-the-top. The beginning of the episode they have a shoot out!

One of the victims is Harry Maguire (Michael Strong) who commits suicide after being fleeced. By this time, Five-O has the thieves on their radar due to being reported by George Heller (Peter Carew) and his wife, Sylvia (Connie Sawyer) who is especially ticked off. She drags Heller into McGarrett's office to report what happened to them.

Five-O sets up a sting on these creeps. Connors considers McGarrett "a dumb cop" and wants one more scam while McGarrett "is watching the airport". It's this last take that's the sting.

Cindy picks out Alex Anderson (John Stalker) but Connors smells something afoot. Anderson follows Connors to his hotel room and money exchanges hands. Five-O busts in and busts the whole lot.

Mr. Mike does a much better job than I. His review is here: https://www.fiveohomepage.com/5-0log6.htm#137

Not one of my favorite episodes and it's not one that I go out of my way to watch.

Ed Flanders would go on to star in the 1980s series "St. Elsewhere" and that's where I know him from. He appeared on Five-O multiple times, including Season 1's "Up Tight" and Season 2's "Three Dead Cows At Makapu'u". I'm sure he showed up in other episodes, but I can't remember off the top of my head.

It's also a good episode to watch multiple stock players do their thing. Other than that, I can pass on this show.

Regardless, Happy 50th, "One Born Every Minute"!!

[epaddon]

Flanders was also in "The Guarnerius Caper."

Sadly, Flanders committed suicide in 1995 after suffering from depression and lingering injuries from a 1989 car accident.

https://people.com/archive/from-else...-vol-43-no-11/

[barnzoboy]

Wow, I did not know that about Flanders - very sad. Thank you for posting that info.

[John Chergi]

One Born Every Minute 2.5 Stars ⭐⭐ 1/2 Out Of 4 Stars ⭐⭐ ⭐⭐. Season 6.

A solid episode but not 1 of my FAV. Cindy provides good eye candy throughout the episode. It was also nice to watch some of the HFO stock actors like Doug Mossman, Jimmy Borges, and Tommy Fujiwara earn some quality screen time. Joe Connors appears to be a competent and intelligent leader of the bunco group. I don't understand why he's surprised 1 of the marks would eventually commit suicide. They are losing several thousands of dollars in these swindles. Harry Maguire's suicide is investigated by HFO. The intelligent Connors makes the mistake of proceeding with 1 more score before leaving the area. Alex Anderson working with HFO pretends to go along with the game and then Connors and the rest of the accomplices in the hotel room are apprehended by McG and HFO. It was great to watch Connors lose in the end. McG & HFO wraps up the case. JC