I Want Some Candy!

[Bobbi]

Appropriate title considering Halloween is right around the corner.

Tonight 50 years ago, CBS aired "...And I Want Some Candy And A Gun That Shoots" (S04E06).

This episode starts off 'innocently' enough with George Patton purchasing a rifle, scope and some ammo. Patton is actually William Shem, Jr. (Michael Burns) who was a marksman in Vietnam. Shem has pretty much lost his mind but he has it together enough to take cover in an abandoned bunker near Diamond Head. He has a clear view of the highway below and shoots out a woman's tire. She flags down an HPD patrol car and this is where everything goes South in a hurry. Shem wounds one of the officers and kills the other.

Five-O is soon on the scene with McGarrett and Danno arriving just in front of the ambulance bypassing a lot of backed up traffic. McGarrett tries everything to talk Shem down but there's zero success here. Even after bringing Shem's wife (Annette O'Toole), his mother (Jeanne Cooper) and his doctor (William Croarkin). In the end, Shem is dead and Danno wounded on the side of the hill.

Mr. Mike's review is here: http://www.fiveohomepage.com/5-0log4.htm#78

This is a really good show and one I like a lot. The tension ratchets up throughout and Shem's mother lives in La La Land being in complete denial that her son isn't in the bunker. Cooper is one of my favorite actresses and her turn here proves her acting prowess. She is best known for her role as Katherine Chancellor on "The Young and The Restless" which she played until her death in 2013.

This is also one of the most violent episodes I've ever seen and frankly, I'm surprised MeTV aired it in 2017/2018. There's exchange of a lot of gunfire multiple times through the show including several officers lined up behind their cars with AR-15s shooting toward the bunker. We see lots of damage and another officer (Nephei Hanneman) killed when he charges the hill against McGarrett's orders.

It's a great episode and one worth checking out. Happy 50th, "...And I Want Some Candy And A Gun That Shoots"!!

[John Chergi]

I would give this episode 3 stars out of 4. It was very suspenseful and tension-filled. Thanks Bobbi for the 50th Anniversary reminders. This Billy Shem is a Vietnam War Marksman and has some psychological issues. I think the episode brings up questions we are still facing 50 years later. 1. Should those with a psychological history be allowed to purchase a firearm or handgun? 2. How does a Psyc Doctor balance a person's well-being or freedom from institutional control vs risk to society? 3. What should the criteria or guidelines be for those psychological patients to be released back into society? 4. Should more funding for the psych budget be increased for housing these patients? I'm a big Michael Burns fan and I think he did a great performance. The "MOM" spelled out in shells is Classic. JC

[Bobbi]

The entire exchange between McGarrett and Dr. Fernando is priceless and telling. It was a commentary on the sad state of the mental health crisis in America ... and this was in the 1970s!!

In 2021, we have not improved.

[Mr. Mike]

This page has some interesting comments on the way mentally ill people were let back into the community around the time of the show and later...

https://www.salon.com/2013/09/29/ron...ental_illness/

[Icky_Ike]

I found it a little odd, even given the date and the show's uh tactical proclivities, that with such a force at hand they decided on tear-gas from a helo (which then kept crossing over, blowing the gas away with its prop-wash) and then a frontal attack with Danny deployed as the holeshot. It's a bunker on a hill with one man with a rifle in it, why not at least try to get some men up the back side? And what's on the other sides? McGarrett says "he couldn't've picked a better place to hole up in if he combed the whole island", but the gunman drove up the shoreside road and discarded his car, why can't they send a few folks up from that side the way the gunman went? I mean it's plausible it's too steep everywhere else, and it hardly matters, but contrasted with S3E18's warrantless and simple fly-by (with J&R M80 carbines, no less!) dispatching of sentries at Wo Fat's temporary compound, you wonder what difference the roof makes!
Also, Mr. Mike's line about how the sniper's been spending his time, "Shem has been listening to crappy rock music on his radio and also singing the theme from the Howdy Doody Show" busted me up laughing several years apart. Maybe it hits a little close to home, I don't know, but I sure appreciate it.