"The Bomber And Mrs. Moroney" is 50!

[Todd]

Bobbi has been guiding my Five-O viewing. When she posts a "50th anniversary" thread, it inspires me to go watch the episode again -- some of which I haven't seen in 25+ years.

You can count me among the people who liked this episode. Sorry, Mike! (He gave it 2.5 stars.)

Actually, I see Mike really liked the episode, yet penalized it 1.5 stars because of the continuity screwup with the name of Joey Collins/Thad Vaughn. In the words of a certain President... "C'mon, man!" That deserves a deduction of a half-star at most!

I really do think this is a 3.5 star episode, but not because of the Thad Vaughn thing (which I admit is annoying for diehard fans, and a head-scratcher as to how they could have let that happen, just two seasons after the original episode.) I agree with Mike that the ending was too cliche, and not particularly suspenseful. I never enjoyed "cut the bomb wire before the deadline" scenes in any show or movie. You always know how it's going to end, and there's really not a lot of suspense or action in these sequences, other than the characters looking nervous as they cut wires. Lame!

When Marty Collins was shot, and there were about 6 minutes left in the episode, I cringed, knowing most of the remaining time would be bomb-wire-cutting. Also, there was a big hole in this sequence. Why didn't they just lower Marty's body off the balcony, drag it to a safe spot in the open, and let it blow up? The cutting wasn't even necessary!

I did enjoy the standoff, the ever-changing situation, the various attempts by Five-O to end the situation (some of which failed), and Mrs. Maroney's cantankerous attitude. When she went in to ask if her relatives could force her to live in a nursing home, the answer was definitely NO! Mrs. Maroney was clearly both physically and mentally capable! Sometimes the bitter old ladies on shows like these are insufferable, but Mrs. Maroney was charming, and perfect for the episode.

I also really enjoyed Danny's taunting of Marty at the end, to bait him to get near the window. However, Danny was taking a huge risk getting as offensive as he was to Marty, as Marty could have shot him at any time. I guess Danny had a vest on, and figured he'd be okay if shot anywhere but the head.

To be honest, the bomb strapped to Marty wasn't necessary. It would have been a better episode if he set a deadline to start shooting people at a certain point, and with that deadline approaching, Danny baited him to the window in the same fashion shown, and the episode ending shortly after that. The same ending (of Jenny answering the phone, indicating business as usual) would have been even more powerful.

They should have consulted me on this, when filming this in 1970. Too bad I wasn't going to be conceived until June of the following year!

Mark Jenkins, who played Marty, is still alive, but is close to 78 years old. Hope Summers, who played Mrs. Maroney, obviously isn't alive anymore, as she was born in 1896! She did live for about 8 years after this episode aired, before passing away in 1979 at age 83, of heart failure.

[Mr. Mike]

Todd, I agree with you to the extent that this episode is worthy of at least 3 stars, 1 being deducted for the huge blunder over the names. I think when I wrote this review/did the rating, I was still under the influence of the evil reboot where I reached new depths of cynicism.

However, people shouldn't expect me to watch shows again with the intention of "improving" the rating of their favorites, especially those in the 10th to 12th seasons which I was mean to, LOL. Seriously, this re-viewing is it!

At some point in the past, I removed all the ratings for one of my sites (I don't think it was the Classic H50 one), which got people all in a tizzy. My Peter Gunn site (http://www.petergunn.tv) does not have ratings at all, neither does the one for the Mission Impossible reboot (http://www.missionimpossible1988.info). In the case of Peter Gunn, there were 114 episodes (38x3 ... yes, they had >38< episodes in a year), which made it difficult enough to slog through the entire series.

[John Chergi]

Fantastic episode! I love The Bomber And Mrs. Moroney because it is a well-written episode and tense throughout. Marty Collins has been planning his meeting with Danny Williams and is ready to exact his revenge. He has a bomb vest ready to activate as well as a half-dozen hostages. Theres an incredible scene where Chin Ho is blinded by muzzle flash. I dont know how they did that scene. Very realistic and Chin's face darkened from the discharge. Collins like many villains on HFO waits too long to harm a HFO member. This gives critical time to save that team member. HFO also did a commendable job of not showing Collins head shot wound from the sniper. It could have been very graphic if they wanted it to be. Tremendous suspense as it appears Danny, Chin & the others are running out of time. I would say this is a Classic episode. Would give The Bomber And Mrs. Moroney 5.5 stars out of 6 stars.

[epaddon]

Bobbi has been guiding my Five-O viewing. When she posts a "50th anniversary" thread, it inspires me to go watch the episode again -- some of which I haven't seen in 25+ years.

You can count me among the people who liked this episode. Sorry, Mike! (He gave it 2.5 stars.)

Actually, I see Mike really liked the episode, yet penalized it 1.5 stars because of the continuity screwup with the name of Joey Collins/Thad Vaughn. In the words of a certain President... "C'mon, man!" That deserves a deduction of a half-star at most!

I really do think this is a 3.5 star episode, but not because of the Thad Vaughn thing (which I admit is annoying for diehard fans, and a head-scratcher as to how they could have let that happen, just two seasons after the original episode.)

I'd like to put forth an explanation for this glaring inconsistency in which it wouldn't be a case of the writers/producers being too stupid to have checked. Rather, it may have been a case of engaging in some creative cost-cutting in that if they specifically made this episode a sequel to "And They Painted Daisies On His Coffin" by name-checking a character from that episode, then that might have meant being on the hook for an extra royalty to John D.F. Black who wrote "Daisies." (or at least been forced to get his permission or pay a fee) But if they change the name of the character and just use the footage, then they can technically argue that the episode isn't really a sequel to "Daisies" and thus Black wouldn't have been entitled to anything. This sort of creative decision making has influenced many a script of other TV shows down through the years where if you use a character "created" by someone in one episode, you're potentially on the hook if you use that unique character again in another episode not written by the same writer.