Post by William T. Goat, Esq. on Feb 18, 2014 22:26:34 GMT -5
Season 1, Episode 6: Fire Man
Original airdate: May 6, 1981
There's a lot of set up in the first act, and the editing makes it kind of confusing. The episode begins with a man in a silvery fireproof suit, using a flamethrower to burn down a warehouse full of stereo equipment. He nearly runs over a security guard in his getaway car. The guard writes down the license plate number. Jump cut to a short time later that same night--a caption would have been nice, or maybe a dissolve to indicate the passage of time-- Tony Villicana, the most developed student character in RalphHinkley's Hanley's class, breaks into a locked lot, gets into that same car, and drives it away.
Two cops, on the lookout for that license plate, pull him over and find the arsonist's equipment in the trunk. (One of the two cops is played by a pre-fame Danny Glover. I feel old.) Tony claims to be a legitimate repo man, and didn't know what was in the trunk. The cops decide to arrest Tony, but as he's being cuffed, he breaks free and drives away, leading a high-speed chase.
The cars drive past the high school, where Ralph is working late, waiting for Tony to drive him home. Ralph changes into the superhero suit and stops the cop car, by popping out from a manhole in the street and grabbing the car's rear axle from underneath. So, Ralph is not seen, and the broken axle is assumed to be an accident caused by driving over an open manhole. The cops are thwarted. Yay? (Well, the cops were undercover; all Ralph knew was that Tony was being chased.)
The next day, Tony doesn't show up for Ralph's class, and the other students don't want to talk to him. Agent Maxwell shows up to tell Ralph all about what happened the night before; he believes the arson is connected to another recent arson at a Federal records building. A lot of government agencies are very interested in this case.
Tony is hiding out at Ralph's house. It turns out that Ralph did help Tony get (what he thought was) a legitimate job at Cameron Auto Recovery, but they now claim they've never heard of him. Pam agrees to act as Tony's lawyer; she and Ralph talk Bill into reluctantly helping them prove Tony's innocence.
The story has a few more twists. Along the way, we see:
-the return of Ralph's invisibility power, which he's finally mastered.. oh, wait, no he hasn't
-federal agents, spying on Ralph's house, see him wearing the suit (but don't see him use any powers, naturally)
-Ralph the superhero rescue a less-than-grateful woman from a burning building
I liked the callbacks to dialogue from earlier episodes. Tony sums up his situation in a manner that recalls his sentiments from episode 3: "Villicana tried the system, and the system stinks." When Ralph pressures Bill into helping Tony by threatening to dissolve their crime-fighting partnership, he reflects Bill's own words back at him: "Pressure makes diamonds. Deal from strength. That's the way you say it, Uncle Bill!" Even though the goofy premise tends to have given it the pop culture reputation of a sitcom, the show is written like a drama, with all the attention to continuity that implies.
The "Uncle Bill" bit seems to refer to something that happens in a later scene; when they snoop around the burned-down federal building to ask questions, Bill passes Ralph off as his nephew to justify his being there. Again, something is wrong with the editing in this episode.
Next time: the season finale
Original airdate: May 6, 1981
There's a lot of set up in the first act, and the editing makes it kind of confusing. The episode begins with a man in a silvery fireproof suit, using a flamethrower to burn down a warehouse full of stereo equipment. He nearly runs over a security guard in his getaway car. The guard writes down the license plate number. Jump cut to a short time later that same night--a caption would have been nice, or maybe a dissolve to indicate the passage of time-- Tony Villicana, the most developed student character in Ralph
Two cops, on the lookout for that license plate, pull him over and find the arsonist's equipment in the trunk. (One of the two cops is played by a pre-fame Danny Glover. I feel old.) Tony claims to be a legitimate repo man, and didn't know what was in the trunk. The cops decide to arrest Tony, but as he's being cuffed, he breaks free and drives away, leading a high-speed chase.
The cars drive past the high school, where Ralph is working late, waiting for Tony to drive him home. Ralph changes into the superhero suit and stops the cop car, by popping out from a manhole in the street and grabbing the car's rear axle from underneath. So, Ralph is not seen, and the broken axle is assumed to be an accident caused by driving over an open manhole. The cops are thwarted. Yay? (Well, the cops were undercover; all Ralph knew was that Tony was being chased.)
The next day, Tony doesn't show up for Ralph's class, and the other students don't want to talk to him. Agent Maxwell shows up to tell Ralph all about what happened the night before; he believes the arson is connected to another recent arson at a Federal records building. A lot of government agencies are very interested in this case.
Tony is hiding out at Ralph's house. It turns out that Ralph did help Tony get (what he thought was) a legitimate job at Cameron Auto Recovery, but they now claim they've never heard of him. Pam agrees to act as Tony's lawyer; she and Ralph talk Bill into reluctantly helping them prove Tony's innocence.
The story has a few more twists. Along the way, we see:
-the return of Ralph's invisibility power, which he's finally mastered.. oh, wait, no he hasn't
-federal agents, spying on Ralph's house, see him wearing the suit (but don't see him use any powers, naturally)
-Ralph the superhero rescue a less-than-grateful woman from a burning building
I liked the callbacks to dialogue from earlier episodes. Tony sums up his situation in a manner that recalls his sentiments from episode 3: "Villicana tried the system, and the system stinks." When Ralph pressures Bill into helping Tony by threatening to dissolve their crime-fighting partnership, he reflects Bill's own words back at him: "Pressure makes diamonds. Deal from strength. That's the way you say it, Uncle Bill!" Even though the goofy premise tends to have given it the pop culture reputation of a sitcom, the show is written like a drama, with all the attention to continuity that implies.
The "Uncle Bill" bit seems to refer to something that happens in a later scene; when they snoop around the burned-down federal building to ask questions, Bill passes Ralph off as his nephew to justify his being there. Again, something is wrong with the editing in this episode.
Next time: the season finale