One thing I just noticed about the previous scene involving the sad demise of Sally.. Check out what Vic is doing in the driver’s seat when we hear the car ominously start up!
He’s not starting that car! LOL! It’s a magic starting car!
Anyway.. on with the episode..
It’s back to the agency [whoo I think this is the first winer exterior without Lee or Amanda’s car! I wonder if that is Ms Walker who has found herself a boyfriend to keep her warm in the winter? 😉 Lee, Billy and Francine are wondering 
what to do next.
Whoo Lee is all snuffly again! Seems they filmed this ep and ALSALS concurrently.. that fits perfectly with the order I came up with..
You guys notice that Francine is dressed in all white???!!!! What’s going on??!!!! I can’t get a grip on what they are trying for with these fashions.. I think I’ll have to give up my hypothesis of Amanda being angelic or something.. especially if Francine’s wearing it! ;p
LOL maybe it’s just a case of- white was in fashion a lot at that time! Billy: I don’t get it.
Lee: Me neither. Slater tells me the papers are in the safe. I go to check and they’re gone. 
Francine: That means we have to start all over again. Re-establish contact with Salinas, everything.
[I love Francine’s hair.. ugh.. It’s almost like what Amanda use to have 
]
Lee: Yeah, this little theft jeopardizes our entire organized-crime operation. We have to find out who lifted those papers, that’s all there is to it.
See Billy’s chair? I’m pretty sure this ep is the last time we see it!
Amanda knocks on the door.. seems she has been summoned to see if she noticed anything suspicious at the party (could it be that they are starting to catch on that if Amanda was there- then there is no doubt she will be somehow involved? 
)
Billy to Amanda: …since you were at the party last night, I thought maybe you had seen something, anything unusual. [Anyone else thinking Billy now sounds snuffly too??!!!]
Amanda: No, sir.
[who else thought it would have been funny to hear that it was unusual when Lee wasn’t interested in Betsy Jordan?! Call me crazy but I think Amanda looks pretty here! Pink is her colour! short hair or long!! 
]
Francine: Lee, what about Judge Moreland? He gave the party. Did you talk to him?
I love how Francine immediately disregards Amanda, like she is sure she can have nothing to contribute – it’s not nasty here, it’s just second nature! Just you wait Francine – she’s going to learn a thing or two in this episode about Amanda!!!
Hey! Wait a minute.. did I just hear that right?? Judge Moreland gave the party??
Soooo Johnny (the mobster) Salinas’ lawyer Slater Harrison, put Salinas’ papers in Judge Moreland’s safe for Lee to pick up at the party?? does this strike anyone else as weird?? why would Slater have access to the Judge’s safe??? Unless it wasn’t his home.. but if not what was it.. oh I don’t know!
Lee: Yeah, he’s stumped, too. [So am I!!! ] He gave strict 
orders to the help that the library was out of bounds for party guests.
Slater and I were the only ones allowed in the room.
Amanda: Well, it was all right for the maid to be in there, wasn’t it?
Lee: What maid?
Amanda: The maid. Um… You remember when I went to the powder room? Well, I took 
a wrong turn and went down the wrong hall 
and I opened the wrong door, and it was the library door. And there was the maid in there.
Amanda was triple wrong! LOL! It wasn’t all wrong.. the powder room was two doors down!
Oh yes.. Amanda – just happened to stumble on the theft by accident.. my oh my.. what luck.. what dumb unbelievable lucky luck luck.. Coincidences which involve Amanda in the work of IFF are not my fave.. and nor are the plot advancements that occur through plain old luck! There’s a bit of that in the end of season 2 – I’ll just have to brace myself and look beyond it all!
Billy: Might be our thief, Scarecrow.
Lee: Yeah. Francine, do me a favour…
…Call Judge Moreland, find out what catering service he used for the party.
Francine: Got it. [Francine leaves..]
Amanda: Lee, you don’t think the maid took the papers?
Lee: I don’t know. All I do know is that 
Johnny Salinas wrote down a lot of damaging stuff about his mob friends and 
gave it to his lawyer to give to me. Now, his lawyer doesn’t have it, and I don’t have it… But somebody does.
That somebody.. is the Burling Bros! We catch up with them as they pay a visit to Mr Columbus from Columbus Meats!!
[this looks suspiciously like a bendy knife though can’t prove it!! ]
oh dear- mobster and butcher is an ominous combination!!! whooooo …. it kind of screams don’t get involved with this guy!!! I like this assistant Paulie.. he’s an interesting character I think he hero worships Columbus!
I think this meat packing plant is not a random choice for the writers, as there was a famous mobster killing that had a few similarities with this episode.. Maybe some of you are already aware of it, but I’ll come back to this during the action finale…
[Anyone keep track of smk ties?? Did Lee wear that Malcolm Tie once?? Found it!! err I think.?..Maybe?? well.. it’s close at least..
Here is Lee in Times they are changing with that ohhh so gorgeous haircut of his! 😉 ]
[booo hoooo!! I will try not to stare at the back of Amanda’s head and ALL that hair!!!! 😉 ]
Well, the Baddie Bros try and sell the papers back to Mr ‘call me frankie’ Columbus..
Oh my.. another recycling moment.. It’s Rostov from Stemwinder!!! Muahahahahaaa!!! See:
Well back to this ep! [It’s going to be a while till we get to stemwinder at this rate haaaa! Oh well.. let’s just enjoy the journey! ]
Malcolm does the talking here as he sells to Columbus what he has on offer..
Columbus: Some guys, they tinker with cars. Some guys, they collect stamps. Me, I butcher meat.
What a fab intro to his character!!!
Malcolm: Last night, some papers of yours came into our possession. You understand, they mean absolutely nothing to us… but they may to you.
Columbus: I doubt it. Paulie, am I interested in some party papers? [Paulie still wipes the knife, but laughs with Columbus]
Malcolm reads from the papers: In 1983, you 
grossed $3,719,000 from prostitution in Virginia, Washington, and Maryland. In 1978, 
you order a hit.. .. on two associates, a Mr. George Delgado and a Mr. Ronald—
[the Delgados were a famous US mobster family.. I think this story has some historical references..]
Columbus: Okay, okay. You got my interest. So, what are we talking about here?
Malcolm demands 25 thousand.. cash! Columbus obliges.. far too easily! 
Malcolm is too cocky for his own good.. and doesn’t see the danger they are in. 
They get their cash off the mobster and Columbus checks the papers.. now he knows who ratted him out, he’s gonna get wacked! 😉 LOL
Wha??? they fill Columbus in on their 
operation and how they get information?? – purlease!! so stupid!!!
Vic: what we do is.. we.. uh.. we arrange parties for.. prominent people I Washington society.
Malcolm: This is what we really do. I think you’ll appreciate this Mr Columbus (ugh!) Over the years, certain employees of ours have been taught to.. borrow things for a night. Uh, interesting papers, reports.. files.. that sort ofthing.
Columbus: Which you can copy and then sell right?
Malcolm: The next day, we return the original-
Columbus: then no one knows they’ve been taken. Well that’s good!!!! Why would you tell your secrets to a mobster? [so if they just gave Columbus a copy, that means they also copied the envelope the papers were in when Sally got it out of the safe! LOL these look like the originals!]
Malcolm is too cocky and now he is playing with the big boys he wants to 
brag. Idiot!! Mobsters like to take over whatever is making money, by any means. They are always on the look out for a new opportunity… ugh!!! Even I know that and I don’t know much!
Yup… the Mobster Columbus offers the Bros ‘protection’ … cha! right!! Dim, greedy Malcolm doesn’t see the threat in Columbus’ 
words.. I think Vic is nervous and knows they’re in danger.. but as usual he doesn’t cross Malcolm..
I think Columbus takes 
this all in and can see Vic is the follower. So who is the one for Columbus to kill? Malcolm!.. Who is the one for Columbus to intimidate? Vic!
Love how Columbus gives the boys veal chops to take home! haaaaa…
LOL… After Columbus is left alone, while Paulie shows the baddie bros out.. he goes back to his desk to read the papers he just bought. Look behind him on the floor – you can see a ‘mark’ taped out on the floor! 😆
Love the shot they use to finish out the scene!!! whooooooo!!!
LOL and the music that goes with it!!! (hear that Italian music? LOL!) All that’s missing is the baddie phone
Well.. As always, I’m really looking forward to hearing what you think!!! Does anyone remember seeing this ep for the first time?? what did you think of Columbus? Okay.. byee for now!
"Just walk with me.." 
#2019 rewatch
There is something about the whole mob theme and how its played in this episode that reminds me of “The Sopranos”, possibly only because of that shot in the opening credits of Stratiale’s Meat Shop with the pig on the roof, but also the faithful sidekick Paulie and the inevitability of a guy named Frankie. And, of course, the cover of a seemingly harmless business acting as a front for violent activities.
The 1980s were a lean time for mob stories – the Godfather movies were ten years previous and the move toward the ultra-violence of Goodfellas was ten years away – they must have seemed like a plot that could be played for laughs a little bit, thus this episode and Car Wars.
The difference between those episodes though is the casual violence of this one, starting with the death of Sally and continuing with Frankie’s comfortable handling of a large knife with the implication that he knows exactly how to butcher something, which really increases the fear factor in this scene.
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#2019 rewatch
Just think, Lee, how much faster all of this could have been stopped if you had come back from the library at the party and actually told Amanda what the problem was! Maybe not waited until 12 hours later to say “No one should have been in there but me!” or something? #needtoknow
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#2019rewatch
Nancy, you are awesome. Thank you for digging into that! The man in the painting almost adds a third baddie to Frankie and Paulie’s presence in the room. Maybe it’s a relative who started their “branch”? of the mafia?
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#2019rewatch
Sorry if this should be obvious to me, but anyone know who the portrait on Frankie Columbus’s wall is?
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#2019rewatch
Had no luck searching so it beats me. Will speculate that the painting is by an Italian painter since Frankie’s a mafia type.
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#2019rewatch
Again, I shared much in my comments in Nov 2018. But Malcolm never stops giving me the eebie jeebies. Ick to the max.
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Is it funny that Columbus as a mobster butchering meat is more intimidating to me than Rostov as a KGB agent? He doesn’t mess around in LOTP, but in Stems he doesn’t scare me at all, really. Maybe if he’d have kept Paulie…
And again, ewwww Malcolm. When he talks to Columbus, his cockiness just gives me the eebie jeebies again. Dude just came in with a bloody knife in tow. Think I’d be approaching him a little more gingerly!!!
I think Vic is looking forward to getting out of that room alive and heading to Santarilla!
SMK. Loves recycling ties, actors, and Amanda’s ability to be in the right place at the wrong time. (Or the wrong place at the right time.)
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Random, or not-so-random, Tie Patrol factoid/update:
The stripey tie that Malcolm wears that Lee has worn on multiple previous occasions actually appears in the very first episode!!!
It’s seen worn by one of the train passengers when Lee first glimpses Amanda, just before his famous first line.
See it here in this pic!
This tie is definitely going into my Tie Hall of Fame. 🙂
[edited by iwsod..]
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Hi KC, see the email I just sent you about the pic..
Hi Everyone, ever since I upgraded to Windows 8 I have been unable to embed any pics in the comments section, using the method that wordpress told me to use.. so if you are having troubles – unfortunately at the moment, I’m not much help
😦 sorry about that!
I can create a hyperlink in your comments if you like.. so people can link to the picture.. or you can just add the link as is to the comment..
I’m wondering if anyone who’s not on windows 8 can still do it?? ..so weird!
KC, I think such fabulous Tie Patrol finds deserve a blog post of their own!! 🙂 If you want to have a go putting one together let me know if you need a hand.. or see my email for other suggestions.
This find of KC’s is a good one everyone!!! we’ll get at least a link to this pic up asap! KC and I are sorting it out.. (in between my lectures and between time zones.. 😉 )
-Edited to add: Link is all sorted! 🙂 enjoy!!! Good one KC!!
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I don’t know why, but I think my favorite baddies of the series are the mafia guys. Al Ruscio plays his gangster so well, I don’t even think about Rostov while I’m watching it. The mafia guys aren’t the best or most fearsome or anything like that, I think I just find them all kind of laughable because they are presented as nice mafioso in a way. Or maybe likeable; stereotypical but likeable. Is that possible? I wish I could think of better words to describe it. Becuase it’s SMK, they are never portrayed anywhere near as evil as the real life gangsters. I always laugh when Falcone says his line about the “cocaine, oooohhh” in CWars to Amanda. I’m laughing to myself now just thinking about it.
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I love this scene! I love Paulie (I agree, there’s hero worship going on there) and I love Frankie. So much delicious symbolism and stereotyping and double entendre! And Malcolm is such an arrogant idiot.
I don’t mind a study on stripe-y ties if we get to always compare them to that one in the Times pic of Lee. That *is* one gorgeous haircut!
I don’t mind the SMK coincidences, even when predictable. Makes me think of family. For example, whenever I bring up the subject of cookies, my MIL is *always* going to bring up how, when my husband was a child, his grandmother would stuff him full of oreos and then complain that he never ate his dinner. You know it’s coming, sometimes it drives you crazy, but you’d miss it if it didn’t happen! And yep, that marshmallow man quote is one of my favorites — SMK is poking fun at itself, and BB delivers the line very nicely, very deadpan with a nice hint of angst.
As far as the 3 wrongs, well, once you make the first wrong, the other two are guarantees! I confess that many of these Amanda-isms hit very close to home. It’s nice to see them happening to her because they almost always have happened to me in a similar form. I’m afraid I have her tendency to ramble and find myself in silly situations, but unfortunately I don’t have her intuition.
Love the theory of Francine being in white as a set-up for the upcoming bathroom humor — I’m quite sure that would have been in the minds of the writers. Wonderful irony!
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Hi Raffie.. thanks for the positive reminder – I should just enjoy the smk coincidences.. LOL.. I think I’ll be back to doing that again by the time I get to the end of season 2! in the meantime.. I promise I won’t go too overboard with my smk coincidences nark! 😉 Awh.. you make them sound charming Raffie… LOL I bet you are like Amanda’s grandmother – and you can make even spring cleaning sound intriguing!!! 🙂 tee hee.. [that post is next – about to publish it!! ] Yeah don’t mind my nark.. I let it out.. have a joke about it.. and I move on.. I can’t help but be enchanted by smk! 🙂
Yeah!!! Paulie is hilarious!!! I just noticed something he does later in the ep.. can’t wait to share it with you! haaa!
Agreed Raffie.. any excuse for a pic of Lee in TTAAChangin! Love that do! Gorgeous indeedy!
Gotta run! Lovely to hear from you Raffie! [btw – my computer died so I’ve lost ALL my emails.. was I suppose to reply to you? eek!! sorry!!]
byeeeeee
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LOL, Iwsod, I never mind your “nark”, although I don’t think of it that way! I just like to paint the other side of the picture — equal representation, point-counterpoint, etc. I guess I have gotten mellower with age 🙂 And the correspondence deadbeat is ME!! I am way behind on my emails and hope to catch up before September when things go all nutty again schedule-wise!
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That stripey tie… yes! That was something I was going to bring up–Lee wears it a lot (?) (for example in Waiting for Godorsky)! 🙂 I don’t have more examples off-hand, I was just starting to track that tie… However, I do know that there are two ties similar to it–the one Benson wears in The Mole (same width stripes, but different colour/combination) and another one that has similar colours but different stripe widths. Gee–I guess I’m a bit tie-obsessed… maybe I need to really start tracking the ties!!!
Ha hah — I love the meatpacker hat hanging on Columbus’ coatrack. 🙂
I don’t mind so much when Amanda stumbles onto something like that… it’s a lot easier to swallow than her being made to look incompetent… but it’s still not fun to watch her being so self-deprecating (a wrong turn, a wrong hall, AND a wrong door)–I know it’s just to set up an Amandaramble, but still… 😦
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Hi KC! oh really??!!! this was the first time I noticed that tie.. yeah!!! you could be the tie detective! I love it!! 🙂 KC is on Tie Patrol!!
Oh yes..good point-I too definitely prefer lucky, coincidental Amanda to bumbling, ditsy, incompetent Amanda! [even then, her incompetence brings everyone Luck! man I wish my world worked that way! 😉 ]
yessss I too thought the 3x ‘wrong’s was well.. wrong! 🙂 but it sets up a little a line of Francine’s that’s coming I think.. let me know what you think!
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Woot! Tie Patrol–yes, ma’am! 😀
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Just walk with me appreciates the sacrifice KC! 😉
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It’s a tough job, but *someone* has to do it?
Heh heh heh… 😀
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Okay, so I was looking at the S2 DVDs for episode order and checked out Brunettes and Car Wars. Striped ties everywhere! In Brunettes it was Lee and Billy. In the beginning of Car Wars in the bullpen almost every agent has on a striped tie. I never paid it any attention before. Also, noticed in Brunettes that the sock was an argyle. That must have been the sock of choice when the focus was on a sock–Amanda’s Christmas gift to Lee in S1, in Magic Bus several people on the run at the retreat had them on, Brunettes, Lee’s sock in Amanda’s laundry…
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Gah! It just ate my reply…
The stripey ties are in the European episodes, too, along with spotty ties… some of which are worn in the same episode by different characters. The best so far is in To Catch a Mongoose–the same maroon spotted tie is worn by Lee and Connie, and the same black spotted tie is worn by Lee and the Mongoose… that same black spotted tie is worn by Billy in season 1 Weekend. ROFL! I’m really getting into this–Tie Patrol rocks! Now I just need more hours in the day… 😦
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(“The best so far”, refers only to the handful of episodes I’ve done full Tie Patrolling on…)
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I sense a post coming on KC!!! 🙂 tee hee glad you are having lots of fun with it – quite mind bending!
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When I manage to get through all of season 1 and season 2 I can certainly try to put something together… most popular ties or something…???… I have to do more research first, though! 🙂 (My favourite ties so far are the stripey tie that sparked this whole discussion, and the spotted bowtie in Weekend.)
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I could have fun with Lee wearing the same style tie as Connie, not sure what I could do with Lee and the Mongoose. Actually it makes me wonder if the costume people forgot to pack enough ties for the whole cast.
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Morley–that’s what I was thinking, too… but you’d think that if they were desperate they could’ve just gone out and bought a couple more–then again, maybe the budget really was that tight… after all, they couldn’t’ve wangled mentioned of TWA with ties. ROFL!
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Maybe their luggage got lost and Lee didn’t have time to take them shopping before he started filming? 🙂
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Yes! 😀 (Or they grabbed someone else’s luggage by mistake. Corsets, anyone?)
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I think Francine is in white, all white because she is supposed to look clean and high styled, so much so that no one would think to ask her to… oh I don’t know…. clean a toilet?
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I had that thought last night myself Morley! She is wearing that outfit when she gets the ‘happy news’ 😉 I reckon you’re on to something!
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Columbus and Paulie – what a great duo! I wonder if Malcolm got to enjoy the veal cutlets before he got whacked or did Paulie kill him and take the meat back (poetic justice, no?)
Yep, Amanda’s incredible luck which moves the plot along is definitely part of the formula of SMK. I guess it will make writing fan fiction a little easier — any wild, over the top unbelievable coincidences could be agued as staying in canon. 😉
I think all of the shows in the 80s had a formula they stuck to. In Remington Steele, he would figure out a key component of a the case by referencing an old movie. ( One episode, Laura says something to him like “are all our cases based on the plot of old movies?” He replies “it would certainly seem so” :-),) Dukes of Hazzard (I only watched the show because my brother was a fan — HONEST!), the plots seem to alternate between Boss Hog trying to set up the Duke brothers by either planting marijuana (pronounced mer-EE- ja – WAN-a) or moonshine in their car or on the farm.
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I was a big Remington Steele fan as well. Gotta love that Pierce Brosnan! I loved it when he would reference those old movies. I need to start checking those out too. I watched an occasional Dukes episode, but it was not one of those shows that I just had to see. But I definitely agree about 80s shows following a formula.
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The Dukes of Hazzard – what a show. I started to watch it because of my brother too, but I must admit that I actually liked it myself. While Bo and Luke were cute, my favorite “character” was the General Lee and of course how could you not like Uncle Jesse. Daisy was pretty, but her shorts were just waaay too short for me to take seriously.
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Every time I see this episode I think of Chicago, Al Capone, and the slaughter-houses that were so big at one time. Having lived in Chicago and Detroit you grow up hearing a lot of mob stories. When Jimmy Hoffa disappeared the FBI checked out all the meat packing warehouses searching for his body. I think that one of the US attorneys in one of the Gotti cases in the mid to late 80s was named Burlingame, close to Burling. I don’t remember a Delgado family…maybe from New York. I’ll have to check that one out.
Al Ruscio who plays Frankie in this episode actually gets to come back twice, both times as Rostov, Stemwinder and the Khrushchev List.
I too think Amanda looks pretty in pink. I like how they are all business here. When I first saw this back in the 80s and then seeing it again many years later I cringed a little bit because I thought they were going to have Amanda either say something ditzy or start to ramble, but fortunately they didn’t.
I am never sure what to think sometimes about Francine. If there is anyone who needs a journey, it’s Francine. Her character seems to experience the least amount of growth throughout the series. Even when she sees others around her changing she seems to adhere to her same ideas and opinions about people and things. She has a hard time accepting that she is wrong about some things as well. Not sure about the white. I can’t remember if it was a big fashion thing back then or not.
As far as Amanda always being the one who seems to coincidentally have something to do with the current case I think that is part of the formula of some shows. Certain characters in some shows always have specific sayings or lines and some situations always seem to happen. There is one SMK episode (can’t remember the name…the Marshmallow man one) where Amanda goes looking for her missing mother. Lee says he hopes Amanda didn’t go looking for her because with her luck she would find her. I think they start to expect that Amanda will somehow have something to do with, be involved in, or connected to whatever case they are working on.
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Pssstttt… Valerie–that episode is One Bear Dances, One Bear Doesn’t, where Dotty falls for the Russian–Andrei–and gets kidnapped.
BTW, Lee hanging off the truck near the end of that episode reminds me of Indiana Jones. 😀
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Thank you, KC! That was it. I am not at home to check my DVDs and my brain was not firing!
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Hey Valerie, it looked like your brain was firing very well to me! You had some great insights! 😉
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I barely remember that episode!!! and I’m not going to watch it till I get to it! so it’s nice and fresh!! I just remember bits and pieces! but no I don’t remember an Indiana Jones moment.. that sounds good!!! 🙂
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Oh–that portion of it is hilarious. Lee hanging off the transport Jeep like Indiana Jones–only it’s not the Germans–and trying to get into the cab…
http://s1284.photobucket.com/user/KMW71/media/SMK_S3/SMK_S3E13_IndianaJones1_sml_zps442b26fd.jpg.html
http://s1284.photobucket.com/user/KMW71/media/SMK_S3/SMK_S3E13_IndianaJones2_sml_zps38abaebc.jpg.html
What is also funny, is in the first of those two pictures, the background footage is probably closer to the era that Indiana Jones was set in than SMK… check out the cars. (And when we got to season 3 we can pick apart that scene ‘cos the street magically changes right after that. ROFL!)
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Great catch about the cars, KC!!! Can’t wait to discuss all this again when we get to that episode! Too funn!
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Hiya! Oh I agree Valerie.. it is definitely an smk formula – I just don’t really like it very much when it is overdone![It may just be me so don’t mind me! ] and especially at this stage of the show.. as once Amanda is working more at IFF, there is more of a reason for her to be involved.. I find the end of season 2 heavy on the coincidences..[a case of too much reliance on it, some is part of the smk fun.. but too much? to me is just annoying!]
Though I like Francine’s dig that’s coming up in this ep – SMK does see itself for what it is.. 🙂
Yeah Valerie Francine is an interesting character – This is one episode where she gets to take centre stage – for once.. and we finally learn some more about her.. I’m looking forward to continuing on with this ep..
Wow.. lots of mafia knowledge there Valerie! The Burling connection is interesting! If you find out more let us know please!
Haaa Cindy loved your walk down memory lane! I think you could see many shows today that follow a formula also.. but those 80s ones are funny!
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