The List
The one where A.J. falls in love, ok where he falls in love with the woman in the Witness Protection program.
This episode is notiable for at least two reasons: Janet's in it and A.J. wears his blue bath robe. Well, Gigi and I think those are important facts.
It starts with a bartender telling "Mr Simon" that maybe he should call Mr. Simon's brother to help him home. The camera is tight on the bartender. It pulls back and instead of a drunk Rick we see a wasted A.J. The bartender wants to know if A.J. wants to talk. A.J. insists the bartender wouldn't understand. The bartender says "What's her name?"
We get that focus shift as we move back in time. The is the second time this season we've had flashbacks.
A woman appears at A.J.s door. She's in trouble. She is worried she'll be suspected of murder. Rick doesn't trust her and A.J. wants her. (It's very unusual when Rick doesn't make a play for one of A.J.s girls. That should warn A.J.)
The girl has had her pics taken for San Diego Scene magazine. The publisher, Hi Elton, has an annual "Ten Sexiest Women of San Diego" issue. He hires a sleezy photographer, Nick Fiesta, to take the pictures whether the gils wants them or not. Amanda, A.J.'s girl, didn't want hers. She tells her story, but explain why she didn't want to be in the magazine or why she won't go to the cops and tell the truth. Rick doesn't trust her.
The guys discuss the case while driving. A nice long scene. The camera mounted to the driver's left and lots of background rolling by.
They track down the sleezy photographer. He is taking pics of women mud wrestlers in his office.
Nick: "The cops have closed my shutter. Follow me? I can't talk. A guy in my line I need their cooperation, you know, to get through police lines so I can shoot car crashes and mangled bodies and so forth. Besides, Nick Fiesta has got integrety. OK girls, slip off the suits."
Enough said.
Janet is back and her office looks different. She won't figure in this case because she is a suspect. Well, as much as the Assistant Deptuty Attorney can be. It seems she was on the list of possibilities for The List.
Janet: "One of the pictures was mine. I only met Hi Elton one time at the annual First Admendment Dinner Dance. He grabbed my knee under the table."Rick: "Oh, Oh. Freedom of Reach"
AJ: "That's a clear motive for murder."
Rick: "Janet, I hope you didn't do it. I would hate to think of you as a murderess/ But, you'd probably look georgeous in prison grey."
She throws them out and repeats Rick's line. Is that the last line we'll hear from Janet? (Foreshadowing)
Amanda, the girl, cleans up A.J.s place and finds a note: "Stormy Monday, T-Bone Walker, Liberty Records" It's a record A.J. wants to buy. She says she prefers the 78 on Bluebird. She suggests he go to "Jazzman on Third and B."
She likes the blues! Now A.J. is really in love. Note the lyrics to Stormy Monday Blues
Note the final stanza of the song:
"Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy on me
Lord have mercy, my heart's in misery
Crazy about my baby, yes, send her back to me"
Well, if that doesn't tell us what's going to happen nothing will. That sly Pillar.
Next Rick impersonates Mick Belker from Hill Street Blues. Sure, he and A.J. claim Rick is doing his character "Ernie Boyer from last year." But we recognize Mick right down to the toboggan and pissed-off attitude. The guys need a diversion so A.J. can take pics of the pics of the finalists for The List.
Rick: (as he tears off his shirt to reveal a wire) "I just came off a five million dollare heroin bust. I'm wired up like Radio City Music Hall and you want me to carry a marquee that says Hi! I'm Ernie Boyer. Narc!"
They make to Amanda's apartment. No pics. No labels in her clothig. No notes on the fride. Rick is suspecious. Worse, she owns a cat, "Cat people. can't trust them." A.J. isn't convinced.
Rick: "You are so busy listening to violins that you fail to see the fact that this whole thing is out of tune."Rick: "Don't you get it? Nobody lives here!"
They investigate some of the women on the list. The newscater, Terry Aames, works from the worst set ever. The rich woman, Joan Kline, is played by Lynnette Mettey (often on M*A*S*H). She explains why she was on the list. Her family helped found San Diego.
Joan: "When you are nuevo riche there's nothing as sexy as old money." After Rick and A.J. leave they reveal themselves to have been blackmailed and probably the murderers.
Later Rick interrupts A.J. and Amanda kissing. Gigi's take? "They're kissing each other! Why?"
Alfred Kiline goes to Fiesta to get the film. As we see Nick the first thing we hear is "Now let's do it without the suits." Can you say running gag?
Rick and A.J. have a fight about Amanda. A.J. madder than a wet hen, holds out his fist and says "Rick. You are way out of line. Now, if you want to finish that thought I'll be glad to help you."
Note: Why does A.J. have a farmer's tan?
They find Nick has been killer. They decide to go look for the film. A.J. knows photographers somtimes keep film in the fridge.
Rick: "Did you know that if you leave a head of lettuce unwrapped in the refrigerator that it would disappear in two or three months. I'm going to put that in my bachelors cookbook."
They find and develop the pics. it seems society woman Klein is having an affair with the newswoman AAmes. Ouch. Bisexuality! What a crazy decade the 80s were.
Of course, Alfred catches the brothers. Alfred: "Gentlemen, I am not a killer. That's why I hired these two men."
Also of course, Rick and A.J. get away to chase Alfred. A car chase! Alfred crashes and dies. The only way to save Amanda is for her to go to the police.
A.J. talks to her about it. "I guess you know I'm falling in love with you." In less than 60 minutes? OK, in less than three days?
Gigi wants to know why she is crying.
For some reason the detective wants to talk to Rick and A.J. in their office. They are interrupted by Amanda's boss who is really her handler and, it's true, she is in the Witness Protection program (for testifying against some bad guys "back East.") A.J. wants to talk to her, but she has already been spirited away.
A.J. is upset. He wants to find her. Rick doesn't think it's a good idea. Not that A.J. couldn't do it: "If I wanted to find a missing person real quick you're the guy I'd come for. You may be the best there is."
At this point Gigi inexplixibily says "They're a team!"
Rick convinces A.J. the bad guys couldn't find her, but they could follow A.J. and kill her. "And the sooner you find her the sooner they're going to kill her. Sorry kid."
A.J. finds a letter in even more bare apartment: "I want you to know that I love you and I'll never forget our Stormy Monday."
We come back to the present -- a whole week later and A.J. is wasted at the bar. Rick helps him away, "It's all going to be OK in 100 years or so."
Quotes:
Rick: Whatever she is hiding from the cops i don't want anything to do with."
AJ: Rick, I want this one.
Trivia:
The cleaning guy at the Simon's office is named "George." Rick thinks George is a good judge of character.
Nick Fiesta's phone number is 555-7115
Credits: Original air date: February 17, 1983 - Production Code: 57521
Writer: Michael Piller
Director: Burt Kennedy
Guest Stars:
Amanda McKay...................Cristina Raines
Alfred Klein..........................Richard Anderson
Joan Klein............................Lynnette Mettey
(Detective) Shore................Dana Gladstone
Nick Fiesta...........................Murphy Dunne
Philip Bloom.........................Don Dubbins
Co-Starring: (closing credits)
Desk Sergeant....................Sid Conrad
Terry Aames.......................Rebecca Clemons
Bartender............................James Lydon (Jimmy)
Tennis Pro...........................Lee Menning