CHARLIE'S ANGELS-"ANGEL ON MY MIND"
This episode starts out with the three angels Chris, Sabrina, and Kelly eating dinner with Bosley. Chris decides to leave early and walks out in the parking lot and witnesses a murder. The murderer sees Chris and tries to run her over with his car as he escapes. Chris is knocked backwards and passes out. When she wakes up, she has amnesia. She starts wandering around and ends up taking a cab to the beach.
She walks down the beach and encounters several people. The first three are hoodlums who want to steal her purse. She fights them off and runs down the beach again. She meets an old hobo and befriends him. She starts to remember who she is, and decides to walk further. She meets a group of people playing volleyball and having a picnic. She sits down and watches, and the ball is hit towards her. A young man runs over to get it, and sees Chris. He introduces himself as Brad (Jonathan) and asks her to join them.
Chris eats dinner with them and Brad is being very nice to her, and tries to help her remember where she is supposed to be. Brad's girlfriend is getting jealous, and tells Chris to get going. Brad gets upset with her, and tells Chris she doesn't have to leave. She says she has to find her friends and walks down the beach yet again.
Meanwhile, the rest of the angels find out where Chris is, and who the murderer is, and try to get to Chris before he does. They get there in the nick of time, as the murderer has found Chris and has a gun aimed at her. Bosley shoots the guy, and the angels reunite.
Jonathan's part was small in this episode, but he was great nonetheless. He actually played a nice guy, and he was wearing these cute short Hawaiian shorts. Nice legs!
THE WALTONS-"THE LEGACY"
This episode begins with Erin Walton going over to the old Baldwin sisters' house to work on their memoirs. The older sister, Emily, is reminiscing about a love affair she had one summer over 50 years ago with a young man named Ashley Longworth. She describes him as tall and broad shouldered and very handsome. Then we see Erin walking alongside the road. A fancy car drives past her, and splashes her with mud. The car stops and a tall man wearing Navy whites (Jonathan) gets out and rushes over, apologizing for splashing her. We get to see his face after a minute. Whoa, is he gorgeous. He explains he is looking for the Baldwin sisters, as he has news for them. Erin says that is where she is going, so he offers her a ride. He then introduces himself as Ashley Longworth.
When Ashley walks into the house, he introduces himself as Ashley Longworth, Jr. after Emily recognizes him. She is so shocked, she faints. The other Baldwin sister, Mamie, says that Ashley is the spitting image of his father. Emily, being slightly senile, assumes that this Ashley is her Ashley, which starts off a whole comical plot. Meanwhile, Ashley flirts with Erin, and she starts to fall for him. She invites the Baldwin sisters (and Ashley) over to dinner at the Walton homestead. At the dinner, Emily stares admiringly at Ashley the whole time, and speaks to him of events that happened between her and his father. He plays along, not wanting to hurt her feelings, as Mamie insists Emily will come around.
Ashley asks Erin out on a date for his last night there. During the day, he takes Emily for a drive and ends up getting the car stuck in a mud pit. He ends up missing his date with Erin, which causes her to swear to never see him again. The next morning, Ashley goes to see Erin to explain, but she won't listen. Finally, Erin's older sister convinces her to hear Ashley out. They go for a walk, where Ashley explains. Erin forgives him, and the two kiss. Of course, Emily is lurking around and sees them. She runs off down the road, before Ashley can explain.
This event finally got Emily to realize that Ashley Jr. is not her Ashley. Ashley tells her that his father has died, and left a letter for Emily. Ashley says he must leave to go back to the Navy, and asks Erin if he can come back and see her. She says yes. (Who wouldn't?)
I thought this episode was very well written, and the scene where Ashley tells Emily that his father is dead is very heart wrenching, knowing this woman has realized that the love of her life is gone. And Jonathan is absolutely gorgeous in this episode, especially in the naval uniform. He was very young here, about 27. His scenes with Erin were great, the way he looked at her; you could tell he fell in love with her at first sight. And there are some funny scenes in here, mostly with the Waltons' neighbor, Cora Beth, who can't believe that Emily is "dating" Ashley.
THE WALTONS-"THE LOST SHEEP"
The sequel to the above episode, Ashley comes back to see Erin on leave from the Navy (during World War II). He wakes her up in the middle of the night by throwing stones at her window. She runs downstairs to see him, jumping off the porch into his arms. They go off in his car together, where he proposes to her. She accepts, and he says he wants to get married right away, like in two hours. Erin wants to wait until Saturday.
They go over to the Baldwins' house (they are out of town, and the Waltons are house sitting). Once inside, Ashley kisses Erin, and tries to go farther, but she stops him. She says wait until we're married, and goes off to make him breakfast. Meanwhile, Mama and Papa Walton realize Erin is gone, and Erin's little sister tells them she's with Ashley. They figure out she's probably at the Baldwins' since they would have the house all to themselves. They quickly drive over there, and burst through the door, calling for Erin. She comes out of the kitchen with Ashley right behind her. She tells her parents that she and Ashley are getting married, and her parents say no way. But, they want to get to know Ashley better, so they invite him to dinner.
At dinner, they ask Ashley to say grace. He stammers and runs out of the house after a minute. Erin runs after him, and he tells her he can't say grace, because he doesn't believe in God. Erin can't understand this, because the last time she saw him, they went to church together. She asks if something happened to him in the war, but he doesn't answer. The next night, Erin and Ashley are on a date, and end up fighting about the wedding. He wants a justice of the peace, and she wants a church wedding. He gets very angry and breaks the engagement.
A few nights later, Erin's brothers run into Ashley at the local bar. He's drunk and has a pretty girl on his arm. He tries to start a fight with the boys, but they walk away instead. They go home and tell Erin what happened. She gets concerned and decides to go see Ashley. She walks in on Ashley and his "girl" getting close. She gets mad and throws her engagement ring at the girl's face. (Ha Ha).
The next day, Erin has a talk with her father, and he suggests that the two of them go and talk to Ashley. When they get there, they see Ashley cleaning up the mess he made before he goes back to war. Papa Walton says he shouldn't go back to war in his frame of mind. Ashley says it's none of his business, but Papa Walton says he cares about him because he was almost family. He gets Ashley to admit a horrible incident that occurred while he was fighting in the war. He tried to kill an enemy with his bare hands, and prayed to God to help him stop, but the man died anyway. From that point on, Ashley stopped believing in God. Papa Walton talked to him for a while, and Ashley realized the hurt he inflicted on Erin, and apologized. They got back together of course, and then Ashley had to leave.
Again, this episode was very well written. Jonathan was extremely good in this episode, telling Erin and her father about what happened to him in the war. And he was still gorgeous! I was hoping to see more of Ashley in later episodes, but was soon to find out something disappointing. Ashley wrote Erin a letter a year or so later, saying he couldn't wait for her any longer, and he married some girl in England. Erin was heartbroken, and so was I.
THE DUKES OF HAZZARD-"MRS. DAISY HOGG"
This episode starts out with the Duke boys driving down the road when an ugly brown car cuts them off. It turns out to be Jamie Lee Hogg (Jonathan) and his driver, Floyd. Jamie comes off as a little arrogant, but Floyd is the one who starts trouble. Sheriff Roscoe drives up, and arrests the Duke boys for running into Jamie. (Jamie is the nephew of the richest man in Hazzard, Boss Hogg, who is Roscoe's boss). Once in town, the rest of the Dukes show up, including the pretty cousin Daisy. Jamie tries to be nice, but she doesn't want to hear it. Boss tells Roscoe to put the Dukes boy in jail, but they run and drive off in their car, and Roscoe chases them. Meanwhile, Jamie talks with Boss, and buys his old grits mill. He then runs into Daisy outside. He apologizes and drops the charges against her cousins. She starts to like Jamie, and they start spending more time with each other.
Then we find out Jamie is up to no good, using the grits mill to counterfeit money. The Duke boys suspect Jamie is up to no good, (because all Hoggs are bad) and spy on him. Meanwhile, Jamie and Daisy are getting very close. One day, Daisy accidentally walks into the grits mill and sees some of the counterfeit money. Jamie's evil boss says that Jamie has to kill her, or else she'll blow their cover. Jamie says he can't because he loves her, but instead says he'll marry Daisy, because a wife can't testify against her husband in court. So he asks Daisy to marry him and she accepts.
The Duke boys have found out what Jamie is up to by this point and go to confront him. They get caught by Floyd, who ties them up. Daisy then comes to the mill so that she and Jamie can go elope. Jamie's boss changes his mind, and takes Jamie and Daisy hostage. He reveals to Daisy that Jamie was only marrying her to shut her up. She gets mad, and pushes Jamie away. Meanwhile, the Dukes have escaped and chase after the car with Jamie and Daisy in it. The police have also joined in the chase, and eventually they catch the bad guys. Jamie is put in jail, and he tells Daisy how sorry he is. She says she wishes they had met a lot sooner and kisses him goodbye.
This episode was hilarious, especially the chase scene, because the police car falls apart as they are driving it. Jonathan was also good in playing the two-faced lover boy, but you really felt sorry for him in the end. One of my all-time favorite shows.
QUINCY, M.E.-"THE FACE OF FEAR"
I'm not a fan of this show, and found Jonathan's appearance by accident and was able to tape it. He played Leon Bohannan, a bad guy involved with drug dealing. The episode starts out with this stupid woman saying she has agoraphobia (the fear of leaving your house). Anyway, she decides to suck it up, and take her dog out for a walk since her husband is out of town. She walks along the beach and stops in front of a house. Through the large bay window, she sees a man (Jonathan) strangling a woman. The woman falls over dead, and the man kneels down and looks out the window. He sees the woman and is shocked. The woman sputters and runs back to her house. She calls the police, and they go to the house. They find the owner (some other guy) and question him. The woman says he is not the killer, and the brilliant police determine that the woman must have seen the man's television set through the window. (Yeah, okay.)
Then we see the man go back to his house and open a closet. Out pops Leon and the dead woman. We find out that Leon and the guy are drug dealers, and the woman is the supplier. The guy tells Leon that the stupid woman can ID him if she sees him, and tells him to kill her. He agrees.
The next 20 minutes, we see the stupid woman trying to figure out what she saw and trying to get over her fear. Finally, Leon pops up again, and his accomplice asks him if he got rid of the body and all the drugs. Leon says yes, but as soon as the guy leaves, he takes the drugs out of a drawer and hides them better.
Scenes follow where the police finally realize that the stupid woman isn't so stupid, and find out who Leon is. They drive over to Leon's accomplice's house to arrest him first, but too late, Leon has already shot him. They figure the woman must be next. Meanwhile, Leon breaks into the woman's house and grabs her from behind. In her paranoia, she is already hiding in a corner holding scissors, so she stabs Leon as soon as he grabs her. She runs out and gets in her car and drives to the local mall, where her therapist takes her to get over her fear. Leon follows.
The police figure out where the woman is going and book it to the mall. They see the woman on an upper floor and go after her. Leon is chasing the woman, and grabs her in front of an elevator. The police catch up and Leon pulls a gun, saying one step and he'll kill the woman. Oops, another policeman comes up in the elevator and "surprises" Leon from behind and arrests him. End of story.
I thought this episode was pretty cheesy. They made Jonathan's character out to be a complete idiot. A real criminal would have been better at covering his tracks, and certainly wouldn't have been surprised from behind like that, unless he was completely deaf. Jonathan's acting was good, not his best work though. But how creative can you be with an idiotic character?
BARE ESSENCE-"MINISERIES"
I was elated to get the chance to see this miniseries, and watch it at least twice a month. The story starts out with Tyger Hayes (Jonathan's awesome wife Genie Francis), a spunky California surfer girl, attending her father's funeral and her mother (Linda Evans) who she hasn't seen in 15 years shows up. Blah Blah, we find out Tyger's house is being repossessed by Kellerco, a company in New York owned by the Marshalls. She decides to go to NYC and fight to get her house back. She reluctantly stays with her mother, and even gets a slap across the face for her smart mouth, but she's still got spunk. She goes to see the president of Kellerco, Haddon, and he likes her spunk, so he gives her a job. We then find out that Haddon's son, Hugh, has died, and the funeral is later that day. Ava, Hugh's widow, mentions her son Marcus will be running late, because he's busy "working" at the office.
Cut to a couple laying in bed. Surprise, surprise, it's Marcus (Jonathan) and his blonde bimbo mistress. Right away I can tell Marcus is not a good guy. He decides to get out of bed and go to the funeral. We see his wife outside the church, along with their two young children. (Look carefully, because it's the last time you'll see or hear of the kids.) Then we meet Marcus' older brother, "the glorious Chase", who is Haddon's favorite.
So Tyger ends up working for Chase at Kellerco (creating a new perfume) and falls for him. He ignores her, preferring to date her over-the-hill mother. Tyger hooks up with an fashion designer named Matt, who transforms Tyger from a surfer girl to a chic girl, complete with ruffled shirts. The rest of the miniseries, Tyger gets dumped by Matt, has an affair with a French guy, and eventually gets Chase in the last two minutes of the movie. Marcus continues to cheat on his wife, but is dumped by his bimbo when she discovers she inadvertently helped the jealous Marcus ruin Chase's career (with Ava's help).
I really like this miniseries only because Jonathan and his wife are in it. I think it is an unreal look at life, focusing mainly on rich people who have nothing better to do than sleep around and wear designer clothes. And frankly, by the end, I was tired of looking at Linda Evans' cleavage. But Jonathan did a great job of playing the arrogant, spoiled rich boy, and he took his shirt off twice in the movie.
HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN-"A DIVINE MADNESS"
I used to watch this show when I was little, but I don't remember seeing this episode before. But I luckily caught it one night, and I'm glad I did. The first scenes show someone driving a Mercedes convertible. We soon find out this is Arthur Krock, Jr. (Jonathan). Arthur is complaining about his sister and his work troubles. He's a land developer, who can't convince this old lady to move off her land. He goes into the office to meet his sister, and she reprimands him for not going to visit their father more often. Arthur says it's because his father is nuts.
Then Michael Landon and his sidekick show up, (if you've never seen the show, Landon is an angel sent down from God to help those in need) and Arthur hires them to be caretakers at his father's estate. We meet Arthur Krock, Sr., a weird bald guy who thinks he is King Arthur (so far, Arthur Jr. seems to be right). A whole bunch of scenes follow where King Arthur meets the old lady that Arthur Jr. is trying to run off her land, and King Arthur falls for her. Finally, Arthur Jr. shows up again, this time to yell at Michael Landon for talking to reporters about King Arthur. Michael Landon (whose character name is Jonathan!) asks Arthur Jr. why he's so angry with his father. Arthur Jr. gets mad, and tries to drive off in his nice car, but the big iron gate comes crashing down on it, and Arthur Jr. is forced to go inside and call his company to send a car. King Arthur sees him and thinks he is his friend, Sir Lancelot. Arthur Jr. yells "I am your son!", but King Arthur doesn?nderstand. Arthur Jr. then tells King Arthur he was never a good father, he never showed up at school because he was too busy with work, and now, Arthur Jr. only wants to become rich, and says nobody is going to stand in his way and he leaves. King Arthur is shocked, and finally remembers who Arthur Jr. really is.
Arthur Jr. decides to sue the old lady, and King Arthur goes to court to defend her. The trial proceeds with King Arthur finally getting on the stand, and he tells everyone who he remembers he is. Arthur Jr.'s father. This makes Arthur Jr. cry; he drops the case, and makes amends with his father.
I thought this was a pretty good episode; the scenes that Jonathan had with his "father" were great. And this was the only time I ever saw him cry in anything he did.
NORTH AND SOUTH, BOOKS I AND II
I have the complete set of these on tape, and only hope that Book III comes out in the US soon, because I've never seen it. Anyway, to anyone who hasn't seen North and South, I recommend renting it and reading the novels by John Jakes. It's interesting how much the characters change in the miniseries.
Jonathan basically only has small parts in each of the twelve episodes, but they're good performances. We meet Stanley (Jonathan) halfway through the first episode, after his brother George comes home from West Point on leave. Stanley is getting married to Isabel (from one of the best families in Pennsylvania) soon. That's basically all he says for the 10 minutes he was on screen, mainly just reaction shots the rest of the time. By episode three, George comes home to get married, and we see Stanley and Isabel are married. Isabel is a mean shrew who controls her weak husband. George ends up getting half of the family business, even though Stanley was supposed to get all of it, being the oldest son. This upsets Isabel, and she tells Stanley they must get revenge. The next three episodes, we get to see how mean Isabel can be, and how weak and stupid Stanley is. We also get to see Brett Main (the awesome Genie Francis) fall in love with Stanley's younger brother, Billy, and marry him. (Why can't she ever fall for the other brother?)
In Book II, George goes off to war, and leaves the business in Stanley and Isabel's hands. (They recast Isabel for this one, and the new one is even more evil.) They plot to make even more money through war profiteering and end up selling inferior cannons to the Army, which explode after prolonged use, and usually kill the soldiers around it. The Army eventually catches on, and attempts to prosecute George since his "signature" appears on incriminating documents. George finds out who was really behind it, and confronts Stanley. Stanley tries to apologize, but George tells him he has to go to jail, along with Isabel. This is last we hear from Stanley and Isabel for the rest of the miniseries.
This is my favorite miniseries of all time, not just because Jonathan and Genie are in it, but because it has such a great story. Jonathan portrayed Stanley well, even though Stanley was yet another character suffering from weakness and stupidity. I thought it was cute the way Jonathan and Genie gave each other side glances during the miniseries that you can spot in certain scenes, even though their characters never spoke to each other.
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