This may well be the worst episode of this series that I've seen. It wasted a great cast on a silly plot.
Tod and Linc are passing through a small town when they stop to fill up with gas and hamburgers. Tod gets into a fracas defending The Tramp (played by Chester "Boston Blackie" Morris) who has been set upon by three teenage punks. When the cops arrive the kids try to lie their way out of it but a witness (after prompting by Honest Citizen played by Frank Overton) lays the blame where it belongs. Meanwhile Linc has an encounter with some kids one of whom (played very well by Tommy "Flipper" Norden)wants a ride in the Vette.
They decide to hang around town a while and take jobs at a rubber processing plant ran by the Honest Citizen. Tod works in the plant while Linc goes on the road as a salesman. In the most bizarre side plot, Linc is taken to a bar by Sleazy Businessman (played to weird perfection by a young Tom Bosley) who plans to use Linc as Stud Honey to attract the female flies.
The main plot, such as it is, has two of the kids come down with sleeping sickness. Immediately the town cop (played as both Good Cop and Bad Cop by Joe Campanella) rounds up all strangers which includes Tod, the tramp, and a truck driver played to annoying perfection by Bruce Glover.
The Town Doctor (played by a decidedly pre-Hawkeye Alan Alda) finds that The Bum has the sickness in his blood so naturally the Town Blowhard (ably played by the always effervescent Clifton James) and his gang wants to hang him or beat him up or something.
At the end we learn that the real culprit is a dog that was imported from Texas with the ticks attached that carry the sickness.
This is a very lame series entry. None of it makes much sense. The Tramp had no interaction with the kids (he certainly didn't bite them) so how could he have infected them? Given that its a disease spread by ticks, why would a human be suspected? Great cast, but a lousy story to end Season Three with.
Tod and Linc are passing through a small town when they stop to fill up with gas and hamburgers. Tod gets into a fracas defending The Tramp (played by Chester "Boston Blackie" Morris) who has been set upon by three teenage punks. When the cops arrive the kids try to lie their way out of it but a witness (after prompting by Honest Citizen played by Frank Overton) lays the blame where it belongs. Meanwhile Linc has an encounter with some kids one of whom (played very well by Tommy "Flipper" Norden)wants a ride in the Vette.
They decide to hang around town a while and take jobs at a rubber processing plant ran by the Honest Citizen. Tod works in the plant while Linc goes on the road as a salesman. In the most bizarre side plot, Linc is taken to a bar by Sleazy Businessman (played to weird perfection by a young Tom Bosley) who plans to use Linc as Stud Honey to attract the female flies.
The main plot, such as it is, has two of the kids come down with sleeping sickness. Immediately the town cop (played as both Good Cop and Bad Cop by Joe Campanella) rounds up all strangers which includes Tod, the tramp, and a truck driver played to annoying perfection by Bruce Glover.
The Town Doctor (played by a decidedly pre-Hawkeye Alan Alda) finds that The Bum has the sickness in his blood so naturally the Town Blowhard (ably played by the always effervescent Clifton James) and his gang wants to hang him or beat him up or something.
At the end we learn that the real culprit is a dog that was imported from Texas with the ticks attached that carry the sickness.
This is a very lame series entry. None of it makes much sense. The Tramp had no interaction with the kids (he certainly didn't bite them) so how could he have infected them? Given that its a disease spread by ticks, why would a human be suspected? Great cast, but a lousy story to end Season Three with.