See the Snake in Camp: Part 2, Season 7, Episode 2

Fred Stromsoe 

"Woods" had an interesting work history, being a stuntman and stunt coordinator, and having worked on Route 66. 

He was only a year and a half older than Marty, but he had that "old guy" vibe more, despite being in better shape. 

You got chocolate in my peanut butter here, Adam-12 writers. 

But not in a good way.

I come for the 211s in progress in North Hollywood. I will put up with the occasional woman with a pet snake, but this "turns a fatherless boy's life around" sentimental stuff.... Let Reed go back to reading riddles off candy bar wrappers if you're all out of 459s. 

Pete and the Kid:

Had Marty Milner enjoyed playing Lee Montgomery's father so much in "Runaway!" -- a TV disaster movie on a train -- that he wanted to keep the fatherly role going with this kid?
It's on Youtube for now.

Last we saw them together, Dad was trying to make the Boy jump off a moving train. 

Had casting already been done for Swiss Family Robinson and he wanted more acting work practice with kids? 

Speaking of wonderful guest star June Lockhart:

When (Irwin Allen's) Swiss Family Robinson aired, I thought from the title, it must have something to do with the Robinson Family of Lost in Space. You can imagine my disappointment. It wasn't on very long. The only character I remember is Jeremiah Worth, and in my memory he was a like a homeless pirate the kids would meet up with. I could not have named one actor from that show.

Let's check in with Reed:

A woman would have been a sexual assault victim if not for the protection of her snake.

Speaking of locations, the bus journey to the Youth Camp looks like the Santa Monica Mountains, Malibu area, but IMDB tells me the exteriors were Camp Paige in LaVerne, above the 210 (above Route 66, ha!) And Snake Lady alley address on Varna, just south of Sherman Way, in NoHo is given. I think producer Tom Williams provided most of the locations (?) God bless him. RIP.  Google maps shows this:

At least half of the Reed and Malloy duo were patrolling North Hollywood.

Meanwhile back at the boys camp:

June Lockhart turned 96 this year. Amazing woman. Anyone else catch her in She-Wolf of London on Svengoolie not long ago? 

I'm guessing that:

Marty took one look at the script that called for him to do a lot of running and was not happy.

Kent saw that he got to have some solo time and was well pleased.

The little kid asked his mom, "Is that the big freckly guy who smells like cigarettes?"

When the ratings came in, word came down from the network, "You'd better get back to doing some police work!"

Any fan letters that week were for the lady with the snake. 

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1-Adam-12 See Maureen Robinson, Camp Part 1, Season 7, SECOND HALF

June Ellen's Donuts on Van Nuys in Sherman Oaks gets a cameo in Reed and Malloy's next call. 

First, we're back in NoHo at Vineland and Camarillo.

Personal Note: 

My father's office was just a block south of the Odyssey Video in the 90s, but do I remember a Ralphs being there at all? I remember buying a set of Simpsons bubble gum cards at a nearby comic book shop. Mostly I remember how much I hate that starfish intersection. Lankershim cuts diagonally across Vineland and Camarillo, and I have no idea whose turn it is, when and where I can go, how I stay on Lankershim -- happy to have no reason to go there ever again. But there was a great video rental place just north of the Odyssey --  Saturday Matinee. They had a lot of impossible to find VHS -- I'd say some of it was fan-made copies rather than commercial releases. My dad rented so many videos from those two places. I remember feeling really cramped in that Saturday Matinee place, but convinced I was going to find rare stuff. Anyone post-Youtube, post-DVD era has no appreciation of how HARD it was to find rare things.

The thing that looks possibly like a church out Pete's window was flattened. Google images show a vacant lot before what's there now. 

Camarillo becomes Riverside when it passes west of Tujunga, but it's not the Toluca Lake Riverside! Riverside Drive that drops down alongside the 170 is another of my "problem areas." You're doing fine coming down Riverside out of Toluca Lake, heading west, and suddenly there are three freeways going overhead and I can't figure out how to stay on Riverside. Last time that happened to me it was dark out and I panicked and... 

Well Pete has turned around the opposite way if he's now passing through Toluca Lake on his way to Sherman Oaks! With the magic of TV, he reaches his destination in the opposite direction, and in record time!

Personal flashback:

Just around the corner and north of where this old June Ellen's Don(u)ts is seen, there used to be a great little record store. Street parking was awful and it was right by the freeway entrance, so traffic never stopped. I bought a lot of fair-priced great records in there. No idea what year. Probably late 80s if CDs hadn't taken over yet. Might have been 90s.

Local history:

In the 70s, maybe early 80s still, young people in the Valley used to cruise up and down Van Nuys Boulevard. They even made a movie of the same name about it. Might actually be good for location screen caps if you can stomach the rest of it.

Continue patrol:

This first shot is one of their own stock footage drives. It showed up in Season 6. 

Both Sherman Oaks and Toluca Lake have some of these older streetlamps (seen behind Reed through the back window in the next photo.) Given all the trees, I'd say they're still driving around Sherman Oaks, south of the boulevard. "South of the (Ventura) Boulevard" was where all the rich kids in my high school lived.

In the 80s, school friends' fathers liked to talk about how it used to be all strawberry fields where the Sherman Oaks Galleria is now.

Back to the liquor store:

Character Round-up:

Then they switch into Dad Mode and think viewers will come back for a "Pete becomes a substitute father for a troubled youth" plot. Bad enough Adam-12 was on Tuesdays at this point. 

You think viewers aren't going to switch over to Good Times or Happy Days? THAT is why I never watched this show new. We watched both Good Times AND Happy Days. How, if they were opposite each other? Well it explains the lack of Adam-12 in our house in 1974.

DAD MODE:

Camp: Part 2, Season 7, Episode 2

1-Adam-12 See Maureen Robinson,  Camp Part 1, Season 7, FIRST HALF

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