“The Night of the Eccentrics” marks the beginning of the second season and three major changes. First, the series was now broadcast in color. Second, series creator Michael Garrison had fallen down the stairs of his Beverly Hills mansion and fatally broken his neck a moth prior to the season premiere. His untimely death--one of many suffered by those associated with the show-- resulted in a revolving door of no less than six show runners fop the rest of the run. Finally, the menagerie of show runners promised frequent changes in theme, but from here on out, the series dwelt mostly on over the top science fiction and hammer Films’-esque gothic horror.The plot of “The Night o the Eccentrics” is straightforward. A group of international assassinations, each with a circus sideshow method of killing, poses as a real circus as a cover for doing its dirty work. This time around, they have been hired by a distant relative of deposed Emperor Maximilian to kill President Benito Juarez of Mexico and return the country to French rule.
What the episode lacks in originality--not only was a similar plot used in the series premiere, Victor Buono played the villain then, too--it more than makes up for in quirkiness. Buono’s Count Mazeppi, who is my favorite villain behind Dr. Miguelito Loveless, has actual magical powers to go along to go along with his flamboyant personality. Each of the Eccentrics has his or her own oddball ways which Jim and Artie exploit in a confrontation at the presidential palace in order to save Juarez.
Te episode is fun and exciting. Jim is placed in an incredibly strange, painfully slow death device that is not as ordinary as the cages, wine press, and lobster boiler he has escaped from in the past. This certainly will not be the last time villains attempt to creatively do away with our hero and ail.
“The Night of the Eccentrics” is notable for featuring the first televised appearance of a very young Richard Pryor:
Pryor plays Villar, a ventriloquist whom we never see in action like we do the others. One assumes that is because Pryor had no ventriloquist skills.. I cannot say he has a very illustrious debut anyway. Villar has a grand total of four lines and is never seen again halfway through the fourth act. Cannot win them all, I suppose.A good episode all around an a promising sign of things to come.
Rating: *** (out of 5)
