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Episode Two
And A
Cup Of Kindness, Too
Wednesday February 14, 1979 8pm (Eastern)
Saturday June 2, 1979 10pm (Eastern)
Starring
Larry Linville
Barbara Rhoades
Also Starring
Keith Mitchell
Rachel Jacobs
Special Guest
Star
Dick Van Dyke
Supervising Producer Robert
Stambler
Written by Shimon Wincelberg
Produced and Directed by Rod
Amateau
The second episode of the
series and the first one-hour show is "And A Cup Of Kindness, Too" featuring Dick Van Dyke as guest star.
This episode devotes a fairly lengthy amount of time to events prior to Supertrain's departure from New York. We are
introduced to Van Dyke as a poor soul who has fallen and can't get up in NYC's Grand Central lobby.
Coming from my smalltown Midwestern background, all the New Yorkers do just what one would expect them to do...ignore and
step over Van Dyke as they hurry along their way. No offense to New York City natives, that's just
what we generally think and expect of you out here in the sticks. Anyway, along comes kindly and obviously
from the Midwest "M*A*S*H"-regular Larry Linville to aid the floor-hugging Van Dyke.
The two later meet up in a lounge at Grand Central and Larry explains to Dick the sorry
state of his ailing marriage to fellow guest star Barbara Rhoades.
As Robert MacKenzie states in his TV Guide Review of the series,
this episode shamelessly hijacks major elements from the plot of Alfred Hitchcock's "Strangers on
a Train" from 1951. Van Dyke begins stalking Rhoades in an overly friendly
manner and appears to be determined to relieve Linville of his trouble by knocking off poor Barbara
Rhoades. This little favor is done as repayment for Linville's kind gesture of aiding Van
Dyke back at Grand Central. Okay, so all those snooty New Yorkers just said, "And that's why we ignored
him and merely stepped over him and went on our merry way." Fine lesson learned and point taken, "Let sleeping
dogs and out of work actors lie."
As Supertrain speeds west on its way to Los Angeles, Linville
figures out the danger his wife is in and becomes frantic in his attempts to get ahead of the train, onboard it, and stop
Van Dyke's evil plan. In typical fashion, Supertrain's crew is not overly concerned nor are they much
help to poor Larry. A frantic phone call from Linville is greeted with a "I'm must
too busy to be bothered" response from both Patrick Collins and Edward Andrews' characters.
Linville does finally intercept Supertrain at Chicago and makes it to Rhoades just as she's
apparently downed some poision laced warm milk and settled in for a long nap.
Does Rhoades survive? Is Van
Dyke charged with attempted murder? This is TV remember and we're approaching the last commercial break, so
naturally she's fine. Turns out Van Dyke was simply trying to cause Linville a nervous
breakdown, buy airline tickets at full price at the last minute to get ahead of Supertrain, and finally demonstrate his true
love and affection for his estranged wife.
As the episode closes, we are shown that Dick
is up to his old tricks again. He's seen on the floor of what is presumably Los Angeles Union Station, though it looks
just like the New York set's floor, reeling in his next victim. This next guy isn't a star though, so who'd care
what he ends up going through at Van Dyke's direction and the episode ends. Maybe if Supertrain had
been successful, Dick Van Dyke might have scored a spin-off series of his own. Each week he's found
by a celebrity guest star and puts them through the torture of wondering the fate of the other guest star under Van
Dyke's care. It is a stretch, but you'd already have the Supertrain sets and you could recycle the train footage
from the series. And remember that around this time ideas like "Pink Lady and Jeff" got a green-light
from NBC. Give me ten minutes with Fred Silverman back in '79 and a commitment pending a good script
from Van Dyke and I might be able to fill that slot vacated by "Cliffhangers!" on Tuesdays
at 8pm for the 1979-80 season. The premiere episode would have Dick doing his thing with comic mimes
and doubtless cheaply available guests Shields and Yarnell. Yeah, so we do know if they speak
English...neither didn't Pink Lady and they got a half dozen shows in 1980.
 -TV Guide February 10-16,
1979 featuring none-other-than William Shakespeare. If you just gasped and said, "What the hell is a picture of Shakespeare
doing on this silly Supertrain site!"...Then you either have seen every episode multiple times or you're just a snob.
TV Guide "And A Cup Of Kindness, Too" Episode Synopsis:
A deranged man(Dick
Van Dyke) plans to repay a kindness by killing the estranged wife of his benefactor.
"And A Cup Of Kindness, Too" Competiton:
ABC
proclaimed it was "Another Great Wednesday Night on ABC" in its full-page TV Guide ad for its line-up against "Supertrain."
That night ABC ran "Eight Is Enough" at 8pm; had Farrah Fawcett back as a guest star on
"Charlie's Angels"; and finished the night with "Vegas"
CBS
ran a pair of Valentine's Day animated specials against the second installment of "Supertrain": "Bug Bunny's
Valentine" featuring the Looney Tunes characters and "The Popeye Valentine Special: Sweethearts at Sea"
NBC
finsihed its Wednesday night after "Supertrain" by debuting the Natalie Wood TV-miniseries "From Here To Eternity"
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