by Ted Davis

Original Air Date: September 22, 1971

Directed by: Russ Mayberry

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains spoilers for this episode!

Synopsis: Taos, New Mexico born and bred Marshal Sam McCloud (Dennis Weaver) pushes that aw-shucks routine about as far as it can go in his New York City encounters, and in this episode he matches wits with overconfident kidnapper Richard Stevens (Peter Haskell), who demands 250k (which had a lot more purchase power in 1971) from popular and portly celebrity astrologist Sidney Cantrell (Sebastian Cabot), or else his relentlessly gabby wife Emily (Louise Latham) will be exploded into bits with a heavy duty charge of dynamite.

Kitty Cameo: McCloud visits Cantrell’s business office where the astrologer’s beleaguered secretary Gloria (Jill Jaress) is berated by a cantankerous old coot (Forrest Cook) who is enraged because Cantrell missed their appointment. For some unknown reason the old man brought his calico cat to the office and he carries the constantly meowing (dubbed in) kitty throughout the scene, at one point admonishing the unhappy feline to be quiet.

A moment later he inadvertently whacks the cat on the head with the file of his records that he snatched from Gloria’s grasp.

Final Mewsings: The fact that there’s no Sign of the Cat in the Zodiac is proof that the entire construct is a sham.

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