Retro Television Review: Decoy 1.39 “The Lost Ones”

Posted on July 23, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Thursdays, I will be reviewing Decoy, which aired in Syndication in 1957 and 1958. The show can be viewed on Tubi!

This week, Decoy comes to an end.

Episode 1.39 “The Lost Ones”

(Dir by Arthur H. Singer, originally aired on July 7th, 1958)

The final episode of Decoy finds Casey dropping in on Elsa Kramer (Phyllis Newman), a recently-released juvenile offender who Casey previously arrested. Casey just wants to check on her and to welcome her back to society. But, when Casey steps — unannounced, which may be okay in New York but seems rather rude to my Texas sensibilities — into the family’s small kitchen, she discovers Elsa’s abusive father is dead and Elsa is holding the gun. Elsa makes a run for it. Elsa’s mother (Adelaide Klein) and brother (Morton Lighter) say that Elsa shot her father in self-defense.

Casey doesn’t think Elsa pulled the trigger and is determined to find Elsa and learn the truth before Elsa is arrested again. Not surprisingly, Casey’s right. It was her brother who killed their father. Elsa took the blame because her brother was going to medical school whereas Elsa really didn’t have much of a future to lose.

In some ways, this episode is an appropriate send-off for Casey and Decoy. It has some location footage of New York, which was always the show’s main appeal outside of Beverly Garland’s lead performance. It features Casey trying to prove that a seemingly guilty person is actually innocent. That’s certainly preferable to what we saw last week.

At the same time, this episode had some of the same flaws that were present in quite a few of Decoy’s final episodes. The dialogue was a bit overbaked. Even worse, the acting from the supporting cast was not particularly impressive. Morton Lighter was so twitchy as Elsa’s brother that there wasn’t much doubt as to who the guilty party was. This episode also featured Casey meeting with the least intimidating street gang in New York history. The whole thing lacked the authenticity that distinguished Decoy at its best. I’m not really sure if the show’s producers knew that this would be the final episode of the series. If they did, they allowed to show to end on a bit of anticlimactic note.

So, that’s it for Decoy. For the most part, it was a good show. The last few episodes were perhaps a bit too melodramatic for their own good. One got the feeling that the show’s writers were under orders to “liven” things up. But the early episodes made great use of the New York setting and, throughout the series, Beverly Garland gave a great performance as the tough but compassionate Casey Jones.

What will I be watching next? I’ll let you know next week!

Retro Television Review: Decoy 1.38 “First Arrest”

Posted on July 16, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, it’s the next-to-last episode Decoy!

Episode 1.38 “First Arrest”

(Dir by Arthur H. Singer, originally aired on June 30th, 1958)

Casey meets with a new, rookie policewoman (Ellen Madison) at Coney Island. The rookie just made her first arrest and is now in tears because she’s worried that she’s ruined someone’s life. Casey tells the story of her first assignment and what it was like to make her first arrest.

Flashback time!

The NYPD believes that a fencing operation is being run out of a Coney Island carnival sideshow. Young and eager, Casey gets a job as an exotic dancer at the carnival. (Calm down, boys. She wears one of the least-revealing costumes of all time.) Shy and insecure Willie Graff (Joshua Shelley) develops a crush on Casey. Casey, suspecting that Willie is the fence, plays along but she starts to feel guilty as she realizes that Willie isn’t some sort of dangerous criminal. He’s just a down-on-his-luck guy who is cutting a few corners. He even introduces Casey to his mother (Ruth McDevitt).

When Willie gives Casey a diamond necklace, she assumes that it must be stolen but it turns out that it’s his mother’s necklace and that Mrs. Graff wants Casey to have it. Casey is actually relieved because it seems like Willie isn’t the fence that she’s looking for. However, then Willie gives her a mink coat and admits that he bought it from someone who had stolen it. Though saddened, Casey forces herself to arrest Willie.

In the present, Casey assures the rookie that she will soon get used to arresting people and she won’t care about them anymore. Yikes!

As you may have guessed, I didn’t really care much for this episode. That idea of Casey being someone who doesn’t care about the people who she arrests pretty much goes totally against everything we’ve seen over the past 37 episodes. The thing that always set Casey apart was that she does care. She has to do her job but she also understands that sometimes, people just make mistakes. Unless it’s case in which she was threatened, Casey usually doesn’t take any joy in slapping the handcuffs on someone.

As much as I hate to say it, Beverly Garland is not particularly convincing in the flashback scenes. Young Casey is written as being continually breathless and unsure of herself. There’s nothing about Beverly Garland’s screen presence that suggests insecurity.

This was a disappointing episode. Next week, we’ll be finishing up Decoy and I hope it goes out on a better note than this.

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 7/5/26 — 7/11/26

Posted on July 11, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Big Brother 28 (24/7, CBS, Paramount+, Pluto TV)

Originally, I wasn’t going to watch Big Brother this season but I gave in. Watching this show and getting annoyed is pretty much a tradition around these parts and you know me. I’m all about tradition. You can read my thoughts (and Erin’s thoughts!) about the show over at RealityTVChatBlog.

The Contender (Prime)

I watched two episodes of this old reality show on Tuesday. A group of boxers competed to be …. THE CONTENDER! They weren’t bad. I actually remember when this show aired way back in the aughts. Sylvester Stallone was the host for the first two seasons. The episodes I watched were hosted by Sugar Ray Leonard.

Homicide: Life On The Street (Peacock)

My review of Homicide will drop tomorrow.

Saved By The Bell (Tubi)

My review of Saved By The Bell will drop later tonight.

Sledgehammer! (Prime)

I watched an episode of this 80s comedy show on Friday. A contract was put out on Sledgehammer’s life so he hid with with Amish. It was a funny episode.

Watched and Reviewed

Retro Television Review: Decoy 1.37 “The Comeback”

Posted on July 9, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Peter Falk guest stars!

Episode 1.37 “The Comeback”

(Dir by David Alexander, originally aired on June 23rd, 1958)

When a fire breaks out at the race track, someone steals two rolls of blank tickets. The police think that the syndicate is planning on printing up counterfeit tickets that they can use to make a killing at the track. Casey quickly figures out that track clerk Fred Dana (Peter Falk) was in the perfect position to steal the tickets during the fire.

Because Fred already saw (and flirted with) Casey at the police station, Casey can’t do her usual undercover shtick. Instead, when she later approaches Fred, she tells him that she’s looking to make some extra money and she’s willing to help Fred and his bosses get away with their crime. Fred introduces Casey to his boss and then that boss introduces Casey to another boss and soon, Casey is working her way to the top.

However, Fred is worried that Casey is getting in over her head and starts warning her that she shouldn’t get involved. When Fred figures out that Casey is just pretending to be crooked, he doesn’t betray her. Instead, he betrays the Syndicate and helps to save Casey’s life.

Why?

Fred says that Casey has “class.”

Casey looks at the camera and tells the viewers that Fred is the one with class.

Awwww!

So, this was a typical Casey-Gets-In-Over-Head storyline. We’re only two episodes away from Decoy’s finale and it’s hard not to feel that, as the series progressed, the writers made Casey less-and-less competent. She’s gone from being a smart, streetwise cop to someone whose cover is continually getting blown. This time, it’s Peter Falk who steps up to save not only Casey but also this entire episode. Falk was 30 when he appeared on Decoy but he already looked several years older. He gives an intelligent and sensitive performance here, one that almost feels like it could come from an alternative universe where Columbo became a low-level mob associate instead of a detective. His scenes with Garland are especially interesting to watch. It wasn’t unusual for Decoy to feature men hitting on Casey. But this is the only episode (at least so far) where there was a genuine romantic chemistry.

Indeed, Fred had class.

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 6/21/26 — 6/27/28

Posted on June 27, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Bands of Enchantment (PBS)

On Friday night, I watched a performance by the band Pacifica. They were okay. I prefer louder music.

Bring Me The Beauties: The Model Cult (HBOMax)

I watched this 3-part docuseries on Monday. It was yet another cult documentary. This time, only good-looking people could join the cult. That actually made sense to me. If you’re a cult leader, why would you want to be surrounded by ugly people?

Degrassi: The Next Generation (Tubi)

My review of this week’s episode will drop tomorrow.

Election Coverage

I watched this latest primary results on Tuesday. Ugh, the DSA in New York. Never has a group of activist been both so charmless and so successful at the same time. A lot of people are panicking about that but, honestly, if the DSA was going to win anywhere, it was going to be in New York. I imagine they’ll do well in Denver next week as well. DSA appeals to gentrifiers. (I also remember that the DSA insurgency was declared dead after the primaries in Illinois so perhaps we should be careful about reading too much into any one night.) It seems like after every “wave election,” there’s a few new congresspeople (and even senators) who end up self-destructing during their first or second term, people like Katie Hill, George Santos, Madison Cawthorn, Cori Bush, and Jamaal Bowman. This year, I’m putting my money on Dairaliza Avila Chevalier and, if he wins, Graham Platner as being the most likely to fall apart as soon as they arrive in Washington.

Homicide: Life On The Street (Peacock)

My review of this week’s episode will drop tomorrow.

Saved By The Bell (Tubi)

My review of this weeks episode will drop later tonight.

Watched and Reviewed:

Retro Television Review: Decoy 1.36 “Blind Date”

Posted on June 25, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Casey goes undercover …. again!

Episode 1.36 “Blind Date”

(Dir by Stuart Rosenberg, originally aired on June 16th, 1958)

When Gladys (Mary Finney) and her niece Millie (Irene Dailey) are involved in a car accident, the police discover that they are transporting a large amount of stolen money. Millie, who has been transporting drugs, had a meeting with a money launderer to exchange the money for clean bills. Casey goes undercover, pretending to be Millie when she and Gladys meet with the launderer. However, when Millie’s boyfriend (Elliott Sullivan) shows up, the entire operation falls apart. Can Casey convince Millie’s boyfriend to turn on the criminals?

This is yet another episode where Casey’s carefully constructed cover is destroyed by something that the police should have been prepared for. Not only is Casey pretending to be a real person (which increases the risk that she’ll run into someone who actually knows the person that Casey is pretending to be) but she’s also accompanied by the increasingly hysterical Gladys. Usually, Casey is at least convincing when she goes undercover. This time, she comes across as way to calm and collected to be believable as someone committing her first crime.

To be honest, after 36 of these episodes, I’m amazed that Casey has survived for as long as she has. The New York police department seems to be truly incompetent.

Despite all of that, this was a good episode. There was plenty of on-location New York footage and Beverly Garland did a good job of portraying Casey’s growing realization that 1) she was in over her head and 2) it was a mistake to bring Aunt Gladys along. Lou Polan was also well-cast as the avuncular but still menacing money launderer. He may have been a criminal but he was also very proud of his boat. Who can blame him?

This episode ended up on vaguely upbeat note, one that really didn’t feel as it had been earned. Decoy was always at its best when it was downbeat and realistic. New York was a tough city, even back in 1958.

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 6/14/26 — 6/20/26

Posted on June 20, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Buskers (PBS)

This documentary was about …. well, it’s right there in the title. One man performed card tricks. A woman played a saw like a violin. Another woman wrote poems on a typewriter in the park. A man danced on a subway train. The documentary was an interesting look at a group of unique Americans. Unfortunately, I watched it rather late at night so my eyelids were heavy during the majority of the show.

Degrassi: The Next Generation (Tubi)

My review will drop tomorrow.

Homicide: Life on the Street (Peacock TV)

My review will drop tomorrow.

Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger (Shout TV)

There’s just no stopping those dinosaurs!

The Larry Sanders Show (HBOMax)

Hank’s Sex Tape! Oh my God, what a cringey episode. When a sex tape featuring Hank Kingsley starts to circulate in Hollywood, it threatens Hank’s new job as an orange juice commercial spokesman. Henry Winkler and Norm MacDonald appear as themselves and have a classic conversation about Hank and …. well, you can watch the episode and see for yourself. Why is this episode so funny and so cringey? Hank is played by Jeffrey Tambor. “Wash your mouth out with Hank.” AGCK!

Saved By The Bell (Tubi)

My review of this week’s episode will drop in about 90 minutes.

UFC Freedom 250 (Paramount Plus)

I’ll just go ahead and tick everyone off by admitting that I enjoyed the spectacle and the unique silliness of UFC on the White House lawn. Yes, there were some regrettable moments. If you were annoyed by the comment about a certain former first lady, you had every right to be. It was a stupid thing to yell and unnecessarily divisive. But, at its heart, the event itself was pure Americana. Abraham Lincoln’s favorite sport was wrestling. Teddy Roosevelt loved boxing. Richard Nixon was a bowler. There’s actually a long history of this sort of thing.

Watched and Reviewed:

Retro Television Review: Decoy 1.35 “Tin Pan Payoff”

Posted on June 18, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Casey goes undercover!

Episode 1.35 “Tin Pan Payoff”

(Dir by David Alexander, originally aired on June 9th, 1958)

After songwriter Chick Williams is found murdered in his apartment, the only clue that the police have going for them is a vinyl record spinning on Chick’s record player. (Welcome to 1958!) The singer on the record is Sally Masters (Ellen Parker), a local nightclub performer. The police figure out that it’s a “demo record.” Sally is the number one suspect so Casey goes undercover as a music agent and discovers just how cutthroat the business can be.

This episode was a whodunit. It turns out that Chick cheated and betrayed a lot of people in his life. It seems like the entire city of New York has a motive but, since this is Decoy, Casey quickly narrows it down to four suspects. Casey going undercover as a music agent was actually more interesting than the mystery itself, if just because Casey got to dress up and hang out in one of those wonderfully atmospheric New York nightclubs. She also learned about how DJs like Jerry Lynch (Lee Bergere) can make someone a star and also how even successful songwriters like Chick Williams occasionally employed “a ghost writer.” Watching Decoy, it’s hard not to feel that the best thing about Casey’s job is that she has an unlimited wardrobe and she gets to investigate every single facet of New York society.

Like a lot of the later Decoy episodes that I’ve seen, this episode isn’t quite as gritty as the earlier episodes. There’s less emphasis on Casey as a tough cop and more on Beverly Garland looking glamorous undercover. That said, Casey still gets the job done and takes a few minutes to speak directly to the audience. One thing I appreciate about Casey is that she doesn’t let her own feelings get in the way of doing her job. At a time when women were often portrayed being too flighty or emotional to be trusted in a position of authority, Casey always got results.

Retro Television Review: Decoy 1.34 “Shadow of Van Gogh”

Posted on June 11, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Casey investigates a case of art forgery!

Episode 1.34 “Shadow of Van Gogh”

(Dir by Michael Gordon, originally aired on June 2nd, 1958)

Casey investigates art forgery!

Someone has produced and sold a forged recreation of Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night. Casey’s investigation leads her to Jack Wilson (Ray Reinhardt), a struggling artist who is obsessed with Van Gogh. Apparently, Jack once even pretended to cut off his ear. Casey discovers that Wilson did paint the forgery but that he was manipulated by a crooked art dealer named Cors1 (Edgar Stehli). When Casey confronts Corsi, he threatens to shoot her. Casey responds by threatening to take a dagger to the real Starry Night. And then Wilson shows up and grabs Corsi’s gun. With Corsi off to jail, Casey looks at the camera and encourages everyone to go to their local museum and see a real Van Gogh.

Oh, how I wanted to love this episode! I really did. I majored in Art History. I love Van Gogh. This episode should have been right up my alley. And there were some parts of the episode that I really did appreciate. During her investigation, Casey goes to Greenwich Village and we get some on-location footage of a 1950s art fair. We get to see some real-life beatniks! I enjoyed that.

Unfortunately, the rest of the episode doesn’t really live up to its promise. It’s not a particularly well-acted episode. Edgar Stehli plays Corsi as being obviously sinister from the start and Ray Reinhardt seems to be mildly channeling every single crazed artist cliche that has ever existed. If you’re going to make one of your characters a struggling artist obsessed with Van Gogh, you can either portray him as a realistic, undiscovered painter or you can go totally over-the-top and have him actually cut off his ear. This episode tries to go for the middle ground and, as such, it’s never as interesting as it should have been.

Retro Television Review: Decoy 1.33 “The Lieutenant Had A Son”

Posted on May 28, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Episode 1.33 “The Lieutenant Had A Son”

(Dir by David Alexander, originally aired on May 26th, 1958)

After spending five years overseas, career soldier Lt. Larry Hayes (Leo Penn) returns to New York City. He wants to see the son that he’s never met and he’s not happy when he discovers that, in his absence, his wife (Loretta Leversee) has married another man (Will Kuluva). His wife goes to the police for protection but, once it becomes obvious that she committed bigamy, Casey has to try to sort out who is married to who and who Larry, Jr. (Robie Grant) belongs with.

This was an odd episode. Absolutely no one was sympathetic. I even got annoyed with Casey for getting involved with these people. Lt. Hayes was a self-righteous martinet. His wife was a flake who simply didn’t seem to understand why she wasn’t being given a pass on the whole bigamy thing. Five year-old Larry, Jr. was played by a child named Robie Grant. I was not surprised to discover that this was Grant’s only credit because he was beyond lousy in the role. I have never been more annoyed by a five year-old.

The most interesting thing about this episode is that Larry Hayes is played by Leo Penn, the father of Sean, Chris, and Michael Penn. Leo Penn gives a believable performance as Larry. It wasn’t his fault that the character wasn’t particularly likable.