Comments from The I Spy Forum continued
The final spanking at the end is funny and deserved, but it would never happen in today's world. Which leads me to a point. Cathy in the cave shows that in spite of her upbringing and globetrotting, she is still the product of a very sheltered life, and in the mid-60's it was still possible for a teenager to reach the age of 15 or 16 without ever having to face the reality of drugs and crime and death. Today's teenagers would have been much more cynical and wordly-wise than Cathy was, and would have seen more in high school in the ay of drugs and violence. That is a shame.
Plotwise, the episode is well done and there is enough mystery about why Silvestro wants the mask so bad to make the whole thing suspenseful.
I have a couple of quibbles with the episode. It's another one where the boys just happen to stumble accidentally into an enemy plot, it was not their mission to find the drug smuggling ring, but they just accidentally found it by the purchase of the mask. This accidental involvement scheme is overused a bit in the series, even if you are a secret agent, it's highly unlikely that you will stumble onto a plot every time you turn around. Also, the guys seem to be too lighthearted when Cathy's life is at stake in cave scene, but then this was a fairly lighthearted episode, and the humming bird and protective shield lines were hilarious.
All in all, I have always liked this one, and I give it a B+
Author: Tatia Loring
Date: February 4 2002 at 11:47 PM
When I first saw "There Was A Little Girl," I thought it was a rather cute, light-hearted episode (though it did deal with kidnapping and drug addiction) ... but "Cathy Sherman" struck me as being over-the-edge on the cuteness scale and entering into the annoying scale!
But .... considering the adventures of the Bush daughters in recent times, perhaps guarding determined young ladies is not an easy task - then or now.
The premise of the story was not too unbelievable - smuggling drugs in pottery .... refining it in a cave back in the mountains - OK - and the care with which the agents body-guarding the daughter of a V.I.P. would undertake to keep her protected and out of scandal's way at all costs was believable also ... but why send her on a trip to Mexico alone in the first place - without an escort or at least a girlfriend as a companion - and how long was she there - and how long were Scotty and Kelly baby-sitting her?
Of course, the ending would not fly today - Kelly (and Scotty as an accessory) would be fighting sexual harassment and assault charges - probably into the present day ... (the "just following orders" defense wouldn't quite make it ...) but the story did have a nice touch of innocence that I fear is no longer around today.
And wow - Ms. Sherman's hair certainly had a life of it's own - and if we were dealing with reality - she would have been sleeping with her hair rolled up in orange juice cans - which of course made sleep impossible for all teen-age girls for that entire decade - so Cathy would have been aware of her night-time intruder right from the start. Trust Tatia on this one.
I agree, too, that Kelly handled Ms. Sherman's infatuation in a totally charming, and rather adorable big-brother manner.
What I did really enjoy was the scenery of Taxco - the church, etc. - the details were so clear on the DVD - too bad the rest of street scenes looked rather "backlot-ish" and a "lot" of the story took place inside hotel rooms and the cave - but it didn't hinder the story too much ....
and was Mr. Porada, George Serengi's long lost twin brother from "Dragon's Teeth"?
Also, the efficiency with which Scotty and Kelly took out Mr. Porada together was rather chilling - reminiscent a bit of the taxi-cab driver scene in "So Long Patrick, Henry" .... we didn't see them kill outright all that often - and not usually in tandem.
There were some great lines mixed in here and there, too. I'm especially fond of the "Foggy Bottom" one - being just down the road a piece! Tatia will go with a "C+" for Miss Sherman and her $200 mask ....
As ever,
Tatia
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