- Title: Scarecrow and Mrs. King – Magic Bus
- IMDb: link
Throwback Thursday takes us to 80s Washington, D.C. and the unusual partnership between a housewife and a spy. The more technical aspects of “Magic Bus” haven’t aged all that gracefully (even for the time, the episode is pretty goofy). The storyline involves a new prototype disguised as a RV that gets stolen from Amanda‘s (Kate Jackson) driveway by a group of survivalists blackmailing the government to release imprisoned members of their organization. Not exactly Bond-level tech here, even for the 80s, the RV feels even more quaint in 2022.
Amanda and Lee (Bruce Boxleitner) work together to find the group which stole the vehicle, including going undercover at one of their camps before discovering the survivalists have a mole within the Agency. After Lee is shot, the episode ends with Amanda driving the death machine, which even earns a bit of respect from Francine (Martha Smith), and Lee desperately trying to deactivate the weapon system before the US Military destroys them. The episode is also notable for Amanda’s mother (Beverly Garland) suspecting an affair may be behind all her sudden absences and unexplained behavior and fearing that her suggestion may have given her daughter ideas.
