The time since my last review has gone so quickly, mainly due to devoting my small amount of spare time to updates to both the High-T Website and the C.A.B. HQ Website. I hope to be able to watch and write a review for the other two episodes sometime soon but in the meantime here is my review for this episode.
Take Off With T. Bag: Episode Three ‘Bagsy Malone’ – My Review
The episode begins with the flying saucer landing in a New York street. T-Bag, T-Shirt and Tow-Ling leave the saucer as Lieutenant Kowalski looks on. T-Bag mutters that the expedition is a waste of time as Kowalski walks towards them and tells them they can not leave it there so they will have to move it. Suddenly there is a loud noise and Kowalski races off. Seeing the episode start in the New York Street gives the viewer a view of the size of the set, much bigger than in previous years and this gives the actors more space to act and run madly (more on the running later).
There he runs into Bagsy Malone who has just robbed the jewellery store, Bagsy tries to get away by making Kowalski turn away from him, threatening him with his ‘violin case’. Bagsy then notices T-Bag, T-Shirt and Tow-Ling hiding near the flying saucer. Bagsy takes them hostage in the saucer and they fly off.
As Kowalski watches the flying saucer take off and fly into the distance mention must go to the special effects of this scene, the effects on the saucer, although not realistic by today’s standards but as a child viewer in the earlier 1990’s this was something not seen in the preceding years of T-Bag so this must be accredited to the crew involved. In a time without sophisticated CGI the tricks employed in creating the ‘magic’ in T-Bag gives the episodes a charming nostalgic feel.
Onboard Bagsy is relieved that they showed up to help him escape. T-Shirt deduces that he must have robbed a jewellery store and is now on the run with a bag full of stolen diamonds. Bagsy tells Tow-Ling to land back on Earth asking where would be the last place the cops would look for him. Tow-Ling quickly suggests on top of the Police station and Bagsy agrees. Tow-Ling then lands the flying saucer and Bagsy leaves. T-Bag demands that they find her Birthday surprise. Earlier in this series T-Bag constantly reminds us of quest to find her birthday surprise, maybe this was intentionally put into the script to give the audience constant reminders about the change of the ‘quest’ dynamic to T-Bag searching for something rather than a girl protagonist.
After leaving the saucer they run into Kowalski who tells them to freeze. He tells them that they will spend fifteen years in the slammer for aiding Bagsy escaping. T-Bag then decides to be subtle… and hits Kowalski over the head with a baseball bat knocking him out. But Kowalski starts to come around and they start to run but Tow-Ling gets caught by Kowalski as T-Bag and T-shirt run off. In the distance T-Bag and T-Shirt are hiding in separate trash dumpsters; T-Bag is in the one full of rubbish! T-Shirt tells T-Bag they will have to try and clear their names for them to find the birthday surprise. T-Shirt then pulls out the blue cockatoo club card.
T-Bag and T-shirt, in disguise, arrive at the Blue Cockatoo club in the hope of finding Bagsy Malone, T-Bag does not think they will but T-Shirt as a hunch, T-Bag then quips ‘that explains why your clothes don’t fit’. T-Shirt suggests they split up to try to find Bagsy. T-Bag wanders off and peers through a curtain into the next room, inside is Bagsy, on the phone, and T-Bag listens. T-Shirt catches up and also sees Bagsy. T-Bag rationalises that they need to take the jewels and hand them into the Police. T-Bag then has to come up with a plan but before she can Kowalski walks into the club. They start to panic but T-Bag sees a sign saying ‘Female Jazz musicians wanted’, T-Shirt tells her no, and as such the audience knows where the story line is going to go.
In the next scene Bagsy is on the phone and T-Bag and T-Shirt walk in disguised as female jazz musicians. Bagsy hires them and tells them to get to work, they start playing in his office but he tells them to get on the stage to play. T-Shirt puts on a record and they play their instruments along to the record. Kowalski enjoys the music and Bagsy heard him from his office. Bagsy goes out into the club and then notices it is Kowlaski although he does not recognise him. Kowalski gets Bagsy to sit down and enjoy the music and a drink. T-Shirt then tells T-Bag to find the jewels while he covers for her. T-Bag wanders off into the back room to find the jewels, then Kowalski goes to the bar to get a drink so Bagsy follows T-Bag. Bagsy catches her looking in the safe, he startles her and she bangs her head and falls to the floor unconscious. Bagsy recognises her as ‘dollface’. Kowalski comes back with some drinks as T-Shirt finishes the song; Kowalski calls for an encore and tells ‘her’ to take a bow. T-Shirt bows and his wig falls off! Instantly Kowalski recognises him and chased after him, T-Shirt runs into the back room to fetch T-Bag and bumps into Bagsy, in disguise wearing T-Bag’s wig, Bagsy gets away as no-one recognises him.
T-Shirt wakes T-Bag up, telling her they have to go, Kowalski catches up with them but T-Bag trips him up. T-Bag and T-Shirt then run off trying to catch up with Bagsy. Kowalski then chases T-Bag and T-Shirt. T-Bag chases after Basgy as Tow-Ling calls out to T-Shirt from his jail cell. The chase continues as T-Shirt finds a car, luckily with the keys in the ignition, he ties some rope to the jail cell bars and goes back to the car to attempt to break Tow-Ling out of jail.
The chase continues and Bagsy comedically bumps into the camera! He turns around and runs off, he finally gets near the police station as T-Shirt is in the car; the bars come out from the cell and hits Bagsy and knocks him to the ground. T-Bag and Kowalski catch up. Kowalski then handcuffs Bagsy and tells T-Bag that she gets the reward from the jewellery store, T-Bag mistakenly thinks it is all the stolen jewels and begins to gather them up. Kowalski takes them off her and hand her the real reward – another golden envelope, to which T-Bag replies ‘what?!?’
The amount of ‘running and chasing’ in this episode can either be viewed as a classic ‘cartoon’ chase or a very effective way of padding out an episode, I am going to plump for the former as I think the chasing is one of the funniest things in the episode and makes a welcome change of pace.
The two guest actors, both returning from separate episodes from Sunstones of Montezuma, give superb performances making you believe in their Police and criminal characters.
Watching this episode again has given me a few laughs but not at anything new, mainly at T-Bag not getting the empty trash can!
Because of the high production value, a script with laughs and the excellent comedy timing (and facial expressions) of John and Georgina I’ve given this episode eight out of ten. Not a truly classic episode but still a great episode to watch if you’ve not seen it in a long time.
To sum up….this episode has bagsy-ed my vote!