...And the Cat Jumped Over the Moon

Martin Sheen in his screen debut plays the leader of a Philly gang called The Missiles in a memorably out-there, over the top performance, as M & M enter the juvenile delinquent genre in this wacky Silliphant episode.

Comedian Milt Kamen is top-billed in a serious role, playing an ex-truant officer who has taken The Missiles under his wing, to try and keep the youngsters out of trouble. But in a move invented a year earlier by Hitchcock for "Psycho", Silliphant kills off his lead character (Kamen) early in the episode in a frightening rooftop scene, as he plays a game of chicken with goofball Sheen.

The show nearly turns into a crossover episode with its sister series "Naked City", when the cops investigate Kmen's death, but soon Maharis, who Kamen helped when he was a boy, takes over and saves the day, leading to another frightening rooftop scene with superstar James Caan as the former leader of The Missiles squaring off against Sheen in a death-defying game of "Polaris" (named after the 1960 missile America used to outfit its fleet of nuclear-armed submarines).

Since Caan plays the good guy, it is Sheen's performance that wins out in the battle of terrific acting, so much so that I would love to interview Sheen today on how it was filming this particular show. Also getting a juicy role is Susan Silo as the gang groupie torn between the two (Caan and Sheen). Her acting career was a bust, but she's been a busy voice actor for five decades.

For the second week in a row, the Corvette is almost missing in action on screen, an alarming development, almost as frightening to Route 66 fans as when Maharis quit.