Classic Episodes: The Mod Squad – Mother of Sorrow

The Mod Squad was one groovy show and Pete, Linc, and Julie (Michael Cole, Clarence Williams III, and Peggy Lipton) were the grooviest TV detectives ever — long-haired hipsters in bell-bottoms who should have been throwing pots in a commune but became crime-solvers instead.

In the audaciously Oedipal “Mother of Sorrow,” a deranged young man stages a mock murder to gain the attention of his neglectful artist mother (Lee Grant). Film actors Dreyfuss and Grant sizzle as emotional adversaries who share a Victorian house and an intense hatred of the father and husband who walked out on them.

Part therapy session, part whodunit, this episode was innovative entertainment for a generation hell-bent on self-discovery.

Original Airdate: February 17, 1970