Switched to the Bob Eubanks Card Sharks as I got ready to head out. I believe the episode was from 1987, by which time the hostesses had stopped wearing those cute majorette-like uniforms and contestants could win a car along with cash from the Money Board. We had a sweet young Asian woman and a cocky college student in a mullet playing the game I saw. She kept getting the right answers, but he finally made it all the way to the end of his board and won the game.
Headed out before the show ended. I really wanted to run a few errands on the White Horse Pike. My first stop was supposed to be Dollar General...but I arrived to discover workers moving in and out with paint cans and nails. Signs on the door indicated they were remodeling until Thursday.
Didn't have any more luck with Family Dollar three blocks down. They should have been open, but they weren't. There was a sign on the door that claimed due to "unforeseen circumstances," they were closed for the day. Peering in the store window revealed nothing out of the ordinary or amiss. I suspect those "unforeseen circumstances" were likely so many of their workers called out to see the eclipse, they had no one to run the store.
I ended up walking back into the other direction to CVS, mainly because I had no idea where else to go. They had the underwear I was looking for, but not in the sizes I wanted. I did find the most adorable stuffed bunny half-off for $4.99. She's pure white, with super-soft lop ears, large black button eyes, a stitched-on flowered jacket, and a green shirt with a blue Peter Pan collar. I named her Violet, after the flowers on her jacket. I also picked up pads and a Mountain Dew Zero for later.
It was such a gorgeous day, I went for a walk in Newton Lake Park across the street. I couldn't help thinking how right Daniel and his friends were. Sometimes, it is good to go slow. I enjoyed the warm sun and cool breeze on my face and the sound of mimosa pods crunching under my feet. A mother pushed her toddler daughter in a stroller, while a little boy ran around the patio on the water. Had fun going down that wonderfully bumpy roller slide, too.
Saw five turtles and a fat duck sunning themselves on a thick branch stretching into the water near the little stone bridge. Two fishermen taught their sons how to catch the big one as I strolled by. Another thick log further along the path had no less than fifteen turtles basking in the sunshine. The banks of the lake are a heavy carpet of emerald green and golden buttercups and sunburst dandelions.
And yes, it was gorgeous today. You'd never know the weather was so horrible last week. Fresh breezes and soft sunshine in a radiant blue sky. It was much warmer, probably in the mid-60's, about as perfect as one could wish in early April.
Went straight into peanut butter and jelly, a tangelo, and tortilla chips for lunch when I got home while watching Split Second. The woman who definitively won the first show had a far harder time in the second. In fact, it was a really close game. Anyone could have won. She just barely pulled ahead in the Countdown Round. I guess she figured one close call was enough. She ended up taking a lovely tan fur coat home instead of trying for the car again.
Left it on Let's Make a Deal as I started to go through everything in the house. I'm going to take one more bag to Goodwill and deposit a clothes bag in one of the collection bins tomorrow. Started with clearing out more than half the pens I keep acquiring from job fairs. Ditched all of the soft balls but two squishy foam fruit from Wonderful Citrus and Sprouts that I keep on my desk to relieve stress. Cleared out all but four note pads and two cups. Pulled three books for the kiosks and a small pile of records and CDs I didn't want.
Stripped the sheets and six blankets off the bed. It's time to turn over the mattress and put on the lighter sheets I use for spring and fall. I only need two blankets now too, my blue and tan striped comforter and the green afghan Mom knitted me years ago. I couldn't find the bag I originally used for the blankets, but I did find the plastic container with old cards. I cleared out all of them but two. (And I did find the bag in the larger closet where I keep the cleaning supplies and doll clothes.)
After I took the laundry downstairs, I put on The Brass Bottle while taking old boxes and cards downstairs and going through the closets. Architect Harold Ventimore (Tony Randall) picks up an antique Arabian bottle at auction. His fiancee Sylvia (Barbara Eden) and boss William Beevor (Philip Ober) thinks he got gypped, but he wants it to impress Sylvia's father Professor Anthony Kenton (Edward Andrews). He gets a lot more than he bargained for when he forces it open and releases a genie, Fakrash (Burl Ives), who can give him his every wish.
Things go haywire almost immediately. No one believes Harold when he tries to explain who turned his apartment into an Arabian Knights palace, made a dancing harem girl (Kamala Devi) appear, or transformed the Professor into a donkey. Fakrash has been in a bottle for 3,000 years and has no idea how life in the early 60's works, or that normal people no longer believe everything they see. Harold just hopes he can square things away with Sylvia, before he ends up in a loony bin.
I had no idea this was based on a British novel that goes all the way back to 1900. It would also later inspire I Dream of Jeannie, which featured Eden as the genie who grants unwanted wishes. It's not all that far removed from Jeannie or Bewitched in this era, with its obvious backlot sets, green-screen backdrops, and cast of TV comedy veterans. Randall gets a rare chance at the spotlight here and plays well off the folksy Ives as the most laid-back genie you'll ever meet. If you love the cast or the fantasy-oriented comedies of the 60's, you might get a kick out of this modern Arabian Nights fable.
Moved to A Chocolate Chip Cookie Mystery after that ended and I put the laundry in the dryer. Hannah Swenson (Alison Sweeney) loves owning a cookie shop and cafe and baking up detectable treats for the residents of her small Minnesota town. She's not as happy when her delivery man Ron (Jason Cermak) turns up shot to death behind her store. The sheriff calls in Detective Mike Kingston (Cameron Mathieson) from Minneapolis to help solve the crime. Hannah has her own ideas of whodunnit, but Mike won't listen. There's also the cute and slightly dorky dentist Norman (Gabriel Hogan) whom her mother Delores (Barbara Niven) keeps shoving at her.
Honestly, it's been so long since I read Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder, I have no idea I this is anything like the book. I do know that Sweeney is a charming Hannah and her adventures figuring out what's going on are enjoyable, even if her beaus are even more interchangeable here than they tend to be in the books (and the movies, of course, lack the tasty-sounding recipes ever book includes).
Took down some old cards and notes outside to recycle at one point. I heard a bunch of people talking about the eclipse that was supposed to happen today. If there was an eclipse, it was hard to tell with the cloud cover that had appeared shortly after I got home. And of course, the clouds vanished not long after the eclipse happened.
Did some job hunting, then worked on writing for a while. The renamed Sir Michael is said to be a handsome but quiet recluse who prefers the company of the books in his vast library to people, yet is bringing home a fiance from his country estates. Kathleen hopes she's as kind and gentle as Michael, but Mrs. Rowland points out that a shy man like Michael is vulnerable to the dark sorceresses who live in the country.
Broke for dinner at 7 PM. Buzzr leaped all the way back to Match Game '73. In fact, these were the earliest episodes I'd seen them run. It was the first of three weeks Brett and Jack Klugman were on the same panel, and the first of two where they sat next to each other. Robert Culp didn't play that well and didn't seem to get the comedy vibes, but Pat Carroll was so funny and seemed to enjoy herself so much, I wish she returned later in the series.
Finished the night on YouTube running vintage word and spelling-themed game shows. Match Game and Password are the long-runner word association champs. Both were major hits in their original runs and in revival, and both continue to be revived today. There's a version of Password on NBC now that started in 2022. I went with a 1976 Match Game episode where a noisy Jimmie Walker sat in for a late Charles Nelson Reilly, and a Password Plus episode from 1980 with Ron Masak and Loretta Swit.
Their success spawned many imitation word association shows. You Don't Say with Tom Kennedy originally debuted in 1963. By the time it ended its run in 1969, it had been retooled as a blatant Password clone. Two celebrities describe a phrase or name using other words. Contestants have to guess what they're describing. This was honestly a pretty tough game. It's one thing to describe words with other words. It's something else to try to explain parts of them. I have to admire Don Grady and Tina Cole of My Three Sons for doing even remotely well.
Blankety Blanks from 1975 has more in common with the later Whew! Two celebrities pair with contestants to help them solve punny fill-in-the-blanks puzzles. Bill Cullen would choose a card from a huge electronic wheel that would pick the point value. Though the wheel was admittedly cool, there's not much else here to distinguish this from other shows of the period.
Chain Reaction, another Bill Cullen show, has an even rougher history. Cullen's original 1980 NBC version only lasted a few months before being yanked off the air and replaced with The David Letterman Show. Reruns proved popular enough on USA for a streamlined Canadian version without celebrities to turn up on that channel in 1986. This is the version I know best. I used to love watching people figure out which word in the chain came next. I'm more familiar with Geoff Edwards as the host, but Blake Emmonds hosts the early episode I have here.
NBC did far better six years later with Scrabble. Chuck Woolery hosted this late 80's hit based on the popular board game. Two contestants compete to complete letters on a CGI Scrabble board. The winner would face off with the returning champion in the Scrabble Sprint and solve words as quickly as possible. I wish Sony would consider reviving this one. It's just as fast-paced and fun to watch as the actual Scrabble game and might make a nice companion for the current NBC Password.
Wish NBC had been as kind to Wordplay. This only made a year in 1987, despite it being absolutely hilarious. Three celebrities give three different descriptions of words. The two contestants have to decide which is the real description. Tom Kennedy returns to keep Phyllis Diller, Clifton Davies, and Art McTrannell on track.
Another show I wish would return is The Cross-Wits. This is basically Crossword Plus. Gentlemanly Jack Clark presides over four celebrities who help two contestants figure out crossword puzzles that relate to a subject. The winners get a prize in addition to money. Their Crossfire bonus round has Jack reading clues, and them having to solve 10 words from the clues in 60 seconds. Vicki Lawrence, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Bobby Van, and Elaine Joyce are the celebrities here.
Game Show Network's most recent venture into word games is Tug of Words. Based on tug of war, this one is sort of like a cross between Chain Reaction and Scrabble. Two teams have to make chains of words. The more chains they make, the more they "tug," and the more points they get. Too bad this only managed a year and a half on GSN. This is fast-paced and a lot of fun to watch.
Leap into spring solving these complicated word puzzles with your friends and family! (And warning that the copies of Wordplay and The Cross-Wits are not in the best of shape, but there aren't too many episodes of those online. You Don't Say comes with its original commercials.)
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