I'm still tired, it was still chilly and cloudy, and though it's better than it was yesterday, I still have a cold. My nose is stuffy, but not running. Not to mention, I had work at the school later, too. I took Uber. For once, that went just fine. It took less than 3 minutes to show up and 5 to get to work. I arrived right on time.
Work was more of a pain. While I spent most the morning sweeping and gathering carts, one of the managers took me aside in the last five minutes and told me to get the trash in the women's bathroom. Like this couldn't have been done earlier? I was almost late getting out because of that.
Thankfully, I still had time to change and head down the block for lunch at Applebee's. They were surprisingly quiet for 1 PM, with only a few families and older couples enjoying sandwiches and drinks in booths. I had a quick grilled chicken bacon ranch sandwich with fries and an iced tea. The sandwich was moist, the fries nicely seasoned.
Even after I ate, I still had extra time. I went back to the Acme and flipped through magazines until it was time to call Uber again. This time, it took 2 minutes to arrive and dropped me off at the Thomas Sharp School in 6 minutes. I was so early, I went for a walk around a couple of blocks, then got some time on the swings in the playground before I finally headed inside.
You can probably guess that the kids were rowdy on their first day back since before Christmas Eve. Honestly, it could have been worse. Since it was still too cold to take the younger ones outside, we all ended up in the library. They taped paper on the tables for them to stencil animals on. There was music for them to dance to. When one of the girls got frustrated with her block tower not standing, I taught her about the importance of a good foundation. Had to scold one of the other girls for using markers that belonged to the art teacher, not the Healthy Kids program. (And the younger kids aren't supposed to use markers anyway. They make too much of a mess.) Danced with one of the smaller girls who kept pushing herself against the speaker, feeling the vibrations of the music.
When we took the kids back to the cafeteria, they played with plastic animals and cars or colored with the older kids. One of the little girls was so enamored with my artwork of Annie the Rag Doll and Betty and Prince Scott from The WENN Nutcracker Suite, I let her have it. One of the boys gave me his artwork. I was playing monster cars with another boy when my shift ended. No trouble getting Uber here, either. They only took 4 minutes to arrive.
Took the recycling out and the laundry downstairs when I got home, then went upstairs and watched Match Game Syndicated. By the time of these 1979 episodes, Bart Braverman had joined in, sitting next to Debralee Scott here. David Doyle was a friend of Brett's and always sat in the first male heartthrob seat. Brett and Charles spent most of the week trying to figure out his imitations (which were always Sydney Greenstreet).
Finished the night with even more comic game shows. Match Game had hit its groove in 1976 and 1977, when it was the most popular show on daytime TV period. Unfortunately, an ill-advised change to mornings late in 1977 damaged ratings. Moving it back to the afternoons was too little, too late. At this point, at least, things were still chugging along. In fact, some of the funniest episodes of the entire run came from early 1978, as with this one where Richard Dawson gives a rare strange answer to what a practical joker has in his garden.
By 1978, Richard was more interested in hosting Family Feud, where things could get just as strange. Richard spent most of an episode in 1980 ogling the very young anchor of a mostly-female team. He was infamous for kissing all of the ladies, even those younger than him, as he does here.
Funny game shows go way back. Art Linkletter's People are Funny was a cross between Candid Camera and a stunt show. He'd get people to do something outrageous, then would bring in those who saw them to see their reactions. Groucho Marx had even more fun with his secret words and dangling duck on You Bet Your Life. Here, his reactions to an Ohio beauty queen, a woman from Tennessee who was one of Elvis' biggest fans, and a Mayor from Wyoming who didn't approve of rock were hilarious.
People could be funny on cable, too. Win Ben Stein's Money was an early hit for Comedy Central, and still their biggest game show hit to date. The premise seems simple - stump deadpan comedian Stein and get his loot. It was a lot more difficult than it sounds. The questions found in subjects with punny titles could be hard, and Stein was no fool. Jimmy Kimmel got some of his earliest exposure as Stein's right-hand man in this episode from 1998.
Laugh your way through the winter with this hilarious look at comedy games past!
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