Switched to Remember WENN while making my bed, bringing the laundry downstairs, and going through old paperwork from last year on the top of my printer. "Hilary Booth, Registered Nurse" is accidentally hit on the head with a microphone boom right before a big nighttime broadcast of one of the station's big soap operas, Valiant Journey. Betty has to figure out how to handle the chaos from Hilary's resulting amnesia, and do it without the help of Victor Comstock, who is leaving the station to broadcast in war-torn London.
Hilary and her (semi) husband Jeff Singer are also at the heart of "Valentino Speaks." Jeff is excited when a director turns up and first wants the cast to dub an old, unfinished Rudolph Valentino movie (actually his last film, Son of the Sheik), then use them and the station's studios to finish it. It turns out to be more exhausting than exciting when the pompous director (Simon Jones) insists on the acting matching the broader style of the silent film, and Jeff wanting to find his character's "truth."
Things are turned upside-down with the arrival of brash Scott Sherwood (Kevin O'Rourke) at the start of "A Capitol Idea." He claims Victor sent him to be the new station manager and has a boatload of new ideas, starting with having Betty weave mentions of the commercial product into the shows. While this actually was common on radio in the 30's and 40's and basically invents informercials, it also turns the shows into barely-disguised commercials. Betty's disgusted and ready to quit, until the others come up with a way to turn the tables.
Had lunch and put the laundry away while watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Mickey's usual "Oh Toodles!" is even more pronounced when he and Goofy search for four tools Professor Ludvig Von Drake needs to complete something he's working on. Toodles is feeling a bit overworked himself, but the others constantly remind him of how important he is to the show, and Von Drake's creation turns out to be something special for him.
Rushed out to the Thomas Sharp School the moment I finished lunch and the cartoon ended. I was slightly late, and thankfully, that was the worst thing that happened all day. We had 22 pre-schoolers and kindergartners today, and they honestly weren't that badly behaved for them. Getting them all out to the playground did help a lot. Even the swings could have been worse. I had to separate two boys who were fighting, told a boy and a girl to stop calling each other names, and one of the girls who usually runs for the swings first had a collision during a really rowdy game of tag and an ice pack on her head and barely touched the swings afterwards, poor kid. Finished the afternoon coloring a picture of the Nutcracker (Scott) rescuing the Sugar Plum Fairy (Hilary) from a fiery furnace with three of the littlest girls while they colored pictures of snowmen and gingerbread houses.
At least the weather was decent enough for the playground and the ride home! Though the sun was in and out of clouds, it was in the lower 40's, not horrible for early January, without a bit of wind. One of the girls even pointed out the gorgeous red and gold sunset, which I saw more of riding past Newton Lake going home.
Went straight home after that and into dinner and Match Game Syndicated. Buzzr is now showing new-for-them episodes, starting with the week featuring Scoey Mitchilll, former beauty queen Marjorie Wallace, and the debut of character actress Edie McClurg in the sixth comedienne seat. Scoey gets most of the memorable material from this week, including when Gene tore off the t-shirt he wore advertising an LA radio station, exposing his rather well-muscled chest (to the delight of Edie and Brett!).
Finished the night at YouTube with more game shows, these from Canada. Americans were hardly the only ones to do wacky, boundaries-pushing comic game shows in the 1970's. Canadians had their own rowdy comedy during the Me Decade, the syndicated Party Game. This syndicated show had six members of a comic troupe acting out a subject, usually a goofy pun, and trying to guess what it is. Too bad more of this doesn't exist today. The comedians in the episode are a riot, and they're obviously having a great time with their crazy facial expressions and pratfalls.
I wish more of the truly unique The Mad Dash was around, too. This show had husband-and-wife teams running around a huge board game set. One did the actual moving. The other answered questions and rolled the dice to see how far their partner would go. Hilarious and a lot of fun. Energetic host Pierre Lalonde added to the fun.
Canadian game shows frequently turned up on cable and on independent stations during the 1980's. I have fond memories of watching Bumper Stumpers on USA in the late 80's. Two teams solved license plates with cute puns on them, trying to figure out who or what they related to. They would then uncover the letter of a "Super Stumper" and would have to solve that. The first team to solve two Super Stumpers won the match and the chance to play the bonus round. They'd have to guess what 8 license plates said. However many they got were what they could reveal on 8 monitors. They could keep going until they got the big $500 or hit a Stop sign.
Kids had just as much fun in Canada in the 80's and 90's as we did down in the US. KidStreet was basically "Junior Newlywed Game crossed with Classic Concentration" with a car theme. Three sibling pairs would have to guess what the other answered to a question or what they thought a unique item was. The bonus round had them guessing a rebus puzzle. Loved the colorful set here, with the kids all sitting in giant "cars."
Uh Oh was just plain wild. Apparently an offshoot of an earlier kid variety show, this cross between Double Dare and Wheel of Fortune had kids spinning a wheel to decide whether they'd answer speed questions, play a stunt, get another turn, or get stuck in the "Uh Oh" box and covered in gunk if their partner didn't answer a question correctly. "The Slime Tour" had them watching more kids playing wacky and gross stunts at another location (the Yukon Territory here, apparently) and guessing who would win. They spun a different wheel with their three colors for the third round. The indicator would show which team got what game or stunt. The winner earned the most points after this round. Wow, was this one nuts! Even the host, Wink Yahoo, was noisy and nutty. This has "Late 90's North America" written all over it, from the loud colors to the angular set to the brash, even edgy, stunts.
Take a winter trip to Canada and see what games our neighbors in the north were playing with these pun and pratfall-filled episodes!
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