Put on one of Goofy's wilder "How to" Shorts on Disney Plus while getting ready for work. "How to Play Baseball" shows off an entire world of Goofys as the Gray Sox and the Blue Sox battle it out for the World Series. The Blue Sox are ahead, but the Gray Sox could get it after he's hit with the ball...unless the Blue Sox fielder can get the cover back on the ball!
Headed to work after that. No trouble here. I was outside the entire afternoon. The head bagger took the inside chores, and there was plenty of cashiering help from high schoolers on Easter break. It was busy, but I was able to focus on the carts and keep up with them pretty well. It was such a nice, warm day, I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else. The sun was in and out, but it got so warm, I actually had to put on suntan lotion. (And I did end up a bit red.)
Listened to the soundtrack from It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown when I got home. Much as I love this special, the music isn't quite as distinctive as some of the earlier shows. "Woodstock's Dream" and some of the music played when Peppermint Patty and Marcie are attempting to color eggs are probably the best numbers. There isn't as many bonus additions on the second side, either, though we do get a later David Benoit medley of Woodstock-related pieces, including "Woodstock's Dream."
Finished the night on YouTube with Match Game Productions' marathon honoring Wink Martindale. Since Martindale started out as a DJ, it's appropriate that his first major hosting gig was What's This Song? from 1964. Two music-related stars (here Carol Lawrence and Mel Torme) help contestants guess what song they're singing, then decides if the lyrics the other team performs are the actual ones. This cute cross between Name That Tune and Don't Forget the Lyrics barely lasted a year. Alas, only two episodes are left, including this one.
Wink wouldn't have a hit until he hosted Gambit in 1972. Gambit was one of three shows debuting in the fall of 1972 that changed what game shows could be. Two married couples answer questions to earn huge cards. The first couple who hits 21 or close to it without going over wins a chance at the big money board. They can get halves of tickets for big cash, or a larger prize like a car.
Alas, despite the show's success, it's mostly gone. Though CBS stopped erasing shows by 1972, producers Heatter-Quigley had not. The two episodes here - one with a big win, the other the series finale - are among the few still around.
Gambit would turn up again as Las Vegas Gambit in 1980, filmed at the now-demolished Tropicana. At first, the game was pretty much the same. For some reason, during the second half of the run, they switched the bonus round to the one from their High Rollers. It didn't seem to make much difference in the ratings. The show could never attract enough high rollers and was gone in a little over a year.
Wink's biggest and best-known hit is probably the 1978-1986 revival of Tic Tac Dough. He appeared in the short-lived 1978 CBS version and its far longer-running syndicated counterpart. He saw Navy pilot Thom McKee play 9 weeks of shows and amass over $312,000, a game show record that would stand until Ken Jennings' huge run 20 years later.
Martindale left Dough in 1985 to produce his own shows, but neither Headline Chasers nor The Last Word went over well. Headline Chasers was the more imaginative of the two. Contestants had to fill in the blanks on fictional headlines from real historical and current events. The Last Word was basically the original Chain Reaction, with celebrities helping contestants to figure out what the last of three words were and how they related to one another. Both shows barely lasted a year, and neither turn up often today.
I far preferred the revival of High Rollers. In fact, I fondly remember watching this show on WPHL 17 when I was 8. Two contestants answer questions for the right to roll numbers. If they roll the correct numbers, they could win one of three prize packages. Winner goes on to try to roll all the numbers for a car. I thought this show was a lot of fun, and I think the problem was more the syndicated market was over-saturated with game shows in 1987.
The interactive board game-based game shows Wink did for The Family Channel were even worse-received than Wink's try at syndication. Trivia Pursuit was the only one that lasted longer than a few months, and even that barely made a year. 9 contestants answer questions that eventually whittle them down to 3 for the main game. Those three answer trivia based on the actual game. Winner gets the closest to filling the whole pie.
Boggle and Shuffle were basically the same games with different themes. Shuffle involved arranging lists. Boggle had contestants finding words on a key pad. Shuffle was mildly the more interesting of the two. It was more fun to try to arrange lists than to find letters on fake phone keys. The emphasis with these was far more on the "interactive" side, which frankly, made them dull to watch.
Wink's last hit game show was Debt on Lifetime in 1996. Three contestants play a quiz show to lessen their huge debts. The first half is basically a cheekier pop-culture based Jeopardy. The second is Name That Answer. The two remaining contestants challenge each other to guess a certain amount of questions in a topic. If they can't get all the questions, they lose the money to the other contestant. Winner has to guess 12 questions in a minute to erase their debt.
The show was a hit out of the gate...with men, Not only was that hardly Lifetime's regular demographic, but Merv Griifith wasn't thrilled with them borrowing so liberally from Jeopardy. Debt lasted two years, finally ending in 1998.
Celebrate the life and career of one of the true game show greats in this rare and delightful marathon!