Took so long finishing
Burning Water (which was too dark and bloody for my taste), it was late when I finally got moving. Watched
Alice's Wonderland Bakery while I ate. Alice and Fergie are surprised when they learn that "Another Alice" has been delivering subpar versions of her Teacup Cakes. They follow the clues to find out who the imitation baker is. "Fergie Plays the Palace" after the Queen of Hearts hears him playing his trumpet for his friends. The kids try to turn his number into a huge production, but Alice finally figures out that some recipes - and musical numbers - work best with simple ingredients.
Messed around on the computer, then took the laundry downstairs and stripped the bed. The weather is supposed to be off and on warm this week, but even the mid-50's is too warm for turtlenecks and wool trousers. It's time to get the spring and summer clothes out, toss the spring/fall sheets on the bed, and shed a few blankets. It's also time to see what I need for the season. I could use a plainer lightweight skirt that's appropriate for interviews and to replace
Threw on a couple of animated specials and episodes about baseball and enjoying the game while I worked. I went further into The Berenstain Bears Play Ball (along with the Easter special Peter and the Magic Egg) at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog last March.
Angel Cake has similar problems on the 2003 Strawberry Shortcake. Angel is used to having complete control at her bakery and making each cake look perfect. "Angel In the Outfield" learns that it doesn't work that way with sports when she isn't very good at the ball games her friends play. She tries not to storm off in a huff, but her anger and bad behavior gets worse every time she joins in, until she won't even let them borrow her ball. It takes watching toddler Apple Dumplin' goofing off with her pet Apple Ducking to make her realize that playing games with your friends is about having fun, not being perfect.
It was past 3 PM and I had just put the laundry in the dryer when I realized I hadn't had lunch yet. Not to mention, I had some books to drop off at the kiosk down the block. After I left them there, I headed to Capitol Pizza on the White Horse Pike. They were surprisingly busy for past 3 PM. An older man watched the game show America Says on the monitor; a kid on his way home from school ordered a take-out treat.
I had a slice of cheese, a slice of mushroom, and a bottle of Diet Pepsi while joining him for America Says. This cross between Hot Potato and Family Feud has two groups of people from different professions each guess the answers to a survey questions. The first letter of the answers are provided. If one group misses an answer, the other can finish the question. The bonus round has the winning team identifying top answers to a survey question, with the answers increasing with every question. No wonder this was a five-year hit for Game Show Network and continues to re-run there. The game-play is fast-paced and funny, and host Joel Michael Higgins is adorable.
Originally thought of getting ice cream, but I still had a lot of work to do at home. I have a lot of oatmeal cookies left, too. Not to mention, though it was above-average warm for late March, in the upper 70's, it was also above-average humid, cloudy, and windy. This was no day to linger.
Went right back upstairs when I got in, brought the clothes upstairs to sort, and dropped the sheets and blankets in the washer. Put on Hook, Line, and Sinker at Tubi while I worked. Wilbur Boswell (Bert Wheeler) and Addington Ganzy (Robert Woosley) are insurance salesmen who are out selling their wares when they come across runaway playgirl Mary Marsh (Dorothy Lee). Mary just inherited an old hotel from her uncle and wants to do something with it. Addington convinces her to restore it and attract a wealthy and elite clientele.
What they attract is Rebecca Marsh (Jobyna Howland), Mary's mother, and the lawyer John Blackwell (Ralf Harolde) whom her mother wants her to marry. Turns out John's involved with a group of unsavory gangsters who are after the contents of the hotel safe. Another gang is interested in the smuggled goods stashed in the basement. Both groups do everything they can to scare the guys and Mary off or force them to reveal the password for the safe, including getting into a shootout in the hotel lobby.
I have to admit, Wheeler and Woosley have grown on me over the years. While not all of their movies have dated that well, a lot of their wiseguy schitck still works. Woosley in particular is a riot wooing Howland, and Lee and Wheeler are too cute together. This is in the public domain, so it's pretty easy to find if you're into them or 30's comedy.
Switched to Match Game Syndicated after the movie ended and I brought the sheets upstairs. (I brought the blankets up earlier - the sheets hadn't dried all the way.) I really wish Diana Sorvino had come back. She wasn't a bad player and could be pretty funny, especially when flirting with a handsome young contestant. Betty and Charles even helped her hand around spaghetti and meatballs on the second-to-last day of the week. Former Miss USA Marjorie Wallace returned the next week, joined by Fred Grandy and Gary Crosby.
Finished the night after dinner and a shower with more very funny game shows. Comedy-driven game shows go back almost to the beginning of television. Groucho Marx's You Bet Your Life started on radio in the late 40's. Groucho would interview goofy or funny contestants, then ask them a few questions for increasing amounts. It was an even bigger hit on TV, where you could see Groucho and his cigar and duck and all the wacky people who flummoxed him. In the episode we get here, he interviews a hilariously down-to-earth older woman from Maine and a guy who does some rather bad celebrity impressions.
Ernie Kovacs and his wife Edie Adams had just as much fun in the late 50's with Take a Good Look. This spoof of panel shows like What's My Line had Kovacs introduce a celebrity guest, or someone who had done something unusual or had a strange occupation...then join two other actors to perform skits barely related to the subject at hand. Hans Conried, Caesar Romero, and Ben Alexander join Adams to figure out how all this leads to who the person is or what it is they do.
Two of the undisputed winners among comedy game shows are Match Game and Family Feud. Though Match Game had more of an uphill climb than Feud (which was a hit out of the gate), they both went through multiple incarnations and remain wildly popular in re-runs. (In fact, at press time, Steve Harvey's Feud is still going strong in syndication.) This early Feud episode from 1976 and Match Game episode from its peak in 1977 give us an example of why both shows remain beloved and influential to this day.
The wild success of Match Game prompted the creation of other celebrity-driven comedy panel shows. Celebrity Sweepstakes ran on NBC from 1974 to 1976. Two contestants try to guess which of six celebrities could correctly answer questions read by handsome host Jim McKreil. It's played as a horse race, with the audience given tip sheets on each panelist's strengths and weaknesses and giving odds on whether they can answer the questions. Not only are their wisecracks funny, but the format is really unique, and I love the colorful set. I hope more of this one turns up eventually.
Purely comic shows had a rougher time of it in the more conservative 80's. The Joke's On Us is something of a comedy variation on Liar's Club. Four comics begin a joke, and the contestants have to decide which punchline is the real one. Not bad. The comics, here including Fred Willard and Soupy Sales, are having a lot of fun, though the jokes range from groaners to corny to still hilarious now. Monty Hall keeps the comics in line and delivers a few groaners of his own.
Cable channels could get away with a lot more weirdness. Remote Control was the first game show on MTV. Host Ken Ober is a goofball who lives in his basement and obsesses over TV shows. Three college kids are strapped into recliners and answer TV and music video-related questions. The student with the lowest score is dragged into the wall half-way through. The winner moves on to the bonus round, where they have to name nine music videos in 50 minutes. My sisters and I loved this show in the late 80's, and despite the very 80's set and attitude, it remains hilarious to this day. We even get a local battle here, with two of the students being from Drexel and Rutgers New Brunswick.
America Says is far from the first funny show on Game Show Network. National Lampoon's Funny Money from 2003 also involved stand-up comics doing their schtick. This time, host Jimmy Pardo would ask a question. The contestant who answered the question would choose a comedian to perform for 45 seconds. During each performance, when the laugh meter reached the green zone, the contestant would get the advantage on the next question. Round two had the comedians giving funny captions for pictures, with the contestants guessing which would get the most laughs, while the third had them trying to remember the comedians' routines. In the bonus round, they'd get to remove a piece from the board to reveal a scene from a comedy movie every time a comedian hit the green zone.
Complicated, but the comedians and their routines could also be pretty darn hilarious. It's too bad this one doesn't seem to have worked at Game Show Network and only ran a few months. I wonder if they could try reviving it, maybe simplifying the game play and eliminating the National Lampoon name.
Comedy game shows continue to this day. Funny You Should Ask, a semi-revival of the 1968 series of the same title, started in 2017. Six comedians are asked for their answer to a trivia question. The contestant has to decide if they're right or wrong. The bonus round has the winner answering multiple-choice questions with only one real answer.
No wonder this is still going in syndication at press time. The gameplay is simple, the set is colorful and stylized, and the panel is hilarious. I especially loved Tiffany Haddish and Jon Lovitz in the early episode seen here. Louie Anderson appeared so often, the chair he sat in apparently now has a plaque that says "Louie's Chair." I'll definitely be looking for more of this one.
Celebrate April Fool's Day tomorrow and the start of spring with some of the wackiest fools to ever grace game shows!
Oh, and the thunderstorms did finally roll in around quarter of 9. It's been storming off and on - including high winds and buckets of rain - ever since.