The Host With the Matches

Began the morning with breakfast and the 2003 version of Strawberry Shortcake on The Roku Channel. The girls' garden party becomes "The Costume Party" when they're hit with a rain storm. The others tease Strawberry about her ragged raincoat, prompting her to suggest putting on "Cinderella" to keep them amused. Strawberry plays Cinderella, Angel Cake is the fairy godmother, and they even convince Huckleberry Pie to be the prince. As they perform the story, the girls and Huck come to realize that it doesn't matter how old the coat is. The really important thing is the size of the heart inside of it.

Once again, I spent the entire morning and early afternoon cleaning. I'm starting to get a little tired of it, but I do know it's important. Admittedly, many customers have actually stopped me and told me that they appreciate what I'm doing, but there have been a few obnoxious folks. At least two women later in the day (one toting a child) complained because I wouldn't leave the bathroom door open so they didn't have to touch it. People need their privacy, too! I always wipe down the doors when I'm in there. (I will add that one of the women did apologize later.)

Hurried straight home after work. After I changed, I made another gingerbread loaf from the Acme holiday gingerbread mix. Alas, this one didn't turn out nearly as well as the first. It fell in the center and broke apart when I tried to get it out of the pan. Tasted pretty decent, but it was very messy.

Put on the Gene Rayburn Match Game marathon after I slid the gingerbread into the oven. Gene may have been the host and the star of the show, but he could get as crazy as any of his panelists. He broke through the entrance doors at least twice and had to shove through them twice. He introduced new female panelists by freshening his breath for a kiss and flirted with anyone, panelist or contestant, who looked vaguely female. Once late in the original run, he roller skated into the studio. Another time, he made his entrance by running around the audience. Like Brett, he also feuded with members of the crew, attacking cameramen when they missed cues or wouldn't move the cameras off a panelist. Syndicated episodes had him dressing as a cowboy and sporting an old man wig in imitation of one of the show's most famous characters, Old Man Periwinkle.

My favorite episode from this run by far came from the later syndicated run in 1982. Gene got into an argument with Charles over the merits of the min-series Sho-Gun that ended with Charles hitting Gene over the head with his blue paper square. While Gene recovered from his "injury" (actually a paper cut), a slightly nervous McLean Stevenson took over as host and read a question.

Here's the entire marathon, so you can enjoy all of Gene's wacky antics as well. Tomorrow at one will be a marathon honoring southern belle writer, comedienne, and favorite Match Game semi-regular Fannie Flagg.

The Best of Gene Rayburn on Match Game Marathon - 1973 - 1982

Finished the night with Duchess of Idaho. I go further into this fluffy romantic comedy vehicle for Esther Williams and Van Johnson at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Duchess of Idaho