Cops and Matches

Kicked off the morning with To Tell the Truth. They had three men on who claimed to be members of the MPAA, the Motion Picture Association. By 1972, they had instituted an early form of the letter-based rating system, but the gentleman said it wasn't enough. Indeed, some of the things he suggested, like printing more information on ads to help parents decide what is appropriate for their child to see and less stringent censorship of R and X (now NC-17) films, did come to pass by the turn of the millennium. The panel was divided on whether it was number 2 or 3; Peggy Cass, Bill Cullen, and I all said 2, who was the most vocal about the censorship, and it turned out we were right.

(What's My Line? was a repeat, the one with the little reverend who uses his amazing karate skills to encourage young people to join his parish. Allen Ludden got it right on the nose after Melba Moore suggested he did individual sports.)

Spent my entire eight and a half hour shift at work outside with the carts. I had no problems with this whatsoever, even though they were repaving the half of the parking lot facing the Black Horse Pike. While that did mean all the cars and carts were bunched in around the Nicholson Road entrance and the one near Arby's, it also means I got to see how a parking lot is paved. They were preparing to lay tar when I got in; the gravel went down around noon. By the time I went home, they'd just finished panting the lines on the now-dry blacktop. It was actually pretty cool. I did spend the last half-hour picking up trash and discarded sanitizer wipes with this nifty little lever thing that squeezes and picks up the trash like one of those dinosaur-shaped grabber things we used to get from the 99 cent store when we were kids.

I was so tired when I finished, I couldn't even bring myself to heat up leftovers. I went for junk food and bought a frozen cheese pizza, more Cheesecake Factory ice cream (Party Cake this time), and a Dr. Pepper. It started raining lightly at about 4:30; the rain picked up as I left and has been going steadily ever since.

Ran the musical Dixiana while changing and heating up the pizza. I go further into this early talkie romance set in the Deep South of the 1950's at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Dixiana

Finished out the night with more Match Game marathons. George Kennedy is likely now best-remembered as Lieutenant Frank Drebin's eternally frazzled boss in The Naked Gun films, but he played policemen long before he had to deal with Leslie Nielson's antics. He was starring in the short-lived cop show The Blue Knight when he first appeared on Match Game in 1976. Not only was he charming and fun, but he was one of the best players in the show's entire run. He very rarely failed to match the contestant and almost always had the right answer when called on for the Head-to-Head. Only Richard and Charles equaled his prowess in matching the contestants. He more than once won the contestants some big money, including a 10,000 double win on the Star Wheel in 1980

Here's the entire marathon, so you match along with one of the best police officers in the business. Fans of country music in the 70's and 80's will want to tune in tomorrow at 2 PM Eastern for a Salute to Country, including appearances by "Whisperin'" Bill Anderson, Buck Owens, Minnie Pearl, and Mel Tillis!

The Best of George Kennedy on Match Game Marathon 1976 - 1981

Oh, and Jodie called me while the marathon was on. Yes, I'm moving June 1st. They're hoping to get me over to take a look at the apartment once Dana and Jesse move out. I need to figure out what to do about the wardrobes and extra air conditioner (the apartment has central air) and really hope that Goodwill or some thrift shop will open before then to donate that huge pile of stuff to.