Tattletale Matches

Began a cloudy, cool day with breakfast and Sale of the Century. They were back to the regular adult version today. The woman champion prudishly bought no Instant Bargains, then killed in the speed round, winning without barely breaking a sweat. They were just starting the Big Sweep in Supermarket Sweep as I dashed out the door for work.

Work was a bit of a pain. I was supposed to be outside with the morning bagger today, and the head bagger was supposed to be cleaning. They tossed her in a register and told me to do the cleaning. We were so busy, nothing got done. I couldn't keep people out of the bathrooms, and it took forever to get them done. The managers kept disrupting me in the middle of doing something. I'd try to wipe down doors, and they'd want me to sweep. The outside bagger said he couldn't keep up with carts, either. It's Mother's Day Weekend, and even if people can't be with all their mothers, they still want to send them cards and flowers, and have picnics with the mothers they can spend time with.

In good news, I have three days off next week, one of them Sunday. I absolutely wasn't expecting Mother's Day off. Unfortunately, two of the four days I do work are 8 1/2 hour shifts. I'm not looking forward to those at all, especially after today. Slightly fewer hours, though still more than I was getting before all this started in mid-March.

Once again, I didn't have a ton of grocery shopping to do. Had online coupons for Acme brand natural jam, peanut butter, and ice cream. Butter was on a good sale, and strawberries were buy one, get one. Found a pack of breaded flounder fillets in the seafood section for a good price. Restocked  yogurt, milk, butter, bananas, chocolate chips, yellow cake mix, and cereal.

Threw on Buzzr while I was putting everything away. The second episode I saw was one of the ones from yesterday's couples marathon. Jack Klugman and Brett Somers appeared together on the show in 1978, despite having separated or divorced the year before. They argued constantly throughout the episode, culminating in a short but noisy row over Brett's answer for an Audience Match question.

Ended the night with the next Match Game marathon. Bert Convy appeared on the 70's Match Game from it's inception, usually in the upper-left chair next to Brett. His slightly smarmy appeal was somewhat similar to that of Richard Dawson, and like Richard, he ended up getting his own popular game show, Tattletales. Unlike Richard, he had no problems appearing on the show from time to time afterwards, flirting with contestants and sometimes making some pretty darn good matches, including a big win during his final appearance in 1979.

Bert was originally tapped to host the revival of Match Game in 1990, and did in fact host the pilots. (He died of a brain tumor before the show went to air.) I'm really surprised I never ran into this as a kid. The pilots, at least, were more-or-less the same deal as PM with a different scoring system (final matches got more points - most points after two rounds is the winner) and a very different set. Charles Nelson Reilly was the only regular from the 70's version to carry over, but some of the people they had were still pretty darn funny. Brad Garrett had a few matches that were a riot, and Terri Copley gave one ribald answer that sent everyone in the studio (and the live chat) rolling on the floor in surprised and delighted laughter.

Here's the entire marathon, so you can match wits with the master of Tattletales and Super Password! Tomorrow's marathon returns us to a more general theme, as we discover more milestone moments from the height of the show's popular years.

The Best of Bert Convy on Match Game Marathon 1973 - 1990

(Incidentally, I'm glad I worked earlier. It was showering lightly as I rode home. By the time I was online watching the marathon, the rain had turned into a heavy shower...and it sounds like the rain and cold will continue this weekend.)