Worked on a little writing after breakfast. Goodson thinks he can call his men right away...but he turns around and discovers Bill Cullen training a gun on him. Bill has nothing against his boss, but he also wants him to release his brother-in-law. Brett is about to shove that knife where the sun don't shine when they hear the sound of sailors' feet outside...
Broke at 11:30, giving me enough time to change, pack up, and call Uber. The driver frankly went way too fast, to the point where I was a little worried. I did get to work in plenty of time, though.
Work started out busy, but slowed down once the football games started. Other than I got stuck in the register at least three or four times (the last two times for cashiers' breaks), the night didn't go too badly. In fact, we had way more help than we needed. At one point, there were four baggers outside gathering carts when we barely needed one. I spent most of the last few hours bagging and shelving loose items. Gathered trash and recycling earlier.
At least the weather was great for being outside. It's sunny and bright, and the wind continues to diminish. While chilly, it's in the upper 30's-lower 40's, really what it should be at this time of year.
The Uber driver took forever to arrive, but when he did finally drop me off, I had a treat waiting for me. I gave Jodie's friend around the corner Sandy who gave me the curtains last summer a bag of cookies and a card for Christmas. She stopped this morning right as I was getting ready to leave to thank me for the cookies and left me a cupcake in a bakery box on the counter in the kitchen. It was yellow, topped with a mountain of pink frosting and metallic dragees. I ate it while watching Lee Merriweather somehow miss Lady and the Tramp as a puzzle on Password Plus.
Stuck with game shows after I got out of the shower. Wasn't really up for much more than finishing up Bill Cullen's career on YouTube. Bill hosted the original version of Chain Reaction in 1980. This one is more like Password, with celebrities helping a contestant link one word to another in a chain. The front games are more-or-less the same as the Canadian version from later in the decade, but the bonus round plays more like the Pyramid games, with the two celebrities going back and forth, giving linked clues until the contestant guesses correctly. 10 right answers nets $10,000.
(Wish more of this was online. Despite BillCullen.net claiming the entire series still exists, only one full episode is currently on YouTube, the one I watched tonight.)
Bill took over hosting Password Plus for a few weeks in 1980 when his friend Allen Ludden went out for stomach surgery. I also wish Buzzr would finally show his hosting run and Tom Kennedy's. He really seemed to enjoy himself, happily chatting with the contestants and Bill Anderson and Elaine Joyce. He was even the subject of one of the puzzles! (Which made me laugh so hard.)
Child's Play is kind of a weird one. Two contestants listen to a kid give an explanation of a word. The contestants have to guess what the word is from how the kids explained it. The bonus brings the kids in to answer the adult's descriptions of words. It's too adorable for words, and Bill works very well with the kids, listening to them patiently and praising their efforts. The episode I have listed was the second-to-last from September 1983.
I covered Hot Potato and The Joker's Wild a couple of months ago, when I discussed game shows I used to watch on the USA Network as a kid. Hot Potato in particular was a favorite of mine. It could be genuinely funny to watch people in very different occupations (like the beer testers and flight attendants who play each other in the episode I watched) toss answers back and forth.
Bill wasn't just a great host. He was a great panelist, too. I finished off the night with one of his many appearances on the 1973-1982 Match Game. The episode I went with is from the later syndicated run. Everyone who played that week either had been a game show host (Cullen, Peter Marshall) or would be (Elaine Joyce and Betty White briefly hosted game shows in the 1980's). It was one of the better weeks of the syndicated run; I went with an episode where Bill got to help a contestant win 5,000 with "__ Cactus."
Here's the final shows in a legendary career! (As a bonus, look for commercials, either the original or from the USA Network run, on many of these recordings! And a warning that The Joker's Wild episode looks especially rough, but I don't think Bill's run of that show has turned up anywhere in decades.)
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