Listened to the soundtrack of the 1962 Gypsy while I ate. The main reason I bought this was it includes the full "You'll Never Get Away From Me" with Karl Malden's part of the song and "Together Wherever We Go." Malden's vocals aren't the best, and he doesn't sing all the lyrics anyway, but it is nice to hear him with Lisa Kirk. I also got to appreciate "All I Need Is the Girl" and just how hilarious "You Gotta Get a Gimmick" is.
Tried to get Frozen II going, but...for some reason, the record wouldn't work. It would start turning, then suddenly stop. I had a hard time pushing the red vinyl record through the center. I'd try it again later.
This time, I made it to work with more than enough time to bring the bike in the back. Work was just as much of a pain as yesterday. We're always busy on Sundays, and we still don't have enough help. If people aren't on vacation, they're afraid to come back to work because of the virus. I was told to go in for the man in the Express lane around 3 for his break...and then he never came back. Nobody bothered to tell me until later he left early. Thank goodness I was done at 6. Not only did it slow down considerably by then, but they recruited a younger cashier to come in for me.
Hurried straight home afterwards. Changed, then went to make dinner. To my surprise, I found several foil-covered bundles on the counter and in my refrigerator, along with a plastic bag of pasta salad and two sugar cookies in bags. The bundles on the counter were rolls; the ones in the fridge were sliced ham, meatballs, and a small Italian hoagie. Checked my phone and learned via text that Jodie went to her niece's christening and brought home plenty of leftovers, enough for both of us.
Gave up on Frozen II for the time being and listened to The Music of Broadway 1932 instead as I ate dinner and made Ginger Molasses Cookies. Songs from shows of that year are covered here, mainly by orchestras and their singers, though a few do get the original performers to do a number. Lupe Velez's "Conchita" from Hot-Cha! even sounds like it was taped live.
The shows may not be remembered today, but many of the songs are. Two Irving Berlin standards came from the semi-revue Face the Music, "Let's Have Another Cup of Coffee" and "Soft Lights and Sweet Music," plus one that's familiar to me from the Unsung Irving Berlin CD set, "I Say It's Spinach." (Listen for the cute Popeye gag at the end.) The revue New Americana wasn't a hit, but it did contribute what could be the anthem for the early Depression era, "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" Fred Astaire introduced Cole Porter's "Night and Day" and "After You, Who?" in Gay Divorce, his final Broadway show. Disc 2 got more romantic, with a medley of songs from the Jerome Kern operetta Music In the Air (including the hit ballads "I've Told Ev'ry Little Star" and "The Song Is You") and music from the Grace Moore vehicle The Dubarry.
Finished the night on YouTube with a salute to game show producers Barry & Enright. Jack Barry and Dan Enright met when they worked together at WOR in North Jersey. They started making panel shows in 1947 with Juvenile Jury. This is the cutest panel show I've ever seen. Six kids under the age of 10 help their peers with their problems while Jack Barry moderates. The kids themselves are utterly adorable, especially precious 4-year-old Susan and sensible 6-ish Charlie.
They finally hit it big in the world of game shows with the controversial Twenty One. Yes, this is one of the shows that were fixed - the contestants knew many answers in advance - and lead to the infamous game show scandals of the late 50's. I went with the battle between James Snodgrass and Hank Bloomgarden. They would later apparently replay one game that was questionable...but Snodgrass was fed the answers, and supposedly would later send himself the script.
It wasn't until the 70's when Barry and Enright got back on their feet and felt free to move ahead with projects together. Their biggest later hit was The Joker's Wild. Barry returns to host the 1972 CBS version. Simple isolation booths and questions are replaced with a giant slot machine spun to reveal topics. The contestant chooses a topic and answers a question. If a Joker comes up, the money value is doubled. I have fond memories of seeing the later syndicated version with Barry and Bill Cullen on USA when I was a kid, and it was nice to watch this one, too.
My favorite Barry-Enright show is by far the late 70's-early 80's syndicated Tic Tac Dough. Once again, contestants choose topics from a board to answer questions. This time, we have monitors set up to resemble a tic-tac-toe board, and they have to get three questions right before moving on to the Bonus Round. If they can avoid finding the roaring dragon in a monitor, they'll win a prize package. I loved answering the trivia and always crossed my fingers that they'd avoid that scary dragon! Wink Martindale is the host in this 1984 syndicated episode.
Jim Lange takes over for the very similar Bullseye from 1980. The tic-tac-toe board is replaced by three circles, two with categories, one with numbers or a bullseye. The numbers determine how many questions are to be answered; the bullseye allows the contestants to answer as many questions as they want. The contestant could either keep the money or put in the bank, to be won by either player. The "Bonus Island" round replaced the questions with money values. If the contestant got money values, they could answer questions and accumulate cash, If they got a bullseye, they could freeze it for later. If they got a bolt of lightning, the round was over.
I remember seeing this show on the USA Network when I was a kid, but didn't recall much else besides that weird spinning board. It's all right, if an obvious clone of Joker's Wild.
Barry and Enright didn't seem to have as much luck diving into celebrity-based shows. Not a single one of their three celebrity panel shows that made it to air lasted more than a few months, including Break the Bank from 1976. Tom Kennedy hosted the ABC daytime version I found here. Two contestants answer questions from ten celebrities who are on either side of a huge flip-board. Some of the spaces on the board have dollar amounts, some have money bags, some are blank, and one has a Wild Card. Blank spaces end your turn. Dollar amounts give us questions and the stars' opinions as to the answer. Money bags meant you could take the pot, or flip it over and continue the game. The Wild Card can be used for anything.
Between the elaborate board and all those panelists, this one is way too complicated. Not only that, but like Hollywood Squares, they made it obvious all the wisecracks from the contestants were scripted beforehand. Kind of fun, but between the board and the panelists, it's a little much. I can understand why it struck out on ABC and in syndication.
Explore the world of two of the earliest and most controversial TV game show producers with these vintage finds! (Look for the original commercials on Juvenile Jury and Twenty One...and be wary of Bullseye. All of the copies of that show only currently seem to have sync problems.)
No comments:
Post a Comment