Friday, June 02, 2023

Hotter Than Harts

Slept in, then started the morning with breakfast and Scooby Doo and Guess Who? on Tubi. While not a huge hit, this modern version of The New Scooby Doo Movies, with the gang encountering celebrities and belvoed cartoon characters, went over well enough and was certainly better-received than the current show about Velma's back story. The gang accepts a challenge from an eccentric billionaire to stay overnight at a haunted hotel in Las Vegas that's about to be imploded. Also joining them are comedian magicians Penn & Teller. "The Cursed Cabinet of Professor Madds Markson" seems to explode before their eyes, producing a scary rabbit monster...but Penn and Velma think there's something more at work here.

Spent the rest of the morning trying to focus on writing and job-hunting. There's just not a lot of library assistant jobs out there. I can't even find anything listed at any of the town library sites. Maybe I was better off looking for data entry jobs. It may not be perfect, but there seems to be more of them out there. 

Writing didn't go much better. I can't seem to focus. Joyce offers the dog a bit of oatmeal cookie she has in her purse. It trots over, sniffing around. She finally takes it into her arms. The dog is thin but is otherwise in good health, but it has no collar or tags and seems to belong to no one.

Broke to have a quick lunch and Match Game '73. Today, Buzzr ran first and last episodes of series, or their most famous shows as part of their National Game Show Day marathon. The first episode of Match Game was a far quieter affair, with shorter, non-naughty questions, but it did feature at least one panelist (Michael Landon) who never returned to the show, and the show's first memorable contestant, a gorgeous woman named Stanley. Match Game Syndicated was the first Kirstie Alley episode that turned up earlier this week. 

Found a box on the porch for me. I found two records on eBay I've hunted for years. Mom bought the Disney cassettes Rock Around the Mouse and Totally Minnie around 1989. I still have them in storage...but after over 30 years, I'm worried they won't last much longer. As you can probably guess from the titles, Rock is a 50's pastiche, while Minnie goes in for girl-power 80's pop. Catchy numbers on Rock include the title song, "Go Go Go" as Donald's nephews run him ragged for a weekend, and the ballads "Mickey and Minnie On a Moonlit Night" and "Here's to the Ears of Love." My favorite number from Minnie is an extremely cute pop version of "Let's Get Together" from the original Parent Trap.

Headed out before Syndicated ended. Despite the hot, dry day, we were busy when I came in. It's the first weekend of the month, and many people were likely using government money. Thankfully, other than a few cranky people, there were no major problems. I was nearly late getting off when the other cashier was late getting back from break, though. 

Fairly decent schedule next week. In good news, three days off, Sunday, Monday, and next Saturday. Mostly late hours, though, and an 8 hour day next Friday. Not enough hours, either. Considering we're coming up on high school graduations, Father's Day, and Juneteeth by the middle of the month, I have the feeling that'll be changing shortly.

Picked up a few things on the way out. I mainly wanted to restock drinks. Was out of coconut milk, and the Acme generic sparkling water was 29 cents for two with a digital coupon. Found two bags of brownie cookies on the bakery clearance racks. Bought a ball of slightly cheaper pearl mozzarella instead of the snacking packs. Grabbed Propel for the way home. 

Put on Buzzr when I got home. Arrived just in time for the second half of the infamous Michael Larson Press Your Luck episodes from 1984. Larson took them for over $110,000 on two extended episodes, all because he memorized the patterns on the board. That would remain a network winnings record until Who Wants to Be a Millionaire debuted in 1999.  

Had dinner while watching Super Password. This was the show's hilarious final episode from 1989, with Christopher Hewitt of Mr. Belvedere and Betty White as its last panelists. No one else but Betty White could have gotten away with throwing the question holder from the hated Ca$hword mini-game on the floor after she lost...and then doing it again to make sure it was well and truly destroyed.

Enjoyed dessert during To Tell the Truth. Three adorable third grade cowgirls discussed their "Pony of the Americas," a pony sized just for young ladies. One of those cowgirls grew up to be actress Cynthia Nixon, whose mother worked for the show. The other contestant's story wasn't nearly so cute. The panel had to figure out which French-Asian man was arrested in China and held in a prison camp there.

Finished the night online with Hart to Hart. "Max's Waltz" with a lovely older woman (Dorothy Lamour) at a local ballroom makes both of them very happy...until she starts believing a businessman who comes to her wanting money for a shopping center. Max thinks there's something else going on here and recruits Johnathan to do research. Turns out there's no shopping center. The man is a con artist who preys on wealthy widows. After Max's friend disappear, he and the Harts do a little dancing of their own to find out what happened to her. 

3 comments:

Linda said...

Emma, just wanted to tell you I went into my old 1978 travel diary to get some details for a story I'm writing and found the day we went to see Match Game being filmed at CBS. Two episodes were filmed at the time. I comment about how small the set looks as compared to on television, and that there are "holes" in it you don't see on screen. The diary entry was from June 24, 1978, but supposedly the episodes were supposed to air around August 14. The panel participants were Richard, Brett, Charles, Jo Ann Harris, Betty White, and Richard Paul, who at the time played the sheriff on Carter Country. According to my notes: "Charles had everyone in stitches pretending to limp up to his seat and then getting Jo Ann Harris' face superimposed on his." Also, "Gene Rayburn let the Presbyterian singing group in the audience sing the opening of Oklahoma on the tape." Have you seen these two shows, and do you know what date they actually aired? Just curious!

Emma Redmer said...

First of all, Linda, you're soooo lucky! Not only did you get to see the show period, you saw what would be Richard Dawson's second-to-last week, shows #1276 through #1280. According to the Match Game Episode Guide at the Mark Goodson Wiki, the episodes aired August 10th, 11th, 14th, 15th, and 16. The entire week does exist in full, which isn't the case with a lot of weeks from 1978. Unfortunately, the Game Show Network copies online cut the superimposed faces, but everything else is intact. I'm not sure about Charles getting in Jo Ann's face (although that does sound like him), but all five episodes are on YouTube. Here's #1279 with the church singing "Oklahoma";

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-QXJRBCkHk&list=PLCnvmZ8KpyOoKH5jKnmi209e1pQ2jUePQ&index=150

Linda said...

I noted that my Dad asked someone and one of the shows was supposed to air on VJ Day, which was the 14th, so I guess we either saw #1278-1279 filmed or #1279-1280.