Headed out shortly after the cartoon ended. The roads are long clear by now. Absolutely no trouble whatsoever getting to work. The Uber driver going to work picked me up in 5 minutes. The one going home came in 7 minutes. The fact that it remains sunny, windy, and beautiful likely helps.
With Valentine's Day just a few weeks away, the floral department is awash in orders and flowers for displays now. I spent the first half of my shift trimming beautiful bouquets of rainbow blooms and putting them out for people to buy. Made my first large "deluxe" flower arrangement during the last half-hour. It took me forever to figure out how to position the greens the right way, and then how to get the gypsum and roses to go the way I wanted them to. We got so caught up making the arrangements and cleaning up afterwards, we were both late getting out.
(At the very least, after restarting the arrangement twice, I think my yellow rose vase came out rather well. It's now a part of the display in the very front of the floral department area as you enter the store.)
Once I got home, I went right into job hunting. Began Season 2 of WKRP In Cincinnati as I worked. Johnny kicks off the season in hot water when he blows off a date with Bailey to see Buffy, an old girlfriend from California. He thinks he's impressing her, but she's more interested in taking him for everything he's got. The others try to help him deflect Buffy's lawsuit in the two-parter "For Love or Money."
Les is excited to talk the others into playing a "Baseball" game with WKRP's crosstown radio rivals WPIG. He was forced to take violin lessons as a child instead of playing games with the other children. Not only does the WKRP team play much better than you might think, but Les learns it's never too late to try something you were always interested in when he's called on to make a big catch.
Worked on writing for a while after that. Avery manages to scare the giant tiger-bear monsters the Kalidahs away by roaring at them. When they try to follow him over the log bridge, Richard chops it apart and sends them crashing into the ravine.
Broke for dinner and Match Game '79 at 7 PM. Brett and Barbara Rhodes were delighted by a handsome young college student from Maine who proved to be very charming. In the second episode, Gene showed how tall the kid was by comparing him to the almost-as-towering Barbara. Brett was so delighted by him, she ran down to give him a hug!
Finished the night at YouTube after a shower with game shows made for Australian audiences. Aussies apparently started later with TV than most countries, and they've had an even harder time digging up their early programming. The earliest original Australian show not based on a format from another country I could find was The Oz Game from 1988. Parent-child pairs answer questions based on Australian history. The higher score at the end of the day is the winner. Pretty dry stuff; I can understand why it only lasted a year.
The Aussies had a lot more fun with their children's games. Apparently, they had their own children's game show boom in the 90's and early 2000's, around the same time Nickelodeon put out its games in the US. A*mazing is a cross between Double Dare and Fun House. Host James Sherry asked questions to teams of kids from two different primary (what we in the US would call elementary) schools. After the questions, the kids would make a run through a long, complicated maze that somehow included a pit filled with foam rubber squares, giant paper mache penguins, and a slippery ice slide. This was honestly cute, and I'm not surprised it was a four-year hit on Seven Network.
Download from 2001 didn't get quite that off the wall. After an introduction from a creepy talking computer head, two contestants answer trivia questions in order to win a letter that was contained in the answer. The first contestant to answer got a point and had the letter placed in the correct part of the puzzle. The winners from the first two rounds would return in the third round to try to unscramble phrases. The show ran through at least three hosts. The episode I have here features the second, Nathan Lloyd. Kind of interesting, especially if you're a spelling buff; this apparently lasted two years on Nine Network.
Adults could get even wilder on Australian game shows in the 90's. Good News Week is a very funny panel show with two teams of three comedians competing to see who can do the best ad-libbing on current event news stories. It's almost Match Game Does the News without the contestants. It apparently had a rough start, but ultimately became popular enough to have three short-lived spinoffs and to be revived on Network Ten in 2008. The episode I have here is the very first from 1996, with adorable Paul McDermott hosting.
Battle of the Sexes was a shorter-lived comedy show. Teams of two women and two men faced off answering trivia questions related to the opposite sex. This began as a radio game and seemed to do better as one. It debuted in 1998, but didn't last a year on Network Ten.
Australia also got caught up in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire fever in the 2000's. Along with importing that show from England, public broadcast network ABC made their own home-grown neon quiz shows like The Einstein Factor. Admittedly, laid-back host Peter Berner makes this a little less intense than the similar shows being made in England and the US in 2004. Each contestant is given a "special subject" to answer questions on. Subjects are often very specific and range from Harry Potter to World War II history. They're competing with and getting help from a "brain trust" of true experts in various fields.
In round two, the topics listed will often have very little relation to what the subject actually is. The contestants select the answers, and the Brain Trust must agree to the selection. Round three features both the special subjects and general knowledge questions. Tough game play made this a major hit for the ABC in the mid-late 2000's. The episode I have seems to be a typical one from 2007.
Say "g'day!" to these wonders from Down Under!
1 comment:
It sounds like you have quite a knack for flower arranging; it sounds creative and fun! Maybe you could find a position in a local florist that works with FTD or a national chain to provide benefits. Good luck and have fun!
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