Rushed out soon as the cartoon ended. This was my only floral department day this week...and the manager really needed the extra help. There were almost no rose bouquets left on the floor, scattered spring flower bouquets, and only a few arrangements. I watered the plants on the tables when I came in, then wiped down the tables and dusted the shelves with the vases and stuffed animals. Spent the rest of my shift pulling out as many flower and greens bouquets as I could and quickly setting them out on the floor. The floral manager re-inflated droopy birthday and number balloons that belonged in the card aisle.
Went straight home after I finished. Changed, then rested while watching Charlie's Angels. After attempts are made on the Angels' lives, Charlie hires "Toni's Boys" to be their bodyguard. Antonia "Toni" Blake (Barbara Stanwyck) is the owner of a private detective agency, with three hunky guys - champion rodeo rider Cotton (Stephen Shortridge), former Olympic athlete Bob (Bob Seagren), and master of disguise Matt (Bruce Bauer) - who work for her. The ladies would rather solve the case themselves and ditch the guys whenever possible, but when Tiffany vanishes, they realize this case is too big for them alone.
(And apparently, this was supposed to be the pilot to a spin-off that never got past the planning stage. I can kind of understand why. I love the idea of Stanwyck as a more hands-on Charlie, but her boys were pretty dull. No wonder the Angels kept trying to get rid of them.)
Switched to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse next. The original "Minnie's Bow-Tique" is ready to open! Minnie is delighted to sell hair bows and bow ties of many colors and prints to her friends. There's someone behind the scenes, sneaking around and knocking over bow displays and accidentally letting bow butterflies loose. For once, a certain fat cat isn't trying to be a bad kitty. He's just not sure how to go about buying a bow.
I went online to do a job search and some writing. Truthfully, I was too tired to do a whole lot. Kathleen is about to go home when, to her surprise, it starts to snow. It was too cold for snow earlier! She hurries off to find shelter somewhere...
Broke for dinner and to take my laundry downstairs at 7 PM. Match Game '77 is up to one of my favorite weeks of the entire year. Grand Ol' Opry comedienne Minnie Pearl was a charming delight that week. She played well and seemed to have a good time. I wish they'd gotten her back from Tennessee again. She even turned up in her flowered hat and ruffled dress for the first day. While Gene tries to get a "new kid on the block" kiss from her, Joyce Bulifant sits on Fannie Flagg in the opening, then appears in the contestant's seat, claiming she was supposed to be on the show. Actually, she was supposed to be doing Three's Company in another studio. Brett wore her own flowered hat in the second episode, only for Minnie to dress in a normal shirt and sweater.
Finished the night on YouTube after a shower and bringing my laundry up with episodes of Concentration, in honor of Classic Concentration's birthday on May 4th. Concentration was originally conceived by Jack Barry and Dan Enright in 1958 and hosted by Hugh Downs. Two people try to match prizes found under squares on a rotating board. Also under the squares are parts of a rebus puzzle. The person who solves the puzzle wins their prizes. Some squares have nonsense prizes, like "Donald's Duck," but most hold regular prizes like furniture and fine food. They can also hit a Wild Card, which will automatically uncover a match, a Forfeit 1 Prize, which they have to give up a prize to the other player, or a Take a Prize, which had them stealing a prize from the other player.
Unlike other early Barry-Enright shows, there was no cheating here, and none necessary. The real fun was in solving the puzzle, not what you can win. (Even so, NBC ended up buying the rights to this and Twenty-One after the quiz show disasters.) Downs hosted until 1969, when he decided he'd rather concentrate on being a TV journalist and turned the reigns over to Bob Clayton. This would run on daytime from 1958 through 1973, and it was one of NBC's most popular shows through most of that long run. In fact, it remains their longest-running game show. It's a shame that most of the show is now gone, either junked or wiped. The first episode seen here is the earliest known to exist. Fortunately, the series finale also exists, giving us a glimpse of Clayton and the show in color.
There was enough interest in Concentration for it to reappear in syndication later in '73, this time produced by Goodson-Todman. Jack Narz took over as host here. The board and the set largely remained the same, but the gag prizes were eliminated, and they added an actual bonus round. Double Play had people solving three puzzles in 10 seconds; if they won, they picked up a car. This was pretty tough; I think I saw it happen maybe once or twice when Concentration ran on Buzzr in 2020-2021.
Mark Goodson (Todman passed away in 1979) tried again with Concentration in 1985. Orson Bean hosted a series of pilots where people matched clues to the prize instead of the name of the prize. The bonus round has them matching prizes. Even if they don't match all the prizes, they do get a consolation 100 dollars. Some really good things here, like the nifty set and board that actually looks better and moves more smoothly than the later Alex Trebek show, are overshadowed by the clues-matching being way too hard figure out. Bean, a long-time Goodson-Todman panelist, does well enough, and I do like that people actually come away with something from the bonus round, even if they don't match every square.
The Orson Bean version didn't get far, but Goodson was finally able to sell NBC on a relaunch in 1987 as Classic Concentration. Alex Trebek was in charge of this one. Once again, it basically plays the same, only with the Forfeit cards eliminated. The Orson Bean bonus round is carried over, with contestants matching spaces for a car instead of random prizes and no extra cash. The Takes were returned in 1988 as red and green cards that the contestant could use right away, or save for when their opponent found a prize they wanted. Diana Taylor was the original model, but she was replaced within two months by the far warmer Marjorie Goodson-Cott.
Considering Classic Concentration is one of the most popular and frequently-ran shows on Buzzr and many people I've talked to (including my best friend Lauren) have fond memories of its original run, I'm surprised this is the last version of Concentration to date. You'd think NBC would have at least revived it during the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire big-money fad era, or as counter-programming to ABC's "Summer Fun and Games" block a decade ago. I think they should dig up a computer artist who can pull off goofy rebuses and give this one another shot. It's deceptively simple, but there's still a lot of fun in figuring out just what's under that square.
You'll want to "concentrate" on figuring out these difficult rebuses and making matches in these classic episodes! (The 1958 episode has numbers on the bottom and the 1973 and '78 shows are not in the best shape, but the original Concentration was wiped and doesn't have a lot left, and the revival only got to 1977 before Buzzr dropped it from the schedule.)
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