Messed around online a bit until around 1:30. I wanted to get a walk in and needed to run an errand. My first stop was CVS. They did have the gum therapy mouthwash I wanted, but not for a decent price. I checked the shelves and moved on quickly.
Had lunch at a busy Common Grounds Coffee House. Despite it being past 2 PM at that point, they were very busy with college students and adults chatting or doing online work or checking their phones. Common Grounds is one of two businesses on West Clinton that's open on Mondays. (Phillies Phatties is the other.) I had a big, moist Pineapple Coconut Muffin, the last small slice of bacon-cheddar-spinach quiche, and Pineapple Matcha Drink. The last-named was pineapple, pineapple juice, coconut milk, and matcha. It was another one I had to mix. Tart and earthy once I finally mixed it, but the pineapple pieces kept getting stuck in the straw.
Headed down West Clinton and Kendall and into the neighborhood bordering the school. Other than the men doing lawn work at several houses, it was a quiet afternoon. I saw a few summer banners and leftover 4th of July decorations, but it was mainly gardens lined with carpets of bushy green grass and Technicolor summer flowers. Stopped to play briefly at the playground in the Tracy Connors Memorial Park. I had a hard time ducking all of me through the big tube that connected the two halves of the equipment. I couldn't slide too well in my short-shorts, either.
At least the weather could have been worse, and has been worse lately. It was cloudy, humid, and cool, in the mid-80'. I felt it spit every now and then, but other than that, it hasn't rained. It actually felt nice to go on a walk in the middle of the day and not be overheated by the time I got home.
Took the laundry downstairs, then put on The Wild Wild West and wrapped a birthday gift for a friend when I got in. "The Night of the Golden Cobra" gets seemingly deadly when Jim West and the military officer in charge of Native affairs Colonel Mayo (Simon Scott) are attacked by a cobra and three men in Asian Indian dress. The trio are the sons of Mr. Singh (Bela Lugosi), whom he wants West to train. West thinks Singh is keeping Mayo hostage, but it turns out Mayo has his own plans, not only for Jim, but for the Native tribal land they're on that turns out to be a lot more valuable than first thought.
Gave my friend her gift during the show. She absolutely loved the box with the soup bowls and tureen I found at Goodwill a few weeks ago and was so pleased. I know she told me she had wanted soup bowls a while back.
Worked on the music collections inventory for a while after I put the laundry in the dryer. Listed the CDs I have from the series AM Gold and Billboard Top Hits, along with the individual sets British Invasion Gold, Flashback 80's, Freedom Rock, and 20th Century Rocks: The 60's Bands - Wild Thing. Most of these go so far back, I don't remember when or where I got them anymore. I'm pretty sure I bought the Billboard Top Hits CDs from the FYE and Borders at the Hamilton Mall in college because they were among the only CDs I could afford then. I think Flashback 80's came from what was then the Super Fresh in the late 2000's, and I know the Freedom Rock set was from a thrift shop a block from me in Wildwood when I first moved there in 2002.
Broke for dinner and to bring the laundry upstairs at quarter after 7 PM. For some reason, Buzzr jumped way ahead to the second week of Match Game '90. Game show host Johnathan Prince and Joe Alasky of Tiny Toon Adventures joined Charles Nelson Reilly, Vicki Lawrence, and Betty White in these episodes. At one point at the very end of the show, Joe couldn't resist running up to the big orange circle in the back where host Ross Shafer comes in and giving us an excellent "That's all, folks!"
(And speaking of Buzzr, the commercials during Match Game indicate that their next marathon will be back to school themed. Looks like the college weeks from Sale of the Century and the early 90's Family Feud and Card Sharks episodes with college students being questioned. Even if there's nothing new, the Feud college episodes in particular are hilarious, and I wouldn't mind seeing them again.)
Finished the night on YouTube with something a little bit different. The Price Is Right started out as a half-hour show in 1956. The first run with Bill Cullen from 1956 through 1965 simply had people bidding for high-priced prizes like cars, homes, and large pieces of furniture. It was even more successful when revived in 1972, with Bob Barker hosting. Now three mini-games were played, each giving the contestant the chance to win a larger prize. The two biggest winners went on to bid on the Showcases, lavish prize packages of everything from whole rooms of furniture to a car and a trip to Greece.
Attempts at a night time version of Price go as far back as the original late 50's-early 60's show. They tried again in 1972, with first choice daytime host Dennis James in charge. Bob Barker took over in 1977 after they didn't renew James' contract. Unlike the daytime version, the nighttime show kept the original half-hour format until the end of its run in 1980.
Goodson attempted syndication again in 1985, this time with Tom Kennedy hosting. Once again, the format remained identical to the original half-hour show. However, by the mid-80's, syndication had been flooded with game shows trying in vain to become the next Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy. Most of them ended up shoved to early morning or late nights. Even Price, which continued to be a hit in the daytime, suffered this fate. The Kennedy version barely lasted eight months.
Price made one last stab at syndication in 1994. Doug Davidson, formerly a star on The Young and the Restless, took over the hosting here. This made many changes from the previous half-hour format. Contestants now just come onstage to play games when called and don't bid before it. The top winner plays what amounts to The Range Game in order to win the Showcase. Very 90's, with its bright, boxy aesthetic, and kind of strange. I wasn't the only one who thought so. Game shows were out of style by the time, and this was competing not only with Fortune and Jeopardy, but a slew of newly-popular talk shows as well. This one lasted four months.
That seems to have ended any attempt at doing a regular syndicated Price. It has been seen at night periodically since then, usually during the summer or when CBS has a hole in the schedule they need to plug, but always in the hour format the daytime show has run in since 1975. And honestly...I think I like it better that way. This show needs the room for all of the pricing games and the Showcases and the wheel.
Of the three non-Barker nighttime hosts, warm and funny Kennedy was my favorite. I really do wish his version lasted longer. Davidson tried too hard (and as mentioned, his version made a lot of odd and unnecessary changes), and James behaved more like a racetrack tout in Brooklyn than a game show host.
At any rate, dig deep into the history of Price Is Right with these shorter but no less enjoyable episodes!
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