Caught Card Sharks while cleaning up from breakfast. This week is Buzzr's Back to School marathon. Caught one of the Young People's Weeks from the 1986 version, with kids between 10 and 16 playing. The little boy not only beat the girl, he won over $3,000 at the Money Cards, too. Didn't do as well trying to get a trip to Hawaii, though. The reason this episode was part of the marathon was due to the ten teachers who answered one of the survey questions later in the episode.
Went online for an hour, mainly to look for jobs at Indeed. I did apply for a consulting group in Philadelphia and a clerk job with the American Legion, but those were the only ones I saw that remotely interested me. I was also turned down for a job with a concrete company in Cinnaminson. I don't know why I'm having such a hard time finding a job! Someone should have at least given me a chance by now. I also called Abilities Solutions. Once again got their answering machine. May try calling later in the week if they don't call back.
Headed for a walk to run errands around 1:30. I wanted to pick up laundry detergent, but they didn't have any on a good sale at Dollar General. I bought Purex at Family Dollar, along with pastel colored pencils. I've never seen pastel colors before! Just bought hair bands and Body Armor at Dollar General.
Strolled around the neighborhood between stores. The weather here remains gorgeous, and apparently will for the foreseeable future. It's still warm, sunny, and breezy but not too humid. The rain last week helped in more ways than dropping the temperature. Everything is so green here! The trees and gardens are so much greener than they were even a week or two ago.
When I got home, I brought my eBay order upstairs. I thought I got The Monkees deluxe vinyl set, but I must have read the entry wrong. It was the two disc CD set from 2006. Oh well. I missed the 2015 CD box set for this one, so this wasn't bad, either. (I do intend to wait and see if Pieces, Aquarius, Capricorn, and Jones gets a two-disc vinyl release along the line, and that will finish my Monkees album collecting.)
Got a call shortly after I got home. I'd been trying to make an appointment with the gynecologist Dr. Jessica suggested for weeks. I finally scheduled it for 11 AM tomorrow.
Put on Castle In the Sky as I took the laundry upstairs and made the bed. This gorgeous 1986 Studio Ghibli film starts with a little girl fleeing men in black sunglasses and air pirates on a dirigible. Orphan Sheeta (Anna Paquin in the English dub I saw) possesses a crystal that lets her float down from danger and can lead to Laputa, the lost Castle In the Sky. She's rescued by Pazu (James Van Der Beek), who helps her escape the pirates and the army and head underground.
They eventually end up in the hands of Muska (Mark Hamill), a scientist obsessed with finding Laputa and its incredible weapons that could lead to mass destruction. Dola (Cloris Leachman) and her pirate sons just want the treasure said to be in the lost city. The kids escape with them...but Muska still has the crystal and is already ahead of them. Turns out he and Sheeta are connected via their shared ancestry with the city, and she and Pazu are the only ones who can stop him from achieving world domination and hurting their new pirate friends.
I've been hit or miss with Ghibli movies, but I absolutely loved this. Gorgeously animated, with some of the coolest airships I've ever seen in films. The 2003 English dub cast puts in terrific performances, especially Hamill as the power-hungry Muska and Leachman as tough Dola. I really need to find more of their movies, or give ones I saw years ago like Spirited Away another chance. Highly recommended for fans of sci-fi, steampunk, or anime.
Spent the next few hours after that adding to the inventory. I mainly put in recently acquired titles, including The Color Purple, The Commitments, the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers at RKO set, Bugs Bunny On Broadway, Great Day! Rare Recordings from The Judy Garland Show, and For Me and My Gal. Most of the others I did today go further back. The soundtrack from the Disney Hercules was my high school graduation present from Mom and Dad in 1997. She said she was sorry they couldn't get me anything bigger, but in 1997, all I wanted was the CD of the latest Disney movie! Jessa gave me the two-disc deluxe edition of the Hairspray soundtrack for Christmas 2007. I don't remember where I bought the 1988 Hairspray or the Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame anymore. I think Hairspray was a thrift shop or Abbie Road find, but I've had Hunchback since it came out in 1996.
Broke for dinner and Match Game Syndicated at 7 PM. Bob Barker really came in for ribbing during the week with Charlene Tilton and Betty White. First of all, he and Gene spent most of the week ogling Charlene, while Charles and Brett spent it complaining about all the attention they gave her. On the episode I saw, Bob Barker's seat actually started sinking. Betty White sank down in her seat in solidarity with him. They finally found him a chair that was much too high as a replacement.
Finished the night at YouTube honoring the US version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. which turns 25 on Friday. Millionaire debuted on England's ITV Network in 1998 as a twist on the usual quiz show formula. Here, one person answers questions that grow more complex and award more cash the further you go up a ladder. The contestant can stop at any time. A missed question drops you back to the previous tier and ends your game.
Millionaire was a smash in England. Its neon sets, designed to ramp up tension, became the gold standard in game shows around the globe. It was such a success that international versions debuted in less than a year. The US show with Regis Philbin started as a two-week event in August 1999. That was such a smash, a second two weeks turned up in November. The regular series began that January.
I remember very well just how huge Millionaire was in its original run. From late 1999 through mid-2001, you couldn't go anywhere without seeing Philbin's smiling face asking "Is that your final answer?" or seeing parodies of the glowing set and the three lifelines that gave contestants a chance to ask the audience, call for help, or eliminate answers. It was so huge, and ABC was so desperate for ratings, they ran it five nights a week in 2000.
ABC eventually burned out their golden game show goose. Even I got tired of hearing about it by the beginning of 2001. Ratings fell off dramatically by the end of the year, and it was gone from primetime by mid-2002, though it would return for occasional specials like the Who Wants to Be a Super Millionaire from 2004 I have here.
There was enough interest left in Millionaire for a shorter version to debut in syndication later in 2002. This version had a far healthier and more sustainable run, from 2002 through 2019. They eliminated the Fast Fingers round that selected contestants. It also tried different formats to switch things up a bit, from adding a timer to the questions in 2008 to shuffling the questions and allowing contestants to skip ones they deemed too difficult in 2010. It returned to the regular format by 2015. Meredith Vieira was the original host in 2002. Cedric the Entertainer took over briefly in 2013. He would be replaced by Terry Crews and later by Chris Harrison.
Millionaire remained popular enough for it to return to ABC during the difficult spring of 2020, when the networks were desperate for any programming to fill shows that had been delayed by the pandemic. In these episodes from the second season that debuted that fall, celebrities play first, then "Frontline heroes," nurses, firefighters, and others who worked through the pandemic. Energetic Tiffany Haddish turns up in the first episode. Jimmy Kimmel is the host. The show went on hiatus after that, finally returning with Kimmel for its 25th anniversary last month.
Explore the heart-pounding history of one of the most beloved game shows currently on television...and that's my final answer.
No comments:
Post a Comment