Watched The Scooby Doo Show while eating breakfast. It's "A Bum Steer for Scooby" when the gang visits Daphne's Uncle Matt at his ranch, only to be chased by a ghostly bull. Uncle Matt explains that the ghost bull is an ancient spirit who haunts the ranch at night. No sooner do the kids start investigating this mystery than they encounter an equally spooky Native medicine man and Uncle Matt vanishes. The kids have to get to the bottom of this wild western, before Uncle Matt's not the only one who disappears!
Went to work after Scooby ended. Work was a pain in the rear. Despite a gorgeous, sunny day, people still weren't in good moods. We were mobbed off and on for a lot of the day, too. It's still the beginning of the month, and most local kids start school between tomorrow and Thursday. I started out pushing carts and sweeping outside, but they pulled me to put away four carts filled with items to be returned (including one of cold items). I normally like putting things away, but not when we had such lovely weather.
Hurried straight home after work. When I got in, I changed and went right back out again. It really was too nice of a Labor Day to waste bent over a computer. The weather couldn't have been more perfect, sunny and brilliant blue, with a nice cool wind and not a bit of humidity in sight. It was the perfect day for a bike ride in Oaklyn.
My first stop was the Hispanic ice cream booth La Morelense Plus for one last cool treat of the summer. I was originally going to get another milkshake like I did in June, but I saw a woman get a chocolate sundae topped with crushed Oreos and cherries that looked divine. Their chocolate banana cried out for crushed peanut butter cups, and I added chocolate syrup, too. Oh, wow. It was incredible, so sweet and chocolaty, with just enough banana and a hint of nuttiness from the peanut butter. I wasn't the only person enjoying ice cream on a perfect late summer day. Their patio was full when I arrived, and there was a long line of people trying to decide what they wanted.
Made a quick stop at WaWa for Olipop soda, then went for a long bike ride around Oaklyn. Rode past Rose's house on Kendall and around the neighborhoods on either side of the school, dodging the road work being done on Goff. Stopped briefly to gaze at the stunning view of the creek between Oaklyn and Audubon Park. The sky was so clear, I could see all the way to the Ben Franklin Bridge. I wasn't the only one admiring the sights, either. Two girls chatted on a bench by the water, while another man talked on his phone in his car.
After I did some more riding in the neighborhood where Dad used to live and over by Dollar General, I made another quick stop at Crown Chicken and Gyro. I really didn't feel like leftovers again, so I ordered a fish sandwich with fries, lettuce, and pickles. They were pretty quiet, but it was also still kind of early for dinner.
I ate at home while watching Match Game Syndicated. I caught part of Holly Hallstrom's debut on the show, and all of the episode where someone said he'd give Gene a mink if he kissed his aunt. The "mink" turned out to be fuzz on a stick, but Brett ended up with it anyway. The others made "minksicle" jokes all through the show. We also saw Bart Braverman get really booed by the audience, and the first season finale.
For some reason, they switched back to Match Game '79 after that. I've seen the '79 episodes a thousand times by now, so I took a shower instead. Finished the night with game shows featuring Regis Philbin, whose birthday was last week. Philbin's first shot at hosting a game show was The Neighbors in 1975. Two female neighbors answer gossipy questions about a panel of three real-life neighbors. Yeah, it's about as interesting as it sounds. Regis is good and the homey set was cute, but the gossip was obnoxious, the questions were silly, and frankly, you didn't really care what these catty women thought of each other. It didn't last four months.
It would be the late 90's before Philbin hosted another game show...and this time, the show was a sensation. Philbin was in charge of the US Who Wants to Be a Millionaire from the start. He, the show, and his catchphrase "Is that your final answer?" were ubiquitous from late 1999 through mid-2002. More than the lifelines or the neon set, Philbin was instrumental in knowing when to rack up tension, and when to ease off and joke around. His energy really made the show what it was. I have a random episode from the height of the show's popularity in 2000 that gives you a good example.
Philbin turned over hosting the syndicated show to Meredith Vieira, but he would occasionally turn up as host for his signature show for a decade thereafter. He did the special Who Wants to Be a Super Millionaire in 2004 and a series of specials for its 10th anniversary in 2009. In late 2009, he would briefly take over hosting syndication, and did just as well on the truncated version as he did with the longer one back in 2000.
Philbin occasionally played on other people's game shows. He did Password Plus twice, in 1981 and 1982, both times to promote his then-talk program The Regis Philbin Show. He honestly did pretty well, getting his contestant to Alphabetics at least once in both episodes I have here. Audrey Landers joins him in '81; none other than Betty White was his partner near the end of the show's run in '82. He made a brief cameo at the beginning of a special two-hour episode of Deal Or No Deal in 2006 to help a contestant.
His last appearance on a game show was hosting Million Dollar Password in 2008. Password got hit hard by the Millionaire bug here, with neon sets and consecutive money tiers that did nothing to enhance the game. The celebrities were generally better. Serena Williams and Craig Ferguson play pretty well here and seem to be enjoying themselves well enough. Though the show was relatively popular in the ratings, it was a hit with people who were a lot older than CBS was looking for at the time. It lasted just a little over a year.
Create millionaires, describe Passwords, and get to know your neighbors with one of the most beloved and influential hosts of all time!
And I hope you all had a beautifully sunny Labor Day of your own, whether you had to work or not!
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