Denny's and Cracker Barrel are less than a 10-minute's ride from the Albany-Renessaler Train Station. While smaller than the big-city stations, it's equally nice, with wood trim and vaulted ceilings. I bought a turkey sandwich for lunch and went to the bathroom, and we sat together and chatted until my train was called. I told her to say "hi" to her parents and Rico for me and followed the line to the train.
This time, the train going to Albany was nowhere near full. I had a pleasantly quiet ride, eating lunch, coloring in that old Care Bears coloring book, and just admiring that stunning view of the Adirondacks. Though it was misty and foggy when we left this morning, by noon, the fog had cleared, revealing a gorgeous, sunny afternoon.
I was feeling so relaxed after I got off that quiet train, I treated myself to an enormous salt-covered soft pretzel from a cart parked near Penn Station before I crossed to Moynihan. They weren't more than the normal busy, either, nothing like Sunday. I got a Pumpkin Spice Frappucino, but was too keyed up to do more than walk around and keep an eye on the time.
The train going to Philadelphia was actually a commuter train on its way to Harrisburg, and it was jammed full. I got stuck next to a gentleman who spent the hour and a half checking his phone. Spent the hour and a half ride thinking of how much I didn't want to go home. I don't want to deal with the Acme tomorrow. Lauren's so lucky to have co-workers whom she actually likes and who like and respect her back. I hate my job. I don't want to go back there. I don't want to go home, either. I'm just tired of everything.
I was good and depressed by the time the train rolled into 30th Street Station. It took me three tries to get an Uber home, probably due to it being rush hour. Even when one arrived, I almost missed it across the street. At any rate, there was no traffic going home, not on the Schuylkill Expressway or the Ben Franklin Bridge. I was back in Oaklyn by quarter after 6.
Unpacked and had a sandwich for dinner while watching Match Game '77. Soap star Tudi Wiggins made her first and only appearance on the show during this week. This is also the week that's missing an episode, due to a very randy answer that now has that episode banned from the airwaves.
Took a shower, then finished the night on YouTube with word-based game show. Password is likely the word-association game show champ. It began in 1961 with celebrities helping contestants to guess a word and was such a sensation, versions have been popping up ever since. The episode I have here is Password Plus from 1980. Allen Ludden, who had hosted the show from the very first 1961 episodes, took a few weeks off in April 1980 to recover from illness. This was his first episode back. Bill Cullen, who took his place during those few weeks, is one of the celebrity partners here.
The wild success of Password was bound to inspire imitations. The original version of You Don't Say! debuted on NBC in 1962. Basically the same deal, only here, people described the names of famous people. Tom Kennedy had one of his first hosting gigs with this show.
Match Game started out as a more serious affair in 1962, but it didn't work until they started playing the simple questions for comedy. The hit 70's version put even more of an emphasis on goofy questions featuring characters like Dumb Dora and Mr. Periwinkle, as in this episode from August 1976.
Pyramid is another celebrity-contestant pairing show. In this case, the celebrities help the contestants guess what subject the clues belong to. It's been going in some form or another since 1973. Fred Grandy and Didi Conn are the celebrities helping their contestants to the Winner's Circle in this episode of The $20,000 Pyramid from 1978.
Lingo and Chain Reaction didn't go over in their original forms. Lingo, which involved contestants guessing words on a bingo board, didn't even last a season in syndication in 1987 and early 1988. Chain Reaction originally had celebrities helping contestants guess which words came next in a chain of relating words. It ran headlong into game show-hating Fred Silverman, who canceled it and two other shows in favor of The David Letterman Show. (Which lasted four months when Letterman proved too edgy for morning TV.)
Both shows did far better in revival after re-runs of the originals were hits. Lingo was an early hit for Game Show Network, and Chuck Woolery's last game show hosting job to date. Chain Reaction dropped the celebrities for a streamlined version filmed in Canada in 1986, with Geoff Edwards hosting. It too would later be a Game Show Network original - three times, in fact, in three short-lived year-long runs, the most recent in 2021-2022.
The third word game champ is Wheel of Fortune. Most people probably don't remember that it goes way far back. It debuted in 1976 on NBC and narrowly escaped being canceled several times, including when Fred Silverman went on that show-axing spree in 1980. It didn't really become a smash until Woolery left in a salary dispute and was replaced by Pat Sajak. I have one of the few Woolery episodes in existence here.
I wish Wordplay did better on NBC in 1987. I've watched this one several times, and it's a lot of fun. Three celebrities describe a word, but only one has the real description. Nifty variation on Liar's Club, with the celebrities bluffing on words and their definitions.
Learn new words and how to describe them with these adorable and very funny shows!
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