Made a few calls and did some things online next. I did get a call for an interview on Friday, so I texted Dawn and said we could meet for an interview...and then I read the listing straight through. It's for a RETAIL job at a travel plaza. I'll go to the interview, but I'll have to explain that I need something secretarial or editorial, not retail.
Finally headed out to run errands around 1:30. I just needed ibuprofen at Dollar General. Mine is almost out of date. They were surprisingly busy for a Monday afternoon! The line went half-way across the store, and I suspect they didn't have nearly enough help to deal with it. Good thing all I had was the bottle and a card to thank Lauren and her parents for having me next week. There were people with small carts overflowing with items in that line.
Strolled across the White Horse Pike and down to West Clinton next for lunch. I've done Common Grounds Coffee Shop a lot lately, so I went for pizza at Phillies Phatties. All they had left were cheese and pepperoni, so I took slices of those for lunch, along with a Diet Pepsi. (And regretted it. I did get heartburn later in the evening.) Half-listened to ABC News going on about the Emmys last night while I ate.
Went for a walk in the neighborhood next. On one hand, I'm glad it's cooled off considerably. It was cloudy and windy, barely in the 70's at 3 PM. It's also gotten a lot more humid...but the woman newscaster at Action News was right. We really do need the rain rather badly. It's so dry here. Gardens droop for lack of water, and the grass is yellow and crackling. There's already a few people who have Halloween decorations out in the neighborhood next to the Oaklyn (Elementary) School, but most are still fine with their dry yards.
Since I ended up near-by, I stopped at WaWa on the way home. Tried a pumpkin brulee smoothie. Basically tasted the same as the pumpkin spice with added praline bits. It wasn't bad, just not very different besides the bits.
Put on Vega$ when I got home. Dan discovers "Mixed Blessings" when a naive nun asks Dan for help finding the cross that was stolen from her New Mexico mission by a desperate drug addict. Trouble is, she won't tell him the guy's name...and someone else wants the cross and is willing to kill and shoot at nuns to get it.
Worked on the inventory next. Finished out the Ts and did the sole U title this afternoon. Added They're Playing Our Song, the 1956 off-Broadway version of The Threepenny Opera, Tootsie, Two By Two with Danny Kaye, The Unsinkable Molly Brown with Tammy Grimes, and the London musical Trelawny. They're Playing goes back the furthest here. I picked it up from I believe Russakoff's Used Books and Records in March 2007, making it one of my earliest cast album finds.
Watched Match Game '73 while eating dinner. "Mama" Cass Elliott became the only rock star to appear on the 1970's run in this early week, joining Loretta Swit and, in his first week, Bill Cullen. Jack Klugman and Brett Somers sat next to each other for the second of three times on the show...and despite their claim that their marriage was fine, they spent most of the week arguing and taking pot shots at each other. Richard spent it flirting with Cass, when he wasn't making weight jokes.
Finished the night after a shower watching game shows that are lost or mostly missing. More than other TV genres, game shows are likely to be lost. In the 1950's, the only way to preserve live TV broadcasts was filming it via kinetoscope, or a filmed recording. Most of those were eventually junked or recycled for their silver content. Even hits like Name That Tune are mostly gone for good. The one episode of the original 1953-1959 Tune currently on YouTube is a "greatest hits" selection of popular contestants, not even a regular game.
Even after the studios switched to color and filming on videotape, they still erased or junked the tapes after a few years. Tapes were expensive in the 60's, and game shows weren't thought to be something people would want to see twice. Sixties hits like Dream House and Eye Guess with Bill Cullen are even harder to find intact, because they could be easily wiped and used again. Eye Guess has only one full episode remaining; Dream House has three left (and its 80's remake was lost in a flood).
After Goodson-Todman discovered the last two color seasons of Password were a ratings bonanza in re-runs, CBS began to take its game shows a bit more seriously. That's why the vast majority of CBS/Goodson-Todman series like The Price Is Right and the 70's Match Game still exist today. NBC and ABC, on the other hand, continued erasing shows into the late 70's. Even major hits from those networks like the later Bill Cullen show Three On a Match are largely gone.
The networks weren't the only ones who junked shows. Most producers besides Goodson-Todman also tended to reuse tapes. Merv Griffith recycled tapes into the mid-80's, which is why most of Chuck Woolery's run on Wheel of Fortune and the early Pat Sajak daytime episodes have largely vanished.
Flops have an even worse survival rate. Shows like The Money Maze that lasted a year or less were often barely noticed in their own time, let alone 50 years later. This ABC show had a rather strange format, with husbands trying to direct their wives around mazes to ring bells and win prizes. Nick Clooney tries his best, but it's really just weird. In some ways, you can understand why ABC didn't feel the need to keep this one around. Only one episode and the pilot exist today.
Rediscover these treasures and dig up some fond memories with this dive into the lost world of vintage game shows!
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