Drood is in love with Rosa Bud (Patti Cohenour), but so is choirmaster John Jasper (Howard McGillin), who has a definite split personality, and Neville Landless (John Herrera) from Ceylon. The audience gets to choose who Dick Datcherty really is, who killed Drood, and who ends up with whom. I apparently found the Veresae Sarabande re-release that includes "Ceylon," the lovely "Moonfall," and three confessions. The whole "English music hall" thing doesn't really come across on the recording, but the music is lovely, and it is nifty to see which confession you'd pick if you were in the audience.
The Rolling Stones' Voodoo Lounge debuted in 1994, during the height of the grunge and alt-rock fad, and still managed to be a huge hit despite not producing a single. I do remember hearing some of these songs on the radio at the time, notably the thrumming "You've Got Me Rocking" and "Love Is Strong." This might have been a little too hard rock for me as a 15-year-old who was more interested in show tunes, pop, and R&B, but it hasn't worn too badly.
Headed off to work after that. Work was surprisingly busy, considering the Eagles played (and won) on Thursday. I had a hard time keeping up with the carts, especially later in the day, when I had to do cold returns and gather trash, too. Later on, some guy ran up to me in the parking lot and wanted to see footage of who pushes a cart into his car. First of all, I am not in charge of that. Second, I doubt it did much damage. Third. the lot is on an incline. It's more likely the cart rolled into his car on accident and no one did anything.
I kept smelling something burning as I rode to work. It seemed sort of hazy outside too, despite it remaining dry. Yeah, there's wildfires in the area. Thankfully, they're apparently not close enough to burn any buildings, but they're still tossing out the burning smell and smoke. No wonder I've been coughing like crazy. It's killing my allergies.
Needless to say, I rushed home after that. Took a much-needed shower, grabbed dinner, and settled in with tonight's marathon on YouTube. The owner of Match Game Productions has many game shows in his collection besides Match Game. He tested the waters with a marathon of Gene Rayburn's appearances on other shows over the years. Some of Gene's oldest hosting gigs have vanished, including his one stint with Barry & Enright Do-Rei-Mi, but many of his earliest appearances on panel shows still exist. In addition to many episodes of What's My Line and To Tell the Truth, they started with The Name's the Same, which has panelists trying to guess what famous name the contestant has.
He was one of the funniest panelists on the syndicated color What's My Line and To Tell the Truth. He did two hilarious Line episodes with Alan Alda on the panel. He and Alan got to try on wigs from a wig seller after guessing he sold wigs for both sexes. Gene's Beatles-style wig wasn't too bad on him, but Alan didn't make much of a blonde. In a later episode, Gene and Alan got to do their own pizza twirling after falling to identify a champion twirler. Alan used his dough as a lariat. Gene tossed his so high, it got stuck on a light fixture! He traded bad Dracula accents with a young man dressed as a vampire in a To Tell the Truth episode.
He turned up in two of the funniest episodes of the short-lived early 70's version of I've Got a Secret as well. In one, Jo Ann Worley revealed she had a champion jumping frog named for her. Jo Ann the frog may have been a champ somewhere, but she wouldn't stay on the course. At least she moved. The other two frogs refused to budge, no matter how much their humans stamped and yelled at them. Gene really went wild in another episode when he took off his blindfold and discovered Charles Nelson Reilly doing a paint-by-the-numbers still life on a bikini-clad Janice Pennington's stomach!
Gene also appeared on romance-based shows. He and his beloved wife Helen appeared on He Said, She Said, an early version of Tattletales from 1969. Helen proved to be hilarious in her own right, showing why she and Gene were married for 50 years. He hosted at least three episodes of Tattletales on weeks when he appeared with Helen so actual host Bert Convy could play with his wife Anne. Given it and Match Game were still run back to back when Gene hosted, many of the questions he asked the couples were Match Game style, with a clear fill in the blank.
Check out other sides of Gene Rayburn's career in this unique and hilarious marathon!
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