Mad About the Matches

Began the morning with breakfast and The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz, Volume III CD. Duke Ellington and His Orchestra start things off with some of their biggest hits, ranging from "The New St. Louis Toodle-Oo" in 1927 to "Blue Serge" in 1941. Dizzie Gillespie takes us to the hotter stuff that came out after World War II like "I Can't Get Started" and "Sho' Nuff." Charlie Parker was influential in jazz after the war. The variations on his quartet would spin off talents like Miles Davis and give us "Lady Be Good" and "Parker's Mood." There's also two different versions of "Crazeology" and "Embraceable You."

I managed to get off to work on time and on the bike. It was too nice not to ride the bike. Though it was chilly, it was also sunny and a lot less windy. That may be part of why we were fairly quiet today. It was steady, but not overwhelmingly busy, and nothing like it usually is on a Sunday. I spent the entire afternoon pushing carts while college boys handled the inside chores and was in and out with no trouble.

Put on Ben Bagley's Noel Coward Revisited after I changed and settled down. Coward was probably the best-known British songwriter in the US before the Beatles came across the Atlantic, but there's some of his songs that aren't as familiar over here as they could be. The chorus numbers "London at Night" and "Evening In Summer" make fun of habits and nightlife in England's main city. "The Wife of an Acrobat" features a hilarious turn from Hermoinie Gingold, while Dorothy Louden gets the touching "If Love Were All" from the operetta Bitter Sweet. Nancy Andrews has more fun with "Chase Me Charlie."

Finished the night after a shower with dinner and the Match Game marathon. Crusty character actor Ed Asner was appearing as Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show when he first appeared on Match Game in 1975. He wasn't the best at matching, but his tough common sense made a nice contrast to some of the wilder personalities around him. He and Richard Dawson weren't too thrilled with Lyle, a go-getting contestant from Las Vegas whose cockiness seemed to rub them the wrong way in mid-1976. Early in 1977, he saw the last episodes featuring George, that super-sweet contestant who won more games than anyone. George was also the first male contestant to play another male contestant when they ran out of female contestants. 

Asner is probably best-known with Match Game fans nowadays for taking part in the infamous School Riot during a July 1977 episode. Producer and judge Ira Skutch matched Ed and Brett Somers' "college," but not Richard and Debralee Scott's "finishing school." They both put up a fight, the contestant riled up the audience, and Gene couldn't keep order. Even Brett and Charles' gag about Charles being "the first victim of the School Riot" didn't really make things better. 

Asner's last appearance was in late 1978. It was the only time he sat in the fifth seat that had been vacated by Richard just weeks before. Valerie Bertanelli was barely 19 when she sat in the fourth ingenue seat and wasn't comfortable with Ed and Gene hitting on her all week, which is why she only allowed this week to be seen after Asner's death in 2021. (The nighttime episode still isn't available.) Patty Duke and Nipsey Russell are having a lot more fun in the first and last seats.

It's a riot of hilarity with Mr. Grant  himself in this wild and wacky marathon!

Match Game Sunday Classics - Ed Asner's Best Episodes On Match Game (1975-1978) 

Oh, and the clouds moved in somewhere around the start of the marathon, but the heavy rains didn't arrive until quarter of 1 AM. It's been off and on ever since.