Switched to PAW Patrol while getting organized and ready for work. "Pups Go All Monkey" when a monkey who is brought to Adventure Bay on a train takes off with the grocer's fruit truck and the Paw Patrol have to rescue them. "Pups Save a Hoot" after they discover that their friend Little Hoot's mother is trapped in a tree that has blown over. They race there to make sure the tree doesn't end up getting blown off a cliff.
I thought work started at 12:30. Turns out it's 12:15. Between it being late by the time I was ready and the ongoing cold and damp weather, I called Uber for a ride. Thankfully, they arrived in 5 minutes and got me there in plenty of time.
Needless to say, the kids were very excited to be on their last week before the end of the school year. The boys in particular were noisy and rowdy, especially when they had to wait while the girls went to the bathroom. Even "The Quiet Game" just ended with them shushing each other loudly and still yelling. Things went better after snack time. I shared reading with a new assistant who arrived that day, then drew with the kids for the rest of the day. They admired my artwork for my planned Remember WENN Beauty and the Beast and Man Who Minded the House stories. My attempt at drawing a friend's cat didn't come out nearly as well, but they seemed to like it well enough.
The little girls even came up with their own project, coloring in the blank papers and turning them into rainbow fans. This was not only creative, it was practical, too, given how hot it's supposed to get later this week. One girl gave me her pink and purple striped fan. It was sweet of her, even though I didn't have the heart to tell her that I already have three fans at home.
Enough kids had gone home by 4:30 that I was able to get off an hour early. It was just as well. I needed to run a few errands on the way home. Since the rain was long gone by then and it was just damp and cold, I walked back to Oaklyn. Stopped at Dollar General for Clorox wipes and a Coke Zero.
Put on Remember WENN when I got home. Betty Roberts is excited when she gets a job offer from The New Yorker, but she's reluctant to leave WENN. The others learn "The Importance of Being Betty" when they try to do her many jobs, including Pruitt doing the writing and turning every show into a treatise on finance. It's not until he wrecks havoc on her favorite, This Girl's Kinfolk, that she realizes how much the station means to her.
Hilary is the one who gets wrecked havoc on in "Mr. and Mrs. Singer," another notoriously traumatic episode. Jeff has been trying to call her from London, but she keeps missing him. After he gets cut off yet again, she discovers a beautiful Czech refugee named Pavla Nemcova in the Green Room who claims to be married to Jeff. Betty, Scott, and Mr. Foley help the devastated Hilary reveal that this European gold-digger cares more about her own interests than a husband.
"Nothing Up My Sleeve" was a huge deal when it debuted near the end of the phenomenal run of Seinfeld. Jason Alexander plays a devious mentalist who charms a vulnerable Hilary. Maple, however, recognizes him as a former vaudeville colleague who would play up to older women, then use his "magic" to get a major secret from them, reveal it on the air, and get money. Maple, Scott, and Betty help her reveal this smooth talker for the fraud he is. Meanwhile, a jealous Mackie keeps trying his own magic trick on anyone who will or won't listen.
Switched to The Wild Wild West for dinner and a Rat Pack reunion. "Night of the Returning Dead" has Jim and Artemus encounter a ghostly rider who seems immune to bullets. The local sheriff (Peter Lawford) is more suspicious of a former slave (Sammy Davis Jr.) who can speak to animals. Seems he may be channeling the spirit of an officer who knows a lot more than he'll tell...
Finished the night on YouTube, celebrating Juneteenth week with black hosts and panelists. Sammy Davis Jr. did turn up in numerous game shows, but he seemed to have the most fun on an episode of Family Feud where his friend Richard Dawson was the host. He did get to ask the first question...and I don't know who enjoyed it more, Sammy, the contestants, or Richard laughing up a storm in the studio.
What's My Line featured Mystery Guests of all races and walks of life. One of the most fascinating surviving episodes debuted in 1960. From the coach and athlete who also transported chicken feed, I suspect this was also supposed to be a lead-in to the Olympics in Rome a few weeks after this episode aired. This would also explain 4-time track gold medalist Jesse Owens as the Mystery Guest. I loved hearing him talk about his victories in Berlin in 1936 and how he shoved those gold medals "right down Hitler's throat," as Bennett Cerf put it.
Nipsey Russell was a welcome presence in any game show he appeared in, but he especially shined where words and describing them were involved. He was a natural for the Pyramid variations, spouting off his signature poetry and more than able to hold his own in the Winner's Circle. I have a mid-80's $100,000 Pyramid episode here that ably demonstrates why he was so popular.
Lynn Swann hosted the 1990 To Tell the Truth briefly before Alex Trebek took over, but he wasn't a bad panelist, either. Here, he helps everyone figure out which kid invented a flushing sink that would clean itself and which lady managed to fool a thief who stole her husband's early cell phone into returning it by making him think she was going on a date with him. Sarah Purcell and producer David Niven Jr. join him and Australian host Gordon Elliott here.
By the 90's, minorities had begun to make inroads as host, not just panelists or one-off celebrities. Former football player Ahmad Rashstad hosted the short-lived word game Caesar's Challenge in 1993, the last daytime game show on NBC to date. Energetic (and occasionally annoying) Phil Moore hosted Nick Arcade, which had kids playing video-type games and answering questions to win prizes, on Nickelodeon in 1992. I have a special featuring the cast of the then-popular Nick show Welcome Freshman here.
Celebrate Juneteenth with these Black game show pioneers!
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