Headed out to run errands. Started with getting my hair cut at the Westmont Plaza Great Cuts. They had just washed my hair and were about to actually cut it when the lights went out! It was a perfectly nice, sunny day, so they figured someone hit a pole somewhere. The entire block was out, including the Wells Fargo building on the end of the mall. Even when the lights came back up, their internet was still down, and the ATM machine at Wells Fargo wasn't up, either. I ended up getting a free hair cut.
(At least, for all the trouble, my hair cut came out fine. I was at the closest hair cut station to the front anyway, so she used natural light. I went shorter again. It just gets too thick and frizzy when I let it get too long.)
Made a brief peek at Target next. They were up and running, but they didn't have the conditioner I wanted. Rode down a busy Cuthbert to Kresloff's Eye Associates instead to pick up my new glasses. They fitted them on me, gave me a really cool new orange, brown, and black glasses case in a nifty modern design, and I went back out.
Montegrillo Pizza and Grill opened in Collingswood a few months ago. I've been meaning to try them out! Fortunately, they're closed on Tuesdays instead of Mondays. I followed the long entrance to the front order counter. Got a slice of cheese, a slice of broccoli-ricotta-tomato, and a Diet Pepsi. Sat down with it at one of the big, heavy wood tables. Not bad. Slightly thinner, but still chewy enough.
Made two more stops on the way home. Dollar General didn't have the conditioner I wanted, but CVS did. I didn't realize it was there either at first. Tresemme now has their conditioner in pumps and makes it black like the shampoo bottle.
Went home for an hour to relax and watch Snoopy-themed episodes of the newer Peanuts show set I picked up a while back. In "A Day With Snoopy," Snoopy's happy dance mystifies Chuck, while Lucy is mystified as to why she should want to support National Dog Week. Snoopy is a "Crazy Mutt" who fights with Lucy and learns driving from Chuck. Chuck tries to "Train Your Dog," but it ends with Snoopy making his dinner more elegant. Snoopy celebrates the holidays with the kids in "Too Cold" and "Winter Wonderland."
Went back out to Thomas Sharp School for work. One poor young lady dropped her Teddy Grahams snacks and had no snack. She was so upset! Good thing we have a box of emergency granola bars. I helped take the older kids to the bathroom as well as the younger ones before I joined the younger kids outside. The kids really like it when I push them on the swings. I haul 35 packs of water for a living. I'm pretty strong.
Watched Match Game Syndicated when I got home. Diana Sorvino became the first and only opera singer to appear on the show in 1980. She flirted with handsome young men and praised Charles' beautiful singing voice.
Worked on Maplepunzel after I ate and took a shower. Prince Jeffery shows us the beautiful, shining chateau Bedside Manor, with its lush gardens and vast grounds. Queen Hilary finds Scott and Betty sitting together under a plum tree. He wants to help her flee Hope Springs, but she's reluctant to leave her guardian Hilary, who has been kind to her, even though she's not interested in running the country and really does love Scott. Pruitt, Hilary's financial advisor, told Hilary that Scott skimmed money from local businesses. Furious, and hoping to keep him from Betty and restore Hope Springs' sparkling reputation, she banishes him from the country. He's angry and disappointed, but that won't stop him from seeing Betty one last time...
Finished the night with game shows featuring stunts. Stunt shows go way far back. They started on radio with Beat the Clock...but if ever a genre of game show was meant for TV, it was this one. It was even better when you could see people spraying goop at each other and organizing magnetic words to form phrases. Bud Collyer was the host of the original 50's version. I have one of the earliest surviving episodes here.
Let's Make a Deal does involve stunts to a degree. They also go far back. Though the show started in 1963, they contestants wouldn't begin appearing in costume until a few years later. By 1968, the contestants and their outfits were as wild as the gameplay, as in this rare black and white episode.
50 Grand Slam attempted to get more creative in 1976. Half of the show was a traditional question and answer game. The other half had golf experts playing versions of the game. Tom Kennedy was the energetic host. Despite a glittering set that seemed to use every light bulb in Hollywood, neither game was terribly interesting or really managed to catch on. Allen Ludden appears in the premiere episode to push his show Stumpers (which also failed and is now mostly lost).
Nitro! got even weirder in 1995. Greg Lee leads contestants across a board-game like board to various mini-games. This was one of the few bits of original programming on something called the "tv! Network," which apparently was just made up of programming blocks intended as samplers for bigger cable channels.
Many stunt games for adults nowadays originated in Japan, where they get weird and occasionally brutal. Hole In the Wall was one of the stranger ones. A team of three people attempt to fit through cut-outs in a large yellow wall coming at them. If the break the wall or get pushed in the pool under them, they lose points. This did slightly better on Cartoon Network than it would on Fox. This is one of the episodes left unaired when Fox gave up on the show in 2008.
Play along with some truly unique stunts in these wild shows!
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