First thing on the docket was a walk to Dollar General. It was too nice of a day not to! It was sunny, warm and a little humid, but not too much, probably in the lower 80's. I mainly just needed pads. Got a Coke Zero, too. Grabbed birthday cards for Lauren, Amanda, and my littlest niece Aurora and a thank-you card for Lauren and her parents for having me visit them.
Went with the Bowery Boys after I got in. Slip and Sach are horrified when they learn their boss, a Wall Street broker, has committed suicide. After they learn he had a massive gambling debt to a certain local mob boss, they learn the fine art of flim-flam from a local con man and become Lucky Losers when they set up their own illegal casino to lure the gangster out of hiding. They become a bit more concerned after their buddy Gabe Moreno, a TV journalist with his own show, is beaten for naming names. They call in soda shop proprietor Louie Dumbrowski to pose as a high-rolling cowboy and help make sure they don't end up in the hospital too.
Worked on Maplepunzel for most of the day. It takes several days of driving through the swamp, sweeter-smelling woods, and past industrial factories, but Scott, Maple, and the others do finally arrive in the small but attractive kingdom of Wennaria. Scott gets directions from a rather motley Army regiment (MASH cast members in a cameo) to small but cozy Wennaria Castle. Miss Mary, the head housekeeper, hires Scott as the gardener and Maple as an upstairs maid. She's too tired not to! She's yawning the whole time she interviews them and finally passed out at the table. She mentions the coffee that the household is drinking while preparing for Prince Victor's wedding. Scott and Maple know there's something fishy here and decide to investigate.
Switched to Storybook International during lunch. "The Squire's Bride" is a variation on "Clever Gretel" from Scandinavia. Gretel does not want to marry the fat, greedy old squire, no matter how much her father needs to be released from his rent. Instead of agree to their wishes, she sends a furry pony over to be dressed in her bridal clothes and teach the squire a lesson.
Headed to the Thomas Sharp School after the episode ended. The children were pretty rowdy today, probably because they were excited about having tomorrow off. Even though one of the other teachers read Horton Hears a Who, they still had a hard time sitting down at lunch. I ended up spending the rest of the afternoon with the older kids. The teacher took most of them outside to play Red Light, Green Light. I drew with the rest and watched after those who built with magnetic tiles or Legos. The kids admired my drawings of Eugenia and her sisters from the upcoming Four Dancing Princesses, Eugenia, Foley, Scott, and Betty in the ballroom, and Eugenia trying to pet the enchanted puppies on Pruitt's leashes. When it was down to three kids, we put out connecting foam mats and let them strut their stuff in various poses on a "runway."
When I got home, I had dinner while watching Match Game Syndicated. They're on the hilarious week where McLean first takes over reading a question for Gene, so Gene can answer the questions himself. In fact, McLean hosted the rest of the episode, and didn't do too badly, either. Brett scolded him for his lack of fashion sense in the last episode.
Finished the night with a salute to game show producer and director Bill Carruthers, whose birthday would have been Saturday. Bill started out directing game shows in the late 50's and early 60's like Ernie Kovacs' Take a Good Look and Chuck Barrios' The Newlywed Game. By 1968, he was producing his own game shows...but he never seemed to have much luck. Neither Give n Take with Jim Lange nor the retooled You Don't Say! with Tom Kennedy lasted more than a few months.
Second Chance from 1977 didn't last long, either...but its lightning-fast game play and huge flashing board provided the bones for what would be Carruthers' only hit. Press Your Luck debuted on CBS in 1983. Three players answer questions, earning spins for each correct answer, three if they buzz in first. Those spins give them turns to play the huge board and win money or prizes. If they hit a Whammy, the annoying animated red guys (designed and animated by "Savage" Steve Holland) take everything they've accumulated. Four Whammies, and they're out of the game.
Which happened in the very first episode. The one guy whammied out, leaving the ladies to battle it out. They do better on an episode from later in the run, though the episode included from 1985 had its own weirdness. At any rate, Press Your Luck is by far Carruthers' most popular contribution to game shows. He only did one more game show, Designated Hitter for ESPN in the 1990's, before retiring in 1996 after a stroke.
Take a good look as the Whammies snatch your cash in this salute to the man who gave all those hit by the annoying red guys a second chance!
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