Super Snow Day Matches

I woke up around 9:30 to see rain coming down in heavy buckets...but I knew the rain wouldn't last. I debated and debated for another half-hour, but I finally called out of the Acme. I didn't want to lose the money, but if it was going to snow later, I would never get a ride home at 6 PM. I had a hard enough time getting an Uber ride home at 6PM yesterday when the weather was perfectly normal. I called out reluctantly, then went back to sleep until past 1. 

It was still raining cats, dogs, and chickens when I did finally roll out of bed. I got up so late, the very early Match Game marathon was already on. This extra-long marathon was themed around superheroes and superhero questions. Superheros were on a downward spiral in the early 70's after the enormous popularity of Batman and other candy-colored pop art wonders of the 60's. They'd make a comeback later in the decade with the success of the TV versions of Wonder Woman and The Incredible Hulk and the first Superman movie. 

I came in for the second half of the hilarious Halloween episode from the 1990-1991 revival where Charles Nelson Reilly dressed as Superman, complete with inflatable muscles. ("No one picks Superman anymore!" he wailed later in the episode when he wasn't chosen for the Match-Up mini game.) No one else would dress the part, but questions about superheroes, especially Superman, abounded during the entire 1973-1979 run of the show. They were ironically less common in syndication, but they did still turn up occasionally. Usually, they came in the form of what Superman would do if he got old, what he did with Lois Lane and his X-Ray vision, what he ran into while he was flying, and whether he could really bend iron bars and leap tall buildings in a single bound.

There was a Superman question the week with Robert Morse in 1974 when the little red-headed male contestant kept winning and chasing all the female panelists. Sweet Janet Finn in 1974 and good-natured Carolyn in 1979 both had Superman questions on the day they won big money (with Charles and Brianne Leary respectively). The lady with the nifty pink butterfly-shaped glasses who was on in 1975 had a Superman question. So did the lady with 10 children who proudly said she'd spend the money on herself. There was one during the only week in 1973 that Gene's old boss and mentor Steve Allen appeared, and one during the only appearance of Oscar-winner Shelley Winters. 

Batman turned up more rarely, usually in questions that joked about his relationship with Robin. One such question in 1973 had such a sexually-charged answer - from the contestant and the panelists - that the episode is now banned from regular television. There was a similar question later in 1974, with slightly more delicate answers. 

It's up, up, and away with the Match Game panel as we celebrate Superman, Batman, and all kinds of superheroic matching!

Match Game Sunday Classics - Super Hero Marathon

Oh, and the snow finally started coming down around 3:15 and hasn't stopped since. If anything, I think it's even heavier now. The streets are only clear because Oaklyn is really good at cleaning up its streets, but most of the local towns aren't usually as on the ball. All local schools are closed tomorrow, the Collingswood School District included, and I was off of the Acme already anyway. I won't be going anywhere tomorrow but home.