Spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon making the bed and doing the paperwork Healthy Kids gave to me yesterday. I swear I did most of this back in late April-early May, but I guess they never got it. Getting references is going to be the hardest thing to do. I can get one from the Acme, but I have no idea who else could recommend me. The Stockton University Library is in the midst of being remodeled, and I don't think they even have a media center anymore, let alone anyone there who still remembers me. Trying to find anything on that would be a dead end. I haven't had any jobs besides those and Healthy Kids.
Listened to Aerosmith Gold while I worked and as I had lunch. There's a reason I bought this massive two-disc CD set. Pretty much almost every major hit Aerosmith ever had can be found here, from "Let the Music Do the Talking" to a live version of "Dream On." Other familiar hits and favorites include "Permanent Vacation," "Rag Doll," "Dude Looks Like a Lady," "Janie's Got a Gun," "Cryin'," "Crazy," and a live version of "Sweet Emotion."
It had been raining all day, and was still raining when I called Uber. Had no trouble getting a ride there. Got one in 9 minutes and arrived at school ten minutes early. Going home was another matter all together. It wasn't raining by then, but it was still cold, cloudy, and dreary. I wasn't going to spend all day waiting this time and just spent the money. They arrived in 10 minutes, not bad for rush hour.
Between the weather and the cold, the kids are still pretty antsy. There were a lot of them, too, 25 today. Having to start in the library because the school band was rehearsing in the cafeteria didn't help calm them down. They were noisy waiting for the bathrooms in the halls, and the girls in particular took forever there. They were even louder drawing in the cafeteria after snack time, too. When we finally got back to the library, one of the older boys grabbed a bin that should have been holding bristle blocks and insisted on playing "high school" with books and blocks and his own toys. Some of the kids danced to "Ghostbusters" and songs from KPop Demon Hunters and Moana. I colored with the boys drawing rocket ships and trains. They remain fascinated with my artwork for Legendary Tales of WENN, especially when I explained the story to them.
Once I got home, I took out the trash, then waited for Jessa. We ended up having a much simpler dinner at Ponzio's Restaurant in Cherry Hill. Jessa had the chicken Parmesan sandwich. I had the yummy chicken honey barbecue sandwich with French fried onions, cheddar cheese, fries, and cole slaw. She had the cutest mini strawberry cheesecake topped with a giant glazed strawberry for dessert. I had a deliciously decadent slice of German chocolate cake. Jessa drove us home down a misty-dark King's Highway, through Haddonfield to the White Horse Pike.
Finished the night at YouTube with game shows hosted or produced by women in honor of International Women's Day on Sunday. One of the earliest game shows hosted by a women was Blind Date from 1951. Arlene Francis, who also hosted this proto-Dating Game on radio, introduces a young lady to two eager bachelors and their fathers. She does skits with the fathers to see which of their sons she'd like to date. Cute show, if a little dated, with the way the father's eyes roved over those girls!
Betty White cut her teeth hosting a game show on a week of Password in 1975 where she took over the host's podium and her hubby Allen Ludden played the game. An episode of her hosting week finally turned up a few years ago, allowing us to see how personable and fun she was as a host (and how well Allen could play - he beat the pants off the other celebrity that week, Paul Williams).
Though Bert Convy hosted the syndicated version of Win, Lose, or Draw, Vicki Lawrence was in charge of the network show. It's too bad I only remember Bert's show and the teen version on The Disney Channel. Lawrence had a lot of fun, here joined by Debbie Reynolds, Loretta Swit, a young Jason Bateman, and one of the show's producers Bert Reynolds.
Lawrence frequently did celebrity game show tournaments, as with her big win on Card Sharks in 1980 and her appearance on an all-star charity episode of The Weakest Link in 2002. No wonder she lasted until the very end, going up against brilliant Ed Begley Jr. Considering how fiercely she challenged stone-cold hostess Anne Robinson, most people were probably afraid to vote her off! Other celebrities in this hilarious battle of the network stars included Davy Jones of The Monkees, Dennis Weaver of McCloud, Nicholle Nicholas of the original Star Trek, Erin Grey from Buck Rogers and Silver Spoons, and Raven-Symone of The Cosby Show (and later of That's So Raven!, which was about to debut on The Disney Channel at that point and is mentioned several times).
Women became more common as producers around the same time Lawrence was going up against Robinson. Whoopi Goldberg was the driving force behind the 1998 revival of Hollywood Squares. It was her idea, and she took over the center square until 2000. I loved this show in college. I would switch back and forth between Goldberg and Bruce Vilanch cracking jokes and the more cerebral Jeopardy, then stay with Wheel of Fortune. Vilanch and Goldberg are joined in this early episode by Sandra Bernhard, Luke Perry, Robert Klein, and George Wallace, among others.
Women are far more common as hosts in modern game shows. Elizabeth Banks has been the enthusiastic hostess of the Press Your Luck revival since it began in 2019. She makes up for the lack of Peter Tomarken's goofiness with sheer energy and moxie, especially in the expanded second half with a very long bonus round where one contestant plays against the board.
Who runs the game show world? The ladies do in these hilariously pioneering episodes!
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