Ring-a-Ding-Ding Matches

Started the morning with breakfast and Doo-Bop. This jazz-hip-hop-R&B fusion would be the last Davis album released during his lifetime. In fact, "Fantasy" and "High Speed Chase" were recorded with unused trumpet solos after he died. Davis wanted to capture the sounds of the streets he heard from his New York apartment. This must have mostly been electronica and rap, since these songs definitely have rap beats to them. This album is very, very 1991, and to be fully honest, it hasn't aged that well. Some of the songs aren't bad - I liked "Chocolate Chip" and "The Doo Bop Song" - but mostly, they just sound alike.

Didn't even finish the album before I headed to work. Work was...kind of boring. There were two other college-age baggers there who did everything inside and a lot outside. That didn't leave me with a lot of cars to push. At least it was a gorgeous day for it. It was even nicer than yesterday, sunny, bright, breezy, and dry as can be. It had been busy off and on all day and was just starting to pick up when I finished.

Changed into a regular shirt, then headed across Audubon to the Legacy Diner. It was almost 2 PM at this point, and they surprisingly weren't that busy. I enjoyed my three enormous coconut-pineapple pancakes and crispy bacon. In fact, the pancakes, tasty though they were, were also a little too big. I didn't end up finishing them.

Stopped at the Oaklyn WaWa on the way home. They just rolled out their fall flavors, including their basic pumpkin spice smoothie. In all honesty, it tasted more like spices than pumpkin. It was also cold and wet, which is what I really cared about after riding across Audubon and down the White Horse Pike.

The Match Game marathon had just begun when I got home. I spent the rest of the evening having dinner and watching Jerry Lewis and the Rat Pack on various game shows, Match Game included. Jerry Lewis' famous Labor Day Weekend telethon wasn't the only TV show he appeared on. He turned up on an early episode of What's My Line as a member of the panel...and needless to say, that episode was hilarious and especially wild for that show. Frank Sinatra was the first of two guests on a Line episode from a decade later...because the other Mystery Guest was his then-wife Mia Farrow, just after making Rosemary's Baby from her super-short hair. 

That wasn't the only game show the Rat Pack turned up on. Password was so wildly popular in the early 60's, even members of the Rat Pack wanted to play. Peter Lawford and Sammy Davis Jr. played Polly Bergen and Janet Blair in a black and white episode...and to the ladies' chagrin, the boys mopped the floor with them. Lawford proved to be such a great player, he joined the equally good Carol Burnett for a "Tournament of Champions" in a later color episode from 1966. 

Richard Dawson was friendly with several members of the Rat Pack, especially Sammy Davis Jr. Sammy appeared at the start of a classic 1978 episode of Family Feud, and even got to host a question. I don't know who had more fun, the contestants, Sammy asking the questions, or Richard laughing hard as he watched his friend's antics.

Cranky Joey Bishop was the only member of the Rat Pack to appear on Match Game. I'm not entirely sure how much he understood the humor, but he did seem to play well enough. He was less appreciative of the audience and their perpetual booing. He claimed one guy in the audience booing him kept moving around. Most of the Rat Pack references on Match Game involved Dean Martin and his perpetual drinking spree. Even Foster Brooks made a comment on it during his first episode. Charles Nelson Reilly, who worked with him for years, was quick to point out that he'd cut down by the time of the late 70's. 

Celebrate Labor Day playing games with the members of the Rat Pack and remembering Jerry Lewis and his long-running telethon in these classic episodes!

Game Show Sunday Classics - Jerry Lewis & the Rat Pack Marathon