Game Time: A complete episode of Hollywood/Storybook Squares (1976)

 The revival of Storybook Squares began in the summer of '76 on Hollywood Squares. The gameplay format had change to allow three generations of families to play the game.

This time around, the rules were bent to allow for William Shatner to reprise as Captain James T. Kirk (Star Trek), while the rest of the panel were in costume as various characters such as:

John Byner as the Mad Hatter (Alice in Wonderland). Byner paid homage to Disney's adaptation of the Lewis Carroll classic by impersonating Ed Wynn, who voiced the Hatter in the movie.

Bonnie Franklin (One Day At a Time) as Peter Pan.

Rip Taylor as Rip Van Winkle.

Roddy McDowell as Sherlock Holmes.

Doc Severinson (The Tonight Show) as the Angel Gabriel.

Julie McWhirter (fresh from The Rich Little Show) reworked the Family Hour Fairy into the Good Fairy.

Joan Rivers as Little Red Riding Hood.

Charo as Lady Godiva.

Paul Lynde missed this week of tapings due to other commitments, hence Byner occupying the center square.

Game Time: Championship Bowling 2.0? (1968)

 After Championship Bowling ended its first run in 1966, the producers decided to remount the show in a half hour format, based on an idea from future Hall of Famer Don Carter, two years later.

The best ball format utilized in this pilot would later come into play, with some modifications, when Celebrity Bowling launched three years later. Carter & Dave Soutar team vs. Harry Johnson & Bill Lillard. Bud Palmer, who'd put time in as a fill-in on ABC's Pro Bowlers Tour, and had also been at CBS, is at the microphone here.

Game Time: An episode of Junior Partner Pyramid (1979)

 After we've previously screened two celebrity-centric episodes of Junior Partner Pyramid, let's serve up one with kids and their parents. This aired on a Friday, as at the end of the show (closing credits were partially edited), they plugged the Saturday night lineup.

You Know The Voice: Gary Owens (1969)

 We had this next item before, but it was deleted. This is also at The Land of Whatever.

The early success of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In led to George Schlatter & Ed Friendly being commissioned to produce a series of unrelated specials for NBC, plus a game show spin-off from Laugh-In, hence, Letters to Laugh-In. Gary Owens pulls double duty as host & announcer. Our panel in this sampler has Laugh-In co-host Dan Rowan, series regular Jo Anne Worley, plus Jack E. Leonard and Angie Dickinson, then known more for movies, well before Police Woman.

The first joke, read by Worley, comes from a local viewer out of Saratoga. Cool!

Leonard had some voiceover credit doing Alpha-Bits commercials before the mailman character was replaced by Lovable Truly. Worley got into cartoons later on (i.e. The Wuzzles).

It was 50 years ago today

 Today, Rick Monday is a radio announcer for the Los Angeles Dodgers. 50 years ago, he was an outfielder for the Chicago Cubs, who were finishing a weekend series at Dodger Stadium.

On this day in 1976, two men attempted to burn the US flag. Monday was having none of that. Vin Scully calls it.

Monday, an ex-Marine, was hailed as a hero. Then-California Governor Ronald Reagan had high praise for Monday, as did everyone else, two and a half months away from the bicentennial. Fittingly, on the 50th anniversary of this episode, the Cubs are in LA this weekend, riding a 10 game winning streak as tonight's game has gotten underway as I write.

Saturtainment: Capital One's All-Stars at the NCAA's (2026)

 March Madness means a new set of Capital One commercials with Samuel L. Jackson joined by Charles Barkley (Inside The NBA), and, in this spot, Jennifer Garner (ex-Alias), and another NBA & NCAA legend in Earvin "Magic" Johnson, who replaces Spike Lee in the troupe. I think Spike is directing.

Well, it could've been worse. We could've gotten Stephen A. Smith trying to sing. Barkley's definitely a golden throat........

I hope the rest of the Inside crew roasts Barkley on the next episode.........! I wonder if Jennifer brought anything from Once Upon a Farm, the business she helped launch thanks to her commercials for Capital One.

Game Time: Skedaddle (1988)

 In 1988, Hanna-Barbera decided to tweak their Funtastic World block with a game show. No, they weren't going to try the originally conceived format for Wacky Races, but, rather, they decided on something of a cross between Hot Potato & Nickelodeon's Double Dare.

Skedaddle, however, lasted just 6 weeks, a total dud, as viewers figured out very quickly that this was more of a knock-off of Dare. Ron Pearson served as host. Unfortunately, no footage exists, just some screen captures like this:

Jay Wolpert co-produced the show, returning a favor H-B did for him some time earlier. You see, H-B produced the animation for Wolpert's 1979 series, Whew!, for CBS. That lasted about a year before it was cancelled. I guess they went with dinosaur characters because the Skatebirds didn't want to come out of retirement. Ditto for the Banana Splits.

No rating, as I never saw the show.

Game Time: Bet ya didn't know Shari Lewis knew something about magic, too! (To Tell The Truth, 1977)

 I think you could tell To Tell The Truth was nearing the end of its 1st syndicated run in 1977 when they started doing stunt casting like they did a decade earlier near the end of the CBS run.

In game 1, ventriloquist Shari Lewis introduces viewers to her magician father, Abraham Hurwitz. Lamb Chop introduces moderator Joe Garagiola, and after the game, a little magic trick with father & daughter.

I guess this explains why Shari was cast as Honey Halfwitch in a series of shorts in the 60's, starting her cartoon career.

Game Time: The Game of Life (2011)

 Hasbro decided to adapt the long running Game of Life into a TV show, which lasted 1 season on the ill-fated, Hasbro-co-run The Hub (now Discovery Family). Unfortunately, 15 years later, it appears as though Hasbro went old school, and wiped most of the episodes, save for this one.

I used to play the board game, which was lots of fun, but some of it got lost in the transition to television, sealing the series' fate.

Rating: B.

Game Time: The CBS Bowling Classic (1964)

 It wasn't enough that the Professional Bowlers' Association (PBA) had ABC's Pro Bowlers Tour, which had finished its 3rd season by the time CBS got in on the act.

The CBS Bowling Classic, however, ran for 1 season, with baseball legend Pee Wee Reese teaming with ABC color analyst Billy Welu on the calls. If the best ball format of this doubles match looks familiar, it's because a few years later, the syndicated Celebrity Bowling followed this same format, and lasted much longer on the air.

In this sample from 1965, Dick Weber & Bob Strampe take on Carmen Salvino & Glenn Allison. All four were regulars on the ABC Pro Bowlers Tour.

There was never a perfect game on Celebrity Bowling.

Rating: A.

Game Time: When kids took over the $20,000 Pyramid (1979)

 In the late 70's, NBC executives asked Merrill Heatter & Bob Quigley to revive the Storybook Squares as a special theme week for the parent Hollywood Squares.

In 1979, ABC asked Bob Stewart to do the same with The $20,000 Pyramid.

In July, Stewart tried out Junior Pyramid, which would later be rechristened Junior Partner Pyramid, and, in between, the concept was tried out in primetime as All Star Junior Pyramid.

Here, we have Jimmy Baio (Scott's kid brother) matched against Susan Richardson (Eight is Enough).

Game Time: Teen Win, Lose, or Draw (1989)

 The popularity of the board game Pictionary not only evolved into its own show (3 iterations), but also Win, Lose, or Draw, which Burt Reynolds & Bert Convy sold to NBC in the late 80's.

A teenage version landed on the Disney Channel, back when it was a premium service, in 1989, and ran for 3 years (1989-92), with actor Marc Price (Family Ties) as host. Disney produced the series themselves the 1st year before turning it over to independent producers Stone-Stanley Productions for the final 2 seasons.

Mouseketeer Brandy Brown is the announcer, perhaps the youngest in broadcast history, for this sampler with Danny Pintauro (Who's The Boss?) and Lecy Goranson (Roseanne).

No rating. Just a public service.

Game Time: Child's Play (1982)

 I think I had this next item up before, but the previous video had been deleted from YouTube.

Anyway, Mark Goodson & Bill Todman took the general concept of Art Linkletter's Kids Say The Darndest Things, a component of House Party back in the day, and turned it into a game show for CBS in 1982.

Child's Play is, as host Bill Cullen explains, a game played by adults, who have to figure out what the children being interviewed are talking about. Two pilots were produced in 1982 before the series launched a year-long run in September of that year.

Future actors Breckin Meyer & Tara Reid were among the tots who appeared on the show, but you won't see them in this pilot.

CBS knew they were in trouble scheduling this show opposite Wheel of Fortune. I would think this kind of game would lend itself to airing 6 days a week instead of 5, so more children could watch. Another wasted opportunity.

Linkletter, though, would've been proud.

Rating: A-.

Game time: Yes, Virginia, the AFL had a highlight show, too (1960-70)

 While the NFL currently restricts the availability of archival footage, including its old, syndicated recap shows, the American Football League, which merged with the NFL in 1970, had its own show, simply known as AFL Highlights.

When the league was launched in 1960, telecasts aired on ABC, which lost the rights to NBC five years later. ABC would get back into the game with Monday Night Football in 1970, and, well, we know that story, of course.

Charlie Jones, long associated with NBC, is the series host. as we turn back the clock to October 1968. The program is bookended by the teams that would play in the infamous "Heidi game" that year, the Jets & the Raiders, and not in a good way....

Rating: A.

Toon Legends: Straight Shooters (1947)

 Donald Duck is working a carnival booth, and cajoles his nephews, Huey, Dewey, & Louie, into playing. And, oh, is that ever a big mistake, because that leads to a family feud in "Straight Shooters":

Turns out the boys are a lot smarter than their uncle ever suspected, and we'd see that even more 40 years later in the original DuckTales.

Rating: A-.

Game Time: A complete episode of Joker! Joker! Joker! (1979)

 It's been a long time since we took a look at the short-lived Joker! Joker! Joker!, a weekend spinoff of The Joker's Wild, from 1979.

As we look in on the game play, a 9 year old champion has already racked up over $4000 in cash & prizes for his family. Jack Barry is host & executive producer, with Jay Stewart as the announcer.

Apparently, neither contestant in the first game had read Hansel & Gretel since maybe 1st grade, as that question should've been a lay-up.

Rating: A.

You Know The Voice: Shari Lewis sings on Musical Chairs (1975)

 Sans her puppet entourage, Shari Lewis was a featured guest for a week on the short-lived CBS game show, Musical Chairs. Shari shares the stage with host Adam Wade (later of Super Globetrotters), Broadway star Larry Kert, and future chart toppers Sister Sledge (4 years before "We Are Family" topped the charts).

Shari performs "Talk to The Animals" from "Dr. Doolittle".

Adam sounded more like he was auditioning to fill in for Don Cornelius on Soul Train, don't you think?

From Primetime to Daytime: Urkel be ballin' (Family Matters, 1991)

 Who says nerds can't play?

Steve Urkel (Jaleel White) is the manager for his school's men's varsity basketball team. When the team suddenly is down to four healthy players due to injuries and players fouling out, Urkel talks his way into the game, with the team down double digits in the 4th quarter.

IIRC, White may have taken part in some of MTV's Rock 'n' Jock basketball games in the 90's, but all of America got to see him show some skills.....

On The Air: The NFL Today (1975)

 And here I thought this started sooner than it did.

"This" would be The NFL Today, CBS' pre-game show ahead of their NFL coverage, which launched in 1975. Brent Musburger was the show's 1st anchor, aided by a revolving door cast of analysts and co-hosts, including Phyllis George, Jayne Kennedy, former player Irv Cross, and the infamous Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder, whose run with the show was torpedoed in the 80's due to some ill-timed remarks.

Today, James Brown is the anchor, having come over from Fox a few years back, aided by former players Matt Ryan, Nate Burleson (CBS Mornings, Hollywood Squares), and Hall of Fame coach Bill Cowher.

To mark the 50th anniversary, Musburger was brought back as a special guest, and the panel honored him with some throwback wardrobe, breaking out some wigs and polyester suits.....

Musburger retired from ESPN a few years back, but still sounds like he can do the job.

Rating: A.

Retro Toy Chest: Alexander's Star (1982)

 In the wake of Rubik's Cube becoming a cultural phenomenon in the 80's, Ideal came out with a copycat in Alexander's Star. Check this ad:

Hadn't seen this until today. Unsurprisingly, it was gone in short order.