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Anyone know if there are episodes of Your Surprise Package on the trading circuit?
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..add me to the list interested if you get a response. I have the faintest memory of the show, noting that as contestants asked questions about the items in the package, the score devices in front of them counted down. The home version I have confirms you paid for the time to ask questions. The one thing I'd like to hear again most - if my memory is still intact on this - the show had a very cool theme - the melody was played on a harp, with a bongo-type rhythm behind it. If anyone else with similar faint memories can confirm that, I won't sign myself up for a "rest". Thanks.
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The one thing I'd like to hear again most - if my memory is still intact on this - the show had a very cool theme - the melody was played on a harp, with a bongo-type rhythm behind it. If anyone else with similar faint memories can confirm that, I won't sign myself up for a "rest".
No need to check yourself into the rest home just yet. I was 5 - 6 when it was on and I remember a really cool harp-and-bongo theme as being the best part. If I had to do music for a game show and was told I could only use two instruments, it would never occur to me to combine harp and bongos.
There was also a giant gift-wrapped box sitting center stage a la LMAD replete with the lovely Carol Merrill (it was her first game show) to model it.
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[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Dec 13 2004, 01:00 PM\']
The one thing I'd like to hear again most - if my memory is still intact on this - the show had a very cool theme - the melody was played on a harp, with a bongo-type rhythm behind it. If anyone else with similar faint memories can confirm that, I won't sign myself up for a "rest".
No need to check yourself into the rest home just yet. I was 5 - 6 when it was on and I remember a really cool harp-and-bongo theme as being the best part. If I had to do music for a game show and was told I could only use two instruments, it would never occur to me to combine harp and bongos.
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My farthest memory banks remind me that the music on the show was live and that it was a literal one-man band. TV Guide had a photo feature of the guy at work. Since I was still real little, I can't really remember anything else about the article--or the show, other than Mother saying "Oh, there's that stupid game show again!" and either changing the channel or turning the TV off.
I do remember that the set doors looked to my young eyes like a bunch of Kleenex boxes stacked to the ceiling (with "SURPRISE PACKAGE" even looking like the 50s/early 60s Kleenex logo before they introduced the script logo) and that on maybe the one show I saw all the way through someone won a "Booby Prize." Had I been a decade older I probably would've started laughing like Beavis and Butt-Head at that.
(Back in the 70s, a guy named Carey Gold also had a multitude of instruments in his booth for the CBS soaps "Love of Life" and "The Secret Storm" in their last years on the air--almost everything keyboard or percussion but an organ--the producers wanted to drop that cliche but good. I would almost guess that the muic guy on "Surprise Package" also didn't include an organ because Allan Sherman didn't want to go that cliche route.)
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[quote name=\'uncamark\' date=\'Dec 13 2004, 05:31 PM\']I can't really remember anything else about the article--or the show, other than Mother saying "Oh, there's that stupid game show again!" and either changing the channel or turning the TV off.
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My Mother did that once. Just once.
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How can one person play the harp and bongos at the same time?
The musical director was one Alvin Stoller, a jazz drummer in Hollywood who worked with the likes of Billy May.
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[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Dec 14 2004, 10:10 AM\']How can one person play the harp and bongos at the same time?
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He was really good with his feet?
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Scott Robinson
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[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Dec 14 2004, 10:10 AM\']How can one person play the harp and bongos at the same time?
The musical director was one Alvin Stoller, a jazz drummer in Hollywood who worked with the likes of Billy May.
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Memory from 40 years ago. I could and will be wrong.
(My grandfather used to collect old TV Guides and then in his senility would forget about them. On one visit to his home, I found them somewhere in his basement or bedroom, dove into them for much enjoyment and then watched as my mother and grandmother threw them out because they thought I was spending too much time indoors, despite my copious tears [and besides, why would I want to read old TV Guides?]. Killjoys.)
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[quote name=\'MSTieScott\' date=\'Dec 14 2004, 12:50 PM\'][quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Dec 14 2004, 10:10 AM\']How can one person play the harp and bongos at the same time?
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He was really good with his feet?
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Scott Robinson
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Line of the day!
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my mother and grandmother threw them out because they thought I was spending too much time indoors
They must have gone to the same school as my mother, whom I will never forgive for throwing out my Allan Sherman records along with a lot of my other personal property (she could at least have waited for my estate sale). I swear, if it weren't for pink slips she'd have sold my old '65 VW bug ("It's time you got a new car, dear").
And heaven forbid a child should spend "too much time" indoors cultivating his mind and learning about culture instead of blowing stuff up like the other kids. And by the way, how much is "too much" time?
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[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Dec 14 2004, 03:06 PM\']I swear, if it weren't for pink slips she'd have sold my old '65 VW bug ("It's time you got a new car, dear").
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(innocently) Why would she base her decision on what you chose to wear?
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When my mom noticed at age 6 that I was spending a lot of time recording GS eps (particularly Pitfall reruns, which aired on LI indie station WLIG at that time), she would tape over parts of the eps w/random stuff, basically making them unwatchable...God only knows how many traders I could've made VERY happy w/that stuff, but since it's ancient history, I'll just leave it at that.
Chuck Donegan (The Trying-Not-To-Dwell "Chuckie Baby")
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[quote name=\'ChuckNet\' date=\'Dec 15 2004, 07:42 PM\']When my mom noticed at age 6 that I was spending a lot of time recording GS eps (particularly Pitfall reruns, which aired on LI indie station WLIG at that time), she would tape over parts of the eps w/random stuff, basically making them unwatchable...God only knows how many traders I could've made VERY happy w/that stuff, but since it's ancient history, I'll just leave it at that.
Chuck Donegan (The Trying-Not-To-Dwell "Chuckie Baby")
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Aha! So now the story of the '70s $25K Pyramid episodes that were erased comes out!! :) And to think all these years, I'd faulted you for it. ;)
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[quote name=\'ChuckNet\' date=\'Dec 15 2004, 07:42 PM\']When my mom noticed at age 6 that I was spending a lot of time recording GS eps (particularly Pitfall reruns, which aired on LI indie station WLIG at that time),
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Aren't most of the Cullen Pyramid shows on the trading circuit from that station?
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[quote name=\'zachhoran\' date=\'Dec 15 2004, 08:13 PM\'][quote name=\'ChuckNet\' date=\'Dec 15 2004, 07:42 PM\']When my mom noticed at age 6 that I was spending a lot of time recording GS eps (particularly Pitfall reruns, which aired on LI indie station WLIG at that time),
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Aren't most of the Cullen Pyramid shows on the trading circuit from that station?
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Some, I believe, are from KCBS-2...
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[quote name=\'ChuckNet\' date=\'Dec 15 2004, 07:42 PM\']When my mom noticed at age 6 that I was spending a lot of time recording GS eps (particularly Pitfall reruns, which aired on LI indie station WLIG at that time), she would tape over parts of the eps w/random stuff, basically making them unwatchable...God only knows how many traders I could've made VERY happy w/that stuff, but since it's ancient history, I'll just leave it at that.
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My parents were weird. They encouraged me to keep all my baseball cards and fronted me the money to buy up other kids' cards when their parents were threatening to throw them out.
They didn't make me throw out the audiotapes I made of The Big Showdown, The Money Maze, Stumpers, 50 Grand Slam, etc. I did that myself. How did I know?
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Aren't most of the Cullen Pyramid shows on the trading circuit from that station?
There were 11 that hit the curcuit a few years ago that came from that station - unfortunatly most of them have poor video. There's also the very first episode from 1974 with Anne Meara and Tony Roberts - that episode has great video, I believe it's from a studio master. There are a couple of others recorded off-air as well.
As for me, when our family first got a VCR on Christmas 1982, I was the one who used it most often, usually to record game shows. Unfortunatly I didn't save very many of them - videotapes were a lot more expensive back then, and I never thought I'd be trading on the internet 20 years later! So I guess for me, it's my fault...
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[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Dec 16 2004, 09:10 AM\']As for me, when our family first got a VCR on Christmas 1982, I was the one who used it most often, usually to record game shows. Unfortunatly I didn't save very many of them - videotapes were a lot more expensive back then, and I never thought I'd be trading on the internet 20 years later! So I guess for me, it's my fault...
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Yeah.....If only we knew that we'd be trading years later, imagine the possibilities..I remember taping the 2nd episode of PYL (messed up the VCR so it didn't tape the first day), a day of FAM's game shows from 1/2/89, a Sally Jessy Raphael special with Gene Rayburn (which showed me my first clips of MG)....list could go on and on...
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[quote name=\'aaron sica\' date=\'Dec 16 2004, 09:21 AM\']
Yeah.....If only we knew that we'd be trading years later, imagine the possibilities..I remember taping the 2nd episode of PYL (messed up the VCR so it didn't tape the first day), a day of FAM's game shows from 1/2/89, a Sally Jessy Raphael special with Gene Rayburn (which showed me my first clips of MG)....list could go on and on...
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How were you able to pull off taping a day of FAM game shows on 1/2/89, when FAM didn't air any game shows that day. USA had a game block that day, and it included the premieres of Face the Music and Lange NTT, both of which debuted on USA that day.
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[quote name=\'zachhoran\' date=\'Dec 16 2004, 09:48 AM\']How were you able to pull off taping a day of FAM game shows on 1/2/89, when FAM didn't air any game shows that day. USA had a game block that day, and it included the premieres of Face the Music and Lange NTT, both of which debuted on USA that day.
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Well, I wasn't. :)
You are right - it was USA, and not FAM. And I taped it that day precisely *for* FtM, which remains one of my favorites to this day..
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You are right - it was USA, and not FAM. And I taped it that day precisely *for* FtM, which remains one of my favorites to this day..
Mine too! :-) Remind me to bring my tape of 12 FAM-recorded eps to the next central PA-based GSC...you're in for a treat!
Oh, and our own Chri$ L! did get the FtM premiere on tape from USA that day, which many traders (myself included) have a copy of.
Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")
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[quote name=\'ChuckNet\' date=\'Dec 17 2004, 10:25 PM\']Mine too! :-) Remind me to bring my tape of 12 FAM-recorded eps to the next central PA-based GSC...you're in for a treat!
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Well Chuck, believe it or not, I'm thinking of doing it again. This time, however, your trip from that bus station to my place would be more like 10-15 minutes instead of an hour. :)
We'll see what 2005 holds, but I'm thinking heavily about it....
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To Aaron, Chuck, or anyone else in the PA, NJ, NY area, did the even in Allentown, PA take place in December ? I believe our fellow board member Mystery 7 was organizing it.
As to another PA based convention, I'm all for it, and Im sure most of the other attendees are as well. I just came across 4 tapes chock full of another musical show, My Generation.
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[quote name=\'Rastaub\' date=\'Dec 18 2004, 05:12 PM\']To Aaron, Chuck, or anyone else in the PA, NJ, NY area, did the even in Allentown, PA take place in December ? I believe our fellow board member Mystery 7 was organizing it.
As to another PA based convention, I'm all for it, and Im sure most of the other attendees are as well. I just came across 4 tapes chock full of another musical show, My Generation.
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You know, Bob, I was wondering the same thing. I wanted to go, but never heard anything about it as the date drew closer..
OK, I'm throwing my hat officially into the ring for GSC 2005. Randy West, how would you like to make a real cameo in New Cumberland, PA?? LOL...
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Well Chuck, believe it or not, I'm thinking of doing it again. This time, however, your trip from that bus station to my place would be more like 10-15 minutes instead of an hour. :)
We'll see what 2005 holds, but I'm thinking heavily about it....
Keep me posted...always happy to take a wk's vacation to central PA like I've been doing the last 2 yrs. :-)
Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")
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Sorry to be late getting to this thread, but in response to the original question, I've been told reliably that at least one episode of Your Surprise Package exists, with Bern Bennett as the announcer. However, it is not in the trading circuit.