I am NOT giving back the L'eggs Pantyhose no matter WHAT! I just got them \"broken in\"!! ;-)
Rod and I were phone friends in the 70s through mutual radio buddies who had worked with him in Buffalo, New York. I was a teenager on the air in Poughkeepsie, and I don't recall if Rod was even in LA yet. I think he was still in radio in Texas; he certainly hadn't worked anywhere near national TV at the time. But he had done an hysterical on-camera gig as \"the world's largest jockey\" in a TV commercial for Texas-based Meineke Mufflers! He was soooo engaging and memorable in that spot - a natural for TV! Anyway, Rod and I lost touch with each other, which is the norm in the vagabond lives of radio nomads.
(fade to black. up on swaying palm tree with 6430 Sunset Blvd in background.)
In the early 80s I was on the radio in LA, coincidentally on a station with studios and offices in the same building as Goodson-Todman's headquarters! I had reconnected with Johnny O., and was starting to sniff around the game shows. I knew to only do run-throughs and pilots for Goodson because of my relationship with Johnny, so I was happy when a new Bill Carruthers show recruited me. I went through the whole audition process for PYL before its on-air debut. Ultimately I was scheduled for one of the show's very first tape dates (episodes #9, 10, and 11). You know how contestants are kept in quarantine from staff, cast and crew; well, I didn't know Rod and I were in the same zip code until after the show!
I later told Bill Carruthers about having been a phone friend with Rod in years past. His evaluation of the whole situation was that there was no problem. Bill was such a straight-shooter that when I sent him a bottle of champagne the day that my final PYL episode aired, he returned it with a note saying that it might appear inappropriate for him to accept a gift from me! Earlier in 2003 I told that story at Carruthers' memorial service in studio 33, and how it wasn't even particularly expensive champagne! His son Byl found it amusing.
Well, after that PYL experience, learning that Rod was in the game show world but that our previous aquaintanceship apparently didn't violate eligibility rules, he and I purposely kept our distance so that I wouldn't limit my contestant potential. I already felt so severly limited by my relationship with Johnny - I didn't appear on a second Goodson show until 1990, 5 years after John's death and only as a TTTT imposter during the revival's very first week of taping. I was called by the TTTT contestant crew, presumedly from their files of folks who had worked their run-throughs and pilots.
Amazing so many years later to now find myself working in Rod's footsteps while he's out sick! Strange world. Hey, and speaking of strange coincidences and \"Rod\", was that Rod Serling I just heard?
Randy
tvrandywest.com
