Author Topic: Game Show "Celebrity Player" Veterans (Read 8810 times)

Neumms · « **Reply #15 on:** October 13, 2004, 11:21:33 AM »

Anita Gillette. Never liked her. She did WML? in the '60s, all the Bob Stewart games in the 70s, and I would imagine Pyramid in the '80s.

JoAnne Worley. Must've done something in the '60s, then every possible game in the '70s and '80s.

It always seemed like the mark of a cut-rate show if they had Anita Gillette and JoAnne Worley on a lot. Match Game '7x did, but only at the very beginning. Then they kicked them both to the curb.

zachhoran · « **Reply #16 on:** October 13, 2004, 11:25:35 AM »

[quote name=\'Neumms\' date=\'Oct 13 2004, 10:21 AM\']

JoAnne Worley. Must've done something in the '60s, then every possible game in the '70s and '80s.

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Even if she didn't do any shows in the 60s, she did MG90 and $100K Pyramid in the early 90s, and Bergeron HS and Balderdash(airs next month) this decade.

tvrandywest · « **Reply #17 on:** October 13, 2004, 12:53:31 PM »

Anita Gillette was a panelist on the syndie WML the day I was a contestant in 1971. In fact she did many weeks on that version of the show. So the Goodson folks also thought she had the game show gene.

Can stem cell research help isolate and develop that gene? But I digress.

I see we're giving "props" on the board to Nipsey Russell on his 80th today. He must be in the top ten of veteran players, in addition to being a really nice guy.

Randy
tvrandywest.com

Jimmy Owen · « **Reply #18 on:** October 13, 2004, 01:19:54 PM »

Were there "exclusivity" clauses for some celebs? For example after Squares started, you would see Rose Marie or Wally Cox on just about every H-Q show, but not on any Goodson shows (unless I'm forgetting something).

aaron sica · « **Reply #19 on:** October 13, 2004, 01:22:24 PM »

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Oct 13 2004, 01:19 PM\']Were there "exclusivity" clauses for some celebs? For example after Squares started, you would see Rose Marie or Wally Cox on just about every H-Q show, but not on any Goodson shows (unless I'm forgetting something).

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And in reverse of that....Were Brett or CNR ever on Squares? (Marshall version of course).

Tim L · « **Reply #20 on:** October 13, 2004, 01:35:52 PM »

[quote name=\'aaron sica\' date=\'Oct 13 2004, 01:22 PM\'][quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Oct 13 2004, 01:19 PM\']Were there "exclusivity" clauses for some celebs? For example after Squares started, you would see Rose Marie or Wally Cox on just about every H-Q show, but not on any Goodson shows (unless I'm forgetting something).

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And in reverse of that....Were Brett or CNR ever on Squares? (Marshall version of course).

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Don't know about Brett Somers, but Charles Nelson Reilly starred in "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir", an NBC Sitcom in 1968-69 with Hope Lange And Edward Mulhare (The show moved to ABC for 1969-70).. I would say there is a decent chance that Charles may have been on Squares during the 1968-69 season at least if not earlier.

Neumms · « **Reply #21 on:** October 13, 2004, 01:41:25 PM »

[quote name=\'tvrandywest\' date=\'Oct 13 2004, 11:53 AM\']Anita Gillette was a panelist on the syndie WML the day I was a contestant in 1971. In fact she did many weeks on that version of the show. So the Goodson folks also thought she had the game show gene.

Can stem cell research help isolate and develop that gene? But I digress.

I see we're giving "props" on the board to Nipsey Russell on his 80th today. He must be in the top ten of veteran players, in addition to being a really nice guy.

Randy
tvrandywest.com

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I suspect Anita's appearances on WML? were actually what caused most game shows to move to the west coast. The Goodson people can only play the cards they're dealt.

SRIV94 · « **Reply #22 on:** October 13, 2004, 03:12:13 PM »

I might as well ask, Randy, but what *was* your line the day you appeared on WML in 1971 (and there must be an interesting anecdote or two along the way as well)?

Doug

tvrandywest · « **Reply #23 on:** October 13, 2004, 04:05:28 PM »

Anecdotes? I've got a website full of anecdotes. And a few thousand more come to mind whenever there's a drink in front of me (just ask the members of this board who visited TPiR-Live in Atlantic City ;-)

I had just started getting chummy with Johnny O at WML, and he had given me a little schtick to do in his warm-up whenever I cut school to visit. An episode was running short, and Dick DeBartolo came looking for four audience members to play in a "Who's Who" segment. Johnny immediately pointed me out to Dick and said "He's great". The hardest part was then coming up with a "line"; student was not gonna be unique enough. But as I had recently been given an airshift on my school radio station, we agreed on "Disc Jockey".

Even though the "Jeweler" insisted on wearing his ton of bling bling, Anita and Arlene both missed making the matches. Soupy guessed the right combination. I got $50 and a really pretty star saphire ring that I still wear. I thanked Johnny, and then rode down the elevator with Soupy and Anita to the very boring real world. ;-)

Randy
tvrandywest.com

mystery7 · « **Reply #24 on:** October 13, 2004, 04:08:27 PM »

[quote name=\'Neumms\' date=\'Oct 13 2004, 11:21 AM\']JoAnne Worley. Must've done something in the '60s, then every possible game in the '70s and '80s.

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Jo Anne Worley? Just a little thing in the '60s and '70s called Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. (Before that, an even littler thing called The Mad Show in 1965 - an off-Broadway play based on Mad Magazine).

-Mystery 7
[drills finger into cheek and sings an operatic note audible for three miles]

Mike Tennant · « **Reply #25 on:** October 13, 2004, 04:12:31 PM »

[quote name=\'mystery7\' date=\'Oct 13 2004, 03:08 PM\'][quote name=\'Neumms\' date=\'Oct 13 2004, 11:21 AM\']JoAnne Worley. Must've done something in the '60s, then every possible game in the '70s and '80s.

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Jo Anne Worley? Just a little thing in the '60s and '70s called Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. (Before that, an even littler thing called The Mad Show in 1965 - an off-Broadway play based on Mad Magazine).

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The question isn't whether or not she did Laugh-In. The question is whether or not she did a game show during that '60s (a point which is now moot since we know she's done some in the current decade).

CaseyAbell · « **Reply #26 on:** October 13, 2004, 04:19:52 PM »

A tricky one because he's kinda hidden in plain sight...Gene Rayburn. All sorts of guest panelist appearances from the fifties through the eighties. The imdb.com page lists Name's the Same, TTTT, WML, Tattletales, Just Men!, many others. I tend to think of him as a host only...and of only one show. Shows how a single gig - if it's the perfect gig - can define a performer's image.

uncamark · « **Reply #27 on:** October 13, 2004, 05:41:57 PM »

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Oct 13 2004, 12:19 PM\']Were there "exclusivity" clauses for some celebs? For example after Squares started, you would see Rose Marie or Wally Cox on just about every H-Q show, but not on any Goodson shows (unless I'm forgetting something).

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Both H-Q and G-T had most of their regulars locked up in exclusivity clauses. Paul Lynde did go on "Pyramid" in either 1973 or 1974, but never again. Bill Cullen was probably the one G-T regular who didn't have an exclusivity clause in his contract, going back to "IGAS"--because he seemed to be always working for another packager on top of his panel gigs.

mmb5 · « **Reply #28 on:** October 13, 2004, 06:26:01 PM »

[quote name=\'Mike Tennant\' date=\'Oct 13 2004, 03:12 PM\']The question isn't whether or not she did Laugh-In. The question is whether or not she did a game show during that '60s (a point which is now moot since we know she's done some in the current decade).

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On the episode of PDQ that's at UCLA, she was one of the celebrities.

--Mike

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #29 on:** October 13, 2004, 06:55:53 PM »

According to Peter Marshall's book, Charles Nelson Reilly did appear on Hollywood Squares. Not Brett though.

Gene Rayburn has guest appearances on more than a dozen game show to his credit, including Hollywood Squares.

In addition to PDQ, other 60's game show appearances for Jo Anne Worley include The Dating Game, Personality, Snap Judgment, The Match Game, Funny You Should Ask, Name Droppers and, logically enough, Letters to Laugh-In.

Anita Gillette became a game show staple because the Goodson camp was doing in the early seventies what they'd been doing pretty much from the beginning: Populating their panels with bright, attractive folks who were appearing on the New York stage. In many cases their stage careers never took off, and in a few cases their fame grew far beyond the bounds of "game show panelist" but people like Gillette, Elaine Joyce, Alan Alda, Larry Blyden, Bert Convy, Jack Cassidy and many more were "discovered" as game show personalities simply because they were "treading the boards" in the early seventies and were available for a little extra work.

On his site, Steve Beverly has a list of a small handfull of celebrities who make up the "Six Decade Club", covering every decade from the 50s to this one. By comparison, the qualifications (5 shows, 3 decades) made by our OP are hardly a big deal. There are probably a couple hundred or more that would qualify.

Author Topic: Game Show "Celebrity Player" Veterans (Read 8810 times)

CaseyAbell

uncamark