The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: chrisholland03 on February 17, 2015, 04:42:24 PM
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On vacation for the week, and I brought along Carol Burnett's memoirs "This Time Together".
She writes of an incident on daytime Password in the early 60s, playing against Elizabeth Montgomery, where her civilian partner gives the clue "twat" for the word "tweet".
She cites that incident as the catalyst for Password changing from live on the east coast to taping in advance.
Confirm/Deny? It was certainly a new anecdote for me - and ranks up there with the Betsy Palmer "circle jerk" episode in gasp worthiness.
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Conveniently, that part of Carol's book is on the google, with a photo
from that day:
https://books.google.com/books?id=2nZKvdLhPrIC&pg=PA70&lpg=PA70&dq=%22carol+burnett%22+password+%22twat%22&source=bl&ots=VNz5M279qH&sig=GU72LXChmznvR0g2nWePxqORSvA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=rsHjVK6tNtXfoASuk4LIAQ&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22carol%20burnett%22%20password%20%22twat%22&f=false
ETA: And here she is, telling the same story to Jay Leno.
http://gawker.com/5785435/carol-burnett-on-the-tonight-show-the-past-tense-of-tweet-is-twat
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Conveniently, that part of Carol's book is on the google, with a photo from that day:
https://books.google.com/books?id=2nZKvdLhPrIC&pg=PA70&lpg=PA70&dq=%22carol+burnett%22+password+%22twat%22&source=bl&ots=VNz5M279qH&sig=GU72LXChmznvR0g2nWePxqORSvA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=rsHjVK6tNtXfoASuk4LIAQ&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22carol%20burnett%22%20password%20%22twat%22&f=false
One minor issue I'm noticing... the story itself is from the 1960's (CBS era), yet the photo is clearly from the 1970's (first ABC set, before the All-Stars revamp).
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Conveniently, that part of Carol's book is on the google, with a photo from that day:
https://books.google.com/books?id=2nZKvdLhPrIC&pg=PA70&lpg=PA70&dq=%22carol+burnett%22+password+%22twat%22&source=bl&ots=VNz5M279qH&sig=GU72LXChmznvR0g2nWePxqORSvA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=rsHjVK6tNtXfoASuk4LIAQ&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22carol%20burnett%22%20password%20%22twat%22&f=false
One minor issue I'm noticing... the story itself is from the 1960's (CBS era), yet the photo is clearly from the 1970's (first ABC set, before the All-Stars revamp).
A faulty picture alone doesn't discredit the story. It's very possible the editor of the book didn't have access to an actual photo from then and substituted a picture featuring the same celebs from years later; fully unaware people would notice the difference years later.
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My question is when was Password ever live?
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AFAIK, Liz and Carol never played together on the show during the 1960's.
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AFAIK, Liz and Carol never played together on the show during the 1960's.
Carol Burnett's autobiography vs. the word of Vahan Nisanian...I know where I'm staking my claim.
Re: the show being live- weren't a lot of.game shows still airing live into the 1960s, either.way?
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AFAIK, Liz and Carol never played together on the show during the 1960's.
Carol Burnett's autobiography vs. the word of Vahan Nisanian...I know where I'm staking my claim.
Re: the show being live- weren't a lot of.game shows still airing live into the 1960s, either.way?
Um, hello! I never said, or implied, that Carol Burnett lied!
http://markgoodson.wikia.com/wiki/Password/Episode_Guide
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AFAIK, Liz and Carol never played together on the show during the 1960's.
Carol Burnett's autobiography vs. the word of Vahan Nisanian...I know where I'm staking my claim.
Re: the show being live- weren't a lot of.game shows still airing live into the 1960s, either.way?
Um, hello! I never said, or implied, that Carol Burnett lied!
http://markgoodson.wikia.com/wiki/Password/Episode_Guide
Do you literally not understand the words you say?
Carol said she played Password against Elizabeth Montgomery in the 60s.
You said that's false.
THAT MEANS YOU'RE SAYING SHE'S LYING.
Jesus goddamn Christ on a fucking cracker.
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AFAIK, Liz and Carol never played together on the show during the 1960's.
Carol Burnett's autobiography vs. the word of Vahan Nisanian...I know where I'm staking my claim.
Re: the show being live- weren't a lot of.game shows still airing live into the 1960s, either.way?
Um, hello! I never said, or implied, that Carol Burnett lied!
http://markgoodson.wikia.com/wiki/Password/Episode_Guide
Do you literally not understand the words you say?
Carol said she played Password against Elizabeth Montgomery in the 60s.
You said that's false.
THAT MEANS YOU'RE SAYING SHE'S LYING.
Jesus goddamn Christ on a fucking cracker.
No, just saying that she was remembering things wrong. I never faulted her for not remembering everything. We're all (including me) capable of remembering things wrong.
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My points still stand. The word of Carol Burnett vs. a fanboy and a wikia.
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My points still stand. The word of Carol Burnett vs. a fanboy and a wikia.
Fanboy? Wikia? The information was originated by Brendan McLaughlin (pyrfan).
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Fanboy? Wikia? The information was originated by Brendan McLaughlin (pyrfan).
He could be wrong too. He may not be, but he could.
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My points still stand. The word of Carol Burnett vs. a fanboy and a wikia.
Fanboy? Wikia? The information was originated by Brendan McLaughlin (pyrfan).
Fanboy? Wikia? The information was originated by Brendan McLaughlin (pyrfan).
He could be wrong too. He may not be, but he could.
And herein lies the problem...we won't be able to confirm one way or the other because Mr. McLaughlin is no longer posting here due to an incident involving one of the principals in this post.
The person I called a fanboy is the other.
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And herein lies the problem...we won't be able to confirm one way or the other because Mr. McLaughlin is no longer posting here due to an incident involving one of the principals in this post.
Aw, you flatter me.
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It's very well possible that Carol is misinformed about that being the reason the show was shot in advance. If that picture is indeed from the episode in question, I have a hard time believing they'd still be shooting live in 1972 or '74, which according to IMDb, is when the Carol and Liz non-All Stars weeks aired.
Was this really worth the pissing match this devolved into? Jesus Christ.
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It's very well possible that Carol is misinformed about that being the reason the show was shot in advance. If that picture is indeed from the episode in question, I have a hard time believing they'd still be shooting live in 1972 or '74, which according to IMDb, is when the Carol and Liz non-All Stars weeks aired.
Was this really worth the pissing match this devolved into? Jesus Christ.
The point is this: if it comes down to Carol misremembering, then that's fine. But I don't consider the knee-jerk remarks of someone who takes far too much at face value to be the definitive source on whether or not a certain incident happened on a certain date. If it was someone with a little bit more reputablity, I doubt I or anyone else would've come down in that manner.
If Vahan is right after all, then I shall apologize. But at the same time, I think citing Wikia as your source (unless the person cites where he received the info from) is not the best way to start and I doubt that I would be the only one who feels that way.
I'll at least withdraw the "fanboy" statement, free of charge. That was a little much.
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Fair enough. That wasn't directed at any one person, for what it's worth.
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It's very well possible that Carol is misinformed about that being the reason the show was shot in advance. If that picture is indeed from the episode in question, I have a hard time believing they'd still be shooting live in 1972 or '74, which according to IMDb, is when the Carol and Liz non-All Stars weeks aired.
A thousand times this. She's spinning a funny story. May not have even happened, may have happened exactly that way, or most likely it's some combination of the two.
Was this really worth the pissing match this devolved into? Jesus Christ.
You must be new here.
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If it helps, the guy who's writing a book about exactly this show can tell you, per the original director himself, "Password" was never live.
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It's very well possible that Carol is misinformed about that being the reason the show was shot in advance. If that picture is indeed from the episode in question, I have a hard time believing they'd still be shooting live in 1972 or '74, which according to IMDb, is when the Carol and Liz non-All Stars weeks aired.
If I'm not mistaken, every episode on the Password DVD set has a slate. That includes the 1st nighttime episode. So, I'll go with Adam and the original director on Password never being live.
Sometimes, the answer is right in front of you. Or in at the bottom of a plastic bin, which is where my DVD set currently sits. I should dig it out, it's been a while.
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You know folks... every time someone suggests we need to open this place to registrations again, I tell myself, "Now there's an idea worth supporting!"
And then a couple of days later we have a thread that devolves to what looks like Youtube comments, and I remind myself why new people would hate it here.
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And then a couple of days later we have a thread that devolves to what looks like Youtube comments
When exactly was the last time you perused YouTube comments? Because we're remarkably civilized in comparison.
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And then a couple of days later we have a thread that devolves to what looks like Youtube comments
When exactly was the last time you perused YouTube comments? Because we're remarkably civilized in comparison.
We're also 100% less racist and sexist.
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And then a couple of days later we have a thread that devolves to what looks like Youtube comments
When exactly was the last time you perused YouTube comments? Because we're remarkably civilized in comparison.
We're also 100% less racist and sexist.
And don't have bot accounts trying to get you to click on spam links.
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And don't have bot accounts trying to get you to click on spam links.
Which reminds me, I have this website for cheap designer sunglasses that I've been DYING to tell y'all about...
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When exactly was the last time you perused YouTube comments? Because we're remarkably civilized in comparison.
Sometimes, yes. Sometimes no. I think we have better grammar that Youtube, and everyone uses two hands to type. Well, except for toetyper, but he's got a good excuse.
We're also 100% less racist and sexist.
Mathematically, this would mean we are 0% racist and sexist. No. Just no.
And don't have bot accounts trying to get you to click on spam links.
Yeah, well, I suppose that's an argument in favor of not opening up to new accounts.
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You know folks... every time someone suggests we need to open this place to registrations again, I tell myself, "Now there's an idea worth supporting!"
And then a couple of days later we have a thread that devolves to what looks like Youtube comments, and I remind myself why new people would hate it here.
From some of the reactions of past threads, I'm not so sure the old people like it here that much either.
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Sometimes, yes. Sometimes no. I think we have better grammar that Youtube, and everyone uses two hands to type. Well, except for toetyper, but he's got a good excuse.
The fact that many of us have revealed our names and our personalities leads me to think that we're not equivalent to Youtube; on YT I see lots of commenters who have a handle with numbers in the username, and it's easy to think of someone like that as some Random Internet Yinzer. When I know someone more than that (whether through Facebook, meeting in person or just the mutual affinity for game shows), that's a deeper connection than various people who comment on videos.
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And don't have bot accounts trying to get you to click on spam links.
Which reminds me, I have this website for cheap designer sunglasses that I've been DYING to tell y'all about...
You mean Blue Blockers? (Who remembers THOSE ads? They featured people that were supposedly not rehearsed... people off the street... especially the guy that did a RAP to Blue Blockers... couldn't have been prompted on how to respond... as Bill Cosby used to say, "Riiiight!"
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A commercial using actors but wants you to believe they're actual people. Novel concept.
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Which reminds me, I have this website for cheap designer sunglasses that I've been DYING to tell y'all about...
You mean Blue Blockers?
No.
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You mean Blue Blockers? (Who remembers THOSE ads? They featured people that were supposedly not rehearsed... people off the street... especially the guy that did a RAP to Blue Blockers... couldn't have been prompted on how to respond... as Bill Cosby used to say, "Riiiight!"
This is one of those times when it was unnecessary to try to top the joke that was made, or indeed to try to riff on it.
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You mean Blue Blockers? (Who remembers THOSE ads? They featured people that were supposedly not rehearsed... people off the street... especially the guy that did a RAP to Blue Blockers... couldn't have been prompted on how to respond... as Bill Cosby used to say, "Riiiight!"
This is one of those times when it was unnecessary to try to top the joke that was made, or indeed to try to riff on it.
Generally known as third joke (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=third%20joke).
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Somewhat related to the original debate, there was a comic being interviewed for the SNL40 special Sunday who went on and on about Richard Pryor and what a big deal it was that Richard Pryor was the host of the very first episode of SNL, and what an influence it was to that comic's life to see Pryor on that debut episode. And of course Pryor wasn't on the first episode, George Carlin was.
Celebrities are not historians, and amusing or interesting anecdotes aren't always fact-checked.
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Somewhat related to the original debate, there was a comic being interviewed for the SNL40 special Sunday who went on and on about Richard Pryor and what a big deal it was that Richard Pryor was the host of the very first episode of SNL, and what an influence it was to that comic's life to see Pryor on that debut episode. And of course Pryor wasn't on the first episode, George Carlin was.
Celebrities are not historians, and amusing or interesting anecdotes aren't always fact-checked.
Natural followup: should they be?
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Natural followup: should they be?
By whom? Who is going to fact-check some off-the-cuff remark? Is that person above reproach? What happens if someone's anecdote is proved to be horseapples? Is it better or worse to forget, transpose or make things up? If Charlie Sheen says that he spent the night before in a marathon session of Twister Boggle, where do you go from that? Do you ask him for witnesses who will pledge to tell the truth under forfeiture of earnings?
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Natural followup: should they be?
By whom? Who is going to fact-check some off-the-cuff remark? Is that person above reproach? What happens if someone's anecdote is proved to be horseapples? Is it better or worse to forget, transpose or make things up? If Charlie Sheen says that he spent the night before in a marathon session of Twister Boggle, where do you go from that? Do you ask him for witnesses who will pledge to tell the truth under forfeiture of earnings?
Brian Williams says "hi".
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Brian Williams says "hi".
The difference is that Brian Williams was deceiving millions of viewers after being repeatedly told by higher-ups "don't do that!" and hurting the company he worked for. Some comic who says "I looked up to Richard Pryor," and gets the fluffy fact wrong isn't. He may have misremembered and that's the end of it.
One of those is a Whew! blooper. The other isn't. Everyone has their own boolsh filter. It is up to each of us to use it, to download and install regular updates for it and to know how it works and how to interpret the results. We don't need a Truthiness Czar.
(In "Quizmaster," Mark Maxwell-Smith tells a story about when Milton Berle was on Hot Potato, and how he's being a pain in the neck. The question of "Who has been on the cover of TV Guide most?" comes up, Uncle Miltie names himself and is told to Sit Down. On YT there was (it might still be there) that particular episode, and so I went looking. As it happens Tom Dreesen gives the answer in question, not Milton. I don't think Mark was lying or being deceitful at all, I think he forgot what happened because it was nearly thirty years ago when Adam did the interview. It's just an honest and easy-to-make mistake.)
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Consider this--in Chuck Barris' The Game Show King, he recounts the taping where Jaye P. Morgan bares her full upper frontals. And mentions the two other judges sitting in with Jaye that week as Charlie Brill and David Letterman.
Brill never did anything without his lovely wife Mitzi McCall, and Dave was not there--he only did GONG once and it was about 10 months prior to the incident. (The actual celebs that week were Gary Muledeer and L.A. Dodgers peanut vendor Roger Owens.)
Now, is it a case of Chuckie misremembering, or a case of "If I mention who was really on the panel I'll get a collective 'Who?' from my audience"? And the answer might be a little of both.
(To be fair, he mentions the incident in better detail in Confessions but without mentioning who the other celebs were, but also mentions another incident that supposedly happened [involving an act with a kid riding a unicycle] while at the taping of that week--which actually happened two years earlier. That one I'm willing to chalk up to misremembering.)
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Another case of Barris misremembering, in a recent interview, he doesn't remember Gene Gene the Dancing Machine's last name, guessing it was Gene Reynolds, but of course his name was Gene Patton. I am guessing Chuck didn't sign Gene's paychecks.
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I am guessing Chuck didn't sign Gene's paychecks.
That's true. Patton (like "Father Ed" Holland and other stagehands Chuckie used) worked for NBC.
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I am guessing Chuck didn't sign Gene's paychecks.
That's true. Patton (like "Father Ed" Holland and other stagehands Chuckie used) worked for NBC.
I'm assuming at some point Chuck did actually sign Gene's checks, though...he stayed with Gong until the end of the syndie series, right? Unless KTLA paid him or he worked pro bono.
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I'm assuming at some point Chuck did actually sign Gene's checks, though...he stayed with Gong until the end of the syndie series, right?
Yes, but after the show left NBC and all they had left was the syndie run, he appeared FAR less often. Almost all of the recurring gags--Father Ed, the bug-eating guy, Scarlett & Rhett--disappeared completely. Only Gene-Gene and The Unknown Comic remained, with the Unknown Comic appearing at least twice per five-episode taping session, but Gene's appearances were scaled way back. He may have appeared as few as three times during the 1978-79 season, and only appeared ONCE in the 1979-80 season.
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(In "Quizmaster," Mark Maxwell-Smith tells a story about when Milton Berle was on Hot Potato, and how he's being a pain in the neck. The question of "Who has been on the cover of TV Guide most?" comes up, Uncle Miltie names himself and is told to Sit Down. On YT there was (it might still be there) that particular episode, and so I went looking. As it happens Tom Dreesen gives the answer in question, not Milton. I don't think Mark was lying or being deceitful at all, I think he forgot what happened because it was nearly thirty years ago when Adam did the interview. It's just an honest and easy-to-make mistake.)
In the same vein, I included a story from Mike Gargiulo about shooting promos for "The $25,000 Pyramid" that he can't possibly be remembering right, based on what's appeared on YouTube since that conversation. I was still in a position where I could have removed the story from the text before I sent it off to the editors, but I left it as is because #1, it was a funny story, and #2, the way Mike told it convinced me that, at least in SOME form, it happened. It didn't exactly happen the way he remembered it, but I totally believed that 75-90% of it happened.
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That's a pity; because Bob Stewart having to be held back so as to not rush the stage and unload a whooping on his first $25,000 winner for failing to emote properly after causing Bob to have to write out that huge check amuses me greatly.
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Hey, all I'm saying was it wasn't the FIRST $25,000 winner. I completely believe everything else about that story.