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I thumbed through What Were They Thinking?: The 100 Dumbest Events In Television History , a new book by David Hofstede (forward by Tom Bergeron). Number one hundred is Professor Price with a nod to Shower Game. Number eighty-five is Connie Francis' appearance on Pyramid.
Looks like a fun read.
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[quote name=\'alfonzos\' date=\'Dec 26 2005, 02:56 PM\']I thumbed through What Were They Thinking?: The 100 Dumbest Events In Television History , a new book by David Hofstede (forward by Tom Bergeron). Number one hundred is Professor Price with a nod to Shower Game. Number eighty-five is Connie Francis' appearance on Pyramid.
Looks like a fun read.
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Actually, it's not new...came out last year around this time, but it's def a good read...GS-wise, further up on the list are Paul Lynde's appearance on The Dating Game and the fiasco that was You're In the Picture. The "honorable mention" section also gives a nod to the 1977 Dean Martin Roast special honoring Peter Marshall.
Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")
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Can anyone say what happened on 'Pyramid' or the Peter Marshall roast? I've never heard of either.
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I had been meaning to recommend What Were They Thinking? since I picked it up nearly a year ago, but it always seemed to slip my mind. It's really a fun read, though as with any book of this type, you may not agree with all the choices. More than a dozen of them are game shows, including many you don't usually see in lists like this (Connie Francis on Pyramid) and many that wouldn't surprise you at all (You're In The Picture and, in general, the quiz show scandals both make the top ten). It seems likely that the people who made the recent TV Land special had this book on hand when making their list (both include, for example, Paul Lynde on The Dating Game).
The author gives himself some leeway by not restricting his list to shows, so that the scope can include ANY lame-brained programming decision. As I said, you won't agree with all choices. The Flying Nun makes the list, though it wasn't nearly the most egregious example of stupid 60s sitcoms. Still, it's a smart book that includes such inspired choices as the FOX mishandling of Breakfast Time. It has flaws (Dick Ebersol's last name is misspelled, as is Jon Stewart's first) and some facts it uses don't ring true to me, but it's fun, which is really all you want a book like this to be.
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In her only appearance on "Pyramid," in the summer of 1977, Connie Francis lost all 10 of her games to Nipsey Russell. One of those times when the celebs weren't quite evenly matched.
Brendan
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[quote name=\'pyrfan\' date=\'Dec 27 2005, 11:06 PM\']In her only appearance on "Pyramid," in the summer of 1977, Connie Francis lost all 10 of her games to Nipsey Russell. One of those times when the celebs weren't quite evenly matched.
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And for "Pyramid" ineptitude, no one will ever match Jimmie "J.J." "Kid Dyn-O-Mite" Walker.
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Regarding Connie Francis: I'll qualify this by saying that I'm recalling correspondence that I had nearly two years ago. A friend of mine who watched or tape-recorded most of the episodes at that time suggested that one of their regulars may have been scheduled that week and suddenly become unavailable, so Connie came in as sort of a favor to Dick Clark. (I'll try to find my print-out later and update this.)
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[quote name=\'Jay Temple\' date=\'Dec 28 2005, 12:58 PM\']so Connie came in as sort of a favor to Dick Clark. (I'll try to find my print-out later and update this.)[/quote]
Interestingly, this book we're describing paints a different picture. According to the book, it was Dick Clark doing a favor to his fading-star pal by getting her a gig on his game show.
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[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Dec 28 2005, 09:45 AM\']Interestingly, this book we're describing paints a different picture. According to the book, it was Dick Clark doing a favor to his fading-star pal by getting her a gig on his game show.
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The long and complex relationship between Dick and Connie is worthy of a movie. I'll not go into detail, but summarize very briefly by saying that Connie was raped while appearing on the road. Dick came to Connie's rescue in her emotionally devastating aftermath. For many years they have shared a strong bond.
Randy
tvrandywest.com
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More info on Randy's post here (http://\"http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0203/11/lkl.00.html\"). Mr. Clark gets the briefest of mentions.
--Mike
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Can anyone say what happened on 'Pyramid' or the Peter Marshall roast? I've never heard of either.
Since the PM special in question was relegated to the "honorable mention" section, it only got a brief paragraph...was basically just a lament by Hofstede on how the star power of the DMR specials must have faded over the yrs if they were honoring the host of HS.
Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")