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Author Topic: How many GS hosts have you met?  (Read 9044 times)

Jimmy Owen

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How many GS hosts have you met?
« on: September 25, 2003, 10:57:33 AM »
Here's a fun question with these caveats (not Dick Caveat) :)  How many game show hosts have you met? Here are the caveats:  1) The meeting could not be on the set of a game show. 2) The meeting could not be in New York City or Hollywood (Burbank included).  I have met two.
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Matt Ottinger

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How many GS hosts have you met?
« Reply #1 on: September 25, 2003, 11:29:25 AM »
Chris Dickson brought this up on another thread, and I think it's a terrific question.  Your caveats are a little restrictive, though.  I certainly don't think merely *seeing* them at a game show taping counts as meeting them, but I think very few of us are going to have met too many hosts outside of their native habitat.

I worked with Greg Lee when he was doing a promotional tour for Carmen Sandiego and we were getting QuizBusters off the ground.  He's the only one I've met outside of Southern California, but there are nine others I can come up with that I've spoken to (in most cases quite briefly).

Obviously, there are members of this forum who've met (and worked with) dozens.  Randy, for example, has probably lost count.
« Last Edit: September 25, 2003, 11:30:11 AM by Matt Ottinger »
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SRIV94

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How many GS hosts have you met?
« Reply #2 on: September 25, 2003, 11:38:46 AM »
Might as well add my two cents.  I've met four:

1.  John Davidson (HSq8x, $100KP).  Embarrassing story, but I might as well come clean.  While touring in \"State Fair\", he made a promotional appearance in Chicago.  I happened to get there a little late, and for whatever reason he decided to single me out and have a little fun with me--which ended with him hugging me.  Twice.  I'm terribly sorry.  :)

2.  Frank Nicotero (STREET SMARTS). He was doing his thing at Chicago's Navy Pier and I was watching.  We chatted briefly about Sammy Sosa (Nicotero had been at Wrigley Field a couple of days earlier singing \"Take Me Out To The Ballgame\"--at least he was more intelligible than Ozzy).

3.  Bobby Van (MML, SHOWOFFS and dare we mention FUN FACTORY).  Again, another theatre tie-in.  To celebrate my 12th birthday in 1977, my folks took me to see Van play Professor Harold Hill in \"The Music Man.\"  Then, unbeknownst to me, my mother had arranged a backstage meeting.  Super nice man--we lost him far too soon.

4.  A stretch--but what the heck?  Chris Berman (B&BSBOST).  Saw him as he was coming up the ramp at Wrigley to work a Florida/Chi. Cubs game for ESPN (I'd heard rumblings that he wasn't the nicest guy in the world, but we chatted amiably for a moment before he did his broadcast).

Never met any of the biggies, though.  Oh well. . .

Doug
« Last Edit: September 25, 2003, 01:50:31 PM by SRIV94 »
Doug
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"When you see the crawl at the end of the show you will see a group of talented people who will all be moving over to other shows...the cameramen aren't are on that list, but they're not talented people."  John Davidson, TIME MACHINE (4/26/85)

Jimmy Owen

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How many GS hosts have you met?
« Reply #3 on: September 25, 2003, 01:02:23 PM »
It was Chris' (Dickoon) post that inspired this one, I thought it got lost in the discussion on the other topic.  Both of the gentlemen I met were in conjunction with my radio job, Ray Combs and Soupy Sales (JAAG). I also met Peter Lind Hayes, but he is not primarily known as a game show host.  I will remove the caveats to spur discussion, but note if they were met on set.
Let's Make a Deal was the first show to air on Buzzr. 6/1/15 8PM.

cmjb13

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How many GS hosts have you met?
« Reply #4 on: September 25, 2003, 01:21:11 PM »
How was Ray Combs?

I've heard he was nice when he started Feud and it got worse as time went on.
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Skynet74

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How many GS hosts have you met?
« Reply #5 on: September 25, 2003, 01:26:11 PM »
I've talked to Bob Barker and Chuck Woolery on the set. I've also stood next to Ray Combs while hosting Feud. I've been in the same room with Bob Eubanks, Jim Perry and Pat Sajak if you want to count them too. However..... my most formal meeting was with Tom Bergeron who I met while hosting People Are Talking in Boston.


John

dzinkin

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How many GS hosts have you met?
« Reply #6 on: September 25, 2003, 01:35:53 PM »
I've met three off the set...

1. Bob Eubanks.  Only the briefest of hellos, just after he finished doing \"The Newlywed Game\" at a mall in Miami, Florida.  (It wasn't aired... I think it was part of some promotional tour.)

2. John Davidson... backstage, after one of his \"Music Man\" performances here in Rochester.  Still have the \"Zingers from the Hollywood Squares\" album he signed for me (on the back, but what the heck).

3. Marc Summers... at Fox News in New York, where he was promoting \"Unwrapped.\"

...and one on the set:

4. Johnny Gilbert, whom I met at the J! ToC tapings in Atlanta.

 - David

EDIT: So I met Summers in NYC... wasn't on a game show set, at least. :-P
« Last Edit: September 25, 2003, 01:38:52 PM by dzinkin »

Jimmy Owen

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How many GS hosts have you met?
« Reply #7 on: September 25, 2003, 01:39:51 PM »
I met Ray Combs in 1991 and he was very cordial to me. All the folks mentioned were very nice and fun to be with.
Let's Make a Deal was the first show to air on Buzzr. 6/1/15 8PM.

SRIV94

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How many GS hosts have you met?
« Reply #8 on: September 25, 2003, 01:53:17 PM »
[quote name=\'Skynet74\' date=\'Sep 25 2003, 12:26 PM\']However..... my most formal meeting was with Tom Bergeron who I met while hosting People Are Talking in Boston.
[/quote]
You hosted \"People Are Talking\"?  Why didn't you put that in your bio?  :)

Doug
Doug
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"When you see the crawl at the end of the show you will see a group of talented people who will all be moving over to other shows...the cameramen aren't are on that list, but they're not talented people."  John Davidson, TIME MACHINE (4/26/85)

Jay Temple

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How many GS hosts have you met?
« Reply #9 on: September 25, 2003, 01:57:16 PM »
Vicki Lawrence, a year or two before she hosted WLD, at a public appearance promoting union membership.  She had an entry in a reference book I was compiling, and she autographed the page on which it appeared.
Protecting idiots from themselves just leads to more idiots.

DrBear

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How many GS hosts have you met?
« Reply #10 on: September 25, 2003, 02:12:59 PM »
I had forgotten Chris \"Shelley\" Berman; sat next to him for a few minutes at the Football Hall of Fame inductions a few years ago. So I guess there is one. I saw Bob \"Kevin\" Eubanks when he toured with Wheel of Fortune back in the mid-90s but didn't get to meet him.

No other hosts, but one producer: Henry Winkler (see post elsewhere on this board).

As far as panelists, I actually met Gretchen Wyler once; as it turns out, she's on TTTT coming up soon. A sweet lady who loves animals.

And this will probably get me put in the penalty box, but does meeting a member of the Clue Crew count? :)
This isn't a plug, but you can ask me about my book.

gsgalaxy82

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How many GS hosts have you met?
« Reply #11 on: September 25, 2003, 04:45:22 PM »
I met Graham Elwood at the GSN \"Get Schooled\" Tour at Great Lakes Crossing in Auburn Hills in April. He signed my Spencer's Card with him on it and stood next to me for some photos. When I asked one of the workers if I could talk to him, the worker went and told him and he dropped everything to come talk. I was very surprised at how different he was off the set. He's a very nice man, and he seems to love his job. At the end of the show he was thanking GSN for giving him a job, I yelled \"IT'S A LOT BETTER THEN STRIP POKER RIGHT?\" and he laughed and was like \"Not that show!\" Hopefully I'll add those photos to my site soon.

dickoon

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How many GS hosts have you met?
« Reply #12 on: September 25, 2003, 08:30:08 PM »
Off the set of a game show? That cuts things down a bit. Not that much, though. In roughly chronological order:

Anneka Rice: wagged little school for a day in about 1984 because my parents found out that Treasure Hunt (the one with helicopters, not the one with klunks) was being recorded semi-near. Half-counts because it was at a hotel after the show had finished taping and she was doing lots of photos for the local press; half-doesn't-count because the show doesn't have a set as such, being filmed around the gorgeous British countryside.

Carol Vorderman: attending the national final of a schools' science quiz, circa 1988. (My school made the final; I wasn't on the team.) She hadn't been a host in her own right at that point. Heck, she was such a relative unknown at that point that she wasn't even announced to the audience - she was just a supportive person who was interested enough to come along.

Nicholas Parsons, Bob Holness and Richard Whiteley: all came to speak at the Oxford Union, circa 1995, 1996 and 1997. Parsons got a fair crowd, was fairly disinterested and really only cared about plugging his book. Whiteley got a fairly packed crowd but was clearly very much going through the motions. Holness took questions for ever such a long time, but a shockingly tiny audience came to hear him. Really nice guy.

Tim Vine: first met him on set taping \"Whittle\", but two days after the episode with my most (ahem) striking appearance was broadcast, I bumped into him on Oxford Street in London. The super-cool thing was that I didn't recognise him, he recognised me. Damn, that's good. (David Bodycombe can back me up on this.) Also saw Tim do his stand-up comedy show here in town t'other month. He claimed to recognise me still, but I find this hard to believe.

Richard Whiteley and Jeremy Beadle: interviewed both of them at the seventh Mind Sports Olympiad for the daily bulletin I produced. (Whiteley: day 4, Beadle: day 9.) Whiteley phoned in his performance, again; Beadle was absolutely fantastic, a real diamond gent.

So, er, six and a half out of a total of eight.

Oh, hang on. I forgot about Ted Robbins, who I've only ever met on two game show sets: doing warm-up for University Challenge, then later hosting Chain Letters. Technically I can get to nine if I count Jeremy Paxman, met on the UC set, but I hardly swapped two sentences with him. I suppose Ray Cokes on the set of Wanted would just about be a tenth, then William G. Stewart behind the set of first-series Wanted because he was producing it at the time would be an eleventh...

Six and three-quarters out of a total of eleven. Fifty is well within my sight!
Chris

Don Howard

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How many GS hosts have you met?
« Reply #13 on: September 25, 2003, 08:34:06 PM »
I met Dick Goddard once during a J.R. and Lucy Ewing look-a-like contest at the Westgate mall in suburban Cleveland while Dallas was at its pique--the Who Shot J.R.? mystery was looming large at that time. Dick hosted the local version of Bowling for Dollars for a year and a half.
Over the phone, I've called Jim Lange and Charlie Tuna during their morning radio shows. The reason? Pure stargazing. Jim was really tickled that I was such a fan. I don't think Charlie believed that I was really calling L.A. from Cleveland, but he was kind to me anyway.
And I look forward to being Randy West's chauffeur when I'm in California in February. You'll recall that previously in this newsgroup, Randy said I could hang out with him for a day as long as I'm driving. If you're serious, my main man, you've got a deal. Can't wait to play dodge-em on the Los Angeles freeways.
« Last Edit: September 25, 2003, 08:37:08 PM by Don Howard »

jrjgames

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How many GS hosts have you met?
« Reply #14 on: September 25, 2003, 08:56:12 PM »
Lets see....

Dont know personally, but met and chatted with

Eubanks---backstage at wheel Live

Monty Hall--backstage at LMAD Live

Bob Barker--backstage at Price


Know
Pat Finn

Geoff Edwards

Jim Peck

Jack Narz

David Ruprecht

Thats all I can think of now...ALL GREAT guys!