From Password to Let's Make a Deal to Jeopardy let's talk about these iconic game shows.
From Password to Let's Make a Deal to Jeopardy let's talk about these iconic game shows.
Welcome to Don’t Touch That Dial, a classic TV podcast. Did you grow up in the 70s and 80s? Did you rush home from school to watch reruns of the Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family? On each episode of Don't Touch That Dial, three guys who love TV will look back on those days and talk about the shows and stars that made watching television before streaming, DVRs, and even VCRs so special.
ANTHONY: Welcome to Don't Touch That Dial, a classic TV podcast. This week we're chatting about episodes of our favorite shows from the 1970s and 1980s and even earlier that saw beloved characters appear on game shows. I'm Anthony Stoeckert.
JODY: I’m Jody Schwartz.
KEITH: And I’m Keith Loria.
ANTHONY: First we have a little game show news. The primetime edition of Wheel of Fortune is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, and amazingly, it's still going strong, still with Pat Sajak and Vanna White though Sajak is leaving. This is his last season. Before we talk about fake game shows, we'll talk about a real one just real quick, like what’s everyone's… to me, this show’s like wallpapers –it's always been there.
JODY: But like, it's amazing to me that it's still on. It's amazing to me that it's still popular. It's still relevant, and it's the same people. Almost no shows we can say that about, really
KEITH: I haven't watched the show in a good 20 years. But I know my parents still watch religiously as they do with Jeopardy! And I think that's just one of the things that people are just used to. It's just you know, the way we would watch Happy Days and M*A*S*H after school, and before we went to bed, this is just normal, day-to-day life for so many people.
ANTHONY: It could be like 30 years since I've watched. We watched it at my house at dinnertime. We had a TV in the kitchen and we watched Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune and I stopped watching when they stopped giving away the ceramic dogs. I was like I'm done. I hate, I hated when they switched from the prizes to just giving cash because the fun part was watching what they would buy.
KEITH: They used to go for $50, I'll take this; for $75 I'll take this, right?
ANTHONY: Yeah, I love that. And it was like in the end I'll take a gift certificate. It'd be like $8. I miss that.
JODY: You can count on one hand the amount of times I've ever watched it but it's always been on. I've always known it's on and my parents used to watch it. It was on in the background to me constantly. It's just this strange thing.
ANTHONY: Yeah. All right. Well, now on to some fake game shows. The idea behind this episode is that so many of the shows we watched had episodes where characters appeared on game shows. Sometimes those were real game shows, sometimes they would be made up game shows.
KEITH: I think some of the best examples – two of the best, anyway – happened on The Odd Couple They did an episode with Let's Make A Deal and they did an episode of Password. Both, you know, considered probably two of the best episodes of Odd Couple, especially the Password one, so I watched both of these recently. And you know, Klugman was friends in real life with Allen and Betty White and also Monty Hall, which is how they got to be on the show, I read.
ANTHONY: Okay, that's cool. I didn’t know that.
KEITH: … setting up these shows.
ANTHONY: Yeah, so yeah, so the Password episode, I watched that recently. And the setup for that is that they see Allen Ludden and Betty White in a restaurant. Felix is on a date with Miriam; Oscar is on a date with Mitzi Ferguson and Felix is angry at Allen Ludden because he tried to get on Password and he didn't get on and Oscar tells him “That’s because you're too sophisticated. You need to be more like a regular guy.” Allen Ludden knows Oscar. He recognizes him; he’s a big fan. And as he walks over to their table, Felix tries to act like a normal guy. He asks the table “Do you suffer much from acid stomach?”
JODY: He also says, “I'm not speaking to Allen Ludden.”
ANTHONY: Yeah and they do eventually end up on Password and it's very memorable. Jody, I'm sure you have a thought or two on this.
JODY: Well, first of all the funny part about it is, what comes about is that Allen Ludden needs a celebrity guest because, as you know, Password had a celebrity and a regular person. He wants Oscar Madison to be the celebrity guest because that's his favorite sports writer. And I'm just thinking of the last time that a game show host considered a sports writer a celebrity.
ANTHONY: Oscar had a lot of well known fans.
JODY: Yes. He did. Everyone who Oscar ever met said, “I read your column every day,” which is, you know, I guess not uncommon then but it's unheard of now.
ANTHONY: Oh yeah.
JODY: But when they're on the show, Felix first of all, when the Password is bird, Felix gives the clue Aristophanes because everyone knows that Aristophanes wrote a play called The Birds.
KEITH: That's ridiculous.
JODY: When they go – there you go, I was going to get to that, Keith – But when they go to a commercial, you know the Password commercial, the minute it goes to a commercial Allen Ludden and Betty White look at Felix and simultaneously like “Aristophanes?!” He stomps them and then yes, later, you know, Oscar’s yelling at him and says that's ridiculous. And when the Password is ridiculous, Oscar says “Aristophanes,” but he grunts it, “Aristophanes” and Felix says “ridiculous.” And at one point, Felix says, “I'm giving you these great clues,” and Oscar says, “If Charlie Chan had these clues, he'd be running a laundry.”
ANTHONY: Before that, Felix is trying to get Oscar to do it. And Oscar asks him, ‘What's for breakfast?” and Felix goes, “Jumbled clock”
JODY: He’s trying to play the game when he first wakes up in the morning.
ANTHONY: Yeah, Yeah. Two quick things before we move on. First off, does anybody know Miriam's last name? They say that this episode.
JODY: Welby.
ANTHONY: There you go. All right. Now here's something else that I don't think even Jody knows this. Nobody should know this. The actress who played Mitzi Ferguson, do you know who she was married to?
JODY: That I do not know.
ANTHONY: I'm glad you don't know this actually. In real life, she was married to Conrad Janis for Five years.
JODY: Wow. From Mork & Mindy fame. Yes.
ANTHONY: Yeah. And then what about the Let's Make a Deal episode Who has thoughts on that, Keith?
KEITH: Well, this is another one where they run into Monty Hall. Actually, I think Monty is playing poker with Oscar in the beginning of the episode.
JODY: Monty is Oscar's roommate from college. That's the setup there. They went to school together and they were college roommates, and …
ANTHONY: Who was his army buddy, was that Dawson?
JODY: Richard Dawson was Felix's Army buddy.
ANTHONY: Oh Okay.
JODY: Well, they performed together in the Army but Monty Hall was Oscar’s college roommate,
KEITH: Again speaking of college, and the Army, Oscar burns a hole in Felix's bed while he's away. And so makes him sleep on an Army cot, the one he slept on on his honeymooner with Blanche, but they need, they need money to buy a bed. So they're like, let's go on Let's Make a Deal. but Monty Hall does not allow friends and family to get on the show because that's against the rules. So they have to dress up like a horse because they need to fool Monty.
ANTHONY: Like, nobody looks at who's in the costumes. They just let anybody in
JODY: Keith, if you remember the names they used?
KEITH: They were very close. I know. It was like Austin, Ozzy, maybe?
JODY: It was Frederick Ungman and Ozzie Malone.
KEITH: Yes. So they get on…
JODY: And they put Oscar’s name on the back of the horse because he's the horse's rear end.
KEITH: And the way they get on is Monty is looking for a rubber band. You know how he goes and says, “Who has a rubber band? $300 for whoever has a rubber band!"
ANTHONY: Yes, I remember that.
KEITH: Then Felix like, “Oscar, you have a rubber band.” And he's like, “No, I don't.” He's like, “Sure you do. It's holding up your socks.”
ANTHONY: And then it's broken and Felix goes, “Will they take a broken one?”
KEITH: But they wind up playing, just to give a little recap, you know that they win. First they get money in an envelope and then they're offered the curtain and then they're offered the box and Felix is like “I want the curtain! I want the curtain!” and Oscar is like “No, take the money, take the money,” but he’s doing it like a horse, “take the money, neigh, take the money, neigh!” and then during their commercial break their fake commercial break…
JODY: Wait, but Monty Hall actually says, “This is a talented horse; it speaks from both ends.”
KEITH: Yes. But Monty makes them reveal who they are, sees who they are and lets them continue playing.
ANTHONY: Aww. That was nice of him
KEITH: And they wind up winning…
JODY: But Monty makes them donate the money; that’s the thing. They win about $1,000 and Monty makes them donate it. He actually says on air “He's – Oscar’s – smiling because he's gonna donate the money.” He's like, “But that's not why Oscar’s smiling,” and Oscar’s like,”Why am I smiling?”
KEITH: But they do make the right decision because they,they originally get a whole thing of, a can of squid.
JODY: Canned squid.
KEITH: I think they get like a supply of canned squid.
JODY: Never heard of it before that show and haven't heard of it since. KEITH: But they trade it and they finally say, All Right, well, we'll keep the money or keep the envelope and it was over $1,000 which is enough to buy the bed, even though they have to donate it, like you said.
ANTHONY: A lot of money back then.
KEITH: At the end, they have Monty over for dinner. And then Felix says “Let's play, let's make a deal. You could have what's behind plate one, two or three.” Oscar chooses plate one: steak dinner. Monty chooses two and Felix opens his which is three, another steak dinner. And then when Monty opens his it's the can of squid.
ANTHONY: They got him.
JODY: During the show, when after they take the envelope, Monty – because they always show you what you didn't get, the things you didn’t choose. So one of them was a cooking rotisserie and Felix is like “Oh a rotisserie, ah you blew it!”
KEITH: There's also a microwave and a waffle iron.
JODY: “Ah! A microwave!”
ANTHONY: Did Oscar and Felix not afford a bed?
JODY: Well, that's, that's… Oscar made a very good salary and he had this huge New York apartment, but he gambled it all away. So so that's why…
ANTHONY: Felix had to be responsible with money.
KEITH: He gave it to Gloria and the kids.
JODY: yeah, you know.
ANTHONY: That’s true.
JODY: They were both paying alimony. Felix had child support, you know, there was a lot, a lot happening
ANTHONY: All right. Makes me feel good about myself.
JODY: There you go.
ANTHONY: I did watch The Odd Couple Password. I didn't watch this but I do want to talk quickly. The Honeymoonersersers when Ralph was on the $99,000 answer.
JODY: Popular song.
ANTHONY: Yeah, not the $64,000 question, the $99,000 answer.
JODY So funny.
ANTHONY: This is one of my earliest TV memories, is my family watching The Honeymooners – not necessarily this episode, but The Honeymoonersers is in general is just one of my earliest TV memories. And I'll just go through the setup as quick as I can. Oscar is on this show. His category is popular songs. They play a song, it’s like Name That Tune essentially. And Ed Norton can play piano which I don't know if that comes up in any other episode. But Ed is playing the piano and somehow there's a piano in Kramden’s apartment; there's nothing in that apartment…
JODY: Oh, he says he's gonna rent the piano.
ANTHONY: Oh, he does? OK.
JODY: He says at the beginning he's gonna rent. It's very strange. He goes, “I'm gonna rent the piano,” Suddenly he has money for this. He says, “I'm gonna rent” because he knows he's getting $99,000 because he’s going to win.He says “I'm gonna rent the piano and have Norton come down here and play the piano.” And it's like Jesus, that’s a lot that just happened.
KEITH: He tells Alice he’s going to spend his entire life savings on sheet music and records and she's like we can’t spend our life savings on this but he was all gung ho.
ANTHONY: If I was Alice, I’d be so angry.
JODY: She says, “We won’t have anything left,” and he says, “When the smoke clears, we'll have $99,000.”
ANTHONY: Ed Norton when he plays before any song, he has to warm up by playing Swanee River and Ralph yells at him…
JODY: … but he don't say the name to.
ANTHONY: And then Ralph goes on, and it’s – Is it the last question?
KEITH: No, it’s the first first question.
ANTHONY: Oh the first question.
KEITH: First question
JODY: For $100.
KEITH: Yes, the show says the first two questions are gonna be very easy. And Alice’s like “Just stop after that. I’ll be $300; I’ll be thrilled with that.” He's like “No, I'm going for the $99,000 question.” And Ralph says that to the host at the very beginning. He's like, “I'm going right to the end; you don't even need to ask.”
ANTHONY: And the first thing they asked him who wrote Swanee River and then they play a little bit of it and and Ralph goes – who wants to do it?
JODY: Ed Norton
ANTHONY: Well, he goes “Homina, homina, homina.”
JODY: “Homina, homina, homina… Ed Norton?” And the real composer was Steven Foster.
ANTHONY: Yeah. And I had to say when I was a kid, the first time seeing this I didn't get the joke at all because it was, I didn't know who; I didn't know it was Swanee river. I didn't know who wrote Swanee River. And it was so early on I might not have even known Norton’s name, but I know like, family around me were cracking up around this and eventually I got when I was like, 40 I got the joke.
JODY: What's also a pretty funny part in that episode is when he's on the show when the host is asking him questions about himself. And when he finds out he's a bus driver, he talks about how I have such great respect for bus drivers and all they do and how hard it is. He goes “But there are exceptions because the other day I was waiting for a bus and I signaled for him to stop and he went through a puddle and got mud all over me.” And Ralph goes “Was that you?”
ANTHONY: Is that when Ralph says “I buy the dus?”
JODY: Yeah because he's nervous on TV, “I die the but” The guy is able to, and “Oh, you're a bus driver.”
KEITH: So I don't know if you know this, but there was another Honeymooners game show episode, which I watched this week.
ANTHONY: It was one of the classic 39?
JODY: One of the lost …
KEITH: It was one of the lost episodes.
ANTHONY: Oh, yeah, I could never get into those.
KEITH: Ralph and Alice were on Beat the Clock.
JODY: Yes.
ANTHONY: Who played – was it Audrey Meadows as Alice because weren’t they doing someone else as Alice?
JODY: Later on when they did like color versions of it and musical versions of it, it was a different Alice, but for the lost episodes, it was Audrey Meadows.
ANTHONY: I think very early on, there were old sketches with somebody other than Audrey Meadows.
JODY: Old sketches because he didn't want to cast her right away.
ANTHONY: Yeah.
JODY: But for the actual show, The Honeymooners, it was her until like they went, like, they came back in the 70s and did a new show
ANTHONY: Right. So what happened when they went on Beat the Clock?
KEITH: What happens is, Alice and him are on and they have to, you know, end the show because they're running out of time. And then while they're waiting, or off practicing – he is the practice keeping a balloon up in the air while stacking plates – but Alice's sister goes into labor with twins. And her husband is out of town in Chicago. So Norton has to fill in for Alice on the show, and they win and it's not the funniest of episodes, it's nowhere near as good as the $99,000 Answer, but Norton and Ralph actually wind up winning and they get two baby carriages which is nice because…
ANTHONY: Ah, that’s cute.
KEITH: … Alice’s sister has the twins.
ANTHONY: I remember being…
JODY: The lost episodes had more complicated plots too. The lost episodes were, like, more convoluted in what they, in those things.
ANTHONY: I remember being so excited. I remember Showtime showing them, that it was the first time they had been seen and all and I think I watched one or two and I was just like…
JODY: They’re not as good.
KEITH: They were lost for a reason. Yeah.
ANTHONY: And they were all sketches from the Jackie Gleason Show. JODY: Yeah.
ANTHONY: Right?
JODY: But a lot of them will like stuff like they would do these two parts sketches. So they'd have these like long rambling…
ANTHONY: They were all episodes of the Jackie Gleason Show that were all Honeymoonersers because it was so popular.
JODY: Yeah, they'd be these long rambling, kind of weird plots, and they'd be in the situat– There was one episode of the lost ones where it was a Christmas one and we're having a party and Jackie Gleason keeps coming in as a different character he played like …
ANTHONY: Oh, like the bartender?
JODY: The bartender, the poor soul, the loudmouth, yeah.
KEITH: Let’s stick to game shows and talk about…
JODY: Let’s stick with game shows.
KEITH: … one of our favorite shows Happy Days…
JODY: Yes, of course.
KEITH: … when Reuben Kincaid comes on the show.
ANTHONY: Yeah, and I thought Reuben Kincaid had an amazing career when I was a kid because he was on Partridge Family and in an episode of Happy Days. Has he done anything else?
JODY: Alice. He was on Alice too.
ANTHONY: He was on Alice? Yeah, that’s right.
JODY: He was Earl.
ANTHONY: Keith, why don’t you talk about this Happy Days episode? You watched it, right, recently? I haven't seen it in a very long time. KEITH: Yeah. So Richie is on one of those game shows where you know, you're answering the questions to win the big money, which in this case was $5,000.
ANTHONY: Wow.
KEITH: And you know, he gets picked out of the crowd. Ralph thinks he's gonna get picked, but he gets picked and you know, he's the all- American boy and they really liked that. He's in his nice suit, and he chooses his category and it's baseball. So he starts, you know, answering some questions and he gets to the $3,200 question and gets to that right. And then it's on to the next one, and they say, “Okay, we're out of time. Will you come back next week? Of course, of course.” And what happens is David Madden, as his character, gives Richie an index card and says, “Read this when you get home,” and it winds up being the answer. So he knows what the answer is going to be, which is, you know, there were a lot of scandals on quiz shows back in those days. And he's still wondering, “What should I do? Should I say it and win the money? " His family really wants stuff. Joannie wants a bike with a bell and all the bells and whistles. Howard wants his custom set of golf clubs. Marion wants a dryer. And so Richie is torn on what to do.
ANTHONY: And Richie knew the answers anyhow, right?
KEITH: He would’ve known the answer. It’s only one that he got the answer to.
JODY: It’s only one. He actually studied.
ANTHONY: It’s only one. Yeah and then what does Richie decide to do? I'm dying to know.
KEITH: So they asked the question, and the answer is, it's three Hall of Famers. And he says, when he's about to say the answer, he says, I don't know and the emcee says, “YOU’RE…!” He’s surprise that he didn't answer the question.
ANTHONY: Oh that’s right.
KEITH: And one of the funny things of this episode is Fonzie brings him into his office – one of the first times that I think that we have seen Fonzie’s office in the bathroom – and he has a friend who can write so small, he could write like the entire Baseball Encyclopedia like on his arms, like in dots. He tries to get Richie to cheat.
JODY: He shows him on the wall how small he can write.
KEITH: But he gets really mad later when he finds out that he gets the answers in this game show. He's cheating. He was kind of …
ANTHONY: So he wanted Richie to cheat, but he didn't like that the game show cheats.
JODY: Yes.
ANTHONY: That actually makes sense.
KEITH: Yeah, he explains that he was just doing what he could to help his friend. So but he doesn't like…
ANTHONY: I don't know how official This is. But I did a quick Google search, $5,000 – and I'm gonna say 1953 – that was $57,000. That was the equivalent.
KEITH: What always got me though was he already had $3,200. That still was really a lot of money. So to jump from $3,200 to $5,000 is not that big a leap.
ANTHONY: And he lost the 32?
KEITH: Yeah, it’s like Millionaire.
ANTHONY: So why didn’t he just say, “I'm not gonna go on; I'm not going to do that.”
KEITH: He should have, yes. That would’ve been a better decision
ANTHONY: Richie was an idiot.
JODY: But I remember watching that episode, there's a scene where it kind of cuts back to him answering a question, and it's just him giving the answer and it's just Joe DiMaggio. Man, they couldn't have come up with something more, like, a more complicated answer? Just Joe DiMaggio. I always wondered what the question was.
ANTHONY: Very cool. So that movie was basically the inspiration for the Robert Redford movie Quiz Show. Yeah, what else we got? I know there's a Family Ties.
KEITH: Yes. There’s Family Ties. I'm gonna say there's a Brady Bunch as well where Cindy and Bobby.
ANTHONY: These are similar. Yeah, yeah.
KEITH: And Cindy just freezes. Family Ties does the same thing where …
JODY: Alex freezes.
KEITH: Alex is in high school bowl and needs Mallory as a teammate because people get sick. And she knows nothing. So she's quizzing him. One of the famous things he quizzes her about is what this acronym scuba stands for, which is self contained underwater breathing apparatus. And he keeps trying to do it and she finally gets it during the study sessions, and he's so happy that she gets it. And then he also teaches her about Magellan, which is another thing in the study session and then during the quiz show, Alex just freezes up and can't answer anything. So Mallory answers things; is almost always wrong, but the judges are three, you know, high school-age guys who all like Mallory, so they give it to her and Stephen is hosting the show because it's on his cable network. At the beginning of the show, he says, you know, that decision of the judges is final. So at one point, Mallory says the wrong answer. And he's like, “Yeah, but she got it wrong.” But as I say …
ANTHONY: It was close enough.
JODY: Judges say “close enough.”
ANTHONY: Mallory did look especially cute.
JODY: There’s also a scene where just before they go on Mallory's kind of like flirting with the judges. And Alex walks over. He doesn't know it's the judges and he's like, “Mallory, what do you talk about these clowns for ?”
KEITH: And then there is…
ANTHONY: I have a quick question for Keith.
KEITH: Yes.
ANTHONY: Do you know what scuba stands for because of Family Ties?
KEITH: Oh absolutely.
JODY: So do I. I didn't know it before that episode.
ANTHONY: I still don't know it.
KEITH: And then they asked it on the show and she gets it right. And and then they said who invented it and she goes “Magellan.”
ANTHONY: Now, I know Alex was very cocky before the show and then he freezes. I don't remember, was Cindy getting a big head?
KEITH: Oh, absolutely. Yes.
JODY: Yeah. Oh, yeah. That was the whole thing.
KEITH: They basically stole that from the Brady Bunch.
ANTHONY: Hey, if you’re gonna steal, steal from the best.
JODY: She was actually very snooty to everybody in the weeks leading up to it like she was not being, she was not being nice.
ANTHONY: Ah.
KEITH: Very true. Another one that I watched…
JODY: We also mentioned Family Feud making an appearance a couple of times over the years and Richard Dawson on it. And one of the funnier ones, Mama's family in February of 83. And they go on – it's Vinton’s, Ken Berry’s character, and it's his idea to go on because he thinks they could win $10,000 And the family goes on. A couple of funny things when Richard Dawson at the beginning, when he goes, you know, when he kisses everybody and she's. you know, she's dreading the kiss, momma. So she walks up and he walks up to her and she's already puckered up with her eyes closed. And she goes, “I just want to get it over with.” And then when he kisses her, she's like, “Oh, that wasn't too bad.” And she introduces her family, and she introduces Vinton and then she says, “It was his idea to come on the show because nothing he's ever done has ever worked out for him,” and then introduces her daughter, Betty White, Ellen, and says, “Her husband couldn't be here, but you wouldn't care for him anyway.”
ANTHONY: Was Betty White a regular on that show?
JODY: She had a recurring role, but she had been on The Carol Burnett Show. She'd appeared as Ellen, you know, the other daughter, and then had a recurring role in Mama's Family, but she was on it a lot.
ANTHONY: I never watched Mama's Family.
JODY: Rue Callahan was a regular.
ANTHONY: Wow. So half of the Golden Girls.
JODY: Half of the Golden Girls.
ANTHONY: Keith, I think he wanted to mention another show.
KEITH: Yeah, I was gonna say another one I watched this week was Laverne & Shirely when Lenny and Squiggy go on the Dating Game.
ANTHONY: Oh, wow. I forgot about that.
KEITH: This was when they were in California. Laverne and Shirley tried to get on and Lenny and Squiggy kinda tagged along and they wound up both being bachelors and the one that they were looking to date was played by Eileen Graf, who not only was on Mr. Belvedere as Bob Uecker’s wife, but also played Gabe Kaplan's wife on Lewis and Clark.
JODY: Quite the career.
ANTHONY: So they lived in California at this point?
KEITH: Yes
ANTHONY: And they – Laverne and Shirley – were both on?
KEITH: Yes. They were both on the show.
ANTHONY: How many years were they in California before Cindy Williams left the show?
JODY: There was at least one full season.
ANTHONY: Oh, wow. Okay. I didn't realize it was that long.
JODY: It was at least one full season.
ANTHONY: I thought it was– I thought that kind of all blended together.
KEITH: They were very funny. And you know, they asked enny what his most romantic word is, and he says, “Lint.” She's like, “Lint?” And he goes, “Have you never been in love?” She goes “Oh, that lint.” And she winds up picking Squiggy and Lenny is so sad because he fell in love with her, at her voice
ANTHONY: Awww.
KEITH: He's like, “Why didn't you tell me?” So he goes out there. He's actually yelling at her and says “Youhave this great man here. Why didn’t you pick him?” And so she leaves and says “I'm not doing this.” And so they give Lenny the date and he can pick anybody else to bring to Acapulco with him – which Lenny describes as France – and he picks Lenny of course and so the two of them get to go to Acapulco.
ANTHONY: Squiggy picks Lenny?
KEITH: Yes, yeah.
ANTHONY: Okay, gotcha. Was Rhonda on this episode?
KEITH: She was not, but Ed Mariano was.
ANTHONY: Ah okay.
KEITH: Him and the big Ragu watched it with Laverne and Shirley. And they had to use aluminum foil for their antenna. You see him throughout the show holding it in different areas.
ANTHONY: That's very realistic. We have, I won't say who it is, but we have a friend who made her sister hold the antenna in a certain position so that she could watch TV. Jody might know who I'm talking about.
KEITH: Now if this was the Dating Game episode, Lenny and Squiggy actually call out Laverne and Shirley and give them their phone number. And then they just started getting calls.
ANTHONY: Oh, there's the Dick Van Dyke Show, the famous episode where Laura outs Allen Brady as being bald. She does that on a game show. Right?
JODY: He does that. Yeah, it's a guy who– that's what he's famous for making people saying…
ANTHONY: Tricking people.
JODY: Tricking people into saying things they didn't want to say.
ANTHONY: Yes and that leads to one of the best scenes in television history.
JODY: Easily, easily.
ANTHONY: … where Allen, Allen Brady says, “Well, what am I going to do with all these toupees?” and she says, “You could donate them to needy bald children.”
JODY: Needy bald people.
ANTHONY: Needy bald people.
JODY: That actually makes him laugh, he’s like, needy bald people.
ANTHONY: Is that when he says to, he tells Rob to leave and Rob says anything that…
JODY: Yeah, anything you say to my wife, you can say to me and he goes “Okay Rob, you're a beautiful girl.” When she tells him he looks good bald, he goes “How come you haven’t told me this before?”She says, “I didn't think it was my place.” He says, “No no your place is on national television.”
Anthony: That was great. Anything else?
JODY: Well, there was another Family Feud. Richard Dawson did not rest. And he was on an episode of Angie which…
ANTHONY: Oh my God! I don't remember this.
JODY: He did a Family Feud on Angie in November of 79.
KEITH: It was Robert Hayes’...
JODY: The setup was Richard Dawson was eating in Angie's diner and they recognize him. By the way, Gene wood is with him, having lunch with him. Gene Wood was the announcer on Family Feud.
ANTHONY: Oh OK. Mark Dotson wasn't there?
JODY: What’s that?
ANTHONY: Mark Dotson wasn't there?
JODY: No, no, but Gene Wood was having lunch with Richard Dawson. The idea was they were going to do the show from Philadelphia which is where Angie was set, in Philadelphia. And Angie's mom and sister were helping her in the diner and Richard Dawson was impressed by the family being together and said, “Why don’t you come on Family Feud?”. Essentially what happened and Brad's family, her husband or his rich snooty family was with, was actually in the studio audience. And the other family that was supposed to be there kind of had to pull out so they use Brad's family against Angie's family. So it was the wife's family against the husband's family and their, you know, the wife's family is blue collar and the husband's family’s rich so they get all the questions wrong because they're completely out of touch. By the way, one of the people playing with them is their butler.
ANTHONY: Do you remember this or did you watch it?
JODY: I remembered a lot of it and then I found the episode a few days ago and rewatched it last night.
ANTHONY: I don't remember anything about it. I didn't even know she owned a restaurant.
JODY: Brad bought her the diner. She was a waitress in the diner and then he bought it for her.
ANTHONY: I don't. I didn't even know she was a waitress like I know I watched it when it was on but it's you know, 45 years ago. I don't remember.
JODY: Yeah, by the way, one of the funny things is one of the people playing with Angie's family is aunt of theirs who doesn't speak any English. So her mother has to keep translating for her. You know that part in Family Feud, where they ask you a bunch of questions and then someone else in your team comes and asks a question.
ANTHONY: I think they call that I think they call that big money, right? Fast Money. The thing at the end.
JODY: The thing at the end, right.
ANTHONY: Yeah. It’s Fast Money.
JODY: So they asked Angie's mom about a religious holiday and she says Christmas and then they asked the aunt who doesn't speak English and she's from Italy and she actually gets it, Passover.
ANTHONY: That’s funny. So there's a running theme with these episodes in that these game shows are filming episodes in the towns where the characters live.
JODY: Correct.
ANTHONY: even though the shows were always filmed in Hollywood, right?
JODY: Right. Richard Dawson didn't go on tour.
ANTHONY: I remember Wheel of Fortune, but this was more later on, in like the 80s or maybe early 90s where they would be like, they'd be like in Fort Lauderdale during spring break like that kind of thing. But this shows we're talking about, Password never filmed in New York.
JODY: By the way, strangely enough, we haven't mentioned Cliff Clavin on Jeopardy.
ANTHONY: Oh, wow. Keith wanted to say something.
KEITH: Just to piggyback on what you were saying about filming in these towns. I was on a game show once, Remote Control.
ANTHONY: Oh, that's right.
KEITH: Which…
ANTHONY: Cliff Clavin can wait right .
KEITH: It filmed in New York and California. But they were doing special episodes in Florida, which is where I was living, which is why I got to be on
ANTHONY: That makes sense, though. Because you were in Florida spring break. It was on TV. So that makes sense. Yeah. Tell people real quick – we can talk about Cliff Clavin another time. Tell people real quick about your experiences on Remote Control.
KEITH: Well, it was very cool. You know, I was on the Christmas episode. I got to hang out with Adam Sandler beforehand because he used to work on the show. I did some singing with Colin Quinn on Sing Along with Colin and I wonTV questions, which big answers were related to the odd Couple.
ANTHONY: Nice. Remember the question?
KEITH: They asked about the Christmas Carol episode of The Odd Couple.
ANTHONY: Where he played Scrooge.
KEITH: They asked who played Scrooge
ANTHONY: That was pretty easy.
KEITH: Yes. And then I had a chance to win a car. There was music videos involved. I did not know anything about music videos at the time. I just knew TV. So I didn’t win the car.
ANTHONY: It was the Christmas episode. When did you film it? Do you remember what time of year?
KEITH: We filmed it the day before Thanksgiving.
ANTHONY: So pretty close. Ah, all right. I thought you were going to say, like, July they filmed it. It was actually pretty close to Christmas time.
KEITH: We filmed in Epcot. Epcot hadn’t been open for that long. It was 1988. We filmed it and me and my Uncle Pete, we spent Thanksgiving Day at Epcot since we were there.
ANTHONY: Did you have to pay to go to Epcot or they did they give you a pass to Epcot? Do you remember?
KEITH: I don’t remember that. It’s a good question. I would assume they paid because we were staying there.
ANTHONY: You stayed at the Disney hotel?
KEITH: Yeah.
ANTHONY: These are the details I didn’t know.
KEITH: And they gave us 10 tickets for audience members, but because it was Thanksgiving, none of my friends could go. Instead, they all had to go home.
JODY: Is that why you don’t like Thanksgiving?
ANTHONY: Is this your best Thanksgiving ever?
KEITH: It’s up there.
ANTHONY: We’ve got 2 ½ minutes. Do we want to talk about Cliff Clavin real quick, Jody?
KEITH: Yea, Jody, why don’t you grab on that quick.
JODY: Cliff is on an episode of Jeopardy! And every single category is something he’s an expert on - Stamps of the world.
ANTHONY: Mothers.
JODY: Mothers and Sons, Stamps of the World, Celibacy, and Bar Trivia are the categories. And the next time you see him, he’s got this – I forget how much money it was – but it’s a big chunk of money. He bets all of it on Final Jeopardy even though he doesn't need to. He can win no matter what.
ANTHONY: Right.
JODY: There’s no way anyone can catch him.
ANTHONY: He has, what, like $20,000.
JODY: It may be more than that.
KEITH: Trebek even says, “You’d be a fool if you bet …”
ANTHONY: Right.
KEITH: And he says, “You don’t have to watch my answer.”
JODY: All he had to do was bet a dollar and that would be it. There was no way they would be able to catch him.
ANTHONY: Not only Cliff says I have whatever $50,000, he actually risks the $5 that could’ve guaranteed him to come back.
JODY: And he writes 55,000 big ones. It was three people – I forget what the question was and basically you had to guess three people and he says, “Who are three people who’ve never been in my kitchen?’
ANTHONY: One of them – I believe it was “fake names.”
JODY: Oh that’s right. Real names of people.
ANTHONY: One of them was Archibald Leach, who was Cary Grant. I don’t remember who the others were.
JODY: That’s right. Three real names of actors and his name was “three people who’ve never been in my kitchen.”
KEITH: That’s what I wanted to name this podcast originally
ANTHONY: That would’ve been good.
JODY: Three people who’ve never been in my kitchen.
ANTHONY: Actually, if that’s done now, if someone bets so much money, they call it the Cliff Clavin. It has become part of Jeopardy!
JODY: It has become lore.
ANTHONY: That’s it for game shows. We thank everybody for listening. We hope you enjoyed it and you keep on listening.
JODY: Bye everybody.
KEITH: This episode was a little Aristophanes.
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