Game Show Celebrities

[Stanislav]

I was thinking about how certain celebs really dominated game show panels back in the 70s/80s. While some bigger name stars did occasional guesting stints to plug a current project, and others big and small just enjoyed doing game shows, I'm thinking primarily of those who might well have been selling insurance or hawking Amway if it weren't for the steady game show gigs -- IOW, "stars" who nevertheless really needed those paychecks. Oh, they might still have been working here and there -- a commercial or two, a guest star role now and then, some theater, etc. But the dough from Match Game or Pyramid or whatever really helped pay the bills.

Maybe Elaine Joyce? Brett Somers? How about Nipsey Russell (who some have said would appear at the opening of a cereal box if you paid him)?

And dear old Soupy Sales. There's a famous Mike Douglas Show on which both Soupy and Moe Howard were guests, and they did the old "Maja-Aha" routine (most famously done with Curly in the 1946 short "Three Little Pirates," and with Curly-Joe DeRita in the movie "The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze"). As in the previous incarnations, Moe sticks little insults in the midst of his gibberish patter, and at one point he refers to Soupy as "that refugee from 'What's My Line'" (which elicits a great "take" from Soupy).

Others?

 

[bpatrick]

I can think of a bunch: Charles Nelson Reilly
and pre-"Family Feud" Richard Dawson on "Match
Game"; Paul Lynde, Charley Weaver (and George
Gobel after Charley died), Wally Cox, and Rose
Marie on "Hollywood Squares," as well as people
like Dick Gautier (on just about all the Los Angeles-
based shows), Anita Gillette, Gene Shalit (on "What's
My Line?" and "To Tell The Truth," especially),
Joanna Barnes (on "What's My Line?"), and, of course,
such stalwarts as Arlene Francis, Kitty Carlisle, and
Peggy Cass. All of these people combined intelligence,
humor (in most cases), and an ability to let the contestant
be the star as well as an ability to play whatever game
they were on.

It's the same principle that accounted for repeat guests
on talk shows: I remember Merv Griffin had Zsa Zsa Gabor,
Pamela Mason, Orson Bean, and Lonnie Shorr as virtual
regulars. Reason? All he had to ask them was what they'd
been up to, and they'd carry the show to the next commercial.

 

[ricksegers]

I have often wondered what game shows paid the celebrities?

I am sure some did it just for the fun of it. Kitty Carlisle, as Mrs. Moss Hart, I'm sure probably did not need the money considering the way she continued to live. Tony winner Peggy Cass also probaly was in that realm. C.N. Reily, Brett Somers and other all had decent careers. None major but I beleive they would fall in that large group of actors who work reasonably steady in film, TV, broadway, nightclubs, commercials and touring companies of plays. Gameshows were just one of their streams of income. During most of the 70's on, many shows only recorded one week a month so it left them three weeks free.

 

[bpatrick]

I know from Gil Fates' book that "What's My Line?"
paid guest panelists $750, and Mystery Guests $500
whether or not they stumped the panel, in the network
days; he doesn't say what they were paid for the syndicated
show. Also, he says that John Daly made about $2000 a week
as host (plus much more during his years at ABC News, which
partially overlapped "Line"). Given that range, I would think
Arlene, Dorothy, and Bennett made about $1000-1500 a week.

I also read somewhere that Harry Anderson got $1000 for
a week's worth of "Pyramid" in the '80s. So I would guess that
most got scale for each show.

I know of one instance when a celebrity's appearance never
came off because of money. Groucho wanted Margaret Dumont,
who played straight to the Marx Brothers in so many of their
pictures, to be on "You Bet Your Life," and she wanted to do it--
provided she was guaranteed a certain sum of money. The problem
was, anyone appearing on Groucho's show got only what they won
plus reimbursement for travel expenses (if any). So Mrs. Dumont
never appeared on "YBYL," although she did appear with Groucho
on "The Hollywood Palace" shortly before she died; they sang
"Hooray For Captain Spaulding" as a duet.

And one celebrity got kicked off a show because of money, although
it wasn't on a game show. Pat Boone was a three-time winner on
"Ted Mack's Amateur Hour," but Mack's staff discovered that not only
had he been choir director at his church in Tennessee, he'd also been
on "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts" (whose acts were all professionals).
Thus he violated the rule that he had to be an amateur and was
disqualified from the year's championship.

 

[LKellerIII]

I know from Gil Fates' book that "What's My Line?"
paid guest panelists $750, and Mystery Guests $500
whether or not they stumped the panel, in the network
days; he doesn't say what they were paid for the syndicated
show. Also, he says that John Daly made about $2000 a week
as host (plus much more during his years at ABC News, which
partially overlapped "Line"). Given that range, I would think
Arlene, Dorothy, and Bennett made about $1000-1500 a week.

I also read somewhere that Harry Anderson got $1000 for
a week's worth of "Pyramid" in the '80s. So I would guess that
most got scale for each show.

Adjust for inflation, and that's pretty decent money for easy work. I've always remembered that my father made $20,000 for the year 1964. I used one of those on-line inflation calculators and discovered that he was making the equivalent to $135,000 in 2007 dollars. No wonder my mother never had to work!

Plus - the exposure on the game shows kept their names in the public eye, and probably helped them get other work - like stand-up gigs for the comics.

 

[landtuna]

Margaret Dumont would have been a hoot on "Groucho". She was a lot of fun to watch on the Three Stooges shorts as well. Always playing the snooty, upscale society matron.

 

[Stanislav]

Margaret Dumont would have been a hoot on "Groucho". She was a lot of fun to watch on the Three Stooges shorts as well. Always playing the snooty, upscale society matron.

Margaret Dumont never worked with the Stooges. You are probably confusing her with Symonia Boniface, a similarly girthed woman who played the same sorts of haughty society characters.

 

[RicoGregg]

Margaret Dumont would have been a hoot on "Groucho". She was a lot of fun to watch on the Three Stooges shorts as well. Always playing the snooty, upscale society matron.

Margaret Dumont never worked with the Stooges. You are probably confusing her with Symonia Boniface, a similarly girthed woman who played the same sorts of haughty society characters.

She did work with W.C. Fields in 1941's "Never Give a Sucker an Even Break", and both she and The Great Man were hilarious in their scenes together.

Soupy Sales had no business being on the same stage with the great Moe Howard. That's like putting the Osmonds on the same bill with the Kinks.

 

[mleach]

About Soupy Sales...I have often wonder if anyone ever offered him a job to host a game show back in the 60's & 70's? Not talking about that kids version of "Almost Anything Goes" he hosted in the 70's but a game show with adults..for adults. Or was he like Wonderama's Bob McAllister who was offered a few jobs at hosted game shows in the 70's but instead he stuck it out to "serve the kiddies"?

Soupy had a brief stint at NYC's WNBC radio in the 80's. Never heard his show there since he was on at midday and I couldn't pick up WNBC at the time during the day. Wonder how he did?

 

[landtuna]

Margaret Dumont would have been a hoot on "Groucho". She was a lot of fun to watch on the Three Stooges shorts as well. Always playing the snooty, upscale society matron.

Margaret Dumont never worked with the Stooges. You are probably confusing her with Symonia Boniface, a similarly girthed woman who played the same sorts of haughty society characters.

Yup. I stand corrected. Alas....fewer and fewer brain cells awake at this hour. :'(

 

[KeithE4]

Soupy had a brief stint at NYC's WNBC radio in the 80's. Never heard his show there since he was on at midday and I couldn't pick up WNBC at the time during the day. Wonder how he did?

He wasn't bad, but not particularly great either. That early '80s WNBC lineup of Don Imus in AM drive, Soupy Sales doing middays, and Howard Stern in PM drive was "interesting" to say the least. ;D

 

[Corky Marlowe]

He wasn't bad, but not particularly great either. That early '80s WNBC lineup of Don Imus in AM drive, Soupy Sales doing middays, and Howard Stern in PM drive was "interesting" to say the least.
I can remember Stern going on David Letterman and ripping on W-Ennnnn-BC's decision to hire Soupy.

 

[LKellerIII]

He wasn't bad, but not particularly great either. That early '80s WNBC lineup of Don Imus in AM drive, Soupy Sales doing middays, and Howard Stern in PM drive was "interesting" to say the least.
I can remember Stern going on David Letterman and ripping on W-Ennnnn-BC's decision to hire Soupy.

Was that a NBC radio fetish, or something? I remember that some time in the early 80s, all the disc jockeys on NBC's Bay Area FM station had to start IDing the station as "K-Y-YOU-U."

Maybe Pig Vomit was also their San Francisco PD..

 

[Markieo]

He wasn't bad, but not particularly great either. That early '80s WNBC lineup of Don Imus in AM drive, Soupy Sales doing middays, and Howard Stern in PM drive was "interesting" to say the least.
I can remember Stern going on David Letterman and ripping on W-Ennnnn-BC's decision to hire Soupy.

Was that a NBC radio fetish, or something? I remember that some time in the early 80s, all the disc jockeys on NBC's Bay Area FM station had to start IDing the station as "K-Y-YOU-U."

Maybe Pig Vomit was also their San Francisco PD..

The WNNNNNNNNBC started around 1974, when Cousin Brucie left WABC to go to WNBC. In all the ads and on the air, they had him emphasize the "N"!

 

[kirkiefan]

To this day I have always admired Bill Cullen's wit when he was a panelist on To Tell The Truth and I've Got A Secret. Bill Cullen was always the funniest game show host and panelist around.

And of course there's the hysterically funny bluffs by celebs on Hollywood Squares:

Charlie Weaver (Cliff Arquette)
and Paul Lynde
both from the original show


from the 90s show:
Whoopi Godberg
Tia and Tamara Mowry
Kernit The Frog (yes Kermit!)
Bobcat Goldthwait
Judy Tenuta

 

[Corky Marlowe]

The WNNNNNNNNBC started around 1974, when Cousin Brucie left WABC to go to WNBC. In all the ads and on the air, they had him emphasize the "N"!
Also around that time, WNBC's midday guy was Steve Lundy, who of couse was competing with WABC's Ron Lundy.

Topic? I was a big Cullen fan, too...He was one of a handful who could do equally well as host or panelist.

 

[LKellerIII]

The WNNNNNNNNBC started around 1974, when Cousin Brucie left WABC to go to WNBC. In all the ads and on the air, they had him emphasize the "N"!
Also around that time, WNBC's midday guy was Steve Lundy, who of couse was competing with WABC's Ron Lundy.

It's too bad another competing station didn't think to bring in Mike Lundy (LA veteran DJ). There would have been mass confusion.

 

[Ultimajock]

Soupy had a brief stint at NYC's WNBC radio in the 80's. Never heard his show there since he was on at midday and I couldn't pick up WNBC at the time during the day. Wonder how he did?

He wasn't bad, but not particularly great either. That early '80s WNBC lineup of Don Imus in AM drive, Soupy Sales doing middays, and Howard Stern in PM drive was "interesting" to say the least. ;D

...and I think they brought Wolfman Jack back for evenings for a spell around that time. Soupy's radio show was fairly lousy, judging from the airchecks I've heard; the only laughs I ever got out of it were from sidekick Ray D'Ariano, who'd already cut a very funny comedy LP in the '70s (Are You On Something? for Kama Sutra, with the album jacket patterned after the one for Bob Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home); I think D'Ariano had the midday shift all to himself at WNBC when General Electric sold the station. On Soupy's last day at WNBC he constantly complained about how shabbily the station was treating him and claimed he was having his attorney try to void his contract...

 

[Ultimajock]

It's the same principle that accounted for repeat guests
on talk shows: I remember Merv Griffin had Zsa Zsa Gabor,
Pamela Mason, Orson Bean, and Lonnie Shorr as virtual
regulars. Reason? All he had to ask them was what they'd
been up to, and they'd carry the show to the next commercial.

...Orson Bean's latest works have been books touching on religious themes; he claims he can't get them published by secular houses because of the religious aspects, and the religious publishing houses reject them because he includes sexual passages and profanity. The most recent of these things is Mail for Mikey, which Bean is peddling via the web; apparently, his old buddy George Carlin gave it a dust-jacket endorsement the very weekend he died. Unfortunately, Bean also gave money to support Proposition 8; apparently, he forgot what being blacklisted (which he was back in the '50s) was like...

 

[Ultimajock]

...my favourites on the game shows were (in alphabetical order of family name):

CHARLIE BRILL & MITZI McCALL: Any week this couple appeared on TattleTales was guaranteed to be wild. Donald Ross & Patti Deutsch came close to matching that level; I suspect the two couples were never booked for the same week on the show because it would cause CBS' Television City to experience a nuclear meltdown.

PATTI DEUTSCH: While Goodson-Todman had Dick DeBartolo write wild items for Match Game '7x, only Patti Deutch consistently came up with responses that were just as wild.

SARAH KENNEDY: Only occasionally popped up on Match Game '7x, but her personality (essentially the same giggly blonde bit that she used on Laugh-In sometime after Goldie Hawn left) brightened the exercise considerably.

HENRY MORGAN: Of course, he grew to be even more bitter than Al Capp did in his later years, but whenever he was on I've Got a Secret, What's My Line?, Match Game '7x or To Tell The Truth, he knew how to shake things up enough to keep the show from becoming a bore. Just the expression on his face without opening his mouth once during the Pete Best (The Beatles' lousy pre-fame drummer) contestancy on I've Got a Secret was more entertaining than Bess Myerson's entire opening line of questions (Morgan was a very vocal opponent of rock music).

CAROL WAYNE: As a regular on Celebrity Sweepstakes, she was frequently given the highest odds against knowing the answer to a question -- but just as frequently got the answer right. That's what a voice like hers will do to people.