Game Show Celebrities

[LKellerIII]

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

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).

I remember seeing Henry Morgan on some talk show (Merv Griffin, perhaps) railing against rock music and what he considered insipid lyrics. He read the lyrics to the Beatles "Hello, Goodbye.". When you read them aloud without the music, they really do sound pretty stupid.

 

[Stanislav]

I remember seeing Henry Morgan on some talk show (Merv Griffin, perhaps) railing against rock music and what he considered insipid lyrics. He read the lyrics to the Beatles "Hello, Goodbye.". When you read them aloud without the music, they really do sound pretty stupid.

Steve Allen (another anti-rock guy) used to do the same thing.

"Hello, Goodbye" is a very basic, formulaic, commercially perfect track. It is the sort of superficial 3-minute pop tune Paul could churn out during a tea break -- i.e., catchy, but far from their best or most profound work.

Now, I wonder what the avuncular Mr. Morgan made of the lyrics to "I Am the Walrus?"

 

[wbhist]

I remember seeing Henry Morgan on some talk show (Merv Griffin, perhaps) railing against rock music and what he considered insipid lyrics. He read the lyrics to the Beatles "Hello, Goodbye.". When you read them aloud without the music, they really do sound pretty stupid.

Steve Allen (another anti-rock guy) used to do the same thing.

Mr. Allen appeared to be anti-disco as well; he did a "poetry" reading of the lyrics to Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff" in the early '80's.

 

[cee]

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?

Didn't go all that well. NBC was on the skids at the time. Stern was already gone, replaced by Joey Reynolds who just wasn't doing it for Stern fans. As someone(possibly Joey) said about Soupy's failure to gain an audience: "you can't throw pies on the radio."

Soupy's last show was rather dramatic. WNBC was getting ready to replace him with a return to a more music mid-day show and was secretly talking with Soupy's co-host(don't remember his name) about him replacing his boss. Soupy got wind of it and confronted this poor fellow about it right on the air(may have called him "Judas Iscariot" during his rant) and then, IIRC, walked off the air, leaving the co-host guy the uncomfortable task of doing the rest of the show solo. Co-host guy did indeed replace Soupy for awhile. I heard Imus plugging him right before this guy's very first show, calling him "that no good back stabbin' weasel..., etc.". Those were the days.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

Now, I wonder what the avuncular Mr. Morgan made of the lyrics to "I Am the Walrus?"
Fast forward close to 4 decades...If either Henry Morgan or Steve Allen were around today, today's expletive-filled rap lyrics would kill them.

 

[biggguy]

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.

Mitzi McCall didn't necessarily need Charlie Brill to be funny....

I remember seeing her solo on any one of a number of game shows....can't remember any particular one off hand, but I remember when channel surfing back in the day (by getting up and standing in front of the TV as I manually changed the channel) if I ran across her on a game show, I'd stop right there, and be guaranteed a good laugh or two...she could always make me laugh.

Although, I will agree here, she was also great with Charlie...I often wondered what their home life was like..

 

[LKellerIII]

Now, I wonder what the avuncular Mr. Morgan made of the lyrics to "I Am the Walrus?"
Fast forward close to 4 decades...If either Henry Morgan or Steve Allen were around today, today's expletive-filled rap lyrics would kill them.

I also remember seeing Steve Allen reading the lyrics to Hot Stuff. Though he may have been anti-disco, he was doing primarily to get laughs, at the time. But toward the end of his life, he became a cranky old guy, and spent a lot of time railing against what he considered immorality in the entertainment industry.

 

[mleach]

Now, I wonder what the avuncular Mr. Morgan made of the lyrics to "I Am the Walrus?"
Fast forward close to 4 decades...If either Henry Morgan or Steve Allen were around today, today's expletive-filled rap lyrics would kill them.

I also remember seeing Steve Allen reading the lyrics to Hot Stuff. Though he may have been anti-disco, he was doing primarily to get laughs, at the time. But toward the end of his life, he became a cranky old guy, and spent a lot of time railing against what he considered immorality in the entertainment industry.

Either the day of ( or the day after ) Allen's death, one of his newspaper ads about "entertainiment immorality" appeared in the LA Times.

For the record Steve Allen wasn't exactly a fan of country music either. I remember the "Hot Stuff" bit he did but I also seem to remember not long after that he did the very same thing to the Oak Ridge Boys' then-popular tune "Elvira".

 

[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?

Didn't go all that well. NBC was on the skids at the time. Stern was already gone, replaced by Joey Reynolds who just wasn't doing it for Stern fans. As someone(possibly Joey) said about Soupy's failure to gain an audience: "you can't throw pies on the radio."

Soupy's last show was rather dramatic. WNBC was getting ready to replace him with a return to a more music mid-day show and was secretly talking with Soupy's co-host(don't remember his name) about him replacing his boss. Soupy got wind of it and confronted this poor fellow about it right on the air(may have called him "Judas Iscariot" during his rant) and then, IIRC, walked off the air, leaving the co-host guy the uncomfortable task of doing the rest of the show solo. Co-host guy did indeed replace Soupy for awhile. I heard Imus plugging him right before this guy's very first show, calling him "that no good back stabbin' weasel..., etc.". Those were the days.

...sorry, but Howard was still on WNBC when Soupy showed up. Howard was so livid about the mess Soupy and sidekick Ray D'Ariano left in the studio that he (pretended to) cut the strings on Soupy's studio piano on-the-air. Stern's last day on WNBC was spent complaining about how NBC had allegedly promised to network Soupy's show but not his...

 

[Ultimajock]

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.

Mitzi McCall didn't necessarily need Charlie Brill to be funny....

I remember seeing her solo on any one of a number of game shows....can't remember any particular one off hand, but I remember when channel surfing back in the day (by getting up and standing in front of the TV as I manually changed the channel) if I ran across her on a game show, I'd stop right there, and be guaranteed a good laugh or two...she could always make me laugh.

Although, I will agree here, she was also great with Charlie...I often wondered what their home life was like..

...I think you'll want to rephrase that. They're still married; I recall seeing a comment about them on pal Mark Evanier's blog NewsFromME.com a few weeks back...

 

[ixnay]

Unless I missed it, I'm surprised Jaye P. Morgan has been ignored on this thread so far. Just throwing out her name...

ixnay

 

[biggguy]

Ahhhhh..........Jaye P. Morgan

I know I've seen her on many other venues, but to me, she'll always be the queen of "The Gong Show"......funny, witty, and more than a little salacious- right to her end, where it's been alleged that she "flashed" a contestant on national TV ( and I read where one critic said it was "as sexy as Carol Channing doing a strip tease in Skiddoo")

Wonder where she is these days- she'd be 77.....