The Might as Well Have Called it The Contestant's Game

You never know what’s going to turn up when you pay You Tube a visit. Last night it was a full episode of this game show. It was a forerunner to the wildly popular and long-running Hollywood Squares. I confess that I did not do all of my homework for this post, having watched just over half the episode (I’m a busy man) but I certainly saw enough.

Game shows were different back in the Fifties and early Sixties. For one thing celebrities dressed up. On some women wore evening gowns and men tuxes. They played it sophisticated and urbane. There were shows like What’s My Line and I’ve Got a Secret that were right there on prime time when prime time was a big deal. 

There were a lot of people who seemed to be professional game show celebs. They were regularly on a show or appeared on several of them. Watching these shows as a kid I had no idea that people like Bennet Cerf, Arlene Francis or Kitty Carlisle ever did anything in their lives but appear on game shows (although if I’d thought of it I’d have imagined that they went to fancy dinner parties and the theater). As for Ms. Carlisle, she had the distinction of having appeared with the Marx Brothers in A Night at the Opera. Cerf was a titan of publishing.

The banter on those game shows went with the suits. The celebs came off as airy and intelligent but not showy about it. They projected intelligence, sophistication and good manners. You knew they read novels and the Sunday Times but eschewed Winchell.

Games shows started to change along with seemingly everything else in the culture in the Sixties. Soon you had shows like Let’s Make a Deal and the Gong Show. The emphasis was more on the contestants and they could wear damn near anything and had carte blanche to act like goofballs. That’s what makes this clip so interesting, it was like a bridge. One of the keys to that transition is the appearance of Paul Lynde. He was the poster boy for the new era game shows with his flamboyance and jokes riddled with double entendres. He was ubiquitous on game shows for decades — though most notably on Hollywood Squares. 

But let’s get to the elephant in the room. The name of the show: The Celebrity Game. Talk about a lack of imagination! They could have just as well called it The Contestant’s Game. What network exec green lit the use of The Celebrity Game? Was he comatose? The change to Hollywood Squares must have earned some suit a huge bonus.

What also strikes me about The Celebrity Game is some of the panelists. Barry Sullivan, Howard Duff and Ida Lupino (the latter two were married). These were serious Hollywood actors, Lupino was also a director. They were hardly the glitterati of Tinsel Town. What the hell were they doing on a game show? Lynde, of course, Gypsy Rose Lee, Jackie Leonard and Gisèle MacKenzie make more since. Ms. MacKenzie was just the type of “personality” suited for game shows. She was a popular singer, did some acting, was pretty bot not gorgeous, and when all was said and done was a B level celebrity. She’s not remembered today, indeed I probably hadn’t thought of her in decades before watching The Celebrity Game. Anyway she was your classic game show celeb.

Fabian also seems a bit of an odd choice. He’d been a teen idol in the late fifties as a singer but his star was already fading by the time of the show. Actually, that makes him perfectly suited for a game show. It was often where performers went to keep their names alive before a hoped-for second act to their careers.

Carl Reiner remains one of our comic greats so I’m not sure what he was doing slumming hosting a game show. I imagine the money was good.

The episode itself is not worth recounting. It’s not terribly interesting. It’s an opportunity for banter — the blood, bone and sinew of games shows of that era — but the questions and answers were a massive yawn.

I love these glimpses into our culture’s past. Sometimes they make you long for the “good ole days” and other times they make you thankful for progress. I suppose this one did a little bit of both for me. Thanks, You Tube, I owe ya one.