QUIZ SHOW TRYOUTS, TAPINGS, AND TRIALS
DIARY 2638
1/19/72
"TO TELL THE TRUTH"
One of the girls is waiting for me in the hall as I get there just a few minutes after 1, blinking through the cinder that the awful New York air foulness has thrown into my contacts, and everyone's sitting in a crowded backstage room watching the monitor on practice shots, Darrell talking with Doc, both of them greeting me warmly. Doc gets out the trophies we're to carry onstage, and I have to ask him how he'd hold his, since I feel I do it awkwardly, and he shows me a way I'd never thought of. Into a dressing room and told to get into costume, but beforehand I have to urinate and get out to the hall to find there are no men's room keys, and the hall boy takes us toward the women's room, unlocks it and sticks his head in, and Kitty Carlysle parades down the hall, asking us what we're doing there, and she gives me a very disagreeable look, and I say not a word, hoping by my nervousness to give her as much the idea that I'm the REAL person as that I'm the phony, but rather acting tongue-tied and stupid as befits a camel-racing champion. So the hall-boy rustles up a men's room key and we relieve ourselves and get back to the dress-up. Darrell's out of his trousers and he has rather nice legs, and on close study of his strange yellow-collar-with-trim-along-scallop-cuts-below-the-hip shorts, I can see a meaty circumcised cock-head outlined a couple of inches below the seam, so it's a nice size soft, and might be lovely hard. His chest is rather pigeon-puffed, however, and he seems to hold his stomach in with an effort, but his face is still undoubtedly attractive, and his personality matches, as does his lovely mysterious job as maitre d' of the Manhattan Club, whose directors would rather that he NOT say WHICH club he works for. My mind goes back to John's comment that most of these rich servant-types are usually gay, and I wonder what ELSE might go on behind the scenes in the Manhattan Club. I get chosen for the tee-shirt and jodhpurs, and they fit passably well, making my legs so strangely-shaped that I might actually be as bow-legged as Doc really IS, which is something impossible to cover up, except that he insists it's because of the pins in his legs, and that he can walk straight if he makes the effort. I don't want to TELL him to make the effort, fearing that his self-consciousness will make his walk MORE, rather than less, noticeable, which wouldn't do me any good. Darrell gets an ill-fitting White Hunter's uniform, but the hat fits him rakishly, going with his square handsomeness. He's out for a drink after we go through the strange rehearsal, with Garry Moore supervising and calling the stand-in panel by the REAL panel's names. We're all very nervous, but the run-through puts us more at ease, and it's rather easy sitting in the back with all the others, watching the run-throughs, joking about the camel that Radio City Music Hall's sending up, and I watch Doc ogle all the girls with a too-much leer. Darrell's back, saying that hardly anyone notices him on the street, and the cast starts arriving and the audience fills up, and the camel appears. It's small and quite controllable, except that it made a mess on the rug outside the elevators, and Kitty said amazedly "He was peeing right there on the floor." We're the first on the real program taping, and we're out in front of the door so little before the introductions that there literally isn't any TIME to be frightened, and the doors sway open and Doc pauses over-long, and we're down to the front, my mind vaguely telling my knees to canter slightly to the side. Have a last minute fear of saying "MY name is Bob Zolnerzak" at the introduction, thereby blowing the ENTIRE thing, but it goes OK, we sit down, and during the commercial pause, I'm surprised to see that NO one on the panel looks over to study us, relying on their questioning ability. I get questions about where the animals come from, and I merely say a ranch in California, rather than giving Gene Holder's name. Darrell does awfully when he's asked to explain how he got started in camel racing, and I DON'T do what I'd thought to do and say "Bactrian" camel, and when they ask where it's from, I shrug just as I'd figure Doc would do it and say, "I don't know, Bactria, I guess," as if it really wasn't important to me, which turned out to be the best possible move, because someone actually VOTED for me because of the way I answered that question, and I'm delighted when Kitty Carlysle votes for me, since she USUALLY gets the right fellow. So it's two for me and two for Doc, and that's $33 for each of us, thanks to me---now if Darrell's gotten HIS share of two rather than Doc, it would have been $166. They all DO miss the Soaring Glider pilot, which is quite a lovely program, and the gymnast was the other way: everyone knew it was her. The kids were enough of a bore that we didn't watch them, the lawyer panel was fun, with the guy seeming to know more than the REAL Sidney Whoever-she-was. And Brutus' voice seemed characteristic enough that if his FRIENDS saw the show, they'd know who he was. So we sat around watching the other taping, and as we were leaving Doc got involved in a conversation, and Darrell and I looked slyly at each other and said he'd probably be a long time, and there might be uncomfortable situations arising if he really got a couple of drinks in him, so we went out for a drink at 5 ourselves. To some Chinese restaurant down 49th Street, and we sat with heads together talking about his job and clientele, my trip and book, his friends and dogs and apartment and robberies, and I tried in every way I could to let him know that I was gay, but nothing seemed to come across: or it DID come across and he wasn't interested, or too much locked in his own closet. I hadn't taken my wallet with me at ALL, so he had to pay for the first drink, and though I INSISTED on knowing where he lived and how to get in touch with him, he REFUSED and equally insisted I have another drink, since it was I who had earned him anything above the $25 minimum anyway---he said it was the costume that fouled up his chances, but I kindly neglected to tell him it was probably his cultured voice. So we kept on talking about the girls who were chasing him and how great New York was, and how anyone could do anything they wanted, but still he refused to unbend and give me his phone number, and I was getting panicky about being late for John's restaurant, since I had to get home to change out of contacts and get money, and we left the place at 7, I walked him to the crosstown so he could get back to his Sutton Place apartment, and his name WASN'T in the phone book. So much for Darrell Griffith.
DIARY 3057
5/30/72
TESTING FOR "SALE OF THE CENTURY"
In PRECISELY at 10:30, and take the next to last seat with 15 others, and called into the testing room quickly. Fill out an application, get asked which shows I was on and when, then get some practice questions orally read off, and many of them are difficult and I don't know the answers, but these housewives are very sharp indeed. Do pretty well for myself, as do a few others, but some don't respond and some Texas-type in boots blunders through the whole thing, shouting out answers, asking questions which were answered before, being terribly stupid, and it's visible the effort the gal is making to contain her impatience: "There's one in every crowd" written across her sighs. Then we get a written test and there are lots of great questions in it, though I don't know that the White Sox are in Chicago, I put Boston; I had a lucky guess that Muskie ran with Humphrey in 1968, THOUGHT that Tiperarry was in Ireland, then erased it and put England, sadly, though I DID figure out that Ireland WAS the country not attached to any other. Had NO idea who the president was who wrote "Why England Slept" though I guessed Jefferson from general literacy, and was glad to check out that Southeast Asia Treaty Organization was truly SEATO. But I even fell behind someone who named Stanley Kubrick as the director of numerous films, wasn't sure I could spell "antihistamine," and didn't know who wrote some of the songs. The gal was very good with calling out names when everyone raised their hands, and she explained fully that the call NEXT would be to POSSIBLY get on a show, and that might be the last call we get (if the producer didn't like us) or we'd get a DEFINITE call-back for the next day, when we WOULD be on. A neat way of combining the interview with the taping to minimize the amount of time needed, and then we DID discuss the answers in the hall while all piling into the elevator, and we stopped about a foot before the level on the ground floor, Texas filling the elevator with the comments, "I get I don't get chosen at ALL," and not too many attempted to gainsay him. Mother and daughter were friendly to me, but the guys all seemed to be in competition with each other, and we'll see what the next month's waiting brings.
DIARY 3405
11/24/72
WHO, WHAT, WHERE I
The guy looks vaguely familiar, and his speech pattern sounds like someone from my past, but it's only when he says his name is Hal that I say "Is your last name Edwards?" and he says "Yes," that I fully recognize the coworker in 1957 at Service Bureau, and we agree we can't think of the name of the one who was my roommate until he suggests "Tom" and I blurt "Jenkins" (though now I recall there WAS a fourth, a rich fellow from Peace Street in the Upper Bronx, but I don't remember his name---but if someone says his FIRST name---). Hal jokes that I have a great memory, but then goes downhill into his old unpleasant personality, and I'm rather grimly pleased he wins $0, exactly. Others are very pleasant: the old woman who wins her last game when I and the woman from New Jersey are left over, the Japanese Ken who's quite cute and knowledgeable of affairs American despite being born in Tokyo, who carried away $450 for the day. The "dumb" fellow amazes me by winning $2,100 in one game, but then drops out with nothing in his second. The Irishman whose family is in Ireland at his expense does MARVELOUSLY well for three games, after an initial flub (I didn't hear him say Utamaro, either, or I would have know the country was Japan), taking away about $3000, and I feared being up against him, but he dropped out. Then the woman who won $5000 on Concentration was to be feared, but she won about $30 and didn't go ANYWHERE. The gentle Paula from Random House who took my name as a freelancer won about $350 after being down to $5 or $10, and it was a number of FUN games that I watched: two between 11 and 12, two between 2 and 3. The cute slim fellow who passed me on the initial interview was there, smiling and saying he'd see me next time, and I put out of my mind the idea of watching the program during the day at 12:30 (but, curse it, I COULD have watched it YESTERDAY AND TODAY, since I was home BOTH days at that time!!!) (that shows how THOROUGHLY I put it out of my mind). But I know that I have to bet very high, that the way to win large sums is to get into auctions and win, and that either I KNOW the answer, or I DON'T know the answer, and there's no GUESSING which area I'm going to know or not. Let's HOPE I do better here, than on CONCENTRATION (and they don't consider "To Tell the Truth" a quiz show!).
DIARY 3758
4/15/73
"WHO, WHAT, WHERE" TAPING!
Down to $105, and up to about $1200. End at $805 going into the final round, with the others about $250 and $265, with two 2/1 questions in the final round: American Colleges and Universities. Figure quickly that $265 can be built to $795, so that if I wanted to be SAFELY a winner, I could bet $5, and win the ROUND even if I LOST. But the BIG money (as I thought of it) was in the SHOWER, and I had to top $1240! So I could have bet as LITTLE as $220, making it $1245 if I won, beating him, leaving me with $585 if I lost, but I was ALSO looking out for that CAR! So I figured I wanted to have $300 left for myself even if I lost, so I get $500! The chance to end up with $1850, or $305. HIS question (she was blocked out) was answerable with John Jay Police Academy, which I could have gotten and HE DID get---HEY, WHY didn't I take the WHO---THAT would have done it!! But I figured I didn't KNOW who presidents or founders of colleges were, that's why. BUT if I'd taken the WHO for $270, to block HIM out, I WOULD have won the whole thing. But he KNEW John Jay, so it was up to ME, and I DIDN'T know the work-study college in Vermont, so I said the ONLY college name in Vermont that I could think of: Middlebury. No, sorry, it was Bennington, and TED TARSON, planning manager for IBM in White Plains, and all-around stiff schnook, won the round, the car (probably), the shower, and the trip. His ugly wife and two sons were in the audience, for nice effect, too. So he GOT into the shower after winning the NEXT game, and the audience went out of its MIND with the shower, and he meticulously searched, but found only 3 of the few $100's, and ended up with $1110, which at the rate of about one bill per second, he didn't even put through all $20s, which would have netted him $1200. So I didn't lose THAT much. Cynthia said she thought I was SO great, again, that she might call me for some future work on a pilot. Sure, I thought, sure, just call me when you're ready. What a shock to get a call from her THIS EVENING, asking me to come in at 11 am tomorrow! FRABJOUS! Work 4:30-6:30, dine, go to Pilobolus at the Space, and 10:35-11:30 after playing with John with the pill bottle, but he didn't feel like sex, and I watched GREAT Bee-Gees, GOOD Focus, SEXY J. Giels Band, and weirdo-yodeler-organist in the Steely Dan thing. Dead tired and to bed at 1, not even coming.
DIARY 3760
4/29/73
TV TRYOUTS!
I made the mistake of telling them about my ESP of Amanda Blake, the bartender in "Gunsmoke," and the questions are the SAME for "Where's the Action?" They call us in varying groups, until finally everyone seems to be set up with people they're equal to. The others sit around trying to astound the rest of the group: her children and her boyfriend: her trip to India topped by MY trip to India; his acting debut and closing all in one night of something like "Hi, Charley," where they kept changing the script and on the last afternoon gave him two new songs to learn. I page through the reference works trying to find my "full of whey" question, and the producer says that he'll tell us how to try to get a job as writer for the show, but he doesn't. The blond admits she's stoned, but that she wouldn't be if it were a REAL show. Another tells about her kid's snake-pets, and others try to top all of them. We're finally finished about 5:15, and we go our separate ways. I get home and tell John all about it, we have dinner and he and I drive up to the neighborhood of Hunter, but I'm so early, just at 8, that I stand downstairs at Hank's waiting for Elizabeth, and he comes down to take out the garbage and there I am, propped in the doorway reading "War and Peace." Up to his place, and he's constructed two lofts in his 12-foot ceilinged room: under them is the kitchen and the record collection and coat closet in which you can just stand upright, so it must be about 6½ feet, and upstairs, reached by a bamboo ladder and connected behind a partition that I thought was solid, to his delight, it was just stooping height, so it must have been about 5½ feet. I looked at his Indian textiles without realizing that he'd TAUGHT there for a few years, and he kept saying how he had to go out for ice and groceries and wine, hoping everyone would bring everything, and finally Elizabeth rang in about 8:45 to stop the paucity of talk between us. He DID go out then, with money borrowed from her, to get some stuff, and we chatted about the cheese and her new job, and I told her about the TV taping and she agreed she'd come over to watch it during her lunch hour. Then others started to arrive.
DIARY 3768
5/12/73
PILOT TAPING FOR NBC
[from 4/19/73] of Susan's. When I heard I wasn't going to be on the panel, I just went out into the audience and sat with Susan and Arnie, and again I felt that the rules of "Where's the Action?" just too complicated for the screen, though they thought that the offering of the MERCHANDISE prizes, such as trips to Mexico and automobiles, dining room suites and mink coats, would gain more audience interest than mere money. BUT the number of gimmicks was excessive. No sooner did you get used to answering ONE type of question than you were thrown into another type. Then there was the carousel, and the folding doors, and the board, and the time limits, and the betting limits---and then all the questions were so SIMPLE (except for the "Happy Birthday" one---who would have thought it was written in 1936?) that it was hardly a contest of brains, only of button-pushing abilities. Obviously the timing trails had told them that the "last week's winner" was a bit faster on the button, because she RETURNED as the next week's winner, with something like $25,000, which must have been sad because she knew she couldn't keep it. There were a number of false starts, and the audience-warmer was more dreadful than usual, though he somehow managed to GET the audience to react and sit patiently through the 10-15 minute delays which had no cause that the audience could see. There were horrible children behind me, shouting out though the father said quite firmly that he could talk ONLY when the TV was off, but the kid shouted almost indiscriminately. Finally the usher came over and said that if he shouted one more time, he'd have to leave. At another point I whirled around in my seat and the kid complained "He's LOOKING at me," and I snarled "If you'd stop kicking the seat I wouldn't look at you!" Then the final "contest" seemed particularly stupid: the whirling carousels with amounts of money from $50 to $5000 in hidden enclosures which spun around, and she had to stop one of them. I don't know HOW the audience could refrain from thinking that the amount (depending on the audience reaction to the contestant) would be SET to something particularly appropriate AFTER the carousel was chosen! It DID
DIARY 3802
5/14/73
"WHO, WHAT, WHERE" QUESTIONS
We start with $125, and I wager $45 on the What in American Journalism: What is the 7-word slogan of the New York Times? All the News That's Fit to Print, and I have $170, past that awful first hurdle of betting less than $50. (2) Gambling and Games of Chance. I get the What for $50, and answer that Pari-Mutuel is the system which totes up all the money and allocates it. But Ted's been taking the 2 for 1 questions and getting them, so at the end of the second round it's Ted #335, Laura $100, and me middling at $220. (3) Alphabet soup "O" is an auction between Ted and me for the Who at $50, and he gets all the way up to $170, and I HAVE to have $50 left, so he GETS the question, who was Nero's wife. He MISSES, and I answer "Octavia." (4) Thus I'm in the lead, now, with $220, Ted with $165, Laura at $100. Finance, Business and Industry gets me and Ted in a tie for $50 for the What, and I guess the two-syllable name for the Latin for "Sound" as Sanyo, not Sony, and lose $100, so I'm down to $120! (5) Cheese in fact and fantasy: we tie for the Who for $50 and he gives it to me for $55, and it goes: in the 1573 treatise on the perfect cheese, it must not be like Lot's wife, all salt, not poor, like Lazarus, not full of whey as this Biblical woman was full of tears. To Niobe and Naomi from tears, but the answer is Mary Magdelene, and I'm down to $65, and LAURA is ahead at the break with $200, Ted second at $165, and I'm down to $65. Next (6) is Historic dates in May, and I choose Where for $40, playing safer again, and get May 3, 1963, Police Commissioner Bull Conners calls out the dogs, and "Birmingham" is a complete guess, but that's what it IS. I'm up to $105, Laura lost to $165, and Ted is back in the lead with $215. (7) The Continent Asia, and I take the Where for $50, and the country whose name means "Middle Country" or "Center of the World" is China, of course, which pays me 2 for 1, so I have $205, AGAIN in the lead with Ted and Laura tied at $165. (8) Dance: The Ballet, I KNOW I'll know, so I take thew Who for $50 and auction up to $115, and win with Agnes De Mille as the choreographer of "Oklahoma!," though I'm about to say indignantly, "That's NOT ballet!" (9) Into this round Ted and Laura are STILL tied at $165, and I have $320. They talk about Halloween and what the day following used to be---All Hallows, and what's the day following NOW, and I say "All Saint's Day," and I'd gotten THAT auction up to $265 and Laura went down to $125. (10) was Travel USA, which I was confident of, enough to go to $200 for the Who, and it was AGAIN a 2 for 1 about some poet who lived in Maine, and I had no idea until they mentioned Tales of Acadia, and I said Longfellow, and had $1040 on my board! (11) The last regular question, was the Truth behind the story, and asked about a well-known authoress, born in 1925, who wrote a book, something about H.L. Mencken and a golden-haired rival, and I didn't know the FIRST thing about it, not even remembering Dorothy Parker's name, though it turned out to be Anita Loos and "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." So I lost $235 on THAT, and into the final round it was Ted $265, Laura $225, and ME at the top with $805. Announced "American Colleges and Universities, for 2 E E (it wasn't even 2), and I should have REALIZED that he'd go for the 2, and he bet all $265 on the Who, beating out Laura who retired with her $225, and GOT John Jay, which I knew too, as being the namesake of the Police Academy, though he knew him from being the first judge of the Supreme Court. So HE had $795, which I realize I could have JUST beaten safely by betting $5 on my $805, but I wanted to beat HIS $1240, and thus had to bet AT LEAST $400, and the $500 figure was irresistible, and Arnie said I should HEAR the gasp from the audience his tape recorder got. So it was a liberal arts college, started in 1932 in Vermont, which had a system of two semesters of schooling and one semester in job experience in related fields, and the ONLY college I could think of in Vermont was Middlebury, so I said it, then immediately REMEMBERED Bennington, but it was only JOHN who told me that the gal who stayed in the apartment was on the work-study program from Bennington. No one from work watched, but Claudia loved me, Patrick Burrell in Ohio saw me, and I haven't HEARD from home yet.
DIARY 4039
8/12/73
TV TRYOUT
Though we're in late at 7:05, people are still coming and signing in, and from the list of about 30 possible attendees, there are only about 20 in the actual test audience, almost outnumbered by staff, hangers-on, Cynthia, and others. Ron Greenburg takes over completely, saying "Hi" to me cheerily, and separates me and John, assuming that Rolf and I are together. The rules for "Write Your Own Ticket" seem much simpler than the ever-changing situations of "Where's the Action?" and the two emcees are bright and chipper. I'm selected to be the Acapulco "pawn" on the board, doing absolutely nothing while others fail to answer questions like "Raise your starboard hand," "How many holes are there in your belt," and "What the signal for a touchdown?" I don't do very well, and John comes to life ONLY when Bill Wendel can't find the script for the car, and starts ranting on about "14 inches long, this sleek---" John afterwards complains that this is a corrupting influence on the American public: everyone is supposed to WANT to travel to Acapulco, Tokyo, and Rome, everyone is supposed to GASP over luggage and golf clubs and cosmetics, and the show is just an opportunity for endless blurbs about various services and products, strung together with greedy people wanting to get something for nothing. And the people who would come to help these producers out of their problems in presenting the shows to a network are quite below his purview. Much of the applause seems rather silly in the small area of the recital hall on the third floor of the Steinway Building, and the crew applauds more than the audience does in some cases. However, we DO point out problems, and Ron tells someone to make a note of "when someone takes the last one, but he's still got to have another one because of something or other." As I'm leaving, Cynthia says for me to call her at work tomorrow about Thursday, which I assume is another tryout here, like the one on Saturday, and Avi makes a snide remark about "So who's been chosen for the final taping for $50?" and I don't even connect the two comments. John's happy to have been dragged to one, but he surely won't be cajoled into another one.
DIARY 4046
Also 8/12/73
"WRITE YOUR OWN TICKET" TAPING
Into the ENORMOUS studio with seating for about 200, more lights than I've seen in one studio at once, and a spectacular set which is certainly more unified and eye-catching than the one for "Where's the Action?" Get pushed into back seats early on, and when the couples are pre-chosen for the "pawns," the two "pawns" from Monday have decided that there isn't going to be anything of interest for them in the show, and it turns out to be the case. I get moved closer, in back of the first couple chosen, to sit with Margaret Miller, or some such innocuous person, and we talk about former show appearances and travels and writing, etc, while the rules are explained and the enormous cyclorama is drawn around the back and the neat aquamarine lights go on it, followed by the INTENSE lighting over the entire audience which should be a problem once the show gets on the networks (which it seems to have a good chance of doing), as well as the problem of "How do you distinguish someone who's BEEN on two NBC quiz programs from everyone ELSE in the audience?" Loads of people, unpaid, come into the audience, some of THEM suspecting they're being used, and we've all signed statements that what we "win" isn't actually ours---but since this is liable to be the FIRST show of the series, it would seem that they WOULD have to win the first prizes just in RETROSPECT. This is much more tiring than the first, since the lights make it VERY hot, I'm sweating in jacket and tie, the taping mechanism wasn't working through the VERY effective first run-through of the introductions, and a few other goofs in not hearing buzzers and taping make long delays. We started taping EARLY at 8 and finished up at 9, and probably the sound levels are going to be different at the tape-splice, so it'll be interesting to watch. Horrible fat guy who won, who, it would seem, would turn off ANY prospective buyer, but we were all happy that we didn't have to start on a SECOND taping, which would have sent EVERYONE off in rage. Cynthia was wearing a DRESS, and was very friendly to me, but I guess I couldn't be on because I HAD been on. Using of the first magnitude, and they're paying by CHECK, not cash, which is a pity, too.
DIARY 4173
10/20/73
QUIZ SHOW TRYOUTS
First is "Shower of Dollars," with $10,000 possibility of shower EACH show, not just the once on "WWW" and "Concentration." The game is RATHER fun: couples answer questions to go in ten steps to $1000, being shown gifts under 9 cards. Then they name 3 gifts AND the numbers that they want, and then a gift is drawn, put on the lowest of 3 rows: 4 numbers with ONE "out" and THREE "safes," and if they are SAFE WITH the prize, they get the prize and go on to the next row: 3 numbers with one out, then 2 numbers with one out, and THEN they get the shower. AND WE DID IT! Having won a mink coat, a trip to Rome, and a car into the bargain. Since we DID win, we thought it was fun. Second is "Toss a Coin" pairs buzzing for the first question, then answering a series of 10 questions. If they don't know, they can "Toss" and get another chance to get back in, or the other gets back in, but each persons gets one "Toss" and then has to "Freeze," hoping their OPPONENT doesn't get to their level. Sort of a bore, with one person being asked a series of dull questions with NO contest elements. But the lack of time limits to enable a person to THINK leads me to formulate MY OWN game idea: "WHADDYA KNOW" with THREE elements which I think are good. (1) three males and three females meet (singles in one series, married in others, and the chance for mother-daughter, father-son, siblings, etc) and question EACH OTHER for 30 seconds to find "Whaddya know." Then they CHOOSE each other (based on audience reaction to see who gets the first choice) and play. (2) Then the three teams are given sets of questions for LISTS: how many composers start with C, names of Burma Hill tribes, islands in Japan, years of armistice treaties, kings of England, HOW MANY do you know in, say, three minutes. Prizes awarded for the DIFFERENCES in numbers given. With lots of pretty girls to hold scorecards. Special prizes for each category for "Genius," "Expert," and "Knower," to maybe encourage them to STOP at a certain point. Then there's a winner, who comes back in a PYRAMID of playoffs, 27 sets of 3 gives 27 teams to 9 shows, which gives teams to 3 shows and then to a playoff, for a 40-week cycle. So I should call Cynthia to see if I can get an appointment to TELL Ron Greenburg, and maybe get connected as an idea man, or a question man, with them. How ABOUT THAT!
DIARY 4200
11/3/73
"TOSS UP" TRYOUTS
In just before 5:30, and there are still two people to wait for, and there's NO one, except possibly the pretty Ellen, the actress, that I'd seen before. Barbara is plain and funny, but not terribly bright; Elaine is small and VERY intense, and similarly unsharp, Ellen is pretty and dumb, Cliff is a head-hunter and has gotten 20 applicants from WWW and 275 from ACC right in one evening!) and as bright as could possibly be, and the third guy is obviously gay and rather unpleasant and the slowest of the fellows. They've come up with a "Round Robin" of questions to whittle down the three challengers to one, and they've come up with sets of questions that match the difficulty of the levels, so it's really a game now. Barbara is the "winner" twice, but she loses her bankroll both times when she tries for the big win, Ellen doesn't do very well, but Cliff overwhelms all oppositions and I keep missing out on the round robins, not knowing that the family name in Peter Pan was "Darling," that the patron saint of Scotland is Andrew, that Babe Ruth played for the Yankees and the (?) Red Sox, that Lew Alcindor is now Karem al Jabar, and without the hint of "It starts with C" the third daughter of Lear other than Goneril or Regan (Cordelia). Felt quite stupid, particularly compared to the encyclopedia Cliff. But the programs were fun, we applauded and laughed among ourselves, and they thanked us very much for our performances, they thought they had a good tape (which I'm sure they didn't, since this just doesn't sound good), and if we knew of any way to give THEM $5 jobs, let them know. They lamented that SOME of their tapings turned into "Staring contests." But I felt that the people were NOT that good, that we were sort of the bottom of the barrel trying to help some TV producers out of the bottom of THEIR barrel, and that was a rather depressing thought as I rushed back to the subway in the windy evening. Ron looked dreadful, Cynthia's comments were forced, particularly when she looked down, LITERALLY, at my clunky Polish shoes and said "Like the shoes," which was patently only a way of saying, "I see your shoes and I want to say something to show you that I noticed them, and noticed you in them, too."
DIARY 4356
1/23/74
"RUN FOR THE MONEY"
Sitting talking before the run-through, I decide to condense the list of shows that I've worked on with them, and it's quite impressive: "Write Your Own Ticket" had the tryout on 57th Street and then the taping at the Brooklyn studio, "Wheeler-Dealers" I actually got made-up for, but only sat in the audience with Arnie and Susan, "Shower of Dollars" was the show on which I met my "wife" and we got to the TOP of the list, too, "Toss-Up" I've been to THREE times in various reincarnations of the program, and now "Run for the Money," in which I warmed up lousily, and then when the AUDIENCE came in, I played better than anyone ELSE and won three whole SHOWS! There were also the titles of "Ambush" on the light-board and a photograph for "The Couples Game," which I didn't get into at all. The doll of an actor named Sam was there, and Muriel surprised us both by being the one who won and wore the mink coat on the "Wheeler-Dealers." The executives from CBS didn't look particularly impressed, and though I thought the middle one might be gay, he certainly didn't seem to take to ME. I was in the first quiz-off, and more by a combination of the other's stupidity than my own smartness (I didn't know what state Senator George McGovern was from, for instance), but I got matched up against Muriel, and I figured I'd go down quick, but surprisingly I WON the thing. So I was the continuing winner for the round that the black won, and I didn't have much trouble putting HIM down, and then the tall shouter-out who's been on "Ambush" was up, and the audience asked if they had enough questions for the third game, and I whispered to Ron, "You can put someone else up if you want," and he said no, I'd done it, so I could do it again. And I won the thing again. Following instructions, I didn't go for it the first time, went for it the second time and missed on "What five languages are spoken at the UN," Getting English, French, Russian, and Chinese, but saying Italian rather than Spanish, silly, since it's also on the STAMPS, getting only about $600. Then on the LAST set I won from the teacher from Rye, needed only TWO more questions, and bombed on the $900 one on the SAME one I'd GOTTEN before: the three countries bordering Switzerland, saying France, Italy, and VERY stupidly, GERMANY, then groan "Austria" when he said I was wrong. Quick goodbyes, and I didn't show Ron "Whaddya Know?"
DIARY 8212
2/21/74
"SHOWDOWN BUZZ-OFF"
Into the hall to hear voices from the video-room, and back to find about 10 of the people already gathered: Don, the tall one from last time; Muriel, the short snippy one from last time; Linda, a washed-out blond who seems to like me; Gudrun, a VERY smooth Norwegian; another Bob; Alice, who also thought "Soylent Green" was perfect; Bill, an Arnie-like enthusiast with a 12-year-old soccer team along with him; a rich gal from Jersey who's a nurse who has trouble with gas; Aimee, an Oriental here for the first time; another friendly guy with a beard; Len, a pleasant guy in jeans; and a couple other quieter females---including one who looks like John Connolly and is VERY fast on the button. Cynthia comes over how THIN I am, we kiss nose-to-nose on the lips, and we move to THREE different rooms to have enough room to sit. They try us out in trios, and I get paired between the JC-look-alike and someone other female, and I know some of the answers, but mostly only when the first one misses. Cynthia has SAID that she knows I have to leave, but it doesn't even get started until 6:05, when Ron comes in to say that this program and one other appear to be "finalists" from which ABC wants to select ONE, and it sounds like a lot of trouble (they even actually cross OFF the $5 they were going to give us and give us $10 apiece---$140!), Ron says, but that's the way they make their living. I pipe up with "And this is the way we make OUR living!" which gets the biggest, most general laugh of the evening. They're even about to move to NEW offices, bigger, I hope, as a sign of possible success. And he knows ALL our names, saying that we're REALLY the top-choice in the entire city, and Muriel says something about "And a lot of good that does US!" I wait until 6:25, and then check to see it's not raining out (it's UNDERWATER when I actually get downstairs!), and walk down the hall to hear them chatting about pairings, and Cynthia sees me, comes out to say goodbye, and Ron comes out to say they KNOW where they're going to use me, so my going isn't going to affect them, so thanks me for coming. I feel good about the whole thing and will appreciate the $50 they give us for March 2 or 3, even if we DON'T appear on the pilot. But I MUST wear a tie!
DIARY 8350
3/6/74
TAPING AT ABC STUDIOS
I'm the last of the six to arrive, and I don't even RECOGNIZE the three girls, only barely recognize Len, and then of course there's Don, the tall outgoing-answers one. Immediately into an elevator where the two guys get hung up in a Knicks basketball game, and in to makeup, where the ABC people do MUCH more than the NBCers ever did, and we sit around chatting, I trying not to cough, and trying to figure why the three gals don't seem to LIKE me. Spill coffee over the floor and thankfully miss Don, and we're down to the audience-filled studio (for the second time, the first time to try out the buttons and roll the dice down the trough, where I didn't get a THING) and see that Don is in the center of the three flashy gals in green and pink silk solid-color dresses, and it's almost too much of a picture to be believed. The shorter of the two girls has an awful squeak at the end of each pertly upturned phrase, and they have to restart the tape about three times for various goofs, but the game turns out to be a GOOD one, with each of the three way into the lead at various times, but one of the gals is the lowest of the three so she drops out for the 1-2-3 final round of "SHOWDOWN." She wins, but then there's something ELSE wrong with the tape, so they play it again and HE wins, and gets down to throw the dice and gets NOTHING, and then they say he should play it again and THIS time he makes his point just as the time runs out. There are two fat kids behind us that make me and the other girl sitting out the game curse them, the audience is unbelievably responsive and I can't even figure out where they GET them, though I have to remember I was IN some of them, and now I have the $50 check in my back pocket and think THAT is enough. Maybe ten years will show me out of THAT category, too. But the game ITSELF is fun, and I hope he sells it. Back up to the room at 6:05, hoping that she doesn't even ASK me to stay, and the other six are there, a somewhat HARDER crowd, and it turns out the NEXT tryout that BOB from the second crew got SHOW and DOWN on his last throw, so they'll undoubtedly use THAT tape. Out with all the people staring enviously at us, and $50 for sitting in an audience for 3 hours is FUN!
DIARY 8352
3/9/74
"TWENTY QUESTIONS" TRYOUT
Everyone who's not in the back room is packing up for the move. Say hello to everyone and in to the back room with lots of contestants that I don't know, and Ron says hello and Cynthia comes up to kiss but I say I have a cold, and the three new contestants must look at ME as some part of the CREW since I know everyone and haven't seen THEM before. They're at what I take to be question 15 of the first topic, but it means they have 15 to GO toward "A Playboy Bunny" which they never get, and Cynthia says it's someone Stevenson, she thinks, the laughing man in the brown suit who has sole control over the contract to the show. We get most of the rest, I get "A Gas Pump" and we don't get eyeglasses, and Ron admits to not knowing much about Raquel Welch. "Sesame Street," a stethoscope and a few others are fun questions. Cynthia and Shelly are playing also and Cynthia gets into a "Can I pick it up" mood, and she talks about "lifting it," and then I say "It's not there because you LIFTED it." They ask me when it's over at 3:45 if I want to see the end of the other show, and after I laugh at Bob getting the $5000, Ron comes up to me and with a very serious face says that I could just as easily have been there in his place, and that they have it in mind to get me down for ANOTHER taping for the SAME show, and I expressed great disbelief in the whole thing, saying it surely isn't necessary for HIM to apologize to ME, and then I say that I have the outline that I want him to look at, and he says not in two weeks, please, but that I have to sign a release before HE looks at it, saying that HE can't be held responsible for any taking of MY ideas---which was an angle I hadn't thought of---but that they'll be willing to work out a financial arrangement with me if they DO use some of my ideas. So I wait for them to move BACK to their East 40th Street office, and they say they'll be calling me again for another tryout of 20 Questions, and when I'm about to leave Cynthia calls me over for my $5, which I hadn't even thought I was going to GET for the 35 minutes I sat and laughed with them. REALLY CAN'T believe my luck in being in with this crazy fun group of people who keep giving me money for ME!
DIARY 9478
4/18/74
BUZZ-OFF FOR "THE CHALLENGERS"
Get in at 6:15, having trouble finding the buzzer high on the outside wall outside their basement door, and into a low hall and right into a tiny office occupied by Cynthia in the middle and the two gals on either side, where we chat for a bit, and I find that I'm now scheduled for the 3 pm show AS a challenger, against an old guy who doesn't seem to be too sharp and a gal who seems actively dumb, so I suppose I have a chance. Into the back room, tiny, for instant coffee with Coffeemate and no sugar, though it does seem to wake me up a bit, and there's Don and about 8 other people, and we're supposed to be 12 in all, I guess, but some are late. I wish I could have been late, since Ron goes through a VERY long explanation of the game, which I've been through a couple of times, and about the middle it occurs to me that I was the one of the demonstration at their OLD studio for CBS, so they liked the show and indirectly ME, and that's why I'm so "important" for THIS taping. We get $10 for this, too, which is more than the $5 they usually give. After Ron finished the TEDIOUS intro, he had Shelly and Cynthia get up for a trial round, which made it very boring since Shelly had made UP the questions (an astounding number of which I didn't know---the old Gerald Ford State (Michigan) again, and some others). Then we got a chance to go through a few rounds, and at least I didn't goof completely, but it was just such a SILLY get-together. A husband of one of the contestants was there, too, and he obviously didn't care for it. At the end it seemed uncertain whether I'd be on ONE or TWO shows, also. Their place was actively unpleasant: the stairs down to the basement were that awful old wood, and the pipes and the smallness of the basement were NOT disguised by the curtains and the bright lights of the tiny studio. Cynthia was literally falling asleep in the background, and it all seemed so desperate and shoddy suddenly, and I thought---from the romance of the START of my dealings with the show---how HORRIBLE it must be to listen to Ron again and again and again, trying again and again to get the show going, and then HAVING the show going and explaining again and again and AGAIN! And they obviously work LONG hours EVERY day---hope they're paid well---but Shelly is in the FAMILY CIRCLE at the Hurok and in the $2 seats at the Harkness---and could NEVER afford the Africa trip. So I don't need that at ALL.
DIARY 8507
4/22/74
"THE CHALLENGERS" TAPING
Early and Irving and Leon are late, so we wait until 3:25, get late to makeup and late to the studio, where the lights and the clocks and the flip-over boxes aren't doing very well, and a boy is painting the scuff marks off the steps. I bomb out on the first round by not knowing that Simon has been made Secretary of the Treasury, but the clock goes bad and they have to re-do the round. I don't know that Saul is the first king of the Jews, but I get back in, and CAN be the winner, but I don't know that the proper name for the Adam's apple is the larynx (I thought it was the glottis). But Linda and Linnea have a GREAT game, tossing the lead back and forth a number of times, Alan Roberts is a good host, and Linnea actually WINS the $13,000, but there are problems with the right numbers on the winnings boxes all along, with the staff shouting at the poor guy to put up the right number, and Ron Greenburg chews him out in front of the audience, too. I feel pretty lousy: my blue shirt had to be resurrected from the wash with the OLD makeup on it, because the yellow shirt looked JUST TOO light to be on TV, so I couldn't wear the green suit, and then my hair was too long, I felt not quite sharp, and I KNEW that my suit was baggy. Walking OUT of the studio (they didn't want me for the second, which was good, because I NEVER would have gotten to the ballet on time), a bunch of kids from the audience were walking with me, shouting "Hey, it's BOB!" Then they remarked that I still had makeup on, and they said "Take it off or people will think you're"---and it trailed off. Then, from a distance, I heard "Yeah, it was a great show, except BOB STANK," I turned half around to look, and they laughed delightedly. The four state that are commonwealths was particularly hard (Maryland, Massachusetts, Virginia, and KENTUCKY) as was the current head of the FBI (Kelly), but the $12,000 question was merely to name the captains of the Pequod, Argo, and Pueblo, but I knew Ahab and Jason, not Lloyd Bucher. Linda and Linnea were BOTH good! Don's on the second show, with lots of people I don't know, and I have the feeling I probably won't be called back from the woeful showing I made.
DIARY 8612
5/20/74
GUSSIED-UP "TWENTY QUESTIONS"
Cynthia is on leave, so I'm handled by Nancy, the tall ugly one. Vimmie and Merrie are the two hyper-females waiting with Bob Molthrop, or someone, the bearded fellow who won the "Shake Down" before, and sadly NBC, or someone, has ANOTHER dice show they're about to unveil, so that even though ABC has SAID (at least that's what Ron Greenburg says) it will take "The Challengers" they're not going to put in ON for awhile. Strange. We've been promoted to the second floor, to sit around a large table under a chandelier between the mirrored walls, and Shelly explains the game to us (after saying that he liked the "Fille" with Nureyev as the hero but HATED "The Dybbuk," so I don't care to see even the great Tommason in it), and then Ron comes up to find that the other person isn't arriving, so just the four of us don't bother to get into the idea of the stars and the contestants who compete for five, then five, then five, then five questions alternately, then in the LAST five (for 25, yeah) they ring their bells to get in. There are also CLUES, which means that EVERY question is answered quite quickly, most before 15, many after the 11th, and they keep trying to tell us what KINDS of questions to ask, which is quite awkward. Then we can read off the answers from the backs of the cards where the magic markers have gone through them, and it's fairly awkward all around, with Vimmie insisting she doesn't know how to play, Merrie being VERY feisty and aggressive (though it got a GREAT laugh when we were going after "handcuffs" and we turned to each other in a discussion period and I said "strait jacket" and she said "girdle." It turns out that Celeste Holm, Bob McAllister, and two even lesser known people are going to be the PERMANENT contestants, and they'll be getting a panel on whom they TRY OUT things beforehand to see what makes a good game and what DOESN'T. Only $5 for this shot, but it's interesting to hear Shelly talk about his radio director's career, he'd graduated from Northwestern under the "best of them all" and his classmates included Charleton Heston, and various other big names. I did as well as any other of the contestants, but it's not THE most exciting game I've ever participated in.
DIARY 8663
6/7/74
"RAZZ'M'TAZZ"
Lovely group of older pretty Florence, goony-funny Susan, handsome Ken who was on WWW just after me, fat Joe, and blond and handsome Corky who's said to be a poet, but he sure doesn't know much about William Shakespeare. Two teams were SHAKESPEARE, Muhammad Ali, and Alice in Wonderland; Abraham Lincoln, Barbra Streisand, and ARCHIE BUNKER; and THEODORE ROOSEVELT, Snow White, and Bela Lugosi. I thought the games were fun, and coincidentally I wore my white sneakers for the first time, and we had to race each other for the bell when we heard clues that said who we were. We (Susan and Ken and I) won the first round, they sorely trounced us the second round, and we got the third round, mainly because Corky didn't seem to know anything about Shakespeare. It's a good game, but everyone seemed to be down there with us: Paul is the handsome one, who was wearing sewn-seamed tight green pants that showed off nice thighs; Shelly and the other ugly guy was there, and Norm Rosenthal, or someone, was the putative producer and gave us all the instructions. At one point there was an elaborate discussion about the relative number of points to be given for scores ($15, it turned out) and fouls ($10, they decided). The prizes of a color TV, a mink stole, a trip to Las Vegas, and $100 bills were rather tacky, but the top prize of $1000 for each of the people on the team isn't very bad at all. But the fun thing IS the competition, and they said they were TOLD to work it up for CBS, so maybe is DOES have a chance, and they say the other program still has a chance at ABC, so it's hopeful without ANYTHING coming through. Ron said that I could certainly call up for an appointment an hour before the next time I show up (probably next week on Thursday or Friday to try out new material for the same show---problematic since it's only $5, but it IS fun!) and present my idea for "Whaddya Know?" So I have to finish THAT. Riding the elevator down to the basement is sure a lot better than taking the old low-ceilinged wooden stairs, and it's beginning to look like "home" even to the contestants: Joe said he was beginning to have a locker there, and as many times as I'D been there I hadn't even SEEN him. They've got a BIG stable (they have to, for Joe's size!).
DIARY 8778
7/19/74
"RAZZ'M'TAZZ"
Allan Oliver is a blue-eyed curly-headed overly-plump fellow with a nice face, and Judy is a theater-rat with lovely blue eyes, and then there's the lively Nina from the last run-through, and plain Jane and John-Connolly-like Sharon, or whoever, and we have people like Joe Namath (me) and Paul Revere and Pocahontas and Donald Duck (me) and Cinderella and Richard Nixon and Charles Dickens and L'il Abner and Joan of Arc. They've livened the game by having five up and five down with MONEY values that you ask for, and there's a relay-race at the end for added money, and a wild card, and the game is STILL fun with its fouls and races and sneakered feet (or bare feet, if you remember to bring them, as I say). Paul is taking care of the lights, looking fairly well-built, and I THINK he was the one I saw on the Promenade a couple of times, and the dour-faced fellow is ALSO someone Greenburg, and I wonder if it's Ron's BROTHER? There's a new fellow on the lights, the same old producer-type behind the game board, and they've got the top floor of the Hotel Bedford set up as their presentation room, and they have too few lights, worry about a ladder with the prize-values and the 60-second clock on it, and the place is still cluttered despite an attempt to look professional. He talks about the number of times a show has to be worked over, taking it frames at a time like a movie, and surely watching the progress made on a show is interesting, but toward the end of the afternoon even WE steadies feel a bit down with their constant bickering about details. At the elevator Judy says that she's gotten here because of being an out-of-work actress, and they've even put ads in the trade papers to get more people, so they really ARE hard-up for talent to try out their game shows, and I'm probably the best-paid "extra" that they have! But Shelley said that if any of these shows GO, they'll have to hire a passel of people, and I was wondering if he was sort of wanting me to hint that I would be interested in joining them, which I probably would NOT, since they don't seem to break for lunch and be BUSY from 9 am to about 9 pm without interruption except for coffee and cigarettes. NOT a way to live.
DIARY 8999
10/12/74
"$10,000 PYRAMID" TAPING
The line stretches to the corner of 58th and 7th, and I get behind a group of black girls next to a fresh-faced determined young lady who strikes up a conversation with me: "What's in that" pointing to my loaded canvas bag of Travel Dynamics totebags, and tells me that she's determined to get on the program. We get in by 4, into a crowded balcony from which we can't see very much, but the show, with guests Elizabeth Ashley and George Maharis, is interesting, and she squeals and expresses great excitement. After the taping, we're told to come to the orchestra if we want to be interviewed for the show, and it ends up that the orchestra is totally full: about 200 people. Some snide remarks are passed about smoking in the first row, and the girl shouts out instructions about being over 18 and that "the names are selected at random," and the girl (someone Sims) and I discuss how obviously it WOULDN'T be by random choice. Three people take each of the sections, and I look with favor at the humpy guy in front of me, and the whole row laughs when I have to spell Zolnerzak twice, and she looks at me in admiration: obviously I've made an impression with my name that she'd wished she could make with hers. It takes a much shorter time than I would have expected, and the names chosen are told to pick up their cards in the back, so at least they're out of the way when the final time must come to say: you all left haven't been chosen: at least we can't be attacked and robbed. The names zip up the first side, ours, and there's my name, and she smiles frustratedly at me, wishing me luck, saying that she'll get more tickets and come back again and again until SHE'S chosen at random, as was "PRITCHARD, Robert O," who shouted out his name and the fact that he was trying AGAIN to be selected, and obviously they had to choose him, so I told Ms. Sims that that was the tactic for HER to try NEXT time, until the producers realize that they can't let it go on, and will have to demand that insistent contestants-to-be think of something else besides this verbal blackmail. Out onto the milling street with lots of disappointed kids, and decide that I WILL have time to have an interview tomorrow afternoon.
DIARY 9001
10/13/74
"$10,000 PYRAMID" TRYOUT
Get one of the last seats on the 9th floor, fill out a form with a girl who says she must get to the Cheese Festival by 2, and read while trying to shut out the sound of the blaring radio that covers the practice session from the adjoining rooms. In with Susan, the "same name as my nice niece" chortles the long-phony-lashed Jewish housewife determined to get on: "and you say that marvelous screener's name is Edith Chan, oh she's so marvelous!" We're told that they allowed the stars to give hints "starting with the letter __" because they were new to the game, but WE weren't allowed to do it, nor could we say "sounds like" or "rhymes with," nor use a word or part of a word in the definition. We were urged to use our hands and voices and faces as flagrantly as possible: the idea was that everyone was having a great time, and the winner from last night's program was cited as a model of that behavior, and later Bob said that he jumped around like an idiot, of course. She tried "Daylight Savings Time" on me and I started inauspiciously by saying "In the summerTIME you---" I did a bit better on Metroliner, but she really cracked down on those who didn't do well with "trolley" or "watermelon." We were ushered into Edith Chan's room in groups of four, to form two pairs who both gave and received. My lady did quite well until she didn't know the capital of China was Peking, which made me use my hands to try to get her to say "peeking," and that might have done it for me. I gave her words rhyming with "ing" such as Alan King, Wing, Peking, String; she gave me works with "back" in them, with the roughest being "backroom" where she clued with "living room," like backbone, backward, playback. The others did far more poorly than we did, and when I told her that I wasn't going to be around for the next two weeks, she marked it dutifully on her paper, appreciating the fact that I'm taking off for the Greek islands on my first experience as a Tour Escort, so maybe THAT will help to get me on, too. Everyone tried so damn hard to be bright and ebullient that my head was spinning, and I even told one girl riding down in the elevator: "The rest of the day seems a waste; they get you all hyped up and then there's nothing else to do for the rest of the afternoon."
DIARY 9137
12/8/74
PREMIERE OF "THE BIG SHOWDOWN"
The first air-date is Monday, December 23rd, at 2:30 pm on ABC, and this will be the only show taped tonight; there'll be three on Tuesday, for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of Christmas week, and then three on Friday, when I go in, which will be shown on Friday, Monday, and Tuesday, New Year's Day (if they're showing them), so I MAY be on as late as the 2-4th of that week IF I hold over until the following Tuesday, as I had done before. Be sad if I SHOWED on the 4th and had to LEAVE on the 4th! The "points" in the game (7, 15, 23, 30, or whatever), if won, are worth between $25 and $500, depending on what comes up on the spinning wheel. The top $10,000 is only for the FIRST throw (not bad, one in 36 only!), and is only $5,000 afterwards, but there's an extra $250 if you make your point, rough for Shirley, or whoever won, since she rolled "Show" and a two for a POINT of 2! And then the dice-girl muffed the dice a few times, and there were a couple of nasty scrambles. Winner ended up with $750 (though of course she comes BACK on Tuesday for more taping), and Eileen, the pretty blond who's "now going to be an actress," had won about $550, though at the first she SURE looked as though she were going to win the whole thing. Poor Don, or whoever, just didn't do very well at all, winning NOTHING except the Shick shaver consolation prize. He looked pretty disgusted and felt it, too. Afterwards, he and his three sons, outside the theater, agreed to go to a bar and get good and drunk. I'd cornered Pat outside the theater, and she told me to go inside, which I wouldn't have thought of doing, and waited in there reading until the theater opened at 7. They warmed the audience and moved me around "next to Sam" the pretty-boy actor, and then did nothing with me, except that Shelley said that my jacket was known as "busy" and wouldn't be good for the taping. Cynthia was waving at everyone, and the production stuff was enormous, everyone of Ron Lipp's hangers-on and all of Ron Greenburg's hangers-on made a full stage. Good exciting game, however, and it should show well. And the questions seemed EASY, the only point was in getting through the damn barrage of BUZZERS! The two gals sure had edged out poor DON in that bargain, even in his own FIELD!
DIARY 9147
12/14/74
TAPING "THE BIG SHOWDOWN"
Down to a room with 12 of us, and they're excited about the last three shows because each time someone's won $5000 on the littler showdown, creating lots of what they hope will be audience excitement. I mention to Cynthia that I'm leaving town on January 2, so I hope I can be on a show before that, and though I'm not on the first show (which I knew most of the answers to) I'm on the second show, so I go to the john and get upstairs very nervously at 12:05, paired against Pat and Linda on either side, and I simply can't press the button fast enough. I know I have to do it even before the question has been finished, but I just can't seem to beat them out. My one big chance, blocking them BOTH on a mythological question for six points, asks me for the names of Jove's nine daughters, and I search my mind and come up with the Eumenides, but of course they're the Muses, and I've missed my chance. At the VERY end I get going with some 6 pointers on the bible, but though I manage to get up to about 20 points, they're both up in the 40s---the final point we were going for was 53, the highest I've seen yet, and that's the end of it for me. He'd even said that I should bat the button once just to make sure it's working, but I just couldn't do it. But I had no QUICK idea who the current premiere of Cuba was, didn't REALLY know the number of New England states, but sadly couldn't even get to be the SECOND guesser for "blood" for Dr. William Harvey after she guessed wrong with "sweat." They went on to a very funny round which Linda won with a string of one-pointers for "Beverages" and she didn't manage to come up with a Showdown, the first of a string, but I wasn't interested in staying around to see what happened on the other shows. Richard Nasser was a total doll of a psychology student, but we seemed to have nothing in common. Cynthia said that Ron wouldn't be ready to start working on new show ideas until at least March, but that I should call in and try to be on the panels trying out "Twenty Questions," so at least I can have SOMETHING. But never again, I keep telling myself, should I enter ANY kind of quiz program that I have to rely on the speed of my reflexes---simply EVERYONE will be able to beat me out, even if they're only getting in there with a wild guess!
DIARY 9202
1/24/75
"THE BIG SHOWDOWN" CONTESTANTS
Monday, 12/23: Program 1: * Sharon - $850
Don - $0
Eileen - $500
Tuesday, 12/24: Program 2: Joel. Charleston - $75
* Marge Gotty - $500 + $5,000 = $5500
Sharon (came in 3rd; $850 from last time)
Wednesday 12/25: Prog. 3: Linnea Ditchey - $0
Ron Siebert - $150
* Mary Lee Fox - $350+500+$5000 = $5850
Thursday, 12/26: Prog. 4: * Walter Volpe: 8, 15, 23, 30, 38, 45, 53, 60
(to 54!) $25, 500, 25, 75, 25, 100, 100, 250
$5000 + 1100 = $6100
Sigrunn Uhlmark - 18 $0
Ken Hashima - 40 $0 (112 points total!)
Friday, 12/27: Prog. 5: Cheryl Week - $0
* Fred Catapano - $1000+$5000=$6000
Gloria Sheffield - $50 (Taping 1 of my day)
Monday, 12/30: Prog. 6: * Linda Darrow - $475 (51) + $500 = $975
Bob Zolnerzak - $0 (23)
Pat - $625 (45) (119 points total!)
Tuesday, 12/31: Prog. 7: * Linda Darrow - $350
Richard Nasser - $725
Marla Goldfarb - $0
Wednesday, 1/1: Prog. 8: * Linda Darrow - $825 ("Thank you so much for playing with me.")
Phil Burgovoy - $75
Saralee Kaye - $0
Thursday, 1/2: Prog. 9: Linda Darrow - $150---$2550 in total
* Pete Benjamin - $375
Ginnie Manuel - $0
They get 1 first roll, 13 during 30 seconds, about 3 for 5 seconds, so Linda had 17+14+14 shots at "Showdown," or 45, where the odds are only 1 in 36! The "Moneymaze" is only for couples and relies on buzzers; I'm not interested.
DIARY 9366
3/6/75
"SMART MONEY" TRYOUT
Sit around reading with Phyllis and Sandy, and Ron comes in about 6:15 and sets us up, explaining the abbreviations that skirt around the moving board, though it'll certainly be better when the initials flash on the board in lights. It's a quick-push game again, but since I seem to be able to get most of the initials, I do fairly well (after shouting out "BLT" when it hadn't appeared yet for the sandwich ordered with three ingredients), winning the second set 3 to 2 to 2, and the third set has an unannounced winner, and it's over all too quickly. Art had called to say how much he detested taking the test for "The Big Showdown," and I tried to tell him that they would have cottoned to his dislike of the show in general, and though he said he could hack it if he did it as an act, he wasn't interested in THAT kind of an act, and I said that I could do it very nicely with no trouble. The doll of a guy, Bruce, I think, was there, but he seemed thoroughly fixed on the girl's asses, so I didn't see any reason to get hung up on his facial handsomeness. I found a couple of glitches, saying that TGS was "The Girl Scouts," which left BSA for "Boy Scouts of America" unclaimed for the youth organization. Ron said that I must have showed up at their offices at least 20 times, so this morning I went back into my files to see how much money I HAVE gotten from them, and as closely as I can count, I'd been there ten times for $5, twice for $10, and there for three tapings at $50 apiece, for a total of $220 for 15 appearances, which comes out to $14.66 per hour, though usually the $5 are LESS and the $50s are surely usually more than an hour, but then I console myself with the fact that I usually manage to incorporate ONE end of the trip to their office with something else, like the theater-going last night, so I don't even have to add the travel time---not to mention the fact that I LIKE the games, enjoy being on the programs, and at the very LEAST now have a Bissell carpet sweeper that I wouldn't have had had I not catered to the whims and calls of Ron Greenburg Productions---and if they stay on ABC, I can get on NEXT year, too!
DIARY 9445
3/27/75
"SMART MONEY" EXPANDED
It seems almost silly to devote even as little as 8 minutes to the PAGE about this, when I was so conscious of the session being under half an hour for $5, making the hourly rate rather comparable to real WORK, and being so much fun. I'm the last one in at 11:05, and Ron's telling them about the moving belt that I'd seen last time. I get the first few very fast, and then he tells me to slow down, but they out-buzz me when THEY get into it. There's Bernie, an accented rather unpleasant big fellow, and Marie (I think), older but cute. It is the same START as before, getting at first $10, then $20, then $30, then $50 for the correct guesses, and they use many of the same ones that I STILL don't know. BUT they've added a "buy and sell" segment with a list of prices at 5 time-periods, quoting prices for things like speedboats, mink coats, clock radios, and slacks, which might start at $10, go up to $90, or down to $5. I do some of the best buying and selling, but still end up just behind Marie with $300. The game's more interesting with the buying and selling, and it sort of equalizes the people on the buzzers, as they point out, and then there's the personal strategy and luck of the prices fluctuating in ways impossible to predict but fun to think about. It's convenient to have it so near to NC, and I hope I can keep thinking of ways of combining the two efforts.
DIARY 10846
4/15/76
"PLAY THE CLOCK" TRYOUT
Shelly is keeping one "clock" that Ron has lots of trouble with: first just tick the second, then cross OFF the second, then draw a line down THROUGH the second, then CIRCLE THE LAST second of the minute each of the four "stars" has on his clock. Kay and I are just stupid contestants who merely look at the "stumpers" we give the stars who figure how to get the OTHER contestant to say the sentence quickly. But simple things like "The Pope," "Bubble Bath" (which I don't get), "Paul Newman," "Take out the Garbage," "Hubert Humphrey"---all for points that give us prizes. The fellow who's keeping the OTHER clock is the ORIGINATOR of the series, and it's rather sad that that's the case: don't know if I WANT to suggest "Whaddya Know," unless he's paid a retainer while it's being worked out. Gabor shows up just later than I am, saving me from being last, and he's been on the West Coast for a number of weeks and hasn't seen much of the Ostrins. Gudrun is still rather frigid-looking, the fat guy is a nerd, and the quick-answering gal seems to be the hero of the afternoon, getting to put across the only drawing which was the THIRD part of the afternoon: "Burt Reynolds is sawing Bella Abzug in half while Barry Goldwater turns thumbs down, Tony Orlando has a rabbit's body and has come out of a hat, and Liza Minnelli is the stage assistant." The SECOND part was rather silly too: something like "W.C. Fields sticks his finger into a light socket and his nose lights up," or the "Detroit Tigers and the L.A. Rams are knitting sweaters in the Astrodome" have to be communicated without giving any of the proper names away. But the other words don't seem to matter THAT much, just as long as they're said. Ron asks if we can all come back, but I don't get a call in the following two weeks, so it might be that they don't like my short haircut after all. Don't get to tell Shelley about WHY I cancelled the Florida trip, but I just said that it was more worth my while to stay HERE, and he seemed content with that. The trend seems, again, to be away from the intelligence shows, TO the screamers and the celebrity shows, as this one is---and it's just too bad that that's not the thing that Ron, and Shelley in particular, are the BEST at doing for TV.
DIARY 10886
5/16/76
"PLAY THE CLOCK" AS CELEBRITY
Since I'm there first I get to see everyone gather, and a 12-year-old comes in and Ronnie introduces him as "a games expert," but he doesn't SAY anything, and at a certain point he takes over what the originator, who isn't there this week, had been doing, so maybe it's just a cheap form of ego-flattery to get an extra set of helping hands. Gudrun is back, and this time I get to sit next to her as a celebrity, but unfortunately I can make up such good questions that the opponent gets them very quickly, so just as quickly they learn not to call on me. When it's over, I tell Shelley this, but he says that there's something about the strategy and the gifts they have to work with, too, but I don't have the guts to say that I really don't understand it. I didn't get it when I was there the first time, and I didn't get it on re-seeing. We weren't asked to stay around for extra things this time, so we're only there for 45 minutes, which makes the effective rate of pay $6.66+ per hour, which isn't bad. The time before the "safety zone" (which I suggest should be called the DANGER zone) had been a minute before, but now it's been cut down to 30 seconds, which makes the first part of the game go faster. One of the contestants is a real kvetch, not knowing anything, complaining about the answers, saying she doesn't know anything about sports. When I get "A shortstop" to give to her, I THINK I say "One of the players on a baseball team," but THEY insist that I just said "It's not anyone on the bases or on the field," though they just loved "It's not a long pause, it's a ???" Then Shelley said they had ONE space for next week, and she and I said we were free, so Shelley said that there were enough women already and chose me, but I suspect he wouldn't have chosen HER for ANYTHING again. I felt good because I was avoided, but I would have liked to have had more stabs at questions. This time they added gifts that could be exchanged back and forth, getting the usual gasps for $2,000 and a mink coat, and flat disinterest for a dining room set or $500. The kid said nothing while we were there, and Shelley said that Dennis could call him anytime and give his name to be added to the list of people called.
DIARY 10902
5/18/76
"PLAY THE CLOCK" AS CELEBRITY AGAIN
Last one in at 12:31, and someone I'd seen before is sitting behind the desk, working a stopwatch and helping out, yet maybe as a co-producer trying to see what it looked like and trying to see how it would work on TV. Ron still explains it in such a complicated way that almost no one except a real sharpie of a contestant understands it, and he sort of has it all over her as a contestant, and I really don't get into the other celebrities. I'm sitting by the door and not doing well at ALL; when Kansas City comes on the card, the ONLY thing I can think of is "The Capital of Missouri" and of course the guy says St. Louis, and I feel a TOTAL stupe. However, again I got most of the answers out quickly and I was one of the last to be asked, except now there are FIVE celebrities instead of 4, and the "safety zone" is now called only the ZONE, and the 60-second at first, then 30-second, has now gone down to a 20-second time period in this third go-around for me. They have something else to do afterward, so we're out at 1, which means I got $5 for a half-hour's pleasure, but I felt sort of silly sitting there with my torn shoes when everyone else was looking rather tailored and feeling rather smart. But the GAME started being interesting, and I rocked back and forth, rooted for the winners, gasped at the prizes, and helped everyone make a lively time for whoever was watching. Also, poor Shelley had come up with about the fifth version of a clock to run, and I guess they can't even afford some of the devices they had when we were trying out the OTHER things, and it DOES appear that Shelley is the ONLY guy who's working on it with Ron, so that's really down to the bone on everything---and they only have two inner offices and one general-storage outer office, so maybe they've even given up the larger room they had down the hall when they were trying out the banner-board game. I don't really recall anyone there, but all of them seem to have been back a number of times, so they have an enormous file of people, "actors" as they describe themselves, who are willing to come down. But I felt particularly stupid, and wouldn't be surprised if I weren't called back again, except maybe for the reason that I was STUPID in an engaging way.
DIARY 10944
5/20/76
"CLOCKWATCHERS" AND MEET TONY HERNANDEZ
I'm a contestant! Other contestant is SHARP, however, a woman, and four of the five CELEBRITIES are women, so for a sexual balance I guess I could have predicted that Shelley would call me back for Thursday, which he did Thursday. Tony comes in in a VERY crotchy pair of blue jeans and a shirt open halfway down his chest with black curly hair, and his blue eyes look right AT me as he reads the rules, and we're all in a good mood, Ron's not there, and Ina has brought in come GOOD pear soup with wine in it and we pass it around, and I get the sympathy of the group when my opponent SWEEPS ALL the prizes in the first round, winning $10,000 too, and I goofed on the address of the White House (Capitol Hill isn't right, dunce, it's 1800 Pennsylvania Avenue), the galaxy that I say Andromeda and it's Milky Way. Don't recall that Sputnik is the first Russian satellite, say "rose fever" when she says "spring" rather than HAY fever, say "yeti" when the card has "abominable snowman," so they know I'm not cheating. Then Tony reads the rules again, I staring into his lovely eyes, and I give her a run, tying the thing up at 2 and 2, having made a point on Tinkerbelle from Peter Pan, but she dings me out on the final question and I get to go for $10,000, but only have 10 seconds (she might have LEGITIMATELY gotten them in 13), but Tony fudges for me, so all of us have fun. It's run long since we were waiting for Tony, Ron arrived with our $5s and said he'd be in touch with us, either Tuesday for another run-through or Thursday for some longer sort of presentation, which I hope means more money. The quick-whiz is back, and no one calls on her AGAIN, concentrating on the slower ones like Marvin and Ina and Ellen and Eileen. Interesting that I can't remember the name of my opponent or the quick-whiz! The name of the game's been changed to Clockwatchers, the time's remained at 20 seconds, and they've FINALLY got the machinery in for run-throughs, and the ZONE is now the TIME ZONE. IS it only my imagination that the questions came to me very slowly rather than me ANSWERING them slowly (or saying corset when I should have said girdle)? But we laughed a lot, got some pear soup, and I fell in love with Tony Hernandez, and Bob said he'd have to ask his friend, but he was sure EVERYONE there was gay, and Shelley REALLY described him purply: "a sweet guy, VERY friendly and affectionate and outgoing." REALLY!
DIARY 10961
6/1/76
"CLOCKWATCHERS" LAST REHEARSAL
I'm still a contestant, but some woman is taking Murray's place since he couldn't be there, so Joel as a celebrity and I are the only ones who are guys. Tony is in a sports jacket and slacks that don't show nearly so neat a crotch, and they finally have buzzers that work and clocks that do too, though they seem to be somewhat slow, and there are mechanical problems with them when Ina's buzzer doesn't ring when it gets down to zero. Some of the questions are the same, but I still goof on a couple, and Stephi wins the first game without any trouble at ALL. Tony's being coached outright on lines to give, and he says the next day that he's BEEN filmed in a number of pilots of game shows, but nothing's ever gotten done through them, so he has some experience here. He's still dolling to look at. Kay (or whatever the quickie's name is) is told she's going to be a contestant tomorrow, but she doesn't get a chance at it today. I win through in the second game mainly because Stephi doesn't get a few of HER answers, and then try the final game with 11 seconds and even manage to GET it: $10,000 and a trip to Samoa and a 77 Datsun and $2,000, or something like that, and I hope I can keep up the brilliance for tomorrow. Now that all the glitches have been ironed out of the format, the jobs of people like Ron Greenburg become obviously harder than ever: they have to applaud, they have to oh-ah at the prizes when they're announced, they have to retain a constant enthusiasm over something that they go through DAY AFTER DAY, when I get rather bored with it when I'm faced with it three times in two weeks! I sit on the side when another team tries as contestants (I guess Kay DOES get her turn) and think that it's rather a hard way of earning $5, glad that it'll be $25 tomorrow, and hoping NBC doesn't take it since I have two with them already. Shelley keeps leaping around helping out, Ron seems more and more nervous, and the plump assistant keeps smiling at me though I never CAN remember his name. We even stay longer than 1:30 to get through the games, and I'm glad that I'll be through after tomorrow. Dennis hasn't called them yet; Fred Bassoff wrenched the name from me, so I hope he doesn't make an ass of me.
DIARY 10965
6/2/76
"CLOCKWATCHERS" PRESENTED TO NBC
Some guy arrives at 12:35, after they tried a game with Kay and other, and then with Stephi and me, that Stephi won in a quick shut-out when I couldn't think of ANYTHING. Then we stood around and talked about baseball with a dreadful Murray who knew everything, Shelley who knew the six flags that Texas had been under, and a nervous Tony who chatted about anything while waiting for everyone to come back from the tiny ladies room. Then the three viewers showed up: the dykey woman who'd been there before, sitting next to Don Anderson, or someone who used to work with Ron Greenburg and explained to her what she didn't understand of the rules, and another female---which made it rather problematic why there were so many women on the panels, save that the judges MAY have, in fact, been dykes and Ron knew it. I got to sit in for the first "real" game, and I gave a fairly good battle, except at the very last question, for my very last point to Stephi, Ina had been told if she couldn't give the clue (which she couldn't for the Golden Fleece), she should just tell me to ring the bell, which she did. Sadly, it was in the Time Zone and I lost the game right there, with nothing to show for it. Stephi went through and didn't get the $10,000 (or else she did), and then the other two went at it and Kay screamed her way through, looking totally phony to me, but then I wasn't the judges. I was sucking on cough drops, snuffling into my handkerchief, and in general not feeling too well. When it was over at 1:30, they motioned that they'd be talking about Tony's suitability, too, and that he should leave, so he came down in the elevator with all of us, and if there was ANYONE he didn't look at any more than the others, it was me. I posed on the curb, going away, hoping he might notice me, but he didn't, and that's probably the last I'll see of him. Felt bored with the whole thing, felt that my smiles were forced and my demeanor NOT the enthusiastic one they wanted, but the mechanics went well, there were almost NONE of the great wisecracks that livened the rehearsals, and the "additional crew" from Ron Greenburg Productions, as they thought of themselves, crept away into a warm afternoon with $25 in their pockets and hope in their hearts that they'd be able to GET on the show if it WERE accepted.
DIARY 11020
6/23/76
NEW FORMAT FOR "CLOCKWATCHERS"
I'm a celebrity and two guys, Andy and Paul, are the contestants who don't have the questions now, but must buzz in for each clue from the celebrities. Sara Lee, Maureen, Kathleen, Peter and I mess up a few, but I seem to make a mess of MANY: Robert Redford is the actor other than---and I can't think of Dustin Hoffman in "All the President's Men" and since I was called on FIRST in the "$10,000 if you get 54 questions in 15 seconds" contest, it was just a matter of racking up $100s for each correct one AFTER me. I barely remember that Marcus Welby stars Robert Young: can't think of anything but "a TV show with a road number" for Route 66; thanked the lord I didn't get "Baretta"; laughed at Peter as he blew up completely on "going braless," and laughed with everyone when we all fluffed. "The guy who filled what with animals" naturally got only Noah rather than Noah's Ark; and I barely knew that "Ronald Reagan" was the ex-governor of California. "The Brady Bunch" would have caused me trouble, and I can't imagine HOW you'd do "Now you see it, now you don't." But Shelley said that Ron had made these up, and so "borsht" was not good for borscht or borsch; acupuncture and Reagan got a laugh, and H2O is just NOT water! NOW the clock STARTS in the "prize zone" and if you get the answer in the first five seconds you get the gift; otherwise you get it when the celebrities' clock goes to zero. The rules seemed MUCH simpler, and it's a pity they didn't think of this when they STARTED. Shelley's going on vacation next week, and I told them I wouldn't be here during August, but they said they'd get in touch. Dennis still hasn't called them, and I sort of wish they'd leave me alone; it seems that each time I go in I get worse and worse, and they started cursing at me for mixing them up on their questions---lucky I didn't get anything on SPORTS, which faked out poor Kathleen more than once. At least we didn't have to applaud, and only Shelley and Ron were in on the tryouts, and then it gave me the opportunity to do lots of book-shopping, really one of the LAST things I needed to do. Loosening tape stopped the clocks; Shelley kept goofing, and Ron really DOES have a good memory for who just said what and called on whom.
DIARY 11084
7/23/76
"CLOCKWATCHERS" WITH ALL MEN
Four of the celebrities there are men, one with (Richard) a GREAT crotch pushing out his yellow corduroys, and someone else comes in in blue-jean cutoffs, and then Richard Someone, the actor from before come in, and later says that he's just won $10,000 on some quiz program on NBC, so he can't appear THERE anymore, and he's won $23,500 in the past YEAR from quiz programs! Wonder if he considers this $5 WORTH it! None of the five male celebrities have played the game before, so they try shooting me answers, and then Richard comes in, saying he was "held up," to which Shelley replies "How much did they get?" Ha. Then we try a couple of games, and at first Richard isn't even TRYING on the button, but then he gets into it and beats me out most of the time when he knows the answer. They're many of the same old questions (though probably Al Pacino NEVER starred with Paul Newman, and I didn't know that Washington threw the dollar over the Rappahannock and not the Potomac), but the way they get to them is of course different. The blond stupidish gal from before is helping out with the logistics of the game, but she says she's there as an alternate as we all are. I congratulate them both on the Time-Life contract I see them get in the only Back Stage I've read in months, and tell Shelley that Dennis has a different phone number, but never give it to him. Ron is saying that NBC now has options for TWO programs, this and something called Wordgrabbers, which is done with SEVEN celebrities with changes for lots of humor, and has to be worked in a bigger area, with platforms, then this, and that'll start next week. They even have a 30-second timer, and most of the trials at getting five questions in 30 seconds are successful with the introduction of a GREAT gimmick: the PASS to another celebrity when the first appears flummoxed. ALSO, the prizes are awarded in random SECTIONS of the celebrities' clocks, which is ANOTHER great improvement, since there are more reasons than randomness to choose a particular celebrity. But Richard managed to win both games---I don't think I got more than one point out of the seven awarded, so he would have won ANOTHER $5,000 in THIS game if it were real.
DIARY 11295
9/14/76
"CLOCKWATCHERS" BEFORE ABC PRESENTATION
Up to room 615 to be greeted by a worried Shelley right outside the elevator at 10:05, and I'm next-to-last (Grant's last) to arrive. The room's set up with contestant's stands, buzzers, an answer-slot in the wall behind us, and working celebrities' clocks, prize slots, and final-questioning podiums, all very professional. I'm a contestant with Merrie, and the first game goes to her with all the prizes, though I fight back from her first two wins to tie it up before she gets the LAST question, but flubs on the $10,000 round because she couldn't get "Happy Days," which I'm glad wasn't mine. I didn't know lots of things: vice-presidential candidate (Dole) and other TV programs and sports figures. But the game seemed like fun and I might have killed myself by saying "Of course, the contestants are GREAT" which Greenburg didn't seem to appreciate. He DID announce a new program of different quiz shows, all question-answer types, so I SHOULD try to get "Whaddya know?" to him! Then the SECOND game I got the first two celebrities, and SHE got the next two, and I got the final one, and then WHIZZED through the final questions in 20 seconds to get the $10,000, plus trips to Tokyo, wardrobes, Pintos, kitchens, diamond rings, and $325 in $25 units for answering questions. Merrie makes a good match: she's quicker on the buzzer, but she doesn't know as much as I do. I shook hands and said "I'm sweating," and she said, "Look at my tits!" I did, and they were erectile and erected, and she said she'd have to wear a bra if she were coming for the presentation. I agreed. Ron said that the presentation was this afternoon to ABC at 2 (which is good, since I could appear on it NOW, having last been on ABC on December 30, 1974), and if we were in the neighborhood, we should come to clap. Asked to use the phone, but they weren't going downstairs. The set looked good mainly because of a thin red strip put on to imitate paneling on the beige and green planks nailed together. The celebrities were Al and Gretchen and Grant and another guy and gal, none very sexy nor terribly sharp, and I'm sorry to have been included in the second rank, but Merrie is neat, and we're both hoping we'll be able to win something on the SHOW.
DIARY 11412
11/4/76
"ALPHABET GAME" FOR THE FIRST TIME
Waiting for Linda, Ron's in California, Clockwatchers hadn't been picked up yet, they're still trying. This is a series of eliminations, starting with all four raising their hands to answer questions, getting a "hold" on their clocks ticking away 30 seconds if they answer correctly, and there are no buzzers so we have to raise hands to answer. I get a hold and let others get in answers, Dennis answering none and going out first. Then the three left go to a tick-tack-toe board from A-J, the winner getting to select a letter that no one ELSE knows, giving them a tremendous advantage, but I manage to take a letter away from someone and finally get all the questions right to win THAT, and then Patti wins the next so that we two compete on a series of 8 questions that she quickly goofs on, but I'm glad I don't have HER questions of "How many rows of stars in the flag?" (9) and another toughie. Dennis is very impressed, saying "I agree with Peggy, you DO sparkle!" Then I'm to the final game, a fun thing in which you get seven questions in fields like mythology, rivers, funnies, and presidents, and answers are in alphabetical order from A to Z. An "automatic shuffler" (Shelley, here) gives me a letter (H) that I have to AVOID, so I start from the end and get 7, 6, 5 across the bottom, then go to the top for 1 (where I say Hercules held the world on his shoulder), zeroing in on the H, rather than Atlas, but he lets me have it), 2, but the H is under the third card, so I lose, getting only $150 for each correct question. Dennis goofs on his funnies because he didn't know that who was born on Krypton was Superman, and the gal with the Presidents was the best, legitimately winning the $20,000, and Linda with the Rivers was awful, not knowing the Volga, Amazon, and another river, though she too guessed the right letter last. Shelley says he'll be getting back to us when he gets new material, but they're already working on it since they started last week, but everyone says that the FIRST part will be MUCH better when they get in the sound of a ticking clock, when they get the buzzers in, and when they get the slave clocks so that we can SEE where the time's ticking away.