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The Buzz Is Big
in Burbank Today
If you don't believe everybody loves Betsy, you should see those who huddled around Ms. Palmer last night after What's My Line?. Whether they knew her from I've Got a Secret or the "Friday the 13th" films, she still packs a huge appeal with the fans....In the crowd Friday night: Fox Reality and former GSN top programmer Bob Boden, former GSN host Laura Chambers, and writers from Toronto, Kansas City and Seattle.
A big hit with the crowd was the music of Adam Chester, whose keyboard and vocal work---including a song written especially for Game Show Congress---kept the action lively....Rick Carl's set decorations were a tour de force. Among the highlights were blowups of promotional pictures and sequences from the original Line....The musical saw player, David Weiss, who stumped the panel, played the Jeopardy! theme on the saw. Weiss was also an accomplished musician with the Los Angeles Symphony.
We have been promised the annual impersonation of NBC's tacky buzzer, which was used frequently on You Don't Say! and The Hollywood Squares by Joe Van Ginkel....Among the other attendees enjoying the weekend: Doug Scherer, first-timer Brooke Hixon from Albany, Ga., and our good friend Mike Klauss, who has been a lifesaver for the convention with some of his rare videotape footage.
GSC's own T.R.A.S.H.master, James Dinan is making his fourth straight GSC.....Another highlight of the weekend which opened Saturday morning: Ottinger and Wayne Forrester are overseeing the classic games screening room. This year, the screening room features the best work of two legends we've lost in the last year, Peter Tomarken and Nipsey Russell.....An autograph show, featuring a number of popular celebrities, is also underway in the Hilton Burbank, so the traffic is heavy.
Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! executive producer Harry Friedman will be making his first GSC appearance Sunday at both an industry panel and as a testimonial speaker for Peter Marshall, who will receive the Bill Cullen Career Achievement Award.
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The Way It Ought to Be Done
BURBANK----Friday night's live stage version of What's My Line? was worth the entire price of admission for Game Show Congress 5.Whereas a certain cable network ruined a trademark show with its update of I've Got a Secret, the efforts of producer Jim Newman, host J. Keith van Straaten and the solid panel work of Frank Nicotero, Sarah Purcell, Stu Shostak and original I've Got a Secret legend Betsy Palmer offered a textbook on how to treat a classic with loving care and respect.
Plus, the full house audience at a ballroom of the Hilton Burbank Hotel and Convention Center was treated to a huge surprise when actress Shirley Jones entered from behind the curtain and signed in as the evening's mystery guest.
Yes, the Line stage show had an occasional double entendre but it was never overt. When that happened, it came from the natural flow of the game and questions from the panel, rather than a deliberate attempt on the part of the interrogators to be bawdy.
Of the three conventional occupations, the panel only nailed one (86-year-old girdle tester Joan Desmond, who stumped an April 1954 What's My Line? panel on CBS with the same line). Yet, they were close on the other two (musical saw player David Weiss and tanning salon owner---and Barker's Beauty---Gabrielle Tuite).
Palmer proved she has not lost a step, nearly 40 years after being confronted with her last secret on CBS. The audience gave her a spontaneous standing ovation in tribute to a television era (1959-67) in which Palmer, who went on to alternate fame as Jason's mother in the "Friday the 13th" movies, was arguably one of the best-known women in television as the Secret panel sidekick of Bill Cullen. At one point Friday night, when her colleagues zeroed in on Tuite's occupation as having something to do with the body, Betsy asked: "Is what you do legal?" Early on in the game, she nailed another laugh when she asked Tuite: "Did you do The Price Is Right with Bill Cullen?"
Nicotero, the former host of Street Smarts and Shostak were sharp with questions, particularly in narrowing the focus of the lines. Purcell, former host of The Better Sex and co-host of Real People, is nearly 60 and looks half her age. She added a vibrant energy to the show.
Desmond had the most interesting occupation as a clip of her CBS Line appearance from 52 years ago was screened. After Shostak nailed her as a girdle tester, Desmond revealed her entire game show history. She estimated she appeared on "at least 50 shows" over the years, dating back to radio. The audience erupted in a notable gasp when Desmond told them, "That was in the days when they picked up the phone and called me to give me the answers to the questions before the show."
When Jones entered the ballroom to sign in, the audience eruption was on a par with those in the New York theatre more than 40 years ago when a major performer was the mystery guest. The panel finally narrowed down that she was a star of an ABC sitcom "of the '60s or '70s." Palmer said: "Oh, you're one of those old ones!" Shostak asked if the show was on Tuesday or Thursday (The Partridge Family was a Friday and---in the last season---Saturday regular). A late conference could not produce a winner. Van Straaten invited them to "take off your blindfolds and meet Shirley Jones!"
The audience was spellbound when Jones detailed the journey of her career from a small town Ohio girl to the only performer ever to sign an exclusive contract with Rodgers and Hammerstein, leading to her appearances in their top musicals. She said she was advised by every agent and manager not to do The Partridge Family because "if it's a success, you'll always be Mrs. Partridge and your film career will be, for all intents, over. It was. But I didn't mind. I loved every minute of it. It allowed me to raise my children at home, rather than being away on movie sets as I was so often."
Jones' husband Marty Ingles came from behind the lattice to surprise the crowd as well. He touted his wife's recent Emmy nomination and said, "She's going to win that Emmy!"
Scores from the audience lined up for pictures with Palmer, who is with GSC 6 for the entire weekend. One writer from The Toronto Sun said afterward: "This was the way to do this show. It had great humor and yet it didn't insult What's My Line?. The resounding ditto was that heard from the attendees as they left, going home after two hours of satisfaction.
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BURBANK NOTES: Daytime events on Saturday, in addition to game-playing competition: The Tic Tac Dough Reunion at 1 p.m., followed by Steve Beverly's annual State of the Games address from 3:15-4. Afterward, the hall will be reconfigured for the Hosts and Announcers panel with Jack Narz, Johnny Gilbert, Burton Richardson, Sarah Purcell and Larry Anderson. Former Game Show Network Club A.M. host Laura Chambers is the moderator....A highlight Saturday night: a live game competition, Buzzer Battle, hosted by Anderson. The quiz will feature teams which are competing to raise money for charity.
Tic Tac Dough Reunion, Hosts & Announcers
Game Show Congress Coverage (Sun.)
Game Show Congress Coverage (Fri.)
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