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 Paul Petersen made a smooth transition from teen idol to daily game show host when he took the reins of Dream Girl of '67 shortly after an AFTRA performers' strike had shut down production on the show.
In addition to his eight years on The Donna Reed Show, Petersen's up tempo version of "Lollipops and Roses" outsold Jack Jones's romantic ballad edition. Funny thing, Paul's cover is never played today on Music of Your Life. It should be.
When you are 22 and the second-youngest game show host in television history, the pace of taping is far more accelerated than the four days of memorizing script and shooting a television sitcom.
In the second of a four-part interview with TVgameshows.net, Petersen reflects on what adjustments he faced in a different type of television show, how he learned the show was being canceled by ABC in December 1967 and begins a discussion of his work as an advocate for child performers.
Some of the pictures are from Paul's own website:
paulpetersen.com. Dream Girl pictures are from The Fred Westbrock Collection.
TRADITIONAL OPENING SCENE FOR DREAM GIRL OF '67
The Hollywood Palace in L.A. Before Paul Petersen Entered
TVGS: Today, some of the game shows are taped at a pace of seven or eight a day. At one time, Dick Clark was taping as many as 10 episodes of Pyramid in a day when he commuted to New York to do the show. Because of the different mechanics of doing a beauty contest game, how many of these did you shoot in a day?
 PAUL: As I recall, we were on a three-and-two schedule. We would do three shows one day and two the next but that was tough, especially at the beginning, I was just drained. One of the other parts of this that was troubling to me is that Chuck insisted that I not wear my glasses. If you think about this, there were a lot of things to read: introductions of the girls, the fashion analyst, the judges. So, I was using contacts and under heavy lights, that part of it made things very uncomfortable. I would never even consider that today because I do wear glasses. That was not of course, the sweet look that Chuck desired.
TVGS: How did you first become connected with Chuck Barris?
 PAUL: I actually met him through cars because Chuck had a Ferrari in those days and I was racing Cobras. This was some years before Dream Girl. He had burst on the scene with his shows and we would often cross paths, not only in the sporty car group.
TVGS: And, of course, this was before you knew anything about his "possible CIA connections."
 PAUL: (Laughs uproariously) When I heard that, I was thinking: come on, this little guy, I mean, get outta here. He was consumed by producing game shows....get outta here. Although that kind of thing is not unknown in Hollywood. It has a rich tradition of people who have doubled as being very effective spies. I even, in fact, had a chance to meet a man who I, over time, came to understand that every time there was a global hotspot, this gentleman had just returned. In fact, I'll tell you who he was. He was the producer of Here's Hollywood. He and his wife were parents of a very good friend of mine, Jay Randall Oppenheimer. Truthfully, his passport was held together by gigantic rubber bands.
TVGS: You have to hand it to Barris. When "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" was released, he just kept the mystery alive. In every interview he did, he said, "Why spoil it? If I say it's not true, the people who want to believe it will be disappointed and if I say it is true, I'll never convince the skeptics."
PAUL: He was briliant. It was like he was saying: okay, reality wasn't good enough. A major chunk of America knows me for game shows but I was really a spy. It's still funny to think about.
TVGS: As I recall, you appeared to step right into the role as a host. Would it be fair to say your musical career, where you were having to relate to an audience onstage, had been a good transition point?
 PAUL: I believe so....that and Chuck's confidence, frankly, in me not only as a personality but also he knew the fearlessness. There are very few things that I ever considered that I didn't jump in with both feet....whether my writing career or what passed for a singing career. It always seemed to me when confronted with a challenge, I was prepared to do it. Figuring, I'll work out whatever is needed. Somewhere in my skill set is a character trait and talent that will carry the day. I still feel that way. When we do our scholarship program at the Donna Reed Foundation, it is an intense, highly-charged atmosphere built around these 15 highly-talented national finalists who are competing with acting and performing skills. It's the easiest thing on earth to prepare for this if you'll just prepare. if theere's a joke there, find it. Truly interesting to react to it and your audience.
My training with Donna Reed prepared me for this: she taught a very important lesson all performers are reminded of constantly. You are born with two ears and one tongue and you have to listen twice as much as you talk. All the great hosts, they listen. You don't find them being surprised. You mentioned Mr. Barker. He's been there so long because he's one of the greatest listeners you'll ever see.
LATE IN THE SEARCH FOR DREAM GIRL OF '67
Paul Petersen Was a Fashion Judge on the Series' Opening Week
TVGS: Just about every one of the hosts from that era say Bill Cullen was their role model because he was a well-tuned listener and knew how to get out of the way of the game.
 PAUL: That's part of what made him. I watched Bill, too. Wasn't he just the best? He was the prototype. Wasn't that the tradition with What's My Line? with John Daly? Could you imagine sitting there and have him go into one of those verbal exhibitions? You couldn't do that if you hadn't listened to know how to react to that panel. Another one, Groucho, he found that...as funny as he was....there was great humor in his contestants. He understood he was the spice.
I've maintained my friendships with Wink Martindale and Chuck Woolery and I watched their work and I'm proud of them because, having been in that crucible, I know what it feels like. It's hard not to appreciate people under that kind of pressure who remain graceful and quite generous.
TVGS: Since you had such diametrically different components: an evening gown stroll, an interview with your contestants and the fashion sequence with an actress narrating that portion, you had to take longer than the average game show to tape.
PAUL: Honestly, we didn't. We didn't break tape very often. It did happen on occasion. There would be some critical technical failure or the cues weren't exactly right but we really kind of got the shows done within 45 minutes and the turnaround between shows was very quick. Even though it seemed intense and quite harried, we would turn everything around about as fast as the other shows. I think in that era, those on the technical side had great training. Folks knew what they were doing. The stage managers would hurry the girls and get them into position quickly.
There is something truly sad about the feeling of the live era. When I see the disclaimer that this show has been edited for time constraints, I don't think we've necessarily improved. We tried to do our show live-to-tape as much as possible.
TVGS: Barris, I'm sure, hoped for a long run but you were canceled on the last week of December. How much notice did you have when it was over because some people have found out in rather cruel or surprising ways about their cancellations?
 PAUL: Chuck, I think, called my manager, but in a case like that, you know; you follow the numbers, too. You live by the ratings. For eight years on The Donna Reed Show, we looked at the overnights every Friday morning. You get a feeling. It was perfectly amicable. I understood what had occurred. I understood it had nothing to do with me. It wasn't blunt. It was very nice the way it was handled.
TVGS: A number of your peers from that era have been called back the last few years to play Weakest Link or Millionaire or Street Smarts or some of the shows on Game Show Network. You don't pop up much on them.
 PAUL: It seems people come back to me now. Running this foundation, A Minor Consideration, I find myself in the manner of a manager of former kid stars. They are often used on these shows. I find myself saying no to requests for myself more than saying yes. That's just me. It's always fun to be asked and I have always felt that because of the strength of the identity, since I grew up in front of America, we give the producers more than they bargained for. I can read the numbers the next morning. I always feel like we give them really more than they expect.
TVGS: Since you have segued to that topic, one item I want to zero in on with you. American Idol is a contest with young adults. They're old enough to sign contracts, vote in elections and move out of the house without parental consent. American Juniors is a different story. We have kids eight to 13 years old being plucked right out of their childhood and they're suddenly thrust into a national spotlight. The intent is to make a new singing group out of five of them. Paul, these kids haven't even been to high school. How prepared are they for what is ahead of them and the expectation for them to become professionals?
 PAUL: They're not and neither are their parents. Unless the production team is keenly sensitive to the potential negative consequences, and I hope they are, damage can be done. I have had to live with the long-term consequences of notoriety earned early. That's my daily work to deal with the consequences of early fame with today's child performers and those who are still recovering from the scars in past years. I must frame all of this with an admission about me and the business itself: there are children who are born to do this. They have talent, discipline, character, support structure. They flourish where there are others who can't handle it. My mother will say: "What was I supposed to do with Paul?"
The only thing I hated about that was the darned practice. I cannot watch these shows when I see quick cuts to parents mouthing the words to the song. Acting out every move which has been so carefully rehearsed, it's a feeling bordering on nausea. I get a stomach ache both for the kids and their parents.
It's funny how kids very early self-identify as performers. Just close your eyes for a minute and think back to second or third grade. You knew who the talented kids were. It's the adults who screw everything up.
One of the worst examples is what's happened to Little League baseball. It's no longer a game, it's a big-money business with kids as the instruments. What a tragedy to make that a profit center for a network. Shame on the corporation that supports that. I'm talking about both Disney and the Little League International. There are a lot of adults making a lot of money off kids in that situation.
TVGS: Paul, you've alluded to this but for most of these kids on the Juniors show and the children who have performed on Star Search, most of what they've done until now has been for fun and the attention of people in their schools or in and around their hometowns. They cannot possibly be prepared for the fact that odds suggest a career coming out of that environment is going to be finite. If they become even short-term singing professionals, they lose their privacy and they lose at least some ability to be kids.
PAUL: There is no preparation but understand, until A Minor Consideration came around, this wasn't even considered. If there were casualties in this process of juvenile achievement, the entertainment community said so what. I think we have started and are prosecuting an improvement in the mindset. It's going to be a difficult process because we do have breakout kids that come to the attention of America. Here's the truth: we can do a much better job. That includes educating parents of these children who become instant prodigies. Part of it starts with protecting their income.
 With the fundamental children, we have to say the income these children generate cannot be a family property. Forget her age, just consider Hillary Duff. That really bothers me when I hear some people say, "Oh, she's so ungrateful!" I go, "Wait a second! This child is doing the same work every girl or any adult woman is doing." She learns the lines, hits the marks, she ought to be compensated for the entity that she is. What I see in these talent contests are people who forget it's the child that bears the burden. In my life, the shortest explanation I use is my mother is not recognized in a grocery store and an airport. I am. It's my burden. With these kids, it's theirs. Many of the children who come to our attention come from dysfunctional homes. It is not an ordinary thing.
In Part 3, Paul Petersen delves further into the crossfire of fame and money vs. childhood sacrifices of young performers and discusses the influence of Donna Reed and Carl Betz on his life personally, as well as professionally.
Paul Petersen, Part I
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