[quote name=\'DrBear\' date=\'Aug 29 2003, 09:48 AM\'][quote name=\'cmjb13\' date=\'Aug 29 2003, 06:21 AM\']I could be mistaken, but didn't most game shows of the past (70's,80's) not require you to send in a photo or look a certain way before you could become a contestant?[/quote]
I think by then, they were mostly taking applications in person, so no photo was necessary; still, you probably had to look presentable (MG7X had more than its share of hottie female contestants, it seems, with the occasional grandma mixed in for contrast).[/quote]
Also, they pulled out the old Polaroid and took your photo to attach to the application. According to Maxene Fabe, at the big producers the contestant coordinators would check their old files if you tried out for another show. In other words, after my 1979 LA bomb at trying out for \"CS,\" there was no way in hell I would've been taken for \"Blockbusters\" two years later, because they would've compared my \"Blockbusters\" app with my \"CS\" app and said \"oh, this is the same schmuck we turned down already.\" (Granted, the shows are two different types of game-playing skills, but a lot of producers seem to take a one-size-fits-all approach.)
On the other hand, Merv Griffin's people didn't take your picture until there already had been two elimination procedures, so you could very well go on \"J!\" even if you bombed on trying out for \"Wheel\" and vice versa.
It was different in the 50s, in part because the New York shows would fly people in; I definitely remember WML saying you should send a photograph and it would not be returned. Since they were inviting you out there basically on an application and fone call, they needed the foto.
And also, Gil Fates said that \"WML?\" thrived on incongruity--the 80-year-old female department store security guard, the male nurse, the female garbage collector that looked like a high-fashion model--so pictures were important in finding those opposites-attract kind of contestants.
I think of all this as I prepare to try out tomorrow for \"Pyramid.\" I don't really want to discuss any more at this point, since you never knew who might be lurking, but I hope I do everything right. Wish me luck.