Monday 3:30 AM:Get The Message

[Tim L]

This Monday's classic show was "Get The Message" A Password clone with 2-Celebrity "teams" and civilian contestants..Yhe Celebs would prvide One-word clues and the contestants had to "Get The Meassage" based on the clues given.  The Celebrity players were Peggy Cass, Phyllis Newman, Orson Bean (is he ever not "on"?) and Broadway actor Howard Keel. the Host was Frank Buxton..I thought GSN would show the final episode from Christmas Day 1964 (Host:Robert Q. Lewis) as they have done many times in the past..this episode was obviously from much earlier in the Series run..There were many sponsor billboards but the only one I remember is Ex-Lax..As for the game itself, I thought It was pretty good..In another time slot perhaps it might have lasted longer..

     OT:I was about to ask if Frank Buxton was the same Frank Buxton that hosted Discovery 63, etc. with Virginia Gibson Weekends on ABC..It turns out he is and much more, according to Mark Evanier..

http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2003_10_18.html

[MrBuddwing]

[quote name=\'Tim L\' post=\'149044\' date=\'Mar 26 2007, 01:58 PM\']
     OT:I was about to ask if Frank Buxton was the same Frank Buxton that hosted Discovery 63, etc. with Virginia Gibson Weekends on ABC..It turns out he is and much more, according to Mark Evanier..

http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2003_10_18.html
[/quote]


Not only that - Frank Buxton contributed the Plot Summary for "Get the Message" to the Internet Movie Database:

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0198128/plotsummary

Always good to have first-hand information, as I like to say. (I wouldn't be surprised if Mr. Buxton also supplied the trivia entry.)

As for the show itself - a pretty dreadful "Password" ripoff, IMHO. Although the moment when one of the contestants, a guy, lightly stroked Howard Keel's beard was, ahem, memorable.

[Matt Ottinger]

Best as I can tell, this is "the other one" in GSN's collection.  They've aired it before, but not often.  When they want to air one, it tends to be the Christmas episode.  As far as I know, they're the only two episodes of this particular series that GSN has.

[Mike Tennant]

[quote name=\'MrBuddwing\' post=\'149053\' date=\'Mar 26 2007, 03:33 PM\']
[Not only that - Frank Buxton contributed the Plot Summary for "Get the Message" to the Internet Movie Database:

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0198128/plotsummary

Always good to have first-hand information, as I like to say. (I wouldn't be surprised if Mr. Buxton also supplied the trivia entry.)
[/quote]
On the other hand, I doubt that Mr. Buxton wrote his own bio on IMDB, or else we wouldn't be informed that he got married just over a month shy of his seventh birthday!

[Ian Wallis]

Best as I can tell, this is "the other one" in GSN's collection. They've aired it before, but not often. When they want to air one, it tends to be the Christmas episode. As far as I know, they're the only two episodes of this particular series that GSN has.

Actually, they do have at least one more which they've also aired.  It's from May 1964 with panelists Ann Southern, Nancy Dussault, Abe Burrows and Daryl Hickman.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' post=\'149061\' date=\'Mar 26 2007, 04:21 PM\']Actually, they do have at least one more which they've also aired.  It's from May 1964 with panelists Ann Southern, Nancy Dussault, Abe Burrows and Daryl Hickman.[/quote]
Cool.  Thanks for that, I don't know why I don't have it.

Meanwhile, I'm not sure if we've had this conversation before, but there's a mystery around the episode that aired Sunday night.  That particular line-up of stars doesn't match any of the TV Guide listings for the show.  I have all the 1964 TV Guides, full guest-star lists appear every week and those four are never listed together.  There's not even a week when three of the four appear together.  (This is, however, the show that Stephen Sondheim appeared on twice.  If only those episodes still survived!)

I'm wondering if this might be an originally-unaired pilot or presentation episode.  Since three of the four stars are Goodson-Todman "usual suspects" and the rules are explained in excruciating detail every round, that might be a possibility.  Does anybody who still cares about these old shows have any other ideas?

[alfonzos]

I remember one dreadful moment from this show. The target phrase was "The Boy Scouts of America." Betty White, hoping her partner would write down "prepared" wrote "be" as a clue.

[mmb5]

Dates from UCLA's library:

Last night (Cass-Newman-Keel-Bean): April 1964
Sothern-Dussault-Hickman-Burrows: 01-May-1964
The "Christmas" one (Francis-Cook-Fontaine-Meade-Fairbanks-Ingels-Miller-Bean): 25-Dec-1964 (duh)

I would lean towards Matt's belief since the UCLA record for last night's episode says only "20 minutes", and there are no commercials listed.  The other two have commercials listed.


--Mike

[Ian Wallis]

I have the episode listed as March 64, but that might have been from an old GSN graphic (I'll have to go back and check the tape).

Do you suppose TVGuide's listings for that particular week could have been wrong?  It wouldn't be the first time.

[Jimmy Owen]

Maybe we could have Mark E. ask Frank B.?

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' post=\'149083\' date=\'Mar 27 2007, 08:54 AM\']
I have the episode listed as March 64, but that might have been from an old GSN graphic (I'll have to go back and check the tape).
Do you suppose TVGuide's listings for that particular week could have been wrong?  It wouldn't be the first time.
[/quote]
The show debuted on March 30, so if it's an aired episode and the date is an air date, then it's one of the first two shows.  TV Guide lists Peggy Cass, Betty White, Abe Burrows and Orson Bean as the debut week panelists.  (So does the EOTVGS, but they could easily have been using TVG as their source.)

It's possible, but unlikely that TVG would have gotten TWO guests wrong right off the bat.  I think what makes more sense is that GSN put up March 1964 as a graphic because that was the date on the tape/kine they dubbed, but that it was a tape date for this sample episode, not an air date.  After editing the GSN commercials out, the show runs just barely 20 minutes (confirming what Mike found on the UCLA listing), which is much shorter than a regular episode would have been back then, even allowing for time compression, which I don't think GSN bothers with on these overnight shows anyway.

I'm more convinced than ever that this show never aired in 1964.
[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' post=\'149084\' date=\'Mar 27 2007, 09:05 AM\']
Maybe we could have Mark E. ask Frank B.?[/quote]
To be honest, I think it would be asking a lot for Mr. Buxton to recall specifics like that from forty years ago.  All of those celebrities eventually played in other weeks, so remembering exactly who played when might not be easy.

[mmb5]

In looking over some of the celebrity lists for the show, I noticed that Selma Diamond was on at least four times.  I find that odd, since she had yet to appear on camera on a national stage in 1964 other than Jack Paar appearances.  Was she that good a game player, or was she just a backup in case someone else bailed?


--Mike

[cweaver]

[quote name=\'mmb5\' post=\'149089\' date=\'Mar 27 2007, 11:58 AM\']
In looking over some of the celebrity lists for the show, I noticed that Selma Diamond was on at least four times.  I find that odd, since she had yet to appear on camera on a national stage in 1964 other than Jack Paar appearances.  Was she that good a game player, or was she just a backup in case someone else bailed?

[/quote]

Of course the Jack Paar appearances could've been enough.  It may have already been well known that she was the inspiration for Rose Marie's Sally Rogers character on The Dick Van Dyke Show, as Sally even appeared on a Jack Paar-type talk show in one episode.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'mmb5\' post=\'149089\' date=\'Mar 27 2007, 11:58 AM\']
In looking over some of the celebrity lists for the show, I noticed that Selma Diamond was on at least four times.  I find that odd, since she had yet to appear on camera on a national stage in 1964 other than Jack Paar appearances.  Was she that good a game player, or was she just a backup in case someone else bailed?[/quote]
It's hard for any of us under fifty to appreciate the star-making potential of being one of Paar's "regulars".  That might have been all it took.  Also, keep in mind that Peggy Cass was among Paar's chosen set, and she may have put in a good word for Diamond to the G-T people.

[DrBear]

Want proof of what being a regular on a talk show - and nothing else - can do? Try Calvert DeForest (Larry "Bud" Melman). Pretty big headlines after the death of a man who was known for nothing else.

And Diamond did have a solid inside-show-business rep, sort of like a female, cynical Bruce Vilanch.