Game shows and you

[aaron sica]

- Played "Race for the Numbers" on GSN twice; March and November 1997. Won the first time, lost the second.
- Spoke with Jim Peck when he called into GSC8 back in '96
- Met John O'Hurley at a book signing in Harrisburg (got to see Mike The K, as he mentioned)

[TimK2003]

This is is gonna be a good laundry list:

Auditions Attended:[list=1]

• Wordplay
• Win Lose Or Draw -- Detroit Tryouts with Bert Convy in Attendance!!!
• TPIR -- Twice!!
• Weakest Link -- Columbus Tryouts (This is before the Anne Robinson version started).
• Who Wants To Be A Millionaire -- Cleveland Tryouts
• Paranoia -- Cleveland Tryouts
• Wheel Of Fortune -- The Great Columbus Cattle Call, which gummed up traffic on I-270.
• Hollywood Squares (Bergeron)

Shows Seen:[list=1]

• Super Password
• Hollywood Squares (Both the Davidson & Bergeron Versions)
• Win Ben Stein's Money (Including the post-Kimmel Halloween Show)
• Price Is Right -- Twice, with my wife making it to CR on the 2nd time!
• Wheel Of Fortune @ Ohio State Fair.

People Met In Person (those I shook hands with):[list=1]

• Michael Berger -- Family Feud Live in Vegas in the 90's
• Gene Wood -- At Super Password Taping, whom I later intereviewd at my college radio station.
• Jay Wolpert -- Had lunch with him in Studio City.

Not to mention the many, many people I have spoken with over the phone & through e-mails in conjunction with the Cleveland GSC's in the last 10 years.

[Tony Peters]

Never been to a single taping, never met a single host, never even toured a single studio.  The closest I've been to the game show world was being in a Deal or No Deal cattle call in Winter 2006 (knowing what the show would become since those initial 2 weeks in December '05, that's nothing to brag about).  By proxy, my dad was a contestant alternate on daytime Wheel in 1984, but didn't make it to full contestanthood.

I often feel I don't belong here anymore.  This thread confirms it;)

[joshg]

Shows I've been on:

-Lingo, season 2. Claim to "fame": Ben and I were the first team ever to get all ten words in the bonus round. To this day, people still say they see me on Lingo. Most recently as 4 months ago. Perpetuity Rules!
-Lingo, ToC. Ben and I win two more games but produce a mini FAIL by losing final game and thus the car.
-1 vs 100, won over $4000

Shows I've tried out for:

-Lingo
-Hollywood Squares, with Tom
-Rock and Roll Jeopardy!
-Beat The Geeks
-a couple of GSN runthrus y-e-a-r-s ago

Shows I've seen tape:

-Price is Right, all Bob, no Drew.
-Weakest Link, most with Anne, a few with George. I forget how many. It's like it was my job. ;-)
-Russian Roulette. I still get a kick of trying to find myself in the audience.
-Whammy! Apparently, I was unemployed and bored.
-Card Sharks '01. I'm thinking of suing Fremantle for that few hours of my life back.
-Hollywood Squares, all Tom. Including the first Game Show week.
-Family Feud. Some with Louie (with Mark L doing warmup), a few with Karn.
-Card Sharks pilot. How I met Randy West.
-The Jack Cash Show pilot. A Mark L and Mark DeCarlo pilot that didn't sell. Retitled Smartass
(YouTube clip: http://youtube.com/watch?v=ttROEjIT4ME Look for Ben in the freeze frame at the end)
-Match Game '98. Got to meet Jay Wolpert by passing a note to him. He was walking across the stage, read it, walked back and read the note out loud. Were ushered on stage and given lunch during the break. Plus, we were allowed to take photos on the set during the dinner break. Have a MG shirt autographed by Jay, Vicki and Michael Berger.
-Donnymid. Steve Saunders is the worst warm-up guy ever. Ben and I left because we were appalled at the whole process. And that's not including the fact that they taped all the main games first, then played all the winner circle games.
-Jeopardy! What is Guam? is still the funniest answer to me. Ask Ben for details.
-Win Ben Stein's Money
-Wheel of Fortune
-Whose Line Is It Anyway? The gameshow hoedown? That was Ben's suggestion. (Colin: ... I hang out with prostitutes because the price is right.)

Had lunch with:

-Mandel I
-Mark L
-Randy West
-some guy named Chris.
-some guy named Travis.

-Was one of the "100 People Surveyed" for the Ray Combs version of 'Family Feud'.
-Won $5 or $50 (I forget which) playing "Telephone Scrabble" during the Chuckster's 'Scrabble' revival.
-Jack Narz signed my 'Now You See It' home game.
-Bob, Rod, the models and Roger signed a TPIR prop for me in 1998.
-I have a unsigned Check Game check. Before they changed banks.
-Met lots of folks at the GSCs. Pleased to consider Randy West a friend. He threw up in my sink once. He'll deny everything. :-)
-Have not been to Bob Boden's garage. I hear he just acquired Roger Dobkowitz for his collection. He'll put him next to Superball! Feed him regularly but not after midnight or he'll turn into Kevin Belinkoff.
-Went to Peter Marshall's book signing. Abby Dalton thought she recognized Ben. Ask him for more details.
-Got a look at CBS' "Jurassic Park". Where all the old VTR machines dubbed the Goodson shows for GSN.
-Had a few chances to look at the Price prop storage at TV City. Ben broke 'That's Too Much'. At least the noise it made led us to believe so.


God, what have I done with my life?

Josh

[Yogi007]

[quote name=\'tvwxman\' post=\'192255\' date=\'Jul 27 2008, 04:59 PM\']
[quote name=\'Yogi007\' post=\'192252\' date=\'Jul 27 2008, 04:27 PM\']
I was lucky (lucky??) enough to watch a day's taping (3 shows) of John Davidson's HSq when they came to Hollywood, Florida in 1986.  I skipped work that day to go.  Told them I was sick.  
.
[/quote]
Holy smokes! I was there too! Got to meet game show greats there, like Dian Parkinson and Janice Pennington, and I got to shake Louie Anderson's hand. In the shadows of greatness, I say.
[/quote]
I wish I could say that I remember seeing Dian and Janice (and Louie too), but right now, all I can recall seeing (if my recall system is working) are Steve Allen and Jayne Meadows...and Richard Simmons.  22 years is a long time for me!  

[alfonzos]

Developed one game show with Larry Hovis and Gary Bernstein. Developed a game show with Wink Martindale. Neither game went to the pilot stage. I have a few game show presentations standing by.

Attended several sold and unsold pilots including both the Bean and Trebek Concentrations. Sat in the audience for about a dozen or so tapings.

[joker316]

The only brush with game show greatness that I had occurred when Peter Marshall was doing the radio talk show route promoting his book on HS. I called in and actually got through (even though I could only hear the show on the net). I asked about the two people Marshall claimed he wasn't fond of, one being Dan Rowan (which he elaborated about in the book). The other being Bert Convy, and I asked if it had to do with the show 3rd Degree. He confirmed it and told the whole story about it (he was to be the host, Convy took it away, etc.). A very nice conversation.

[Jumpondees]

All I have is that I got to shake hands with Todd Newton when he was in Pittsburgh once.  Todd had very soft hands, the softest I've ever experienced.

[JasonA1]

[quote name=\'alfonzos\' post=\'192465\' date=\'Jul 28 2008, 05:10 PM\']
Developed one game show with Larry Hovis and Gary Bernstein. Developed a game show with Wink Martindale. Neither game went to the pilot stage. I have a few game show presentations standing by.

Attended several sold and unsold pilots including both the Bean and Trebek Concentrations. Sat in the audience for about a dozen or so tapings.
[/quote]

Have any more in-depth stories to share? I believe you've mentioned other pilots here and there over the years.

-Jason

[jmangin]

I was at Price in 2002 hanging out with Nikki/Brandi/Claudia when Ian Ziering walked out from behind the turntable with more divorce paperwork for Nikki.  It was a bit awkward but she was nice to him and gave him a hug.  The same day, as we were walking around Television City, my group of friends bumped into Rod and he walked around with us for about an hour talking about work he had done over the years.

I met Todd Newton and JD Roberto at TPiR Live.  Both were pretty nice guys.

I met Louise DuArt backstage at the same time I met Harvey Korman and Tim Conway.  Harvey was a bit rude and didn't even take a picture with us.  Louise was very nice.  As she was telling us to head out to our seats (because the show was starting), I asked her if instead we could walk arm-in-arm down a street and I would try and guess who she was gossiping about.  She was pretty amused.

[aaron sica]

[quote name=\'Jumpondees\' post=\'192777\' date=\'Jul 30 2008, 10:48 AM\']
All I have is that I got to shake hands with Todd Newton when he was in Pittsburgh once.  Todd had very soft hands, the softest I've ever experienced.
[/quote]

Ah yes, I forgot about that - I, too, met Todd Newton in June 2003 (along with Chuck Donegan) when he came to Philly for the "Get Schooled Tour". It was over 5 years ago, so I don't remember his soft hands.

[Matt Ottinger]

I love this thread, because every time I go to make my own response to it, I'm reminded of just how lucky I've been.  I can't count the number of hosts I've met, because I've had so many opportunities to meet legends and not-quite-legends that I sometimes forget some of the encounters.  (Oh yeah, I had lunch with David Ruprecht.  Oh yeah, I got a hug from Elaine Boosler.)  

The GSCs have been dreams-come-true, of course, but thanks to some dear friends, I've had some interesting opportunities.  Stood on the Donnymid set a few feet from Mr. Osmond himself.  Saw Louie Anderson pitch a fit in the Family Feud control room.  Chatted (far too briefly) with Tom Bergeron.  Had Burton Richardson tell me I have a nice voice.  Got Don Pardo coffee.  (OK, as some of you know, that last one was at GSC, but still, darn cool.)

And as I said, too many others to count.  All in all, not bad for somebody who neither lives nor works out there.  Plus getting to meet so many of you guys!  Double the points!

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'192797\' date=\'Jul 30 2008, 09:34 AM\']
Had Burton Richardson tell me I have a nice voice.[/quote]
Admittedly, this is a little like Carrot Top telling you that you're funny.

[BrandonFG]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'192798\' date=\'Jul 30 2008, 12:43 PM\']
[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'192797\' date=\'Jul 30 2008, 09:34 AM\']
Had Burton Richardson tell me I have a nice voice.[/quote]
Admittedly, this is a little like Carrot Top telling you that you're funny.
[/quote]
http://www.poprock80s.com/wordpress/wp-con...3/carrottop.jpg

/Does NOT approve

[Don Howard]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'192797\' date=\'Jul 30 2008, 12:34 PM\']
Saw Louie Anderson pitch a fit in the Family Feud control room. [/quote]
Oh, Uncle Matt, it's story time. Tell the story.