TV Shows Which Gave Us...

[TimK2003]

A group of us were talking about old TV shows over the weekend and we were discussing "Laugh-In" at great length.  One of the things that we brought up was the number of Laugh-In cast members who went on to become familiar faces on game shows -- either as hosts or celebrity players. Many of those from "Laugh-In" included:

Richard Dawson, Artie Johnson, Dick Martin and Gary Owens as both hosts and celebrity players...Dan Rowan, Alan Sues, JoAnne Worley and Ruth Buzzi as regular players on the game show circuit.


Which brings me to this question:  What other TV shows were great sources for game show celebrity players of the past -- in other words, what shows had a sizable amount of cast members who were regularly seen on game shows?

"The Odd Couple" gave us quite a few, with Tony Randall, Brett Somers, Jack Klugman and Penny Marshall (though the latter 3 pretty much were limited to Match Game 7x appearances).

Others?

[BrandonFG]

Would this include any one who appeared on All-Star Feud? That's good for at least 5 cast members, if not more if the shows alternated who appeared.

Not including Feud, then WKRP had a few...off the top of my head, Tim Reid (Just Men), Richard Sanders (Hollywood Squares), Frank Bonner (Tattletales), and Gordon Jump (Take My Word For It). I wanna say Loni Anderson also did Squares...

From Everybody Loves Raymond, Ray Romano, Patricia Heaton, Doris Roberts, and Brad Garrett all did Bergeron's Squares, and I wanna say they all appeared during the same week. I know Ray and Patricia did, and for some reason, I wanna say Frank Boyle made a few appearances.

[MikeK]

Night Court had its fair share of game players--Markie Post, Florence Halop, Marcia Warfield (Hollywood Squares, Win Lose or Draw, 3rd Degree), Richard Moll, Paula Kelly (MG/HS), and John Astin were all on game shows during Night Court's run, and Harry Anderson hosted the What's My Line? pilot in 2000, in addition to being on a few shows (Blackout, Super Password, The $25,000 Pyramid).

[Chief-O]

M*A*S*H. I can think of Jamie Farr, Gary Burghoff, Loretta Swit, and McLean Stevenson off the top of my head. Pretty sure Alda had to have some GS appearances to his name too.

[Jay Temple]

M*A*S*H was all over the Pyramids: Jamie Farr, Gary Burghoff, Loretta Swit, McLean Stevenson, Alan Alda, Wayne Rogers, Mike Farrell and Larry Linville each appeared no fewer than three times. Alda, Farrell and Farr all played against Swit in regulation, and she and Stevenson were part of a special week in 1973. Mike and Loretta were the only co-stars to face each other on the Cullen 25. When Loretta faced Jamie for Classic TV week on Pyramid, it gave her the longest span of appearances on the show, 30+ years.

Hotel produced three regulars: Heidi Bohay, Michael Spound and Nathan Cook. In 1987, Nathan qualified two players for the $100,000 tournament in the same show, and the third player in that tournament qualified with Heidi.

Soap gave us Sal Viscuso, Billy Crystal, Jay Johnson and Robert Mandan as regulars, plus Jimmy Baio and Robert Urich. Robert Mandan holds the unusual distinction of having appeared as a representative of different shows where his TV offspring (Jimmy Baio, Mary Cadorette) also played Pyramid.

It seems to me that a number of Hee-Haw regulars also appeared frequently on Marshall Squares.

ETA: From The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Edward Asner was a Pyramid regular, Betty White did everything (but not Pyramid till '82) and Joyce Bulifante (Murray's wife) did a lot of shows too.

[Winkfan]

You could also make a case for:

Good Times (Jimmie Walker, Esther Rolle, and Johnny Brown appeared on MG '7X; Ja'net DuBois was on BtB '76)

Eight is Enough (Susan Richarson and Grant Goodeve did Pyramid; the former was also on MG '7X and PW+, while the latter was on GO; Laurie Walters did a turn on MG during its syndicated run; Dick Van Patten appeared with his wife on Tattletales.)

The Love Boat (Fred Grandy, Ted Lange, and Bernie Kopell all did MG '7X, and were also part of an "All-Star" team of FF; Fred was also a Pyramid guest; Jill Whelan appeared on Body Language.)

Cordially,
Tammy

[MikeK]

Good Times (Jimmie Walker, Esther Rolle, and Johnny Brown appeared on MG '7X; Ja'net DuBois was on BtB '76)

To add to this case, John Amos was also on Hollywood Squares.

[SamJ93]

"Get Smart," sort of. I know Don Adams did "Win, Lose, or Draw" in the late 80's, at least, and hosted his own short-lived show ("Don Adams' Screen Test").  Barbara Feldon appeared on "The $64,000 Question," apparently, though as a contestant and obviously before she became famous. Dick Gautier (Hymie) and Bernie Kopell (Seigfried) did quite a few game shows, of course.

[Jimmy Owen]

Hogan's Heroes had (in addition to Richard) Larry Hovis, Robert Clary, Bob Crane and Werner K.

[toddyo]

Petticoat Junction.

[SRIV94]

ETA: From The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Edward Asner was a Pyramid regular, Betty White did everything (but not Pyramid till '82) and Joyce Bulifante (Murray's wife) did a lot of shows too.

Gavin MacLeod did GONG.

Also, Vega$--Urich, Greg Morris and Bart Braverman all did P+ (the latter two did it a lot, as well as MG).

And lest we forget The Bob Newhart Show--Newhart did SP and TT, Suzanne Pleshette did HSq, Marcia Wallace and Bill Daily did practically everything (including CS), Peter Bonerz did P+.  And Newhart's follow-up series had Tom Poston.  (Also, one of the Darryls did SP--I watched just to hear what he sounded like.   )

[Brian44]

Eight is Enough (Susan Richardson and Grant Goodeve did Pyramid; the former was also on MG '7X and PW+, while the latter was on GO; Dick Van Patten appeared with his wife on Tattletales.)

Brian Patrick Clarke also appeared on Chain Reaction and syndie MG.

[That Don Guy]

Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman - Greg Mullavey and Dody Goodman appeared a number of times on Celebrity Sweepstakes, and Debralee Scott on MG (wasn't she the celebrity in the first $10K win - and, IIRC, on a tough one; "New York _____").
(MH2 game show trivia: "Louise Lasser" was one of very few, if not the only, subject on CBS Double Dare that neither player got after ten clues - both players knew who it was, but couldn't remember her last name.)

Also, I think a number of Trapper John, MD stars made game show appearances, especially on Pyramid; I can think of Charles Siebert and Brian (Stokes) Mitchell, and have a feeling Madge Sinclair and Timothy Busfield made appearances as well.

[calliaume]

Is it just me, or does this thread no longer match the subject?  The subhead specifies "regulars," but as it goes on, many of the celebs listed were hardly regular faces on any game show (Werner Klemperer?  Ja'net DuBois?  Jill Whelan?).

I'll throw in my suggestion:  The Dick Van Dyke Show gave us both Rose Marie and Morey Amsterdam as future Hollywood Squares regulars.

[Jamey Greek]

Jamie Farr also sub hosted on Wordplay and hosted a couple of Game Show pilots.  Double Up for Dick Clark and Oddball for Mark Goodson.  Oh yea, and Surprise Surprise for Woody Fraser