Gene Wood on MG'74 panel

[Twentington]

I always found it odd that MG'74 did one week with Gene Wood on the panel. Wasn't he just announcing at that point? I mean, his version of BtC ended in September, and retrogameshows.com says he was on in December. Did TPTB just think that his audience warmup skills would translate well into MG panel material? Was he a last-second fill-in for someone who had something else come up? Did he just want to try it out?

[Jimmy Owen]

BTC was still airing in some markets through 1975.  WPIX in NYC was still showing it at 6:30pm in the fall of 74.

[Bryce L.]

Question, is his episode circulating or on youtube? Just curious to see how well he did as a panelist...

[JasonA1]

Here's at least one episode from the week.

-Jason

[BillCullen1]

GSN has aired Gene Wood's week on MG'74. He did okay, got a couple of matches. Gene also did a week as a panelist onn TTTT with Garry Moore and Cass, Cullen and Carlisle. He was introduced as "host of BTC Gene Wood."

[Twentington]

I taped two of Wood's episodes about 10 years ago. He struck me as just being kind of "there" — he wasn't overly funny, didn't match terribly well, etc.

Still a great announcer, though.

[Winkfan]

He struck me as just being kind of "there" — he wasn't overly funny, didn't match terribly well, etc.

And the other Gene didn't even ask Mr. Wood "what he was up to lately." (translation: if Mr. Wood had any projects coming up at the time; as was the custom with most of the other celebs who came on.)

Cordially,
Tammy

[chris319]

Was he a last-second fill-in for someone who had something else come up?

That's entirely possible.

[irwinsjournal.com]

Here's at least one episode from the week.

-Jason

It seems things have changed a little:

I couldn't figure out a good answer for the last question in this episode either.  "Lois Lane said, 'Superman flew over New York last night and got blanked.'"

[Adam Nedeff]

Was he a last-second fill-in for someone who had something else come up?

That's entirely possible.

No, not last-second. I specifically remember they "billboarded" that week of MG differently from the rest of the series. Instead of the post-production dub of Johnny O introducing the panel, they had Gene Rayburn onstage saying "Thank you all for being here, next week in these seats you'll see Gene Wood," etc. I figure there's not much more of a reason for Gene Wood being there than "Goodson-Todman liked having their own hosts appear as guests."

[Unrealtor]

Was he a last-second fill-in for someone who had something else come up?

That's entirely possible.

No, not last-second. I specifically remember they "billboarded" that week of MG differently from the rest of the series. Instead of the post-production dub of Johnny O introducing the panel, they had Gene Rayburn onstage saying "Thank you all for being here, next week in these seats you'll see Gene Wood," etc. I figure there's not much more of a reason for Gene Wood being there than "Goodson-Todman liked having their own hosts appear as guests."

The fact that it was advertised that way tips the probability towards his appearance having been planned in advance, but there still exist plausible scenarios in which he was still a comparatively short-notice replacement and it was known early enough to make it into the end of the previous taping day (e.g., someone calls on Saturday to say they won't make a Sunday taping).

Bottom line, unless someone with a first-hand memory appears, I don't think we're ever going to be able to say one way or the other conclusively.