Speaking of, one thing I seem to notice more and more...is it just me or does that HS setup look incredibly cramped?
A friend attended a taping as a child. He vividly remembers Gene Rayburn visibly sucking in his gut just to sit down. So yes, cramped.
After watching some of this past week's shows, it's tempting to ask how Richard Deacon (who had clearly gained a lot of weight over the years) managed to fit in the seats at all. (It may not have been quite as cramped as I originally thought.)
Was Deacon in poor health by this time? I know that he looked a bit better earlier that year when 5/7ths of the Beaver stars played one of the classic TV weeks of daytime Feud, but IIRC this was one of his last TV appearances before he passed away shortly after MG/HS ended.
That whole week was either a disaster foisted on them by NBC, a cost-cutting measure (especially after seven straight wins of $10K or more in the Super Match leading into it), or both. Crunching some stats, Deacon was the only person of the eight that week with any experience with either game.
I feel this is why he got to play Match Game all week. Because of his physical condition, as it were, he couldn't climb to the top HS tier/would be easier for him not to. Kind of like the treatment of Nedra Volz thus far.
Remained in good humor though, right down to being snippy when the crowd booed his answers. On the Monday episode, him and Gene looked to be having fun, between MG and being on the same Squares tier. And I know it's still the first few months of the show, but I don't see the grumpy Gene trope, at least as much as people remembered out of MG/HS. Seemed to be a bit confused briefly at times, but still lots of "classic Gene" moments and humor.
And this would be the first time MG/HS made an effort to have one center square (Jerry/Beaver).
BTW...Last night's episode wasn't much better.....
first $30,000 loss.
