22 Years Ago This Week...

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' date=\'Sep 22 2004, 08:58 AM\'] Ted Lange, along with Vicki Lawrence, was one of the celebrity players for the final week of Body Language. [/quote]
 Vicki was on the first and last weeks of BL. Not many celebs can make the claim that they appeared on the first and last weeks of a celeb game show, can they?

Ted did a couple weeks of MG daily Syndie(including a guest stint when Fred Grandy was on the panel), and Celeb Millionaire during a Classic TV Week.

[SRIV94]

[quote name=\'zachhoran\' date=\'Sep 22 2004, 09:01 AM\'] Vicki was on the first and last weeks of BL. Not many celebs can make the claim that they appeared on the first and last weeks of a celeb game show, can they?
 [/quote]
The closest I can think of might be Jamie Farr. He did the off-air week of GONG hosted by Barbour, which were written in the books as episodes 1-5, and did the second on-air week when Barris took over the hosting chores.  He was also on the panel for the final NBC daytime week as well.  David Schwartz (yes, I did talk to him a few times upon my initial getting of GSN in 1998--I SWARE ;-) ) once told me that the first Barris episode was logged as episode 6, which is where GSN had started its run.

Checking Dixon Hayes' site, Rose Marie did do the first episode of HSq (and we all know she was on the last NBC daytime episode as well).  I don't recall if she did the 1981 syndie finale or not, but even so, isn't that pretty much a separate series anyway?

Doug

[Don Howard]

[quote name=\'zachhoran\' date=\'Sep 22 2004, 09:01 AM\'] Not many celebs can make the claim that they appeared on the first and last weeks of a celeb game show, can they?

 [/quote]
 Was Nipsey Russell on both the first and last episodes of Rhyme And Reason?

[GS Warehouse]

[quote name=\'aaron sica\' date=\'Sep 22 2004, 09:57 AM\'] If/when [One Day at a Time] comes out on DVD (which, at the rate TV shows are flying onto discs, hopefully soon!), I'll check it out. [/quote]
According to this item from TVShowsOnDVD.com, season 1 is "coming soon".  So far, the only full-season box sets I have are the first seasons of Survivor, The Dukes of Hazzard, and The Apprentice, but if/when I start getting disposable income again, hopefully that will change.

ObGS: Pat Harrington did the circuit as well, including the final week of Blackout.

[Don Howard]

[quote name=\'GS Warehouse\' date=\'Sep 22 2004, 10:42 AM\'] ObGS: Pat Harrington did the circuit as well, including the final week of Blackout. [/quote]
 Pat Harrington did a number of spots for WJKW-TV 8 in Cleveland for the Hot Car theft prevention system in his One Day At A Time character of Dwayne Schneider.

ObTopic: At the time, TV-8 was Cleveland's CBS affiliate, which carried The $25,000 Pyramid and Child's Play.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Sep 22 2004, 09:29 AM\']

Probably had to go by that because of union restrictions. For those uninitiated, if you join AFTRA (or SAG, for that matter) and someone already had the name you wanted to be known by you needed to modify it in some way (like adding a middle initial, adding a middle name, going formal on your first name, going casual on your first name, even changing the name entirely, et al).

That's correct, and one of the best examples that come to mind is singer/actress Vanessa Williams.  There's also another actress known as Vanessa Williams who starred for a while in "Melrose Place".  I'm pretty sure it's the former who now goes by Vanessa L. Williams.  She guested on "Super Password" several times in the '80s. [/quote]
 At one point it looked like there was going to be a compromise worked out between the two Vanessas, especially back when the defrocked Miss America thought she was going to concentrate more on a singing career.  But as her star has risen and confusion has become greater, the singer ultimately had to start using the "L." in her name.  Technically, since she was first, the Melrose Place actress doesn't have to use her initial, but to avoid confusion in her own career, she often goes by "Vanessa A."

An actor having three names once seemed pretentious (sorry, CNR!) but more and more often, young people with three names has become the norm because of these issues.  I always remember a few years ago when the soap and character actor Michael Fox passed away that the otherwise brief tribute articles made a point of saying that he's the reason the younger, much more famous actor had to use the middle initial "J."

[sshuffield70]

One other one (dammit, well two) I can think of would be Ed Burns and Edd "Kookie" Byrnes, and of course Mark Walberg/Wahlberg.  Thus the L. for Walberg.

[Don Howard]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Sep 22 2004, 01:03 PM\'] I always remember a few years ago when the soap and character actor Michael Fox passed away that the otherwise brief tribute articles made a point of saying that he's the reason the younger, much more famous actor had to use the middle initial "J." [/quote]
 In one of those tributes, it was mentioned that Michael J. Fox told Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show that he doesn't have a middle initial, but he did indeed add the "J" because of the actor Michael Fox, who finally got a regular acting role on The Bold And The Beautiful during the final years of his life.
When Johnny told Michael J. that he'd never heard of Michael Fox, Michael J. coughed up this laugher, "He's one of those guys who played the mad scientist's assistant in movies about mummies" to which Michael Fox replied in an interview with either TV Guide or Soap Opera Digest, "I never played a role in a mummy film, but if offered the part, I would have taken it". Classy comeback from a great man.

ObGameShows: Cast members of The Bold And The Beautiful have played on The $25,000 Pyramid and Family Feud.

[pyrfan]

Slight correction to the otherwise excellent "Pyramid" summary: There were 550 episodes of the 1985-1988 "$100,000 Pyramid," not 545.


Brendan