Kevin O'Connell

[pyrfan]

Seeing Kevin O'Connell's name mentioned in the thread about the best show closings made me think again about what a great job he did hosting "Go!" He seemed very comfortable with the format from the first day, and he kibbitzed with the celebs just enough and had fun with them (anyone remember "Oh, shut up, Lynn!" to Lynn Redgrave?) without eating up precious game time. He kept the game moving while still making the viewers at home feel like they were an important part of the proceedings. I also don't remember him making any blunders on the show. Even though "Go!" had a short run, I expected to see Kevin hosting other games soon after that, but I never did. I do know that he's had a successful career in TV weather, though.

For my money, Kevin's hosting was miles ahead of others who have hosted more than one game. Thoughts?


Brendan

[gsnstooge]

Even it though it is less than 5 minutes, from the clip I got from Page O' Clips.  Kevin O'Connell probably does the most dramatic rule explanation.  I even got a laugh while he explained when he said "Captain Shelly" to Shelley Smith.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'pyrfan\' date=\'Oct 18 2004, 02:02 PM\']For my money, Kevin's hosting was miles ahead of others who have hosted more than one game. Thoughts?

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I wholly agree, but I may be biased, as I feel that Go was far and away one of the most underrated of Bob Stewart's game shows, and worthy of much more than the 13-weeks-and-out that it got.

[gsnstooge]

"Go" got the Noon slot and up against "Family Feud" on ABC. Otherwise, it would have been on longer.

[TimK2003]

[quote name=\'pyrfan\' date=\'Oct 18 2004, 04:02 PM\']For my money, Kevin's hosting was miles ahead of others who have hosted more than one game. Thoughts?

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For some reason, I think of Kevin O'Connell as the American version of Wayne Cox, not just because they were both weathermen.  I think their hosting styles were pretty much on par with the other's.

[GS Warehouse]

[quote name=\'pyrfan\' date=\'Oct 18 2004, 05:02 PM\']... (anyone remember "Oh, shut up, Lynn!" to Lynn Redgrave?) ...

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I remember seeing that when Go ran on the old CBN, but IIRC, it was Lynn who told Kevin off:
Start of round 3; Lynn's red team trails Richard Gillilillililan's* blue team 750-0:
Kevin: You're facing certain elimination here...
Lynn: Shut up.
(Red team laughs)

But I agree with above comments.  I think a revival of Go might work, but considering Pyramid didn't work in syndication, Sony may have to take the cable route.

Adding to another thread, "K.O. for G-O" may just be the game show closing line to end all closing lines.  Even if Kevin O'Connell wasn't the best host, he had the perfect name for a show of this title.  Could you imagine Sony giving Donny Osmond another game show ("D.O. for G-O")?

* I know this guy appeared on the short-lived sitcom We Got it Made, but I can't find his name on IMDb.

[Jimmy Owen]

Richard Gilliland was on "Just Our Luck" in the 83-84 season.  Was it Tom Villard you were thinking of?

[GS Warehouse]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Oct 18 2004, 07:11 PM\']Richard Gilliland was on "Just Our Luck" in the 83-84 season.  Was it Tom Villard you were thinking of?

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Well, that explains why I couldn't find his name.  Thanks for the correction, J.O.  Hmm, "J.O. for G-O"?

ObGS: Villard, who left us too soon, did appear on MG90.

[ChuckNet]

Richard Gilliland was on "Just Our Luck" in the 83-84 season. Was it Tom Villard you were thinking of?

It was, but Gilliland was the celeb who did that wk of Go w/Lynn Redgrave...Villard never appeared on the show.

And I agree that Kevin was a very underrated host...he did a good job w/the show and had fairly strong rapport w/the celebs. I'd also echo Lemon's sentiments about Go being an undiscovered gem...there's a reason why I have at least 1 ep from all 16 wks aired in my collection! :-)

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")

[mystery7]

Much agreed. It's a shame GO was the only game show Kevin hosted. He did have a good wit about him. After a particularly trying round, he commented to a team, "Having trouble moving our vowels, are we?"

I'll go y'all one further and call the entire GO format underrated. In fact it's my favorite Bob Stewart format. The fun of it all was in watching two people wringing their brains out to create questions like "What goes around a loaf of pie?" or "What do you drink out of that you is suck?" I've collected a bunch of these exchanges and I'll send 'em along to you soon if you'd like. Just ask!

Kevin, by the way, has gone back to his weatherman roots and is now the Chief Weather Anchor at WGRZ TV in Buffalo. Here's his bio.

[dzinkin]

I wrote to Kevin once when I was a med student in Buffalo... he was still a news anchor with WIVB at the time (winter '92).  I just asked if he was the same guy that had been on "Go!" and told him how much I'd liked the show; he was nice enough to reply with a personal note, which I still have.

[Ian Wallis]

I watch Kevin's weather forecasts on WGRZ from time to time, and whenever there's an El Nino, he'll sometimes talk about his experience in California during the severe El Nino of 1982-83.  He was only out there a couple of years, but said he really missed the Buffalo area while he was out there.

By the way, he did host another pilot - "Money in the Blank", which is in the trade curcuit.

[tvwxman]

Sigh......

KO, i think, was a byproduct of the "Pat Sajak Graduate School of Game Show Hosting for Weathermen".... NBC had success tapping their KNBC roster for hosts, and KO was in the right place at the right time.... I would imagine that this is how they got Fritz Coleman too...didn't he host a pilot or two?

Was KO a good host? Yep. But as my agent has said to me...."You're only as good as your last job."  After Go's demise 13 weeks later, KO had nothing to return to at KNBC, so it was back to Buffalo for him (where, he has a darn good career as a darn good weathermen. Well, most people think so, except for Don Paul)....

Could he have hosted anotther one? He tried, as evidenced by the awful "Money in the Blank"...but hey, a guy's gotta eat, and I wonder if he went back into weather to have gainful employment again...

I'm just speculating here...after all, I am a weatherman who wants to host a game show.

[Neumms]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Oct 18 2004, 05:31 PM\'][quote name=\'pyrfan\' date=\'Oct 18 2004, 02:02 PM\']For my money, Kevin's hosting was miles ahead of others who have hosted more than one game. Thoughts?

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I wholly agree, but I may be biased, as I feel that Go was far and away one of the most underrated of Bob Stewart's game shows, and worthy of much more than the 13-weeks-and-out that it got.

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I agree. For some reason, they actually had a decent set and decent music for this one, and while  the lame celebrities were there, they weren't so much the focus of the game.

There's also the innovative double bonus round, to solve the "how do we keep a lopsided game going 'til the end of the show" dilemna.

Terrific show.

[chris319]

After Go he went to KCBS-TV before returning to Buffalo.

hey, a guy's gotta eat, and I wonder if he went back into weather to have gainful employment again...

Ya think?

He joins Chuck Henry, Bob Hilton and even Mike Wallace in the ranks of former network game show emcees who see (saw) brighter prospects of continued employment in TV news than game shows.

Career game show emcee is not a vocation anyone should aspire to IMO. Unless you were Bill Cullen in the '50s - '80s, the work is no longer there. Barker, Trebek and Sajak have been lucky in the extreme but the opportunities that existed for them in the '70s and '80s are now gone. Even during that era, work could be sporadic and you never knew when your next game show would come along. Guys like Geoff Edwards, Jim Lange, Bob Eubanks, Wink Martindale, Gene Rayburn, etc. had successful radio careers to keep them going in the absence of game show gigs. Guys like Allen Ludden, Jim Perry, Peter Tomarken, etc. did whatever between game shows.