What the hell with Larry Blyden?

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'TLEberle\' date=\'Jun 15 2005, 04:14 PM\'][quote name=\'tvrandywest\' date=\'Jun 15 2005, 12:28 PM\']A little respect, gang.

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I'm all for respect...but why does it matter who the host is?  People have said that Richard Karn chews up the set, Bert Convy spent too much time with the celebrities, and on and on.[/quote]
A small "whoosh" for you.  Read Randy's subtly clever post more carefully.

[Matt Ottinger]

Here's the relevant Odd Ball paragraph from Richard Dawson and Family Feud by Mary Ann Norbom (Signet 1981)

"Odd Ball turned out to be one of Goodson's admittedly "terrible" ideas.  The format called for ten contestants, each one positioned in a separate isolation booth.  They were all given the same question, and any player who did not give a response that matched at least one other player was called the "Odd Ball" and dropped from the game.  These elimination rounds continued until there were only two contestants left to compete in the fast-money end game.  The first time Goodson saw his idea being played out, he hated it.  Odd Ball was never even presented to the networks."

So if the quickie-book author can be believed, the original Odd Ball was never piloted.  There seem to be only a few similarities to the 1986 pilot SplitSecond described.

[sshuffield70]

[quote name=\'Winkfan\' date=\'Jun 15 2005, 12:23 PM\'][quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Jun 14 2005, 12:34 PM\']Everytime you guys see clips of one of my heroes they get dissed.  Dennis James, Jim Lange, Bob Eubanks, Wally Bruner, Larry Blyden......[/quote]

Amen, pal!

If you happen to see a link to a Sonny Fox clip, resist the urge to click.

Maybe not Sonny, but DEFINITELY Mark DeCarlo, Jack Whittaker, and Chris Jagger.

Cordially,
Tammy Warner--the 'Linda Hooks of the Big Board!'

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As long as you realize that Jagger does not play for your team.

[uncamark]

There was one particular reason why Gil Fates seemed to like Blyden over his other "WML?" hosts--he seemed to be more involved in the show instead of treating it as a quick buck.  The fact that he asked for the rundowns for each taping session to be messengered to his apartment a day or two before taping for him to look over (in the days before fax machines and E-mail) spoke to the fact that he wanted to be well prepared.  And while Daly and perhaps Bruner never did the pre-telecast runthroughs with the stand-in panel, Blyden always did them.

And I'm one of those who believes that Blyden would've been a better host for "Showoffs."  Van's freneticism was OK on "Make Me Laugh" or even "Fun Factory" (if anything about that bomb could be any good), but "Showoffs" needed a more grounded host.