Several inside references in today’s installment:
This edition of “Match Game” featured an appearance by Mark Goodson temporarily occupying a contestant’s chair. One of the two producers behind the show (and several other game shows), Goodson wanted to get something for host Gene Rayburn to thank him for his role in making the series number one in daytime. His gift to Gene was a bag for Gene’s needlepoint.
As Gene told the audience, it might seem like an odd gift, but since he frequently flies from LA to his home in Cape Cod, he was fond of doing needlepoint on the airplane to pass the time. Clearly a product of an earlier generation, today’s weary traveler would not be allowed to board an airplane with needles.
Anyway, onto the question, which was decidedly risque for 1974:
“Harry said to Bill, ‘What’s green and scaly and ten feet tall,’ and Bill said, ‘I don’t know,’ and Harry said, ‘I don’t know either, but it’s __________ing your wife!’”
Brett didn’t get a match with her answer, “staying with,” but she explained that Bill and his wife were separated, so for Bill to find out his wife was staying with someone else made sense to her. Whether this was in reference to her divorce from actor Jack Klugman at that time is anybody’s guess, but she was adamant the response was a good one.
on Feb 22nd, 2010 at 2:24 pm
Saying Mark Goodson and Bill Todman were responsible for “several other game shows” is like saying that you, Kevin, have “gone off on several rants” in your lifetime.
Also, needlepoint needles are allowed on airplanes (at least, until the next time the TSA overreacts to something). The only item prohibited that might be in Gene’s bag: certain types of thread cutters.