Quiz Masters

Hands-down, flat-out, the two best television situation comedies of all time - non-negotiable - are "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and its complementary bookend, "The Bob Newhart Show." Both programs established the benchmark for subsequent series that were smart enough to quit while they were ahead.


The funniest, full-tilt, laugh-out-loud episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" has to be the sixth season program "Chuckles Bites the Dust," chronicling the untimely albeit hilarious demise of the studio’s kiddie show host, Chuckles the Clown, who, costumed as "Peter Peanut" in a circus parade, was attacked by a rogue elephant that tried to shell him. During the funeral service, the pastor intones, "And what did Chuckles ask in return? Not much. In his own words, ‘A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants.’ " The episode garnered writer David Lloyd an Emmy.



The series’ sixth season also featured a memorable snapshot of the pompous, inept news anchor Ted Baxter, deftly portrayed by Ted Knight (above), in the October 11, 1975, episode "Ted’s Moment of Glory." Ted is lured to New York City to audition for a high-paying job as the host of a new game show called "The Fifty Thousand Dollar Steeplechase." Surprisingly, it’s up to the irascible Lou Grant (Ed Asner) to talk Ted out of the lucrative offer to become, as only Lou could derisively hiss, "a quiz-z-z-z master." The parting image of Ted, alone with the game show’s prop carousel horses as he wistfully imagines what might have been, is especially poignant.

Television’s earliest quiz shows, as they were called then, were versions of similar radio programs. "Spelling Bee" was the first quiz show aired on TV, in 1938, while "Truth or Consequences," hosted by Ralph Edwards, became the first quiz show on commercially licensed television, airing in 1941 as a one- time only, experimental broadcast (the program would be regularly televised beginning in 1950).

The quiz show scandals of the 1950s came to light with the revelation that contestants of a number of popular programs had actually received secret assistance from producers to change the outcome of a particular competition. On the December 5, 1956, episode of "Twenty-One," a poor sap named Herb Stempel was convinced to take a dive so his more charismatic opponent, Charles Van Doren (below), would win. The infamous incident was dramatized in the 1994 film "Quiz Show," directed by Robert Redford, starring John Turturro as the unfortunate stooge and Ralph Fiennes as the audience favorite.


Quiz shows virtually vanished from prime-time television for several years. They gradually returned in daytime venues as "game shows," emphasizing puzzles and wordplay over fields of knowledge. These days, every network seemingly requires its own game shows: MTV ("Remote Control"), Nickelodeon ("Double Dare"), PBS ("Where in the World Is Carmen Diego?"), Comedy Central ("Win Ben Stein’s Money," "Beat the Geeks," "Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush," "Vs.," "Distraction," "The Gong Show with Dave Attell"), VH1 ("Rock & Roll Jeopardy!"), Disney Channel ("3 Minute Game Show"), ESPN ("Two-Minute Drill"), Cartoon Network ("BrainRush"), Playboy Channel ("Show Us Your Wits"), Trinity Broadcasting ("Virtual Memory: The Bible Trivia Game Show"). An entire network, GSN (Game Show Network), devoted to reruns of classic programs and original broadcasts debuted in December 1994.

It’s not surprising that game shows have ushered in a prodigious pantheon of quiz masters. If there was a hall of fame for game shows (and we know there are more than a few makeshift honorariums on the worldwide web), first and foremost among the enshrined has to be Bill Cullen (above), the contagiously congenial master of ceremonies in the horn-rimmed glasses who presided over more game shows than any other in the history of television (at least 21), not to mention seven appearances on the cover of TV Guide.

Speaking of TV Guide, the bible for couch potatoes once listed its choices for the Top 10 Game Show Hosts of all time. Counting up from position 10, here is the list (for the sake of brevity, only the one program most associated with the host is mentioned):
10 Regis Philbin ("Who Wants to Be a Millionaire")
9 Guy Smiley ("Sesame Street")
8 Groucho Marx ("You Bet Your Life")
7 Peter Marshall ("The Hollywood Squares")
6 Bill Cullen (Come on! He’s #1 in our list!)
5 Bob Eubanks ("The Newlywed Game")
4 Alex Trebek ("Jeopardy!")
3 Gene Rayburn ("Match Game")
2 Bob Barker ("The Price Is Right")
1 Allen Ludden ("Password")

Glaring omissions from such a list might include "Family Feud’s" Richard Dawson, "$25,000 Pyramid’s" Dick Clark, "Wheel of Fortune’s" Pat Sajak, and "Let’s Make a Deal’s" Monty Hall, along with Wink Martindale, Jack Barry, Chuck Woolery, Bert Convy, Tom Kennedy, Jim Lange, Geoff Edwards, and original "Jeopardy!" host Art Fleming.

We guess it’s all subjective. What’s equally subjective is our unique perspective on the oddest, if not unlikeliest or at least most intriguing, choices for TV game show hosts.

Johnny Carson, born in 1925, began his show business career in 1950 at a radio and television station in Omaha, Nebraska. After moving to Los Angeles, he worked for a CBS affiliate, where he starred in a local sketch comedy TV program, "Carson’s Cellar," from 1951 to 1953. The show caught the attention of Red Skelton, who brought Carson on board as writer for his TV program. The story goes that after Skelton accidentally knocked himself unconscious an hour before going on the air live, Carson filled in for him.



Carson enjoyed the opportunity to appear on his idol Jack Benny’s show in 1955, the same year that he launched the half-hour prime time variety program "The Johnny Carson Show." Unfortunately, the show was a flop and was canceled the following year.

From 1957 to 1962, Carson hosted "Who Do You Trust?" (also known as "Do You Trust Your Wife?"), a game show that presaged "The Newlywed Game" in its premise of three couples vying for prizes in a question-and-answer format, as well as being reminiscent of Groucho Marx’s "You Bet Your Life," particularly in Carson’s inherent ability to adlib in conversations with the contestants.



From 1960 to 1962, Johnny Carson was also appearing as a panelist on the game show "To Tell the Truth." During the first year of "Who Do You Trust?" Ed McMahon replaced the original announcer, beginning a long and memorable collaboration, which reached its fruition when, in October 1962, Carson became host of NBC’s "The Tonight Show."

Interestingly, the role of Rob Petrie in what would become "The Dick Van Dyke Show" (1961-1966) was originally going to be offered to Johnny Carson, but executive producer Sheldon Leonard wanted Van Dyke.

Like Carson, Dick Van Dyke was born in 1925. He started in local television in New Orleans as a comedian and host of a comedy program. His first network TV appearance came during the 1957-1958 season of "The Phil Silvers Show" (below).



In 1958, he emceed "Mother’s Day," a game show lost in the mists of obscurity. One year later, he reluctantly hosted "Laugh Line," an improvisational comedy game show that would award home viewers prizes on the basis of the studio audience’s volume of laughter in response to punchlines of improvised skits. The stock company of performers included Orson Bean, Pat Harrington, Mike Nichols and Elaine May. It was canceled after three months, probably to the great relief of the bored, admittedly out-of-place host, who would soon find his comfort zone, and fame, on "The Dick Van Dyke Show."



After slumming through various bit parts, including a Navy flight navigator in "South Pacific" (1958), Ron Ely landed a starring role in the 1966 NBC series "Tarzan" (above). An attempt to establish him as the lead in a superhero franchise, in 1975’s "Doc Savage: Man of Bronze," failed, and in 1980, Ely replaced the venerable Bert Parks as emcee of the Miss America Pageant, repeating the function the following year.

It was also in 1980 that Ron Ely became the only "Tarzan" actor to host a game show. "Face the Music," which lasted all of one season, was a poor man’s "Name That Tune." The syndicated program is nostalgically recalled by game show aficionados for its disarmingly naïve ineptitude, from gaffes in studio lighting and music miscues to Ely’s oddly timed, over-the-top exuberance.

Ely has since ventured into a successful career as the author of mystery novels featuring private eye Jake Sands.


One of the most beloved San Diego Chargers of all time, Rolf Benirshcke played ten seasons, from 1978 to 1987, before retiring as the third most accurate place kicker in NFL history. In the off-season early in his career, suffering from abdominal cramps, diarrhea and fever, he found out he had ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease similar to Crohn’s.


His health took a turn for the worse in the 1979 season when he passed out on the team plane returning from a road game. Following two surgeries to remove his large intestine, Benirschcke remained in intensive care for several weeks. Weighing a mere 123 pounds when he left the hospital, he had to adapt to living with two external ostomy appliances.



Sunday, November 18, 1979, saw Rolf Benirschke’s triumphant return to the Chargers in a game against the visiting Pittsburgh Steelers. Although he did not physically play, he was named the team’s honorary captain for the sellout game. In an unforgettable moment (above), 350-pound San Diego defensive tackle Louie Kelcher took the hand of the frail Benirschke and assisted him onto the field to an emotionally charged standing ovation. (A later surgery internalized his ileostomy, freeing him from the external appliances.)


From January 10 to June 30, 1989, 34-year-old Rolf Benirschke hosted the daytime broadcast of "Wheel of Fortune." For some reason, creator and executive producer Merv Griffin believed the young man would be the perfect substitute for Pat Sajak for the show’s syndicated version. Unfortunately, but perhaps all to predictably, Benirschke, due to his lack of TV experience and stiff discomfort leading to a number of on-camera missteps, fell short of Griffin’s expectations. When the daytime "Wheel of Fortune" moved from NBC to CBS, Bob Goen, future co-host of "Entertainment Tonight," was the new emcee.


Patrick Wayne, the second son of screen legend John Wayne and first wife Josephine Saenz, made his motion picture debut as an 11-year-old extra in his pop’s "Rio Grande" (1950). A quarter of the younger Wayne’s films consisted of bit or supporting roles in films alongside the Duke, most notably "The Searchers," "The Alamo," "The Comancheros," "McClintock!" and "Big Jake."

Early in his career, Patrick Wayne won a Golden Globe in 1958 for Most Promising Newcomer. (Does anyone remember when pop culture pinup girl Pia Zadora’s hubby, Meshulam Riklis, bought her the same award in 1981?)




On his own, Patrick Wayne’s first starring role was in a 1959 B-western, "The Young Land," costarring Dennis Hopper and Yvonne Craig (TV’s future Batgirl on the Adam West TV series "Batman"). Obviously never emerging from his father’s imposing shadow, he did enjoy stardom, if only briefly, in the late 1970s in a pair of sci-fi genre flicks, "The People That Time Forgot" and "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger." He had a memorable cameo role as Pat Garrett in "Young Guns" (1988), starring Emilio Estevez, Charlie Sheen and Kiefer Sutherland. (In the inevitable sequel, "Young Guns II," the role of Pat Garrett went to William Petersen, star of TV’s "CSI.")




Patrick Wayne appeared on such ‘80s game shows as "Password Plus," "The Hollywood Squares" and "Super Password," culminating in his 1990 gig as the ingratiating host of the daytime game show "Tic Tac Dough" (above), during which he bore an uncanny resemblance to "Sesame Street’s" ubiquitous quiz master, Guy Smiley (below).




Following the death of older brother Michael Wayne in 2003, Patrick became chairman of the John Wayne Cancer Institute.


Ray Combs, a standup comic who was also a Mormon, got his big break when Johnny Carson asked him to perform on "The Tonight Show," bringing the audience to their feet, on an October 1986 telecast. In 1988, Combs was named the host of a new version of "Family Feud" three years after the previous program, featuring Richard Dawson, was canceled.




By 1993, the program’s ratings had declined enough to convince the network to cancel the daytime broadcast in September. Combs’ last episode of the remaining syndicated version was in May of 1994. (Richard Dawson was coaxed from comfortable retirement to host "Family Feud" from 1994 to 1995.) That same year, 1994, a spinal injury from a car accident left Combs in chronic pain, coinciding with a severely backsliding career.


Financial woes and the breakup of an 18-year marriage (with six children) eventually drove the distraught Combs to contemplate suicide. He was admitted to the psychiatric ward of a Glendale, California, medical center and placed on a suicide watch, but on Sunday, June 2, 1996, he managed to use bed sheets to hang himself in the closet of his hospital room. He was 40 years old.



Minneapolis, Minnesota-born comedian Louie Anderson (above) was reportedly chosen over Dolly Parton to host the second revival of "Family Feud" in 1999. Anderson asked Richard Dawson to give him his on-camera blessing on the premiere broadcast, an invitation Dawson turned down.

Anderson’s initial energy and enthusiasm soon fizzled down to apparent disinterest, if not outright boredom.


(Significant flashback: In 1997, Anderson received blackmail threats from a 31-year-old man who claimed the comedian had approached him in a Las Vegas casino, requesting sex. At first, Anderson paid the man $100,000 to keep the story out of the tabloids. When the blackmailer asked for a quarter of a million dollars more in 2000, a year into Anderson’s tenure on "Family Feud," Anderson informed the authorities, and the man was arrested and sentenced to 21 months.)


Whether or not his alleged sexual proposition was a deciding factor, Anderson was let go from "Family Feud" in 2002, replaced by Tim Allen’s "Home Improvement" sidekick Richard Karn. A bitter Anderson claimed the show wouldn’t last more than one season without him.

Karn emceed "Family Feud" for four years. He was replaced by John O’Hurley (O’who?), and in January 2010, it was announced that, starting in September, the hosting duties would go to comedian Steve Harvey, one of director Spike Lee’s "The Original Kings of Comedy" and star of the sitcom "The Steve Harvey Show."


To be honest, we have a beef with the hiring of comedians as game show hosts, and, in particular, with what strikes us as the especially incongruous transformation of one of our favorite funny men, Drew Carey, into a quiz-z-z-z master.


Not unlike Jerry Seinfeld, Tim Allen, Ray Romano and Kevin James, Carey found a comfortable niche for his standup talents on a situation comedy. "The Drew Carey Show" was on the air for nine seasons, from 1995 to 2004. During that run, Carey also hosted the American version of the British improvisational comedy program "Whose Line Is It Anyway?"


The end of "The Drew Carey Show" "kind of left me with a bad taste in my mouth," he said, admitting he got "kind of trashed" and was reticent about returning to TV. He eventually accepted the hosting job for the CBS game show "Power of 10" in 2007, "only because it was a smart show," he explained in an interview, "and I thought nobody could make fun of me if I did that."


He at first said no when CBS asked him to replace Bob Barker, who was finally stepping down from his 35-year reign on "The Price Is Right" Carey’s frame of mind was, "If you think I’m going to sit at ‘The Price Is Right’ so everybody can take potshots at me, forget it."



On David Letterman’s July 23, 2007, broadcast, Carey announced that he would indeed succeed the 83-year-old Barker, beginning in the fall of that year. "You can’t replace Bob Barker," Carey noted. "I don’t compare myself to anybody…It’s only about what you’re doing and supposed to do, and I feel like I’m supposed to be doing this."


He told one interviewer, "It’s like meeting the right girl. This is really a good fit. I’m really comfortable here, and it seems like I should have been doing this a long time ago."

Carey noted, "Unbeknownst to me, I was preparing myself to be a super game show host of the 21st century. I wouldn’t be good at this if it wasn’t for all that other stuff I did."



Frankly, we miss "all that other stuff." We miss the comedian whom Comedy Central ranked #84 on its list of the 100 greatest standup comics of all time. We miss the guy’s guy who wrote the 1997 best-selling book Dirty Jokes and Beer: Stories of the Unrefined, rife with profanity and, yes, a dirty joke to start every chapter. On any given day, we’ll take the bawdy advice of a bar buddy ("If you’ve got an ugly body, cover it the f*** up!" is a mantra we live by) over the grinning condescension of a quiz-z-z-z master.




Too bad there was no Lou Grant for Drew Carey.