The Celebrity Game
Oscar Levant: ...I've been invited to join one of the many gun clubs in Southern California...as a target.
This forgotten forerunner to The Hollywood Squares didn't have x's, o's or a tic-tac-toe grid. But it did have nine celebrities (including Paul Lynde one week), and it did have contestants agreeing or disagreeing with the celebrities' answers. And it did have humor--lots of it. Unlike the Squares, this one had three contestants instead of two; was based entirely on opinion, so there was no reason to give answers or "bluffs" in advance; and it had a set full of flowers and chandeliers, and a harp music accompaniment.
Host Carl Reiner would ask the panel of nine a yes or no opinion question about a popular topic. (This is apparently the part that came from the failed NBC show, People Will Talk.) The three players took turns predicting how the stars voted, and stating why they think so (sometimes providing some of the show's funniest moments). After each had a turn, they got money. If all three were right, they each got 25 dollars, two right meant 50 dollars each, and one right got one hundred dollars. The question would be asked, and as a camera panned the panel, you heard xylophone music as the stars locked in their answers, much like when the celebrities finished writing their answers on the 1970s version of Match Game. During the final round, the celebrities are asked a question, and the contestants have to write down whether a majority will say yes or no. They write out their answers ahead of time and lock them in (a la Jeopardy! during Final Jeopardy). If all three get it right they get a hundred dollars each; two right get 150 dollars each; one right gets 300 dollars. They all got to keep their money at the end of the game. After each round Kenny Williams called out how many voted which way.
It is obvious from watching the tape that a good part of the show is not scripted. Oscar Levant probably had a trunk full of one-liners at the ready, and there are one or two other lines that sound like the celebrity was waiting to deliver them, but the show's funniest moments appear to be spontaneous.
The otherwise talented Reiner doesn't seem to react much to the guests, at least not in the tape that's on the trading circuit. He doesn't have the straight-man talk back of Peter Marshall, or the smart-aleck mix 'em up style of Gene Rayburn. Instead he sticks rigidly to the script. That was probably one of the show's downfalls.
The Celebrity Game premiered on CBS on Sunday night, April 5, 1964 at 9 EST (the day before Jeopardy! premiered on NBC, incidentally). It replaced the cancelled Judy Garland Show and got mediocre ratings up against Bonanza on NBC and Arrest and Trial on ABC. CBS dropped it in September in favor of My Living Doll (now there's a programming genius for you). But CBS did bring it back in April 1965, when it aired Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. against Hazel on NBC and the surprise hit Peyton Place on ABC (a rare time that a game and a soap would compete in prime time as opposed to daytime). CBS cancelled Celebrity in September, reviving it in Sunday afternoon reruns from October 1967 to June 1968.
Heatter and Quigley never gave up on the nine-celebrity idea, though, and toyed with it until they turned it into...The Hollywood Squares.
Today, the show that comes closest to The Celebrity Game isn't the current Hollywood Squares. It's not even a game show. It's Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. Sure, the conversations are a little more heated, the subject matter a bit more controversial. But throw in a few more relationship questions and fewer political questions, and bring in a couple of contestants, and I think you'd be surprised at the success the format would have now. Otherwise, The Celebrity Game remains a forgotten footnote in the histories of game shows, Carl Reiner's career and The Hollywood Squares. Too bad, it was a real gem.
(Show intro)
Carl Reiner: Do screen idols tend to make their wives dissatisfied at home? Do they, Lee Marvin? Connie Stevens? Sal Mineo? Gypsy Rose Lee? Oscar Levant? Susie Parker? Louis Nye? Nanette Fabray? Mickey Rooney? (harp music) We'll have that question and some answers from them as our three players try to read the minds of the stars.
Kenny Williams: From Television City in Hollywood...The Celebrity Game! Brought to you by...Prell Concentrate...just this much gives you lots of lather...and now here's the star of our show, Carl Reiner!
(The question is "Do romantic screen heroes tend to make their wives dissatisfied at home?")
Gypsy Rose Lee: I think women aren't really stupid, you know. We know all about these swashbuckling heroes. What swashes on the screen sometimes buckles at home!
Contestant: I pick Mickey Rooney. I think he feels that no tall, dark and handsome stranger has any more than he has.
(look on Rooney's face is priceless)
(Question: should a woman marry a man who is ten years yonger than she? Sal Mineo says yes.)
Sal Mineo: Sure, why not? I think if a woman is over 21, she should marry anybody she wants.
Lee Marvin: Sure, an eleven year old boy?
Mickey Rooney: If two people fall in love, I don't think age should be any barrier whatsoever.
Oscar Levant: What about my age?
Rooney: Oscar, the reason I say that is I...I...I've married at different levels (big laugh), sort of on different plateaus.
Levant: We've done a graph system on Mickey's marriages.
Nanette Fabray: I think any woman who's brave enough to admit she's ten years older than the fellow deserves to get him.
Gypsy Rose Lee: I don't see why a mellow woman of 50 shouldn't marry a tired old man of 40.
(Question: should the U.S. government subsidize children like they do in France?)
Connie Stevens: The government controls enough things now, I think some things should be left up to the rugged individual.
(The suggested amount was $1,000 per child)
Gypsy Rose Lee: I don't approve of it at all. And if I did I don't think the money is enough!
