SUNDAY GRATITUDE EXTRAVAGANZA: GAME SHOWS!
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I’m grateful for a rainy Sunday morning. I’m grateful for what’s in front of me. I’m grateful for the chance to work hard. I’m grateful for kindness and love and beauty. I’m grateful to be sober today.
[Hope you enjoy this previously enjoyed Sunday Gratitude Extravaganza!]
Game Shows!
Welcome to the Sunday Gratitude Extravaganza.1 I decided on this theme earlier this week, specifically when writing this on Friday:
That’s the end of the treasure hunt—match with the correct alcoholic and then just do what they did to get sober.2
You perhaps know that my pretty life-long aspiration was not to be a lawyer, or a doctor or even a professor, like my Dad. No, I wanted to be a Game Show Host.3 I spent A LOT of time during my youth watching game shows. That may sound like something of an enormous waste, to be frank, the jury is still out on that one. However, the above-quoted passage got me thinking of the grand-daddy of the game shows. It wasn’t the first, it wasn’t the funniest, definitely not the smartest, but Match Game, and specifically Match Game ‘73 captured most perfectly the essence of 1970’s Game Shows. Of course, I’m going to list out those attributes:
Very Diverse Celebrity Participation:
The game shows of the 1970’s featured an astonishing array of talent and also people who had no discernible connection to show business or entertainment. Quick, who was Brett Somers? Really? On the other hand, there’s Jonathan Winters on Hollywood Squares. Also Debbie Reynolds and Glenn Ford? Match Game had Richard Dawson and Betty White as regulars.
Everything was Kind of a Dirty Joke:
If you’re not familiar with the Match Game format, Gene Rayburn, the weird but lovable (in a suspicious way) funny uncle of game show hosts, would read a statement to a contestant with a missing word and the contestant would fill in that blank and then go to the bank of six sort-of celebrities, who would, one at a time, hold up their card showing their written answer to the same question (also providing an opportunity for a scripted joke or wisecrack).4 If the celebrity and contestant matched, it was a point and after two rounds of this, whichever contestant had the most matches won and moved on the next round where potentially thousands of dollars were at stake.
Anyway, 97% of the Match Game questions were things like5:
“Look out for Sally, her [blanks] are actually cameras!” “Hey Look! The French Scientist said excitedly, “look in the microscope! Those two germs are [blanking].”
You get the idea, and it seemed like it was pretty much aimed at that twelve-year-old target demographic. Bingo. Direct Hit.
Lots of Creepy Overtones:
You know what I mean. If you want to pull one star from the Game Show firmament to make this point, it’s going to be Richard Dawson. He turned a funny role on Hogan’s Heroes into a steady gig on Match Game to the hugely popular fixture known as “Family Feud,” and even playing himself as the ultimate dystopian, power-wielding Game Show Host.
I loved and idolized Monty Hall, but he never came close to having this kind of power. Anyway, it sure seemed like there was an awful lot of kissing and hugging in those introductions of complete strangers.
Strikingly Small Sums of Money at Stake:
Sometimes these people would win like $150 and be invited “to come back tomorrow and defend your title!.” You maybe flew to California and have been waiting for the chance to try-out and now you’re devoting another day or two to the shooting and you’ve “won” $150. This paperboy did that math and felt somewhat superior.
The Clothes:
If you would like to see the the very best of the ‘70’s fashion world, Gene Rayburn’s plaid, bell bottom, floor touching pants have to be at the top of the list. Bob Barker, Jack Barry, Tom Kennedy, those guys, were pretty much the blue blazer crew. Monty Hall would go double-breasted sometimes with some mod pants. But Gene Rayburn had to be in his 60’s with those outfits, and sometimes it is a younger man’s game.
At some very ridiculous level, Match Game is a pretty good analog for the process of finding people to help guide one’s sobriety, maybe even finding a sponsor. The Dating Game is also not a terrible analogy.6 One of the cheesiest things about Match Game was the feigned connection between quasi-celebrity and contestant. The moment when the card revealed they had both come up with “making whoopee” as their answer, and the celebrity would look meaningfully at the contestant, as if to say:
Yeah, I felt that, too.
We’re very, very far afield today. But it does seem to me the stories one hears at AA meetings, the stories one can read in the back of the Book, all provide opportunities for a Match Game—Alcoholic and Addict Version! What got me sober was finding examples of people whose stories resonated with me. It’s ok when stories don’t catch or grab one’s attention, it’s attraction rather than promotion. You don’t have to believe anyone else’s story, unless it’s just like your own.
There was zero chance this stubborn alcoholic, firmly rooted in a relapse-ridden, me-centric universe, was ever going to “adopt” someone else’s story. I found a story that had me nodding, “me, too” as I read it, one that provoked me to see things about myself and the way I was living. I finally found a story, where the simple reaction at the end was
I could do that, maybe it would work for me.
Getting sober definitely wasn’t a game show, but the premise does come appallingly close to Match Game, find someone who’s already filled in the blank to the question you’re asking. The difference, this version of the Match Game isn’t about winning $250 or a new Broyhill living room set.
You get the life you were supposed to be leading.
I think even Monty Hall wouldn’t try to zonk you out of that.
1. Don’t Talk, Just Watch
This is a complete course in “The Culture of the ‘70s”
2. Paul Lynde
I’m sorry, the best of the best of the best. 7
3. This is ‘70’s, ‘70’s, ‘70’s
4. Did You Know the “Monty Hall Problem” is a Thing?
Statistics professors actually study him.
5. The Best Thing About the Best Show
Seriously, hard to top the sheer exuberance here! Also, who was Jaye P. Morgan?
For us, reading and writing have been a big part of recovery and sobriety. We thought we’d start sharing some of our favorite books on the topic of recovery, addiction and general happiness and telling you how they helped us! If you have ideas, thoughts, comments, suggestions or if there are some books that you’d like to chat about, well, we’d love to do that with you. 8
Now, here’s something new. You may have heard me mention something about writing your story in the style of Bill W’s: and this is where we are going to do it. If you want to write your story and share it, I’ll be happy to put it here for other folks to read. If you’d like to record yourself reading your own story (I highly, highly recommend this), I’ll put it here, too.
And here’s the newest edition to The Sober Library:
The “Anyone Anywhere” Meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous
It’s the “Anyone Anywhere” meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, this Tuesday evening at 7pm. We’re ready to go and hope you can join us this Tuesday! It’s 1/2 AA Meeting, 1/2 Alcoholic Book Club and 1/2 something else we haven’t figured out yet. We’ve been reading the “Stories from the Back of the Book,” and they are all so great. It’s a fun way to learn more about the Big Book and reading these stories out loud is a little like listening to the legends of AA share.
Hope you can join us!
From the TFLMS Archives:
Where sobriety isn’t a consequence…
I lost my “Green Responsibility Sheet” privileges for one month in the 7th Grade because I gave my dream a name in the guidance counselor-run occupational aptitude inventory project or some nonsense like that.
Oh, to be in the Writer’s Room for the old HollyWood Squares.
These are actual questions, I watched them on YouTube.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was on the Dating Game.
Seriously, “Does Mark Spitz believe that swimming in the nude makes him faster"?” Paul Lynde: “No, but it’s much easier to steer.”
Seriously, write a book review (or we might expand into movies!) and we’ll probably put it up.