# Hollywood Squares - 70's nighttime version **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 31, 2002, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-squares-70s-nighttime-version/121776 "2002-07-31T23:50:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2002, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-squares-70s-nighttime-version/121776/1 "2002-07-31T23:50:46Z")
Recently, The Game Show Network unearthed a ton of episodes of the nighttime version of The Hollywood Squares. Some observations: 1. The celebs did not have the answers to the questions. They were given some bluffs beforehand, but nothing like the current version. 2. Jonathan Winters sucks. Peter Marshall would ask him a question and have him answer it in the voice of one of his many characters. Unfortunately, they all suck. 3. Paul Lynde is still funny despite being dead for 20 years. He’s the only reason to watch the show. The witty, smart-assed retort and that Uncle Arthur smirky laugh. 4. There is a rumor that someone has found several hundred episodes of the daytime version. It has long been thought that they had been erased due, either to lack of storage space, or lack of interest. I hope the rumor is true. It would be great to see Wally Cox and Charlie Weaver again. When I was a kid, I would go to my grandmother’s house in the summer and we would watch all the daytime game shows: Hollywood Squares, Concentration, Jeopardy, etc. Anybody watching this? ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2002, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-squares-70s-nighttime-version/121776/2 "2002-08-01T01:29:06Z")
One of the best bluffers was Robert Fuller, probably best known as Dr. Kelly Brackett on the “Emergency!” series. He could give the most ridiculous straight-faced answer, but say it so convincingly that the contestants frequently fell for them. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2002, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-squares-70s-nighttime-version/121776/3 "2002-08-01T02:04:25Z")
Oddly enough, John Davidson was a pretty good bluffer, too. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2002, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-squares-70s-nighttime-version/121776/4 "2002-08-01T14:01:02Z")
I’d been trying to decide which is the gayer game show, Match Game or Hollywood Squares. Then on a recent HS we had Paul Lynde, Wayland and Madame, Bernadette Peters, Ethel Merman and Vincent Price. Charles Nelson Reilley is pretty damn gay, but not even he can stand alone against this array of titans. Did anyone see an episode that was on about a week ago, where Mister X was a bus driver from some town in California and the audience went nuts for him? Peter was saying something about what an ordeal the guy had gone through. Anyone have a clue what that was about? ---
**Author:** ![KXL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@KXL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KXL)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2002, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-squares-70s-nighttime-version/121776/5 "2002-08-01T14:43:05Z")
**Mr. Blue Sky** , the way bluffs are done now is this: There is a tiny monitor within view of each celeb. It has 3 answers on it: a bluff and two straight answers, one of which is correct. The correct one is not indicated. I think it was done this way in the 70s too. **Otto** , I didn’t see that ep. but having grown up in L.A., my guess it had to do with the 1976 Chowchilla School Bus Kidnapping in which a school bus load of kids and their driver were burried alive (they all got out OK): [http://www.ci.chowchilla.ca.us/history.html](http://www.ci.chowchilla.ca.us/history.html) ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2002, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-squares-70s-nighttime-version/121776/6 "2002-08-01T19:20:30Z")
The one-and-only memorable Hollywood Squares joke was George Gobel’s response to “A group of cows is called a herd, but what do you call a group of monkeys?” “CONGRESS!” On examination, it’s not really all _that_ funny, but Gobel had an excellent sense of timing and inflection. He was way funnier than Whoopie Goldberg. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2002, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-squares-70s-nighttime-version/121776/7 "2002-08-01T19:41:51Z")
These are a few I remember from an e-mail I got a few weeks ago: PM: You have trouble sleeping at night. Are you a man or a woman? Don Knotts: That’s what’s been keeping me awake. PM: True of False: Archaelogists discovered a pea that lasted 5000 years. George Gobel: Boy, it sure seems that long sometimes, don’t it? PM: According to Esquire magazine, when is the best time to tip the bellboy, before or after he handles your luggage? Rose Marie: The next morning. ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2002, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-squares-70s-nighttime-version/121776/8 "2002-08-01T20:38:35Z")
When will we get to see BOLLYWOOD SQUARES? ---
**Author:** ![KXL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@KXL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KXL)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2002, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-squares-70s-nighttime-version/121776/9 "2002-08-01T20:47:40Z")
**When will we get to see BOLLYWOOD SQUARES?** PM: What does it mean if you are an Untouchable? Aamir Khan: I must stop Al Capone before he kills another cow. ---
**Author:** ![widdershins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f0a364/32.png) [@widdershins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/widdershins)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2002, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-squares-70s-nighttime-version/121776/10 "2002-08-01T23:46:57Z")
Every episode of BOLLYWOOD SQUARES would last 2 1/2 hours, and there would be a musical number after every third question. But if they had Preity Zinta on the show, I’d watch every episode (I’ve just started watching some Bollywood films - cool). Just to run a joke into the ground, when will we get to see DOLLYWOOD SQUARES? Filmed on location in Pigeon Forge, TN. ---
**Author:** ![Purd\_Werfect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47c2d/32.png) [@Purd\_Werfect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purd_Werfect)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-squares-70s-nighttime-version/121776/11 "2002-08-02T00:11:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Otto \* > \*\*I’d been trying to decide which is the gayer game show, Match Game or Hollywood Squares. Then on a recent HS we had Paul Lynde, Wayland and Madame, Bernadette Peters, Ethel Merman and Vincent Price. Charles Nelson Reilley is pretty damn gay, but not even he can stand alone against this array of titans. > \*\* Bernadette Peters is gay? And Ethel Merman too? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-squares-70s-nighttime-version/121776/12 "2002-08-02T08:26:25Z")
FYI, Vincent Price wasn’t gay. His daughter, who **is** openly gay, wrote a biography of him and she says she could not find any truth to that rumor. I met him and his wife Coral Browne not long after they were married, and he was clearly in love with her. ---
**Author:** ![KXL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@KXL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KXL)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-squares-70s-nighttime-version/121776/13 "2002-08-02T11:49:29Z")
I’m sure that \*\* Purd Werfect\*\* was joking when he asked, “Bernadette Peters is gay? And Ethel Merman too?” But in case anyone didn’t get the joke, when **Otto** included them as part of a “gay show” he was alluding to the fact that they are Broadway singers, and Broadway show tunes/musicals are a (stereotyped) interest of gay men. ---
**Author:** ![Purd\_Werfect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47c2d/32.png) [@Purd\_Werfect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purd_Werfect)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-squares-70s-nighttime-version/121776/14 "2002-08-02T16:51:12Z")
Nope, I wasn’t joking, but I’ll pretend I was. And I get the joke now that you’ve explained it. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-squares-70s-nighttime-version/121776/15 "2002-08-02T17:37:11Z")
was rumored to have had an affair with Jacqueline Susann.:eek: ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2002, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-squares-70s-nighttime-version/121776/16 "2002-08-03T16:37:23Z")
I wasn’t claiming VP was gay; it was just a comment on his mannerisms.