Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Oz on Other Game Shows

As you can probably guess if you're a regular reader of this blog, I'm a fan of the game show Jeopardy!. I've been watching that from the beginning of its current run, and even caught quite a few of the original Art Fleming episodes when I was a kid. And yes, I will have more Oz clues from recent episodes of Jeopardy! now that some technical issues have been dealt with. But I'm also a fan of other game shows, and I was really pleased that ABC revived some classic game shows last summer. One of them was Match Game, with all the ribald humor of the '70s version still in place. I was particularly pleased when the final episode of the first season had an Oz question. As I had no idea it was coming up, I didn't record it in a format I could download and present here, but you can view the entire episode yourself right here. But I can at least present a transcript of the relevant parts. But be warned, there is a reason ABC shows it at 10:00 at night. There is some very adult humor here, so children and sensitive readers may want to stop reading this now.

Still here? Okay, here we go. It's the first round, and the second contestant, Billy, a former football player, gets question A.

ALEC BALDWIN (our host): Dorothy got so freaky in Oz last night—

AUDIENCE AND CELEBRITIES: How freaky was she?

ALEC: She had to take the Yellow Brick Walk of Shame after she woke up next to blank.

(As the famous Match Game think music plays and everyone banters…)

J. B. SMOOVE: Oh my gosh, don't make me say it!

ALEC: Write it down! You sick, sick bastard, write it down.

KRISTIN CHENOWETH (yes, that Kristin Chenoweth!): I should know this, I should know this.

ALEC: Dorothy got so freaky in Oz last night, she had to take the Yellow Brick Walk of Shame after she woke up next to blank. She woke up next to blank!

LEAH REMINI: Eww, okay.

ALEC: Randall?

RANDALL PARK: Yes, got it.

ALEC: Waiting for you, J. B.

KRISTIN: Put it in, put it in the hole.

(J. B. puts in his answer, and the music stops. He and Kristin clink glasses after the audience laughter.)

ALEC (to Billy): Why you football throwing stud, you. Dorothy got so freaky in Oz last night, she had to take the Yellow Brick Walk of Shame after she woke up next to…

BILLY: …used condoms.

CELEBRITIES: WHAT?

AUDIENCE: BOO!

JACK McBRAYER: Get out!

ALEC: I just want to say, I was in the movie Concussion, where they say football causes brain damage. And now we have the proof. Now we have the incontrovertiple proof.

[In case it wasn't already pretty clear, Billy's answer was not a popular one.]

LEAH: A used condom?

BILLY: Somebody's got that. [Billy is an optimist!]

ALEC: She woke up next to…?

JACK: Well, mine's not classier, but it makes sense. [His card says, "Toto". He is buzzed for not matching.]

ALEC: Leah Remini?

LEAH: This is not that bright either, but… [Her card also sayo, "Toto". She is also buzzed for not matching.] I don't like the buzzer thing. Like am I wrong, Alec Baldwin, or is he wrong?

ALEC: Billy is more wrong than pretty much everybody in this whole building. Randall?

RANDALL: Well, I was going to say "Election ballots" [a callback to an earlier question], but… [His card reads "Toto {something nasty that's blurred out}. He is buzzed for not matching.] Just to make it clear, just to make it…the visual… [I really want to know what was blurred out!]

ALEC: Sarah?

SARAH PALIN (yes, that Sarah Palin!): Uh…out of all the choices, Billy! [She shows her card.]

ALEC: The Scarecrow. [She is buzzed for not matching.]

DAVID (the other contestant): Good answer, good answer!

ALEC: J. B. Smoove?

J. B.: The safest sex ever. [He shows his card.] A Munchkin, of course!

ALEC: A Munchkin!

J. B.: Am I wrong? Am I wrong for that? Am I wrong for that?

KRISTIN: No!

BILLY: That's a good one!

ALEC (to Kristin): Most people would consider, as you were the star of the Broadway musical Wicked… [big cheers from the audience] Who did Dorothy wake up next to?

KRISTIN: I mean, I think he's long, I think he's hard, and he's the… [She shows her card, which reads "Tin Man". She is buzzed for not matching.]

LEAH: You said long and hard, yes! Yes! The Tin Man!

Both players ended round 1 with no points, but Billy got a slam dunk question in the next round and got five matches (the only one he didn't match was Kristin), which David couldn't beat. In the audience match part of the bonus round, he went with Kristin's answer and won $3,000 (and a nice long hug from Kristin!), but didn't win the super match.

Apparently the game show revivals were a hit, because Match Game was brought back earlier this month, as well as their updated version of To Tell the Truth. (Now, come on, ABC, just bring back your excellent version of The $100,000 Pyramid, too!) On a recent episode of the latter, three of the contestants claimed to be Lauren Meno, who survived being thrown about by a tornado, but only one of them was telling the truth. As one might expect, we got this line of questioning:

LARA SPENCER: Number one, Wizard of Oz, favorite character?

LAUREN #1 (a Southern white woman): Uh, Dorothy.

LARA: Number 2, favorite character, The Wizard of Oz?

LAUREN #2 (a New York black woman): I'm sorry, it's The Wiz. [She didn't ask Number 3, who was Asian, which might have made for an interesting answer.]

Turns out that Lauren #1 was the real Lauren, and all of the celebrities guessed it was her. Lauren #2 was Shonya Axius (a name I am totally certain I misspelled), and she is a mother of two whose house looks like a tornado hit it. Lara, meanwhile, was the worst guesser of the bunch, and had to tweet a lie at the end of the show.

And that is it—for now—for non-Jeopardy! Oz stuff on game shows.

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