Saturday, July 17, 2021

With a wink of an eye and for $20

 


There used to be a show called Tattletails in the 1970s.  The idea was a hi-tech game show for three sets of celebrity couples based on the premise of the Newlywed Game.  That is to say, celebrities and their spouses would play Question, Answer Match.  Along the way, there would be funny banter and clever repartee sprinkled with drama.  The drama was along the lines of "Gee, I don't what Marmaduke will say," or, "Hesperia will kill me if I don't get this right..."

In the older days, like the fifties, the spouse being sent away would step into an isolation chamber, put on the earphones, and asked a question: "Othello, can you hear us?"  Well, of course Othello wouldn't answer one way or another - that was part of the fun.  In the sixties, one-half of the couple was taken off stage.  Well on Tattletales, the one-half of the three couples were taken and placed out of sight, in a soundproof chamber, given earphones, and then covered by a camera.   The camera would then carry the feed to a monitor facing the audience built into the panelists' desk.

And the couples were the likes of Ken Berry and Jackie Joseph, Bobby Van and Elaine Joyce, Phyllis Diller, and her husband Sherwood. But, then again, it could have been that guy from, err, you know, and his wife, whatever her name was.  Missing from the slate were couples that really could have been a hoot.  James and Pamela Mason, Liz and Dick, ZsaZsa, and any of her former husbands. 

INTO THIS came game show favorite, Fanny Flagg,  and Dick Sargent best know at the time as Second Darrin on Bewitched.  As a couple. That's why I posted the picture.  

Flagg is a wonderfully funny and witty multitalented person.  Dick was beloved by those who knew him, save for Agnes Morehead who reportedly gave him the cold shoulder when he joined Bewitched.  Agnes wanted off the show, she considered it fluff.  Dick York's health no longer permitted him to act.  Seeing that as a possible out, in came Sargent, meaning the show would go on.

ANYWAY, the hook for Tattltails was that the studio audience was divided into teams, based on the color of the desk section.  The left side was blue, the middle yellow, and the right side was red.  As the couples answered correct questions, that translated into money for each studio group, which I believe wasn't much.  But it kept the audience in the game. 

So for this episode, Patty Duke Astin and her husband actor John Astin were the blue team. Actor Bill Daily and his wife were the yellow team, and winning money for the red section, Fannie Flagg and "her guy" Dick Sargent.  

Here's the show so you can enjoy it for yourself. 


13 comments:

  1. The famously gay Dick Sargeant? How bizarre...

    We had a version of this show over here called Mr & Mrs that was an absolutely massive ratings success in the 1970s - interestingly the British version [it was a Canadian TV concept originally] originated in Wales in 1964 as a Welsh language only programme in the same format entitled Sion a Sian - but we didn't have a celebrity version until the format was revived in 2008 [when just about every programme on telly had to be either "reality" or "celebrity", or so it seemed].

    Jx

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  2. I go to sleep with the TV on, volume off. One night, sometime during COVID, I came upon an episode with these two & did a double take. It took me all but a moment to realize what I seeing and start to laugh.

    Hey Jon, Fannie was famously gay too, but she worked the "femmy" side. Ever wonder why Fried Green Tomatoes is a love story between two women, yet the women ignore their love?

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    1. I'd never even heard of Fannie Flagg before today! [And I have never seen Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, either.]

      Oh, those lesbians... Jx

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    2. Okay honey, I know we really don't know one another, but may I strongly recommend that movie. It's not perfect, but it's quite good. Kathy Bates and her vagina alone! I named one of my corgis Sipsey after Cicely Tyson's character.

      Really, give it a try.

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    3. Oh, Jon. My advice is to run, not walk, and see the movie. It's wonderful, save for a few jarring edits. THEN read the book. They are two different versions of the same story. The endings are slightly different. But if you read the book, THEN see the movie, you keep asking yourself "why did that cut this/that out." The book isn't very long, but it has a magic that is all its own.

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    4. And, oh, Jon: Secret's in the Sauce.

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    5. Fuck me! A sort-of-lesbian cannibal movie! Hmmmmmmmmmmm. Jx

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    6. As long as you brought that up, Sipsey's registered name is, Secret's In The Sauce.

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  3. We were just talking about Fannie Flagg at my mums. We've all enjoyed her books so much. And how funny that they would pass those two off as a 'couple'. A couple of what... America couldn't handle. Thanks for the memory. Terrible game show. I always enjoyed her on that show with Brett Sommers... Match Game. Kizzes.

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    1. Well, in 1975, America could handle a lot of things. To Mrs. Buford Wheeler, of Moline Illinois, she had no idea it was a set up, except in her mind "He should have married that Elizabeth Montgomery. She sure was a pretty little thing..."

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  4. Great...Kind of has a Newlywed Game game feel to it...

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  5. Well, I watched this and while it had some cute moments, it still is at heart a game show. I looked it up, and the big winners, Pat and Bill Daily, who were all lovey-dovey and predicting a long future together, were divorced the following year. On the bright side, thanks to you I am adding Fannie Flagg to my reading list.
    --Jim

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  6. I remember Tattletails but hadn't though of it in years.

    Love,
    Janie

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