RIP Richard Dawson

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In honor of Richard Dawson, I'm reposting this way early blog item from 2004. As true today as it was then. I loved me some Richard Dawson (and some Match Game.)

 
Okay, gang . . . I told youI'd be weighing in on my pop culture obsessions, so today a few thoughts onMatch Game. (But first a few thoughts on the Game Show Network. . . I want tomeet and thank the evil television mastermind who came up with the idea ofrunning reruns of the old '70s and '80s game shows. Who knew I'd be suckedright in? He did, apparently. Genius, I say, pure genius!) So yeah . . . thatMatch Game. With Gene "Lurch" Rayburn, the freakiest looking gameshow host ever. Not only is the guy about 7 feet tall, he's sort of stooped,the way really tall guys can be, and, to add to the general sense ofelongation, he uses this impossibly tall, skinny microphone the likes of whichI've never seen before. (He also seems like a real pussy cat, by the way.) Whyam I obsessed with this show? Hard to say. Is it the orange shag carpet set? Isit the funky, waa-waa-pedal-heavy "concentration" music? Is it thecontestants, and their fabulous parade of '70s wardrobe misdemeanors? Is it theshow's "naughty" cavalcade of double entendres? More likely, it's theregular panelists, who always look like they've had a few highballs before (andperhaps during) the show, who SMOKE on the air (god bless the '70s), and who,if you listen closely, are often heard hacking up loogies during the show.You've got Brett Summers, who has this fabulous, "I've been around theblock a few thousand times" whisky-soaked voice and wears these giantglasses that dwarf her entire face and who is/was famous for some indeterminatereason. (She was married to Jack Klugman, I'm told. . . so there's that) You'vegot Charles Nelson Reilly, who makes Nathan Lane look like Gary Cooper. Andyou've got my fave, Richard Dawson, who WAS Simon Cowell long before SimonCowell . . all British and smug and flirty (he went on, of course, to launch athousand kisses on Famly Feud, which was a spin-off of Match Game! You see theuseless information you get by reading this blog?) For whatever reason, God, Ilove this show. If I didn't have to see all these dang movies, I'd watch itevery day.