Hip to be Square
I'm still grinning! Tonight is a night I won't forget. Chalk up another tick in the "I can't believe I'm here and doing this" column. A bunch of us went to Bookstar in Studio City for the book signing of Peter Marshall's new behind-the-scenes book about the classic version of "The Hollywood Squares." Matt, David, Brian, Tony, and Caleb and a few other game show fans were there. The bookstore people had us all line up outside on the sidewalk. They had the signing tables set up just outside the entrance under the big marquee. Before the signing, I saw a number of people I knew like Tim Duffy, the manager of development at Game Show Network, and Art Alisi, whose company (Promotional Considerations) worked with us on "Whammy!"
As we got into line, I noticed Brian walking to the store and strolling by him was none other than Marc Summers. Let the surreal night begin...That was JUST the beginning. I immediately called up Drew who was still at work to tell him to get over to the book store ASAP. In addition to being a big game show fan, Drew is a big kid's game show fan. Needless to say, mentioning the presence of Marc Summers jostled him in to getting out of his office quickly. :-)
So Drew arrived and the cavalcade of familiar faces grew. Fred Wostbrock was there as well as David Schwartz. Both of them are two of the authors of the "Encyclopedia of TV Game Shows." As we waited in our spot on the sidewalk, we saw a figure in light blue come up to Fred. It was SUSAN STAFFORD!!!!! David Hammett and I met her a couple of years ago at the Wink Martindale signing at the very same book store. We re-introduced ourselves to Susan and in doing so the surreal factor kicked up another notch for the evening.
We looked across Ventura Blvd. and there was Peter Marshall crossing over to our side of the street. While waiting with anticipation, we looked down Ventura and walking towards us was....TOM KENNEDY!!!!!!!!! Needless to say, Drew and I (and I'm pretty sure a bunch of the others who were near us) were quite giddy. We introduced ourselves to Tom and he was kind enough to sign our books and take a picture with Drew and me. The surreal factor had now reached a level of 5 by this point. If we had some elephants and a trapeze, we'd be ready for "Circus of the Stars..."
Dusk started to fall and the signing commenced. Susan Stafford passed by again and said, "Mandel..." I thought I was hearing things but she was indeed calling my name. She grabbed my hand and slipped a little elastic beaded ring from her finger over to mine! The surreal factor bumped up to 7. She's such a doll!
As we got closer, I saw Shelly Herman, who was a stand-in for us for "Greed" and helped me many a time with run-throughs for the game show I co-created at dick clark productions. She was there with her husband Randall Carver, who was a regular on the first season of "Taxi." So, we did a little bit of chatting with them as the surreal factor rose to a level of 10.
We finally got rolling with the signing. The first person at the table was of course Peter Marshall. He looks DAMN good for his age. Next up was Harvey Korman. After getting my book signed by Harvey, I went over to TV Land's cutest couple Tom Poston and Suzanne Pleshette. They were just adorable. I continued down the table and saw Arte Johnson, Robert Donner, and Robert Fuller.
Over to the next table where I met up with the grand dame of "The Hollywood Squares": Rose Marie. Nanette Fabray was right next to her and next to Nanette was Abby Dalton. And as you can see, Abby still looks great! She was a sweetheart! And capping things off...there was none other than Joanne Wooooooooorley and Adrienne Armstrong, the co-author of the "Squares" book.
There were some other surprise guests there as well. Gary Owens of "Laugh-In" and "Space Ghost" fame was there. I also spotted Ron Maestri (host of the 90s USA game "Quicksilver"), Jay Redack (who worked on the original "Squares" and is an exec on the new version) and Steve Ryan (creator of "Blockbusters" and another author of the game show encyclopedia). We got a chance to talk with Marc Summers near the end of the night and he was very cool with us.
Afterwards, Matt, David, Caleb, Tony, Drew and I had some dinner over at Chin-Chin's to decompress from all of this. Wow...wow...wow...That pretty much sums up tonight. I was especially astonished at all of tonight's happenings. Honestly, I don't know if I'll ever get used to all this! It was like one of those sitcom dream sequences where you bump into the TV legends who happen to be the guest stars of the week. Pretty damn cool...
I'm still grinning! Tonight is a night I won't forget. Chalk up another tick in the "I can't believe I'm here and doing this" column. A bunch of us went to Bookstar in Studio City for the book signing of Peter Marshall's new behind-the-scenes book about the classic version of "The Hollywood Squares." Matt, David, Brian, Tony, and Caleb and a few other game show fans were there. The bookstore people had us all line up outside on the sidewalk. They had the signing tables set up just outside the entrance under the big marquee. Before the signing, I saw a number of people I knew like Tim Duffy, the manager of development at Game Show Network, and Art Alisi, whose company (Promotional Considerations) worked with us on "Whammy!"
As we got into line, I noticed Brian walking to the store and strolling by him was none other than Marc Summers. Let the surreal night begin...That was JUST the beginning. I immediately called up Drew who was still at work to tell him to get over to the book store ASAP. In addition to being a big game show fan, Drew is a big kid's game show fan. Needless to say, mentioning the presence of Marc Summers jostled him in to getting out of his office quickly. :-)
So Drew arrived and the cavalcade of familiar faces grew. Fred Wostbrock was there as well as David Schwartz. Both of them are two of the authors of the "Encyclopedia of TV Game Shows." As we waited in our spot on the sidewalk, we saw a figure in light blue come up to Fred. It was SUSAN STAFFORD!!!!! David Hammett and I met her a couple of years ago at the Wink Martindale signing at the very same book store. We re-introduced ourselves to Susan and in doing so the surreal factor kicked up another notch for the evening.
We looked across Ventura Blvd. and there was Peter Marshall crossing over to our side of the street. While waiting with anticipation, we looked down Ventura and walking towards us was....TOM KENNEDY!!!!!!!!! Needless to say, Drew and I (and I'm pretty sure a bunch of the others who were near us) were quite giddy. We introduced ourselves to Tom and he was kind enough to sign our books and take a picture with Drew and me. The surreal factor had now reached a level of 5 by this point. If we had some elephants and a trapeze, we'd be ready for "Circus of the Stars..."
Dusk started to fall and the signing commenced. Susan Stafford passed by again and said, "Mandel..." I thought I was hearing things but she was indeed calling my name. She grabbed my hand and slipped a little elastic beaded ring from her finger over to mine! The surreal factor bumped up to 7. She's such a doll!
As we got closer, I saw Shelly Herman, who was a stand-in for us for "Greed" and helped me many a time with run-throughs for the game show I co-created at dick clark productions. She was there with her husband Randall Carver, who was a regular on the first season of "Taxi." So, we did a little bit of chatting with them as the surreal factor rose to a level of 10.
We finally got rolling with the signing. The first person at the table was of course Peter Marshall. He looks DAMN good for his age. Next up was Harvey Korman. After getting my book signed by Harvey, I went over to TV Land's cutest couple Tom Poston and Suzanne Pleshette. They were just adorable. I continued down the table and saw Arte Johnson, Robert Donner, and Robert Fuller.
Over to the next table where I met up with the grand dame of "The Hollywood Squares": Rose Marie. Nanette Fabray was right next to her and next to Nanette was Abby Dalton. And as you can see, Abby still looks great! She was a sweetheart! And capping things off...there was none other than Joanne Wooooooooorley and Adrienne Armstrong, the co-author of the "Squares" book.
There were some other surprise guests there as well. Gary Owens of "Laugh-In" and "Space Ghost" fame was there. I also spotted Ron Maestri (host of the 90s USA game "Quicksilver"), Jay Redack (who worked on the original "Squares" and is an exec on the new version) and Steve Ryan (creator of "Blockbusters" and another author of the game show encyclopedia). We got a chance to talk with Marc Summers near the end of the night and he was very cool with us.
Afterwards, Matt, David, Caleb, Tony, Drew and I had some dinner over at Chin-Chin's to decompress from all of this. Wow...wow...wow...That pretty much sums up tonight. I was especially astonished at all of tonight's happenings. Honestly, I don't know if I'll ever get used to all this! It was like one of those sitcom dream sequences where you bump into the TV legends who happen to be the guest stars of the week. Pretty damn cool...
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