The founding father of the Fox hit, In Living Color, made one of the smartest decisions of his career when it came to mounting a skit sending up Hollywood Squares. Rather than call on the most recent host at the time, John Davidson, Wayans went one step further, and called on the original master of the Squares, no less than Peter Marshall, who was doing some guest-star work back in those days, having acted on The Love Boat, among others, but at least for one night, and probably whenever they did this skit, Marshall was back in the millieu that made him an icon.
Like, hey, it's better than having Jim Carrey try to impersonate Marshall, and fail.
Edit, 8/24/22: Had to change the video, so here's another installment of this recurring skit:
Look at it this way. Howard Stern tried to do a parody of Squares on his NYC-based TV show, sans Marshall, and it bombed. Badly.
Rating: B+.
Look at it this way. Howard Stern tried to do a parody of Squares on his NYC-based TV show, sans Marshall, and it bombed. Badly.
Rating: B+.
2 comments:
I remember this and it was pretty funny!
Can you imagine if it were updated to today?
Definitely a good call on Wayans' part to being back Peter Marshall.
Somehow I can't help but think how this could be if it were "East L. A. Squares" (with Hispanic celebs) or West Hollywood Squares (Gay celebs who are "out of the closet"). Oh the possibilities!
And Peter Marshall was a good sport to take part in this parody. West Hollywood? Uh, I'm not so sure.
I've been thinking that Sony has really blown it by not trying to revive the Storybook version as an animated series with a live-action host (Marshall's still around, doing radio, plus that Time-Life infomercial with Debby Boone). What are they waiting for?
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