Wednesday, September 13, 2023

A second hand failure: It Pays to be Ignorant (1973)

 Many moons ago, we talked about the original TV version of It Pays to be Ignorant, which ran for 1 season on TV in 1951. 22 years later, Monty Hall (Let's Make a Deal) and business partner Stefan Hatos revived Ignorant as a weekly syndicated series, largely because celebrity panel shows were big back then. 

Joe Flynn (ex-McHale's Navy), who had spent the post-McHale years as a serviceable character actor, and had a role in Disney's "Medfield College" series of comedies with Kurt Russell, was tapped to host, joined by panelists Jo Anne Worley (Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In), who also sang the show's closing theme song, Charles Nelson Reilly (ex-The Ghost & Mrs. Muir), better known now for a lengthy run on Match Game, which had been revived two months before Ignorant, and British comic Billy Baxter, who did not land another American gig.


Trade convention ad

As with the 1951 series, Ignorant was ignored by most of the country, and Hatos & Hall replaced it a year later with another revival, this one for Masquerade Party, which also bombed. At least, now you know how prepared Reilly & Worley were for any questions about "Dumb Donald/Dora" on Match Game later on.

Rating: B.

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