Tuesday, January 22, 2019

Classic TV: The Newlywed Game (1966)

The producers of Howdy Doody had grown up, and moved into the game show business.

E. Roger Muir and Nick Nicholson, to reverse the usual billing, are the guys who came up with the idea for Chuck Barris' The Newlywed Game, which launched on ABC in July 1966, and ran for nearly 8 1/2 years, ending in December 1974. Muir & Nicholson would go on to produce their own shows eventually, and even brought Howdy back for a short spell in 1976.

The concept was simplistic enough to be copied by another studio, such as a show we recently looked at, The Neighbors, which was built around gossip more than anything else. As the title implies, the Newlywed Game pitted four couples who had been wed a year or less against each other.

As it turned out, viewers weren't ready to give up on the concept, and so the series has returned time and again, its most recent run being on GSN (2009-13), with singer Carnie Wilson and comic-talk show host Sherri Shepherd as hosts. Surprisingly, GSN didn't hang on to the show's classic repeats long enough to reach the 50th anniversary in 2016. Bounce TV (check listings) is the current rights holder to cable broadcasts.

LA based radio personality Bob Eubanks began his TV career with Newlywed at 28, making him the youngest game show host at the time. Today, I believe he's back to his radio roots.

Here's a sample episode:



During the GSN run, they trimmed the number of couples from four down to three, as if it'd make much difference.

Rating: B.

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