“Who are three people who have never been in my kitchen?”: 16 TV-character crossovers with real game shows
1. Oscar Madison and Felix Unger on Password (The Odd Couple)
Sometimes television’s real and fictional worlds intersect, creating the mind-bending possibility that everybody on TV—be they action heroes, sitcom stars, athletes, newscasters, or game-show hosts—exists in the same shared universe. In a 1972 episode of The Odd Couple, slobby sportswriter Oscar Madison (Jack Klugman) is invited to be a celebrity guest on Password after he runs into the show’s host, Allen Ludden, and his wife (Betty White) at a restaurant. Because Oscar’s fastidious roommate Felix Unger (Tony Randall) is a Password freak, he begs Oscar to accept the invitation, and to bring Felix along as his partner. Then, on the day of the taping, Felix overthinks every clue. When Oscar says “meat,” Felix says “Lincoln” (because “Lincoln loved mayonnaise”). When the password is “bird,” Felix gives Oscar the clue “Aristophanes” (because Aristophanes wrote The Birds). “If Charlie Chan had these clues, he’d be running a laundry,” Oscar grumbles. But the game isn’t a total disaster. When Oscar gets the password “ridiculous,” he gives Felix the clue “Aristophanes” right back, and Felix responds correctly. And though the two friends lose the game, at least Oscar remains Ludden’s favorite nonexistent sportswriter.
2. Ralph and Alice Kramden on Beat The Clock (The Jackie Gleason Show)
In 1954, The Jackie Gleason Show was preceded by the game show Beat The Clock, so it was a seamless segue between timeslots when host Bud Collyer introduced his final contestants for one evening’s episode: salt-of-the-earth bus-driver Ralph Kramden (Gleason) and his longsuffering wife Alice (Audrey Meadows). Ralph starts out smug, but his confidence dissipates when the game’s first task leaves him with a face full of whipped cream. As the couple begins their next task—moving lemons from one spot to another while keeping a balloon aloft—the show ends, and the Kramdens are invited to return next week. Ralph spends every waking moment of the next seven days practicing, but suffers a setback when Alice opts to help her sister with her newborn twins rather than go back on Beat The Clock to win a new TV set. Fortunately, the ever-faithful Ed Norton (Art Carney) steps in to play the wife—as it were—and though Norton accidentally pops the balloon with his hangnail at one point, the pair ultimately walks out not only with a television set, but also a pair of baby buggies for Alice’s sister.
3. Fred Sanford on The Gong Show (Sanford And Son)
After Lamont Sanford (Demond Wilson) crosses paths with Chuck Barris on the NBC lot, his crotchety junkman father Fred (Redd Foxx) winds up with four tickets to a Gong Show taping. But Fred is so appalled by a performance of “If I Didn’t Care” that he decides to audition for the show himself, dragging his brother-in-law Rodney and Lamont with him. Calling themselves “Sanford And Son And Rodney,” the trio auditions with a charmingly ramshackle version of “The Sunny Side Of The Street,” then head back to the junkyard, where they learn that they’ve made the cut. Rodney, meanwhile, decides to double his chances at winning $500 by slapping on a hairpiece and mustache and re-introducing himself to Barris as a solo act: Raymond C. Gordon. “Raymond” makes it onto the show too, but is scheduled to perform immediately after “Sanford And Son And Rodney,” leading a panicked Rodney to feign injury and drop out of the group. Fred’s buddy Bubba reluctantly fills the void, and the act does go on—they don’t even bother to change their name!—but before scatting his way through “Exactly Like You,” Fred runs over to the judges’ podium and steals their mallets, later using one to gong the competition. (Fortunately for Rodney, Fred is mallet-less when he finally discovers who “Raymond” really is.)
4. Lenny and Squiggy on The Dating Game (Laverne & Shirley)
Greaser pals Lenny and Squiggy are busy collecting bugs off windshields when Dating Game host Jim Lange selects them as contestants for his show. Lenny’s intro does him no favors: “Bachelor No. 2 is an ice-cream vendor who plays the guitar. He’s a champion shadow-boxer, and he enjoys Bosco and Squiggy.” But Squiggy’s description is practically designed to win a lady’s heart: “Bachelor No. 3 is a top Hollywood agent whose hobbies including hang-gliding, deep-sea fishing, and building a bridge to Japan. He’s very proud of his collection of beautiful women and moths.” After Lange welcomes blonde bachelorette Monique—a former-Playmate-turned-stewardess who’s studying to be a dental hygienist—a dumbstruck Lenny can only wave. Squiggy, however, delivers a pitch-perfect “Hello!” and sets to berating the competition. When asked to describe Bachelor No. 1 (Jim Staahl), he uses Tarzan’s “pet monkey Cheetos” [sic] as a frame of reference. When asked to do the same for Squiggy, Lenny reaffirms the pair’s bromance, saying, “I have heard women say that in a dark alley with all his clothes off, he looks sort of like a young Jack Lalanne.” Monique seems certain to select Bachelor No. 1, but instead, Squiggy gets the call-up—not because his perfect romantic evening begins with him slathering her with honey and ends with something that gets him bleeped by the censors, but because Monique liked the way he said “Hello!” Andrew Squigman: the original Jerry Maguire.
5. Mike, Rik, Vyvyan, and Neil on University Challenge (The Young Ones)
Whenever it was convenient to the plot, the anarchic British comedy The Young Ones acknowledged that its core quartet of motley London housemates were actually students at the none-too-prestigious Scumbag College. In the episode “Bambi,” sad-sack hippie Neil suddenly remembers that he and the lads have been selected to appear on University Challenge, and the gang sprints into action—inspired, no doubt, by the Motörhead performance of “Ace Of Spades” in the same episode—and arrives just in time to challenge the Footlights College team: Lord Monty (Hugh Laurie), Lord Snot (Stephen Fry), Miss Money-Sterling (Emma Thompson), and Kendal Mintcake (Ben Elton). Things start off poorly for Scumbag: Moderator Bambi Gascoigne hasn’t even finished the first question before Neil asks to go to the toilet, and although Lord Monty doesn’t know the right answer, a £50 bribe results in Footlights earning 10 points. But the game takes a turn in Scumbag’s favor when cool-guy con-man Mike lucks into two consecutive questions about Toxteth O’Grady, the famous American marshmallow-stuffer/sticky-bogey-producer. Then pretentious poet Rick pushes Scumbag into the lead by correctly answering the question “Who’s been tampering with my question cards?” (Spoiler alert: It was Rick.) Immediately thereafter, everyone gets crushed by a giant éclair, which is then fed to an elephant. A typical Young Ones ending.