Dana Kimmell was the star of "Friday The 13th Part 3" and Dennis Haskins had parts in a few episodes of "The Dukes Of Hazzard" and both were later on game shows. Years after their roles, Kimmell was on The $100,000 Pyramid and Haskins was on Scrabble. Now here's my question... why were they allowed to be contestants on game shows when they previously appeared in TV or movies? Everyone knows that celebrities and famous people who appear on game shows play for charity. I know neither of the two were famous (at the time) or celebrities. But still, it never made sense to me why there playing as constestants on game shows.

Actors are people too, and an awful lot of barely-working actors wouldn't be considered celebrities. If the contestant coordinator didn't think that someone was famous enough to be distracting to the audience, there's no reason at all for them not to be contestants on a game show.

The Dahm Triplets, who had been Playboy Centerfolds and erstwhile models and actresses, appeared on the Richard Karn version of Family Feud in a non-celebrity role.

I can mention a game show host-turned-contestant: Larry Toffler, 2nd host of "Finder's Keepers", was on "Greed" [and "Debt" too, IIRC].

ISTR a contestant on J! who was either an actor or an athlete, and Alex explained that he was allowed to participate as a regular contestant because he hadn't earned a certain amount ($75K?) in that capacity. Other shows may have had similar criteria.

Add to nate80s' list the name of Cheryl McMannis, a blind actress. She had already appeared on Simon & Simon and Scarecrow & Mrs. King before she won $25,000 during the week of blind contestants on The $100,000 Pyramid that recently aired.

If you want to bring semi-famous athletes into the discussion, then Steve Bryant might be a good place to start. At least nobody knew at the time of his PYL appearances that he would wash out of the NFL.

Wasn't there a member of the band Sister Hazel that appeared on TPIR as a contestant? I thought I read something about that a few years ago.

It doesn't make sense because you don't realize you just answered your own question. Like Matt said, it all depends on the level of fame and whether or not it's a distraction. I'm willing to bet that enough people didn't know who the hell they were. (And at least in the latter case, there's no way you could probably get away with it nowadays...)

(It also depends on your definition of fame, i.e. pro boxer Monte Barrett, who I believe was set to fight for one of the heavyweight titles at the time, and pro wrestler Ox Baker on TPIR. Boxing or wrestling fans might know these guys well, but whether or not the general public will is another story and a decision that the coordinators have to make.)

At least two actors from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory were later game show contestants.

Leonard Stone played Violet Beauregard's father. He appeared on Wheel of Fortune in 2000, and his role in the film was mentioned in his contestant interview.

Paris Themmen played Mike Teevee; he later appeared on Wink's Trivial Pursuit in '93 & Duel in '08. Paris' acting career was never mentioned on TP. (I didn't see his Duel appearance, so I don't know if it was brought up there at all.)

Michael Cedar, who was the first champion on TJW '90, actually appeared on Mama's Family three years earlier as a thief.

Henry Beckman, who played the security guard on the Don Adams sitcom "Check It Out", was a contestant later in the 80's on "Scrabble" - Robair has a clip from the Scrabble appearance up on YouTube.

Matt Ottinger who hosted...um never mind. If the've spent all the money they've earned in their acting career it should be okay, :) I think it would be better if there was some mention during the "tell us about yourself" portion of their acting work and where eagle-eyed viewers may have seen the contestant before.

Wikipedia notes former Mouseketeer Lonnie Burr has appeared as a contestant on both The Big Showdown and Wordplay. His own web site mentions neither; IMDB does say he won over $5,000 on TBS.

I do remember seeing Lonnie on TBS, as MMC had just made a big splash in re-syndication in 75. It was mentioned on the show, but I don't remember the outcome of the game.

Not an actor or actress, but noteworthy nonetheless: Walter Egan, who had the 1978 hit "Magnet and Steel", was a regular contestant on Scrabble around 1987. I think he won the day but little else.

Beckman was in the business forever but never really had a series of his own. He was also on a couple of episodes of Bewitched in the late '60s, and did commercials in his native Canada.

Now that kind of surprises me. Leonard Stone is a very familiar-looking character actor. He wasn't just in "Willy Wonka." I remember seeing him in "Perry Mason." I remember seeing him in "Dragnet." I even remember seeing him in two episodes of "Lost in Space." Look him up on the Internet Movie Database and you'll see an impressively long string of credits.

A few sports "celebrities" -- not stars, but (ex-)athletes who are trying to get a little extra scratch have appeared on game shows as well. Peter Marshall's book notes Dick Williams won big on Hollywood Squares (after they brought him back due to an error on a question). I also remember seeing current Oakland Athletics manager Bob Geren (who was then a backup catcher for the Yankees) on the Ray Combs version of Family Feud.

The nice thing about having actors on the show is you don't have to worry as much about them freezing up in front of the camera.

On Duel, Themmen was referred to as "Paris, a former child actor." I don't think he was actually chosen to play the game.

Some other celebs on game shows...

Bumper Robinson, a former child actor (played Leon, the orphan Harry considered adopting on "Night Court") whose worked steadily on sitcoms and movies since, was a contestant on a "regular" episode of Street Smarts a few years ago.

Former Dallas Cowboys WR Tony Hill was a team captain on Greed. Chuck Woolery brought up Hill's career during the contestant interview (Think Hill introduced himself as "a businessman" in the introduction).

Former MLB player Steve Henderson was a contestant on Dawson Feud. Henderson is best (or worst) known as being one of the players Cincinnati traded to the New York Mets for Tom Seaver.

JD

What about all those soon-to-be-famous young actors like Tom Selleck, John Ritter etc who supplemented their table-waiting tips by appearing on The Dating Game? Or is The Dating Game not considered a game show? Clarification anyone?

Didn't know about that one. Did know Andrew Gold [he of "Thank You for Being a Friend" fame] was on there [and on "Feud"].

I think the basic point of the thread is: People who you'd think are established actors (not necessarily stars) turning up as "civilian" players in a regular game show. That's not quite the same as the up-and-coming actors whose early game show appearances will provide fodder for some future TV special.

Current Oakland A's manager Bob Geren was a contestant with his family on Combs' Feud while an active player.

This is also an exercise in who is famous to what forum member(s).


--Mike

May be a shot in the dark. But anyone remember the education game show "Contract"? It was basically a reading comprehension quiz where young contestants would be given a short amount of time to read some text -- then be asked questions about what they read.

"Contract" was hosted by Kenny Wallin (sp?), who was a solo player on the original "Blockbusters" series. I saw a GSN rerun a few months ago and instantly remembered Kenny's work on "Contract" when he was introduced (no mention of "Contract" was made on his initial "Blockbusters" appearance).

Not sure exactly when "Contract" aired -- but I do remember watching it in when I was a 3rd grader (at the risk of showing my age, it was the '81-'82 school year, about the time "Blockbusters" was ending its first run on NBC). I also recall Kenny's wardrobe, the set and the theme song all had that '70s look and sound.

I've googled Kenny's name and "Contract" a few times and changed the spelling of his last name on some occasions. Searches turn up nothing.

And yet, I can still remember the closing spiel...

Kenny: "Before you sign a contract..."

Audience of kids: "READ IT!"

What are you, my mother?

Gotcha! Thanks for 'splainin' it!

I thought you were my father.

NFL Hall of Fame offensive lineman Bruce Matthews and his brother, longtime Browns linebacker Clay were on a syndicated episode of Family Feud after Bruce's rookie year. Clay had been in the NFL for at least 5 years at the time.

As an in-studio player, or as one of the people Nicotero interviewed?

/Blipped right past 3800 and didn't even realize it.

He was also the original voice of Dwight (Hermes's son) on Futurama. (One of the show's DVD commentaries says that they had a line changed but couldn't get him back to record the new line as he was in China making some movie.)

As for "celebrities" on game shows, Chub Feeney was on Jeopardy! in 1986 while he was President of baseball's National League. Alex pointed out that anybody who could pass the qualifying test was potentially eligible.

-- Don

Didn't Marshall's book also mention O.J. Simpson appearing on Squares during his days as a student and star running back @ USC? Unless his appearance came as a freshman (in those days NCAA rules prohibited freshmen from playing on the varsity squad), I would say he certainly had gained a certain amount of "celebrity" by that time in spite of not reaching the professional ranks yet. And even more to follow later for all the wrong reasons :-)

OK, if any of you remember a short-lived 1975-76 cop show called "Joe Forrester" starring Lloyd Bridges, you might recall a cast member by the name of Dwan Smith. She played "Jolene Jackson" in the series. She also was a guest celebrity on Rhyme & Reason in early "76 IIRC.

Ten years later, she would not only appear on Press Your Luck winning about $20k in the process; she was also featured in
an ET story about a "game show contestant school" (She was, apparently, the star pupil)

/someday I will learn about italics.

In-studio

I also believe he was a contestant on GSN's "Russian Roulette!"

Now that's interesting to me! His mom, Marni Nixon, was a central character on TTTT when Betty White was on the panel. I was hoping Betty would ask one of them, "Who wrote the theme from The Golden Girls?"


Thank you! I remember that happening, but when I wanted to find his name, I could never remember his title.

No one's mentioned Ralph Branca's run on "Concentration" in the 60's, years after he coughed up that gopher ball to Bobby Thomson?

When Andy Kaufman appeared on DG, it was well after he was established and it was a great put-on.

Former NFL player Sam Cunningham once appeared on "Family Feud" with his family as regular contestants.

That's interesting, because I was going to bring up a similar situation that contradicts this. Back when he was the CBS morning weatherman, Mark McEwen appeared on Celebrity Jeopardy a couple of times. It was revealed (not on the show, I don't think, but in an interview) that McEwen had passed the regular contestant test but wasn't selected to play as a regular contestant because of that whole "distracting" thing I mentioned earlier.

LA Dodger Steve Yeager (who was a current player when he was on) was also on FF.

I'm also relatively sure Hue Hollins, who was also on FF, was in the beginnings of his career as an NBA referee when he appeared (and most Chicago Bulls fans hate him for a call he made that helped cost the Bulls a playoff game against the NY Knicks--never mind that the Bulls cost themselves the series with two blown fourth quarter leads before that).

HSq also had a number of sports figures as contestants on who were somewhat known at the time--including one O.J. Simpson (in between his USC career and his NFL career).

Jerry DaVanon, a Major League shortstop and dad of former Major Leaguer Jeff DaVanon, was on Hollywood Squares around 1975. His episode was shown on GSN in 2002.

I remember the show (it was featured on a TVGuide cover back then) and have another tidbit about Press Your Luck. Many of us have an October 1985 episode with a contestant named Lark Geib. She was actually in the business for a while and guest-starred in an episode of The Partridge Family as Danny's girl friend. When Peter introduced her, she mentioned she was an actress, among other things.



Maybe we should start a thread about obscure celebrities - did you ever see a celebrity game show and wonder exactly who these people were?

A good chunk of the MGHS bookings.

And come to think of it, when I first saw the WML reruns I had no idea who Joanna Barnes and Dana Valery were.

With the exceptions of Betty White and LeVar Burton, just about all the regulars on 80s Pyramid fall into the category of "people whose career outside of game shows I know nothing about."

/Try fitting THAT on a winner's circle trilon.
//You'd have plenty of clues, though.

I remember coming in in the middle of a Donnymid episode and not knowing which ones were the contestants and which ones were the celebrities -- and I pay attention to this stuff!

On Pyramid, they could have made it easier by having the celebrities sit where they always did on the earlier series. That or make a name plate on the podia with the celebs name.

QFT - That happened a LOT...and I consider myself pop culture worthy enough to know 'most' celebs.

To me, the rotating celebs everyday only added further to the confusion, despite the constant CG'g of the celebs names. I'd simply suggest name tags for the teams, and put a nice Gold Star* on the celebs.

*Not to be confused with the Gold Stars awarded here for wit.

Ideally, giant Gold Stars like the ones on the prizes when Wheel of Fortune first started their bonus game.

Or in the case of most Donnymid Celebs, A big name tag which reads "Look at ME...I'm the Celebrity" and an arrow pointing to their name. :)

That's true now, but in 1983, they weren't worrying about who would still be well known a quarter of a century later. I just looked at William Padron's list, and there were only a few names that weren't either in TV series or between series back then.