Did the home games used "Operation," "Time Bomb," "Where's Willy," etc. come before or after their appearance on the TV show?

That's kind of a toughie, but I seem to recall "Where's Willie?" as the one true tie-in to the show.

Operation got in during the second season of Shenanigans - it has a 1965 copyright. Shenanigans was a marketing tool by MB to advertise the new games released for the Christmas season and push old favorites. The ones I remember most early on were Pow - the cannon battle game, and Wow - the pillow fight game for girls, along with good ol' Time Bomb. Tussle might have been in there - not sure - but they did slip in Boob Tube, which also found it's way into the box rules of Video Village.

Operation and Time Bomb were on store shelves before Shenanigans aired. Where's Willie was published while Shenanigans was still on the air.

However, the question remains: are you ready for your sigh Mystery Date?

If I'm not misaten was'nt Art Linkletter on the cover of Easy Momey around the same period of time?

Art was on the cover and his company was credited with the development of The Game Of Life as we know it now. It came out in 1960 to mark the 100th anniversary of Milton Bradley's first board game, The Checkered Game Of Life, which took a totally different tack. The original 1860 Game Of Life was a morality board game, where landing on squares of truth, honesty and virtue gave you points toward a happy old age. There were squares like drunkeness and suicide that you wanted to avoid. Linkletter just turned it around into a make big money game. Parker reportedly gave Milton Bradley a license to make their own clone of Monopoly - Easy Money goes back to the 30s.

And Tom Hornikel's alter ego, Frank. :-D

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")

Is Art's face still on the $100,000 bill? I know Art disappeared from the box sometime in the 1970s, though his face remained on the highest denomination of Life's play money, through the 1980s, at least.

Alas, when they redid the money and gameplay for the 40th Anniversary Edition (a pale comparison to the Game Of Life _I_ grew up with), the portraits on the bills were removed.

One of the prized games in my collection is an "Easy Money" from 1936. If nothing else, the 70s version has one thing going for it: copious amounts of Bradley Bucks. I still scour thrift stores in the area looking for them, just to add the money to my Game Kit ™.



Saying that one version of the Game of Life is better than the other is like saying that getting a root canal is better than getting a colonoscopy...that said, Life is also good from some Kit Money, and for those who care, the portrait list:
yellow $500 (used up through the 80s, when the money doubled): Ransom A. Treasure
Pink $1,000: Basil O. Cash
Salmon $5,000: Cyrus Bonanza
Light Blue $10,000: Hesperia Mint
Orange: $20,000: G. I. Luvmoney
Light Green: Milton Bradley
White: Arthur "I Heartily Endorse This Game" Linkletter, Esq.

Not only did they get in a plug for the founder of the company, they got more than a few puns in as well.

And I've already used up my allotment of game geekiness on this. For shame, for shame.