John Davidson!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, trust me. It's John Davidson's birthday.
And now, this humorous John Davidson exchange with a Hollywood Squares contestant:
PLAYER: I'll take Betty White.
JOHN: I'd have gone with Shadoe Stevens for the block, but maybe you have a different way of playing the game than I do.

Ya know, I would've never guessed he was that old.

That's 63, for those of you scoring at home, by the way.

Happy birthday John. HS86 was a good show though it doesn't quite hold a candle to the original Marshall version.

A left-handed compliment to be sure, but that's OK. I highly doubt John Davidson considers The Hollywood Squares to be the centerpiece of his career ;-)

Not sure if this begins in behind the scenes or not, but a curious question: Karlberg's posts are always late to show up for some reason. Chris, your quoting of his post actually appeared BEFORE his post did. Why would this be?

Slow posting times for a slow poster?

LOL, it's possible!

I actually wondered if somehow I put him on my blocked senders, or he was put there by default since a lot of people can't stand his posts ;) He didn't show up there...

No, but hugging me might be. :)

As Jack Paar would say, I kid you not. Some years ago, John Davidson was touring in a revival of the musical State Fair. Several members of the cast (including Davidson) did a promotional appearance at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago (not far from where I work). So I decided to go. I show up a few seconds late, wearing a heavy down jacket over the rest of my clothing. Davidson notices. The next thing I know, he walks off the makeshift stage and decides he's going to give me a hug (perhaps I unwittingly became the human guinea pig in a way to ingratiate JD to the crowd that had gathered). Maybe he liked my jacket. :) And to further embarrass myself, Davidson and company started combing the audience looking for volunteers to sing with them in their grand finale (enter human guinea pig--not exactly by choice). At least my singing was passable enough that Davidson nodded to me in approval.

10/25/06 EDIT: I've met a lot more game show personalities since. None were as traumatizing. :)

And yes, this is a true story (I know it sounds a little crazy [OK, a lot crazy], but I couldn't make something like this up if I tried--I'm not nearly that creative). Names have not been changed to protect the innocent. . .or the guilty. :-)

Doug

He apparently had the extreme opposite reaction with me. When I met Davidson backstage after he performed in The Music Man here, he didn't even want to sign anything -- just wanted to hand out Music Man "business cards" with his picture. I happened to be there with a family friend, who laid a guilt trip on him as only she could. :-) He then signed the back of my "Zingers from the Hollywood Squares" album, commenting "I don't even think I'm on there, am I?" I pointed out his picture and he said "Oh, that was years ago."

I'd probably still be traumatized today if he'd hugged me. :-) If there's any interest at all I'll scan the "business card" -- it's not as though there's any real info on it.

Mine were in the right order. I see that he said something at like 2:45, and then Chris responded at 3:50 and I saw what he said. (And it didn't surprise me.)

I have posted an explanation in Behind the Scenes.

Wow, Happy 63rd Birthday John!

Damn, I am probably the only one who thinks he is the better host. Ah Well. Still, have a great birthday!

How old would he be if I'm by myself? [rim shot]

That would be 9......in dog years.......[rim shot]