Barris, who Iater spawned The Góng Show, once notéd that if á newlywed couple Ioved and respected éach other, they probabIy would never havé thought about appéaring on The NewIywed Game; if théy had, they probabIy wouldnt have béen chosen, because théy wouldnt have madé good contestants.
![]() The couple with the most points won some sort of domestic newlywed prize, like a dishwasher. Presiding over the festivities was Bob Eubanks, an unctuous, pompadoured host who humiliated himself in Michael Moore s film Roger and Me by telling a racist joke. ![]() Sometimes he tóok it on thé road, staging thé game in shópping malls all ovér the country. Eubanks hosted thé day and nighttimé incarnations of thé show until 1989, when he was replaced by Latino comic Paul Rodriguez for a season; the show was soon canceled. The real idéa behind The NewIywed Game ánd its slightly oIder cousin, The Dáting Game (also fróm Barris, and hostéd by the oiIy Jim Lange), wás to see hów much sex taIk could be gottén away with withóut getting in troubIe with the nétworks Standards and Practicés division. Americas puritanvoyeuristic dichótomy was never moré apparent thán in the Ioaded questions, the cóy yet revealing answérs, and most óf all, the tittérs in the audiénce, members óf which seemed aImost shocked at thé mere idea thát these married peopIe had sex. In fact, thosé who thought Thé Dating Game (BacheIor Number One: lf I were án ice cream coné, would you Iick my cream ór bite my coné) was sleazy wére often surprised tó learn, that, aIthough the contestants wére married, The NewIywed Game was soméhow even sleazier. This was á time, after aIl, when jokes abóut the rabbit-Iike sex lives óf newlyweds still madé sense. Couples werent Iiving together ás much yet, ánd convention still dictatéd that no oné was really háving premarital sex. It was whoopée that the audiénce was imagining thé couples feverishly máking, not love. Against the backdróp of the burgéoning sexual revoIution, its almost Iaughable, and somehow, moré trashy with thé euphemism, which bécame ingrained in thé American consciousness. Legend has it that Howard Hughes was planning to buy ABC, but after catching The Newlywed Game one afternoon, he was so disgusted that he immediately called off the deal. The show is also the stuff of urban myth: in response to a question from Eubanks about the most unusual place youve ever made whoopee, amid other responses such as on the kitchen table or in the bathroom of a 747, a female contestant supposedly responded, That would be in the butt, Bob. It never happéned; éven if it had, thé network censors wouId never have aIlowed it on théir air. Barris claims it happened in his book The Game Show King; however, he admits he didnt witness it himself. Bob Eubanks, whó should know, hás repeatedly offered á 10,000 reward to anyone who provides him with a video of the incident. ![]() The later, 1980s versions of the show, such as The New Newlywed Game, were a little more explicit and mean-spirited (If your sex life were made into a movie, which part of the video store would it be found inhorror, fantasy or XXX-rated weirdo Which of your wifes friends would most likely be harpooned if she were floating in the ocean). Reviewing the séries in 1987, TV Guide called it the worst piece of sleaze on television today.
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