I didn't know that Fannie Flagg wrote the novel Fried Green Tomatoes, which she adapted to the 1991 movie of the same name. This is one of my all time favorite movies.
I've been pleasantly surprised by how much I like Don on the panel. This is his third week (of only four), but he fits in really well, plays the game decently, and I love how he and Brett get along - they have a chemistry like they've been friends for ages. All in all, he's a solid panelist, and if he didn't have other things to do, he would've made a great fifth-seat fill-in or even replacement after Richard's departure.
H/H match update: ... ~~~Today's action: An easy second victory for our champion, with Charles providing the winning match. *Today's audience match question: "My Old________"* (My thoughts: School, Man, Lady) The celebs: Richard (Pal), Patty (Lady), Brett (Flame) The choice: Lady (Huh. Second time in a row that she chose Richard first but didn't take his suggestion.) The answers: Man, Kentucky Home, Lady Wow, no one seems more surprised than Patty! I think this was another sort-of-difficult audience match question, but our champ aced it again. She chose Betty last time and matched for 5K, will she pick Betty again, or go with Patty? (I'm kind of hoping she could score a match with Patty and finally break this long streak where we've seen no new celebs score a H/H match since Rosemary Forsyth became the 38th celebrity to do so back in episode 949.) Huh? Richard... I wonder why? Well, he's had two questions off, so I guess he's rested up. His most recent mega-streak of 70 consecutive H/H attempts began after Fannie played in episode 1132 and ended when Betty was called on in episode 1200. (Since then he's watched Betty play again in 1205, and then Brett in 1206, and most recently Dick Martin in 1209, Don Sutton in 1212, and Betty again in 1213.) Stats: Richard has matched 161 of his 366 most recent attempts (44.0%), 100 of his last 226 attempts (44.2%), 39 of his past 91 attempts (42.9%), and 22 of his past 49 attempts (44.9%). His overall success rate is *42.6%* and this is his 844th attempt so far. For the sake of comparison: Betty has matched 21 of her 41 attempts (51.2%), Charles has matched 34 of his 70 attempts (48.6%), Brett has matched 31 of her 72 attempts (43.1%), and Richard has matched 359 of his 843 attempts (42.6%). Patty Duke Astin has had two attempts without a match, and Don Sutton has answered one H/H question without a match so far. *Today's H/H question: "Bathroom________"* (Break? Fixture? Sink? Door? Yuck. Nothing sounds very good. I'll just say bathroom break.) Now I don't feel quite so dumb. Richard is scratching his head too, and looking to Betty for some inspiration or suggestions. He's shaking his head and looking towards both Betty and Patty, as if really lost for a good answer today. Meanwhile, the contestant still seems to be contemplating. The camera cuts back to Richard, and I thought he was about to file his card, but instead he turns it over and shakes his head and looks toward Patty again before poising his pen as if he's about to write something else, but he doesn't, and he seems to file the card he'd just turned over. It's unusual for Richard to take so long to come up with his answer. Our champion doesn't look confident in the least. She offers "Key." Yeah, at least now, a lot of restaurants have bathroom keys that you have to ask for (at least the places that don't have a keypad lock), but was that the case back in 1978? I don't really remember bathroom keys being a big thing then, but who knows. Maybe at gas stations? Well, the audience hates that answer for what it's worth (not much, because it's up to Richard). Richard rattles off a few decent choices I hadn't thought of: Scales, tissue, humor... but he settled on "Rug"???!!! (To me that's the worst of the answers he suggested.) In retrospect, I'd say "Bathroom Tissue" is the best answer. No H/H match today. ~~~Here's our updated leader board showing the 11 celebs with at least 3 H/H matches, ranked by accuracy: (An asterisk before a celebrity's name signifies that she has "retired" from the show and her H/H stats are now complete.) (For tied scores, I consider the one with the greater number of matches to be higher; if the matches are equal, the celeb who first achieved that score goes on top.) Orson Bean - 100% (4 matches in 4 attempts). TIE: (*)Jo Anne Worley - 75% (3 matches in 4 attempts). TIE: Joyce Bulifant - 75% (3 matches in 4 attempts). Gary Burghoff - 71.4% (5 matches in 7 attempts). Betty - 51.2% (21 matches in 41 attempts). Charles - 48.6% (34 matches in 70 attempts). Fannie - 48.5% (16 matches in 33 attempts). (*)Jo Ann Pflug - 44.4% (8 matches in 18 attempts). Brett - 43.1% (31 matches in 72 attempts). Richard - 42.5% (359 matches in 844 attempts). Bert Convy - 33.3% (5 matches in 15 attempts). *These stats include every head-to-head match from episode 1 through 1214, excluding the missing/damaged/unavailable episodes: 31, 32, 33, 311, 312, 313, 324, 325, 645, 910, 1024, 1025, 1026, 1027, 1028, 1029, and 1030. *Also, note that episode 849 was never produced. (These stats do, however, include the H/H results of missing episode 968 as those results were revealed in episode 969. Note: There was no H/H in missing episode 1035, as we learn in 1036.)
Gene Rayburn actually gave away the answer, "Sun tan", after he read the question when he started talking to Don Sutton. I'm surprised the contestant didn't pick up on it. The question should have been voided, however.
How about that. There's Hall of Fame pitcher Don Sutton, who played for the Dodgers, Astros, Brewers and Angels. He was on the Atlanta Braves' broadcast team, too. He once was on the NBC baseball broadcast team with Joe Garagiola and Tony Kubek during the 1979 NLCS.
Interesting that the subject of many of the questions from this era, Jimmy Carter, is still alive (as of Sep 2023) while the entire panel and the host have passed on.
Ha, I was just about to add this comment myself. I was waiting for Gene to get through the panel and admonish them for not thinking of “chopsticks”, and was shocked when this didn’t happen.
Paula Niles - I agree - I used to think it was ok with the celebrities- they can fight back. But for the first time, I really think he went too far with both contestants. The producers should never have allowed that. At the very least they should have banned this episode.
I've read a number of her books. I enjoy them. They're entertaining and fast-paced and the characters all seem so vivid and realistic (even though a lot of them are "quite the character").
She lost with saint Richard, YAAAAY. She wins $5000 with Betty last episode. Patty gives her the $500 answer on THIS episode, and yet she picks saint Richard
Patty didn't give her lady, Richard did lol Patty looked panicked until Richard whispered an answer in her ear! Although I do agree that I would have gone with Betty again.
Those in the comments who are whining about Gene's "Dr Wong" accent being racist are probably the same individuals who, hypocritcally, laugh their butts off at the stereotyping that is in Family Guy, The Simpsons, South Park, and American Dad. Gene, unlike those shows, doesn't have mean intent.
As a host of a game show, he should appear impartial to the contestants, treating them with equal courtesy and giving them equal time. He physically blocked the champion from the camera for quite a while when he draped himself over the contestants' box and spent way too long goofing off with her and touching her. Although I'm sure Gene was just goofing around and trying to be funny, I think that as a game show host, this was a fail on his part. (Perhaps he could have done a bit of it when/if she'd won the game and it was just her standing beside him at the Super-Match. At least then it wouldn't have seemed like a slight to another contestant, but doing it right there in front of the champion to the point of hiding the champion from the camera shot wasn't a great idea.)
@@MooncricketsInc Steven has a right to his opinion about the accent. I’m Italian and I’ve jokingly been called Dago, Wop, etc. and the accent Gene does for Italians is funny and does not offend ME. But I’ll be damned if it isn’t okay that other people are offended - We all have different feelings. And Steven is right about Gene pushing himself on the contestant - that was painful to watch.
@@mlg1948 He can bitch and complain all he wants, I really don't care. I'm just here to make fun of offended cunts like him. Luckily, there's a lot of people like him watching this show, so it makes for even more entertainment.
