For the past several months, Donna and I have been revisiting episodes of WHAT'S MY LINE? at dinner time, but we recently broke our pattern to enjoy some classic episodes of PASSWORD. Here's a treat from March 5, 1964 (see above)...
The celebrity players are Paula Prentiss (plugging the bound-for-immortality MAN'S FAVORITE SPORT?) and Anthony Perkins (who's plugging future hard-to-see cult item THE FOOL KILLER). But they are promoting these films by being themselves, in competition, not by talking them up - and you come away at the end feeling like you've spent some real time with them, gaining a better appreciation for who they are, or were, as real people. Perkins particularly comes across as friendly, worldly, and also fiercely competitive.
The earlier 9/16/63 episode with Perkins and Carol Burnett (see below) is particularly interesting, with surprising revelations of their past sharing of a theatrical dressing room without ever meeting, and Perkins getting into a dispute with host Allen Ludden, who rightly forbids "a certain four-letter word" ("pimp") as a prompter for "gigolo." At another point in the episode, Perkins offers "mescaline" as a clue for "drugs" in a lightning round!
There are several Anthony Perkins PASSWORD episodes to be found on YouTube, so check 'em out.
(c) 2019 by Tim Lucas. All rights reserved.
