Today’s Match Game Contestant Is… John Levinson!

Says John: “I’m a professional golfer, and I also teach and play bridge and backgammon. My handicap right now I think is “Johnny Miller.” I was on the tour for three years and I had to drop off. I had an operation on my hand this summer in Los Angeles and I’m going to start playing again this summer.”

Click through to see John’s total Match Game winnings.

Today’s Match Game Contestant is… Maggie Dewitt!

Says Maggie: “I’m originally from Phoenix, Arizona and now I live in beautiful Santa Barbara!  I’m a cashier clerk.  And I’ve just recently celebrated my tenth wedding anniversary to a great guy who’s sitting out there in the audience! And my hobbies are bowling, tennis, golf, and riding my motorcycle… they call me Motorcycle Mama!”

Gene: “That’s an inexpensive way to get around.”

Maggie: “You’re darn right with gas prices what they are these days!”

Click through to see Maggie’s total Match Game winnings.

Theme Song Graveyard #2: “Different Worlds” from Angie – Maureen McGovern, Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel (ABC 1979)

Fresh off her success in Saturday Night Fever and long before her turn as Evie’s mom on the syndicated Out of this World, Donna Pescow took on the title role opposite a pre-Airplane! Robert Hays in the ABC sitcom Angie.

Pescow was a working-class coffee shop waitress from an Italian family who falls in love with Hays, a blue-blooded pediatrician from the other side of the Philly tracks. Rounding out the cast of culture-clashers were Sharon Spelman as Brad’s uppity sister Joyce, Debralee Scott as Angie’s daffy, accident-prone sister Marie, and a pre-Everybody Loves Raymond Doris Roberts playing pretty much the exact same mother character she went on to win three Emmys for, but with red hair instead of gray, and no Peter Boyle sitting in a chair taking pot shots at her.

The theme song for Angie, Entitled “Different Worlds” is probably better remembered than the series itself.  It was written by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel who, individually and together, were responsbile for the themes to Wide World of Sports, Monday Night Football, Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, The Paper Chase, and Wonder Woman as well as Roberta Flack’s 1973 Grammy-winning song “Killing Me Softly with His Song.”  Sung by Maureen McGovern, the radio release of “Different Worlds” cracked the Top 40 on the Pop chart and spent two weeks at #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart, whatever the hell that is.

After a very successful first season, Angie was shifted from following Mork & Mindy on Thursday nights to following Happy Days on Tuesday nights, and failed to live up to network expectations, despite sophisticated gags like this:

After two seasons and thirty-something episodes, poor little Angie got the ax.  I would guess that viewers mourned the loss of the theme song more than the show itself.  I know I did.  I really miss television that spells everything out for you in the opening credits.

Example:

1.) Brad and Angie are perfect for each other!
2.) Brad and Angie have eccentric relatives!
3.) If birds fly near you in an open area, your outfit and all the birthday presents you just bought are ruined!
4.) It’s always sunny in Philadelphia!
5.) Balloons are pretty when they’re different colors and in a great big bunch!
6.) Women should NOT be trusted with food (Salt, apples, pretzels, roast turkey and… Ahh!!  Watch out for that wacky whipped cream cannister!)

Click below the hear “Different Worlds” and see more Angie-related shenanigans.

Click here to listen to “Different Worlds” the theme from TV’s “Angie”

“General Hospi-Tale”: Sung by The Afternoon Delights (1981)

For those of you who weren’t around in the early 1980s when daytime soaps were at their indisputable peak, The Afternoon Delights are ready to catch you up with their 1981 novelty song re-capping the happenings on the King of All Soaps, General Hospital.

My introduction to this show involved a pre-Robin Mattson Heather Webber dropping LSD into Diana Taylor’s iced tea as part of her plan to drive Diana to the mental ward and  claim for her own Diana’s baby, who was actually Heather’s biological child sold months earlier on the black market.  What Heather didn’t know was that the lazy susan the identical iced teas were sitting on was accidentally turned on when she wasn’t looking, and poor Heather ended up dosing herself.  My mind exploded at the idea that this is what grown-ups got to do with their time.  It explains a lot about my own personal life choices as an adult, but that’s a topic for another post.

The song chronicles the story lines happening in Port Charles post “Luke Rapes Laura at the Campus Disco” and pre “Remote Island Housing Evil Machine That Will Freeze the World” (as indicated by the line,“How it ends up nobody knows!”)

My favorite lyric in the song has to be “Alan was the father… of course.  And he won’t give Monica… a divorce!”  That’s followed closely by, “Amy Vining likes to blab… Richard Simmons helps fight flab!”

The bad rap and the slutty horn section just add to the fun.

Click through to hear the song for yourself

Listen to The Afternoon Delights Sing “General Hospi-tale”

Julie from My Office Didn’t Know Who Shot J.R. (R.I.P. Larry Hagman)

Julie is a bright, capable young woman. I think she’s 24 or so. She has a big future in television production, but she doesn’t know who Larry Hagman is, she has never watched an episode of Dallas in her life, and when you mention the phrase “Who Shot JR?” to her, she tilts her head like a baffled golden retriever.

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