TV & Showbiz

Scalzi’s Weekend Assignment #112

Photodune

Last Updated on July 16, 2016

This past weekend’s assignment from John Scalzi of “By The Way” was an interesting one:

Show off a personal possession of yours that you are reasonably certain other people don’t have.

Well, I have an item that is not only something most people wouldn’t have, but most probably wouldn’t care about having one, either. But to me, it’s pretty cool.

First, you have to know that I’m a game show fan. My long-time readers are already well aware of this fact, and may well be bored with my mention of game shows. But my favorite game show is “The Price is Right.” The image of Bob Barker, who at 82 is still very active and apparently nowhere near retirement from the 34-year-old show, dates back to about 1987 or so.

I will assume that there are enough of you who are sufficiently familiar with ‘Price’ so that any elaborate explanation of the game itself would be unnecessary.

My second favorite game show was the 1970s edition of “Match Game,” hosted by the late Gene Rayburn. This image of him dates back to some time between 1975 and early 1978.

“Match Game” was a show with six celebrity panelists, including such 70s game show fixtures as Betty White, Fannie Flagg, Dick Martin and Nipsey Russell. Regulars on the show included Brett Somers, Charles Nelson Reilly, and Richard Dawson. The premise was simple: Rayburn would ask a fill-in-the-blank question, the six celebrities would write their answers, and the contestants would have to give answers that they felt would match the most celebrities. Reruns of this show, incidentally, can be found several times per day on GSN.

So back to the assignment. What’s the item? Well, you see it in both images. In fact, it’s about the only thing both images have in common. If you guessed that strange-looking, skinny little microphone, you’re right.

For the benefit of other television game show geeks out there, it’s a Sony ECM-51. The design was unique for its time: they basically took a small microphone, the ECM-50, that was used as a lavalier model, the kind that television hosts could clip on their tie or lapel, mounted it on the end of a telescoping wand, and had a microphone that appeared on many game shows throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

As you can see, Barker prefered to use the microphone fully collapsed. He used this type of microphone from the very first day of “The Price is Right” in 1972 well into the late 1980s. The microphone he now uses is a different model, but is still of a relatively similar design.

Rayburn, on the other hand, prefered to use the microphone fully extended. He had once studied fencing, and perhaps the long microphone reminded him of his fencing sword. Unfortunately for audio engineers at CBS Television City, where both shows taped, Rayburn liked to wave the micrphone wildly, and this could break tiny contacts inside the wand. I’m told by a reliable source that technicians at CBS came to despise those microphones and mostly because of Rayburn’s antics that required many repairs.

In the later few years of “Match Game,” they took a long metal tube that could not be telescoped, mounted a mic at the end of it, and made him use their new creation, satisfied that they wouldn’t have to do any more surgery on the delicate models upon which he wreaked so much havoc.

Many diehard game show fans are always on the lookout for items like this, because, though most of them would never admit it, it gives us a chance to pretend that we’re Barker (or Rayburn) or any of the other countless hosts who used this microphone in the heyday of game shows.

In fact, sharp-eyed observers will note that Wink Martindale uses one of these microphones when he spoofs game shows in the current series of commercials for Orbitz.

So that’s my unusual posession that I’m guessing not many other people have.

So what’s the sadder fact? That I actually spent time finding one of these rare items, or that I admit to having actually obtained one?

the authorPatrick
Patrick is a Christian with more than 30 years experience in professional writing, producing and marketing. His professional background also includes social media, reporting for broadcast television and the web, directing, videography and photography. He enjoys getting to know people over coffee and spending time with his dog.

1 Comment

  • Cool! I don’t think either is a sad fact…LOL. We all have certain interests, your just happens to be gameshow memorabilia. That makes you unique and interesting. :)We wouldn’t get to see that, if you hadn’t shared it with us. 😉

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