Dr. Kim’s Time on Password Plus

Some of you may already know that Dr. Kim was on “Password Plus” when he was (much) younger and we thought you might enjoy a glimpse of what that looked like.   Some behind-the-scenes info from Dr. Kim:

  • This clip tends to show up on YouTube periodically because of the unusual swapping of the host with the guest celebrity, in this case Tom Kennedy and Jack Narz. In fact, Tom and Jack were brothers and Jack was also a game show host so it wasn’t that hard a transition for them to make.
  • The show was about to be cancelled—as a matter of fact, this was the next to last week it would be aired. This is probably why they felt the freedom to make the switch in the first place.
  • I really wanted to win so I could get to the last week of the show because the guests were Tom Poston and Audrey Landers. (Hey, I was a single twenty-something year old guy.)
  • The set was actually constructed with really intensely vivid colors—it took a while to get used to when you first walked in. The whole studio was dark except for the gaudy intense colors on the set which was brightly lit.  I guess that’s what they had to do for TV back then.
  • The main set was covered with shag carpeting, and you can occasionally see me wiping my hands on the table surface because I was pretty nervous.
  • Like almost all game shows, Password Plus taped a week’s worth of shows (5 episodes) in one day to reduce the time commitment of the celebrities. If you won on a “Friday” episode, you’d go home and come back 3 – 4 weeks later to tape the next “week” with a new pair of stars.  This was tough for those contestants who lived out of town (Fran lived in Chicago) but not for me because I lived only about 20 mins away!
  • The stars change clothes between each show. The contestants don’t, so with any given pair of celebrities, I’m always wearing the same clothes.  Thank goodness this clip doesn’t show the horrendous sweater I wore the previous “week”!  (If you find it on YouTube, I plead insanity—on the part of the person who bought it for me!)
  • I was on the show for almost three weeks and got to play with:
    • The aforementioned Jack Narz–easygoing guy, very engaging, made you feel extremely comfortable—guess that’s a good quality for a game show host to have!
    • Betty White—was as pleasant and upbeat as her reputation. She really enjoys the game and is very good at it!
    • Lynn Redgrave—was there primarily to promote her new sitcom and didn’t know the game very well, but was extremely nice and down to earth. Her lack of knowledge about American pop culture, especially sports, became a running gag (“Is it the ‘Boston Steelers’?”).
    • Steven Ford—son of then-President Ford’s son and an actor on a soap opera (“The Young and the Restless”?). He seemed to feel a little out of his element, but was very good natured about it.
    • Dick Martin—energetic and you could tell he was comfortable with the entire staff. It was almost like he was the regular star for the show because I guess he had been there so often everybody knew him.  He kept teasing me about how young I was (“You don’t know what ‘gams’ are?!”)
    • Regis Philbin—Mama taught me that if you can’t say something nice about someone, then don’t say anything at all, so……..Regis Philbin.
  • My friends and pretty much everyone I knew thought I was a total idiot for bringing up the fact that someone in the audience had blurted out the answer. Basically, they felt there was “no harm, no foul” since I already knew the answer was “Fish and Chips.”  It ultimately cost me the game and the chance at the “big money” (Alphabetics), but at least my Mom was proud of me!

Click here to see a clip from the show

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