Celebrating a Deathday™: Game show producer extraordinaire Mark Goodson died on this day December 18, 1992. A graduate
of the University of California Berkeley, Goodson got his start in San
Francisco as a disc jockey — generally a stepping stone to being an alcoholic
arsewipe rather than a television mogul — and later teamed with Bill Todman in
New York City, where the two began their astounding, decades-long run of
successful Goodson-Todman™ productions. Their popular, if cornball, shows,
included “Family Feud,” “Beat The Clock,” “Card Sharks” and “Password,” along
with “The Price is Right,” “The Sets are Cheap,” “The Contestants are Idiots”
and “The Host is a Bit of a Douchebag" “To Tell The Truth.” Oh and “Match
Game,” which brought the likes of Gene Rayburn (pictured here), Charles Nelson
Reilly and Brent Summers into America’s living rooms, where they descended upon
the liquor cabinets with great gusto and a tremendous thirst. Even if you
dislike game shows — which would make you a bloody communist — you have to admit
that Mark Goodson and his partner enjoyed a rather remarkable run. During
1970’s, “A Mark Goodson-Bill Todman production” was as familiar a television
expression as “A Quinn Martin® production,” “This has been a Filmways™
Presentation, darling” and “Ward, you were awfully rough on the beaver last
night.” No word whether Goodson was, in fact, a good son — haha! — but at various
times in his life he was known to be a Goodfriend, a Goodcatch, even a
Goodboss, if occasionally a Lousyhusband, an Absenteefather and an absolute
Sonofabitch. A year after his death, notoriously abandoned child actor Macauley
Culkin starred in a movie entitled “The Good Son,” which was not, in fact, a
story about the recently deceased Goodson, which seemed a cruel trick to the family.
There’s also a book entitled “The Good Son,” based on the life of boxer Ray
“Boom Boom” Mancini, who’s likely made a celebrity game show appearance in his
lifetime, for whatever that’s worth. Very little, I imagine. On a final,
personal note, I’m proud to say that our new station house web offering, “IGNORANUS” is itself “A Mark Goodson-Bill Todman
Production” and we endeavor to do right by this good and game man for ponying
up a few posthumous quid to “Kickstart” our effort in its infancy. Happy Anni-hearse-ary™
to Mark Goodson, who entered his final “lightning round” on this day.
