Dream Girl of '67

There were two distinct memories I have of this program, with both happening during the same episode.

As I recall, the male judges sat at an unassuming table - about 5 or 6 feet long. You could see their entire body as they sat behind the table. During one episode, there was a young contestant that was probably the sexiest girl I had ever seen in my young life. Shortly after introducing the contestant, the program went to commercial, and upon returning, the judging table now featured a table cloth draped over the table in a way that blocked the TV audience's view of the judges' lower body. It was obvious to me why the cloth had been added.

I was really interested to see whether the sexy girl would win that particular day's episode when the broadcast was suddently interrupted with a news report of the start of the Six Day War in Israel (June 1967).

I never did find out whether she won, and that memory has been with me for over 55 years.

I remembered this program on the ABC network, and I was enchanted (for lack of a better word)with the theme song. But I was even more enchanted was those really beautiful and sexy women that appeared right before I had to go to kindergarten! As I was growing up in Oklahoma, so many of us were thinking that those girls from California are really just something. During the 1970's, there was a special (that was syndicated) that was titled Dream Girl, and the host was Ken Howard. I just wondered if there were other specials that was titled Dream Girl. As many of you know, Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity has as their sweetheart the Dream Girl ball.

This was a short-lived attempt at placing a beauty pageant program in the context of a regular daytime game show - a sort of early American Idol format without the focus on talent. Aired in mid-afternoon on, as I recall, ABC-TV, it really represented little more than filler on the last-rated national television network at the time. ("Batman" was ABC's only real hit in that era.) That it was little more than eye-candy pap is strongly suggested by the fact that in its one year run it had no fewer than three regular hosts.

Possibly its most memorable moment had nothing to do with the show itself. On August 25, 1967, this viewer was killing a bit of summer vacation before sixth grade classes began in a fortnight, watching the show in Falls Church, Virginia, when the local Washington, D.C. network affiliate broke in on Wink Martindale to give a news bulletin that American Nazi Party founder George Lincoln Rockwell had been slain while pulling out of the parking lot of an Arlington, Virginia laundramat by a disaffected follower, a location only five miles from my home.

Aside from this singular event, I doubt that I would have any recollection of the program, which died a deserved death at the end of the only season it was aired.

I remember the show being on about 2:30pm ET and I watched each day after school to see if I could pick the winner (mind you I was 12 at the time!) On Friday you'd watch to see if one of the girls you picked during the week became the weekly winner. An interesting concept to engage viewership back then. If you were a fan of beauty pageants, you probably would have liked Dream Girl '67. If I'm not mistaken, a few of the competitors went on to some degree of notoriety when it was over. It's hard to find episodes of the show and I'm glad someone remembers it besides me!:)