I remember watching Celebrity Bowling when it aired on the weekends and sometimes late at night on Channel 9 in New York before moving to Minnesota in 1972. To me, for someone who grew up watching the Pro Bowlers Tour on Saturday afternoons, it was enlightening and entertaining to see the stars bowl in order to win prizes for studio audience members. Jed Allan was outstanding as host. He interacted well with the celebrities and he even bowled in one episode when he traded places with guest Robert Lansing.
Celebrity Bowling beat the odds of a syndicated game show without a network track record lasting longer than a season. It was also known for its rigorous taping schedule where the entire season of 26 shows were taped over a three to five day period in order to cut costs. The show was also the first success for Seven-Ten Productions, who later went on to produce Celebrity Tennis, which lasted shorter than its bowling counterpart.
My only beef with Celebrity Bowling was that a lot of the games skipped one or two of the late frames because of the time to describe the prizes for audience players. Otherwise, Celebrity Bowling rolled a strike for bowling fans who enjoyed watching top stars in a popular participation sport. It's worth rerunning on a cable channel someday.
