Tattletales

The late Burt Convy hosted this pitiful 'game show' where no actual 'every day contestants' are featured. Three panelists comprised of 'has-been' celebrities would sit behind a podium with a television set built into it that would screen their spouse's face from a room off to the side of the set. Their spouse would wear a set of headphones as Burt Convy would ask the panelists ridiculous questions regarding their personal lives, such as their likes, dislikes and of course their sex life.

The object of the game was to have the panelist match their spouse's response to the question, much like the format in "THE NEWLYWED GAME". While that show pitted everyday strangers against one another in the hope of making a 'love connection', "TATTLETALES" relies on its washed-up celebrities to make the most of their time on the show to make fools out of themselves by asking them ludicrous questions followed by some sort of claptrap response. Regular panelists would include Zsa Zsa Gabor, Joan Collins and Phyllis Diller - ALL of whom would go on to divorce their 'spouses' featured on the show.

The audience members were split into three separate colors - red, yellow and blue. Whichever panelist and spouse answered the most correct questions would ultimately win a small amount of money which would be distributed among members of the audience, depending on what color they happened to be wearing.

Overall, of the rare times I did happen to catch this show, the panelists always appeared to look quite bored or angry at themselves for agreeing to participate in the antics of this muddled game show (think of Richard Dawson on "MATCH GAME PM"). I was quite surprised that "TATTLETALES" lasted four seasons... but then again, it WAS the 70's.

This was an extremely funny game show and my favorite at the time. The guest panelists included Bob Newhart, Don Rickles, and Dick Martin of Rowan & Martin among many others. The answers to questions asked by host Burt Convy were often hilarious! A totally enjoyable half hour!

The description of the show has already been written about so I'm not going to repeat it here.

I used to watch Tattletales when it was first on but not everyday - I was a kid. A few months ago, our cable company added the BUZZR channel which is all old game shows from "What's my Line?" to "Let's Make a Deal" to "Tattletales", etc.

For the first few days, I didn't change the channel - watching the game shows brought back so many good memories.

Tattletales is one of my favorite shows on the channel. (It seems every other game show was hosted by Bert Convy!) The people on the show looked so loose, everyone there seemed to be having fun - I just love it.

Way back, I took all of the shows for granted. Now, while I am thankful for what is on BUZZR, I've noticed many of the shows that I watch are one year only such as "Match Game '78" so there are a lot of reruns already for most of the shows, if not all. I hope other years of these game shows are added plus adding other shows to their network such as Tic Tac Dough. (Yes, I'm greedy!)

Back to "Tattletales" - From the tacky green fake grass look on the set to the outfits worn then to hearing a bit about the celebrities lives, I love it all now. (One thing I do is look up the celebrities to see if they stayed married to their spouse from the show).

It's kind of bittersweet, though, to watch all of the old game shows. I look at the celebrities and so many are gone or very old. On shows such as Tattletales, they were young and vibrant. Even the hosts such as Bert Convy - gone... but, on the other hand, we're lucky to have them on video. And Tattletales was/is funny.

I believe there was something in the credits that, while the contestants didn't have the questions, they were interviewed about certain subjects in general so I think that's why the celebrities were so quick at the buzzer.

Funny, I had forgotten about this little gem from my early adult years when it appeared again recently on one of the oldies TV cable channels which have sprouted up. Hosted by Bert Convy, the perfect man for this job, the show featured three celebrity couples competing on behalf of their slice of the studio audience. There were two types of questions used, in retrospect the ones that worked best were asked to each couple. The guys might answer while the wives off stage were turned off, then the wives came in on little TVs below their husbands and answered - if they matched they won money for their audience. It plays better than it sounds, I mean, where else can you find out whether Abe Vigoda thinks that the attractiveness of your partner adds to your romantic pleasure? (So bizarre and traumatic a TV moment that I recall it vividly some 40 years later) The review here that talks about washed up stars is off, at the time these were generally legit celebrities, including Stiller & Meara, always great. It probably won't work for someone under 40 but I have enjoyed tuning in.

Watching today and it made me very angry. The bit about sooooooooooo many husbands who cheat on their wives. Well I have 4 things to point out! 1) I have been married twice. The first one lasted only 4 years and I will give you three guesses why!!!!!! 2) My second marraige has lasted 35 as of last July 18thwith NOBODY cheating! 3) Between marraiges I had someone I thought was specaisl till I found out she was married. 4) When a married man does cheat does he turn homosexual? I highly doubt it! So it is women the men cheat with so why aren't the women partly responcible as I would doubt none of knew! And if all these women who cheat with married men get pregnant so what they can just murder the HELPLESS humman, and this bullsh.. about ot not being human show me one time when a woman goes full term and produces a toaster!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!