So I'm working down in my office and Kath calls. "Turn on Channel 88, the Gameshow network," she tells me. Kath, as it so happens, loves watching those old game shows from the 1970s and 80s, and in this case she had on Match Game. Usually Match Game serves as a time capsule nostalgia trip, featuring such staples as Brett Sommers, Charles Nelson Reilly, Dick Martin, and Jamie Lee Curtis.
But today's point of interest was none of the aforementioned. Instead it was the newly arrived contestant, a young woman who had just moved to Los Angeles from the midwest and was, presumably, hoping to embark upon a career as an actress.
Her name?
Kirstie Alley.
She was only there for a brief shot before the episode ended. We presume the next show with her will be at either 2:30 today or tomorrow morning at 11 AM.
I wonder whatever happened to her?
PAD
UPDATE: Okay, it wasn't the 2:30, so if they follow the air order, it'll be on tomorrow at 11 AM. I tried watching it on Youtube but it kept taking forever to load.
Posted by Peter David at August 7, 2007 11:39 AM | TrackBack | Other blogs commentingFirst thing that came to mind was "Shinbone Alley," but that's because I saw my old Spin Doctor's "Pocket Full of Kryptonite" CD just a few days ago, and that's the title of a song on the disc.
I answered "Kirstie Alley" before reading the post, except I thought "Wasn't match game before she became famous?"
Can I play for $2500 if I said "bowling alley"?
I thought "Gasoline Alley," but that's because I misread what blog I was looking at on my RSS feed.
I used to watch Match Game every day after school and I remember watching that episode when it originally aired (or during it's first repeat). It was just around the time that Wrath of Khan was released and I recognized her either from the movie or the publicity materials that were being circulated. Fun stuff.
Ah, "The Wrath of Khan". I've been a fan of hers since then. Apologies for the sidebar, but does anyone know what happened with "The Undiscovered Country"? Where did Valeris come from? Was Saavik originally supposed to be the traitor?
Crime Alley.
Wha...? You say PAD's a Marvel writer? Oops...
She became a coke addict and one of those idiot scientologists.
Surely I can't be the only one who thought "Diagon Alley."
As for this:
Apologies for the sidebar, but does anyone know what happened with "The Undiscovered Country"? Where did Valeris come from? Was Saavik originally supposed to be the traitor?
I think so. Can't cite a source offhand, but apparently, yes, the filmmakers wanted Kirstie Alley & Saavik to be the traitor character in the film, rewriting it to Kim Catrall/Valeris when that proved impossible.
Damnation Alley.
Ok, so I like good books and b-movies too much.
I've actually seen that clip before. I wanna say it was on some Dick Clark special.
No, Tommy, you weren't the only one. You beat me to it.
As the first poster, i thought "Shinbone" - but not because of the CD/song he mentioned, but because of the animated film of that title, based on Don Marquis' "archie and Mehitabel".
Eddie Bracken as archie, Carol Channing as Mehitabel.
I believe she was on at least one other game show, too. Steve Martin was also on one before anyone knew him.
Maybe it was a way for young actors to try and get some exposure.
I thought Gasoline Alley. I don't really feel that old though, so I am not sure why that was the first thing that jumped into my head.
I think so. Can't cite a source offhand, but apparently, yes, the filmmakers wanted Kirstie Alley & Saavik to be the traitor character in the film, rewriting it to Kim Catrall/Valeris when that proved impossible.
Kirstie Alley was gone long before "The Undiscovered Country." She wasn't even in "The Search for Spock" which had Robin Curtis in the role of Saavik. Don't know why the character of Saavik would have been impossible as the traitor. Apparently anyone could have played her.
Kirstie Alley was replaced after Wrath of Khan when she asked for money equal to Shatner and Nimoy to return.
After that she got drunk,e replaced Shelley Long on "Cheers", and got fat.
Back in the day many future stars did game shows.
It is well known that Tom Selleck, Mark Hamil, Jaclyn Smith, Donny Osmond, and Michael Jackson
appeared on "The Dating Game".
and as "Match Game" shows many celebs of the day were celebs because they appeard on or hosted game shows.
Jaye P. Morgan, Bert Convy, anyone?
I thought "Damnation Alley".
Then (before reading the piece), I thought: oh, wait, Peter's making some reference to the DC Comics things with the Flash's Rougues Gallery, right? "Salvation Alley"?
I'm way too much of a read-between-the-lines comics geek.
nothing came to me ,iscrolled to read the whole message..but i love watching old tv shows or movies to catch people before they became household names..yesterday i saw James Stewart in Winchester 73..had Rock Hudson playing an indian and an Anthony Curtis, in the closing credits, playing a soldier...well PAD did mention Jamie Lee Curtis.
nothing came to me ,i scrolled to read the whole message..but i love watching old tv shows or movies to catch people before they became household names..yesterday i saw James Stewart in Winchester 73..had Rock Hudson playing an indian and an Anthony Curtis, in the closing credits, playing a soldier...well PAD did mention Jamie Lee Curtis.
nothing came to me ,i scrolled to read the whole message..but i love watching old tv shows or movies to catch people before they became household names..yesterday i saw James Stewart in Winchester 73..had Rock Hudson playing an indian and an Anthony Curtis, in the closing credits, playing a soldier...well PAD did mention Jamie Lee Curtis.
Yeah, (Ubertrek geek talking here) Valeris was originally written as Saavik, and the story I've always heard was that Roddenberry didn't want it to be Saavik, so they changed it.
Yep, Saavik was originally supposed to be the traitor in ''Star Trek VI''. Nimoy talks about it in his book (''I Am Spock'') and Shatner in his (''Star Trek Movie Memories''). I think they tried to get Kirstie Alley, but she was out of their price-range, and no mention is made of Robin Curtis even being considered. Also, Gene Roddenberry announced that Saavik shouldn't be the traitor because she was a "beloved" character or something (which pissed [''Trek II/VI'' director Nick Meyer off because Roddenberry had nothing to do with the creation of the character). I think Nimoy agreed that fans wouldn't buy it, and that (more than the inavailability of Alley) led to the creation of Valeris (Kim Cattrall apparently was one of the contenders for the role of Saavik for ''Trek II'').
i thought 'diagon' alley
still on a harry potter high, indeed :)
"Diagon" Alley (dang, one-tracked mind)
I was very disappointed when I first heard that Saavik was meant to have been the traitor to the federation in ST6. It would have had so much more impact than some random redshirt (they were all redshirts in those movies) who was always a little creepy from the moment we met her. Imagine the scene where Spock smacks the phaser out of her hand with Saavik instead of Valeris - wow!
I immediately thought "Kirstie Alley." Maybe it's because my husband works for Jenny Craig.
Star Trek VI would have been better if it had been Saavik. Valeris was the obvious "red-shirt" in the movie as a new character - it made her stand out as the traitor. Fans would have been genuinely surprised by Saavik.
Kirstie Alley was also on either "Password Plus" or "Super Password." I can remember seeing footage of her in the alphabetics game they played after the contestant won a round.
Then again, a few weeks ago I saw a rerun where David Letterman was one of the "celebrity guests" on "Password whatever."
"Alex, What is BOWLING alley." How could it be anything else? Nothing else matters. Especially some "Fat Actress". :-)
Later
I was channel surfing and happened by a game show called "Russian Roulette" (or some such) and much to my surprise saw "Hurley" from Lost as a contestant. Actually, it may have been a harbinger of this to come because he lost and got dropped down a chute.
Geez, I would’ve said Tin Pan alley. I think I would’ve dated myself more than matched though because I see only one other person named that one.
This being a thread full of dark, cynical people, I thought "Blood Alley." I thought it was a film noir. Turns out it was a cheesy adventure movie where John Wayne is a steamboat captain in Shanghai who has to transport a whole village away from Communist China. Not a great film, either. May have been subconscious working after long midnight shifts.
Thank to everyone who humoured my - slightly - off-topic question, particularly Sean and D.N.
I agree with Mark & David. The revelation (and Spock's barely-contained disappointment) would've had more impact had an established character done something unexpected.
An extra special thanks (as always) to PAD for providing such a forum. This is something that's bugged me for 16 years. Thanks for the closure :-)
I also thought of "Gasoline Alley."
And yes, I agree it would've had more of an emotional impact if Saavik had been the traitor instead of the never-before-seen Valeris; but I don't agree that Valeris stood out as the traitor. At least I don't remember thinking "it's her!" when the movie came out in 1991. I watched it again few weeks ago with full knowledge of what happens, and so far as I could see, she didn't telegraph her duplicity.
I did double check the scene where Kirk is recording his log entry in his quarters, to see if Valeris had, in fact, been standing near the open door (as he later suggests) but that falls under the category of "clue" rather than a big neon sign saying "she's the one!"
Of course it would've had more of an impact if the traitor had been, say Uhura. If I remember correctly PAD brought up that idea in his BID column back when the movie came out. Perhaps he didn't mention Uhura specifically, but I believe he said something to the effect that having one of the regular characters take part in Gorkon's assassination would've had a major impact.
Would that have ever happened? Probably not. On the other hand, in the film Uhura did admit to feeling the same way Valeris did, so we know she'd have had a motive.
Rick
Watching it now on GSN. It sounds like she said she was an interior designer from Wichita, Kansas, and was in town on an assignment. Wish she'd go back to her natural hair color; the frost look is terrible. Her answer on the first question was quite good; the panel botched it good. But she still won the first round and the $500 anyway.
I, too, immediately thought of "Diagon Alley," which is weird because I've only read one Harry Potter book and seen about one and a half of the movies.
On the other hand, I've been writing what amounts to Gasoline Alley fanfic on the strip's message board for three months now...you'd think that would have come to mind first.
I was thinking Twister Alley, as apparantly a tornado hit Brooklyn.
It just struck me as funny that...
1) During the Susummer convention season...
2) On a major comic writer's blog...
3) And with the large number of comic book fans that post here...
... no one has yet come up with "artist's alley."
Like Robert Chen, I immediatelly thought of Gotham City's ignominous "Crime Alley."
After that, the phrase evoked "Alligator Alley," a classic one-shot horror story in a 1980s issue of "The Unexpected" comic book.
Man, what a geek I am.
Hal Jordan
I thought "Artist's Alley". Kirstie was in a very funny episode of "King Of Queens".
I thought "Artist's Alley". Kirstie was in a very funny episode of "King Of Queens".
Urrrrrt! Wrong answer. King of Queens has never been funny.
"...having one of the regular characters take part in Gorkon's assassination would've had a major impact."
I guess Admiral Cartwright (who had only been in one movie prior to "VI") being a traitor was as close as the film got to that notion. Heck, maybe they should've brought back Carol Marcus and revealed her as being in on the plot (revenge for the death of her son). This would have made things extra dire for Kirk.
Nightmare Alley. The Tyrone Power circus geek movie. By pure coincidence I saw it for the first time about a week ago.
Speaking of "not funny" and "Kirstie Alley", The Futon Critic has a look at her failed pilot for The Minister of Devine (based on the BBC's The Vicar of Dibley").
Details at http://www.thefutoncritic.com/rant.aspx?id=20070806
I guess when the characters are British, as in the original, it is more funny, where when you make the same character into a rural american, it is just creepy.
Lee
"Bowling alley" was my first thought, then "Dead End Alley"
Dave
My first thought was "some guy urinating in an alley."
What can I say? I was just in NYC a couple of weeks ago.
I can't be sure, but I think it was Mayor Bloomberg.
Dear Peter:
Considering that my local cable company does NOT deem the Game Show Network "worthy" of carrying, how did Kirstie Alley do on Match Game?
If they really wanted to have someone betray the Federation and make it a gut-punch to the viewer, then it should have been Scotty, Chekov, Sulu or Uhura. Not just someone we knew, but someone we loved!
A rather esoteric trivia question:
Q: What do Kirstie Alley and George Lazenby have in common?
A: They both did one movie in a popular series and then listened to agents who told them they were now Big Stars and they should either Demand More Money and/or do a Guaranteed Hit Project instead of the next installment of the series.
Crime Alley.
Because Kirstie Alley is, to me, an obscure leftover from the eighties who had a brief REAL TV comeback in the nineties before being forever relegated to the tabloids and cable television.
And to be honest... if the answer to "Complete the phrase" on a game show was "Kirstie" instead of "Bowling" Alley I'd stop watching the damn show.