Almost Anything Goes
The current revival of “Battle Of The Network Stars” has made me think of a TV show from the mid-1970s that I’m surprised no one has tried to revive: “Almost Anything Goes.” I looked online to see if I could find clips on YouTube, but I could not find any clips from the first U.S. version of the show, which was my favorite. I did find this newspaper ad online:
This was a fun game show. Each episode featured three teams of players, each representing a different small town (with populations 20,000 or less, according to Wikipedia) from around the U.S. There were no monetary prizes; the teams were competing exclusively for civic pride. They would play a series of silly picnic-style games, sometimes involving running around in foam-rubber costumes, sliding down a slide trying not to spill a mug of root beer, and so on. There was a tournament-style format, building towards a championship at the end of the season.
I find out from Wikipedia that it was based on a British TV show, “It’s A Knockout,” which started almost a decade earlier and lasted more than half a decade later.
This was introduced in the summer of 1975 as a replacement series — even today, networks tend to like cheap reality programming in the summer months, when viewership is lower. It proved so popular that it was picked up as a mid-season replacement in early 1976, although it didn’t last too long. It was followed later by a Saturday morning children’s version (hosted by Soupy Sales!) and a syndicated celebrity version (not unlike “Battle Of The Network Stars,” come to think of it). I didn’t like either of the spinoffs nearly as well as the original.
I was too young to have ever seen Joey Bishop’s late night talk show, so “Almost Anything Goes” was my first exposure to Regis Philbin, who served as the sideline reporter, interviewing the players before or after games. There were two play-by-play announcers who I think were actual sportscasters.
I recall it being a fun show, and the small-town civic pride angle gave it a feel-good aspect. I think they usually had some sort of little pre-taped profile of each of the small towns. With the trend over the past 20 years of non-scripted and game-show programming in prime time, I’m surprised it hasn’t been revived.
