By Annie Walker
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Robert Leland Eubanks (born January 8, 1938) is an American disc jockey, television personality and game show host, best known for hosting the game show The Newlywed Game on and off since 1966. He also hosted the successful revamp version of Card Sharks from 1986 to 1989. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his radio DJ work in 2000. It is in front of Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre, where he worked during the first years of his broadcasting career. In 2005, he received a lifetime achievement Emmy Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
THE NEWLYWED GAME AND HIS VENTURE INTO COUNTRY MUSIC
In 1966, Eubanks received a phone call from Chuck Barris, asking him to host a new game show, The Newlywed Game; the show premiered on ABC later that same year. During its debut, it was an immediate hit, and the show’s popularity led the network to expand the prime-time lineup, where it had run on the air for five years. Only 28 years old when he started hosting, Eubanks became widely popular for bringing a youthful energy to daytime television, pressing contestants into giving embarrassing and hilarious answers. The Newlywed Game was also ranked as one of the top three daytime game shows, for five consecutive seasons, between 1968 and 1973, and was ranked in the top three prime-time game shows, also for five seasons, between 1966 and 1971.
While hosting The Newlywed Game, Eubanks was known for using the catchphrase “makin’ whoopee”, in reference to sexual intercourse. It was Eubanks who borrowed the term from the song of the same name, in an attempt to keep parents with young children from having to explain the facts of life because of a television show. While the network was comfortable with the term “making love”, its Standards and Practices Department did not allow the use of the word “panties“.
While not taping, he also pursued a career in the country music business, where he served as manager of such artists as Dolly Parton, Barbara Mandrell and Marty Robbins. The same year, he also signed Merle Haggard to an exclusive live-performance contract, producing more than 100 dates per year with the performer for almost a decade.
The Newlywed Game ended in 1974, after 2195 episodes, making Eubanks one of the most viewed game show hosts to date. He also hosted various editions in syndication (1977–1980, 1985–1988 and 1997–1999). For season two of the show’s 2009 revival on GSN, Eubanks hosted a celebrity charity episode with Carnie Wilson and her husband Rob Bonfiglio playing against Carnie’s sister Wendy and her husband Daniel Knutson, and their mother Marilyn Wilson-Rutherford and her current husband Daniel Rutherford. In spring 2010, Eubanks hosted another episode of The Newlywed Game, subtitled “Game Show Kings”. It featured Monty Hall and his wife Marilyn Hall, Peter Marshall and his wife Laurie Stewart, and Wink Martindale with his wife Sandy. This made Eubanks the only person to host the same game show in six consecutive decades (1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s).
In 1988, Eubanks left The Newlywed Game to pursue other interests (though he was still hosting Card Sharks on CBS for another seven months) and was replaced by Paul Rodriguez.
In 1996, Eubanks appeared as a substitute host of Prime Time Country on The Nashville Network.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
The first Monday after Epiphany was the day for the menfolk to return to work after the holidays — although no work was actually done on this day. Dressed in clean white smocks decorated with ribbons, the men dragged a plow (plough) through the village and collected money for the “plow light” that was kept burning in the church all year. Often men from several farms joined together to pull the plow through all their villages. They sang and danced their way from village to village to the accompaniment of music. In the evening, each farmer provided a Plough Monday supper for his workers, with plentiful beef and ale for all.
Question of the Day
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
Died
- Galileo (astronomer) –
- Eli Whitney (inventor) –
- Terry-Thomas (comedian) –
- Dave Thomas (Wendy’s fast food entrepreneur) –
- Alexander Prokhorov (Russian scientist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1964 for work that led to the development of the laser) –
- Yvonne De Carlo (actress best known as Lily Munster on The Munsters) –
- Iwao Takamoto (cartoonist; created Scooby Doo) –
- Art Clokey (creator of Gumby and Pokey) –
Born
- Jonathan Belcher (Colonial governor and merchant) –
- John Carrol (founded Georgetown University) –
- Alfred Wallace (naturalist) –
- Frank Nelson Doubleday (publisher) –
- Larry Storch (actor) –
- Bill Graham (producer) –
- Elvis Presley (American entertainer ) –
- Bob Eubanks (game show host) –
- Graham Chapman (actor) –
- Stephen Hawking (physicist) –
- David Bowie (singer) –
- Jeff Francis (baseball player) –
- Gaby Hoffmann (actress) –
Events
- First State of the Union message, delivered by President George Washington–
- President George Washington delivered first State of the Union address–
- The 11th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, modifying the power of the Supreme Court, was ratified–
- First soup kitchens opened in London for the relief of the poor–
- Lewis and Clark saw a 105-foot-long whale skeleton in NW Oregon–
- Andrew Jackson defeated the British at the Battle of New Orleans (War of 1812)–
- Joseph Lister published the results of his study of antiseptic surgical methods. His use of carbolic acid to sterilize instuments and wounds trebles the survival rate of his patients–
- President Wilson delivered his Fourteen Points speech, suggesting the creation of a League of Nations–
- The Dow Jones industrial stock average passed the 2,000 mark–
- In Singapore, a barge accidentally rammed Jacques Cousteau’s Calypso, causing it to sink in the harbor (it was later raised)–
Weather
- New York City stayed below zero degrees F all day–
- Record cold hit Nevada, -50 degrees F at San Jacinto–
- January 6 to 8: A Nor’easter dumped record snow along the U.S. East Coast –
- Operation Recuperation began after ice storm hit New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec–
- 15,000+ troops began aid during a multiday ice storm in Ontario and Quebec.–
COURTESY www.almanac.com
