"The Dating Game"

"The Dating Game"
December 30, 1980
B

OK, technically The Dating Game didn't start until December 20, 1965 and I'm pretty sure it didn't air live, but in this universe it apparently has been on long enough for the girls to want to audition, and to watch it with tin foil as those two "edible bachelors" Lenny and Squiggy appear.  I think even at the time I knew that this, written by Al Aidekman, was one of the highlights of Season Six and it holds up well, although Rhonda and sadly Frank and Edna are kind of pointless in their scenes.

Luckily, the guest cast delivers and works well with McKean & Lander, who are definitely in the zone.  Frank Ashmore, a couple years after he played an idealized version of Dr. Bob Hartley, here is the smooth, handsome Bachelor #1, Bob Gatenby, who can't believe who the competition is.  Ilene Graff, when she was still playing bubbly, not-that-dumb-blondes on shows like Mork & Mindy and Three's Company, before she got mom-ized on Mr. Belvedere (something similar happened to Joanna Kerns), is Monique.  And a game-to-parody-himself Jim Lange has to manage the chaos without succumbing to it too much, as he does when Squiggy gives him dance lessons.  (Meanwhile Lenny is doing everything from the Charleston to something out of a Charlie Brown Christmas.)


Bachelor #2, Lenny, either has stagefright or he's suffering his occasional shyness with girls, because at first he has trouble even saying hello.  Bachelor #3 has no trouble with that.  In fact, he comes up with all kinds of answers, some of which get "bleeped out" with cuckoo noises.  Lenny, who his introduction tells us "enjoys Squiggy," praises his best friend when asked to describe him, something like "some women say that in a dark alley with no clothes on, he resembles a young Jack LaLanne."  Lenny's "best" answer is to the question about what the most romantic word is, "Lint," and when Monique questions it, he asks, "Have you never been in love?"

She of course chooses Bachelor #3, to #1's baffled disgust and #2's devastation.  Good friend that Squiggy is, he calls Monique a harlot and a trollop.  She threatens to sue if she has to go out with him.  So he chooses Lenny as his date to Acapulco and they're both excited about going to France.  Meanwhile, the poor girls are getting obscene phone calls because Squiggy gave their full names when making up a hot double date with them and Lenny in the Tunnel of Love.  And they find out that they could've watched the show on Sonny & Carmine's TV, which works fine.  Then again, the girls' way of watching television looks like more fun.

Sonverne shipping note, when Laverne accuses Sonny of only watching Monique on the show, he says Laverne is the only woman he looks at.  She seems a little possessive considering they just started going out, but then again, who knows how much time has passed in California?

Penny Marshall directed again and, yes, she's good with the more Squiggish episodes.