TVXOHOF 2025 FRIDAY FAREWELL - WINK MARTINDALE

Sadly, Prime-Time marches on for another member of the League of Themselves.  And these last two years have hit game show hosts hard….

From NPR:
LOS ANGELES — Wink Martindale, the genial host of such hit game shows as "Gambit" and "Tic-Tac-Dough" who also did one of the first recorded television interviews with a young Elvis Presley, has died. He was 91.  

Martindale died Tuesday at Eisenhower Health in Rancho Mirage, California, according to his publicist Brian Mayes.

Martindale had been battling lymphoma for a year.  

"He was doing pretty well up until a couple weeks ago," Mayes said by phone from Nashville.

WINK MARTINDALE

From Wikipedia:
Winston Conrad "Wink" Martindale (December 4, 1933 – April 15, 2025) was an American disc jockey, radio personality, game show host, and television producer. He was best known for having hosted 'Gambit' from 1972 to 1976 (and again from 1980 to 1981), 'Tic-Tac-Dough' from 1978 to 1985, 'High Rollers' from 1987 to 1988, and 'Debt' from 1996 to 1998.

Martindale's first break into television was at WHBQ-TV in Memphis, as the host of 'Mars Patrol', a science-fiction themed children's television series. At his tenure with WHBQ, Martindale became the host of the TV show 'Teenage Dance Party', where his friend Elvis Presley made an appearance on June 16, 1956. Following Presley's death in 1977, Martindale aired a nationwide tribute radio special in his honor.

Martindale's first game-show hosting job was on the show 'What's This Song?', which he hosted for NBC (credited as "Win Martindale") from 1964 to 1965. From 1970 to 1971, he hosted a similar song-recognition game show, 'Words and Music', again on NBC. His first major success came in 1972, when he took the emcee position on a new CBS game show, 'Gambit'. He spent four years hosting the original 'Gambit' and later hosted a Las Vegas-based revival for 13 months in 1980–81.

The emcee role for which Martindale is most widely known is on 'Tic-Tac-Dough'. He was tapped by Barry & Enright Productions to host the revived series in 1978 and stayed until 1985, presiding over one of the more popular game shows of the day. Coincidentally, Martindale died one day after the revival of 'Tic-Tac-Dough' premiered on Game Show Network, which occurred on April 14, 2025. While hosting 'Tic-Tac-Dough', Martindale (along with fellow game show hosts Art James, Jack Clark, and Jim Perry) made a cameo appearance in the 1980 TV movie "The Great American Traffic Jam" in a scene where the quartet played golf.

Martindale died from lymphoma at a hospital in Rancho Mirage, California, on April 15, 2025, at the age of 91.

Here are the roles for which his fictional televersion qualified to become a member of the TVXOHOF….

We'll begin with a listing of the game shows which he hosted....
HIGH ROLLERS 
WHAT'S THIS SONG? 
HEADLINE CHASERS   
WORDS AND MUSIC 
TRIVIAL PURSUIT 
DREAM GIRL OF '67 
CAN YOU TOP THIS? 
NEW TIC TAC DOUGH 
HOW'S YOUR MOTHER-IN-LAW? 
YOU DON'T SAY 
INSTANT RECALL 
LAS VEGAS GAMBIT 
CARD SHARKS

Without several of these game shows, Wink Martindale would probably never have been given the chance to appear in Toobworld as his fictional televersion.  (At least not enough times to qualify him for Hall membership.) 

But just hosting a TV game show isn't enough to qualify for membership in the Hall; there are plenty of his game shows which I'm not including as significant; but they do add flavor to his tally.  

However, the following game shows were either seen or mentioned in other TV shows, giving them fictional televersions as well.  (Whether Wink showed up in those clips or not is irrelevant.  He was associated with these shows.)

TIC-TAC-DOUGH (1978-1985)

O’Bservation:
This game show might qualify for its own berth in the TVXOHOF.

[Regarding the first episode on CBS, July 3, 1978]
Wink Martindale: This could be the best game show I've come across!

AS SEEN IN OR REFERENCED IN:

LEAVE 'EM LAUGHING (1981 TV MOVIE)
Shown on the TV at the hospital.

THE SIMPLE LIFE
PILOT (1998)
The crew member known as "Butt Crack" mentions that he worked on the show.

THE SOPRANOS
MADE IN AMERICA (2007)
Seen on TV

BEYOND THE BLACKBOARD (TV Movie 2011)
Residents of the shelter watch "Tic Tac Dough" in the TV room.

BLOODLINE
PART 15 (2016)
Heard playing on TV

BLINDSPOT
SCREECH, THWACK, POW (2018)
Rich says, "Circle gets a square."

O’Bservation:
I don’t know the context, but this could be more of a reference to that other Tic Tac Toe TV game show, ‘The Hollywood Squares’.

THE GOLDBERGS
1] I LOST ON JEOPARY (2019)
Title is mentioned; by then retitled simply "Tic-Tac-Dough"

2] SCHMOOPIE’S BIG ADVENTURE (2020)
Mentioned by Murray.

BETTER CALL SAUL
CARROT AND STICK (2022)
An episode of this show can be heard in the background of several scenes.

YOUNG SHELDON
UNCLE SHELDON AND A HORMONAL FIRECRACKER (2022)
Meemaw watches this show.

Next up....

YOU DON'T SAY (1965-1967)

REFERENCED IN:

WOMAN OF THE HOUR (2023)
A poster for the show is hanging in the dressing room.

O'Bservation:
I'm including this, but at that time in the Toobworld timeline Tom Kennedy was the host.  And according to the CTVA (Classic Television Archives), a website I've always trusted - check it out! - the only hosts were Kennedy and before him, Ralph Andrews.  

HIGH ROLLERS (1987-1988)
Wink Martindale was chosen to host this version of High Rollers for syndication. When Merrill-Heatter Productions brought this show back, they didn't get Alex Trebek, the host on the original NBC version of High Rollers because Trebek was already busy hosting the mega hit syndicated game show Jeopardy! (1984) and was set to host Classic Concentration (1987) on NBC's Daytime morning lineup. Martindale had just come off of his recently canceled show Headline Chasers (1985) when he was asked to do the pilot for High Rollers in 1986.

Wink Martindale has said that, of all the shows he's hosted, he would put "High Rollers" in his top 3 all-time as far as hosting it.

O’Bservation:
There doesn’t seem to be any TV shows connected to it, but as he did hold it in high regard, I figured it should be mentioned, since this will probably his last time in the spotlight here.

And now, on to the TV shows in which his fictional televersion appeared....

JUST OUR LUCK
THE SHABELLES (1983)

Shabu clones himself in a vocal quartet in order to enter a talent contest and win money so Keith can go on vacation.

O'Bservation:
I'm assuming that Wink hosted the talent contest.

EQUAL JUSTICE
WHAT COLOR ARE MY EYES? (1991)

From Wikipedia:
This series details the lives of the district attorney's office in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Despite earning critical acclaim, the show received low ratings throughout its run and was cancelled after only two seasons.  

O'Bservation:
Wink Martindale appeared as himself in the penultimate episode, but I have no other information.

MEDUSA: DARE TO BE TRUTHFUL (1991)

Medusa, a [swollen-head] talent of the 90's, takes you along on a bare-all documentary of her "Blonde leading the Blonde" tour. We see her get crushed by a giant penis, and visit the grave of her dead dog (then dig it up.) Spoof of Madonna's Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991) documentary.

Medusa:

Wink Martindale wants to do me in a Motel Seven!

DAVE'S WORLD
DAVE BERRY, CALL YOUR AGENT (1997)

A domineering agent (Beatrice Arthur) pushes even laid-back Dave to the limit. Wink Martindale appears as himself.  

O'Bservation:

He emcees the wake for a character played by one of my faves, Phil Leeds.  Later, he recounts to his agent that he was running a high fever during a taping of ‘Tic Tac Dough’.  He remembers nothing of the episode, but the tape later showed him French-kissing the runner-up, a housewife from Mile City.

O'Bservation:
All of the italicized descriptions were from the IMDb.

Welcome to the Hall, Mr. Martindale.  I think you’ll find a few other members of your exclusive club of quizmasters already here….

THURSDAY'S THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY - A COUPLE OF GRAYSONS

THURSDAY’S THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY

We’ll see how this goes, but I’m thinking of getting back into a more active role with the Inner Toob blog, beyond the monthly inductions into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame (and the unexpected memorial tributes.)

So I hope to add weekly theories of “relateeveety”, a way to connect TV characters in unofficial (for the most part) family trees.  You may disagree with some of them, which is why I’m presenting them only as theories.  I’m not going to go deeply into these theories; my focus these days is in building my fantasy world.  (One reason I stepped back from the Toobworld concept is that I don’t own it.)

To kick off the weekly theories of relateeveety, here is one which I shared in a Facebook comment recently.  As Stuart Best would say in ‘Murphy Brown’, for alls I know, I’m definitely not the first one to come up with this.  I would not be surprised if it is used in the concept of the Wold Newton Universe….

Mr. Spock’s mother was a human, Amanda Grayson.  She was (will be) supposedly born in 2210, according to one ‘Star Trek’ source.  Her lineage can be traced back to Richard Grayson, known by the nickname of “Dick”, who was the ward of millionaire Bruce Wayne in Gotham City.  What Toobworld at large did not know was that Dick Grayson was also Robin, the Boy Wonder; he was the sidekick to Batman, the Caped Crusader, who was Wayne’s alter-ego.

The 1960s TV series is – for Toobworld purposes – the official setting for the televersions of those DC comic characters (as well as the many other characters depicted in those episodes, everyone from Alfred the butler to King Tut (created for the TV show, but finally made his comic book debut in 2009.)  

‘Batman’ and ‘Star Trek’ share the same world – Earth Prime-Time.

O’Bservations:
1] This is for my purposes as the Toobworld Curator.  Your mileage may vary.

2] I would have used Zelda the Great for a true A to Z, but she has never appeared in the comic books.  So I went with one of my favorites.

In that incarnation, Dick was in high school.  In an interview, Alan Napier (who played Alfred) said that at the beginning of filming, Burt Ward – who played Dick Grayson – was already 21, but he sounded 15.  So, using that for as good a reason as any, I’m going to say that Dick was born in 1951.

And there you have it.  As to when Dick Grayson finally married, or at least fathered a child (no judgments) whose lineage would eventually lead to Amanda Grayson….  I’ll leave that to the fanficcers out there.  I just provide a few building blocks.

Hey now....  That was longer than I thought it would be.

BCnU!