C is for Cullen

Given the "new normal" that's come to pass in recent months, most of us are probably watching a little more TV than we used to. Around my house, we've recently discovered the vintage game show Blockbusters, which aired on NBC's daytime schedule from 1980 to 1982. Visit YouTube if you want to see some episodes.

This Goodson-Todman production revolves around a giant game board consisting of linked hexagons. Competing players try to win spots on the board by being first to answer an array of quiz questions, ranging from pop culture to world history, knowing only that the correct response begins with a certain letter of the alphabet. Overseeing the proceedings is the man commonly described as TV's best-ever game show emcee, affable and witty Bill Cullen.

One of the mysteries surrounding this engaging game is why it wasn't a bigger hit, running less than two years. For answers, I turned to a book I'd been meaning to read for awhile anyway, Adam Nedeff's Quizmaster: The Life and Times and Fun and Games of Bill Cullen (BearManor Media). It offers a satisfying chapter on this show's history in particular, as well as a thoroughly researched and highly readable account of Cullen's life. If you like a dose of tragedy in your biographies, this probably isn't the book for you. Despite a childhood bout with polio that left him with a permanent limp, Cullen was a happy man, doing what he loved and more than satisfied with his lot in life. Interviews with the star's fans and colleagues help elucidate just what he did that made him so good at a job many would have thought any smiling guy in a nice suit could do.

So at least my TV watching is leading to more reading. That's a good thing, right? Except for maybe a little eye strain.