Watch the late Stephen Sondheim absolutely crush it on CBS’s Password
In addition to his work in the musical theater, Sondheim was a fiendish and obsessive consumer of puzzles and games
TV Features Stephen Sondheim![Watch the late Stephen Sondheim absolutely crush it on CBS’s Password](https://img.pastemagazine.com/wp-content/avuploads/2021/11/15023005/4eeea3f3996946cc1f4bb7e71167ab2e.jpg)
Stephen Sondheim died yesterday, ending a life largely spent in pursuit of the joys of the written word, and the music accompanying it. Sondheim’s contributions to the form of musical theater are, of course, legendary at this point, even as they chart a slow, often slippery climb to ultimate ascendancy and triumph. His contributions to the field of game show performance are a bit more obscure.
Hence the pleasures of watching the above clip from a 1966 episode of CBS’s Password, in which actress Lee Remick brings on her old pal “Steve”—a noted fan and master of the crossword puzzle, who actually had a few of his own published in New York magazine in the late 1960s—to serve as her resident guesser for the last act of the show. (If you’re watching along in the above video, Sondheim comes on at 19:45 or so.)
He then proceeds to absolutely dominate the game; although he can’t quite translate “snack” immediately into the proper word “nibble,” Sondheim does do a frankly amazing job of taking the clues “drawing” and “picture” and producing “etching,” scoring himself and Remick a trip to the show’s lightning round. Which he also totally crushes, despite having to work through Remick’s occasional obvious panic.
It’s a fun window into the games-focused side of the great lyricist, who was never shy about slipping clever wordplay into his work. As people planet-wide reconcile with his death, there’s also been a renewed interest in Sondheim’s love of video and computer games, up to and including an Entertainment Weekly piece from 1994 in which he talks openly about his desire to turn Into The Woods into a game. (See also his fan letter to independent game designer Cliff Johnson, whose elaborate puzzle hunts Sondheim gently boasts about completing without the assistance of a hint book. He also offers a few minor spelling and grammar notes.)
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For those who don’t know… Allen Ludden (the host of Password) and Betty White were married from 1963 until his death in 1981. She has not been married to anyone, since.
Makes sense. She can’t have children until she’s defeated all the other immortals.
thats not going to stop us from trying.
Cue Keith Richards evil-genius laughter…
He also orchestrated several bizarre and elaborate scavenger hunts that became the basis for his and Anthony Perkins’ sole screenplay, The Last of Sheila.
one of my all time fave movies!!!! i don’t know why more people don’t know it. also, “the girls upstairs” became “follies.”
Apparently that screenplay/movie got Sondheim and Perkins in the mix to write the movie “Clue,” but Paramount balked at the pay request despite John Landis pushing for it.
Good, because John Landis had no right to be working with Stephen Sondheim.
If I recall correctly, one of them involved sending the teams to a house where they were served cake by a seemingly random woman (one of his other friend’s mother, I think), and they had to figure out that they needed to arrange the cake pieces to spell out the next clue. One team–for some reason, I’m 95% sure that it was Lee Remick’s–lost because they didn’t think to look at the cake before eating it.
Lee Remick was insanely beautiful
Insanely? She was attractive but that’s a wee bit of hyperbole.
… and died way too young, at 55. Stupid cancer.
Sondheim also co-wrote a musical based on The Frogs, by Aristophanes.Ridiculous!
Haaaahahahaha – I can’t believe I didn’t get this the first time I read it. Especially because LITERALLY the first thing I hear whenever I hear “Password” is “Aristophanes”.
Which was originally staged in a swimming pool at Yale and featured Meryl Streep and Sigourney Weaver in the ensemble!
And he won $500, which is… less than what an autographed first edition costs now.
“who actually had a few of his own published in New York magazine in the late 1960s”42, to be exact…https://blogfott.blogspot.com/2014/07/putting-it-together.html
No wonder Betty White loved Allen Ludden. Charm and charisma for days and days.
Disappointed Sinatra wasn’t one of Peter Lawford’s partners…
In his death, the general public is learning what the theatre community has know all along…Sondheim was the real Most Interesting Man in the World.