Rant #1,696: The Generation Gap

How was your Father's Day?

Mine was OK. I grilled and grilled some more for the assembled multitude at my house.

I was dead tired at the end of the day, and fell asleep really early last night.

But here I am, up early in the morning as I usually am, ready to go for the day ...

Right!

Anyway, prior to the holiest day of the year, as you know, I often toodle around on YouTube, looking for interesting things to watch.

I have always been intrigued by game shows. These shows--and I am mainly talking about those game shows that were on network TV from the early 1950s to the early 1980s--test your mind, test your wit, and often test your patience.

One that tested your patience was a short-lived one called "The Generation Gap" that ran on ABC from February to May 1969.

It was a prime-time quiz show that pitted older people--seemingly those in their 30s and 40s, I guess that was considered "old" at the time--against younger people in their early to late teens in a battle of who knew what about their respective generations, and the opposing generations.

The show was originally hosted by Dennis Wholey, who honestly, looked uncomfortable with the format from the get go, and he was replaced by veteran game show host Jack Barry for the last few remaining episodes.

Anyway, while toodling around on YouTube, I found a few episodes of the show, and when I saw it come up, my memory banks exploded. I remembered that I had sort of a very, very tangental link to this show.

Back in early 1969, I was 11 going on 12, really in my glory years as a kid. My family lived in Rochdale Village, South Jamaica, Queens, New York, and I was going to a brand new junior high school, Benjamin Schlesinger Intermediate School, better known as I.S. 72.

That school became the stuff of legends, which I have talked about here in the past and I am not going to get into now, but I had a teacher in that school, my art teacher, who was a very "with it and now" teacher for the time.

I don't know how old I thought she was when I had Mrs. Nancy Brandon as a teacher, but to me, somebody in their 30s probably resembled someone in their 90s for all I knew.

She was a pretty, very modern art teacher at the time, with modernistic approaches to art, and I have to admit, her ideas of art and I guess my ideas of art, if I had any, didn't mesh.

I didn't like her, didn't think she liked me, I really didn't like going to her classes, and I often felt out of place while in her class.

Looking back, I also don't think she handled different situations well. I remember her most as the teacher who took myself and my friend David aside one day and told us that we had absolutely no artistic talent, and that she was assigning us for a homework assignment where we had to see "Yellow Submarine" and report back to her on it.

In the years since, I have heard mixed reviews of Mrs. Brandon--seemingly, some people loved her, some people hated her, and there seemed to be absolutely no in between.

Well, I didn't like her at all, but let me get to my story and why I brought her up here.

For whatever reason, I remembered that she was on "The Generation Gap" as a contestant. I remember that when she was on, I watched the show to see how she did. She was on with other people who were in her age group, pitted against a couple of "young-uns," including young actor David Henesy of "Dark Shadows" fame.

I have no idea how I could have remembered this, but I did. I also remember that Mrs. Brandon said she was very, very nervous on the show, and that she did the best that she could even though she was so nervous.

So what did I do? I figured "what the heck," and I looked for her show.

And I found it! You can watch it below or go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-QceEtkm5s to see it yourself.

Yes, it is on YouTube, and what I learned was that this was the actual first episode of the show, so 47 years later, I could actually see how she did, and if she was, in fact, nervous.

The show really was a time capsule of sorts, really getting into the supposed "Generation Gap" that was spoken about quite readily back then, when kids and older people seemingly had such different, disparate views on just about everything.

As a bonus, the episode featured the lead singer of the Ink Spots, whose name I cannot remember, as well as the pop group The Ohio Express, singing "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy."

Yes, the Ohio Express!

And yes, my old teacher was pretty nervous. She got some answers right, but for an art teacher, she made one big goof, not knowing the name of pop artist Peter Max, somebody she, as an art teacher, should have known like the back of her hand.

And oh so funny, a clip of "Yellow Submarine" was actually shown on the show!

There isn't really much else to say about the show (I won't tell you who won), other than to say that I was amazed that I found this show on YouTube. I believe that Mrs. Brandon is still alive, and I wonder if she knows that her show is there for all to see, including her?

My opinions on Mrs. Brandon have not changed, but I have to say that it was nice linking up with my past again, even through a game show like this.

And I am still amazed at what comes up on YouTube, and you can bet I will continue to search for the odd and strange things I have told you about that are there for the taking.

Completely amazing, I must say!