It was just like any typical day for me, when I was told by my good pal and fellow game show pal Anthony Hardy, that he had friended Todd Newton, the host of Hollywood Showdown, Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck, and many other fine shows to his credit. I managed to friend Todd on Facebook, and figured out that Anthony had requested Todd be a special guest on Game Show Temple LIVE!, and to the figure of my surprise, he AGREED! After a few discussions to get everything straightened out, we decided to have a 2-hour special on Saturday, November 14th, 2009 starting at 10:00 PM (EDT).
Just a few moments prior to the show, I had connected with the Switchboard and was watching the numbers pop up. And then, when I saw a new number that I had never seen before, I unmuted the number and found out it was THE Todd Newton. I introduced myself, told him about the 2-question, 10-minute rule from Game Show Talk and Fun, and then a few seconds later, the show started and we were just having such a good time.
When I brought in Anthony's number (despite I already knew who he was, I was trying to make it official), Anthony put in his two cents, and after his turn was over, Todd spoke about his motivational DVD, which also gives part of profits to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Disease. Afterwards, I brought in another caller, Brian Schwartz, who started out acting like he was being introduced on Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck. The conversation was going around pretty well, except I had to take a moment's break from the show for unexplained reasons, and when Adam Stabelli of Game Shows After Dark came in, we lost Todd for a few moments, and I was talking to Adam for a few moments to fill in the lost time and Todd came back, saying that he was going through the mountains and that there was another good possibility that he'd lose connection (with 45 minutes of low signal), which did happen again when Alan Mitsugi finished up with his turn. With that, I brought in everyone else who were waiting to talk to Todd when he lost signal.
If there's one thing I must admit, we haven't had anyone that special on GST Live! ever since announcer Randy West called in to talk about his experience being a contestant on Peter Tomarken's short-lived Hit Man. This really did set a good standard of GST Live! as the last airing of November since Thanksgiving was coming up for me and I would be going out of town, but one of these days, I would be very honored and privileged to have Todd back once again and have other people have a chance to talk to him due to his signal losing.
