I watched another hour of 2025 Hollywood Squares a day after the fact.
No, it wasn't a fever dream, or whatever the kids call it. Nate Burleson is not a good host. He is if you want him to act as the life of your frat party rather than the emcee of a game show.
Drew Barrymore as the center square plays the role of Drew Barrymore, which doesn't work well in a game show where she's one of nine celebrities on the panel.
The celebs are trying hard to be naturally funny, but nothing feels natural about it. Leslie Jones played the part of Leslie Jones quite well. She yells like she's mentally unstable, as if that is funny in and of itself. It never is.
Squares has always been the stomping ground of lower-tier entertainment... older comedians, longtime actors who aren't busy making movies around the world these days and other random public figures with varying degrees of cultural significance.
From what I can tell, Squares '25 draws a similar caliber of talent, even though this is a once-per-week prime time offering. I shouldn't be surprised.
The difference is that this show really wants the celebs to banter with each other. Whoever is calling the shots wants the show to be more about the celebs interacting with each other, the host and the contestants than playing a game of tic tac toe. It's a weird choice, but there's an audience for that. People like that the celebs are constantly trying to show how funny or clever they are, according to Twitter.
It's 2025, we have different ideas of humor than we did in 1975. We can't get enough jokes about anatomy and sex. One of the Sunday night shows had a question for RuPaul about Tom Brady deflating his balls while he was an NFL quarterback. Squares has often targeted its questions for the celebs playing the game. A joke about male anatomy is the perfect question for a sometimes drag queen, enabling him to make a predictable joke about deflating his own balls.
Hilarious.
I don't remember who got a question that had something to do with a place called Dildo Island in Canada. The question wasn't asked of gay television personality Carson Kressley, but he made sure to interject with a comment playing off the risqué nature of the question.
Hilarious.
Burleson continued to play the part of the jock at the frat party, showing why he's not really a broadcaster, despite the fact that's how he makes his living.
And this, collectively is what some people want when they watch a game show.
If that's what people want to watch, then the show must go on, without me.
I tried. I'm old. It's not for me.
Friendly correction here. The original Hollywood Squares hosted by Peter Marshall from the mid-1960s through the early 1980s included lots of top tier A-list celebrities as guests including current TV, motion picture, music, stage and sports stars ranging from Burt Reynolds and Sally Field to Angie Dickinson and Mel Brooks to Larry Hagman and Barbara Eden to Dionne Warwick and Joe Namath to William Shatner and Michael Landon to Parry Duke and Shirley Jones to Don Rickles and Bob Newhart and hundreds more. Back then both big stars and not as big stars enjoyed the fun of the show anchored by funny and snarky Paul Lynde in the center square and controlled with humor, charm and class by showbiz veteran Marshall. It was a great time when talent was widespread with endless options for high quality guests of all kinds. It’s a world that no longer exists.
ReplyDeletethanks for the feedback. i'll plead a bit of ignorance. i've seen more than a few of the Marshall era HS eps via the Tube and occasionally elsewhere, and i was too young during the Marshall era to know what an A-list star was. the grading curve in the 70s would be different than it is today, by a landslide.
Deletei don't know enough about Burt Reynolds' career to know when he reached A list. i could raise questions about most celebs you listed... were they destined to be on the A list when they appeared, or were they already?
percentagewise, it wouldn't surprise me if the squares were filled with A listers more often back in Marshall's day, as subjective as the grading may be. but you raise an interesting point. and i'll never know if Larry Hagman was an A lister simply because of Jeannie, or if that came at some point later in his career.
and finally, totally unrelated but i'm compelled to mention it: i recently read a great story about Larry's appearance on an episode of Pink Lady and Jeff in 1980. he never got paid, and he didn't care after the fact.
thanks for reading the blog.