Jayne Meadows, Bill Bixby, Brenda Benet, Jack Cassidy
Bixby, the popular television actor known for My Favorite Martian and The Courtship of Eddie's Father (and later The Incredible Hulk) is married to Benet, an actress best known for her work in soaps.
Jerry Bird from Glendale, California and 22 others who form a ring around him: “We sky-dived in the world’s largest free-fall formation”
Bird is the spokesman and the ringleader for the group, which achieved its record-breaking jump back in January. The complete “star” formation featured 24 skydivers (one jumper didn’t make the trip to the TV studio) and took place above Perris, California. Bird would become a legend in the sport, and in 2010 would be inducted into the International Skydiving Hall of Fame. Bird, a colorful character, would deliver his own eulogy at a 2017 skydiving event. The current record of an astonishing 400 skydivers in formation was set in 2006 by a team led by BJ Worth, a film stuntman who performed aerial work in several James Bond movies.
A young woman identified only as X: “I’m David Cassidy’s TV stand-in”
Jan Freeman was working as an extra on The Partridge Family (1970-1974) when someone noted the resemblance between her and Cassidy, the
show’s breakout heartthrob star. Despite the gender difference, Freeman worked
not only as his stand-in but occasionally as his double on screen. Fan magazines even linked the two
romantically for a brief time. Panelist Jack
Cassidy (David’s father) would recognize Jan, so he alone wears a blindfold for
this game. Jack gets off some nice zingers (“David’s hair is longer,” he quips sarcastically),
but in real life, there was genuine tension between the father and son. David would later attribute the strain to
Jack’s resentment and jealousy at the stardom David achieved, a level of
fame which eluded his father.
Special Guest Alan Alda is dropping raw eggs from his perch about ten feet off the studio floor. The eggs bounce off a special mat, and Steve attempts to catch them.
The panel is blindfolded, of course, and is guided only by the audience hysterics at the slapstick silliness. Secret fans with long memories (or access to our website) might recall a near-identical segment in 1959 ( E333 ) featuring guest Don McNeill. As in that earlier segment, the demonstration here focusses on the remarkably resilient properties of the mat’s Ensolite material. Today, the energy absorbing foam is used in a variety of less comical applications. Alda’s new sitcom will debut in the fall. M*A*S*H (1972-1983) would become a television classic and would make Alda a superstar.
Mike McCasland of Monterey Park, California is a champion eater who set a record by eating 255: “Prunes”
McCasland ate 255 water-soaked prunes in 45 minutes on May 17, 1971. He was a high school senior at the time. McCasland would revisit his brush with notoriety in 1993 when he broke his own mark with a 260-prune performance at an elaborately staged charity event. That effort would land him an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Prunes really do contain a natural laxative known as sorbitol, so we can only imagine what Mr McCasland was doing in the 46th minute.
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