I’m not sure whether this “Off the Mark” would work as well these days (as opposed to back in 2006), given the syndicate’s compulsion to colorize everything.
When I was in early grade school, I enjoyed sick days (or school holidays that were not also public holidays), because I got to watch weekday daytime TV. So much more interesting than Saturday morning cartoons and other programming meant for kids.
I’m not sure if “This is your life!” was positioned as a direct rival of “Queen for a day” but the former was the one we watched less often. But we did see it sometimes, and I was just bewildered by some aspects, that my mom was not always able to explain. The reveal of long-lost friends (or often just acquaintance-level coworkers) was quite puzzling. Turning that into long-abandobed family is a fair enough transform for parody.
Mitch4 – thanks for the memory trigger – when I was very young (before kindergarten), I would watch Queen for a Day with my mom. Of course it stopped once I went to school.
I remember watching Queen for a Day with my grandmother when I was six, and trying to explain to her why I disliked it. It’s very difficult for a six-year-old to articulate “condescending and demeaning” when he doesn’t yet have those words in his vocabulary.
Game show formats tend to be repackaged; is there an equivalent of Queen for a Day showing somewhere now? Maybe in between the Family Feud marathons that seem to populate cable channels?
@CIDU Bill –haha!
Off the mark got a laugh from Robert – and he is not a comics fan.
Comics I Don't Understand 
I’m not sure whether this “Off the Mark” would work as well these days (as opposed to back in 2006), given the syndicate’s compulsion to colorize everything.
When I was in early grade school, I enjoyed sick days (or school holidays that were not also public holidays), because I got to watch weekday daytime TV. So much more interesting than Saturday morning cartoons and other programming meant for kids.
I’m not sure if “This is your life!” was positioned as a direct rival of “Queen for a day” but the former was the one we watched less often. But we did see it sometimes, and I was just bewildered by some aspects, that my mom was not always able to explain. The reveal of long-lost friends (or often just acquaintance-level coworkers) was quite puzzling. Turning that into long-abandobed family is a fair enough transform for parody.
Mitch4 – thanks for the memory trigger – when I was very young (before kindergarten), I would watch Queen for a Day with my mom. Of course it stopped once I went to school.
I remember watching Queen for a Day with my grandmother when I was six, and trying to explain to her why I disliked it. It’s very difficult for a six-year-old to articulate “condescending and demeaning” when he doesn’t yet have those words in his vocabulary.
@ Mitch4 – Speaking of sick days and daytime TV, there’s this Calvin & Hobbes (9-Dec-85).
Game show formats tend to be repackaged; is there an equivalent of Queen for a Day showing somewhere now? Maybe in between the Family Feud marathons that seem to populate cable channels?
@CIDU Bill –haha!
Off the mark got a laugh from Robert – and he is not a comics fan.