October 2, 1961: "Password" and "Ben Casey" Premiere

The Odd Couple/Password crossover. Left to right:

Betty White, Allen Ludden, Jack Klugman and Tony Randall

October 2, 1961: The TV game show Password premieres. In runs on CBS until 1967, then on ABC until 1975. Allen Ludden hosts.

The main part of the game features five words, shown to the audience, whispered by an announcer. Two teams, made up of a celebrity panelist and an ordinary citizen contestant, take turns giving and receiving the clues. The contestants were usually one man and one woman, with a celebrity of the same gender assisting. On occasion, the female celebrity panelist would be Ludden's wife, comic actress Betty White.

The person giving must say a word that is a clue to the "password." If the first team gets it, that's 10 points. If they don't, the other team gets to try, for 9 points; then 8, and so on. The five passwords are a clue to a larger password, which is worth bonus points.

Password figured in the December 1, 1972 episode of The Odd Couple, also on ABC. Allen (playing himself) invited sportswriter Oscar Madison (Jack Klugman) to appear as one of the celebrity guests, and he brings his roommate, commercial photographer Felix Unger (Tony Randall), as a contestant. Even Allen and Betty agree that the results are "ridiculous."

The show would be revived on NBC as Password Plus from 1979 to 1982, but Ludden died of cancer in 1981, and was replaced briefly by Bill Cullen, and then by Tom Kennedy. NBC brought it back as Super Password from 1984 to 1989, hosted by Bert Convy. Unfortunately, Convy also developed cancer, and it was decided to close the show. He died in 1991. In the 2008-09 season, CBS brought it back as Million Dollar Password. In 2022, NBC brought it back, with actress Keke Palmer as host.

(UPDATE: Shortly after she began hosting, Palmer announced that she was pregnant. Given the nature of TV "seasons" in recent years, it was easy to schedule new tapings around her maternity leave. She is probably the 1st pregnant game show host on U.S. network television. Vanna White had been pregnant as the letter-turner on Wheel of Fortune, but that doesn't count as hosting.)

*

Also on October 2, 1961, Ben Casey premieres on ABC. Vince Edwards played Casey, a talented young neurosurgeon. Sam Jaffe played Dr. David Zorba, the chief of neurosurgery at the hospital where Casey worked. Every episode began with a hand drawing the symbols "♂, ♀, ✳, †, ∞" on a chalkboard, as Jaffe delivered the meaning behind the symbols: "Man, woman, birth, death, infinity." The series ran for 5 seasons.

Vince Edwards

Jaffe died in 1984, Edwards in 1996. 

Speaking of men named Casey, in this case a real one: Also on this day, coming out of retirement, former Yankee skipper Casey Stengel agrees to manage the Mets, New York's National League expansion team.

At his introductory press conference, he goofed, and said, "I'm very pleased to be managing the New York Knickerbockers." I guess nobody told him the real name of the team -- which, since it hadn't played a game yet, was partly understandable.

That would not be the most embarrassing thing that happened to the franchise during Stengel's involvement. During in their 1st season, 1962, he was quoted as saying, "Come and see my amazing Mets! I been in this game a hundred years, but they've shown me ways to lose that I never knew existed before!" On another occasion, he was quoted as saying, "Can't anybody here play this game?"

*

October 2, 1961 was a Monday. Baseball was between the end of the regular season and the World Series. Football was in midweek: The debut of Monday Night Football was 9 years away. And it was too soon for either the NBA or the NHL season for 1961-62 to begin. So there were no scores on this historic day.