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Believe it or not, almost as long as TV has been around it has been helping people “hook up.” Back in 1949, the legendary Arlene Francis hosted an ABC primetime game show called “Blind Date.” Begun originally on radio, “Blind Date” was “The Dating Game” before “The Dating Game.” On the show, a college boy bachelor (known on the show as “The Hunter”…and, no, I’m not kidding) interviewed on air three young lovelies (known as “The Hunted”…still not kidding).
Interestingly, on the show, it was the lady who did the final picking, as the bachelor had the task of “selling” himself, convincing one of the women (and sometimes their fathers) to go out with him. The “winning” couple won an evening at New York’s Stork Club or the Copa or some other glamorous nightspot. On “Blind Date,” though everyone involved all sat on the same set, true to the show’s name, the “Hunter” couldn’t see what the “Hunted(s)” looked like or vice versa. The participants were divided by a flimsy screen and the would-be couples communicated via a (obviously not long distance) telephone line. Thanks no doubt to Francis and the mores of the time, “Blind Date” was probably a bit classier than it sounded, not to mention rather chaste and innocent, in retrospect.
As on the original “Blind Date,” on “The Dating Game,” participants couldn’t see each other due the show’s semi-circle of a set that formed a barrier. As on “Blind Date,” too, the questions they asked were all pre-written. Unlike the Francis program however, “Dating Game” questions were usually dripping with innuendo and no doubt regularly pushed the patience of the censors in regard to their sexiness and suggestiveness. But what regularly occurred on “The Dating Game” was pretty tame compared to the dating show’s next TV incarnation. It seems that just hearing about what might happen on a first date wasn’t enough for the enquiring minds of America. Hence, in 1983, “Love Connection” was launched. As hosted by Mr. “Two-and-Two” himself, Chuck Woolery, “Connection,” was “The Dating Game” taken to the next level. Not only did we get to see who got picked to go on a date, we also got to hear all about the date afterwards when the different gendered couple returned to discuss how things either went swimmingly…or completely sank. Though many pairings crashed and burned resulting in catty and contentious on-air remarks, other dates did indeed result in a “love connection.” And while careful editing of the program did omit most of the more lascivious details of a successful date, suggestiveness by the pair was fully allowed as were a liberal number of knowing “Oooos!” shouted from the studio audience. “Love Connection” was a giant hit and ran in syndication from 1983 to 1994.
But, once again, apparently, just hearing the details of a date wasn’t enough…. So, in 1999, another syndicated series, “Blind Date” (NOT to be confused with the Arlene Francis series of yore), arrived on the air. Hosted by Roger Lodge, this latest version of the dating show dispensed with the formality (foreplay?) of singles picking each other and simply cut to the chase. Its cameras followed the fated couple on their inaugural date—through all the awkwardness, attraction and sometimes anger that ensued. Always on the lookout for so-called “good TV” (both the participants and the show’s producers), “Blind Date’s” dates were often self-consciously exotic (“Hey, let’s learn to make sushi!”) and often self-consciously provocative (“Hey, let’s get in the hot tub!”). To me, it always seemed that the women featured on “Blind Date” too frequently let their guard down and their better judgment fall by the wayside as they went “with the flow of the show.” Theirs was a level of safety not usually afforded to women in the real world when out on a normal first date--these women were safeguarded by the constant presence of TV cameras and a small crew, it was unlikely things would get out of hand. The success of “Blind Date” (it ran until 2006) inspired a variety of imitators, like the boat-based, multi-day dates that were featured on syndicated “Shipmates” (2001-2003). Today, “Blind Date’s” format has largely been copied by Bravo’s “Millionaire Matchmaker.” If, via its constant cameras, “Blind Date” left little to the imagination, VH1’s dating show of last year, “Dating Naked,” jettisoned our last remaining amounts of reserve.
For the uninitiated, the show “Dating Naked” was exactly what it says it called itself. Couples, minus a single stitch of clothing, met up and mingled on a tropical isle. Each contestant (one man and one woman per episode) date each other and two other nude contestants (all on camera, of course). At the end of the installment, they got to choose someone to go on an actual second date with, often to the consternation of whoever was getting “dumped.” Throughout the program, the channel was careful to blur out certain body parts (though bare butts seem to be fair game for both genders). But, wait, there’s more! Lest we forget, last year the FYI channel premiered “Married at First Sight.” On this show, three hetero couples marry—yes, marry—the moment that they meet! They are then sent on a honeymoon and told to co-habitat for four weeks. At the end of the four weeks, the couples have the chance to decide if they want to stay married or get divorced. You know, that old story. Both “Dating Naked” and “Married at First Sight”—along with being indicative of the further eroding of privacy that television began and which social media and the internet has steadily furthered--liked to present themselves as something bold and innovative, even necessary. “Naked” (which, surprisingly wasn’t a rating winner yet did result in a couple real-life, long-term relationships) painted itself as forthrightly honest, stripping away all the pretense that can derail modern relationships. “Married” calls itself a bold “social experiment.” Yet it’s obviously the no-holds-barred nudity of the former and the potential for social combustion of the latter, that’s the main selling points of the two series. With the incremental progression of TV’s dating programs that has progressed from “Blind Date” to “Blind Date” to “Dating Naked” and “Married at First Sight,” one has to wonder where this TV genre will head next. Will we eventually arrive at something called “Sex on the First Date”? If it’s guaranteed to give us as viewers a titillating cheap thrill, I’m sure we will. |
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The same of course could not be said about “Blind Date’s” unofficial remake “The Dating Game.” Hosted by Jim Lange and debuting originally on ABC daytime in 1965, “The Dating Game” was the show that first popularized the term “bachelorette.” On each episode of the show, one guy quizzed three girls or one girl screened three guys to see who’d get picked. The resulting couple was then gifted with a “dream date” trip to some exotic locale. (And, for the sake of safety, always equipped with a show-provided chaperone.) 