Amateurs Guide To Love, The

The Amateurs Guide To Love was a messy attempt to cross-pollinate a game show with a Candid Camera type show, also folding in elements of a “let’s discuss romance” daytime program. The format changed a bit during its run but basically, a celebrity panel was shown pre-taped clips where people on the street had been caught in hidden camera stunts that were supposed to point up the way men and women acted, individually and collectively. The tape was stopped before the payoff and the panel would predict how the folks would react, with prizes going to the subjects if the panelists didn’t guess the outcome. Or something like that. I never quite understood the show; not when it was a prime-time CBS special hosted by McHale Navy‘s Joe Flynn…not when it became a daytime CBS show hosted by Gene Rayburn. The special aired in August of ’71 and the series started in March of ’72, so I’m guessing the top ticket was from a test show done at a time when the network was still deciding whether or not to pick up the daytime version. The words “special preview” are one tip-off, as is the absence of the CBS eye. They usually leave it off tickets to shows that tape at CBS facilities but air in other venues. I’m presuming they also leave it off shows that may not wind up on CBS. (A version of this show also aired briefly on the USA Network, but that was years later.)