Filling in the once-bawdy blank

Decades before "The Osbournes" gave the American public a peek into the family life of a rock legend, before "Chaotic" detailed pop princess Britney Spears' unraveling, before "Being Bobby Brown" captured celebrity dysfunction in its fullest flower, one little daytime quiz show brought the unguarded moments of television's biggest stars into American homes every afternoon. And it captured the lifestyle of swinging 1970s California more vividly than any Joan Didion novel or Robert Altman film.

By Richard Rushfield

November 25, 2006