It was a glorious April day (1970) and we had been doing local operations on PTF-13 from the amphibious base at Coronado, California.  We were now tied to an anchor bouy in the middle of San Diego harbor waiting for the tide to come in so we could clear the sandbar that was directly in back of the pier where the boat moored.

 

High tide was sometime around 1600, so with nothing else better to do, some folks decided to try and get some reception from the television in the crew's quarters.  After some fiddling and rigging a make-do antenna, we finally got reasonable video and audio from the set.  The show we tuned to was "The Newly Wed Game."

 

Now, this was then (and still is) a no-brainer kind of show.  The show got three newly-wed wives, asked them a question, noted the wife's response, and then repeated the question to the husband.  If he answered the same as his wife, both wo a prize; if he answerd wrong, they lost.

 

Today's question to the three wives: "How would you discipline your husband?"

 

All three wives responded one after the other: "I'd cut him off."  The host was chagrined by the answers (the audience though them funny).  He told the wives that they'd have to come up with something different and all three did.

 

Now it was the husband's turn.  "Husband No. 1, how did your wive answer the question: 'How would you discipline your husband?'"  Husband No. 1: "She'd cut me off."  The host, trying to keep from laughing, says that the answer is not acceptable and the husband should try again.  He does and misses the answer by a mile.

 

The host calls Husband No. 2.  He asks No.2 the same question.  Husband No. 2's response: "She'd cut me off."  The host has him try again -- and the husband's not even close to his wife's answer.

 

The host calls Husband No. 3.  He asks the same question and gets the same first answer as No. 1 and No. 2.  By this time, the poor host wants to laugh so hard that he's in tears, the studio audience has just about lost it, and the program has just about descended into chaos.  No. 3 misses his question by a mile also and there's a fast break to commercials.

 

After the commercials are over, a slightly more composed host comes back on the air.  As I remember, because not one of the three groups had gotten the correct answer, the solution was to divide the money equally between the three couples.  Anyhow, this TV show certainly did pass the time for us!  When the show ended, it was just about time to untie from the bouy and cruise over to our pier.  What a nice (and funny) way to end the day.