Nipsey Russell - Game Show Career

Game Show Career

Russell became the first black performer to become a regular panelist on a weekly network game show when he joined ABC's Missing Links in 1964. Another ABC show, Rhyme and Reason, had poetry for a premise, making Russell's participation a necessity:

Host: Conny Van Dyke looks like a girl I once dated...

Russell: And now, all my dreams are strictly X-rated!

Host: Jack said to Jill as they went up the hill...

Russell: We're not going for water — I hope you're on the pill!

In 1971 he started as a featured panelist on To Tell the Truth, which led to his being hired for The Match Game when Goodson-Todman Productions revived it two years later. He also served as panelist in 1968 on the syndicated version of What's My Line? Producer Bob Stewart featured him regularly as a panelist on Pyramid throughout its 1970s and 1980s runs. Russell would also host the short-lived 1985 game show Your Number's Up as well as the early-'80s revival of Juvenile Jury.

During his appearances on game shows, at some point in the broadcast the host would give the floor to Russell, who would recite a self-penned poem from memory, looking straight into the camera. These poems from 1980s episodes of The $25,000 Pyramid and The $100,000 Pyramid and even one from the 2004 Hollywood Squares are typical of his style and wit:

The girl who would make my life complete

need not be young and fair;

Just be a nymphomaniac

and a multimillionaire.

(To which Betty White replied, "I'm not a multimillionaire but one out of two ain't bad.")

What is the secret of eternal youth?

The answer is easily told;

All you gotta do if you wanna look young

Is hang out with people who are old.

If you ever go out with a schoolteacher,

You're in for a sensational night;

She'll make you do it over and over again

Until you do it right.

The young people are very different today;

And there's one sure way to know;

Kids used to ask where they came from;

Now they'll tell you where you can go!

I got a new girlfriend,

No guy could ask for more,

She’s deaf, dumb, oversexed

And owns a liquor store!

Those who think of women as the weaker sex

Just can't see the trees for the woods

Cause no matter how loudly a rooster may crow

It's the hen who delivers the goods.

Before we lose our autonomy

And our economy crumbles into dust

We should attack Japan, lose the war

And let Japan take care of us.

The opposite of 'pro' is 'con'

This fact is clearly seen

But if 'progress' means move forward

What does 'Congress' mean?

Hurricanes are named after women

Because they start on the very same plan

Start up over nothin', make a whole lotta noise,

And can't be controlled by man!

What would you say makes the hair grey

Before you submit any bids

Grey hair is hereditary

And you get it from your kids.

Washington threw a silver dollar

Across the Potomac one day

Since then politicians in Washington

Have been throwing our money away.

I am a bachelor, and I will not marry

Until the right girl comes along

But while I'm waiting, I don't mind dating

Girls that I know are wrong.

Pyramid is the best show on TV.

Dick Clark is surely the best emcee.

They won the Emmy, they pay a high fee

How 'bout a few bucks for the audience and me?

Show business should really change its style

From the vulgar and the crude.

People on stage should be properly dressed.

The audience should be nude.

More people are killed on the roads

Than they are on the battlefield.

It's not the tiger in the tank,

It's the jackass behind the wheel.

When Russell appeared on Family Feud during a special game show emcee week, he had two poems to give:

Playing Family Feud today

Are some talented women and men;

Lost their jobs giving money away,

So now, they're trying to win!

Each day we turn another page.

You know you're reaching middle age

When your pimples and your rashes

Turn to wrinkles and hot flashes.

When Russell hosted Your Number's Up, he started the day with his poems, including this one from the premiere episode:

If you owe too much on American Express,

And your Diner's Club notes are too hard,

Take a loan on your Visa,

And pay it off with your MasterCard.

and on the finale:

The strong take from the weak

Thus fortunes rise and fall

The wise take from the strong

Internal Revenue taketh from all.

The reason the marriage never works out

When May gets married to December

Is the sweet young thing has never learned how

And the old goat doesn't remember

In 1984, Russell hosted an unsold pilot for a revival of Jackpot again he used several rhymes including:

They just made a movie about a mermaid

I don't understand the reason why

Not enough woman to make love to

And too much fish to fry

Said Mr. Rabbit to Mrs. rabbit

"This lovin' ain't nothing but a habit"

Said Mrs. Rabbit to Mr. Rabbit

"Shoot the habit to me Rabbit"

If you get your baby a waterbed

It could be very grim

You'll never know if he's wetting the bed

Or the bed is wetting him

(on children):

If they don't walk and talk by the time they're two

We worry we fret and we frown

But after that time it's all we can do

To make them shut up and sit down

He was a trained dancer, influenced in his youth by legendary performer Jack Wiggins. Russell put these talents to use in the 1978 musical The Wiz as the Tin Man. He also appeared on the big screen in 1994's adaptation of Car 54, Where Are You?, reprising his role as Anderson, who had now been promoted from sergeant to captain.