Sunday, March 16, 2014

Game Time: Championship Bowling (1960)

There was a time when an enterprising soul decided to try a weekly syndicated bowling show that, during the first 1/3 of the year, would compete with the well-established Pro Bowlers Tour on ABC. Nice idea, but a bad one.

Championship Bowling lasted at least six seasons (1960-6), but as it is, my memory of the show is a bit on the hazy side. I do remember the parade of bowlers in the PBA blazers walking across the screen and taking their bows as the credits rolled. In fact, that's all I remember.

Independent producer Walter Schwimmer is better known as having acquired the rights to The Cisco Kid to redistribute that series in syndication, taking over from ZIV. Championship Bowling was one of the few original series that Schwimmer produced. Not sure if announcer Fred Wolf is related to the producer who put the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the Saturday morning map 2 decades later.

And, so, let's go back to 1966, and a match between Harry Smith and Nelson Burton, Jr.. Burton would later become a color analyst for the Pro Bowlers Tour:



Rating: A.

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