This post on Daily Intel about the hilariously weird “21st Street Battle of the Bozos” inspired us to take a brief, albeit chuckle-inducing ride down memory lane on the free Schwinn bicycle we never won (because our parents were cruel and wouldn’t take us to Chicago for a live taping) this morning. First, we’d like to let it be known that we always preferred Cooky the Cook’s antics to Bozo’s shtick. More importantly, if you were ever a fan of the show you must take a moment to read Wikipedia’s description of the Grand Prize Game — which we just discovered you can BUY from Target.
“Games on the show included the ‘Grand Prize Game’ created by [Don] Sandburg, whereby a boy and girl were selected from the studio audience by the Magic Arrows, and later the Bozoputer (a random number generator), to toss a ping-pong ball into a series of successively numbered buckets until they missed. If they made the winning toss into the sixth bucket, they (and an ‘at-home player’) received a cash prize, a bike and, in later years, a trip.”
Doesn’t that make it sound so much more boring than it was — although “Bozoputer” might be our new favorite word. In case we’ve opened up a part of your past that you thought was gone forever, click here to find out what happened to Bozo after 9,500 episodes. Also: We wish we had neighbors like those crazy kids on 21st Street. Hear that Broadway between Houston and Prince? It’s time for all of you guys to start bringing your A game.