'TattleTales' TV Game Show Memories of Bert Convy & His '70s/'80s Straight & Gay Celebrity Guests

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Tattletales was Goodson-Todman Productions in association with Fremantle. The show aired in the afternoon on CBS, in two different increments, between February 1974 and June 1984. Hosted by Bert Convy, Tattletales was akin to a celebrity-married-couples version of The Newlywed Game. Questions were asked and the couples tried to match each other's answers.

The series was based on He Said, She Said, a syndicated Goodson-Todman show hosted by Joe Garagiola that aired during the 1969–70 season, which in itself was based on an unsold 1966 pilot called It Had to Be You that was hosted by Ed McMahon (though that series featured four non-celebrity couples).

Convy Stood Out

In 1977, Bert Convy received a Daytime Emmy Award for his Tattletales hosting abilities, and he and his wife, Anne, periodically played the game, mostly when the panel was made up entirely of other game show hosts and their spouses.

Those hosts who subbed for Convy during those episodes included Gene Rayburn, Bob Barker, Bobby Van, Jack Narz, and Richard Dawson. All five hosts also participated in playing the game along with other hosts such as Allen Ludden, Monty Hall, Bill Cullen and Chuck Woolery.

Celebrity Guests, Straight and Gay

A few TV-geared celebrity guest couples appeared on the show including Star Trek's William Shatner and his then-wife Marcy Lafferty, Medical Center's Chad Everett and his actress-wife Shelby Grant, Gunmoke's Amanda Blake and her then-husband Frank Gilbert, a pre-Charlie's Angels Cheryl Ladd and her then-husband Alan Ladd, Jr., and more.

Some celebrity guest couples were not married, and gay, including Fannie Flagg and Dick Sargent (Bewitched). Flagg and Sargent were good friends, but rarely matched answers.

Another non-married, non-romantic twosome included the openly gay Charles Nelson Reilly who teamed up with his good friend, actress Elizabeth Allen.