Classic Television - Saturdays

Celebrity Bowling

Original channel 

Syndicated

Original run

January 16, 1971 – September 1978

Host

Jed Allan

Celebrity Bowling is an American syndicated sports series hosted by Jed Allan that ran from January 16, 1971, to September 1978. The series was produced in Los Angeles at Metromedia Square, the studios of KTTV.

Each week, the show featured four celebrities, on a pair of AMF or Brunswick lanes installed inside KTTV's studios, pitted against each other in teams of two. Victorious teams won prizes for studio audience members based upon the level of winning scores.

The weekly series was a by-product of The Celebrity Bowling Classic, a 90-minute TV special produced in 1969 for the Metromedia-owned stations, benefitting the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation.

Joe Siegman created the series, and he and Don Gregory produced 144 episodes for their 7-10 Productions.

Four celebrities played each game, separated into two pairs. The rules of the game were known as "best ball;" for each frame, both members of each team would roll a ball on their own lane. If neither of the two teammates rolled a strike, then the person who rolled the worse shot (either a split or whoever knocked down the fewest pins) would then roll for the spare on the other lane.

Each team was tied to a viewer at home, who would win prizes based upon the score the pair accumulated in the game. The viewer would win increasingly valuable prizes, mostly home appliances, if a team scored 120, 150, 180, or 210 points (with the highest category usually resulting in the viewer winning a car).