This is a great find for some of us. It's an unsold game show pilot from around 1977 called The Smart Alecks, hosted by Allen Ludden and with a panel consisting of Don Meredith, Pat Carroll and a new comedian named David Letterman. The "game" isn't very impressive but a lot of you will be interested in this video because of Mr. Letterman.
Me, I'm interested because the first contestant is an old friend of mine, Don R. Christensen. Don, who passed away in 2006, was one of the most prolific comic book writers of all time. He also drew a lot of comics, sometimes under the name "Don Arr," and worked intermittently in animation. He worked for Disney from 1937 to 1941, then spent a few years in the Warner Brothers cartoon studio, primarily in Bob Clampett's unit. At some point, he connected with Western Publishing Company and began working on Dell and later Gold Key Comics. He wrote for all their funny animal comics — Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Woody Woodpecker, Bugs Bunny and so on — and occasionally on adventure comics, including Magnus, Robot Fighter.
Don was a great, clever guy. Among the zillions of comics he wrote was one of my all-time favorites — a 1959 special called Donald in MathMagic Land. He was also responsible for an awful lot of the puzzle and activity pages that ran in Dell and Gold Key comics, and as you'll see in the video, he was also an inventor. I was pleased to stumble across this video and to be able to see and hear him again…