A few days ago in this item, I linked to a clip of Groucho Marx doing a surprise cameo on an episode of I Dream of Jeannie. A reader of this here site, Tom Atwill, wrote to ask, "How would something like that come to pass? Would they write it and then go to Groucho's agent and see if he'd do it?"
Probably it came about because Sidney Sheldon, the producer of I Dream of Jeannie, was an old friend of Groucho's. I have no first-hand knowledge on this one but I'll bet it was as simple as this: Sheldon was having dinner with Groucho one night and he said something like, "Hey, Grouch. How about dropping by the set some day and shooting a cameo appearance? We'll let you hug Barbara Eden. You can even see her navel." And Groucho said something like, "Okay…just let me get a real bad toupee to wear." Then Sheldon either wrote the scene or had his staff figure out some way to get Marx into the episode…and I'll bet it wasn't any more complicated than that. Just Groucho doing a favor for a friend.
This was only possible because back then, they used to actual do surprise cameos on TV shows. When was the last time you saw one that wasn't in the promos beforehand? One of the reasons I've soured on Deal or No Deal is that I feel like the promos and/or the opening tease usually give away the entire episode. They'll tease that the contestant must make a life-or-death choice when they're down to the last five cases…and that effectively tells you that not much is going to matter as they open the first twenty cases — i.e., the first half hour of the show. Or like on last night's show, they told you in the previews that Magic Johnson was going to make a surprise appearance. So all through the game, whenever Howie Mandel asked the contestant if they wanted to accept the latest bank offer, you could think to yourself, "She's not going to take it. We haven't seen Magic Johnson yet."
The first twenty case openings on that show never matter…and what's more, the producers know it. They have Magic Johnson backstage and they know they can wait 'til late in the game to send him out there. Because they know it's going to go that long; that no one's going to take the first bank offer or the second or the fourth. I think the earliest offer anyone's taken has been the fifth and the player has to really being doing poorly to quit then. Almost all the games go until at least the seventh offer…and the banker only makes a maximum of nine. So it gives the whole thing a very pre-arranged feel and I don't know why I'm still watching, even with a lot of fast-forwarding.
I love surprises on television. You'd think, in the era of Reality Programming, someone would try one every now and then.