Celebrity Bowling was an American syndicated sports series hosted by Jed Allan

Jed Allan

Jed Allan is an American actor.- Daytime television roles :Allan has starred in several soap operas. He is perhaps best known for his role as Don Craig on Days of our Lives, which he played from 1971 to 1985. He gained a new audience when he played C.C...

 that ran from January 16, 1971 to September 1978. The series was produced in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 at the studios of KTTV

KTTV

KTTV, channel 11, is an owned-and-operated television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in Los Angeles, California. Serving the vast Los Angeles metropolitan area, KTTV is a sister station to KCOP , Los Angeles' MyNetworkTV station...

.

Each week, the show featured four celebrities, on a pair of AMF or Brunswick

Brunswick Corporation

The Brunswick Corporation , formerly known as the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, is a United States-based corporation that has been involved in manufacturing a wide variety of products since 1845. Brunswick's global headquarters is in the northern Chicago suburb of Lake Forest, Illinois...

 lanes installed inside KTTV's studios, pitted against each other in teams of two. Victorious teams won prizes for studio audience

Studio audience

A studio audience is an audience present for the taping of all or part of a television program. The primary purpose of the studio audience is to provide applause and/or laughter to the program's soundtrack . A studio audience can also provide volunteers, a visual backdrop and discussion participants...

 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

Metromedia

Metromedia was a media company that owned radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986 and owned Orion Pictures from 1986-1997.- Overview :...

-owned stations, benefitting the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation

Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation

The Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation is a non-profit foundation founded by Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. in 1946 in memory of his son Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr.. The foundation was led by his youngest brother, U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy, until his death in 2009. The foundation funded the...

.

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

Rules

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).

Revivals

In 1987, 26 episodes of The New Celebrity Bowling were produced for national syndication. Jed Allan again hosted.

In 2008, TVS Television Network

TVS Television Network

The TVS Television Network, or TVS for short, was a syndicator of American sports programming. It was one of several "occasional" national television networks that sprang up in the early 1960s to take advantage of the establishment of independent television stations and relaxation of the AT&T...

 began producing Celebrity Bowling for TV syndication, using the AMF Lanes at the Silver Nugget Casino in North Las Vegas, Nevada

North Las Vegas, Nevada

North Las Vegas is a city in Clark County, Nevada, United States, located in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. The city was incorporated on May 16, 1946.-Geography:...

. Host of the new version is veteran Las Vegas

Las Vegas metropolitan area

The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...

 TV sports anchor Ron Futrell.

A new version, called Stars and Strikes, produced by Don Gregory, will be taping at the Lucky Strike bowling center inside L.A. Live, and is scheduled to air in the spring of 2011. The format will be the same as the original.

Episode status

All episodes are assumed to exist, with syndication rights being held by the Peter Rodgers Organization. Episodes are (as of November 2010) currently airing on ESPN Classic

ESPN Classic

ESPN Classic is a sports channel that features reruns of famous sporting events, sports documentaries, and sports themed movies. Such programs includes biographies of famous sports figures or a rerun of a famous World Series or Super Bowl, often with added commentary on the event...

 and on the Retro Television Network

Retro Television Network

The Retro Television Network is a system of television stations that airs classic television shows as well as more recently produced programs...

.

DVD Release

A three DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

set (containing fifteen episodes) was released on June 14th, 2011 by S'More Entertainment.

External links

• Peter Rodgers Organization web page