Peter Marshall: Remembering “Hollywood Squares” and more

Game show host Peter Marshall, in the middle, at work on "Hollywood Squares".

Source: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2024-08-15/peter-marshall-dead-hollywood-squares

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He may have been one of the last of a dying breed, a creature verging on extinction – the game show host.

When I heard today that Peter Marshall died, my mind instantly went to the game show he hosted so skillfully for years, but also to the notion he had an actual acting career beyond that.

Still, when I hear the name Peter Marshall, I think “Hollywood Squares”, and all the colourful panelists that made up that life-sized game of tic tac toe.

The show
“Hollywood Squares” may have had the biggest set of any game show in history. It was a huge grid of nine squares of three rows stacked on each other, three squares wide, all accessed by stairs. A celebrity sat in each square at a desk facing the audience.

There were two players and Peter Marshall was the host. The players would take turns trying to win squares just like tic tic toe or “X”s and “O”s. Wikipedia explains it best, saying the stars are asked questions by the host and the contestants judge the truth of their answers to gain squares in the right pattern to win the game.

There were dozens upon dozens of celebrities who appeared on the show. The one who stands out for me is Paul Lynde, who was always the centre square.

Peter Marshall was a great host, not too goofy, and not too serious.

He hosted “Hollywood Squares” from 1966 to 1981, for a total of 1,709 episodes, which is just incredible. He won the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Game Show Host four times.

Peter Marshall also did more than “Hollywood Squares”.

On the screen
I recall seeing Peter Marshall appear on an episode of “The Love Boat”, and was surprised. It actually took me a minute to recognize him. That always happens when I see someone who is not usually an actor, but rather a game show host, news personality, or sportscaster. But it indeed was Peter Marshall. I had the same reaction when I saw Monte Hall, longtime host of “Let’s Make a Deal” on “The Love Boat”.

Marshall's television career dates back, long before “Hollywood Squares”, to “Let There Be Stars” in 1949. Marshall would go on to appear in “Men of Annapolis”; “Harbor Command”; “The Millionaire”; “Toast of the Town”; “The Lucy Show”; “77 Sunset Strip”; “Laugh-In”; “Love, American Style”; “Banacek”; “Big Hawaii” and “Lou Grant”; TV movies such as “A Guide for the Married Woman”, “Americathon” and “H.M.S. Pinafore”, and more.

In the ‘80s, he appeared in “WKRP in Cincinnati”; “Fanatsy Island”; “ChiPS”; two different episodes of “The Love Boat”; “Hotel”; “Automan”; “Jessie”; and “Sledge Hammer!”

He also appeared in movies such as “The Return of Jesse James”; “Holiday Rhythm”; “The 49th Man”; “The Cavern”; “Ensign Pulver”; “Annie”, and more.

The years after
Peter Marshall would go on to appear in “Burke’s Law”; “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch”; “The Bold and the Beautiful”; “The Parent ‘Hood”; and more.

He died on August 15, 2024 in Encino, Los Angeles, of kidney failure.

He was 98 years old.

Parting thoughts
The career of a game show host is interesting. If the game show is successful, the host will enjoy that success, but often be pigeon-holed as a game show host. In some cases, such as Bob Barker and Pat Sajak, they were TV or radio personalities who became game show hosts.

However, other game show hosts came from acting backgrounds then found their way to hosting game shows. Peter Marshall and Monte Hall were both like that.

Peter Marshall had a solid acting career before “Hollywood Squares”, and again after it, mostly in TV show guest appearances and the odd TV movie.

Yet, when I saw him in these other roles, it was hard to not see him as the host of “Hollywood Squares”.

Still, he was not only a game show host, but a great one, decorated four times with Emmys for his work.

That is quite a legacy to leave.