Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Previously on your morning show with Michael del Joono. Did
I mention that Valerie Burtonelly was on today's show maybe once?
Maybe six sevens? Well, she is. What a throw to
meet you, Valerie.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Nice to meet you too.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Listen. I caught your new game show and you were terrific.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Well, thank you. I'm having a ball. I love it.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
You know, I was thinking to myself before we started,
life was pretty simple growing up. The girls were all
in love with I think, and I have to remember,
but I think it was like David Cassidy, some the
older girls, Leaf, Garrett, Scott Bayo was actually guys. We
were simple. We were in love with Christy mcnickel or
Valerie Burton Elly yea, Christy, I love it, or Farah Fawson. Right.
(00:46):
It was that simple. And I was thinking to myself,
I'm fifteen years old. I'm trying to figure out how
to play nose tackle at ninety eight pounds and get
Jean Duizan to go study with me, and you're in
a Norman Lear sitcom with I mean, people forget Pat
Harrington Junior was in the Danny Thomas Show. I mean
he was a pretty big deal.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Oh he was brilliant.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Yeah, and Bonnie Franklin and Mackenzie Phillips. I mean that
had to be crazy to be fifteen years old and
every guy in the world was in love with you.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Well, I didn't know that. There wasn't social media back then.
I just, you know, I was just trying to, you know,
do the best job I could. And I was so green,
and I so didn't know what I was doing, and
I had so much help and so much support. It
was I was very, very blessed, and I am so
grateful that that's my introduction to the business because it
can be pretty rough, but I had soft places to
(01:35):
fall everywhere.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
So how did you go from? I mean I presume Italian,
right like me?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah, I'm Italian and Irish and English?
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah, So how did that happen? How do you end
up in a Norman Lear sitcom? At fifteen?
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I looked a lot like his daughter, Maggie, and I
think that sparked something in Norman.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Something in me reminded him of his daughter.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
And I was lucky enough to get the job because
god knows I wasn't a pretty good actress.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
I actually thought you was.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
He sent me to acting school the first season.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
And well it's been paid off. You did great, So
then we you know, we start with that. I didn't
realize that show was on so long? Were you there
all the way to eighty four?
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I was nine years Yeah, nineteen seventy five to nineteen
eighty four.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Man, that's a long time. And then you know, after that,
Emmy Award winning host, best selling author the memoirs, the Cookbooks,
spokesperson and now game show host.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
I keep myself busy.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
You well, there was some other stuff in between two.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yes, yes, I got married.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
I had a kid. Yeah, there's that too. I did
a you know, a mini series. But I just I
love to work. I love to stretch my brain. I
love to learn new things, and I love to be
around people.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Most of the time.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
I'm this very strange mix of introvert and extrovert where
I love being around people, I love giving them energy,
love feeling their energy, and then I need to like
not see a soul for like a day's.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Animals.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Valer Burtinelly joining us because Bingo Blitz is there a
new game show. It airs seven thirty week nights on
the Game Show Network. I have a mom who is
in a nursing home and we visit constantly and it
never moves from the game show network.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
So to know because my yeah, my parents were in
a facility.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
You know, there was different things on the television, you know.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah, Well, and then I think you're on right before
the wall. I believe, if I have the timing writer,
maybe there's one between you and the wall, and the
wall is a huge ship. But I have to tell you,
I'm not saying this because I'm talking to you. I
don't know what I mean. I was very good friends
with Wink Martindale, who we just lost.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I loved him, I lost him.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
He was an amazing, amazing human being just at a
perfect post.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yes he was. He was really terrific. Such a beautiful smile.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Oh, he was just the great. He gave me one
of his sport codes. I wanted a gaudy one to
hang up next to all my football jerseys, but he
brought me one. So nice. I wear it. If you
flip the lapel, there's a note from a minute. But
I mean, nice to talk to him all about that,
because game shows are different, right, I mean, let's go.
I want to get to the premise of the show
and how many you film in a single day, but
I want to start, and I mean this wholeheartedly. You're unnatural.
(04:18):
You are very very good so much.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
It's a very different animal, and it took me a
little bit to adjust to it. We did have some
rehearsals here in Los Angeles so that I could adjusted
the game. Luckily, the game is easy to play, and
the trivia is really written so well, giving out four
answers and then you know, messing with your head a
little bit with the question because you're not expecting where
(04:42):
it's going to go. I love what the writers did
with that. But I mean, Bingo's easy, right, I mean,
it's not a very difficult game to play. It's a
game of chance. There's very little skill, but the skill
involved is answering the trivia and getting the because you
don't get the balls without the trivia.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
You gotta have a lot of balls to get.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
And the more balls you get, the more you better
chance you have of getting bingos.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Then there's the golden ball. You didn't think I knew
about the golden ball, didn't.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Yeah, you can put that anywhere.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
I can put that anywhere. Yeah, you know, thought I
thought the interesting too. I mean you see all these
shows all the time visiting Vali. Burtnelli is the new
host of Bingo Blitz week Night, seven thirty. I think
it debuted almost a week ago tonight or something like that.
But yeah, it's the way you get the one of four.
I guess it's kind of mixing trivia and multiple choice.
(05:31):
You wouldn't think there's any trigger questions left with all
these shows, that's.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
True, but the way that we put the little spin
on it is really fun.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
It makes your brain. They're like brain teasers. They're great.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
And then when it's all said and done, you got
sixty seconds to take a shot at ten thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
That final round always made me so nervous because I
wanted to get everything right so that the contestant had everything,
as you know, put in perfectly so that they could
be at their best. If I was so nervous, I
knew that I had to do the best job I
could because.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Those sixty seconds ago by really quickly.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
When you're asking and you're saying a lot of words
and you're asking a lot of questions, it's really scary.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Well, do you remember what was the game show with
the Beast and Brooke Burns was the host of it
at the time, and it was. But it was similar
to that in that there's a lot writing on you
not taking a long time asking the questions because every
fluff you make is taking away time from them. So yeah,
that's all right.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
So I pig the villain in this, and god knows,
I hate being a villain.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
So were you a big game show fan or does
this come kind of out of the blue for you.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I do love game shows.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
I did a lot of them when I you know,
when I was younger, I did you know, pyramids, whares?
I did what ten thousand dollars pyramid? I did family Feud,
match game a bunch of them in the seventies and
maybe the early eighties, and then I didn't do so
so many anymore. But yeah, I love playing games at home.
(06:58):
I'm I have every board I think there possibly is
I have. You know, we played card games all the time.
I just I love games and to be a host
of a really fun game show that people I know,
you're going to want to play this at home, like
you're gonna want to scream out the answers. I'm so
thrilled to be a part of it. I I loved
every second of it. It was definitely out of my wheelhouse,
(07:21):
but I got adjusted to it very quickly, and I
really had fun with it.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
I'm a little embarrassed that you notice how quickly I
knew you run the ten thousand dollars pyramid. I guess
I did stalk you a little bit as a team. No,
that was that's from skipping school and actually watching you. Michael,
I did well, yeah, a lot, a lot and did.
And what was the one with no whammies, no whammis
pressure luck?
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Well like that? That was hysterical.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
That was one of my favorites. Valerie Burtonelly from One
Day at a Time for nine years and a teen
heart throb to best selling author, spokesperson now game show
host Bingo Blitz Game Show Network seven thirty. I highly
encourage everyone to give it a try. You're an absolute natural.
Now I know you've been doing stuff with Oh. Now
(08:06):
I'm going to blank on her from was it et
Drew Barrymore?
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Drew.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Yes, I'm part of the Drew crew on her show.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
So I show up.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
I think I did about fifty some odd episodes last season.
I'll be back to do more next season.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
I adore her.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
She's like a sister from another mister. I just absolutely
love her. She's what you see is what you get.
She's very much like Betty where that. That's how authentic
she is. She's just everything you could you see and
you could want from a human being.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
She is it.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
I got to tell you, if they're going to keep
giving a bunch of people shows, they ought to give
you a shot at I think you'd be a natural
having your own show.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
I do not want my own talk show. I'm telling you.
I watch how hard Drew works. I watched how hard
Rachel watch I'm going to be sixty five in a
couple of days.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
I don't want to work that hard. I want to
have fun.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Well fun, Yeah, we're both getting up there, all right,
So let me ask you this. How many do you
film in a day?
Speaker 3 (09:09):
We filmed six episodes in a day, and that's a
lot of talking. And I was done talking by the
end of the day. I didn't want to talk, I
didn't want to say, I didn't want to see anybody.
I would go back to my hotel room and just
like make myself dinner and then just like I think
it's we we're shooting during football season. So I would
just turn on a game and I you know, there
was like Monday night games, Thursday night games, Sunday. I
(09:30):
was just like I just wanted to watch football or
nothing and just like not talk.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Now, do you think there's any way you can rig
it where the Dell Journals can be getting beyond h
on the blitz?
Speaker 2 (09:40):
I would love that, but I you know, that's not
up to me.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Game Show Network is very very out of particular goals.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
See we've tried to get on other game shows. You
get you all these films to show that you'll be
theatrical and you know put on.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
They do want you to have energy.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
I mean we are we are filming television, so obviously
that's part of it. And if you have a sense
of you that's a plus always. But I don't see
why you couldn't. I mean, Game Show Network is here,
all got to do that.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Well, we are famous. We go to Mexican Knight and
do trivia and we are the Harry Potheads and we
are Vala. You love this. We are always in first
place going into the final question and we have never
come in the top three. That's so much we bom
and so I probably should. How do you do that?
I don't. We choke every time, and we don't cheat.
(10:29):
Some people cheat. I can see him googling we don't cheat.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
But we all cheat.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
I mean, how do you have Well, you don't have
time to shoot when you're paying bingo blitz, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
No, because it's on the spot. But I would be
like that Ralph Cramton episode Rareb just like Hamana Hamana.
I would choke on the final question. It's probably the best.
I don't let me tell you something. You were in
love with her, I know, and you have a lot
of reason to still be in love with her at
sixty five. It's called bingo Blitz. You're gonna love it.
On the Game Show Network week nights at seven point thirty.
A lot of us had crushes on you as kid,
(10:57):
A lot of us have prayed for you throughout life.
All of us are very proud of you and who
you become. I wish you nothing but success with this show.
Belly sweet, miss a little, miss a lot, miss a lot,
and we'll miss you.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
It's your morning show with Michael del Churno