Host
Jim Lange
Jim Lange hosted The Dating Game as a blind quiz with innuendo just inside Standards — one bachelor or bachelorette, three unseen suitors, Chuck Barris cheek, 1960s studio romance as the ancestor of every later dating competition. TV Flash files him as the smile that kept the wall between chairs.
Jim Lange hosted The Dating Game (ABC, 1965–1986), the 1960s romance hour that made a blind quiz the form: one bachelor or bachelorette, three unseen suitors, Chuck Barris’s cheeky production, innuendo just inside Standards. It is the ancestor of every later dating competition, only shorter and more studio-bound.
Lange sells the smile as a referee. Network courtship as a game you could finish before dinner. The wall between chairs is the joke and the safety.
The 1960s address is The Dating Game — ABC, 1965–1986. Jim Lange hosted The Dating Game as a blind quiz with innuendo just inside Standards — one bachelor or bachelorette, three unseen suitors, Chuck Barris cheek, 1960s studio romance as the ancestor of every later dating competition. File Host as the job the hour still requires.
Begin with s01e01 so the stance is loud — Monday, December 20, 1965 is the blind-quiz contract: one chooser, three unseen suitors, Chuck Barris cheek, Jim Lange at the lectern. s01e84 is the turn the desk still cites — Thursday, April 14, 1966 — mid-first-season daily craft, innuendo still just inside Standards & Practices. s01e167 argues the job was never a cameo — Tuesday, August 9, 1966 keeps the summer board hot: romance as a quiz the cameras can sell without a plot.
On TV Flash he is the wall. Watch the quiz as industrial history. We file Lange as 1960s game-show craft: the host who made a dating hour photograph as a panel, still the reason the catalog has a bachelor who cannot see the chairs.
FAQ
Do I start at the first hour of The Dating Game?
Yes — s01e01 if you want the contract in one sitting. Monday, December 20, 1965 is the blind-quiz contract: one chooser, three unseen suitors, Chuck Barris cheek, Jim Lange at the lectern. If the hour has two-parter energy, still start there; Jim Lange is already doing the job.
Lead, supporting, or ensemble?
Host — the constitution of the hour, not a contestant you can skip. Jim Lange is how The Dating Game sounds like an event. Mute that cadence and the format is just noise.
What later hour proves Jim Lange's job held?
The turn lives in s01e84. Thursday, April 14, 1966 — mid-first-season daily craft, innuendo still just inside Standards & Practices. s01e01 is the contract; s01e84 is where Jim Lange changes the temperature of The Dating Game.
Networks & studios
- ABC — via catalog credits
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