As a kid growing up in the 1970s Celebrity Challenge of the Sexes was one of my favorite shows ever! Similar in premise to another TV competitor, ABC's Battle of the Network Stars but with one big difference, in this program instead of TV Networks competing against one another, in Celebrity Challenge of the Sexes numerous movie and television stars would compete, male vs. female, to prove which was the superior sex! This program ran for several years and gave us countless hours of entertainment as the various stars fought it out as to which was the better gender! I can't remember all of the episodes but the first two live forever in my memory, mostly because teen star Kristy McNichol was in both shows and I was (and still am) a big fan of hers.
The first Celebrity Challenge of the Sexes aired on Sunday, April 17th 1977 on CBS and was a two-hour special TV event! This episode featured many riveting competitions including Bill Cosby vs. Farrah Fawcett-Majors in tennis, Redd Foxx vs. Roz Kelly in billiards, Elliott Gould vs. Brenda Vaccaro in Basketball, Stefanie Powers vs. Tony Randall in swimming, Lloyd Bridges vs. Cindy Williams in a bicycle race, Robert Conrad vs. Penny Marshall in the obstacle course, Phyllis George vs. O.J. Simpson in Ping Pong, Gabe Kaplan vs. Susan Howard in bowling, Ed Asner vs. Lola Falana in a marathon and McLean Stevenson vs. Kathy Crosby in golf! Of course for me the best (and most memorable) part of that episode was watching little Kristy McNichol take on Dan "Grizzly Adams" Haggerty in a skateboard competition and beat him four out of four times! As I recall their clash caused a considerable controversy in school the next day.
Only in America and only in the 1970s could you have a show like this, Connie Stevens and Flip Wilson competing in a go-kart race on national TV to prove which was the superior sex, television the likes of this will never be seen again!
The first Celebrity Challenge of the Sexes aired on Sunday, April 17th 1977 on CBS and was a two-hour special TV event! This episode featured many riveting competitions including Bill Cosby vs. Farrah Fawcett-Majors in tennis, Redd Foxx vs. Roz Kelly in billiards, Elliott Gould vs. Brenda Vaccaro in Basketball, Stefanie Powers vs. Tony Randall in swimming, Lloyd Bridges vs. Cindy Williams in a bicycle race, Robert Conrad vs. Penny Marshall in the obstacle course, Phyllis George vs. O.J. Simpson in Ping Pong, Gabe Kaplan vs. Susan Howard in bowling, Ed Asner vs. Lola Falana in a marathon and McLean Stevenson vs. Kathy Crosby in golf! Of course for me the best (and most memorable) part of that episode was watching little Kristy McNichol take on Dan "Grizzly Adams" Haggerty in a skateboard competition and beat him four out of four times! As I recall their clash caused a considerable controversy in school the next day.
Only in America and only in the 1970s could you have a show like this, Connie Stevens and Flip Wilson competing in a go-kart race on national TV to prove which was the superior sex, television the likes of this will never be seen again!
