Celebrity Challenge of the Sexes originally aired Sunday, November 20th 1977.

Another great 1970s celebrity "reality" show with a similar premise to Battle of the Network Stars, but in this program the various stars would compete to prove which was the superior sex! And what competitions! Gabe Kaplan versus Mackenzie Phillips in bowling! David Cassidy vs. Susan Saint James in swimming! How about Jack Klugman vs. Suzanne Somers in 8-Ball or Bob Conrad vs. Elke Sommer in cross-country running! They even had Oscar® nominated The Exorcist actress Linda Blair vs. Tab Hunter in horse jumping, WOW! As with other similar television shows of the era everything was done in light-hearted fun, no one took themselves too seriously and a great time was had by all.

In this episode Kristy McNichol was once again representing the ladies in a skateboard competition, just as she had in the previous Celebrity Challenge of the Sexes. But who did the guys come up with to compete against Kristy? None other than Olympic Gold Medallist, "World's Greatest Athlete" Bruce Jenner! With Jenner less than two years removed from his record-breaking decathlon victory in the 1976 Olympics it might seem like this would be an easy victory for the guys. Wrong! Kristy ended up beating Jenner 2 out of 3 times! She also started this particular segment of the show with a cute intro where she "buzzes" McLean Stevenson (her coach) and Flip Wilson (commentator) on her skateboard as they relax waiting for everything to begin. GO KRISTY GO!

Buying note: To my knowledge this program has not been seen since it originally ran in 1977, no copies have been traded among collectors and the chances of it ever being released on home video are small at best. The best chance this show has of ever seeing the light of day again would probably be if some cable or satellite television service reran them, much like Trio® did with ABC's Battle of the Network Stars program a few years back.

5-5-2006