Cultureshark Remembers Brett Somers

Brett Somers, who died at 83 this past weekend, always seemed like a "broad" to me. That word is a relic of a different time, perhaps, but she always seemed like the type that would relish that label--as long as she got to fire back a label or two at you.

Regards, of course, to her family, and regrets for their loss. But I am talking not about Brett Somers the human being--of whom I very know little--but of Brett Somers the TV personality.

Not that I know much more about the persona. I knew Somers mainly as Jack Klugman's real-life spouse and Blanche, Oscar's ex, on "The Odd Couple," until I got Game Show Network (back before it became too hip for anything except letters in its title) and relived many of the Match Game reruns I had passively absorbed as a kid. This Brett Somers was something else.

In fact, this Brett Somers was...kind of scary, really. She was the eccentric old lady who hung out with your grandmother (or maybe your oldest aunt), and while you didn't really see why they hung out, you somehow accepted it. Only, when she came over, you didn't quite know how to act around her. She was a little too loud and dressed a little too different. The cigarette smoke in the clothes and that hint of "the hard stuff" on the breath would be a bit of a barrier and only one of many indications that while she was friendly enough, she was undeniably an Adult and somewhat hard to fathom unless you were as old as she was.

Was Brett Somers ever younger than 40? Biologically speaking, she must have been, but seeing her in the 70s, it's hard to believe. She was sophisticated, but in an earthy way, and I don't mean there was anything particularly sexual or nonsexual about it. She was just who she was, and that was a little disturbing sometimes. Look at the way she harassed Charles Nelson Reilly, or the other panelists, or the contestants, or even the audience. She gave it back to the audience when they booed her, but she didn't seem to take it personally. Hey, she wasn't shy about piling it on when it was her turn.

If that reads like I'm knocking her, don't mistake me. She was never the funniest panelist on The Match Game, and I can't remember any particularly good zingers of hers, but she did give us a lot of head-scratchers. Her character fit perfectly the essential weirdness that defined The Match Game. That show was all about bizarre personalities, all the way up to and including the host, and it had an atmosphere that must have felt askew even then but appears otherworldly today. Who better to provide an edge--an awkward edge--than that odd lady who seems a little too something for the room?

That's what I'll remember about Brett Somers--the endless supply of "What the hell just happened?" moments she either instigated or assisted. For that reason, it's impossible to imagine the most "What the hell?" game show of all time, The Match Game, without her unique presence.