I was in Melbourne last week for a conference. When I checked in to my apartment late Wednesday afternoon, I was told there was a heated indoor pool on my floor. Swimming has never been one of my past times. I used to watch the Beach Party films and be internally screaming, “Frankie! Annette! Get back in the beach house! Nonna will see!” Of course, they couldn’t hear me – Donna Loren was likely singing on the sand for the beach kids and Miss Perpetual Motion, Candy Johnson, would have been nearby dancing her ass off to the beat. Well, something came over me and I walked to the nearby outlet mall and bought a pair of swimmers. On that rainy afternoon, a middle-aged man lapped me to my right as I, freestyle-cum-dog paddling, imagined myself in an old Esther Williams film. I hid from him for a while under the water. Eventually I figured he was just getting started, and so I came back up to the surface, got changed, and settled in for a night of MasterChef and the premiere of Lucy Lawless’ new show, My Life is Murder.

On Saturday night I had some time back at the apartment before the conference dinner. Channel 10 was showing back-to-back repeats of Celebrity Name Game hosted by Grant Denyer. I make no secret of how much I enjoy watching Grant. I think he’s probably the best compere on Australian television. At a restaurant once with friends, I spied Grant at what looked like a promotional dinner. In a flash, I was halfway out of my seat when my friends told me to wait a while before approaching him. They also nixed me following him into the bathroom. Well, I waited too long and he exited the building when I wasn’t watching. Not even a bombe Alaska could lift my spirits (it did almost singe my eyebrows, though, because it was so doused in spirits). I’d missed my chance to meet him. It still hasn’t happened.

Grant returned in May to the 6PM weekday time slot with Celebrity Name Game. He’d held that slot previously when he hosted Family Feud from 2014 until mid-2018. Family Feud was must-see viewing for me. Some friends turn their noses up because I watch shows like Family Feud, The Living Room, and MasterChef, when they think I should be ensconced by the TV only enjoying scripted shows from the current Golden Age of Television. I get it, but after some hard days at work or when my head isn’t quite as clear as it could be, I can’t always sit down to a big drama or my favourite genre, described by Marge Simpson as “people coming to terms with things”. And there’s nothing wrong with liking these shows. When Grant accepted the 2018 Logie award for Most Popular Presenter for Family Feud, he ended his speech talking about the importance of fun and silly television, where “as angry and as scary and as crazy as this world gets”, people can “put their brain in neutral and have a little laugh”.

Family Feud was important to me for another reason. It started while I was in the first few months of writing my blog. Looking back, I really don’t know how to explain the volume I managed to write in the those first couple of years, other than to say that I was enjoying it so much and was champing at the bit to tell the world what I thought after not doing anything very creative for a while. All of a sudden, I felt very creative and energetic. I also dropped about 12 kilos…and got myself a therapist. The show was very important to me, running as it were in parallel with my starting to feel my head was above water again.

Without my realising it, I think it was a similar time for Grant. When Mr. Denyer also won the top award at the Logies that night in 2018 – the Gold Logie for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television – he told the audience how Family Feud came to him when he was experiencing a really difficult time. He said, “I wasn’t particularly in a very good place, I wasn’t very well, I was in a bit of a hole”. For Grant, Family Feud brought him back and it gave him “a ladder out of that hole”.

I’m really enjoying Celebrity Name Game. And, Grant, next time I see you, wherever that is, I promise I’ll say hello.