The Amateur's Guide to Love

The Amateur's Guide to Love was a romance game show produced by Heatter-Quigley Productions for CBS in 1972.

Host
Gene Rayburn

Announcer
Kenny Williams

Premise
Each episode began with theme music by Mort Garson, set to shots of a van emblazoned with the Amateur's Guide to Love logo, driving around southern California, with scenes of men and women falling in love with each other. As the van travels around, host Gene Rayburn sets the scene for the game show:

"This little truck goes everywhere in search of lovers - in search, really, of you and me. For each of us, at some time, has been involved with matters of the heart. Our truck goes to beaches, supermarkets, department stores, wherever there are people. We park outside, hide our camera, and observe our fellow creatures, struggling to do their best in romantic situations. Love has been with us since the dawn of creation, but still, we've never really learned how to handle it. The Amateur's Guide to Love is here to help."

Afterward, the show would then cut to the studio, where announcer Kenny Williams would introduce this weeks' panelists ("our guidebook advisors"), and Rayburn.

The show somewhat resembled Candid Camera, a show involving guest celebrities and unsuspecting civilians. These people were involved in a comedy situation, taped on location in Southern California using a hidden camera. The subjects in the particular situation were given two choices that were somehow related to sex, marriage or love. A celebrity panel voted upon which choice would have been smarter, and the civilian who picked that particular option won merchandise prizes.

Broadcast history
Amateur's Guide was CBS' first daytime game since the cancellation of To Tell the Truth in September 1968. The series replaced reruns of Gomer Pyle, USMC at 4 p.m. (3 p.m. Central). However, the show failed to make an impact against Somerset on NBC and daytime rebroadcasts of the popular Love, American Style on ABC. Reruns of the sitcom Family Affair replaced it on June 26.

Later that year, CBS returned with game shows in its daytime lineup on September 4 with The New Price Is Right, Gambit and The Joker's Wild. Rayburn himself would return to CBS in July 1973 with a revival of his hit NBC show, Match Game.

Episode status
One episode of The Amateur's Guide to Love is known to exist. The series is thought to be destroyed, but this is not certain as CBS ceased this practice by September 1972. If Amateur's Guide was wiped, it would have been the last game show treated in this manner by the network.