What Do Bob Murphy and The Walking Dead Have In Common?

At first glance, the question looks bizarre.  What does the late, great Bob Murphy have in common with everyone’s favorite zombie apocalypse show?  No, the long-time voice of the Mets has not turned into a ravenous flesh-eating ghoul since he passed away in 2004.  But something he did during his early years as a Mets broadcaster is now being brought back from the dead, so to speak.

In 1973, the ever-versatile Bob Murphy was the host of “Bowling For Dollars”, a show on WOR – TV (Channel 9).  The premise of the show was simple.  If you bowled well, you won dollars.  If you rolled the ball in the gutter, you wouldn’t even get the bowling shoes as a lovely parting gift.  Murphy was the show’s host for one year, then gave up 7-10 splits for seeing-eye hits, focusing his full attention on the Mets in the broadcast booth.

Since “Bowling For Dollars” rolled out its final episode in 2008, the small screen has been devoid of programs filmed at a bowling alley (I’m not including the short-lived “Let’s Bowl”, which ran on Comedy Central for a spell.  That “show” was worse than Mickey Lolich’s farts after eating a rack of Rusty’s ribs.)

But bowling is about to make a comeback on television.  And AMC is making sure it’ll be a show that’s right up our alley.

According to deadline.com, AMC is currently developing a new show called “All-Star Celebrity Bowling”.  The show would feature cast and crew members from top-rated AMC programs such as “The Walking Dead” and “Breaking Bad” bowling for fun and charity.  “Celebrity Bowling” producer Chris Hardwick - who also hosts AMC’s “Talking Dead”, a show that discusses the just-aired episode of its zombie drama - currently streams a bowling show on his YouTube channel featuring AMC celebrities.

For the time being, the new bowling show would only air as a special on AMC.  However, if the show garners good ratings, it could potentially be turned into a series on the channel.

In 1973, Bob Murphy turned a beautiful double play when he provided happy recaps to millions of Mets fans and hosted “Bowling For Dollars”.  Forty years later, bowling is about to make its return to television, this time featuring cast members from “The Walking Dead”.  This Mets fan can’t wait to watch the damn thing.