Mystery Date (game)

Mystery Date, 1965.

Mystery Date is a 1965 board game from the Milton Bradley Company, designed by Marvin Glass. It was marketed to girls 6 to 14 years of age, and was reissued in 1970, 1999, and in 2005.

Gameplay

Mystery Date can be played with 2, 3, or 4 players. The object of the game is to be ready for a date by acquiring three matching color-coded cards to assemble an outfit. The outfit must then match the outfit of the date at the "mystery door". The date is revealed by spinning the door handle and opening the plastic door on the game board. The five possible dates are:

The date to be avoided is the poorly dressed "dud." He is wearing slovenly attire, his hair is tousled and his face sports a beard shadow. There was also a figure made out to represent a construction worker.

In the 1970s game, a "picnic" date replaced the "bowling" date.

If the player's outfit does not match the date behind the door, the door is closed and play continues.

In popular culture

Mystery Date has been mentioned and featured in the 1994 Disney film The Santa Clause, and parodied several times, including in the classic 1996 episode of The Simpsons, "Summer of 4 Ft. 2." In 2012 it was the inspiration for the title of a Mad Men episode that used the game's themes of dating, masculine desirability, and Russian roulette approach to opening a door as a metaphor.

In the Ren and Stimpy episode Sven Hoek, the game Mystery Date was parodied as Misery Date.

The game was sometimes played on screen in the bookshop "Buy-the-book" on the 1990s sitcom "Ellen" and referred to there as "the chick game".

The game is also presented in Pretty Little Liars (Season Five, Season Finale)

References

Mystery Date game board, 1965.

External links