In January 1983 STARCADE! was airing on WTBS-the Super Station (as well as other stations) ... a letter was received at WTBS addressed to STARCADE! and it went like this...

I just saw a squib for your program in Variety (a showbiz magazine). How is it going?  Expanding to other cities? Ever thought of having a kid as host?

The letter was from Leonard Fass, a school teacher who watched the show on WTBS with his son Mark. We admired their aggressiveness and in May 1983 we invited them to come to San Francisco to tryout as contestants.  In July we taped their STARCADE show #93.  Their opponents were Jim & Jeff Datzman, another father-son team.

Leonard & Mark were a great team ... taking home every prize we offered except the Mystery Game prize ... including the Grand Prize a Dorodon video arcade game. We invited them back for an Invitational show but they were not able to join us ... we hoped to include them in a later invitational but alas, we never taped that series of invitational shows.

When the show was taped, Mark was 13 and in the 8th grade. He described his game playing ability as "good at most games.  I like to win but I can handle losing."  Losing was no problem. Leonard encouraged Mark to tryout for the show. Leonard said he was "lousy" at playing games but he wanted to be on STARCADE! ... "to get my name in Herb Caen's column (San Francisco Chronicle)."

In 2002 Mark checked in to tell us that today he is an attorney and his Dad, Leonard Fass, is retired from teaching. Leonard wrote STARCADE! some very nice letters after the taping, saying, "... thank you for the opportunity to be on the show and for the four-star treatment we received ... It was a joy to see the enthusiasm which you personally (Marie Shepherd, the Contestant Coordinator) give to your job - so contagious that the contestants catch it - and the smoothness with which you all bring the show together ... Whenever I think that the world is getting carried away with too much focus on profit and power and so on, I will consider that there are also marvelous exceptions and special people such as those of you ... at Starcade!"

The Starcade! experience was magical for us all ... on both sides of the camera.