Introduction
When the Bee Gees’ Maurice and Robin Gibb went head-to-head on The Dating Game – watch
Twins Maurice and Robin were both 18 years old when they appeared on a 1968 celebrity edition of the popular dating show.
Did you know the Bee Gees’ Maurice and Robin Gibb were once celebrity guests on an episode of the 1960s blind-date-themed The Dating Game?
The ‘Night Fever’ singers were pitted against each other as well as an Olympic Gold medalist on the show, where the aim was to win over the heart of one hopeful single.
The Dating Game gave bachelors and bachelorettes the opportunity to question three mystery singletons who were hidden from their view.
After asking their questions, the budding bachelor/bachelorette in the questioning seat was given the opportunity to choose which of the three people they’d questioned they’d like to go on an all-expenses-paid date with.
On the Bee Gees brothers’ episode of the show, Maurice and Robin were up against multiple USA Olympic Gold medal-winning and then-world record-holding swimmer Don Schollander.
Both Maurice and Robin were 18 years old when they appeared on the show, and despite some issues with their accents, the two young men obviously impressed their episode’s young single woman, Debbie, with their answers.
Don also impressed Debbie with his responses to her questions, but in the end it was Maurice who Debbie chose for her date.
“I wanted them all!” the theatre student admitted at the time, but she seemed delighted with the identity of her suitor.
Debbie and Maurice were set up with a date in South Africa, but as his later 1969 marriage to Lulu reveals, the pair’s TV show meeting didn’t lead to a lasting romance.
Still, the young star at least got the satisfaction of beating his brother to the date!
It’s nice to see the brothers jokingly going up against each other in this TV show appearance, considering how the following year was a troubled one for the Bee Gees as a group.
1969 saw Robin temporarily leave the band and also saw the collapse of the band’s plans to star in the feature film, an idea mentioned in the above clips by The Dating Game’s host Jim Lange ahead of Maurice and Robin’s arrival on the show.
Thankfully, 1970 saw the brothers reunite and move on to new projects, leading eventually to more successes with that year’s 2 Years On, 1971’s Trafalgar, and eventually to future hits like Saturday Night Fever.