Introduction - A Gene Rayburn Story: Pirates of Blank

Growing up by the Jersey Shore, I've long been a fan of pirate yarns and nautical adventures. My sisters and I listened to high-seas stories, real and imagined, the way other kids heard fairy tales. We used to dream of digging up pirate treasure like the kids in The Goonies. We never did find treasure, but those stories stayed with me...and they've inspired many of my fanfics, including this one. 

It's June 1978, and Match Game host Gene Rayburn wishes he were in the middle of the ocean, or anywhere but CBS Television City in Burbank. Richard Dawson, formerly his best panelist, now the host of Family Feud, just finished his last day of taping. He behaved badly the whole week, barely playing the game and never enjoying it. Gene's fed up with him and tired of his boss Mark Goodson complaining to him about their falling ratings. He wonders what being a pirate would have been like, over two hundred years before...