The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: dazztardly on July 15, 2012, 12:28:24 PM
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http://gameshowvault.blogspot.com/2012_06_01_archive.html
-Dan
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Nice to know that a copy of the pilot has found its way in the collecting circuit. I remember seeing bits and pieces of it in one of the Game Show Moments Gone Bananas specials.
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That was great! Who is behind this blog? Would love to see more!
And, is the video available?
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Jamie Locklin is behind the blog I think.
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Jamie Locklin is behind the blog I think.
Guilty.
Nice to know that a copy of the pilot has found its way in the collecting circuit.
Sorry, I'm pretty sure it's not. I was just able to screen it, review it, and provide some screenshots.
And, is the video available?
Sorry, but not anytime in the foreseeable future. At least not from me.
Other sources with it, with the liberty to share video, may feel like posting it at some point.
Until then, some screen grabs and a review are really it for now!
--Jamie
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Thank you for sharing this information on the show. It's nice to see Steve Ryan's handywork in action :)
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Based on the description, the game itself seemed to be a puzzler. Certainly not a game that can be described in a single sentence, as Mark Goodson said was the key to a good game.
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Nice to know that a copy of the pilot has found its way in the collecting circuit. I remember seeing bits and pieces of it in one of the Game Show Moments Gone Bananas specials.
Yeah, good thing they didn't include "tuck" in the missing initials category.
Sucker for word games and word puzzles that I am, I've wanted to know more about "Puzzlers".
From the looks of things, they might have been better off without the semi-final round ("series of Double Puzzles") and just had the champion play against a new challenger in the best of three-out-of-five series.
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Stopping the action to explain a new puzzle worked for TPiR so I can see why Goodson would give word puzzles a try. Perhaps a more interesting format or scoring system would be in order.
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The puzzles were largely Steve's creation but it was Bobby Sherman and Ira Skutch who rather made a jumble out of the format. There was some concern that the range of material might be limited if they didn't have an assortment of puzzles. There was talk of using puzzles involving maps, where players would identify the state they were in after seeing certain cities, and picture puzzles where players would identify an object after seeing various close-up views of it. I came up with a puzzle called "Hieroglyphics" where words would appear by gradually revealing fragments of the characters, kind of like Camouflage in reverse, but it was not used in the pilot.
After we did the pilot, NBC passed on it. We had to wait 30 days until we could show it to another buyer. CBS came in, looked at a live run-thru and passed. That was the end of Puzzlers. I then asked Ira if we would be showing it to ABC. His answer was, bluntly, "We don't deal with ABC." He went on to explain that there was a rift between Goodson and ABC which originated with Family Feud. ABC objected to the "steal" part of the game. Goodson wanted it kept in. ABC wanted it out. After a bit of back and forth, Goodson said that either the "steal" stayed in or he would take the show to another network. ABC relented and Family Feud made lots and lots of money for them.
If they had made Puzzlers a little more like TPIR with one type of puzzle per act and an inventory of rotating puzzles, it would have been an improvement.
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After we did the pilot, NBC passed on it. We had to wait 30 days until we could show it to another buyer. CBS came in, looked at a live run-thru and passed. That was the end of Puzzlers. I then asked Ira if we would be showing it to ABC. His answer was, bluntly, "We don't deal with ABC." He went on to explain that there was a rift between Goodson and ABC which originated with Family Feud. ABC objected to the "steal" part of the game. Goodson wanted it kept in. ABC wanted it out. After a bit of back and forth, Goodson said that either the "steal" stayed in or he would take the show to another network. ABC relented and Family Feud made lots and lots of money for them.
Wow, what a strange thing to object to. Did they have a problem with the moral implications of promoting "stealing" on a daytime show? If the mechanism was called something else, would the objection have been as strong?
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They didn't like that one family could do the bulk of the work, strike out, and the opposing family could "steal" it away with just one correct answer. Of course Goodson was right because it gives the game drama and irony.
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They didn't like that one family could do the bulk of the work, strike out, and the opposing family could "steal" it away with just one correct answer. Of course Goodson was right because it gives the game drama and irony.
Sooooooo....what were they suggesting as a replacement?
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Good story. I have wondered why most G/T shows ended up on NBC or CBS in the late 70s/early 80s.
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It doesn't explain The Better Sex, but NBC was the first port of call during the Fred Silverman era and CBS the second.
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It doesn't explain The Better Sex, but NBC was the first port of call during the Fred Silverman era and CBS the second.
Funny, I thought I remembered reading that Fred Silverman disliked game shows (and in fact was the one responsible for sending Password packing from CBS in 1967)... did he change his tune once he hit NBC?
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There were rumors that NBC wanted to get rid of all game shows. After America Alive didn't take off, that idea fizzled for the time being. It was back to game shows and Goodson-Todman, a major supplier in that genre.
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They didn't like that one family could do the bulk of the work, strike out, and the opposing family could "steal" it away with just one correct answer. Of course Goodson was right because it gives the game drama and irony.
Sooooooo....what were they suggesting as a replacement?
I don't think that's how notes work.
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They didn't like that one family could do the bulk of the work, strike out, and the opposing family could "steal" it away with just one correct answer. Of course Goodson was right because it gives the game drama and irony.
Sooooooo....what were they suggesting as a replacement?
I don't think that's how notes work.
Plus the conversation was about "Why aren't we pitching Puzzlers to ABC?" rather than "What were the details of ABC's objections to the Family Feud steal?" Without the steal maybe the money would remain in the bank and they would move on to the next question?
According to the irrefutable and eminently authoritative Wikipedia, none other than Michael Eisner was head of ABC daytime when Family Feud went on the air, but in our conversation Ira cited Jackie Smith. BTW, wasn't Noreen Conlin at ABC at one point?
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There were rumors that NBC wanted to get rid of all game shows. After America Alive didn't take off, that idea fizzled for the time being. It was back to game shows and Goodson-Todman, a major supplier in that genre.
Wow...didn't know that! I guess it's a good thing America Alive didn't do very well.
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Good stuff Jamie! Have to offer a correction in the bonus round: the 10-pictures-in-30-seconds was actually part one of a two part bonus. You got $100 for each set of initials you solved, and played for ten times that in the Photo Finish. In that circle, you had one picture describing two initials. If you identified what both stood for in 10 seconds, you won ten times what you won in the first part.
-Jason
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Have to offer a correction in the bonus round: the 10-pictures-in-30-seconds was actually part one of a two part bonus. You got $100 for each set of initials you solved, and played for ten times that in the Photo Finish. In that circle, you had one picture describing two initials. If you identified what both stood for in 10 seconds, you won ten times what you won in the first part.
The fact that I don't remember much about the details of the format after 32 years tells you something about the format.