Author Topic: Game show sets (Read 8307 times)

clemon79 · « **Reply #15 on:** July 21, 2009, 01:56:53 AM »

[quote name=\'Bill Neuweiler\' post=\'220675\' date=\'Jul 20 2009, 10:40 PM\']where do you all see the difference?[/quote]
They don't, that's his point. Jason is saying that Kevin's mistaken that the two looked different.

Bill Neuweiler · « **Reply #16 on:** July 21, 2009, 12:17:48 PM »

got it...i was a little slow on the uptake

timpale · « **Reply #17 on:** July 21, 2009, 12:30:43 PM »

And the placard on the podium was the same -- presumably they were just in storage. Maybe there was a smart prop master who knew Blackout wouldn't last.

tvrandywest · « **Reply #18 on:** July 21, 2009, 12:59:24 PM »

[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'220573\' date=\'Jul 20 2009, 12:08 PM\']... The original FF set was stored outside under a tarp on the ABC Prospect lot, where some of the wooden pieces became slightly warped. That same set was used later for the Ray Combs version of the show taped at CBS. The Ferranti-Packard end game board and its associated control equipment were kept. The set was used for the last time in an Old Navy commercial and then destroyed...[/quote]
Because Bob Boden turned it down due to space limitations, and because I couldn't standy to see it lost forever, I am storing that Ferranti-Packard board. It hangs in its original custom built wooden crate with "FF" and IATSE logos. The yellow dots that move to form the characters all seem to be functional, and there are a bunch of extras for back-up. Because it would need to be fully rerprogrammed in an extinct language, I turned down the controller until such time (if ever) it could be brought back to life. Then a ring of my doorbell could trigger just about anything ;-)

To the larger question, Chris (of course) has it right. I watched Vista Electronics do a chop-shop job on the Weakest Link podiums on the final tape date, salvaging the reusable parts including the monitors and reveal buttons. Sad to watch, but show biz has no heart - it's a biz.

Randy
tvrandywest.com

calliaume · « **Reply #19 on:** July 21, 2009, 01:15:19 PM »

Randy, you might know this: was the original Jeopardy! set still in storage at 30 Rock and thus recycled for the Jeopardy 1999! SNL sketch a year or two later? They look pretty much alike (except the absence of a curtain for the board reveal), and at that point, SNL didn't have the kind of budget that would allow it to rebuild a game show set from scratch.

dazztardly · « **Reply #20 on:** July 21, 2009, 01:20:59 PM »

I know Joker and Tic Tac were kept in storage after they went off the air in the mid 80s. Some joker parts were recycled onto the 1990 update.

The set for the 2001 update of Card Sharks was recycled for the set of Whammy.

tvrandywest · « **Reply #21 on:** July 21, 2009, 01:40:19 PM »

[quote name=\'calliaume\' post=\'220732\' date=\'Jul 21 2009, 10:15 AM\']Randy, you might know this: was the original Jeopardy! set still in storage at 30 Rock and thus recycled for the Jeopardy 1999! SNL sketch a year or two later? They look pretty much alike (except the absence of a curtain for the board reveal), and at that point, SNL didn't have the kind of budget that would allow it to rebuild a game show set from scratch.[/quote]
Don't know. I was already in LA for many years. Seems doubtful, but that's just a hunch.

Keep in mind, that board was pretty simple. I remember watching J! tapings at 30 Rock as an impressionable kid and incredulous that the cards were beling pulled by two old guys, one with holes in his cardigan sweater! I spoke with him, and still have the art card from that episode's Final J!. ;-)

Randy
tvrandywest.com

clemon79 · « **Reply #22 on:** July 21, 2009, 01:49:23 PM »

[quote name=\'tvrandywest\' post=\'220730\' date=\'Jul 21 2009, 09:59 AM\']Because Bob Boden turned it down due to space limitations, and because I couldn't standy to see it lost forever, I am storing that Ferranti-Packard board.[/quote]
So that same board was used for both the Dawson and the Combs shows? Was it just that the controller ran faster due to boosts in technology by the time they got to Combs?

chris319 · « **Reply #23 on:** July 21, 2009, 02:58:49 PM »

Quote

So that same board was used for both the Dawson and the Combs shows? Was it just that the controller ran faster due to boosts in technology by the time they got to Combs?

Not just the board, the entire set. The Ferranti-Packard readouts were $100 per character in the '70s. The original Jacquard computer which controlled it was replaced with an IBM PC in the '80s.

geno57 · « **Reply #24 on:** July 21, 2009, 03:44:09 PM »

[quote name=\'tvrandywest\' post=\'220738\' date=\'Jul 21 2009, 12:40 PM\']I ... still have the art card from that episode's Final J!. ;-)[/quote]

So maybe you can answer a question I've had, since I was a kid: Were those art cards created with something along the lines of PresType? Or were they done with a hot-press? Or ... ?

tvrandywest · « **Reply #25 on:** July 21, 2009, 08:37:43 PM »

[quote name=\'geno57\' post=\'220748\' date=\'Jul 21 2009, 12:44 PM\'][quote name=\'tvrandywest\' post=\'220738\' date=\'Jul 21 2009, 12:40 PM\']I ... still have the art card from that episode's Final J!. ;-)[/quote]
So maybe you can answer a question I've had, since I was a kid: Were those art cards created with something along the lines of PresType? Or were they done with a hot-press? Or ... ?
[/quote]
I know nothing of graphics, but will try to answer. If "Prestype" invloves each letter being transfered individually, I'd say NO because all of the type is perfectly straight. The letters are not raised (thicker than the card stock), and appear and feel to be bonded to the cardstock with a slight indentation into the card around the perimeter of each letter. Does that help identify the process? What was/is that called?

btw, as a B&W viewer I was suprised to see that the type was YELLOW on a black background.

Randy
tvrandywest.com

SushiBarSet · « **Reply #26 on:** July 21, 2009, 09:18:14 PM »

Just wondering, was the 1991 "Grid Set" from J! destroyed (or is most of it in Mr. Boden's garage)?

robsearson · « **Reply #27 on:** July 21, 2009, 10:00:43 PM »

[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'220743\' date=\'Jul 21 2009, 02:58 PM\']...The Ferranti-Packard readouts were $100 per character in the '70s.[/quote]
Holy sh*#. That's expensive, even today!

ActualRetailMike · « **Reply #28 on:** July 21, 2009, 10:40:31 PM »

[quote name=\'calliaume\' post=\'220732\' date=\'Jul 21 2009, 01:15 PM\']Randy, you might know this: was the original Jeopardy! set still in storage at 30 Rock and thus recycled for the Jeopardy 1999! SNL sketch a year or two later?[/quote]
I do remember reading that the Jeopardy! set was reconstructed for the Weird Al Yankovic video "I Lost on Jeopardy". It looked pretty loyal to the real thing, right down to the fonts on the answer cards. It suggested to me that they had access to original blueprints. As a whole, though, things looked smaller than I remembered them.

Does everyone here know the story of how, after the "Sushi Bar" J! set was completed, some employee at Metromedia Square (or wherever J! was being taped at the time) noticed the original 8-foot-tall letters spelling JEOPARDY were being hauled off to the dumpster? So he managed to salvage at least 3 letters intact (J, P, and Y among them I think) to sell on eBay. However, the opening bid was like $2k and no one bit, so he lowered it to like $50 and eventually sold them.

Of course, just before the sushi bar was retired, Alex himself announced the sale of parts of the set on eBay, including the contestant podiums (podia?), with the proceeds going to some charitable cause. I think one podium was bought by one of the tournament champions.

chris319 · « **Reply #29 on:** July 21, 2009, 10:45:30 PM »

Quote

The letters are not raised (thicker than the card stock), and appear and feel to be bonded to the cardstock with a slight indentation into the card around the perimeter of each letter. Does that help identify the process? What was/is that called?

That there art card was made with a hot press. Metal type was laid out on a hot plate having a flat metal surface. The hot metal letters were picked up with big forceps and placed into a metal carrier which was then loaded into a big stamping thingie. Below the stamping thingie was placed an art card and a piece of plastic with some kind of pigment stuff on one side. The operator pulled a lever, causing the thingie to stamp the card with the plastic foil in between the type and the card, and the heat transferred the pigment stuff to the front surface of the card. Make sense? And this was for just ONE LINE of type. If an "answer" had three lines, this process had to be repeated for each line. Jeopardy! must have had LOTS of people working full time making those hot-press cards.