$ale of the Century discussion

[jlgarfield]

Hi - the only reason I'm starting a new thread is because, well, bumping older ones is bad form.
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I've been thinking a lot about the 1980s $ale of the Century on NBC. I've heard lots of things regarding the status of the pre-July 1988 NBC eps, and I don't want to open a can of worms, but, at best, they are MIA; however, like what we saw regarding the syndie 1970s Hollywood Squares eps and the original CBS The Joker's Wild, you never know if they will turn up.

Anyway, quite a few early eps of the show have turned up lately (namely Mort Kamins' run for the lot in March of '83, and one ep from January 1984), and this is second-hand info from the commenters, but the first lot winner of that incarnation of $ale, ever, (before the cash jackpot was put in place) was a guy named Michael Todaro.

It also made me wonder, since Mort's first ep concided with the debut of Lee Menning; did they even acknowledge Sally's departure on the last show? I guess we'll never know.

[TLEberle]

I imagine Jim did a cursuory “wish her well in her future endeavors”.

[chrisholland03]

I imagine Jim did a cursuory “wish her well in her future endeavors”.

With validated parking and a return trip to Mars

[jlgarfield]

I should mention the only info I have about Michael Todaro is that he participated in the first $ale Tournament of Champions, going up against Fran Wolfe and Helen Durvall (an early lot winner). Fran won that heat, facing off against Mort Kamins and Cathy Powers.

[calliaume]

I imagine Jim did a cursuory “wish her well in her future endeavors”.

I wouldn’t be surprised if she wasn’t mentioned at all.

I do have a very vague memory of when Joe Garagiola replaced Jack Kelly in 1971 (I would have been eight years old)—I don’t think it was anything more than “And here’s our new host, Joe Garagiola!”

EDIT: This appears to be Lee Menning's first episode, and Sally is not mentioned.

[SuperMatch93]

I should mention the only info I have about Michael Todaro is that he participated in the first $ale Tournament of Champions, going up against Fran Wolfe and Helen Durvall (an early lot winner). Fran won that heat, facing off against Mort Kamins and Cathy Powers.

One of the episodes from that heat has been in the circuit for a while; I know at one point it was on YouTube in not-great quality but I can't seem to find it now. (EDIT: It was on David Downs' YT before that went down.)

The heats AFAIK were as follows:

Heat 1: Mort Kamins vs. Barbara Phillips vs. Richard Heft
Heat 2: Cathy Powers vs. Ray Winston vs. someone else
Heat 3: Michael Todaro vs. Fran Wolfe vs. Helen Durvall

Jim mentioned during one of Mort's original episodes that the lot had gone off three times before, so that would line up with Michael, Helen, and the other participant.

[jlgarfield]

^ I believe that is the same Ray Winston that competed on the Trebek Double Dare.

[TLEberle]

^ I believe that is the same Ray Winston that competed on the Trebek Double Dare.

and two others, yes.

[chris319]

There was a to-do about Ray Winston having lied on his contestant application. It went to Compliance and Practices. All Ray got was a set of luggage.

[jlgarfield]

^ Wait, what?! That's news to me.

[TLEberle]

^ Wait, what?! That's news to me.

yup. He was on (I believe) Split Second, Three for the Money, Double Dare and then Sale. DD put him over the bag limit and he left one of the predecessors off when he filled out that section of the application form and thus eventually missed out on an $83,000 cash jackpot.

[SuperMatch93]

Here's the court document for Winston v. NBC if anyone's curious.

https://law.justia.com/cases/california/court-of-appeal/3d/231/540.html

[Blanquepage]

I'm assuming NBC ultimately did away with that "three game shows in one lifetime" stipulation that same decade?
Chou Chou Grant immediately comes to mind with her $ale appearance in '88, after having already appeared on TJW, PW+, and $100K Pyramid.

[jlgarfield]

A post from a long time ago had one of our members get Helen's $ale pin.

[chris319]

From that document we get an interesting glimpse into the economics of daytime network TV in November, 1983.

It cost NBC $137,410 to produce 7 shows, or $19,630 per show, or $98,150 per week.

With six commercial minutes per show $3,272 per minute of commercial time was the breakeven point. This works out to $1,636 for 12 30-second spots.

An NBC executive once revealed to me that a typical game show cost approximately $120,000 per week. This figure is very close to the $98,150 figure calculated above.

That's just the cost side of the equation. We don't know what NBC collected in ad revenue at the time.