[quote name=\'PaulD\' date=\'Feb 17 2006, 10:59 PM\']In tems of 70's G/T output, 'Concentration' hosted by Jack Narz is below the radar alongside 'Mindreaders' and syndicated 'Tattletales.' Does anyone have any recollections of it or recall any differences there were to the Eighties version? I'm assuming it was a weekly show.
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The syndicated "Concentration" was on five days a week, and I'm glad to say I watched most of the run (mostly on WNBC, but I think it eventually moved to WOR-TV near the end). Jack Narz was a very smooth host and this, believe it or not, was his longest running show. And Johnny O was the announcer throughout.
The technology to do the puzzles on computer didn't exist in the 70's so the mechanical game boards were used (and I believe that they tried to ship the original game boards out of New York, but wound up building their own from the original plans because the old ones were not in that great of shape). The puzzles were rendered in color for the first time, and there were a couple of different end games. Most notable was the "Double Play" game in which the contestant had to solve two fully-shown rebuses in a total of 10 seconds or less to win a car, usually a Chevrolet Vega.
Each episode was its own self-contained unit, no returning champions.
That great Edd Kalehoff theme and some of the other cues were actually pitched down a step when the show began in 1973, but eventually were played at their normal speed. By the time the show ended, the music used was a mix of the original Kaleoff cue package and some TPiR cues tipped in for bonus game prize music.