The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: Jay Temple on November 07, 2003, 12:06:31 PM
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A little while back, there was a discussion of the earliest game shows that we remembered watching, followed by the first game show that we could have watched. In a discussion about big wins on WoF, someone remembered details of a win from the shopping era.
What's the earliest game show from which you can recall a specific outcome, or even specific material?
I remember a tie in the second game of Bill Cullen's $25,000 Pyramid where the first two or three tie-breaker rounds didn't break the tie, so Bill explained that whichever player won the next tie-breaker round would get a flat sum ($5,000, I think), and they'd each get some smaller amount if they tied again. I don't remember the outcome, though.
I remember a contestant giving clues in the Winner's Circle to Ed Asner, also on BC25K. One of the categories was "Things in hell," which he didn't get. Afterward, he "explained" that he didn't want to say that word. (At the time, I didn't realize that he was joking!)
I didn't see the $10K show where William Shatner gave himself the clues in the Winner's Circle, but they used it in the opening clips on a later show with Shatner. If I understood what he and Dick said to each other, it was the very next day.
On the short-lived Musical Chairs (1974), once they got to the elimination portion of the game, if there was a tie for last place, they'd keep doing more questions until there was no longer a tie. I remember a game where they were down to three players, two of them were tied and trailed the leader by--well, I don't remember how much, but it was more than the value of one question. They had two questions (or however many it took) where both of the trailing players answered correctly before the leader did, and ultimately they stayed tied and eliminated him! (Does anyone besides me and Curt Alliaume even remember this show?)
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[quote name=\'Jay Temple\' date=\'Nov 7 2003, 12:06 PM\']
I remember a tie in the second game of Bill Cullen's $25,000 Pyramid where the first two or three tie-breaker rounds didn't break the tie, so Bill explained that whichever player won the next tie-breaker round would get a flat sum ($5,000, I think), and they'd each get some smaller amount if they tied again. I don't remember the outcome, though.
[/quote]
As per a Usenet post several years back, such a scenario occurred on Cullen $25K Pyramid when future Knot's Landing co-star/80s Pyramid semi-regular Constance McCashin was a contestant. She won $1950, $1250 of it from a tie game which continued to be tied after time ran out, so her and her opponent split $2500.
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I remember sitting, mesmerized, by an episode of the $20,000 Pyramid in probably 1979 or 1980 in which they went past a few tie-breaker rounds, well into the 30s and possibly the 40s. I wondered how high the scores could go!! That would be specific material.
As far as a specific outcome, I guess you could call a DSW on TPiR an outcome....That's the earliest thing I remember, and it scared the living daylights out of me, with the sirens, and the "DOUBLE SHOWCASE WINNER" flashing on the screen (I could read at 3, so I knew what it said...)
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My earliest remembrances where of the Chuck & Susan era of Wheel of Fortune. For those old enough to remember back that far, Susan Stafford was involved in a very bad accident sometime between 1978-1980 and was off the show for several weeks while she healed from her injuries. Fill-ins were used for that period and I remember how bad they all were, even though I was only 5-6 years old.
One time Chuck was ready to introduce the next puzzle and the letter turner hadn't finished tilting the trilons forward so they go to a camera shot of the woman frantically trying to line up all the trilons and Chuck making fun of her. :-) I want to say he said something along the lines of "This wouldn't be happening if Susan were here." Looking back, I'm surprised it actually made it to air.
<sigh> If only the 70's era was still around :-)
Rob
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My parents tell me I was watching Concentration from my playpen. The earliest specific memory I have is of an undefeated champion named Ruth being retired from the show. That would have been the summer of 1966, when I was six years old (and pretty much out of the playpen, by the way).
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I remember a Password from the early 70s, when it came on at 3 pm, where the password was "quagmire" and none of the players knew what it meant.
Sue
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Has anyone ever discussed game shows coming up in recurring nightmares? When I was a lad, I'd often be scared silly by the image of Garry Moore, alone in the middle of a darkened TTTT set (the psychodelic one, which may explain some of this) being sprayed with mud.
I was always charmed, even at the tender age of five, by Orson Bean's drawings of whichever number he held up.
More coherently, I do recall the premiere day of Joker's Wild, TNPIR and Gambit. If nothing else, it meant the end of yucky "Family Affair" reruns.
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Matt, Steve knows that it was Ruth Horwitz who won 20 games in a row. The rebus she solved for her 20th victory(even Norm Blumenthal knows this, thanks to his interview with Steve) was YOU'RE TOPS IN MY BOOK.
Brian
Wary blue waters?
We want some more pro wrestling (STILL) and NASCAR questions!
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The earliest specific I can remember would be from TPiR c. 1988. It was a guy bidding on a motorcycle, and he bid $4000. I remember my great-grandmother questioning and repeating the price in astonishment.
It would either be that or Danny Pintauro from "Who's the Boss" playing as a teen celebrity on "Scrabble," same time period.
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[quote name=\'Sues Z\' date=\'Nov 7 2003, 04:32 PM\'] the password was "quagmire" and none of the players knew what it meant. [/quote]
Heh heh ALRIGHT!
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I can't necessarily recall the person who won the entire mess on $otC, or precisely when it was, but I do recall the last Fame Game -- won by a nice guy on the far left, who then selected a prize and won hair care accessories.
Not that it'd help him -- he was bald as a cue ball.
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My first actual outcome memory is probably the USA "Chain Reaction;" there was one episode that I used to have on tape (my grandma made a tape for me of a bunch of USA game shows) in which these two women win $6,000 in the bonus round and go absolutely nuts, screaming and jumping all over each other and Geoff. The looks on their faces when they found out that "Nail" was the correct final word are still ingrained in my head today! :)
This was from 1986 (the first season), so I was about 2 at the time. My main reason for remembering it? This is one of the few specific episodes my grandma remembered of any game show; she thought the two women jumping up and down and screaming was hilarious!
Anthony
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I can remember at a young age an episode of Scrabble where, in the Scrabble Sprint round, someone actually ran up a time of over two minutes. Chuck even told the contestant something to the effect of "the clock only shows two digits, so when you hit 100, it'll just go back to 0." I know it wasn't Sang (he was 80 seconds), but I don't remember who it was.
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I remember a family on Combs' Feud that had just won $25,000. They were jumping all over the place. One guy did a back-flip, iirc.
Also, on TPiR, during IUFB, some guy tried to bid $14 trillion.
Does anyone else recall either of these, or did I dream them?
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I recall a fellow named Stan Olsen who won something like 4 cars during the summer of 1974 on "Celebrity Sweepstakes". Joey Bishop kept kidding him about how the cops were going to pull him over because he was in a different car every day!
I also remember a few players hitting over $25,000 on CBS "Joker's Wild" in 1973, and Jack Barry stating we'd have to take some away to get you back down to $25,000. I also remembering him telling contestants "we have a handsome consolation prize worth over $25 for you".
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Similar to your $25K memory, I remember Wink Martindale saying the same thing to a couple who had won over $25K on Gambit, which I think was another Barry-Enright show and I'm positive was on CBS. (If both are correct, I believe the network is the reason they had the same limit.) This was in 1974.
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[quote name=\'Neumms\' date=\'Nov 7 2003, 05:46 PM\']
I was always charmed, even at the tender age of five, by Orson Bean's drawings of whichever number he held up.
(I liked those too. The preprinted cards on the 1990 version lacked charm.)
More coherently, I do recall the premiere day of Joker's Wild, TNPIR and Gambit. If nothing else, it meant the end of yucky "Family Affair" reruns. (Not quite the end. FA moved to 4pm displacing "My Three Sons" until January 73 when "The Vin Scully Show.") [/quote]
I was kinda upset that school started the next day and I thought I'd never see new game shows again.
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[quote name=\'Jay Temple\' date=\'Nov 7 2003, 12:06 PM\']
On the short-lived Musical Chairs ... (Does anyone besides me and Curt Alliaume even remember this show?) [/quote]
Oh, yes! I remember it, though not particularly fondly. I preferred my games more serious than Chairs. And--though of course I understand it was half variety-show, half game--it always seemed too slow-moving for me.
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Similar to your $25K memory, I remember Wink Martindale saying the same thing to a couple who had won over $25K on Gambit, which I think was another Barry-Enright show and I'm positive was on CBS. (If both are correct, I believe the network is the reason they had the same limit.) This was in 1974.
You are halfway right. Gambit was actually a Heatter-Quigley Production.
Speaking of specific outcomes, I can (somewhat) remember a 1988 episode of $ale of the Century in which a contestant (who I found out here was named Rani White) ran the Winner's Big Money Game and won $50,000. I was 6 at the time, but I remember waking up and seeing falling balloons and the hanging $50,000 sign, listening to sirens, and hearing fanfare music until they hit commercial.
How I wish to see that episode again. I am sure it would hit me.
The Inquisitive One, Celebrating his 22nd Birthday
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Not that it's an "outcome" but I do remember a secret on I've Got a Secret in which a college group sang "In the Good Old Summertime" in turn with each man's first or last name being a word in the song ... with a slight exception. Each held a sign up in front of him with his name as he sang the word, so it went something like...
INN .... THEE .... GOODE .... OLDS .... SOMERSTEIN!
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[quote name=\'Clay Zambo\' date=\'Nov 10 2003, 04:58 PM\'] [quote name=\'Jay Temple\' date=\'Nov 7 2003, 12:06 PM\']
On the short-lived Musical Chairs ... (Does anyone besides me and Curt Alliaume even remember this show?) [/quote]
Oh, yes! I remember it, though not particularly fondly. I preferred my games more serious than Chairs. And--though of course I understand it was half variety-show, half game--it always seemed too slow-moving for me. [/quote]
I remember it, too, not terribly fondly. I wasn't much for singing and music shows, and the removal of the losing contestants, while the only reason to watch, didn't happen frequently enough or with enough velocity to really entertain.
And not to bring up cries of "more money syndrome," but even at the ripe old age of eight, I thought their payouts were terribly low.
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I hate I missed the discussion about earliest game shows we can recall. I don't have a schedule in front of me to see the earliest game I *could* have seen, but the three earliest I remember are "Concentration," "Jeopardy!" and "The Hollywood Squares." ("Concentration" would have been the earliest of the three I could've seen.) I also remember "The Dating Game," "The Newlywed Game," "Treasure Isle" and "Dream House," all pre-kindergarten. Not long ago I saw a "He Said She Said" rerun and the set jogged my memory as something I definitely saw as a kid (especially the shot of Garagiola on the phone).
The earliest outcome is a different story, as I don't remember specific contestants from my toddler-hood. The earliest outcome would have to be the guy trying to start the car on "Split Second" the first time I ever saw it, only to get the foghorn-type losing sound. I'm pretty sure the car in question was a '72 Chevy Caprice Classic. Another early outcome: actor Jim Backus stumping the panel on "What's My Line?" during the Wally Bruner era (assuming I'm remembering that right).
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On the short-lived Musical Chairs ... (Does anyone besides me and Curt Alliaume even remember this show?)
Oh, yes! I remember it, though not particularly fondly. I preferred my games more serious than Chairs.
I remember it well. I used to watch it every day after school, and was disappointed when it was cancelled on Halloween 1975. Adam Wade appeared on several talk shows back then being touted as the first black game show host.
I like the fact that the contestants had to be one of the first to ring in to answer a question, it led to some funny responses. Contestants had to choose between A, B and C. I remember one episode where one of the choices for C was "Tony and Orlando". That drew big laughs. The only thing I can't remember is exactly how the bonus game worked. I think this was a good show - too bad only one episode is around. Unfortunatly the bonus isn't played on that episode.
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My earliest specific outcome memory was probably Norma's $28,800 MOney Cards win from late 1978, despite my being almost 9 at the time.
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[quote name=\'DrBear\' date=\'Nov 10 2003, 02:40 PM\'] Not that it's an "outcome" but I do remember a secret on I've Got a Secret in which a college group sang "In the Good Old Summertime" in turn with each man's first or last name being a word in the song ... with a slight exception. Each held a sign up in front of him with his name as he sang the word, so it went something like...
INN .... THEE .... GOODE .... OLDS .... SOMERSTEIN! [/quote]
This one's a favorite of mine.
Inda Good Old Somerstein!
Inda Good Old Somerstein.
Strolin Inda Shady Layne...
Then, in a move that wasn't particularly well thought out, they brought Mr. Somerstein back the next week and asked the panel to come up with other songs he could do, since his rendition of his name was...uh...memorable. Everyone came up with only "Somerstein" and "Somerstein and the Living Is Easy," to the embarrassment of the last three panelists.
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[quote name=\'Jay Temple\' date=\'Nov 7 2003, 12:06 PM\'] (Does anyone besides me and Curt Alliaume even remember this show?) [/quote]
I remember "Musical Chairs" (CBS) quite well, and recall the contestants and their chairs disappearing into the back wall when they lost, pioneering a gimmick later used on MTV's "Remote Control."
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[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Nov 11 2003, 08:20 AM\']
On the short-lived Musical Chairs ... (Does anyone besides me and Curt Alliaume even remember this show?)
Oh, yes! I remember it, though not particularly fondly. I preferred my games more serious than Chairs.
I remember it well. I used to watch it every day after school, and was disappointed when it was cancelled on Halloween 1975. Adam Wade appeared on several talk shows back then being touted as the first black game show host.
I like the fact that the contestants had to be one of the first to ring in to answer a question, it led to some funny responses. Contestants had to choose between A, B and C. I remember one episode where one of the choices for C was "Tony and Orlando". That drew big laughs. The only thing I can't remember is exactly how the bonus game worked. I think this was a good show - too bad only one episode is around. Unfortunatly the bonus isn't played on that episode.[/quote]
There were three different bonuses. Here is my best recollection of them:
1) One of the guest singers sings the first lines of ten different songs. I think the contestant got $100 for each song whose next line he could provide, doubling to $2,000 if he got all ten. (There was a time limit, which I don't remember, but it was probably 60 seconds.)
2) No bonus, but the winnings doubled
3) The contestant was given ten lines of a song and had (probably) 60 seconds to put them in order. If I recall the workings correctly, he had to keep trying to get the first line till he got it, then the second, etc. If the payout wasn't identical to the same one, it was similar. (That is, whatever you got for all ten lines was doubled.)
(Posted by Neumms)[T]he removal of the losing contestants, while the only reason to watch, didn't happen frequently enough or with enough velocity to really entertain.
If you watched it at the beginning and thought it took too long to remove someone, the producers may have agreed with you. Late in the show's run, they changed it from
50x3, 50x2, 50x1
75x3, 75x2, 75x1
100x3 and eliminate
100x2 and eliminate
100x1 and eliminate
to (I think)
50x3, 75x3, 100x3 and eliminate
50x2, 75x2, 100x2 and eliminate
50x1, 75x1, 100x1 and eliminate, so you got to see an eliminition every few minutes.
The first time I ever saw Dionne Warwicke* or the Spinners was on Musical Chairs.
* This was during the brief time in her life when, on advice of either a psychic or an astrologer, she spelled her name with an "e" at the end.
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[quote name=\'Jay Temple\' date=\'Nov 7 2003, 12:06 PM\']What's the earliest game show from which you can recall a specific outcome, or even specific material?
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I vaguely remember watching the old Match Game and Jeopardy! back in 1967 or so (I even remember the two different MG themes). As for specifics, I can think of a few "here and there" specifics from late-1960s Concentration (I never did see anybody get the top prize - $3000? - on The Wheel; I do remember one appearance of whatever they called the "money booth" (the end game of The Diamond Head Game, minus the volcano).
Then again, my game show memory has been known to be a little fuzzy; I would have sworn there was a five-day limit on The Joker's Wild when it started (before I saw the first month or so on GSN, that is)...
-- Don (why couldn't they have developed small color TVs 20 years quicker?)