The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: Twentington on August 19, 2011, 04:51:11 PM
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A show changes its set, but the change doesn't stick long. I've seen it happen a few times:
* Wheel of Fortune: For the first week of Season 22, they had a cylindrical whatchamacallit next to the blue contestant, which Pat jokingly called a "soft drink machine". It was only there for the first week of taping, IIRC.
* And then again in Season 25, there were the weird scoreboards with the contestants' names on them, which also lasted for only the first week of taping.
* How long was the P+ Alphabetics board suspended from a ceiling instead of in a cabinet? I seem to recall it wasn't very long.
* TPIR's purple wheel, of course.
Any others?
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I remember on $25K Pyramid in 1987 with Betty White and Bill Cullen and on $100K Pyramid with Leann Hunley and Terry Lester, they had the microphones for the front desk and the winner's circle changed to small silver goose-necked ones, or something like that. Apparently, those two weeks were taped at the exact same time, but aired two months apart from each other.
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How long did that dark blue $25,000 sign last?
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The Pyramid logo on Dick's podium with the pointy top didn't last long, did it?
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Twentington: I believe the Alphabetics board was gone by the spring of 1979.
Joe: I think it lasted the entire 1987-88 season.
Bobby: I don't even think a month...it was right after it became "The NEW $25,000 Pyramid", c. November 1982. They flattened the top by the end of the year.
Match Game 98 changed to the more "festive" set after about a month or so.
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How long did that dark blue $25,000 sign last?
Eh?
The Pyramid logo on Dick's podium with the pointy top didn't last long, did it?
Eh?
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How long did that dark blue $25,000 sign last?
Eh?
If Joe's talking about what I think he is, it's down on Brad Francini's page. (http://"http://gscentral.net/wof/1987.htm") Scroll down to September 1987.
The Pyramid logo on Dick's podium with the pointy top didn't last long, did it?
Eh?
When the 80s version became "The New $25,000 Pyramid", the logo on Dick's podium changed from a flattop pyramid to a pointy triangle (http://"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2LJllHV1fs").
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When the color scheme for this wall behind Mystery Price (http://gscentral.net/mystery.htm) was first introduced on TPIR, the red stripe was not present. The wall only appeared that way for four days -- one set of tapings.
Sometime early last decade, there was a pink strip across the floor at the base of Contestants' Row for one episode.
When the Hollywood mural was replaced by the pastel Turntable walls, a gigantic yellow circle was stuck behind Clock Game because the chroma key effect used to show the contestant on the board was also keying out part of the wall. It only lasted for two shows before they painted the board and started keying out green instead of blue.
For a few months in 1992, 3 Strikes had white strike chips with red Xs.
For a couple months in Season 28, a cover was placed over the chase lights on Push Over that made them look really weird when they were chasing and like a solid, strangely-angled bulb when they weren't. It showed up on a couple random episodes the next winter, too.
How do producers decide to make set changes, anyway? I can understand wanting to redo your whole set every few years, but some things, like the strip in front of Contestants' Row or making the orange display yellow, just make me wonder, "Why did anybody even bother thinking of that?"
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If Joe's talking about what I think he is, it's down on Brad Francini's page. (http://"http://gscentral.net/wof/1987.htm") Scroll down to September 1987.
Oh, I should've been more clear. I meant the big $25,000 sign on Pyramid. It started dark blue when it began.
Since everyone was talking $25,000 Pyramid, I didn't explain it fully. My mistake.
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It was also dark blue during a week of Betty White & Joel Brooks episodes in 1985 on the daytime edition, and a week of Vicki Lawrence & Brian Mitchell episodes for the syndicated version (premiere week of syndicated edition) in the same years. Both week could very well have been taped at the exact same time.
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How long was the P+ Alphabetics board suspended from the ceiling instead of in a cabinet? I seem to recall it wasn't very long.
26 weeks. A decision was made not to build the bigger edifice until we had been picked up for a second 26-week cycle. Whether the debut of the board synchronized with the start of our second cycle (show #131) is a subject for the historians among us.
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A TPiR change I remember is when they had white curtains with colored lights for one week around '98 because someone left the lights on over the weekend. I thought it was too bad they never use them again; they looked rather classy IMO.
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It was also dark blue during a week of Betty White & Joel Brooks episodes in 1985 on the daytime edition, and a week of Vicki Lawrence & Brian Mitchell episodes for the syndicated version (premiere week of syndicated edition) in the same years. Both week could very well have been taped at the exact same time.
That's a minor miracle of television to produce two shows at the same time in the same studio with the same host. Consecutively maybe, but not at the same time.
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That's a minor miracle of television to produce two shows at the same time in the same studio with the same host. Consecutively maybe, but not at the same time.
News, traffic and weather together. (http://"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoME0qdmOS0")
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How long was the P+ Alphabetics board suspended from the ceiling instead of in a cabinet? I seem to recall it wasn't very long.
26 weeks. A decision was made not to build the bigger edifice until we had been picked up for a second 26-week cycle. Whether the debut of the board synchronized with the start of our second cycle (show #131) is a subject for the historians among us.
Actually, the Alphabetics cabinet began on show #036. It's okay though, Chris. Not all of us can remember every bit of detail as we get older.
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Actually, the Alphabetics cabinet began on show #036. It's okay though, Chris. Not all of us can remember every bit of detail as we get older.
Why, thank you Zach. And saying it in such a tactful manner to someone with the power to send you to the land of bannination.
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How long was the P+ Alphabetics board suspended from the ceiling instead of in a cabinet? I seem to recall it wasn't very long.
26 weeks. A decision was made not to build the bigger edifice until we had been picked up for a second 26-week cycle. Whether the debut of the board synchronized with the start of our second cycle (show #131) is a subject for the historians among us.
Actually, the Alphabetics cabinet began on show #036. It's okay though, Chris. Not all of us can remember every bit of detail as we get older.
You would know better than I. I was involved in the discussions involving Mike Brockman of NBC, Howard Felsher, Bobby Sherman, Mark Bowerman and Ted Cooper about the new Alphabetics board. I was there when Mr. Goodson came to the studio to see it and remember his reaction to it. I sat behind George Choderker in the booth when we had to devote extra studio time to changing the camera blocking. But you would know better than I, clearly. BTW, on that first day in the studio with the new Alphabetics board, what did we have for lunch and in which rehearsal room? I confess, my memory is quite dim on this matter but I'm sure you know the answer.
It's okay though, Chris. Not all of us can remember every bit of detail as we get older.
Would you care to address that same remark to Mr. Blumenthal? He has a couple of years on me so by your reasoning his recollections of Concentration are just as flawed or more so as mine are of Password Plus.
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Can you recall approximately when you got the green light for the 2nd block of shows?
/Testing the theory that both of you are right.
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Can you recall approximately when you got the green light for the 2nd block of shows?
/Testing the theory that both of you are right.
I'm sure gameshowlover87 can.
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It might not have been the exact time gameshowlover87 cited, but it certainly wasn't 26 weeks in. This clip (http://"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOs1lzSiAo4#t=4m9s") is from week eight and has the Alphabetics board tucked in neatly on the left side.
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It might not have been the exact time gameshowlover87 cited, but it certainly wasn't 26 weeks in. This clip (http://"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOs1lzSiAo4#t=4m9s") is from week eight and has the Alphabetics board tucked in neatly on the left side.
That comports with my records of show numbers and air dates, so he's right about it being show #36 which aired on 2/26/79. That show would have been taped at least a week in advance (2/17 - 2/18 or earlier) so construction of the new board would have begun maybe two weeks prior to that, which puts us in early February, or about four weeks into the run. In hindsight that seems awfully early, and there was indeed discussion about not building a new board until we knew we would be on for more than one 26-week cycle. Of course it's been over 30 years since we taped those shows at the ABC Prospect studios. I forget the production company, was it Hill-Eubanks or William T. Naud? You know, my early Alzheimer's just isn't getting any better. I'll have to drown my misery with another swig of Geritol, if I can remember where I put the bottle.
Does anyone remember the taping date that our emcee, Bobby Van, had the stage carpenters modify the podium so it wouldn't poke him in the abdomen? They came out and sawed the corners off; that much I remember. It was between shows -- anybody remember which episodes? I remember Bobby bringing his wife Elaine Joyce to the studio with him even if Elaine wasn't booked as a guest. She sometimes used to bring her mother Bess with her.
I found the Geritol, time for another belt.
BTW, we had chicken the day we taped show #36. The Geritol jogged my memory. Must be all that iron. Say, does the ethanol in Geritol have any health benefits?
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What is deemed short? 80s Pyramid changed the coverings on the host podium and desks into that 13 week return they had.
Say, does the ethanol in Geritol have any health benefits?
Ask Herb Stempel.
/finally watched Quiz Show
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Say, does the ethanol in Geritol have any health benefits?
Cures tired blood.
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In hindsight that seems awfully early, and there was indeed discussion about not building a new board until we knew we would be on for more than one 26-week cycle.
Speculating, but if you guys were a hit right out of the gate, then you might have known pretty quickly that you were going to be renewed. Once you knew you were picked up, and you knew you wanted to have a new board, there wouldn't have been any compelling reason to wait 26 weeks to build it.
In other words, as much as this might pain gameshowlover87 to hear, you could easily be remembering this exactly right. I think that's the point Joe was making. You could have gotten the nod for more shows fairly early in the run, and, armed with that knowledge, gone ahead and built the new board.
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I didn't mean to hurt Chris' feelings, and I didn't realize it was in poor taste.
And don't even think about calling me Zach. I wouldn't be caught dead being associated with the likes of him.
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And don't even think about calling me Zach. I wouldn't be caught dead being associated with the likes of him.
Just how old are you? I didn't mean to hurt Chris' feelings, and I didn't realize it was in poor taste.
You didn't find It's okay though, Chris. Not all of us can remember every bit of detail as we get older.
to be extremely patronizing? If you didn't, perhaps you should be posting less.
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If you didn't, perhaps you should be posting less.
I've been well-behaved for the most part, save for some unintentional slip-ups such as this one time. No reason to gang up on me like that, like I'm the scum of the Earth and you're not.
Anyways, I'm done with this thread.
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It was also dark blue during a week of Betty White & Joel Brooks episodes in 1985 on the daytime edition, and a week of Vicki Lawrence & Brian Mitchell episodes for the syndicated version (premiere week of syndicated edition) in the same years. Both week could very well have been taped at the exact same time.
That's a minor miracle of television to produce two shows at the same time in the same studio with the same host. Consecutively maybe, but not at the same time.
Now that I think about it, this is Bob Stewart we're talking about. He very may have well have tried this.
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Say, does the ethanol in Geritol have any health benefits?
Ask Herb Stempel.
Stempel and Van Doren are still alive. Jack Barry is dead. Results inconclusive.
/Dan Enright and Paul Taubman: likewise dead.
//Vivienne Nearing, James Snodgrass and Elfrida Von Nardroff: I'll get back to you on that.
Cures tired blood.
Does the ethanol make the iron rust?
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In hindsight that seems awfully early, and there was indeed discussion about not building a new board until we knew we would be on for more than one 26-week cycle.
Speculating, but if you guys were a hit right out of the gate, then you might have known pretty quickly that you were going to be renewed. Once you knew you were picked up, and you knew you wanted to have a new board, there wouldn't have been any compelling reason to wait 26 weeks to build it.
In other words, as much as this might pain gameshowlover87 to hear, you could easily be remembering this exactly right. I think that's the point Joe was making. You could have gotten the nod for more shows fairly early in the run, and, armed with that knowledge, gone ahead and built the new board.
We weren't a hit but the ratings were adequate. In thinking this over, NBC may have decided "aw, what the heck?" and figured we'd be on long enough to warrant construction of the bigger board. By doing so they were banking that we'd be around at least until October '79 or even January '80, past one 26-week cycle.
It actually wasn't a new board; the existing light boxes and electronics were simply mounted on a big platform and put behind sliding doors.
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We weren't a hit but the ratings were adequate.
Considering you had two time slot shifts in the first seven months (12:30 ET to 12N in March and back to 12:30 in August), that's actually pretty good.
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How do producers decide to make set changes, anyway? I can understand wanting to redo your whole set every few years, but some things, like the strip in front of Contestants' Row or making the orange display yellow, just make me wonder, "Why did anybody even bother thinking of that?"
Same thing I wondered with Wheel's "soft drink machine". You never saw it except during the occasional pan of the set, or in the intro. Ditto the weird scoreboards for the first week of S25. No one realized that the names were way, way, WAY too small to be seen on most TVs?
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//Vivienne Nearing, James Snodgrass and Elfrida Von Nardroff: I'll get back to you on that.
Nearing died in 2007:
http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jul/16/local/me-passings16.1
Von Nardroff isn't in the SSDI (so presume alive without other evidence), and I'm not sure about Snodgrass either way.
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//Vivienne Nearing, James Snodgrass and Elfrida Von Nardroff: I'll get back to you on that.
Nearing died in 2007:
http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jul/16/local/me-passings16.1
Von Nardroff isn't in the SSDI (so presume alive without other evidence), and I'm not sure about Snodgrass either way.
How ironic that, as a lawyer, she was convicted of perjury.
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I was going to start a new thread, but since the PW+ Alphabetics board was discussed, I guess it's relevant to the topic...
How about set changes (minor or major) made to a set or prop shortly after making its debut on TV...
TPIR
The Bonus Game windows were yellow for the first week, then blue the following week.
The turntable added lights and extra stripes only after 6 or 7 shows (I forget how many exactly, someone posted it)
The bucket in Push Over was changed from red to yellow once it was discovered it blended in with the red on the turntable at the time.
The lights in Cover Up were changed from red to blue
The lights in It's In the Bag were changed from yellow to blue
First playing or so of Clearance Sale, the tags were white with red numbers, then changed to red with white numbers.
An eggcrate display was added to Time is Money to indicate how many the contestant got WRONG (why they didn't tell the player how many they got RIGHT, I dunno, one of the many reasons the game was axed)
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(why they didn't tell the player how many they got RIGHT, I dunno, one of the many reasons the game was axed)
Golden Road (http://"http://www.golden-road.net/faq/index.php/Pricing_Game_Notes#Time_Is_Money") seems to indicate this is not true.
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I didn't realize this until I saw it on GSN, but for the first half-season of Eubanks's Card Sharks, the red Ace backdrops tilted for the Money Cards, then returned to their upright position for the main game.
Could be moot since the entire set got an overhaul the following season, but in late-2001, Hollywood Squares introduced their 60-second bonus round, and placed a platform and clear stand in front of the big grid. The setup was gone (along with Whoopi) the following year.
Donnymid added scoreboards to the two team desks about midway through the first season.
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Classic Concentration and the not-so-temporary palm trees. After, that, they started adding all kinds of foliage and whatnot to the set- I still prefer the pre-palm tree set to this day.
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When Match Game switched to the newer logo in 1978, weren't the celebrity podiums one color for a brief period, and then switched to another?
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Yes. The backdrop behind the lower tier was dark blue. However the backdrop behind the players was light blue and was solid instead of ridged. The player's score indicators were white instead of green and red. The following week the lower tier was painted light blue to match the player area, and the triangle and circle were painted green and red respectably.
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During the first week(s) of John O'Hurleys first season on "Feud" there were no scoreboards on the families' podiums.