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The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: Bryce L. on September 03, 2012, 11:38:25 AM

Title: William Shatner's "solo" Winner's Circle round
Post by: Bryce L. on September 03, 2012, 11:38:25 AM
Couldn't find any specific threads here about this, so here goes...

About the clip of William Shatner trying to play the Winner's Circle by himself in the 1970s series... does anyone here remember what happened on that episode, that resulted in Shatner playing solo?
Title: William Shatner's "solo" Winner's Circle round
Post by: MrBuddwing on September 03, 2012, 11:44:25 AM
I remember actually seeing that episode, and am disheartened to hear that the 20-second clip is all that survives.

If my erratic memory is to be trusted, they had some extra time and decided to just have some fun. The "solo" round occurred at the very end of the episode (again, if memory serves). And, of course, that's Lee Meriwether cheering Shatner on from the sidelines.

I should add, Shatner was given only 30 seconds to "play," but he dawdled, which is why Dick Clark comically shouts at him, "Come on, ya dummy, get over here!"
Title: William Shatner's "solo" Winner's Circle round
Post by: Bryce L. on September 03, 2012, 12:06:49 PM
Oh OK... I thought that was an actual "normal" playing gone seriously balls-up, as in Shatner's partner walked out on him... also, Lee Meriwether and William Shatner, you said? If Kris Lane's episode guide is correct, that would mean this clip came from the week of June 23 to June 27, 1975... sound about right?
Title: William Shatner's "solo" Winner's Circle round
Post by: MrBuddwing on September 03, 2012, 12:08:38 PM
Well, the year, certainly. This was when "Pyramid" was on ABC and was taped in New York.
Title: William Shatner's "solo" Winner's Circle round
Post by: Bryce L. on September 03, 2012, 12:10:52 PM
Thank you, much appreciated. Also, any other known cases of "solo" Winner's Circle playings, or was this a one-off incident?
Title: William Shatner's "solo" Winner's Circle round
Post by: MrBuddwing on September 03, 2012, 12:14:44 PM
The answer to that would have to come from a much more die-hard "Pyramid" fan than myself.
Title: William Shatner's "solo" Winner's Circle round
Post by: Matt Ottinger on September 03, 2012, 12:14:59 PM
If my erratic memory is to be trusted, they had some extra time and decided to just have some fun. The "solo" round occurred at the very end of the episode (again, if memory serves). And, of course, that's Lee Meriwether cheering Shatner on from the sidelines.
That's more or less my memory as well.  It certainly had nothing to do with "normal" play.  What I'm remembering is that Shatner had had a rough week, losing most games to Meriwether and not doing particularly well in the rare times he got to the Winner's Circle, if in fact he ever got there at all.  (It was a long time ago.)

And yeah, one of the reasons that the new GSN game can play the same amount of material as the original is that back then, there was always a lot of extra time if they needed it.  Notably, back when multiple tiebreakers would cause them to occasionally run long, they could actually squeeze in THREE trips to the Winner's Circle in one show the next day, an unimaginable amount of flexibility compared to today.

Thank you, much appreciated. Also, any other known cases of "solo" Winner's Circle playings, or was this a one-off incident?
If there had ever been another, we'd have known about it.
Title: William Shatner's "solo" Winner's Circle round
Post by: Jay Temple on September 03, 2012, 01:49:33 PM
Thank you, much appreciated. Also, any other known cases of "solo" Winner's Circle playings, or was this a one-off incident?
The closest thing is a main-game round they did with Teresa Ganzel. Through a special visual effect, they made it look like she was giving clues to herself.
Title: William Shatner's "solo" Winner's Circle round
Post by: BrandonFG on September 03, 2012, 02:19:03 PM
Ganzel Vs. Ganzel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuI59PeMMbU
Title: William Shatner's "solo" Winner's Circle round
Post by: clemon79 on September 03, 2012, 03:33:26 PM
What a hoot! Makes me wonder how other celebs would do playing with themselves...
Does not wonder that at all (http://"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Entertainment/ap_fred_willard_jef_120719_wg.jpg")
Title: William Shatner's "solo" Winner's Circle round
Post by: Marc412 on September 03, 2012, 03:33:39 PM
You may want to rephrase that slightly.
Title: William Shatner's "solo" Winner's Circle round
Post by: TLEberle on September 03, 2012, 03:35:02 PM
You may want to rephrase that slightly.
That's the joke. (http://"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSRildGCw64")
Title: William Shatner's "solo" Winner's Circle round
Post by: Bryce L. on September 03, 2012, 03:54:09 PM
My apologies, let's try that again... I wonder how anyone else would have handled a solo performance in the Winner's Circle
Title: William Shatner's "solo" Winner's Circle round
Post by: clemon79 on September 03, 2012, 04:07:26 PM
My apologies, let's try that again... I wonder how anyone else would have handled a solo performance in the Winner's Circle
Does not wonder that at all (http://"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Entertainment/ap_fred_willard_jef_120719_wg.jpg")
Title: William Shatner's "solo" Winner's Circle round
Post by: saussage on September 03, 2012, 07:06:44 PM
And yeah, one of the reasons that the new GSN game can play the same amount of material as the original is that back then, there was always a lot of extra time if they needed it.  Notably, back when multiple tiebreakers would cause them to occasionally run long, they could actually squeeze in THREE trips to the Winner's Circle in one show the next day, an unimaginable amount of flexibility compared to today.
Going ot for a sec, if things were that flexible time-wise, what caused Donnymid to goto 6 answer rounds instead of 7? I was worried they were going to do that with the new Pyramid but I'm happy they stuck to the more familiar format. There would have been no reason to time crunch a game show that didn't need it. But yeah, spare time on game shows seem like the days of the dodo bird. Some of the best and funniest clips come from shows having more spare time and the bloopers that occur because of it.
Title: William Shatner's "solo" Winner's Circle round
Post by: clemon79 on September 03, 2012, 07:43:23 PM
Going ot for a sec, if things were that flexible time-wise, what caused Donnymid to goto 6 answer rounds instead of 7?
Did anyone time out the new show? It would not surprise me to learn that this had a couple minutes more program time than Donnymid did, as I bet the latter needed to reserve more time for ad inventory being a syndicated show than this program on a niche cable network does. (Also it doesn't hurt that they don't waste a full minute guffawing at the convoluted categories in the front game.)
Title: William Shatner's "solo" Winner's Circle round
Post by: pyrfan on September 03, 2012, 08:01:51 PM
Here's my biggest question: What happened to that rule I heard about where every episode must feature Heather Davis as a contestant?

Oh, sorry -- I'm thinking about "The Chris Lemon Pyramid."


Brendan


Edit: Oops. Meant to post this in the thread about the new series, but, despite the fact that it's Labor Day, I'm too lazy to move it.
Title: William Shatner's "solo" Winner's Circle round
Post by: clemon79 on September 03, 2012, 08:11:30 PM
Here's my biggest question: What happened to that rule I heard about where every episode must feature Heather Davis as a contestant?

Oh, sorry -- I'm thinking about "The Chris Lemon Pyramid."
You knew this was coming. (http://"http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/7724/200pxquagmire3865ip3.jpg")
Title: William Shatner's "solo" Winner's Circle round
Post by: chad1m on September 03, 2012, 08:24:04 PM
Did anyone time out the new show?
The Pyramid runs about 21 minutes. Pyramid ten years ago ran about 20 minutes.
Title: William Shatner's "solo" Winner's Circle round
Post by: clemon79 on September 03, 2012, 08:32:55 PM
The Pyramid runs about 21 minutes. Pyramid ten years ago ran about 20 minutes.
There you go, thank you sir. So there's the minute back for the first game. Shore up the chit-chat a little and get the time back from the Category Guffaw and there's your minute for the second one.
Title: William Shatner's "solo" Winner's Circle round
Post by: TLEberle on September 03, 2012, 09:40:31 PM
Going ot for a sec, if things were that flexible time-wise, what caused Donnymid to goto 6 answer rounds instead of 7?
The amount of time allotted for content and that for advertising in a 30 minute syndicated program. That's why you have some rerun comedies with different opening sequences and some lines cut for time.
Title: William Shatner's "solo" Winner's Circle round
Post by: Don Howard on September 03, 2012, 09:43:42 PM
any other known cases of "solo" Winner's Circle playings, or was this a one-off incident?
I myself have not personally witnessed any seen endeavors of this sort while sitting in my seated audience position nor have I learned through my investigated discoveries of any proclivities of this manner or any such as.
Title: William Shatner's "solo" Winner's Circle round
Post by: clemon79 on September 03, 2012, 09:47:07 PM
I myself have not personally witnessed any seen endeavors of this sort while sitting in my seated audience position nor have I learned through my investigated discoveries of any proclivities of this manner or any such as.
I rate this at 0.8 Padron, where 1.0 is full-William and 0 is "making any semblance of sense."
Title: William Shatner's "solo" Winner's Circle round
Post by: SRIV94 on September 03, 2012, 09:48:34 PM
I myself have not personally witnessed any seen endeavors of this sort while sitting in my seated audience position nor have I learned through my investigated discoveries of any proclivities of this manner or any such as.
I didn't know William F. Buckley was among us.  This is an honor.
Title: William Shatner's "solo" Winner's Circle round
Post by: Don Howard on September 03, 2012, 09:49:20 PM
I myself have not personally witnessed any seen endeavors of this sort while sitting in my seated audience position nor have I learned through my investigated discoveries of any proclivities of this manner or any such as.
I rate this at 0.8 Padron, where 1.0 is full-William and 0 is "making any semblance of sense."
0.8 isn't bad for the wind-down of a holiday weekend. But I won't rest until I get Orson Welles applauding.
Title: William Shatner's "solo" Winner's Circle round
Post by: clemon79 on September 03, 2012, 10:19:09 PM
0.8 isn't bad for the wind-down of a holiday weekend. But I won't rest until I get Orson Welles applauding.
No indeed. 0.8 is a strong showing for a debut performance. When your act hits its stride I am sure Mr. Welles will be showing his posthumous approval.