The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: Casey Buck on March 29, 2020, 06:01:12 PM
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For the last several years, The Internet Archive has scanned quite a collection of out-of-print books, and have been available to rent library-style, where one user at a time can check out a book for 14 days. From now until the end of June, they have suspended the waiting lists (http://blog.archive.org/2020/03/24/announcing-a-national-emergency-library-to-provide-digitized-books-to-students-and-the-public/).
Here's what I've found so far:
Art Fleming's TV Game Show Fact Book (https://archive.org/details/artflemingstvgam00artf) by Art Fleming (1979)
Daytime Television Game Shows and the Celebration of Merchandise: The Price is Right (https://archive.org/details/daytimetelevisio0000holb) by Morris B. Holbrook (1992)
How to Become a Game Show Contestant: An Insider's Guide (https://archive.org/details/howtobecomegames00munt) by Greg Muntean and Gregg Silverman (1987)
How to Strike It Rich on TV Game Shows (https://archive.org/details/howtostrikeitric00fish) by Ed Fishman (1972)
Prime Time and Misdemeanors: Investigating the 1950's TV Quiz Show Scandal (https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780813521008) by Joseph Stone and Tim Yohn (1992)
Prisoner of Trebekistan (https://archive.org/details/prisoneroftrebek00bobh) by Bob Harris (2006)
Quiz Craze: America's Infatuation with Game Shows (https://archive.org/details/quizcrazeamerica0000delo) by Thomas A. DeLong (1991)
The Jeopardy! Book (https://archive.org/details/jeopardybookansw00treb) by Alex Trebek and Peter Barsocchini (1990)
The TV Game Shows: How to Get On and Win (https://archive.org/details/tvgameshows00blum) by Norm Blumenthal (1975)
The Ultimate TV Game Show Book (Volume I) (https://archive.org/details/ultimatetvgamesh01ryan) by Steve Ryan and Fred Wostbrock (2005)
This is Jeopardy: Celebrating America's Favorite Quiz Show (https://archive.org/details/thisisjeopardyce0000rich) by Ray Richmond (2004)
What's My Line?: The Inside History of TV's Most Famous Panel Show (https://archive.org/details/whatsmylineins00fate) by Gil Fates (1978)
Who Wants to Be A Millionaire: The Official Book (https://archive.org/details/whowantstobemill00fish) by David Fisher (2000)
You Can Become a Game Show Contestant and Win (https://archive.org/details/youcanbegameshow00sack) by Susan Sackett and Cheryl Blythe (1982)
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How cool! Thanks for this! ;D
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Before I discovered the EOTVGS, I swore by a few of these books, as well as Maxine Fabe’s book. Would love to see these so many years later.
Thanks!
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Gil Fates's book is full of amusing anecdotes about the show and is highly recommended.
Prime Time and Misdemeanors is a detailed account of the quiz scandal, also highly recommended.
Ira Skutch and Monty Hall have written memoirs. Ira's book didn't go into game shows and his days at G-T as much as I would have liked.
I would love to see a book about game show packagers such as Goodson & Todman, Barry & Enright, Heatter & Quigley, Hatos & Hall, Bob Stewart, Ralph Edwards, John Guedel and the rest, written by someone who doesn't pull fiction out of his a**.
Unfortunately, those guys are all deceased now so they can't be interviewed. Jay Wolpert and Bob Noah are still with us.
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I would love to see a book about game show packagers such as Goodson & Todman, Barry & Enright, Heatter & Quigley, Hatos & Hall, Bob Stewart, Ralph Edwards, John Guedel and the rest, written by someone who doesn't pull fiction out of his a**.
Adam Nedeff, please pick up the white courtesy phone...
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Some others:
Backstage with the Original Hollywood Square by Peter Marshall (https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781558539808)
Classic Concentration: The Game, the Show, the Puzzles by Steve Ryan (https://archive.org/details/classicconcentra00ryan)
The Double Dare Game Book by Daniella Burr (https://archive.org/details/doubledaregamebo00burr)
The All-New Double Dare Game Book by Daniella Burr (https://archive.org/details/allnewdoubledare00burr)
The Jeopardy Challenge by Alex Trebek and Merv Griffin (https://archive.org/details/jeopardychalleng00treb)
More Zingers from the Hollywood Squares (https://archive.org/details/morezingersfromh00newy)
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I would love to see a book about game show packagers such as Goodson & Todman, Barry & Enright, Heatter & Quigley, Hatos & Hall, Bob Stewart, Ralph Edwards, John Guedel and the rest, written by someone who doesn't pull fiction out of his a**.
A friend of mine has been working on a book about Jack Barry for about five years now, with help from Barry's family. Hopefully that'll be on its way soon.
My revised version of Monty's biography goes a little more in depth on the history of Hatos & Hall, but not MUCH deeper for reasons I'll go into in a moment.
A friend of mine sent a message to my publisher suggesting I write a book about the history of Bob Stewart Productions and the publisher politely declined. Quizmaster, if I may say so, gives a nice truncated history of it since Bill and Bob crossed paths so much.
A bunch of people have suggested a book about Goodson & Todman's history, but there are two problems I have with that:
#1. I'd be regurgitating a BUNCH of information that I've already trickled out in other books and I do know that a lot of people own multiple books of mine, so I'm worried about how they'd feel buying a book that's just revisiting a lot of stuff they've already paid for before.
#2. I hate to point this out, but we're at a point where we've lost enough people that I can't go in depth with anything before 1970. A lot of people would suggest "Well, you could talk to their kids." But David Narz said something to me once when he talked about how people have suggested that he write a biography of his dad. "I can't write about my dad's work. I was in school. I was out being a kid. If somebody asked you to write a book about your dad's job, could you do it?"
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A friend of mine has been working on a book about Jack Barry for about five years now, with help from Barry's family.
Fortunately, you and that friend have great respect for accuracy and the truth, unlike a certain game-show wannabe who makes up stuff and publishes fictional accounts, such as the demise of a certain game-show personality. I know you know who I mean. Thank goodness he isn't writing Jack Barry bio. It would be an insult to Jack's family/survivors.
I met Jack Barry in San Francisco at the 1976 NATPE convention. He and Enright were trying to launch Break the Bnk. Jack was incredibly brusque and ice cold. He described BTB as having nine celebrities a la Hollywood Squares.
There is a good interview with Monty on the TV Academy site. IIRC Fred Wostbrock interviewed him. There should be interviews with Bob Noah and Jay Wolpert while they're still around.
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I would love to see a book about game show packagers such as Goodson & Todman, Barry & Enright, Heatter & Quigley, Hatos & Hall, Bob Stewart, Ralph Edwards, John Guedel and the rest, written by someone who doesn't pull fiction out of his a**.
A friend of mine has been working on a book about Jack Barry for about five years now, with help from Barry's family. Hopefully that'll be on its way soon.
My revised version of Monty's biography goes a little more in depth on the history of Hatos & Hall, but not MUCH deeper for reasons I'll go into in a moment.
A friend of mine sent a message to my publisher suggesting I write a book about the history of Bob Stewart Productions and the publisher politely declined. Quizmaster, if I may say so, gives a nice truncated history of it since Bill and Bob crossed paths so much.
A bunch of people have suggested a book about Goodson & Todman's history, but there are two problems I have with that:
#1. I'd be regurgitating a BUNCH of information that I've already trickled out in other books and I do know that a lot of people own multiple books of mine, so I'm worried about how they'd feel buying a book that's just revisiting a lot of stuff they've already paid for before.
#2. I hate to point this out, but we're at a point where we've lost enough people that I can't go in depth with anything before 1970. A lot of people would suggest "Well, you could talk to their kids." But David Narz said something to me once when he talked about how people have suggested that he write a biography of his dad. "I can't write about my dad's work. I was in school. I was out being a kid. If somebody asked you to write a book about your dad's job, could you do it?"
Adam, you think you could write a book about Narz in the future?
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Thanks for sharing this! I “checked out” and read Gil Fates’ book. A very easy and amusing read - I enjoyed it thoroughly.
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Thanks for sharing this! I “checked out” and read Gil Fates’ book. A very easy and amusing read - I enjoyed it thoroughly.
The Gil Fates book is an especially good find here, because of its relative rarity. Copies go for $100 on Amazon right now, and I recall seeing higher price tags in the past.
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I haven't read Susan Sackett and Cheryl Blythe's book in close to 30 years. It's a fun read, having seen so many of these shows on GSN/Buzzr/Youtube, something I never thought would be possible as a child.
On page 38, she mentions that Battlestars contestants received $800 worth of parting gifts. Having wondered the actual amount of these gifts, was that the norm for most shows of that era? Most credit rolls I remember seeing offered the Lee Press-On nails, Ragu spaghetti sauce and pizza mix, and the Hawaiian Tropic towel.
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Most credit rolls I remember seeing offered the Lee Press-On nails...
You need 10 at a time, so maybe you hit $800 pretty fast.
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On page 38, she mentions that Battlestars contestants received $800 worth of parting gifts. Having wondered the actual amount of these gifts, was that the norm for most shows of that era? Most credit rolls I remember seeing offered the Lee Press-On nails, Ragu spaghetti sauce and pizza mix, and the Hawaiian Tropic towel.
It probably depends on the show. Just as an example, I remember Whew! parting gifts to be some pretty hefty stuff. Plus, there's the possibility of returning champs accumulating parting gifts; do I need (an excuse) to break out the Bob Harris video again?
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I mean, Prisoner of Trebekistan *is* in the list of books in the OP...
/Great book, highly recommend it
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NBC game shows (or maybe just H-Q game shows on NBC?) generally had some hefty consolation prize packages in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. $1000+ packages were not uncommon on Hollywood Squares or High Rollers, and I figure that extended over to Battlestars, as well.
Those packages were generally large (I’d say 8-10 prizes was the norm) and also had some items that were worth a few hundred dollars apiece (I remember seeing cameras and recliners on many of the episodes on YouTube).
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NBC game shows (or maybe just H-Q game shows on NBC?) generally had some hefty consolation prize packages in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. $1000+ packages were not uncommon on Hollywood Squares or High Rollers, and I figure that extended over to Battlestars, as well.
I think it was H-Q in general. ISTR Gambit (the CBS version) also seemed to have a larger-than average amount of parting gifts, and prizes in general.
In the later incarnations of High Rollers, if a winning contestant could clear the board both times in their match, they could theoretically win up to 21 prizes in the front game alone (Winning the max 15 prizes in game 1, lose game 2, then win up to 6 more prizes in game 3). I'm curious to know how close anybody got to that maximum.
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One other thing I loved about Susan and Cheryl's book is something I feel is missing from most of today's shows: each chapter opened with the announcer's spiel leading up to the name of the show. In today's society, with several fewer minutes per hour, it feels like most intros are simply "It's time for ___!"
/At least most shows have announcers again
//"THIS......IS.....Jeopardy!" still sends chills tho
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Amusingly, there's a chapter on Pitfall, where it says that:
The highest amount won by a contestant in the first twenty-six weeks of taping was $17,000, and the show gave away more than $300,000 in the first season.
Alex's interview with the Archive of American Television said that he got paid for the first 13 weeks, but not the last 13. So, I wonder how much of that actually got awarded.
It also notes that Pitfall was an alternative to Hollywood-based shows if you lived in the Northwest, since it is located closer by, and that there is less competition to get on.
There's also a chapter on Super Pay Cards (which the book pitches as an option for East Coast-based residents), so it's pretty cool that Canadian game shows got mentioned as well as American shows.
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NBC game shows (or maybe just H-Q game shows on NBC?) generally had some hefty consolation prize packages in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. $1000+ packages were not uncommon on Hollywood Squares or High Rollers, and I figure that extended over to Battlestars, as well.
I think it was H-Q in general. ISTR Gambit (the CBS version) also seemed to have a larger-than-average amount of parting gifts, and prizes in general.
That seems right. Based on the prize structure for the first 10 years or so of Squares (and, to a lesser extent, for Gambit and High Rollers, whoever the prize coordinator was probably got great deals for physical prizes, so those were emphasized and cash winnings were de-emphasized (even if you won all five matches you played on Squares, you only got $2,000 in cash).
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One other thing I loved about Susan and Cheryl's book is something I feel is missing from most of today's shows: each chapter opened with the announcer's spiel leading up to the name of the show. In today's society, with several fewer minutes per hour, it feels like most intros are simply "It's time for ___!"
/At least most shows have announcers again
//"THIS......IS.....Jeopardy!" still sends chills tho
Never liked in the earlier days of Harvey Feud, when the first words of the OPENING spiel were, "This is Joey Fatone..."
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Amusingly, there's a chapter on Pitfall, where it says that:
The highest amount won by a contestant in the first twenty-six weeks of taping was $17,000, and the show gave away more than $300,000 in the first season.
Alex's interview with the Archive of American Television said that he got paid for the first 13 weeks, but not the last 13. So, I wonder how much of that actually got awarded.
It also notes that Pitfall was an alternative to Hollywood-based shows if you lived in the Northwest, since it is located closer by, and that there is less competition to get on.
There's also a chapter on Super Pay Cards (which the book pitches as an option for East Coast-based residents), so it's pretty cool that Canadian game shows got mentioned as well as American shows.
https://www.considerable.com/entertainment/celebrities/alex-trebek-bounced-check/ - It was for $49,000. This means he was agreed to have been paid $98K for his duties.
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Never liked in the earlier days of Harvey Feud, when the first words of the OPENING spiel were, "This is Joey Fatone..."
That was ludicrous. At the time, Walter Cronkite had done the introduction for the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. He did not start with "This is Walter Cronkite."
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He did not start with "This is Walter Cronkite."
Yeah, he didn't HAVE to.
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Another one: Emcee Monty Hall (https://archive.org/details/emceemontyhall0000hall) by the big dealer himself (along with Bill Libby) from 1973.
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Amusingly, there's a chapter on Pitfall, where it says that:
The highest amount won by a contestant in the first twenty-six weeks of taping was $17,000, and the show gave away more than $300,000 in the first season.
Alex's interview with the Archive of American Television said that he got paid for the first 13 weeks, but not the last 13. So, I wonder how much of that actually got awarded.
https://www.considerable.com/entertainment/celebrities/alex-trebek-bounced-check/ - It was for $49,000. This means he was agreed to have been paid $98K for his duties.
Assuming the payment was in Canadian dollars and not US dollars, that would have been about $112,900 USD in today's funds. Yeah, I can see why he'd still be ticked off. And Pitfall reran for years after that.
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Another one: Emcee Monty Hall (https://archive.org/details/emceemontyhall0000hall) by the big dealer himself (along with Bill Libby) from 1973.
There is going to be a revised version of that book written by Adam Nedeff.
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Another one: Emcee Monty Hall (https://archive.org/details/emceemontyhall0000hall) by the big dealer himself (along with Bill Libby) from 1973.
There is going to be a revised version of that book written by Adam Nedeff.
I don't think "revised" is the word you're looking for.
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Not exclusively game show-related, but Wesley Hyatt's Encyclopedia of Daytime Television (https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofda00hyat/page/10) is now part of the archive. It features a comprehensive history of shows and schedules.
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Kicking this to note that publishers have taken notice and are Very Not Amused. If you were thinking of, er, checking out any of the titles listed here, you might want to do it sooner rather than later.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/06/publishers-sue-internet-archive-over-massive-digital-lending-program
Before this change, publishers largely looked the other way as IA and a few other libraries experimented with the digital lending concept. Some publishers' groups condemned the practice, but no one filed a lawsuit over it. Perhaps the publishers feared setting an adverse precedent if the courts ruled that CDL was legal.
But the IA's emergency lending program was harder for publishers to ignore. So this week, as a number of states have been lifting quarantine restrictions, the publishers sued the Internet Archive.
... If they win the lawsuit, they might force the group to shut down its book scanning operation and promise to not start it up again, then allow it to continue its other, less controversial offerings.
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My surprised face— :|
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Bumping this to add another book I found on here the other day: Millionaire Moments by Chris Tarrant (https://archive.org/details/millionairemomen0000tarr).
Here's something he mentioned about the case of money in front of the Hot Seat which I never knew:
In those days we had a glass case right at the front of the set, containing £1,000,000, to remind everybody, by its sheer bulk, of just how large an amount of money this was. I was always worried about the moment of opening the case to hand over the money because, although we’d practised it numerous times in rehearsals, it always seemed to me that there was every chance the money would go flying all over the place. Imagine the shambles; there could even have been a stampede among the audience, stuffing tenners down the front of their trousers and doing a runner. If I was in the audience I’m sure that’s what I’d have done. In fact after the second series we dropped this idea altogether and settled for just writing out a cheque for £1,000,000 to anyone clever enough to give me fifteen correct answers.
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It's not archive.org, but from worldradiohistory.com comes the 1997 Encyclopedia of Daytime Television. Not exclusively game shows, but everything I tried looking for is in there.
Noticed a couple factual errors, not unusual for a pre-internet work of this nature. The biggest one seems to be assuming that Sajak's "Press Your Luck" pilot was related to real PYL.
https://worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/History/Encyclopedia-of-Daytime-Television-Hyatt-1997.pdf
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Pardon the bump, but TV Game Shows by Maxine Fabe (https://archive.org/details/tvgameshows0000fabe) (1979) just got added last week!
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Pardon the bump, but TV Game Shows by Maxine Fabe (https://archive.org/details/tvgameshows0000fabe) (1979) just got added last week!
Nice! I've wanted to read this for years.
Anyone know what game Fabe referred to when she said "Extra Digit?" It's probably something really obvious, but it's not coming to me.
(https://i.imgur.com/h9MjMRA.png)
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Anyone know what game Fabe referred to when she said "Extra Digit?" It's probably something really obvious, but it's not coming to me.
The first thing that came to my mind was Squeeze Play, but I see it's also on the list.
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Pardon the bump, but TV Game Shows by Maxine Fabe (https://archive.org/details/tvgameshows0000fabe) (1979) just got added last week!
Harumph, there goes the resale value of the copy I bought for 99 cents at Waldenbooks (!) In 1981. :)
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Anyone know what game Fabe referred to when she said "Extra Digit?" It's probably something really obvious, but it's not coming to me.
The first thing that came to my mind was Squeeze Play, but I see it's also on the list.
My guess would have been Double Digits, but that game was long gone by then. Maybe Professor Price but I highly doubt it.
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On page 38, she mentions that Battlestars contestants received $800 worth of parting gifts. Having wondered the actual amount of these gifts, was that the norm for most shows of that era? Most credit rolls I remember seeing offered the Lee Press-On nails, Ragu spaghetti sauce and pizza mix, and the Hawaiian Tropic towel.
It probably depends on the show. Just as an example, I remember Whew! parting gifts to be some pretty hefty stuff. Plus, there's the possibility of returning champs accumulating parting gifts; do I need (an excuse) to break out the Bob Harris video again?
Many of the Whew! parting gifts we've seen so far would have been top-level Head Start prizes on Narz Concentration.
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On page 38, she mentions that Battlestars contestants received $800 worth of parting gifts. Having wondered the actual amount of these gifts, was that the norm for most shows of that era? Most credit rolls I remember seeing offered the Lee Press-On nails, Ragu spaghetti sauce and pizza mix, and the Hawaiian Tropic towel.
It probably depends on the show. Just as an example, I remember Whew! parting gifts to be some pretty hefty stuff. Plus, there's the possibility of returning champs accumulating parting gifts; do I need (an excuse) to break out the Bob Harris video again?
Many of the Whew! parting gifts we've seen so far would have been top-level Head Start prizes on Narz Concentration.
I’ve noticed that too watching Buzzr. Very nice consolation prizes for your time.
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Anyone know what game Fabe referred to when she said "Extra Digit?" It's probably something really obvious, but it's not coming to me.
The only games of note potentially missing from the list would be Shower Game and Telephone Game based on dates, but neither of them involve a extra digit.
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TOTAL GUESS, just to be clear: The TPIR staff used to submit a memo to CBS every time they were about to unveil a new pricing game, I've seen some of these memos. They'd be submitted to the network before they had fully locked down the name. ("Now...and Then" was originally called "Inflation".)
Since you couldn't just go to Price is Right Fan Wiki in the 1970s, she had to obtain a list from somewhere, and she may have asked a show for such a list, and the show just went through their stack of files and thoughtlessly punched out a list of names for her from the old memos. "Extra Digit" might just be Squeeze Play's original name before they noticed how the mechanism looked.
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TOTAL GUESS, just to be clear: The TPIR staff used to submit a memo to CBS every time they were about to unveil a new pricing game, I've seen some of these memos. They'd be submitted to the network before they had fully locked down the name. ("Now...and Then" was originally called "Inflation".)
Since you couldn't just go to Price is Right Fan Wiki in the 1970s, she had to obtain a list from somewhere, and she may have asked a show for such a list, and the show just went through their stack of files and thoughtlessly punched out a list of names for her from the old memos. "Extra Digit" might just be Squeeze Play's original name before they noticed how the mechanism looked.
That sounds plausible. I've seen one of those memos, which listed "Pick-A-Pair" as an alternate name for Take Two.
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It's Optional wasn't played for cars at the time?
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We can also consider the possibility she was just plain wrong.