The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: Jeremy Nelson on April 13, 2022, 04:08:30 PM
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I was watching a Week 1 episode of Password Plus today and saw that there are recessed rectangles on either side of the desk, suggesting (but not confirming) that they may have tinkered with adding the score readouts to the desk rather than overhead. These rectangles are covered later in the year.
So it got me thinking- are there other set pieces/elements from shows where you thought "hey, this must be from one of the pilots"? Two other things immediately come to mind:
Blockbusters- the hexagon-within-a-hexagon on the podiums seemed out of place, and the pilot confirmed that those are just covered up score readouts
Fun House- There's a black square in the center of the home base podium- was that intended to be used as a game clock?
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Of course, there's the Money Cards board from the pilot visible in every Perry CS intro.
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The 4th digit in the bank on later years of Combs Feud. That was an awesome one to get answered after all these years.
-Jason
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As I learned of this thread from it...
The checkmark boxes on the prize list of Narz Concentration (apparently carryover from NBC).
EDIT: Beat to the fourth digit of the (New) Family Feud (Challenge) total score readout. For a time I thought they used said readout to show the Bullseye stakes, but when the FFC pilot was seen on Buzzr was when I got the real story.
(Plus that made no sense as the Bullseye values were seen on a screen in the middle of the Bullseye prop)
The giant Percentage sign now stuck to the bottom of the floor by the time Play the Percentages underwent its first format tweak.
Speculation but....
Would the segmented "*MATCH" readout on MG90 count? If it was ever intended for scoring to be more like 7x.
The three staircases on the MG/HS Hours backdrop may have been for introducing the three MG contestants in the pilot.
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The checkmark boxes on the prize list of Narz Concentration (apparently carryover from NBC).
IIRC the rule where if you match both Wild Cards to the same prize and solve the puzzle means you win two of said prize was still intact.
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The original run of Pyramid had a board over an unused bottom row of trilons in the winner's circle category wall.
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Fun House- There's a black square in the center of the home base podium- was that intended to be used as a game clock?
This was originally a single-character Eggcrate readout. In two pilots/test shows that made it to air (plus at least one that didn't, which played the front game for cash and had an absurd budget,) all of the prize tags had a "barcode" on the back. The tag which triggered the Power Prize was not shown to the home audience before the run; rather, at the end of it, JD would take the prize tags the team had snagged, and stick them, one by one, into a slot above the center display to "read" the barcode. On one of the test shows, the center display would beep and boop while flashing some different characters, then either the buzzer or the Power Prize siren would sound. On the other, a shot of Tiny would be superimposed over the display after the beeping and booping, and he would either say "Sorry!" or "You Win!" or things to that effect. (The unaired pilot had the Power Prize tag claiming everything in the Fun House, to the tune of $25,000. Like I said, absurd.)
The two aired pilots also had some cosmetic changes around the set, a clock that counted down in tenths of seconds, and every stunt in the front round earned the losing team runner-up points, like the "key game" in the UK version.
EDIT: Here's the unaired pilot, which, contrary to my memory, did not have the center display yet, but did use the barcode gimmick.
https://youtu.be/kJMnGve0aDc
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Would the segmented "*MATCH" readout on MG90 count? If it was ever intended for scoring to be more like 7x.
This, along with the "4 digits are for the bullseye readout", crossed my mind too - that perhaps the * was a match, the M, the A, etc.
/Never noticed that in early P+ - will have to go back and look now.
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Possibly not technically relevant to this discussion, but my kid self always thought there were three "doors" at the top of the Louie Anderson Feud set that should have been used in some way. In the first season, it appeared that there was a balcony (with a rope safety border) that would have served as a floor. I can't imagine I was alone in thinking this, but maybe.
(https://www.youthdownloads.com//triviamaker/wp-content/themes/stratusx-child/template/upload/202005181589795060548.png)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRCAK6jKuiE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRCAK6jKuiE)
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Possibly not technically relevant to this discussion, but my kid self always thought there were three "doors" at the top of the Louie Anderson Feud set that should have been used in some way. In the first season, it appeared that there was a balcony (with a rope safety border) that would have served as a floor. I can't imagine I was alone in thinking this, but maybe.
Along those same lines, though, 5 year old me watching "Tic Tac Dough" thought the circular show logo on the studio floor was a wheel, and I was hoping the contestants would spin it.
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Would the segmented "*MATCH" readout on MG90 count? If it was ever intended for scoring to be more like 7x.
This, along with the "4 digits are for the bullseye readout", crossed my mind too - that perhaps the * was a match, the M, the A, etc.
/Never noticed that in early P+ - will have to go back and look now.
The Bert Convy pilots we've seen have all 6 celebs participating in each round regardless if they matched in another round. It's possible they thought of doing the original format again, and the celeb's nameplates also looked like they could accommodate that. Whether they did a pilot with those rules, we may never know.
As mundane as Match Up was, it made the game much more fair, and didn't force the celebs to huddle together to be sure they all had the same answer if the contestant needed to match them all to win.
As for Password Plus, a different scoring format where money was awarded for each guessed word was implemented. I'm sure there was also money for guessing the puzzle. I'm guessing they went with using overhead scoreboards because they would be easier to see.
The Family Feud Challenge pilot also had an unused element... apparently in the Bullseye round, money was also originally awarded for the 2nd and 3rd most popular answer, but I guess at the last moment they decided that ONLY the Bullseye answer would count, and didn't bother to cover up or explain the unneeded graphics for the other two answers.
The Now You See It grand staircase seemed a bit superfluous when they revised the format.
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The Bert Convy pilots we've seen have all 6 celebs participating in each round regardless if they matched in another round. It's possible they thought of doing the original format again, and the celeb's nameplates also looked like they could accommodate that. Whether they did a pilot with those rules, we may never know.
I came across some Match Game scripts from September 1989 (the month leading up to the pilot), and through each revision, the scoring was the same as what we saw (all 6 celebs at all times, 2 points per match in round 3). I absolutely agree they were leaving the possibilities open by having the lights built the way they were built, but as far as a full pilot with the old scoring, signs point to no.
The Family Feud Challenge pilot also had an unused element... apparently in the Bullseye round, money was also originally awarded for the 2nd and 3rd most popular answer, but I guess at the last moment they decided that ONLY the Bullseye answer would count, and didn't bother to cover up or explain the unneeded graphics for the other two answers.
We saw in the second half of that pilot they could mask the rest of the Bullseye board with graphics. I simply think none of the answers given in the first half were #2 or #3.
Buzzr posted a screengrab of a different FFC pilot with higher money amounts for all 3 answers. As the team's total bank was on the screen along with it, my guess was they did the top 3 thing for both halves, and decided to streamline the final Bullseye round by the time they shot the pilot Buzzr aired.
-Jason
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The Now You See It grand staircase seemed a bit superfluous when they revised the format.
As for Now You See It elements that were never used, the green and blue shapes up in the champion's gallery were capable of lighting up, but we never saw what the intention of that feature was.
Additionally, the neon lights that trimmed the set also trimmed the challengers' area. But presumably they were too bright and distracting in close-ups, so while the glass tubes remained, those lights were never turned on.
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The checkmark boxes on the prize list of Narz Concentration (apparently carryover from NBC).
IIRC the rule where if you match both Wild Cards to the same prize and solve the puzzle means you win two of said prize was still intact.
Correct, but on the Narz version, instead of the checkmark, they just put two cards with that prize on the board.
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The checkmark boxes on the prize list of Narz Concentration (apparently carryover from NBC).
IIRC the rule where if you match both Wild Cards to the same prize and solve the puzzle means you win two of said prize was still intact.
Correct, but on the Narz version, instead of the checkmark, they just put two cards with that prize on the board.
And there was a great example of this recently:
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FQQnHc5XoAEP6vr?format=jpg&name=small)
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The Now You See It grand staircase seemed a bit superfluous when they revised the format.
Not that it wasn't superfluous from the start. Beautiful, but superfluous.
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How long into the syndicated run of TTD did they go without using the podium buzzers? They were a holdover from the CBS version, where every game had "jump-in questions" starting with the third (IIRC) question.
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Possibly not technically relevant to this discussion, but my kid self always thought there were three "doors" at the top of the Louie Anderson Feud set that should have been used in some way. In the first season, it appeared that there was a balcony (with a rope safety border) that would have served as a floor. I can't imagine I was alone in thinking this, but maybe.
(https://www.youthdownloads.com//triviamaker/wp-content/themes/stratusx-child/template/upload/202005181589795060548.png)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRCAK6jKuiE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRCAK6jKuiE)
Not on topic but was there at one point a painted mural on the leftmost side of the set for awhile? I recall seeing an Elvis with a Family Feud microphone there.
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The Now You See It grand staircase seemed a bit superfluous when they revised the format.
Not that it wasn't superfluous from the start. Beautiful, but superfluous.
I think the designers of both sets were prone to superfluous behavior.
You want a big ass staircase? How about a big ass staircase but…now picture this..GIANT. HINGED. CIRCLES. With chase lights, because they all love chase lights, right?
I get they were designed to close off the play areas when they weren’t in use, but couldn’t you have accomplished the same thing with proper lighting and camera angles?
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With the exceptions of Triple Play, Most Expen$ive for three trips Barker Era, and the second prize on Golden Road, Door #1 is rarely used on TPiR for game play (I know they use that area for storage, but that's not visible). Even in the Showcases the big prizes (car, party boat, etc.) are rarely behind that door.
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I believe Door #1 on TPIR is used for Safe Crackers, but I get your point.
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I believe Door #1 on TPIR is used for Safe Crackers, but I get your point.
No, that's Door #2.
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With the exceptions of Triple Play, Most Expen$ive for three trips Barker Era, and the second prize on Golden Road, Door #1 is rarely used on TPiR for game play (I know they use that area for storage, but that's not visible). Even in the Showcases the big prizes (car, party boat, etc.) are rarely behind that door.
If you're including Barker episodes, Superball used all three doors as well.
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The Now You See It grand staircase seemed a bit superfluous when they revised the format.
Not that it wasn't superfluous from the start. Beautiful, but superfluous.
I think the designers of both sets were prone to superfluous behavior.
You want a big ass staircase? How about a big ass staircase but…now picture this..GIANT. HINGED. CIRCLES. With chase lights, because they all love chase lights, right?
I get they were designed to close off the play areas when they weren’t in use, but couldn’t you have accomplished the same thing with proper lighting and camera angles?
It seemed that some of Goodson's 80s shows used more sparse sets. Eubanks Card Sharks had on one side 4 aces that opened up to reveal the card playing area which swung into place, and on the other side, a turntable that had the Money Cards game just 45 degrees away. The rest of the set... NOTHING, until the car game, where a lighted border was added center stage. Now You See it was more sparse... beyond the three very flashy rings, the set was otherwise quite sparse. In other words, both sets didn't look quite so impressive from a wide shot and were better displayed in close ups.
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On "Cash Cab," the front passenger seat.
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Eubanks Card Sharks had on one side 4 aces that opened up to reveal the card playing area which swung into place, and on the other side, a turntable that had the Money Cards game just 45 degrees away. The rest of the set... NOTHING, until the car game, where a lighted border was added center stage.
Perry Card Sharks was pretty sparse, too. It had more moving parts, but it still felt like a tiny island in an immense, empty studio.
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Eubanks Card Sharks had on one side 4 aces that opened up to reveal the card playing area which swung into place, and on the other side, a turntable that had the Money Cards game just 45 degrees away. The rest of the set... NOTHING, until the car game, where a lighted border was added center stage.
Perry Card Sharks was pretty sparse, too. It had more moving parts, but it still felt like a tiny island in an immense, empty studio.
But at least it didn't have the champion stand in the middle of nowhere for the Money Cards, FWIW.
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The white WHEEL OF FORTUNE logo behind the contestants on the current set displayed flashing colors during the season premiere's intro, and never again. Probably doesn't technically qualify, but it's the most recent example I can think of at least.
(https://i.imgur.com/2PUq7TT.png)
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No, that's Door #2.
It's been ages since I've watched TPIR, but I thought Safe Crackers and Lucky Seven were both played at the door that's more stage right than the others. (I suppose the turntable would be further stage right, but it's also downstage from the doors.) Are the doors not numbered from stage right to stage left?
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Couple of examples on TPIR games:
*Punch-a-Bunch originally had a number + multiplier format, and the P-U-N-C-H-B-O-A-R-D letters covered slots that contained the numbers. This format was revised after 11 playings and the slots above the main part of the board were now superfluous, but they stayed in place until the prop was redone in 1996.
*The "jukebox" in Race Game had arms on both sides for a number of years, but AFAIK the left-hand one was never used. Perhaps they originally planned to stage it differently/allow for different staging patterns.
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*Punch-a-Bunch originally had a number + multiplier format, and the P-U-N-C-H-B-O-A-R-D letters covered slots that contained the numbers. This format was revised after 11 playings and the slots above the main part of the board were now superfluous, but they stayed in place until the prop was redone in 1996.
I'm not a TPIR scholar by any means, but I'm familiar enough with the history, and I remember nothing like that, that my first reaction was to call this one of those "Game Show False Memories."
But here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rmlAFR1onA
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The scoreboards on Body Language had space for four digits, but they only ever used three.
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No, that's Door #2.
It's been ages since I've watched TPIR, but I thought Safe Crackers and Lucky Seven were both played at the door that's more stage right than the others. (I suppose the turntable would be further stage right, but it's also downstage from the doors.) Are the doors not numbered from stage right to stage left?
1. Do you mean Safe Crackers and 5 Price Tags? Because I'm really not sure how Lucky $even comes into this discussion.
2. This is easier to explain another way. Door #1 is orange, Door #2 is blue, and Door #3 is green. If you look at the start of any playing of Safe Crackers or 5 Price Tags, you'll see Drew is standing between the blue door and the green door. The same holds true of Bob and the doors' previous designs.
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I was also thinking of 5 Price Tags being played behind that door. As for Lucky Seven, I thought that the car comes onstage from the wings stage right, and then Drew (or Bob before him) would go all the way to where the car is stage right and play the game.
As I said, it's been years since I've watched an episode, probably not since Mom died back in 2015. Dad and I would leave the TV running for her; 11:00 was TPIR and the afternoon was all those shitty court shows.
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The car is rolled all the way past Door #1 to in front of Door #2, and the board itself is behind Door #3. Due to social distancing, Drew is currently standing in about the same place he'd be for Safe Crackers and 5 Price Tags, just facing Door #3 instead of Door #2.
(https://i.imgur.com/VXxBkaF.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/g1bL3Oo.png)
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I consider The Gong Show more of a comedy show than a game show, but I seem to remember there were two scoreboards, one on both sides of the stage, bit only one ever seemed to be used.
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I suppose this counts: on Wheel, the old trilon puzzleboard had four trilons partially covered by the frame of the puzzleboard.
(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/HsAK8ldnPEw/hqdefault.jpg)
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Because they're not in alignment with the other trilons in the column, I'd be willing to bet that those four green rectangles weren't functioning trilons but rather just flat panels attached to the curved border in order to fill what would otherwise be large empty spaces.
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Because they're not in alignment with the other trilons in the column, I'd be willing to bet that those four green rectangles weren't functioning trilons but rather just flat panels attached to the curved border in order to fill what would otherwise be large empty spaces.
Funny thing is, they were empty spaces when the board was first expanded to four rows in December 1981. And said spaces were also there on the duplicate board they used for road shows.
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I consider The Gong Show more of a comedy show than a game show, but I seem to remember there were two scoreboards, one on both sides of the stage, bit only one ever seemed to be used.
In the beginning, they had the act's name on both sides, but the scoreboard was only on the left. A few months later (right around the time John Dorsey took over directing chores from Terry Kyne), they got rid of the card on the right. Then in the summer of 1977 (around August), they ditched the scoreboard and card showing the act entirely (which eventually set the stage for them to adorn the set with photos).
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I know there are at least a half-dozen unused elements I have seen over the decades...
The only one that comes to mind is on the original Battlestars: There were vertical columns of neon triangles on the contestant's desk in the silver area. I never saw those lit up in use or why they were there ‐‐ only the horizontal scoring triangles and the neon arrows designating who was in control.
https://images.app.goo.gl/ARpeBCrcznVeGLAL9
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The bottom two screens on Bumper Stumpers were completely pointless during the era of the third bonus round (season 3?).
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Because they're not in alignment with the other trilons in the column, I'd be willing to bet that those four green rectangles weren't functioning trilons but rather just flat panels attached to the curved border in order to fill what would otherwise be large empty spaces.
As evidenced by the lack of depth for those panels in this video at 0:33.
https://youtu.be/lhYjmG9EMqo?t=33
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One more TPiR example...
"Pass The Buck" originally had 8 spaces to choose from, with spaces #1 and 2 flanking the game's logo. This didn't last too long before it was streamlined to 6, but the extraneous spaces still remain on the board, covered up with dollar bill graphics.
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Additionally, the neon lights that trimmed the set also trimmed the challengers' area. But presumably they were too bright and distracting in close-ups, so while the glass tubes remained, those lights were never turned on.
I wonder if the hum from the neon also played into this as those lights would've been right on top of the mics. The hum from the neon during quiet moments on Super Password was still noticeable even with those set pieces back a considerable way from the desk.
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The Spelling Bee prize stands have always had three-digit eggcrate displays but never use the first digit because they only use two-digit prices.
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No, that's Door #2.
It's been ages since I've watched TPIR, but I thought Safe Crackers and Lucky Seven were both played at the door that's more stage right than the others. (I suppose the turntable would be further stage right, but it's also downstage from the doors.) Are the doors not numbered from stage right to stage left?
1. Do you mean Safe Crackers and 5 Price Tags? Because I'm really not sure how Lucky $even comes into this discussion.
2. This is easier to explain another way. Door #1 is orange, Door #2 is blue, and Door #3 is green. If you look at the start of any playing of Safe Crackers or 5 Price Tags, you'll see Drew is standing between the blue door and the green door. The same holds true of Bob and the doors' previous designs.
Door 1 is parallel to the flying pipes in the studio. This is a throwback to the New York set. The center line of the set is where door 1 meets door 2. Whenever you would see a flying wall, that's door 1.
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One more TPiR example...
"Pass The Buck" originally had 8 spaces to choose from, with spaces #1 and 2 flanking the game's logo. This didn't last too long before it was streamlined to 6, but the extraneous spaces still remain on the board, covered up with dollar bill graphics.
Also, the GP podium remained 3-sided several years beyond that gameplay change.
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Another TPIR example:
When the original Temptation board was modified to accommodate 5-digit car prices but the game was still being played for a car with a 4-digit price, a dollar sign appeared in the first position of the egg crate display but Bob never pressed the corresponding button.
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The Spelling Bee prize stands have always had three-digit eggcrate displays but never use the first digit because they only use two-digit prices.
I guess Wheel of Fortune's scoreboards from the 90s count here. Each scoreboard was seven digits, allowing for scores of over $100,000 to be displayed. I don't think that was ever done.
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I dunno. I think it was mainly done because the previous podiums would lose the dollar sign when the score leapt to five figures, so they fixed it when they renovated the home base.
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I dunno. I think it was mainly done because the previous podiums would lose the dollar sign when the score leapt to five figures, so they fixed it when they renovated the home base.
I always wondered why it did that. An aesthetic reason? Not enough power to run all six displays? (Obviously I'm being facetious there.)
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I dunno. I think it was mainly done because the previous podiums would lose the dollar sign when the score leapt to five figures, so they fixed it when they renovated the home base.
I always wondered why it did that. An aesthetic reason? Not enough power to run all six displays? (Obviously I'm being facetious there.)
I'm legit curious what the deal was there, since AFAIK they'd been using the same scoreboards from sometime in mid-1977 to about July 1990, and that glitch didn't start until about October 1989.
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I think it was at the beginning of the 1983-1984 season (Barry's last), the contestant stands had a very narrow white light below the scoring indicators (as shown below);
https://s2.dmcdn.net/v/BnESD1M7QpdT6TeQF/x1080
Now very briefly AFAIR, there were signaling buttons on the top of the stands, though not shown in the picture. My impression was they were going to try something like "jump-in" questions, but I never did see these lights come into use at all. Anyone know?
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I thought it was just a cosmetic upgrade—if they were going to do jump ins they would want to use the red bulbs that were more prominent.
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I thought it was just a cosmetic upgrade—if they were going to do jump ins they would want to use the red bulbs that were more prominent.
And they very well could have done that by wiring the red lights to the lockout system and the white light bar be the turn indicator. Why not just use the existing red lights for both the lockout and the turn indicator? Because then the lights could be manipulated, and Jack wouldn't want to be near any faint suggestion of impropriety. This falls into the zone of Wheel of Fortune stopping the wheel spinning at the top and bottom of the show because it gave the appearance of a device that could be controlled.
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Now very briefly AFAIR, there were signaling buttons on the top of the stands, though not shown in the picture. My impression was they were going to try something like "jump-in" questions, but I never did see these lights come into use at all. Anyone know?
I’ve wondered that, too, and about the narrow piece added to the bottom of face-off stand on Dawson Family Feud.
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Now very briefly AFAIR, there were signaling buttons on the top of the stands, though not shown in the picture. My impression was they were going to try something like "jump-in" questions, but I never did see these lights come into use at all. Anyone know?
I’ve wondered that, too, and about the narrow piece added to the bottom of face-off stand on Dawson Family Feud.
That FF piece you're referring to, I believe, was where they stored signaling buttons for the face-off, in case one contestant didn't have the strength/ability to walk up to the stand. I'd first seen it on a special "Celebrity" edition featuring the cast of Gilligan's Island. Here is an episode featuring the system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NX6yqCTRO4.
You'll see it utilized around 11 minutes into the episode. The buttons were wired, and if conditions were necessary on current series, they'd probably be wireless.
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…where they stored signaling buttons for the face-off, in case one contestant didn't have the strength/ability to walk up to the stand.
Well, I’ll be. Thanks!
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Recalling a fading memory of a show of which I was not fond: "Showoffs" original format had the teams playing a best out of three series. Score was kept with a single digit readout and when a round was won a drama mask was lit indicating so. A format change meant that scores could go higher than nine making a single digit readout useless. The best two-out-of-three scoring was ditched making the masks useless. Please correct me if I am misremembering this.
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Recalling a fading memory of a show of which I was not fond: "Showoffs" original format had the teams playing a best out of three series. Score was kept with a single digit readout and when a round was won a drama mask was lit indicating so. A format change meant that scores could go higher than nine making a single digit readout useless. The best two-out-of-three scoring was ditched making the masks useless. Please correct me if I am misremembering this.
I think the "single-digit readout" had a vertical line through the center of it, which could turn it into two side-by-side seven-segment digits if necessary. It would only be a problem if a team scored 20, which was hard to do as, IIRC, the game ended when one team had seven or more. (Also note that the format went back to two-out-of-three, but with the revised 1000/2000/5000 bonus round rather than the Body Language-style one, near the end of the run.)
In this format, the masks were used to show whose turn it was. They weren't entirely useless as, if you had a black and white TV, you couldn't tell which score belonged to which team.
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In this format, the masks were used to show whose turn it was. They weren't entirely useless as, if you had a black and white TV, you couldn't tell which score belonged to which team.
Isn't that also why the teams had the words "Red" and "Blue" printed on their shirts?
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In this format, the masks were used to show whose turn it was. They weren't entirely useless as, if you had a black and white TV, you couldn't tell which score belonged to which team.
Isn't that also why the teams had the words "Red" and "Blue" printed on their shirts?
Yes (well, "Reds" and "Blues") - in fact, the first day they did that, Bobby Van explained about the black-and-white TV set problem.
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Leslie Crowther Price is Right in Uk when they retired the big wheel it just sat in the corner of the set and was never used again.
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Yes (well, "Reds" and "Blues") - in fact, the first day they did that, Bobby Van explained about the black-and-white TV set problem.
Someone posted a Whew! audience ticket on Facebook which noted "black and white television door prize." I grant you those were still around in '79, but that's one unspectacular prize.
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In the mid-90s I had a portable B&W TV, and it did the job. I wonder if the door prize was a similar size.
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Yes (well, "Reds" and "Blues") - in fact, the first day they did that, Bobby Van explained about the black-and-white TV set problem.
Someone posted a Whew! audience ticket on Facebook which noted "black and white television door prize." I grant you those were still around in '79, but that's one unspectacular prize.
What’s unspectacular about a free TV? Regardless of whether or not it’s monochrome.
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And people aren’t attending a taping to win the door prize.
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Yes (well, "Reds" and "Blues") - in fact, the first day they did that, Bobby Van explained about the black-and-white TV set problem.
Someone posted a Whew! audience ticket on Facebook which noted "black and white television door prize." I grant you those were still around in '79, but that's one unspectacular prize.
Portable color TVs (something you didn't have to put on the floor) wouldn't really be affordable until around 1984, IIRC. They were useful to put in, say, bedrooms or dorm rooms. Just about all larger TVs were color by the late 1970s.
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Yes (well, "Reds" and "Blues") - in fact, the first day they did that, Bobby Van explained about the black-and-white TV set problem.
Someone posted a Whew! audience ticket on Facebook which noted "black and white television door prize." I grant you those were still around in '79, but that's one unspectacular prize.
Portable color TVs (something you didn't have to put on the floor) wouldn't really be affordable until around 1984, IIRC. They were useful to put in, say, bedrooms or dorm rooms. Just about all larger TVs were color by the late 1970s.
Sounds about right. I don't know how much our first TV cost but we had it from at least 1983, so I gotta imagine it was affordable enough.
I still love to tell about the cheapness of my first portable TV. I'm convinced they just put a border around a monitor and called it a TV. Lower part of the picture was always cut off no matter what I did.
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Leslie Crowther Price is Right in Uk when they retired the big wheel it just sat in the corner of the set and was never used again.
If I'm not mistaken, they actually got rid of the prop after Series 2.
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Yes (well, "Reds" and "Blues") - in fact, the first day they did that, Bobby Van explained about the black-and-white TV set problem.
Someone posted a Whew! audience ticket on Facebook which noted "black and white television door prize." I grant you those were still around in '79, but that's one unspectacular prize.
One year later, on NBC's Election night coverage, they misspoke about the B&W gray levels, and had to make a correction. When Tom Brokaw clarified to the viewing audience that "Blue states would be light gray, and Red States dark gray," John Chancellor then said, "Tom, I've got a better idea--for those watching in Black & White, BUY A COLOR SET!!" ;D
Back on topic, the back side of the rotating partition, on the viewers left side of original Dating Game set, was shown in the early days of the show, but not for the majority of the series run.
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Yes (well, "Reds" and "Blues") - in fact, the first day they did that, Bobby Van explained about the black-and-white TV set problem.
Someone posted a Whew! audience ticket on Facebook which noted "black and white television door prize." I grant you those were still around in '79, but that's one unspectacular prize.
One year later, on NBC's Election night coverage, they misspoke about the B&W gray levels, and had to make a correction. When Tom Brokaw clarified to the viewing audience that "Blue states would be light gray, and Red States dark gray," John Chancellor then said, "Tom, I've got a better idea--for those watching in Black & White, BUY A COLOR SET!!" ;D
Back on topic, the back side of the rotating partition, on the viewers left side of original Dating Game set, was shown in the early days of the show, but not for the majority of the series run.
Shades of grey for both parties...seems right...
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Just thought of a set element that BECAME unused... when Break the Bank 85 switched to having no stunts, the keypad to enter the combination to open the vault remained but was not used again, and of course the vault opened on its own.
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When original Tattletales went to the all-quickie format, all they did was yank out the monitor-top buzzers, and covered the holes with square pieces of plastic.
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The Spelling Bee prize stands have always had three-digit eggcrate displays but never use the first digit because they only use two-digit prices.
Been meaning to comment on this. Believe it or not, they used a $100 Toaster Oven as a small prize early on in the game's life. Don't know if it's the only instance, but it has to be extremely rare.
(https://i.imgur.com/1vIfAEjm.jpg)
This is from 12/01/88 which is online. (https://tinyurl.com/2m9uwfu9)
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This is from 12/01/88 which is online. (https://tinyurl.com/2m9uwfu9)
Wow... when they loaded the board, they put the card into slot 4 backward -- you can tell there's a C in there.
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This is from 12/01/88 which is online. (https://tinyurl.com/2m9uwfu9)
Wow... when they loaded the board, they put the card into slot 4 backward -- you can tell there's a C in there.
Would that have caused a stop-tape if the contestant had picked that card?
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when Break the Bank 85 switched to having no stunts, the keypad to enter the combination to open the vault remained but was not used again, and of course the vault opened on its own.
See also the Number Jumbler - no purpose after the format change, but stuck around anyway.
Believe it or not, they used a $100 Toaster Oven as a small prize early on in the game's life. [...]
This is from 12/01/88 which is online. (http://https:
//tinyurl.com/2m9uwfu9)
More specifically at the 10:34 mark.
Off-topic, but I kept watching after the price reveal and I'm glad I did because turns out that was a pretty important playing of Spelling Bee - the contestant didn't get the toaster oven but nails the price of the next (and last) prize, after which Bob says the whole "exact bid after missing a previous prize" scenario hadn't come up in discussions about the game. He says he'll make a ruling right then and there, repeats the rule that an exact guess on any prize wins all three plus the three cards, and decides that it also awards the prizes (and cards) the contestant hadn't gotten. "I think that's the fair thing to do!"
EDITED TO ADD: Turns out that hundreds digit was also used on 2/16/89 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qkg9w4ydvpY&t=5m4s) - for whatever reason, the displays showed the prices and differences with leading zeroes.
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the contestant didn't get the toaster oven but nails the price of the next (and last) prize, after which Bob says the whole "exact bid after missing a previous prize" scenario hadn't come up in discussions about the game. He says he'll make a ruling right then and there, repeats the rule that an exact guess on any prize wins all three plus the three cards, and decides that it also awards the prizes (and cards) the contestant hadn't gotten. "I think that's the fair thing to do!"
Bob can spin it for television however he wants, but I imagine that's exactly what the intended rule was anyway. "An exact price wins all three prizes" is pretty self-explanatory.
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I bet they sold a lot of those 18-inch high, under-the-cabinet toaster ovens for $100. What can you really toast, bake or broil in that thing, other than toast or a narrow pizza?
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I just went to the kitchen to measure my countertop toaster oven, and got a rough measurement of 9 inches high, 10 inches deep, and just under 18 inches wide.
In fact, Amazon lists this Toastmaster 6-slice toaster oven (https://www.amazon.com/Toastmaster-TM-183TR-6-Slice-Toaster-Silver/dp/B00YC30ESO) at 19.5 x 15.9 x 11.42 inches, and would fit under the cabinet above it.
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I meant to say 8 inch, not 18. But the difference with the ones that are sold now, the 1988 one has a door opening that would better be described as a food slot; the height of the product was not maximized for the efficiency of the product, it was just shorter and compromised the functional space.
(https://i.imgur.com/Zl3xJhv.png)
Around that time we had the undercabinet TV/radio, and I remember the neighbors had this clunky undercabinet can opener. That seemed to be the fad of the time, to clear the counter of bulky appliances with hanging, less-but-still-bulky appliances. (In fact, our microwave took up so much room, my dad cut a hole and inserted it in the wall over the stove, so it actually was in the garage, which smelled lovely when we cooked bacon.)
Would that have caused a stop-tape if the contestant had picked that card?
Knowing Bob's penchant to roll forward and not stop tape unless something was disadvantageous to the contestant or incredibly awkward, I'm sure they would have just left it that way, but Bob would still offer the $2,500. If the contestant then played for the car, I could see Bob jokingly offering the $2,000 without flipping over a card.
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Regarding the exposed card with the C, it might work to the player's advantage, but of course we won't know if the player has the remaining 2 letters or one of the two cards that says CAR. That player could've chosen that card to be one of the free letters at the start.
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Yeah, we still have the under-cabinet GE clock/timer/radio. Not that it gets used for anything other than a clock, and we've already got another clock on the microwave and oven. But it's easier to leave it there than to remove it.
Those color controls (for lack of a better term) on the toaster oven are soooooo dated.
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Would that have caused a stop-tape if the contestant had picked that card?
No, they would have just ran with it. It only advantaged the contestant to have that information.
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Would that have caused a stop-tape if the contestant had picked that card?
No, they would have just ran with it. It only advantaged the contestant to have that information.
And it's not like it was a "CAR", or even an "R". The C's and A's were the gimmes.
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I assume they would have run with it, or if Bob was feeling generous, he would have offered to let the contestant swap it for another one.