NBC "Concentration" Question(s)

[DoorNumberFour]

Was the original Concentration broadcast in color in the 70s? Did they still keep that 50s-60s-game-show organ/xylophone music? And if so, didn't it ever look dated alongside other game shows? Was that ever a problem?

[Jimmy Owen]

Yes, it went color in 1966.  It was gloriously pretty much the same until it went off and perhaps that dated look contributed to its demise on NBC in March of 1973.  It was back in a more modern version by September 73 in syndication (with the first customers being the NBC-owned stations.)

[JohnTheGameMan]

As a matter of fact, Concentration was the last black and white show on NBC to go the color route in 1966.  However, in 1961, there was a prime time version of the show that was in color and lasted a few months.  Ironically, Concentration was on in prime a couple of times during the original NBC run.

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Mar 7 2006, 05:22 PM\']Yes, it went color in 1966.  It was gloriously pretty much the same until it went off and perhaps that dated look contributed to its demise on NBC in March of 1973.  It was back in a more modern version by September 73 in syndication (with the first customers being the NBC-owned stations.)

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"Concentration" had the great good fortune of having as its only network competition for most of its run sitcom reruns on CBS.  That and seeming benign neglect (despite its network ownership) allowed Norm Blumenthal to do things as he had been doing them all along with only some minor tweaks like color, logos and set repaints (and Milt Kaye dropping the Hammond for some wimpier-sounding organ that was supposed to sound more "modern," along with updating the music cues for the prizes to things like "Ma-Na-Ma-Na" and some other vaguely more contemporary songs).  When hard-charging Lin Bolen took over daytime and CBS threw up the first serious competition in years with "TPIR" and the other game shows, Blumenthal should've figured out the writing was on the wall and started seriously sprucing the show up, but he didn't--and the network cancelled it, licensed it to Jim Victory and let him hire G-T to produce the syndicated version.

[Don Howard]

[quote name=\'JohnTheGameMan\' date=\'Mar 7 2006, 08:52 PM\']As a matter of fact, Concentration was the last black and white show on NBC to go the color route in 1966.  However, in 1961, there was a prime time version of the show that was in color and lasted a few months.  Ironically, Concentration was on in prime a couple of times during the original NBC run.

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Please to be explaining the irony of it.
It should be noted that Norm Blumenthal ordering Lin Bolen out of the control room during a taping session probably didn't help his cause, either. This story was told to the Game Show Congrefs IV assemblage this past summer in Glendale, California shortly after Doug and I got back from lunch at whatever restaurant we went to and I paused briefly to check out the chicks sunning themselves by the hotel swimming pool.