Vintage Score Displays

[Veejay7]

Hi everyone,

Watching the new "Jeopardy!" post on "Page O'Clips" reminded me of a question I've had since I was a kid:  has anyone ever seen anything on how the podium scoreboards operated?  

Keep in mind-- this is Art Fleming's Jeopardy!... where they used some sort of slide-projection for the score displays (like Password).  I would think the system must have generated some noise-- but yet you never hear the mics picking-up anything.

I also wonder how many people worked in NBC's art department during the 60's and 70's with all those game-show props and cards, and answers to generate all the time!

Yes-- I know-- hardly questions for the ages.  It's just something that's always left me curious.

Veejay

[Brandon Brooks]

From what I understand, this is your answer.

[quote name=\'Veejay7\' post=\'118964\' date=\'May 20 2006, 09:49 AM\']
Keep in mind-- this is Art Fleming's Jeopardy!... where they used some sort of slide-projection for the score displays (like Password).  
[/quote]

Brandon Brooks

[Chief-O]

[quote name=\'Brandon Brooks\' post=\'118966\' date=\'May 20 2006, 10:54 AM\']
From what I understand, this is your answer.

[quote name=\'Veejay7\' post=\'118964\' date=\'May 20 2006, 09:49 AM\']
Keep in mind-- this is Art Fleming's Jeopardy!... where they used some sort of slide-projection for the score displays (like Password).  
[/quote]
[/quote]

And to elaborate, I'd think that the displays contained 10 small bulbs/slides, 0-9. When the score changed, one bulb would go out and a different one would turn on. That'd be the only way I could think of it working without making noise.

[DoorNumberFour]

You know, I was just about to ask this question.

It hardly seems likely that all those answer cards were hand-made, but I guess they are.

At least, AFAIK.

As for the score displays, I think the Chief was right about there being slides numbered 0-9.

Of course, I'm probably wrong, being born 14 years after NBC's Jeopardy.

[TimK2003]

[quote name=\'Brandon Brooks\' post=\'118966\' date=\'May 20 2006, 10:54 AM\']
From what I understand, this is your answer.

[quote name=\'Veejay7\' post=\'118964\' date=\'May 20 2006, 09:49 AM\']
Keep in mind-- this is Art Fleming's Jeopardy!... where they used some sort of slide-projection for the score displays (like Password).  
[/quote]

Brandon Brooks
[/quote]


Were the contestant panel displays (*not* the overhead solari scoreboards) on "The Who What & Where Game" the same technology, or was that something a little different???  I know the contestants pretty much had controlled their own displays, as they pressed the appropriate number and "W" keys and would hit the button that would illuminate their choices.

[clemon79]

This is just a guess.

It strikes me that it's a technology kinda like light diffusion, in that there are ten slabs of glass in there, one with each number on it, and then each one has a bulb at the BOTTOM of it, and when the appropriate bulb is turned on, the light shines through the edge of that bit of glass only, which makes that number visible. Kinda like the technology that make your GameBoy work.

(That said, I don't know if that technology was refined enough to use in that application back then, but it makes more sense to me than the slide theory.)

[TimK2003]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'118980\' date=\'May 20 2006, 01:05 PM\']
This is just a guess.

It strikes me that it's a technology kinda like light diffusion, in that there are ten slabs of glass in there, one with each number on it, and then each one has a bulb at the BOTTOM of it, and when the appropriate bulb is turned on, the light shines through the edge of that bit of glass only, which makes that number visible. Kinda like the technology that make your GameBoy work.

(That said, I don't know if that technology was refined enough to use in that application back then, but it makes more sense to me than the slide theory.)
[/quote]


Your description sorta makes me want to call it 1st generation fiber-optics.  I also know that Otis Elevators used that J! technology in the 70's in some of their floor indicator displays.  And it was indeed a different light for each number.

[LocalH]

You mean a Nixie tube. Whether some of the early shows used them, I don't know, but I don't believe they run noisy, as it's just a matter of applying a current to the right cathode. According to WP, a crude type of Nixie tube was mass-produced in the 30s, but they weren't that widely used until 1954.

[pyl85]

This is just a guess.

It strikes me that it's a technology kinda like light diffusion, in that there are ten slabs of glass in there, one with each number on it, and then each one has a bulb at the BOTTOM of it, and when the appropriate bulb is turned on, the light shines through the edge of that bit of glass only, which makes that number visible. Kinda like the technology that make your GameBoy work.

(That said, I don't know if that technology was refined enough to use in that application back then, but it makes more sense to me than the slide theory.)

But whenever changing the score on Password, you could clearly see the score incrementing (as if changing slides rapidly). If there were lights, wouldn't they just turn the appropriate one on?

-Greg

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'pyl85\' post=\'119067\' date=\'May 21 2006, 05:01 PM\']
But whenever changing the score on Password, you could clearly see the score incrementing (as if changing slides rapidly). If there were lights, wouldn't they just turn the appropriate one on?
[/quote]
True. Perhaps it was easier to design a controller for the score readouts that incremented instead of lighting the appropriate light.

[TimK2003]

[quote name=\'pyl85\' post=\'119067\' date=\'May 21 2006, 07:01 PM\']

But whenever changing the score on Password, you could clearly see the score incrementing (as if changing slides rapidly). If there were lights, wouldn't they just turn the appropriate one on?

-Greg
[/quote]


My guess is that the Password displays were controlled by a dial of some sort, while the J! days used a little more modern equipment, using push-button boards to control the readouts (Kinda like the push-button keys that are on the NCR cash register on TPiR's Grocery Game).

 BTW, Otis used nixie tubes for a bit on their elevators, but that was not the technology I was alluding to earlier.  I don't recall any game show that used nixies.

[uncamark]

All of those "J!" clue art cards were hand-made by members of the NBC Graphic Arts Department.  They were initially hand-lettered, but in later years they seemed to switch to some sort of lettering process.

In a little quirk, in the hand-lettered years whenever a clue referred to the show by title, the word "Jeopardy!" was always shown as the show's logo on the card.  That stopped when they stopped hand-lettering the cards.

[Ian Wallis]

It strikes me that it's a technology kinda like light diffusion, in that there are ten slabs of glass in there, one with each number on it, and then each one has a bulb at the BOTTOM of it, and when the appropriate bulb is turned on, the light shines through the edge of that bit of glass only, which makes that number visible. Kinda like the technology that make your GameBoy work.

I'm sure I saw some episodes when they originally aired when one of the digits on a contestants' score wouldn't light up properly - and it surprised me because it was just working before they changed the score.  All these years later, I think I finally have the answer as to why!  

[DoorNumberFour]

Cool thread.

I saw this close-up of the scoreboard on the front of the Password contestant desk, and I couldn't help but wonder, as well.

It looks as if each digit is within its own little box.

Maybe we knew that to start with, but it's certainly another clue for me as to how this darn thing works.

[DoorNumberFour]

Ugh.

Never mind, picture's down.

Just take my word for it.