Author Topic: The "Eggcrate" Display (Read 24518 times)

RJSchex · « **on:** March 22, 2007, 02:54:13 AM »

I found a very good (and quite long) old thread regarding the most-used form of numerical display on game shows since the 1970's, the 5x7 "eggcrate" display. The thread, which deals mostly with the technical aspects, can be viewed right here.

Anyway, what I have is a near-comprehensive list of shows that used these displays.

Battlestars (original)   bonus round card reader
(The All-New) Beat the Clock (79-80)   team scores
Blank Check   check writer’s podium
Blockbusters (80)   Gold Run timer
Body Language   team scores; timer (earliest eps. only)
Break the Bank (76)
Bullseye
Camouflage (79)
Card Sharks (78 & 86)   Money Cards
Chain Reaction (80)   maingame score
Child’s Play
Classic Concentration   bonus round timer
Concentration (73)   Double Play timer
Debt
Decisions, Decisions (pilot)
Double Dare (76)
Dream House (83)
Family Feud (76-85)   Fast Money timer
Family Feud (99—)
Gambit
Go   scores
The Guiness Game
(The New) High Rollers (78)   Big Numbers winnings/champion’s total
High Rollers (87)   prize values
Hollywood Connection   bonus round winnings
Hollywood Squares (86)
Hot Potato   bonus round
I’m Telling
Inquizition
It Takes Two (97)
It’s Anybody’s Guess
Jackpot! (89)
Jeopardy! (78-79, also 83 pilot)
The Joker’s Wild (all versions)    (see note below)
Las Vegas Gambit
Magnificent Marble Machine   scores
Masters of the Maze
Match Game ’73-82/90   contestant podiums
Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour
Name That Tune (84)
(The New) Newlywed Game (85 & 97)
Now You See It (74, 85 pilot)
Password (ABC)   Betting Word timer; also used late in the run for maingame scores
Password Plus
Play the Percentages   single-players format, also bonus round
The Price Is Right (72—)   IUFB (72-75), Showcases, numerous pricing games
Press Your Luck
Quiz Kids (81)
Quiz Kids Challenge
Scrabble (pilot only)
Second Chance
Showoffs   timer
Spin-Off
Sports Challenge   (c. 1974-78)
Stumpers!
Supermarket Sweep (90’s)
Tattletales
3 for the Money
3’s a Crowd (79)
Tic Tac Dough (78-86)
To Say the Least   jackpot
Triple Threat
Trivia Trap
Twenty-One (1982 pilot)
Wait Til You Have Kids
Wheel of Fortune   (1975-2002)
Win Ben Stein’s Money
WINtuition
Wordplay   maingame scores
Your Number’s Up

EGGCRATE MODIFICATION A
(4, 5, and 7 different)
Caesar’s Challenge
College Mad House
Fun House
The New Price Is Right (94)   "The Price WAS Right" displays
Wipeout
NOTE: on "College Mad House" and "Fun House", the zero differed as well

EGGCRATE MODIFICATION B
(1, 2, 6, 7, and 9 different)
Match Game (90)   Match-Up scores

EARLY VERSION OF EGGCRATE
(3 different; only numbers 1-4 known at present)
Temptation (67-68)   prize selection
The Joker's Wild (1969 pilot)

If you know of any other shows using eggcrates (including pilots), or any corrections or additional information, please give a reply.

Ian Wallis · « **Reply #1 on:** March 22, 2007, 08:57:01 AM »

Add to the list Musical Chairs and Pop N Rocker Game.

JamesVipond · « **Reply #2 on:** March 22, 2007, 10:55:56 AM »

Family Feud had its own eggcrate variants for the score displays and Fast Money board. And as I recall, Strip Poker{/I] had eggcrate displays with different glyphs for 0 and 4.

WhammyPower · « **Reply #3 on:** March 22, 2007, 01:07:51 PM »

[quote name=\'JamesVipond\' post=\'148791\' date=\'Mar 22 2007, 09:55 AM\'] Family Feud had its own eggcrate variants for the score displays and Fast Money board.[/quote]
Too bad they weren't actually Eggcrate. See here.

SRIV94 · « **Reply #4 on:** March 22, 2007, 05:45:48 PM »

[quote name=\'WhammyPower\' post=\'148809\' date=\'Mar 22 2007, 12:07 PM\']
[quote name=\'JamesVipond\' post=\'148791\' date=\'Mar 22 2007, 09:55 AM\'] Family Feud had its own eggcrate variants for the score displays and Fast Money board.[/quote]
Too bad they weren't actually Eggcrate. See here.
[/quote]
True that, but it should be pointed out that the current version of FF (whether Anderson, Karn or O'Hurley) does use Eggcrate for its score displays (for O'Hurley, the game board display isn't, but the Eggcrate remains on the families' podia).

Ian Wallis · « **Reply #5 on:** March 22, 2007, 06:48:44 PM »

Thought of a couple more: Fun Factory, when they had things like their paper-throwing contest to count the number thrown; and an "off-the-board" one: $25,000 Pyramid. The couple of times it was revealed on camera, the timer that Dick looked at off-stage was eggcrate.

Allstar87 · « **Reply #6 on:** March 22, 2007, 07:13:54 PM »

The interactive triad of Boggle/Shuffle/Jumble used eggcrates as well. So did a few games in Time Machine, most notably the Time Capsule. The podiums in Slime Time also used them, as did one podium on Trashed.

Jimmy Owen · « **Reply #7 on:** March 22, 2007, 07:20:59 PM »

Don Harron used solaris on "Anything You Can Do," but on "Hee Haw," his set was decorated with egg cartons.

TimK2003 · « **Reply #8 on:** March 22, 2007, 07:23:46 PM »

[quote name=\'RJSchex\' post=\'148777\' date=\'Mar 22 2007, 02:54 AM\']
I found a very good (and quite long) old thread regarding the most-used form of numerical display on game shows since the 1970's, the 5x7 "eggcrate" display. The thread, which deals mostly with the technical aspects, can be viewed right here.

Anyway, what I have is a near-comprehensive list of shows that used these displays.

[...yadda yadda yadda...]

If you know of any other shows using eggcrates (including pilots), or any corrections or additional information, please give a reply.
[/quote]

There was the eggrcate form that had the weird looking number "1",

That one was used on:
-- Hollywood Squares (Marshall)
-- Split Second (Kennedy)
-- Newlywed Game (Original Eubanks Version)
-- Catch Phrase (Art James US Version)
-- The Chuck Henry Beat The Odds Pilot

RJSchex · « **Reply #9 on:** March 22, 2007, 07:48:48 PM »

[quote name=\'TimK2003\' post=\'148829\' date=\'Mar 22 2007, 04:23 PM\']
[quote name=\'RJSchex\' post=\'148777\' date=\'Mar 22 2007, 02:54 AM\']
I found a very good (and quite long) old thread regarding the most-used form of numerical display on game shows since the 1970's, the 5x7 "eggcrate" display. The thread, which deals mostly with the technical aspects, can be viewed right here.

Anyway, what I have is a near-comprehensive list of shows that used these displays.

[...yadda yadda yadda...]

If you know of any other shows using eggcrates (including pilots), or any corrections or additional information, please give a reply.
[/quote]

There was the eggrcate form that had the weird looking number "1",

That one was used on:
-- Hollywood Squares (Marshall)
-- Split Second (Kennedy)
-- Newlywed Game (Original Eubanks Version)
-- Catch Phrase (Art James US Version)
-- The Chuck Henry Beat The Odds Pilot
[/quote]

That one was completely different. That one is called the "Modified Sports" type; it was also used for the timers on "Go". It was a 4x7 display, set at an angle.

In later installations of this series, I will be covering it, and all other known styles. Look at the link in WhammyPower's reply.

clemon79 · « **Reply #10 on:** March 22, 2007, 08:56:37 PM »

[quote name=\'RJSchex\' post=\'148836\' date=\'Mar 22 2007, 04:48 PM\']
That one was completely different. That one is called the "Modified Sports" type;
[/quote]
Ya know, just because someone made a Web page that looks authoritative, doesn't mean it is.

TimK2003 · « **Reply #11 on:** March 22, 2007, 11:35:32 PM »

[quote name=\'RJSchex\' post=\'148836\' date=\'Mar 22 2007, 07:48 PM\']
[quote name=\'TimK2003\' post=\'148829\' date=\'Mar 22 2007, 04:23 PM\']

There was the eggrcate form that had the weird looking number "1",

That one was used on:
-- Hollywood Squares (Marshall)
-- Split Second (Kennedy)
-- Newlywed Game (Original Eubanks Version)
-- Catch Phrase (Art James US Version)
-- The Chuck Henry Beat The Odds Pilot
[/quote]

That one was completely different. That one is called the "Modified Sports" type; it was also used for the timers on "Go". It was a 4x7 display, set at an angle.

[/quote]

Huh??? I always thought that "eggcrate" defined any scoring system that used incandescent lightbulbs to display numbers or letters within individual rectangular grid(s). Wouldn't the "Modified Sports", "Toteboard", and "Bank" number labels be just variations of eggcrate displays, or simply different eggcrate "fonts"?

clemon79 · « **Reply #12 on:** March 22, 2007, 11:38:58 PM »

[quote name=\'TimK2003\' post=\'148850\' date=\'Mar 22 2007, 08:35 PM\']
Huh??? I always thought that "eggcrate" defined any scoring system that used incandescent lightbulbs to display numbers or letters within individual rectangular grid(s). Wouldn't the "Modified Sports", "Toteboard", and "Bank" number labels be just variations of eggcrate displays, or simply different eggcrate "fonts"?
[/quote]
And THIS is why the DFG is in no way an authoritative document.

TLEberle · « **Reply #13 on:** March 23, 2007, 12:07:33 AM »

[quote name=\'RJSchex\' post=\'148836\' date=\'Mar 22 2007, 04:48 PM\']In later installations of this series, I will be covering it, and all other known styles. Look at the link in WhammyPower's reply.[/quote]A series? There's going to be more of this?

Is there any actual nomenclature to this sort of thing that is official, or are these all different flavors of light boards? I suppose some industry professionals would bother to differentiate by size and type of bulb, but I'm incredulous that there are names such as "Bank," "Sports" and so on.

rebelwrest · « **Reply #14 on:** March 23, 2007, 12:12:54 AM »

Should the list also include "Temptation" with Art James?