The $10,000 Pyramid

[PYLW]

I always get confused on this. I know five episodes of the M*A*S*H vs. Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice week exist, and that there's an episode of a Deacon/Ballard week out there. What else is there, and how many episodes of it exists? I think there was a week with Ed Asner out there, but I'm not sure. Thanks.

[Kevin Prather]

There's a Barbara Feldon episode that ran on GSN at least once. It had the infamous "Liz's Husbands" moment. I'm not sure about the other episodes.

[Blanquepage]

Let's total 'em up. GSN has aired the following 14:

4 episodes from the week with Sandy Duncan & Ed Asner
Week with Barbara Feldon and John Schuck
Week of celeb tournament with McLean Stevenson, Loretta Swit, Anita Gillette, David Spielberg

Then there's 1 episode with Richard Deacon and Kaye Ballard that's been on the trading circuit. 3 more exist at UCLA in black and white on Betacam SP tapes according to the catalogue. A small fragment of the 4/5/73 episode with Nipsey Russell and Nancy Dussault was shown on one of the GSN docs.

Guess that makes 18 known episodes.

--Jamie

[PYLW]

Thanks!

Any reason on why only four episodes of that one week exist?

[MikeK]

[quote name=\'PYLW\' post=\'156492\' date=\'Jul 1 2007, 08:58 PM\']Any reason on why only four episodes of that one week exist?[/quote]
I recall that the Schuck/Feldon shows aired near the end of GSN's Pyramid Thursdays Vertivision block in '02.  Maybe all 5 episodes exist but GSN only aired 4 of the episodes? *shrug*

[BrandonFG]

[quote name=\'PYLW\' post=\'156492\' date=\'Jul 1 2007, 08:58 PM\']
Thanks!

Any reason on why only four episodes of that one week exist?
[/quote]
Watergate, maybe?

Kris Lane's site mentions it being from November 1973, and this note:

At this point, TV Guide began to print celebrity listings in a very awkward manner, mostly caused by the constant interruptions of the Watergate scandal hearings coverage on broadcast networks.

[PYLW]

Ahh yeah, that explains it. Nixon made his infamous "I am not a crook" speech in November of 1973. Thanks for the clarification.

[davemackey]

The Watergate hearings played havoc with all the network's daytime schedules, with all three networks covering them from the outset, and then when things died down, the networks agreed to rotating coverage. That may explain the four shows in one week instead of five, and hosts didn't have the luxury of saying "See you on Monday" any more since the show's weeks were now very badly staggered.

[Ian Wallis]

That may explain the four shows in one week instead of five, and hosts didn't have the luxury of saying "See you on Monday" any more since the show's weeks were now very badly staggered.

Unless I'm mistaken, I'm pretty sure the only network who's weeks were staggered was CBS.  They always made a habit of airing a show the next day incase of pre-emption.  I'm pretty sure ABC and NBC never did this in the '70s.  Basically pre-emptions on those networks meant the shows were never seen at all.

By the time Super Password rolled around NBC did occasionally stagger weeks.

[GSFan]

The $10,000 Pyramid's run on CBS was so staggered, that the last "week" of shows were three episodes featuring Carol Channing and Soupy Sales.

[Ian Wallis]

The $10,000 Pyramid's run on CBS was so staggered, that the last "week" of shows were three episodes featuring Carol Channing and Soupy Sales.

That's happened a few other times as well.  Betty White and John Saxon only did 2 Whew episodes during its last "week"; and 1975's Musical Chairs last week was only 4 episodes.