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Author Topic: Break The Bank '76  (Read 2789 times)

Jimmy Owen

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Break The Bank '76
« on: October 08, 2003, 09:48:20 AM »
I want to preface this by saying this was one of my favorite shows of the '70s.  My copy of the 2nd edition of the EOTVGS says the show was the #2 game show in the 75-76 season (behind only \"Match Game '76\")  The problem is that the time span for the season is October '75 to April '76.  BTB started on April 12, 1976.  That's only three weeks of the time frame.  Is it possible the ratings took a nosedive after the first month?  Otherwise, why wouldn't another net pick up the show if it outrated \"The Price Is Right,\" \"Hollywood Squares,\" \"Wheel,\" \"Pyramid\" and every other game on the air?
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Michael Brandenburg

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Break The Bank '76
« Reply #1 on: October 08, 2003, 01:45:27 PM »
I think ABC by this time felt that their soap operas would do even better in the afternoons than game shows, so Break the Bank (which aired from 2:30 to 3:00 P.M. ET) got the axe to make room for 15 additional minutes each for One Life to Live and General Hospital, both of which were previously half-hour shows.  Then the $20,000 Pyramid was later moved from its previous 2:00 to 2:30 P.M. time slot to make it possible to expand both of those soaps to an hour.

   As for the show itself, I felt it was a good concept, but ABC was really trying to create a \"celebrity showcase\" game show along the lines of Hollywood Squares, and their effort to do so hurt the show's game element.  My problems with it:

   1. The questions on the show were, in effect, two-answer multiple choice, creating the high likelihood that they would be answered correctly (even a guess by a contestant that didn't know the correct answer to a question had a 50% probability of being right).  Thus, contestants were usually reluctant to keep the \"money bags\" if they turned one up on the board during play, ultimately resulting in too few \"big money\" wins during the show's run to keep attracting an audience.  (You had to get three of the five \"money bag\" boxes on the board to win the game's top prize of $5,000 plus $500 or $250 for each game that had been played without a top-prize win since the last one.)

   2. After a contestant selected a box on the game board and the emcee read the question for that box, the two question's possible answer choices would be given by two of the show's guest celebrities, one of whom would be the one sitting at the top of the column that the contestant's box selection was in, and the other one being the celebrity sitting to the left of that box's horizontal row, which tended to make the game drag in comparison with Hollywood Squares (on which the selected celebrity would just give the one answer to a question, which a contestant would either \"agree\" or \"disagree\" with).

   I know that GSN still has at least most of the episodes of that show in their vaults.  Perhaps they might consider reviving it with these suggested changes of mine:

   1. Eliminate the celebrities and ask the questions for the cash-amount boxes directly to the show's contestants, requiring a correct answer from the contestant for the capture of that box and continuation of the contestant's turn.  Also, make the questions at least three-answer multiple choice or \"straight answer\" (no \"multiple choices\").

   2. If the contestant misses the question for a cash-amount box, he loses his turn to his opponent, as on the 1976-77 edition of the show.  However, the opponent must correctly answer the question that was missed by the first player in order to also capture the box (on the 1976-77 edition, except for its first few weeks, the opponent captured the box automatically after a missed question by the player who selected that box, unless so doing would result in a win for the opponent).  If the opponent also misses the question, the affected cash-amount box would remain available to both players, but the opponent could then either re-select that box and attempt to answer a new question for it, or select any other available box on the game board.

   Michael Brandenburg
   (and tell Natalie Maines that I'm not ashamed that our President is from Texas -- that's why I'm heading there tomorrow for my church's annual Fall Festival celebration!)

AH3RD

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Break The Bank '76
« Reply #2 on: October 09, 2003, 09:11:00 AM »
A fully-detailed/illustrated account on the ABC Daytime and syndicated nighttime editions of Break The Bank can be found here.
« Last Edit: October 09, 2003, 09:12:33 AM by AH3RD »
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Ian Wallis

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Break The Bank '76
« Reply #3 on: October 09, 2003, 11:33:44 AM »
A few thoughts:

--this was one of my favorite shows of the '70s too.  I highly doubt the ratings took a big nosedive after the first few weeks.  I think the decision to use it as a \"stopgap\" while the expanded soap operas were being readied was made regardless of how this show did in the ratings.  The high ratings probably surprised ABC, but at that time it was too late as they had to choose one show to drop, and probalby didn't want to alienate fans of the longer-running \"Let's Make a Deal\" or \"$20,000 Pyramid\", figuring those shows might have several years of life left.  Since \"Deal\" was cancelled shortly thereafter, it's too bad they made the decision they did.

--I have no problem with the \"money bags\" rule.  It added an element of risk to the game.  Usually when three or four of them had been revealed, the contestants would decide to keep them at that point, which led to a higher probability of the bank being broken.  During the first two weeks of the show I think the bank was broken four times.

--Some games did drag a bit during the first few weeks because of the rule that you had to win the box yourself.  About mid-way through the run they changed the rule so the box would automatically go to your opponent if you missed the question.  The games sped up quite a bit after this rule.

--Overall, I think this was a good quality show that deserved a longer life.  I'm not sure what the ratings were for the syndicated version with Jack Barry, but in 1977 he was obviously more interested in reviving \"Joker's Wild\" than he was continuing with this.  It's too bad that GSN hasn't found a spot on its regular schedule (even just on weekends) since its brief run during what some people refer to as \"The Dark Period\".  It sounds like a lot of us would like to see this one again.
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PeterMarshallFan

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Break The Bank '76
« Reply #4 on: October 09, 2003, 05:30:26 PM »
[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Oct 9 2003, 11:33 AM\']

--I have no problem with the "money bags" rule.  It added an element of risk to the game.  Usually when three or four of them had been revealed, the contestants would decide to keep them at that point, which led to a higher probability of the bank being broken.  During the first two weeks of the show I think the bank was broken four times. [/quote]
 And it was broken twice in the premiere week...by the same guy both times.

ChuckNet

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Break The Bank '76
« Reply #5 on: October 09, 2003, 10:39:01 PM »
Quote
--Some games did drag a bit during the first few weeks because of the rule that you had to win the box yourself.

Case in point: the 3rd ep, where it took the entire show just to complete one game because of all the missed questions.

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious \"Chuckie Baby\")

ChuckNet

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Break The Bank '76
« Reply #6 on: October 09, 2003, 10:40:39 PM »
Quote
And it was broken twice in the premiere week...by the same guy both times.

It was also broken twice by another contestant during the 2nd week...and in 2 consecutive games, no less!

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious \"Chuckie Baby\")