Way Out Games

[dheine1971]

Does anyone remember the 1976 CBS Saturday morning kids game show called "Way Out Games" hosted by Sonny Fox and taped at Magic Mountain theme park in California? This is one of the voting candidates in the 2003 Game Show Network Feast of Favorites which I am voting for almost every day.

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'dheine1971\' date=\'Oct 17 2003, 09:00 AM\']Does anyone remember the 1976 CBS Saturday morning kids game show called "Way Out Games" hosted by Sonny Fox and taped at Magic Mountain theme park in California? This is one of the voting candidates in the 2003 Game Show Network Feast of Favorites which I am voting for almost every day.[/quote]
Yeah, I remember it, Raymond.

It's a B&E show, which is why GSN has access to it (the second show after "Break the Bank" of Barry and Enright's official reunion as partners).  Physical games and stunts in the "Double Dare" mold without the messy stuff.  Fox was ehhh as a host (to you New Yorkers, how did "Wonderama" become such a New York TV institution with him hosting?) and veteran game show producer/creator Mark Maxwell-Smith came on camera as Fox's wacky sidekick.  Originally shot with either no audience or a very small and quiet audience, CBS had it sweetened up the wazoo after the first few eps.  If I recall, a catchy theme written by Merv's bandleader Mort Lindsey accompanied by a crude-but-effective animation of the show's mascot (Fox:  "He's a funny fellow, isn't he?").  Only ran one season, like most of the eat-your-fruit live-action Saturday-morning series of the era (yeah, there was some sort of educational content in the show, damn if I remember what it was).

No way in hell it'll make the Top Twelve.

[melman1]

You're voting for a children's show?  Sheesh.

[That Don Guy]

I remember it as well, but not much that isn't mentioned in the blurb in EoTVGS (although I'm pretty sure the organization that approved the stunts was AAHPE, and didn't have "recreation" in its title yet).  I do recall that each team had three boys, three girls, and a coach (and the coach introduced the teams, although the kids' last names were never mentioned, unlike Junior Almost Anything Goes), and, while each team was referred to by state, they mentioned nothing about where the kids were from or how they were selected.  (Apparently, each team represented a single middle/junior high school, but how they were selected remains a mystery.  Hopefully, it was more "competitive" than The Junior Superstars, where each state was represented by one boy and one girl from the same school, chosen by that state's Department of Education based on a number of factors, so it was not determining the best high school age athletes by any remote definition of the term; I find it highly coincidental that the California school chosen happened to be in Sacramento.)

I do have one question: what did they do if one team won the first two events but another won the third - did they repeat the last event with the two tied teams, or was there a separate tiebreaker event?

-- Don

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'melman1\' date=\'Oct 17 2003, 04:51 PM\'] You're voting for a children's show?  Sheesh. [/quote]
 As obsessed as some of our members are with Nick GAS, I'm surprised there's not more interest in some of the GSN kids' games.

[PeterMarshallFan]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Oct 17 2003, 06:12 PM\'] [quote name=\'melman1\' date=\'Oct 17 2003, 04:51 PM\'] You're voting for a children's show?  Sheesh. [/quote]
As obsessed as some of our members are with Nick GAS, I'm surprised there's not more interest in some of the GSN kids' games. [/quote]
 Well, IMO, Wheel 2000 and Jep! were both really, really bad and Juvenile Jury isn't a game show. WOG looks like the only decent kids' show on there.

But, boy, was I surprised to see WOG and Blankety Blanks on there.

[Matt Ottinger]

But, boy, was I surprised to see WOG and Blankety Blanks on there.

Wait a minute.  They have an episode of Blankety Blanks?  Do we assume it's the Anne Meara-William Shatner debut episode that circulates, or perhaps something weirder?

Something weirder is always good when it comes to Bob Stewart shows.

[Jimmy Owen]

Well, since neither WOG or BB could possibly win, does it matter if GSN actually has them?  Why not put them on the ballot for the sake of variety?

[PeterMarshallFan]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Oct 17 2003, 06:19 PM\']

But, boy, was I surprised to see WOG and Blankety Blanks on there.

Wait a minute.  They have an episode of Blankety Blanks?  Do we assume it's the Anne Meara-William Shatner debut episode that circulates, or perhaps something weirder?

Something weirder is always good when it comes to Bob Stewart shows. [/quote]
 It's there, a couple spaces above Bullseye. I wonder what ep it is too, or maybe more exists than we know about?

Well, since neither WOG or BB could possibly win, does it matter if GSN actually has them? Why not put them on the ballot for the sake of variety?

Yes, but not worth the risk. They'd be in one heck of a pickle if WOG or BB did get picked and they didn't have it.

[Gromit]

Argh. The GSN page sure is a hunk of crap.

I go to the page, it tells me I need Flash. I have flash, I know flash, flash is a friend of mine, and every other page I use that needs it can detect it just fine.

Ignoring the error messages, I log in. Pressing on, I begin the search for the ballot. Far be it from GSN to put a link on the front page or anything. Instead there's a billion animated things I care nothing about. We couldn't possibly have a "what's new" or anything section. Eventually, I find it, and manage to vote for WOG.

Then there's the miniscule windows, the whole page crammed (tm) into the top 1/4 of my browser with massive empty screen space all around, and with stupid tiny scrollbars that force me to scroll at their speed, and no way to jump directly to the end etc.

[Mike Tennant]

[quote name=\'That Don Guy\' date=\'Oct 17 2003, 04:36 PM\']I do recall that each team had three boys, three girls, and a coach (and the coach introduced the teams, although the kids' last names were never mentioned[/quote]
I guess Steve Beverly won't be voting for WOG, then.

[Ian Wallis]

Wait a minute. They have an episode of Blankety Blanks? Do we assume it's the Anne Meara-William Shatner debut episode that circulates, or perhaps something weirder?

Isn't it safe to assume that since "Blankety Blanks" exists in the trade curcuit - seemingly from the studio master - that GSN must have at least that episode?  

How would the studio masters get in the trade curcuit if they weren't available to the networks?

[Robair]

[quote name=\'uncamark\' date=\'Oct 17 2003, 03:00 PM\'] Fox was ehhh as a host (to you New Yorkers, how did "Wonderama" become such a New York TV institution with him hosting?) and veteran game show producer/creator Mark Maxwell-Smith came on camera as Fox's wacky sidekick.  Originally shot with either no audience or a very small and quiet audience, CBS had it sweetened up the wazoo after the first few eps.  If I recall, a catchy theme written by Merv's bandleader Mort Lindsey accompanied by a crude-but-effective animation of the show's mascot (Fox:  "He's a funny fellow, isn't he?").  Only ran one season, like most of the eat-your-fruit live-action Saturday-morning series of the era (yeah, there was some sort of educational content in the show, damn if I remember what it was).

No way in hell it'll make the Top Twelve. [/quote]
 Point by point.

A little history on why "Wonderama" was such a magical show. Kind of the same reason Chicago was so fond of "Bozo the Clown". "Wonderama" was really inherited by Sonny Fox, which debuted in September 1955 on WABD-TV (precursor to WNEW-TV, Channel 5) and was hosted by Sandy Becker ("Geeba Geeba"). Herb Sheldon followed, and then Bill Britten, which was the first "Wonderama" done in front of a kid audience. Fox showed up for duty on 1/4/59, and the show changed from being a live show to being taped on a Thursday morning/afternoon. Word quickly spread that tix to "Wonderama" equaled a day off from school, tons of games for toys and other prizes, very cool and unique guest stars, and a goodie bag for every kid globbed with stuff like chewing gum, Turkish Taffy, other candy, and topped off by -- what else? a toothbrush. Bob McAllister, the best-remembered and best host, took over 8/13/67 and hosted the show for ten more years after that. After that, the title was used for a non-audience, pretaped show with kid hosts visiting zoos, factories and such, which lasted six more years, four additional in repeats. One of those kid hosts was a redheaded kid named JD Roth.

"Wonderama" was an incredible format to kid merchandise, and with the potential for kids to win up to ten toys in "Snake Cans" or a bicycle in "Musical Chairs", it's no wonder there was a five year waiting list for tickets. Yep, five years. You had to be an infant to want to be on "Wonderama" because by the time the show sent you the tix, you were too old to be on it!

The other thing, and there's no way I know why I remember this, is Fox's "WOG" opening: "He's a funny fellow, he is." Nitpicky, but when you hear it for two years straight, you kind of committed it to memory. But I do agree that Fox was rather wooden on everything I've ever seen him host, from "WOG" to "$64,000 Challenge". I also think by the time "WOG" premiered, Fox was a kidvid executive at CBS. So by that time he was a suit, so despite the sportswear he came off as maybe a little too earnest. I saw him host a B/W "TTTT" a few years ago on GSN and he had that same vibe. "Wonderama" was the show where he could transcend it.

As for throwing projectiles from roller coasters, I really don't see the educational value there. I guess they were stressing teamwork and good sportsmanship above all.

[Michael Brandenburg]

What did they do [on Way Out Games] if one team won the first two events but another won the third - did they repeat the last event with the two tied teams, or was there a separate tiebreaker event?

   There was indeed a tie-breaker challenge that was used on the show in this situation.  First, though, for those not familiar with the scoring that was used on that show: Three events were played by the three challenging teams on each show, with the winning team for the first event scoring 1 point, the winning team for the second event scoring 2 points, and the winning team for the third event scoring 3 points, and if two or all three teams tied in an event, all of the tying teams would score the points for that event.

   You'd have a 3-3 point tie if one team won Events #1 and #2 outright, and one of the other two teams won Event #3 outright.  In that case, the tying teams would play a "Bust the Balloon" tie-breaker event, which was available for play on all shows.  Each team had a long tube that was sealed at one end and had three standard tire pumps connected to it (one pump for each team member) and a small opening on the other end of the tube onto which a deflated balloon would be attached.  At the "Go" signal from the emcee, the members of each team would start pumping their pumps and the first team to pump enough air into their balloon to break it would be the winner for that show.

   It was a fun show, but, as Sonny Fox would say, don't try those stunts at home, at least not without adult supervision!


   Michael Brandenburg
   (Of course, there was a "Bust My Balloons" video game they could have played as well at that time…)