Recalling specific outcomes

[Jay Temple]

Similar to your $25K memory, I remember Wink Martindale saying the same thing to a couple who had won over $25K on Gambit, which I think was another Barry-Enright show and I'm positive was on CBS.  (If both are correct, I believe the network is the reason they had the same limit.)  This was in 1974.

[Jimmy Owen]

[quote name=\'Neumms\' date=\'Nov 7 2003, 05:46 PM\']

I was always charmed, even at the tender age of five, by Orson Bean's drawings of whichever number he held up.
   (I liked those too.  The preprinted cards on the 1990 version lacked charm.)
More coherently, I do recall the premiere day of Joker's Wild, TNPIR and Gambit. If nothing else, it meant the end of yucky "Family Affair" reruns.                         (Not quite the end.  FA moved to 4pm displacing "My Three Sons" until January 73 when "The Vin Scully Show.") [/quote]
 I was kinda upset that school started the next day and I thought I'd never see new game shows again.

[Clay Zambo]

[quote name=\'Jay Temple\' date=\'Nov 7 2003, 12:06 PM\']

On the short-lived Musical Chairs ... (Does anyone besides me and Curt Alliaume even remember this show?) [/quote]
 Oh, yes!  I remember it, though not particularly fondly.  I preferred my games more serious than Chairs.  And--though of course I understand it was half variety-show, half game--it always seemed too slow-moving for me.

[TheInquisitiveOne]

Similar to your $25K memory, I remember Wink Martindale saying the same thing to a couple who had won over $25K on Gambit, which I think was another Barry-Enright show and I'm positive was on CBS. (If both are correct, I believe the network is the reason they had the same limit.) This was in 1974.

You are halfway right. Gambit was actually a Heatter-Quigley Production.

Speaking of specific outcomes, I can (somewhat) remember a 1988 episode of $ale of the Century in which a contestant (who I found out here was named Rani White) ran the Winner's Big Money Game and won $50,000. I was 6 at the time, but I remember waking up and seeing falling balloons and the hanging $50,000 sign, listening to sirens, and hearing fanfare music until they hit commercial.

How I wish to see that episode again. I am sure it would hit me.

The Inquisitive One, Celebrating his 22nd Birthday

[DrBear]

Not that it's an "outcome" but I do remember a secret on I've Got a Secret in which a college group sang "In the Good Old Summertime" in turn with each man's first or last name being a word in the song ... with a slight exception. Each held a sign up in front of him with his name as he sang the word, so it went something like...

INN  .... THEE  ....  GOODE .... OLDS .... SOMERSTEIN!

[Neumms]

[quote name=\'Clay Zambo\' date=\'Nov 10 2003, 04:58 PM\'] [quote name=\'Jay Temple\' date=\'Nov 7 2003, 12:06 PM\']

On the short-lived Musical Chairs ... (Does anyone besides me and Curt Alliaume even remember this show?) [/quote]
Oh, yes!  I remember it, though not particularly fondly.  I preferred my games more serious than Chairs.  And--though of course I understand it was half variety-show, half game--it always seemed too slow-moving for me. [/quote]
 I remember it, too, not terribly fondly. I wasn't much for singing and music shows, and the removal of the losing contestants, while the only reason to watch, didn't happen frequently enough or with enough velocity to really entertain.

And not to bring up cries of "more money syndrome," but even at the ripe old age of eight, I thought their payouts were terribly low.

[cweaver]

I hate I missed the discussion about earliest game shows we can recall.  I don't have a schedule in front of me to see the earliest game I *could* have seen, but the three earliest I remember are "Concentration," "Jeopardy!" and "The Hollywood Squares."  ("Concentration" would have been the earliest of the three I could've seen.)  I also remember "The Dating Game," "The Newlywed Game," "Treasure Isle" and "Dream House," all pre-kindergarten.  Not long ago I saw a "He Said She Said" rerun and the set jogged my memory as something I definitely saw as a kid (especially the shot of Garagiola on the phone).

The earliest outcome is a different story, as I don't remember specific contestants from my toddler-hood.  The earliest outcome would have to be the guy trying to start the car on "Split Second" the first time I ever saw it, only to get the foghorn-type losing sound.  I'm pretty sure the car in question was a '72 Chevy Caprice Classic.   Another early outcome: actor Jim Backus stumping the panel on "What's My Line?" during the Wally Bruner era (assuming I'm remembering that right).

[Ian Wallis]

On the short-lived Musical Chairs ... (Does anyone besides me and Curt Alliaume even remember this show?) 


Oh, yes! I remember it, though not particularly fondly. I preferred my games more serious than Chairs.

I remember it well.  I used to watch it every day after school, and was disappointed when it was cancelled on Halloween 1975.  Adam Wade appeared on several talk shows back then being touted as the first black game show host.  

I like the fact that the contestants had to be one of the first to ring in to answer a question, it led to some funny responses.  Contestants had to choose between A, B and C.  I remember one episode where one of the choices for C was "Tony and Orlando".  That drew big laughs.  The only thing I can't remember is exactly how the bonus game worked.  I think this was a good show - too bad only one episode is around.  Unfortunatly the bonus isn't played on that episode.

[zachhoran]

My earliest specific outcome memory was probably Norma's $28,800 MOney Cards win from late 1978, despite my being almost 9 at the time.

[Steve McClellan]

[quote name=\'DrBear\' date=\'Nov 10 2003, 02:40 PM\'] Not that it's an "outcome" but I do remember a secret on I've Got a Secret in which a college group sang "In the Good Old Summertime" in turn with each man's first or last name being a word in the song ... with a slight exception. Each held a sign up in front of him with his name as he sang the word, so it went something like...

INN  .... THEE  ....  GOODE .... OLDS .... SOMERSTEIN! [/quote]
 This one's a favorite of mine.

Inda Good Old Somerstein!
Inda Good Old Somerstein.
Strolin Inda Shady Layne...

Then, in a move that wasn't particularly well thought out, they brought Mr. Somerstein back the next week and asked the panel to come up with other songs he could do, since his rendition of his name was...uh...memorable. Everyone came up with only "Somerstein" and "Somerstein and the Living Is Easy," to the embarrassment of the last three panelists.

[cweaver]

[quote name=\'Jay Temple\' date=\'Nov 7 2003, 12:06 PM\'] (Does anyone besides me and Curt Alliaume even remember this show?) [/quote]
 I remember "Musical Chairs" (CBS)  quite well, and recall the contestants and their chairs disappearing into the back wall when they lost, pioneering a gimmick later used on MTV's "Remote Control."

[Jay Temple]

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Nov 11 2003, 08:20 AM\']

On the short-lived Musical Chairs ... (Does anyone besides me and Curt Alliaume even remember this show?) 


Oh, yes! I remember it, though not particularly fondly. I preferred my games more serious than Chairs.

I remember it well.  I used to watch it every day after school, and was disappointed when it was cancelled on Halloween 1975.  Adam Wade appeared on several talk shows back then being touted as the first black game show host.  

I like the fact that the contestants had to be one of the first to ring in to answer a question, it led to some funny responses.  Contestants had to choose between A, B and C.  I remember one episode where one of the choices for C was "Tony and Orlando".  That drew big laughs.  The only thing I can't remember is exactly how the bonus game worked.  I think this was a good show - too bad only one episode is around.  Unfortunatly the bonus isn't played on that episode.[/quote]
There were three different bonuses.  Here is my best recollection of them:

1) One of the guest singers sings the first lines of ten different songs.  I think the contestant got $100 for each song whose next line he could provide, doubling to $2,000 if he got all ten.  (There was a time limit, which I don't remember, but it was probably 60 seconds.)

2) No bonus, but the winnings doubled

3) The contestant was given ten lines of a song and had (probably) 60 seconds to put them in order.  If I recall the workings correctly, he had to keep trying to get the first line till he got it, then the second, etc.  If the payout wasn't identical to the same one, it was similar.  (That is, whatever you got for all ten lines was doubled.)

(Posted by Neumms)[T]he removal of the losing contestants, while the only reason to watch, didn't happen frequently enough or with enough velocity to really entertain.

If you watched it at the beginning and thought it took too long to remove someone, the producers may have agreed with you.  Late in the show's run, they changed it from

50x3, 50x2, 50x1
75x3, 75x2, 75x1
100x3 and eliminate
100x2 and eliminate
100x1 and eliminate

to (I think)

50x3, 75x3, 100x3 and eliminate
50x2, 75x2, 100x2 and eliminate
50x1, 75x1, 100x1 and eliminate, so you got to see an eliminition every few minutes.

The first time I ever saw Dionne Warwicke* or the Spinners was on Musical Chairs.

* This was during the brief time in her life when, on advice of either a psychic or an astrologer, she spelled her name with an "e" at the end.

[That Don Guy]

[quote name=\'Jay Temple\' date=\'Nov 7 2003, 12:06 PM\']What's the earliest game show from which you can recall a specific outcome, or even specific material?
[/quote]
I vaguely remember watching the old Match Game and Jeopardy! back in 1967 or so (I even remember the two different MG themes).  As for specifics, I can think of a few "here and there" specifics from late-1960s Concentration (I never did see anybody get the top prize - $3000? - on The Wheel; I do remember one appearance of whatever they called the "money booth" (the end game of The Diamond Head Game, minus the volcano).

Then again, my game show memory has been known to be a little fuzzy; I would have sworn there was a five-day limit on The Joker's Wild when it started (before I saw the first month or so on GSN, that is)...

-- Don (why couldn't they have developed small color TVs 20 years quicker?)