GSN's "Game of the Week", 5/7/2000.

[William A. Padron]

Ten years ago today, on Sunday, May 7, 2000 during the 11:00pm Eastern hour (with a later replay during the early morning hour of 3:00am Eastern on Monday, May 8, 2000), Game Show Network [GSN] presented on its Game of the Week series a fall 1973 episode from the original CBS-TV version of The $10,000 Pyramid.  Many game show fans and the channel's regular viewers were probably surprised to see this then rare, "lost" gem of a find that was last seen on its original broadcast back during thr third week of November 1973.
 
This $10K episode featured celebrity guests Anita Gillette, David Spielberg, Loretta Swit and McLean Stevenson.  It should be noted that it was the twelfth of the fifteen produced episodes done from CBS Television City's Studio 31 in Los Angeles, not from its then original home of the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City.  That same episode would be shown again, along with seven other shows from the series, in a GSN Game Show Saturday Night marathon airing on Saturday, September 23, 2000.

[Ian Wallis]

It was a pleasant surprise that they aired a '70s CBS episode.  There are 15 that we know exist, 14 of them GSN ran and were recorded at Television City in fall '73.  The other is an off-air recording taped at the Ed Sullivan Theatre from earlier in the year.  Besides the "Game Show Saturday Night" marathons, they aired the other CBS episodes on the "Pyramid Thursdays" block they had on the schedule for a while.

It was great to see those early episodes and how the game play was much different.  In one of the ones that were aired, they actually only got through 4 categories in the second game before they had to end the show, and continue the next day with the other 2.  Tiebreakers weren't played via who got the fasest time on those days, and frequently caused some stradling.

[Jay Temple]

[quote name=\'William A. Padron\' post=\'240489\' date=\'May 7 2010, 07:49 AM\']This $10K episode featured celebrity guests Anita Gillette, David Spielberg, Loretta Swit and McLean Stevenson.  It should be noted that it was the twelfth of the fifteen produced episodes done from CBS Television City's Studio 31 in Los Angeles ...[/quote]
So, would this be the last one with civilian contestants, in a format kind of like daytime 25K?

[William A. Padron]

[quote name=\'Jay Temple\' post=\'242231\' date=\'Jun 10 2010, 03:48 PM\'][quote name=\'William A. Padron\' post=\'240489\' date=\'May 7 2010, 07:49 AM\']This $10K episode featured celebrity guests Anita Gillette, David Spielberg, Loretta Swit and McLean Stevenson.  It should be noted that it was the twelfth of the fifteen produced episodes done from CBS Television City's Studio 31 in Los Angeles ...[/quote]
So, would this be the last one with civilian contestants, in a format kind of like daytime 25K?
[/quote]

Yeah, it was the last one from that batch that had civilian contestants in that particular format you mentioned, and then afterward for the rest of the "week" were originally all-star episodes with the celebrities playing for charity.  Contestant Joan Bellafontaine scored the most money in her two visits per episode at the Winner's Circle (of the two done in that adjusted format), in addition to her two other attempts in the regular 10K format on the previous end-of-week's episode featuring Sandy Duncan and Edward Asner.

[ChuckNet]

Yeah, I remember what a big deal it was...though it would be superseded a few months later in Sep. 2000, when GSN re-aired the ep, along w/the rest of that wk and 3 eps from the one prior as a GS Saturday Night marathon.

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")