I'd like to know how they'd have handled someone responding with "What is The $25,000 Pyramid?"...would they have decided that it was close enough? Would anyone have remembered that that was even a valid title? What if someone had given one of the incorrect 10K or 20K answers and had it accepted? Could a sufficiently geeky opponent have challenged it?
I think the fact that Trebek is giving the answer without looking down, and rattling off a series of numbers, that it is likely he skipped the (albeit, crucial) $25,000.
As for a challenged response, if I was beaten to the buzzer on that one (hardly likely), and the other contestant used
$10,000 or
$20,000, I would have lodged a protest in the commercial break. Probably the writers just took all of the series titles and lumped them all in the acceptable group. The example that I would give to show the inconsistency would be
All in the Family and
Archie Bunker's Place. Even though there is a continuity of a television series in
Archie Bunker and
Pyramid, in both cases there was a series title change in addition to the reinterpretation of "Those Were the Days" and "Tuning Up." Similar, but different.
As far as Johny Gilbert getting involved in resolving the dispute, they would have also accepted
The 25,000 Dollah Pyramid.
