CBS 60's Password Question

[JasonA1]

when they played the "lightening round" on the west coast the mechanism that raised and lowered the words was much louder and "clunkier" sounding then the one on the NYC episodes.

Do you suppose that could have been due to the sound equipment? One different mic placement, or piece of hardware, and the sound of the show changes. Not to mention the crew and studio space being different.

-Jason

[NickintheATL]

I have a feeling that it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that they might have only shipped the desk and conveyor (the thing that delivers the words) to Hollywood.  The backdrops did look slightly different on the Hollywood episodes.

[chris319]

Set walls would be much easier and cheaper to replicate on the coast than the desk, conveyor and scoreboards.

[toddyo]

For TJW, didn't they just use three slide film chains? I remember the RCA filmchains at WCET. There was a mechanism to throw the wheel into neutral. Every now and then, we'd load the chains and one of the engineers would do a Jack Barry imitation. I've always been curious about the lightning round mechanism from the 60s Password. Was this reloaded every game or episode? Are there any photos of this unit online? It would make an interesting coffee book on the true behind the scenes look at game shows - how did these things work? The lightning round mechanism, the turntables on TPiR, TJW and PYL slide mechanisms, etc.

[geno57]

I've always been curious about the lightning round mechanism from the 60s Password. Was this reloaded every game or episode? Are there any photos of this unit online?

The original 1961 schematic lives at the TVPMM, but it's available only to subscribers.  It is an interesting device, all right!

[chris319]

For TJW, didn't they just use three slide film chains?

That's what I said in a previous post, but they didn't use the entire film chain, just the slide projectors.

The lightning round device would have to be reloaded after every playing of the lightning round.

[geno57]

The lightning round device would have to be reloaded after every playing of the lightning round.

Actually, on an old episode, Marty Allen was clowning around with the art card that showed a word he'd just missed.  Before Allen could stop him, he lifted it partway out of the machine, revealing part of one of the words that would be used in the next lightning round.  Each of the five slots looked like it could be loaded with three or four lightning rounds' worth of words.

[chris319]

The lightning round device would have to be reloaded after every playing of the lightning round.

Actually, on an old episode, Marty Allen was clowning around with the art card that showed a word he'd just missed.  Before Allen could stop him, he lifted it partway out of the machine, revealing part of one of the words that would be used in the next lightning round.  Each of the five slots looked like it could be loaded with three or four lightning rounds' worth of words.

That's interesting, but after each playing they would have to extract the already-played words.

[Jay Temple]

Conclusion: The machine was loaded with a full day's supply of words, and the words were retrieved after each round. I guess it just seems odd that they wouldn't wait and put the new words in when they took the old ones out to avoid an incident like this one.

[clemon79]

I guess it just seems odd that they wouldn't wait and put the new words in when they took the old ones out to avoid an incident like this one.

I'm guessing they didn't expect a celebrity to start messing around with the game equipment, because in every other respect front-loading a show makes complete and total sense in terms of expediting production time.