"In a moment...the game that intrigued a nation..."

[Johnissoevil]

I would guess bad time slots also killed TTD90 even more than the crappy host, resetting the pot after ties, and the other problems with the game.  In Cleveland, WJW aired TTD90 at 4 AM, followed by Quiz Kids Challenge.  I saw it once in its original run, out of morbid curiosity.  It was once too many.

Jacksonville, FL was the only market I know of that had it on at a decent time, at 5:30pm, right after TJW '90.  TTD was probably the reason that station's 6pm newscast suffered in the ratings that year, bad lead-in (no blame for TJW...yeah, it was different from the TJW Jack built, but at least it was a good format).

[golden-road]

Phoenix had it till 1/6/91, when it was replaced by Davidson Pyramid, following Joker90.

[Jamey Greek]

I may have been four but I have a collection of TV Guides and I know that in Orlando, TJW90 was aired at 10 AM on WESH TV the NBC affiliate.  Also, I wonder if Wink was ever asked to come back and host TTD90.  Same goes for the unsold 1990 gambit pilot.

[Matt Ottinger]

What I often wondered was, why was Tic Tac Dough a game that intrigued a nation?  Was this referring to the very long and successful run Lt. Thom McKee had back in 1980?

Yes.

Did it refer to the 1950s version being tainted by the Barry & Enright quiz show scandal?

No.

Not that it makes a bit of difference one way or the other, but I had always assumed that "the game that intrigued a nation" was a reference to the original 50s version.

[Kevin Prather]

Not that it makes a bit of difference one way or the other, but I had always assumed that "the game that intrigued a nation" was a reference to the original 50s version.

It's an interesting thought. Maybe it's my age, but when I think of Quiz Show Scandals, I think of Twenty One, The $64,000 Question, and MAYBE Dotto. How prevalent was Tic Tac Dough in all of that?

[TheInquisitiveOne]

Not that it makes a bit of difference one way or the other, but I had always assumed that "the game that intrigued a nation" was a reference to the original 50s version.

It's an interesting thought. Maybe it's my age, but when I think of Quiz Show Scandals, I think of Twenty One, The $64,000 Question, and MAYBE Dotto. How prevalent was Tic Tac Dough in all of that?

I pen that to guilt by association. Twenty-one was a B&E Production and was at the heart of the quiz show scandal. The 50s TTD was also by B&E. The math was done from there.

The Inquisitive One

[BrandonFG]

I agree with the phrase referring more to Wink/Jim's version, as it had just gone off the air 4 years prior. However, to say it "intrigued a nation" is laying the drama on a bit thick, in a way that only the Barry-Enright company could do.

Was it a smash success 10 years prior? Yes. But, Thom or no Thom, I doubt the show intrigued the nation any more than Patrick Wayne guided or led us through the half-hour.

Regis' "Millionaire"? Indeed. "Jeopardy!" during KenJen's run? Absolutely. "Tic Tac Dough"? Not so sure...

[Matt Ottinger]

Maybe it's my age, but when I think of Quiz Show Scandals, I think of Twenty One, The $64,000 Question, and MAYBE Dotto. How prevalent was Tic Tac Dough in all of that?

Prime Time and Misdemeanors devotes some pretty serious ink to Tic Tac Dough, probably because it came out of the B-E stables and those were the guys he was trying hardest to get.  Dotto is significant from an historical perspective as the place where the first hard evidence showed up, but at the time, it was a pretty insignificant little show.

Was it a smash success 10 years prior? Yes. But, Thom or no Thom, I doubt the show intrigued the nation any more than Patrick Wayne guided or led us through the half-hour.

Regis' "Millionaire"? Indeed. "Jeopardy!" during KenJen's run? Absolutely. "Tic Tac Dough"? Not so sure...

And I guess that's pretty much where my mind was when I first heard that phrase being used.  "Intrigued the nation"?  Surely they can't mean the seventies version.  So even though I'm not old enough to remember the original version either, I just figured it was a vague reference to that period in the late fifties when the show was a prime-time network hit, and when the later scandals certainly "intrigued the nation".

[clemon79]

See, and I remember news stories about McKee's run, and the TV Guide ads started referring to it directly and such. I think it was pretty widely covered whereas I don't think most people even KNOW it ran in the '50s.

[parliboy]

I think Chris has this one.  While McKee was on, Tic Tac Dough had a kind of spotlight similar to KenJen's Jeopardy run.  We don't think as much about it because
[list=1]

• Half of this board wasn't alive back then, and
• The media feedback loops weren't in place as much back then.  In terms of TV-about-TV, you had Entertainment Tonight alone with no competition until the mid-80's, and they had plenty of other stuff to cover.

[Matt Ottinger]

I think Chris has this one.  While McKee was on, Tic Tac Dough had a kind of spotlight similar to KenJen's Jeopardy run.  We don't think as much about it because
[list=1]

• Half of this board wasn't alive back then, and
• The media feedback loops weren't in place as much back then.  In terms of TV-about-TV, you had Entertainment Tonight alone with no competition until the mid-80's, and they had plenty of other stuff to cover.

I'll happily concede the point.  To whatever degree I even thought about it, it had just always been the other way around in my head.

[Fedya]

I don't think you even had Entertainment Tonight during the Thom McKee run.  If memory serves, that was 1980, and ET didn't show up until 1981.

[parliboy]

A lurker who fact-checked me and gave me a PM backs you up on that.  Still, I think the essence of the point holds.

[wdm1219inpenna]

Could very well be too that it "intrigued" a nation in the 1950s due to its newness, coupled with the scandals that came to light, and also the 1978-86 run due to Thom McKee's magnificent run.  The opening could very well apply to both versions.  What intrigued me was why the CBS version wasn't given much of a chance?  Tic Tac Dough was a far superior game to "Joker's Wild" yet Joker had a 3 year run on CBS.  Bullseye was another B&E show I never much cared for.  Play the Percentages, the first version, was awesome, even the 2nd version with the chance to win the big jackpot.  Once it went to 2 solo players, it was blah I thought.

[TLEberle]

Tic Tac Dough was a far superior game to "Joker's Wild"

In your opinion, certainly. While I enjoy both, one of the things I dislike about Tic Tac Dough, at least in the early going, is that each game seems to follow a determinant path. Play, block, parry, block, tie game. Eventually someone screws up and the other guy is able to win the game. Yee haw.