$ale of the ¢entury press photos

[tvrandywest]

Al Howard of Supermarket Sweep fame was the creator and EP on Sale of the Century. Ed Flesh did the set. I've enjoyed hours with these guys talking about past shows. Here's the answers:

The show was born from a desire for NBC to add a show that featured huge prizes, AND to utilize studio space and crew in New York that were not being charged back to any production at the time. Part of Al's argument for the show to originate in Burbank (his preference), was that the freight elevator at 30 Rock (built in the early 1930s) was too small for the large prizes the network wanted. NBC's response was that they would rather cut and weld prizes in New York than allow 8H to remain dark. And so they did. Car and boats were routinely cut and re-assembled.

I saw that freight elevator, and it was really small, as freight elevators go - wide, but not deep, with the familiar old accordian metal grates on the cab and the landings in lieu of doors.

When Ed went to work on a set for what was the largest broadcasting studio in America, he saw the opportunity to design the iconic two-story affair that added so much drama. The set wasn't cut - it was constructed in 8H.

And yes, this too is in the Johnny O book.   ;-)


Randy
tvrandywest.com

[SFQuizKid]

Mike Garguilo was the original director for the show--one of his first post-Goodson-Todman gigs, as he told me.  The desire for another "merchandise game" was driven by NBC's loss of Let's Make a Deal.  It was a case of the network going out to producers and saying, "make me one of these."  Apparently, this included the possibility of bringing back The Price Is Right.

The change to a couples format in 1973 was another reaction to the network saying, "make me one of these"--in this case, a reaction to Gambit on CBS.

[clemon79]

that Joe would introduce with much fanfare ("I hold in my hand the last five questions of the game..."  Something like that.)

Presumably this is where Jim's "I have just three questions left..." comes from, before the advent of the Speed Round? Or was that taken from the Australian format (who could well have taken it from this?)? Or was it just a damn coincidence?

[40onTheBlue]

[font="Arial"]Thank you so much for sharing these photos, SuperMatch93. You've struck gold.

A question, though. Was the set renovated when the format changed from three individuals to two couples, or was it sooner? The difference between them is quite striking. It's obvious that the format change wasn't the only means by which the original $ale of the [/font][font="Arial"]¢entury tried (and failed) to compete with Gambit. [/font][font="Arial"]Seems to look somewhat cheaper, though. Nowhere near as elaborate and sumptuous as the first one, but definitely a product of its time. (Have you ever seen so many peace and love motifs on a game show set?) One wonders how much Lin Bolen had to do with it.

Now, if only a kind and generous tape trader would upload one of the existing episodes of this version to You Tube...
[/font]

[narzo]

a number of full-color pics from "Hows Your Mother In-Law" (no, I wasn't intentionally searching them out).  wins the prize for most patriotic set of all time.

[DoorNumberFour]

Now, if only a kind and generous tape trader would upload one of the existing episodes of this version to You Tube...

What existing episodes?

[DoorNumberFour]

Another interesting search..."game show pilot."

http://www.gettyimages.com/Search/Search.aspx?contractUrl=2&language=en-US&family=editorial&assetType=image&mt=photography&p=game+show+pilot

You got some shots of the Blockbusters pilot (with score readouts on the contestant desk), as well as some shots of Bob Barker on an unindentified NBC pilot and Geoff Edwards on an interesting looking show called Play it By Ear.

[SuperMatch93]

Now, if only a kind and generous tape trader would upload one of the existing episodes of this version to You Tube...

What existing episodes?

The only ones I can think of are the five or so that exist at the Paley Center. (I asked gilmorebox if he had the intro from any, and he said no.)

I know videoarchives1000 has a non-circulating one from January 1983, but I doubt if he has any more.

Didn't someone claim to have a friend with an audio copy of an episode, only to be denied when he requested it?

[40onTheBlue]

Now, if only a kind and generous tape trader would upload one of the existing episodes of this version to You Tube...

What existing episodes?

Apparently the UCLA Film & TV Archive has a few. Other than that, a guy can dream, can't he?

[Blanquepage]

This is kinda fun:

Snap Judgment Search - Includes some in color.

Gene Rayburn, including pics of Dough Re Mi!

Call My Bluff

The Moneymaze

Word For Word

[Matt Ottinger]

Apparently the UCLA Film & TV Archive has a few. Other than that, a guy can dream, can't he?

Absolutely.  I've seen a lot of things, probably more than most people, but I've never seen an original SOTC in either format.  I've also been to UCLA a number of times so I'm a little surprised I've never made a point of looking for it there.

[Matt Ottinger]

You got some shots of the Blockbusters pilot (with score readouts on the contestant desk), as well as some shots of Bob Barker on an unidentified NBC pilot and Geoff Edwards on an interesting looking show called Play it By Ear.

Cool!  I'm intrigued by the Bob Barker thing.  It looks for the world like it could just be another Truth or Consequences clone, but at the time he was already hosting that!

[MisterX]

Here's some interesting shots of Jack Barry's Tic Tac Dough from 1956. There's behind the scenes shots of the rotating category board too!

And Brains & Brawn, 1958.

Very obscure, from 1958 too, Lucky Partners, around the middle. Lower on the page, we find a nice wide shot of the set of Twenty-One, 1956, and lower on the page, The Big Surprise (pic, 1957), Name That Tune (pic, 1957), $64,000 Question (pics, 1957)

And a colored promo pic of The $64,000 Question's booth w/Hal March.

Some Quiz Kids, 1944 pictures.

In the middle of the page, Americana from 1948, and Strike It Rich 1951 pic.

NOW, let's see if someone uncovers set photos of The Wizard Of Odds.

EDIT #gazillion: By the way, what is this picture from The Newlywed Game? Pilot picture for promo purposes, or the series' first set?

[JasonA1]

I can see what I'll be doing when I get home from work. I searched "game show" and went to page 230, going backwards. Already saw shots from Jackpot's first week (indicating the display behind Geoff initially mirrored the Jackpot amount), color shots of the first Newlywed Game set, color shots from Concentration, promo stills from Classic Concentration, $20,000 Pyramid stuff, and boatloads more.

-Jason

[40onTheBlue]

Here's some interesting shots of Jack Barry's Tic Tac Dough from 1956. There's behind the scenes shots of the rotating category board too!

The photo of the board from behind fascinates me. Building and maintaining it must've been quite a feat of engineering. It'd be great to hear the story from whoever created it. Now, if there were photos somewhere of the other side of the original Concentration and Jeopardy! boards, you'd have to peel me off the floor.

NOW, let's see if someone uncovers set photos of The Wizard Of Odds.

What a rare and treasured find THAT would be! As would some pix of Baffle, The Who What or Where Game and the first run of High Rollers for that matter.

Thanks for the share.