The puzzles were largely Steve's creation but it was Bobby Sherman and Ira Skutch who rather made a jumble out of the format. There was some concern that the range of material might be limited if they didn't have an assortment of puzzles. There was talk of using puzzles involving maps, where players would identify the state they were in after seeing certain cities, and picture puzzles where players would identify an object after seeing various close-up views of it. I came up with a puzzle called "Hieroglyphics" where words would appear by gradually revealing fragments of the characters, kind of like Camouflage in reverse, but it was not used in the pilot.
After we did the pilot, NBC passed on it. We had to wait 30 days until we could show it to another buyer. CBS came in, looked at a live run-thru and passed. That was the end of Puzzlers. I then asked Ira if we would be showing it to ABC. His answer was, bluntly, "We don't deal with ABC." He went on to explain that there was a rift between Goodson and ABC which originated with Family Feud. ABC objected to the "steal" part of the game. Goodson wanted it kept in. ABC wanted it out. After a bit of back and forth, Goodson said that either the "steal" stayed in or he would take the show to another network. ABC relented and Family Feud made lots and lots of money for them.
If they had made Puzzlers a little more like TPIR with one type of puzzle per act and an inventory of rotating puzzles, it would have been an improvement.
