William Shatner's "solo" Winner's Circle round

[Bryce L.]

Couldn't find any specific threads here about this, so here goes...

About the clip of William Shatner trying to play the Winner's Circle by himself in the 1970s series... does anyone here remember what happened on that episode, that resulted in Shatner playing solo?

[MrBuddwing]

I remember actually seeing that episode, and am disheartened to hear that the 20-second clip is all that survives.

If my erratic memory is to be trusted, they had some extra time and decided to just have some fun. The "solo" round occurred at the very end of the episode (again, if memory serves). And, of course, that's Lee Meriwether cheering Shatner on from the sidelines.

I should add, Shatner was given only 30 seconds to "play," but he dawdled, which is why Dick Clark comically shouts at him, "Come on, ya dummy, get over here!"

[Bryce L.]

Oh OK... I thought that was an actual "normal" playing gone seriously balls-up, as in Shatner's partner walked out on him... also, Lee Meriwether and William Shatner, you said? If Kris Lane's episode guide is correct, that would mean this clip came from the week of June 23 to June 27, 1975... sound about right?

[MrBuddwing]

Well, the year, certainly. This was when "Pyramid" was on ABC and was taped in New York.

[Bryce L.]

Thank you, much appreciated. Also, any other known cases of "solo" Winner's Circle playings, or was this a one-off incident?

[MrBuddwing]

The answer to that would have to come from a much more die-hard "Pyramid" fan than myself.

[Matt Ottinger]

If my erratic memory is to be trusted, they had some extra time and decided to just have some fun. The "solo" round occurred at the very end of the episode (again, if memory serves). And, of course, that's Lee Meriwether cheering Shatner on from the sidelines.

That's more or less my memory as well.  It certainly had nothing to do with "normal" play.  What I'm remembering is that Shatner had had a rough week, losing most games to Meriwether and not doing particularly well in the rare times he got to the Winner's Circle, if in fact he ever got there at all.  (It was a long time ago.)

And yeah, one of the reasons that the new GSN game can play the same amount of material as the original is that back then, there was always a lot of extra time if they needed it.  Notably, back when multiple tiebreakers would cause them to occasionally run long, they could actually squeeze in THREE trips to the Winner's Circle in one show the next day, an unimaginable amount of flexibility compared to today.

Thank you, much appreciated. Also, any other known cases of "solo" Winner's Circle playings, or was this a one-off incident?

If there had ever been another, we'd have known about it.

[Jay Temple]

Thank you, much appreciated. Also, any other known cases of "solo" Winner's Circle playings, or was this a one-off incident?

The closest thing is a main-game round they did with Teresa Ganzel. Through a special visual effect, they made it look like she was giving clues to herself.

[BrandonFG]

Ganzel Vs. Ganzel

[clemon79]

What a hoot! Makes me wonder how other celebs would do playing with themselves...

Does not wonder that at all

[Marc412]

You may want to rephrase that slightly.

[TLEberle]

You may want to rephrase that slightly.

That's the joke.

[Bryce L.]

My apologies, let's try that again... I wonder how anyone else would have handled a solo performance in the Winner's Circle

[clemon79]

My apologies, let's try that again... I wonder how anyone else would have handled a solo performance in the Winner's Circle

Does not wonder that at all

[saussage]

And yeah, one of the reasons that the new GSN game can play the same amount of material as the original is that back then, there was always a lot of extra time if they needed it.  Notably, back when multiple tiebreakers would cause them to occasionally run long, they could actually squeeze in THREE trips to the Winner's Circle in one show the next day, an unimaginable amount of flexibility compared to today.

Going ot for a sec, if things were that flexible time-wise, what caused Donnymid to goto 6 answer rounds instead of 7? I was worried they were going to do that with the new Pyramid but I'm happy they stuck to the more familiar format. There would have been no reason to time crunch a game show that didn't need it. But yeah, spare time on game shows seem like the days of the dodo bird. Some of the best and funniest clips come from shows having more spare time and the bloopers that occur because of it.