Quickest producer to make 65 episodes?

[DrBear]

This. I'll point out this is an industry that would prefer a Mobster piss themselves than stop tape.

I'll take that as a probably "not likely."

[snowpeck]

This leads me to wonder whether the $100K shows frequently involved one of the two celebs who had just done the $25K shows. ISTR a similar arrangement for taping MG7x and MGPM.

Wasn't MGPM a weekly at this time?  In that case, they'd tape six shows: one week of daytime, and then the syndie.

IIRC, they'd do 3 daytime shows and take lunch.  The PM show would be the first show taped back from lunch, then the remaining two daytime shows would be shot.

[That Don Guy]

Regarding Pyramid, how frequent were the tape days? Once a week? Twice? More? Less?

Don't know why three a week stands out in my mind. I'm going off what I remember reading in Jefferson Graham's Come On Down, but that was close to 20 years ago...

The only reference I can think of to taping three episodes of a 5-a-week per day is when Dennis James substituted for Bob Barker for three days, and when Barker came back, he said that he had missed one day of taping.

This leads me to wonder whether the $100K shows frequently involved one of the two celebs who had just done the $25K shows. ISTR a similar arrangement for taping MG7x and MGPM.

Wasn't MGPM a weekly at this time?  In that case, they'd tape six shows: one week of daytime, and then the syndie.

IIRC, they'd do 3 daytime shows and take lunch.  The PM show would be the first show taped back from lunch, then the remaining two daytime shows would be shot.

That sounds right - there was an episode that began with Gene commenting that they had just taped a PM episode.  (I think the PM episode was this one.)

[Fedya]

Would there have been any shows around Thanksgiving that didn't tape a Thursday/Friday show that week?

[tvrandywest]

Johnny Olson reported taping the entire 1973 season of "Concentration," 195 shows, in nine weeks, recording seven episodes each day. I believe that was a record for that time. Indeed, years later, Bob Stewart and Dick Clark did 10 on Saturdays and 5 on Sundays; the lighter load on Sundays so that Dick could catch an early afternoon plane. Now that we stop tape for hangnails, we'll likely never see those numbers again... except when our fearless leader Matt is calling the shots!

Randy
tvrandywest.com

[chris319]

If you hit show 4 (or 9) and it's a clean break, a champion retires or you're at the end of a pairing on Pyramid when nobody is coming back, would you stop the taping for the day so that you could start a new session with new contestants, instead of forcing a contestant to come back?

On our show the celebs were, with rare exceptions, booked to do five shows in a day and they were done. The idea was that they would start on a Monday air date and end on a Friday air date. We would bring with us far more contestants than were actually needed so that we wouldn't run out of contestants. If a returning champion couldn't make the next taping we would explain the situation on the air and introduce a new contestant, no big deal. As expensive as studio facilities were, we knew exactly how many episodes we would tape going in and tape exactly that number. Many of the above-the-line people were on weekly salaries, but not the technicians and stagehands.

IIRC, they'd do 3 daytime shows and take lunch.  The PM show would be the first show taped back from lunch, then the remaining two daytime shows would be shot.

My recollection is that the nighttime show was taped last so they only had to change the sign once. After the CBS run when they taped five per day, I remember an instance when Ira changed the audience after the second rather than the originally-planned third show. He said he didn't like the first audience but I'm wondering if he wanted to get Brett et al. to take their liquid lunch early.

[cool245]

Didn't the mess that was Temptation churn out episodes quickly because they were trying to beat the writer's strike?

[pyrfan]

IIRC, they'd do 3 daytime shows and take lunch.  The PM show would be the first show taped back from lunch, then the remaining two daytime shows would be shot.

My recollection is that the nighttime show was taped last so they only had to change the sign once. After the CBS run when they taped five per day, I remember an instance when Ira changed the audience after the second rather than the originally-planned third show. He said he didn't like the first audience but I'm wondering if he wanted to get Brett et al. to take their liquid lunch early.

Hate to disagree with one of our esteemed mods, but they would tape the PM episode as the fifth show of the day and the last weekly show would be the sixth taping. There are several examples of evidence of this. One is Gene Rayburn making reference to a PM show that they just taped where Richard Dawson and Betty White do their impersonations of Brett Somers and Charles Nelson Reilly -- he mentions it on the fifth day of a '77 week with the same panel (those four plus Avery Schreiber and Della Reese.) Another is where Gene mentions on a Friday syndie show the incident on a PM show they taped earlier in the day where the winning contestant accidentally removed Eva Gabor's toenail after a big win. Eva's foot is packed in ice for the Friday show.


Brendan

[Adam Nedeff]

This leads me to wonder whether the $100K shows frequently involved one of the two celebs who had just done the $25K shows. ISTR a similar arrangement for taping MG7x and MGPM.

Even with Bob Stewart's reputation for frugalness, there is no way you'd ask somebody to play ten straight episodes of "Pyramid." Even the best players would be human soup by the end of show #7.

[Steve Gavazzi]

The only reference I can think of to taping three episodes of a 5-a-week per day is when Dennis James substituted for Bob Barker for three days, and when Barker came back, he said that he had missed one day of taping.

Dennis actually did four shows -- Tuesday through Friday of 1974's Christmas week.  I'm pretty sure four show per day was the norm for TPIR at this time, although I forget how many days a week they taped and how many weeks they taped in a row.

[forkdumplings]

I suppose you would only want to tape that many episodes once you had the format of the show established. Here in Australia, a game show called Randling taped all of Season 1's 27 episodes before a single one went to air.

It didn't rate too well, but due to all of the episodes already being shot, they couldn't change the format. So there was nothing they could do 'save' the show. Consequently, it won't be returning in 2013.

What's the maximum number of episodes you would want to tape of a new game show in its first season?

[chris319]

When I visited for two taping days in November 1978, the PM show was taped last on both days.

[cmjb13]

The only reference I can think of to taping three episodes of a 5-a-week per day is when Dennis James substituted for Bob Barker for three days, and when Barker came back, he said that he had missed one day of taping.

Dennis actually did four shows -- Tuesday through Friday of 1974's Christmas week.  I'm pretty sure four show per day was the norm for TPIR at this time, although I forget how many days a week they taped and how many weeks they taped in a row.

This call sheet from 1974 does confirm 4 shows a day.

http://home.comcast....3/callsheet.jpg

[pyrfan]

When I visited for two taping days in November 1978, the PM show was taped last on both days.

Interesting. I wonder if they alternated. I'm with you -- it certainly makes the most sense to do the PM as the last show. In addition to the sign issue you mentioned earlier, it would also keep two '7x or daily syndie contestants from lingering in the studio needlessly while the PM contestants play their game.


Brendan