Book: Fridays with Art

[alfonzos]

Recently, I came across a book about the early days of broadcast television from the point of view of the salesmen and packagers. The book is called Fridays with Art . It was “edited” by Dick Woolen. (I put edited in quotes because the editor uses the possessive form of proper nouns when he means to use the plural form.) There were some interest factoids about game shows I would like to share with this forum.

•   “Celebrity Bowling” celebrities didn’t want to go home after taping a half-hour show so they would use the same celebrities, switch teams, and tape another show.
•   The success of the first season of “Celebrity Bowling” inspired its distributor to develop an identical series called “The Best of Bowling” but a stern letter from the original show’s lawyer put a stop to the copycat series.
•   “Celebrity Bowling” was cancelled, not because of low ratings, because the producer made enough money to turn his attention to financing theatrical productions.
•   “Face the Music” started production as “Bet the Music.” Players bid for notes and guess the song titles. Tommy Oliver and his orchestra played the music. Patrick Wayne was the host but the producer blames the recent death of his father, John, for his poor performance during the pilot. Ron Ely was tapped as host. Both Wayne and Ely were golfing buddies of the packager.
•   A robot figured into the production of “Bet the Music” but kept malfunctioning and was dropped.
•   One of writers of the book admits to advising Jack Barry not to buy 700 episodes of “The Joker’s Wild” from CBS for $100 each before the tapes were destroyed. Barry ignored the advice and convinced KHJ in Los Angeles to run the series in prime time. TJW catapulted KHJ from last place to first in the time slot. The show went into syndication successfully in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and St. Louis.
•   (I saved my favorite factoid for last.) When “The Newlywed Game” was broadcast in Cincinnati. WKRC would kill the audio during the dullest answers and let the audience let its imagination fill in the blanks. The practice soon caught on in other markets.

[Winkfan]

• One of writers of the book admits to advising Jack Barry not to buy 700 episodes of “The Joker’s Wild” from CBS for $100 each before the tapes were destroyed. Barry ignored the advice and convinced KHJ in Los Angeles to run the series in prime time. TJW catapulted KHJ from last place to first in the time slot. The show went into syndication successfully in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and St. Louis.

We fans should be thankful Jack did not have those episodes fall victim to "the erasure monster;" otherwise, we'd never have the successful remake that soon followed.

Cordially,
Tammy

[BrandonFG]

A robot on "Face the Music"...I'm only half-joking when I wonder whether it was a leftover prop from a Sandy Frank movie... ;-P

[BillCullen1]

I thought Ron Ely did a very good job hosting Face The Music. To some extent, I was surprised. Too bad he never got to host another game show, or maybe he did and the pilots didn't sell.

[whewfan]

It sounds like Face the Music wasn't going to be about "faces" at all, but rather, something closer to Bid A Note on Name that Tune. I am so glad they dropped the betting.

[PYLdude]

I thought Face the Music was a rather inoffensive way to spend thirty minutes and it wasn't really that bad a show, per se...but the game structure was rather lacking, I thought.

[TLEberle]

How was the structure lacking?

[PYLdude]

How was the structure lacking?

The champion didn't play the whole game, first. The sing-along parts were unnecessary, largely because the title could have been given away and took the challenge away, second. There could have been a game board showing the faces and the names attached to them, as well as for the song titles used in the second and third rounds (which I thought were the best part of the show) , third.

To me, the final round was okay but shouldn't have been used as a championship round. Instead, I would've liked to see the first three rounds determine the winner and the final round played as a bonus.

[BrandonFG]

With the champion returning, would you have liked this format more:

-Round 1: faces (all 3 challengers play, low score eliminated)
-Round 2: musical puzzles round (2 challengers, lowest score eliminated)
-Round 3: Championship Game (another set of puzzles)
-Bonus round: The $10,000 collage setup

That way a champion plays an actual round, although I didn't mind the setup on the show. You still had to put 2+2 together between the song, and the facial recognition. There just wasn't a main game involved for the champ like on shows like Hit Man or Top Card...

[PYLdude]

With the champion returning, would you have liked this format more:

-Round 1: faces (all 3 challengers play, low score eliminated)
-Round 2: musical puzzles round (2 challengers, lowest score eliminated)
-Round 3: Championship Game (another set of puzzles)
-Bonus round: The $10,000 collage setup

That way a champion plays an actual round, although I didn't mind the setup on the show. You still had to put 2+2 together between the song, and the facial recognition. There just wasn't a main game involved for the champ like on shows like Hit Man or Top Card...

With the exception of having the champion play from the beginning of the show and leaving the elimination rounds alone (after each of the musical puzzle rounds as they were before), this is precisely what I was thinking of.

In Hit Man's case, it didn't bother me as much. And if you think about it, Top Card did have the champ play most of the game.

[TLEberle]

And if you think about it, Top Card did have the champ play most of the game.

And if I don't think about it my typing starts to get really bad in a hurry. Top Card had one of the most ingenious tournament structures for a half hour game show ever.

[PYLdude]

And if you think about it, Top Card did have the champ play most of the game.

And if I don't think about it my typing starts to get really bad in a hurry. Top Card had one of the most ingenious tournament structures for a half hour game show ever.

I agree.