Especially odd considering that it was syndicated, and those tapes seem to have a higher survival rate. Does anybody know if this might have been a weekly show with VERY few episodes produced?
Per EOTVGS, Pro-Fan was a weekly series airing between May and September 1977, with 13 episodes produced. So that fits your description. I have no idea why it became a favorite of Maxine Fabe's.
Am I the only one who remembers watching the entire series (on KBHK, no less - and it was on Saturday nights at 11:30, just like the promo said)?
Here's "the quick version":
Two teams of a contestant and a former athlete
The host (former NBC sports announcer Charlie Jones) alternated asking questions to the contestants (the two I remember: "In football, how many points do you get for a touchback?" (zero) and "Who led the World Football League in rushing when it folded in midseason?"). A correct answer was worth 10 points in the first period, 20 in the second, and 40 in the third (each one 4 minutes long), and that team's athlete then tried some sport-based stunt within 24 seconds that was worth the same number of points, although in the third period, each contestant could replace the athlete once, for 80 points. These were the stunts I can remember:
Baseball (pitch a ball through a cardboard strike zone)
Football (either throw a ball through a tire, or kick it over a goal post)
Basketball (either make a 6-foot hook shot or a free throw)
Golf (they had a machine where you hit the ball into a backdrop and it calculated where it would land on a particular hole; they had to get it within a certain distance; they also had a non-flat putting green)
Archery (get it within a particular section of the target)
Horseshoes (usually, get it within one shoe length of the target)
Tennis (either make serves, or return balls from a machine)
Hockey (score a goal against a cutout goalie that was moved back and forth)
Pool (make one or two shots from a predetermined layout of balls)
Bowling (converting a split of some sort)
The winning team (or both teams if the game ended in a tie, although none did) played a "grand slam" event for $15,000 in prizes, although that included a $11,000 52-day Mediterranean cruise that pretty much nobody kept; both the contestant and the athlete attempted it, and the contestant won if either of them succeeded. IIRC, three contestants won, two of them not only winning on the same stunt (making an 8-ball on the spot into a called pocket with the cue ball on the break line) but doing it themselves and not needing the athlete's help.
