Clark/Davidson Pyramid Close

[Argo]

Just wondering who's decision was it for Dick Clark and John Davidson to run/walk off set at the end of the show and did they ever discuss it? i know Vicki Lawrence made fun of it one episode, but I don't think she commented on it. I don't know when it started as some $10,000 and $20,000 pyramids closed with everyone huddled around the winners cycle, but some have Dick literally running off stage, while John slowly walk off set, waving to the audience. I always found this a bit odd and at times it looked like the celebrities and contestants felt a bit uncomfortable just sitting there. I know at least one time Elaine Joyce was left at a desk by herself while the credits rolled, which looked really bad I thought. David Letterman and Paul actually talked the "running off"  one day when talking about Dick. It was obviously a departure from the norm.

[parliboy]

In the 80’s, they taped 25k and 100k at the same time.  10 shows in a taping day.  Literally, it was change clothes and shoot the next show, hyper-efficient, like clockwork.  Darn right he got off stage.

[whewfan]

Davidson probably did it for the sake of consistency. I'm not sure of the Pyramid taping schedule while he hosted, but I doubt he was as busy as Dick Clark was. They taped so many Pyramids at once because Dick produced and hosted many other shows at that time.

[Jeremy Nelson]

In the 80’s, they taped 25k and 100k at the same time.  10 shows in a taping day.  Literally, it was change clothes and shoot the next show, hyper-efficient, like clockwork.  Darn right he got off stage.

At first, I thought this might not make all that much sense since the players and celebs have to change too, but if you alternate taping between the $25K shows and the $100K shows, then I guess you could if it didn't take any time to switch out the podium and the top of the pyramid.

[Fedya]

The celebs changed; I don't think the players did.

I recall one of the $100K tournaments from the GSN airings where you had one contestant in a blue dress with humongous shoulder pads every day and another contestant in a green dress.

[Unrealtor]

I believe it has been said on some incarnation of this board that he wanted the extra few minutes so that he could make phone calls related to his production business in between episodes, which seems reasonable enough, but I can't honestly remember who said it and if they were speculating or not.

if it didn't take any time to switch out the podium and the top of the pyramid.

The sign at the top of the pyramid looks to me like it would basically have to be changed from the front. The stagehands probably had switching it out down to an artform, but even just getting ladders in place seems like it would take long enough to make changing it every half hour a non-starter.

[TLEberle]

I believe it has been said on some incarnation of this board that he wanted the extra few minutes so that he could make phone calls related to his production business in between episodes, which seems reasonable enough, but I can't honestly remember who said it and if they were speculating or not.

Even if the category sheets could be swapped out during the space for ad breaks, it seems like letting everyone decompress for ten minutes--especially if one or both of the contestants made the summit.

[Matt Ottinger]

The math of doing ten shows is interesting.  Theoretically, five, then a meal break, then five more, with fifteen minutes in between, and you're taping for exactly eight hours.  Now of course you'd need staff there in advance, and you'd need some time to shut things down when you're done, plus there would inevitably be SOME delays as you go.  Still, if you treated it as a product you were churning out, it's not as though it would take a herculean effort to do ten in a day.

[calliaume]

To clarify, can we assume when ten shows were taped in a day, that was roughly once a week? This is opposed to ten in a day every day for a period of several weeks, like the 1989 version of Jackpot!  I can't imagine Dick Clark would be able to free up his schedule that much.

[Argo]

Thanks to all the responses so far, but I'm curious now. Did they record 10 episodes in the 70's as well? It doesn't seem consistent, but off and on, Dick would do his quick salute then run off. Other times, they would all meet up and stand around the winners circle, which seemed to be a much more appropriate ending. Maybe these were the last tapings of the day and they weren't as rushed?

[BrandonFG]

Thanks to all the responses so far, but I'm curious now. Did they record 10 episodes in the 70's as well?

Cullen's Pyramid was weekly, and IIRC, they recorded their season in a short time frame (i.e. over the summer). I'm guessing Clark did five episodes in one day for the daytime version.

[TLEberle]

Cullen's Pyramid was weekly, and IIRC, they recorded their season in a short time frame (i.e. over the summer). I'm guessing Clark did five episodes in one day for the daytime version.

And the nighttime version was either six each for five days or five each for six days, rotating celebrity partners as needed.