80's Card Sharks - Ineligibility

[JakeT]

Anyone know why the current champ Frank on the episodes BUZZR is showing was deemed ineligible and forfeited his winnings?


JakeT

[BrandonFG]

Outside of a thread from a little more than three years ago, I haven't seen too much about this. I'm curious myself.

[Matt Ottinger]

Without a lot to go on, let's guess!  It would strike me that the most likely reason to be found ineligible after the fact was that he lied on his application and they didn't catch it right away.  Maybe he worked for a CBS affiliate, or maybe he had been on another game show within whatever time frame CBS dictated.

The thing I don't understand all these years later is why they went to the extra effort of bringing attention to it.  Just don't pay the guy.  Did he piss somebody off so much that they wanted to embarrass him over it?

[Bryce L.]

The thing I don't understand all these years later is why they went to the extra effort of bringing attention to it.  Just don't pay the guy.  Did he piss somebody off so much that they wanted to embarrass him over it?

Considering that Frank's final episode ended with them starting a new match, it would've looked weird to come back on Monday morning with a new guy behind the red podium with zero explanation.

[Matt Ottinger]

Considering that Frank's final episode ended with them starting a new match, it would've looked weird to come back on Monday morning with a new guy behind the red podium with zero explanation.

I'm actually referring to the comments made in the older thread that said Gene Wood made a special announcement over the end credits of a previous episode.  Yeah, if you're going to throw the guy out, a quick mention at the top of the show is all you need.

[Matt Ottinger]

The other thing is that if they caught this midstream, before he had finished his run, it's possible that somebody on the floor recognized him and brought the issue to the appropriate party.

I actually know somebody that happened to, though it was caught before he got the chance to even play.  I'll keep things very generic to avoid naming names, but he had successfully applied to be on a show, and had made it into the studio, minutes away from playing as a contestant, when an industry professional recognized him to be an industry professional, and he was sent packing.

[tyshaun1]

I actually know somebody that happened to, though it was caught before he got the chance to even play.  I'll keep things very generic to avoid naming names, but he had successfully applied to be on a show, and had made it into the studio, minutes away from playing as a contestant, when an industry professional recognized him to be an industry professional, and he was sent packing.

Funny thing is Randy West got away with this (at least) twice.

[chrisholland03]

I actually know somebody that happened to, though it was caught before he got the chance to even play.  I'll keep things very generic to avoid naming names, but he had successfully applied to be on a show, and had made it into the studio, minutes away from playing as a contestant, when an industry professional recognized him to be an industry professional, and he was sent packing.

Funny thing is Randy West got away with this (at least) twice.

It will be interesting to see his response since you called him out.  He likely has some additional facts to dispel the accusation made, which will alleviate your concern.

[tyshaun1]

I actually know somebody that happened to, though it was caught before he got the chance to even play.  I'll keep things very generic to avoid naming names, but he had successfully applied to be on a show, and had made it into the studio, minutes away from playing as a contestant, when an industry professional recognized him to be an industry professional, and he was sent packing.

Funny thing is Randy West got away with this (at least) twice.

It will be interesting to see his response since you called him out.  He likely has some additional facts to dispel the accusation made, which will alleviate your concern.

I didn't "call him out", as you put it. He's told the story of what happened several times.

[MSTieScott]

I'm actually referring to the comments made in the older thread that said Gene Wood made a special announcement over the end credits of a previous episode.  Yeah, if you're going to throw the guy out, a quick mention at the top of the show is all you need.

I disagree. The Friday episode led viewers to believe that Frank would receive $18,000+ for playing Card Sharks. If the episode ends without the show acknowledging that that isn't true -- even though the producers knew, before the episode aired, that that wasn't true -- that could be considered deceitful. And we know what happened the last time game shows tried to deceive the home audience.

[Otm Shank]

That does make a lot of sense, that they need to make that disclaimer to retract what we already witnessed. However, there was no such disclaimer on the Thursday show apparently.


The Friday show had the disclaimer when the show ended 2 questions into the first round, which was rebooted on Monday with the same challenger.


I think it would have been tidier to call out the disclaimer on the other episodes, too, particularly since they had the time at the end for a regular read. But, it is also possible they overthought this ... if the viewer hears they declared someone ineligible on Thursday, does the viewer wonder why the champion comes back on Friday? Also, they might have felt that announcing a player is ineligible the day before, the viewers would know the result is a wipe. Again, a lot of overthinking, and obviously the suits went over all the options with S&P.

As for the disclaimer being necessary after Bob revealed the ineligibility: that is a boilerplate statement that continues to this day, mentioning which player is ineligible and they would not receive the prizes. Because Bob didn't cover all the legalese, that's probably what lead to the decision to insert the voiceover on the Friday show.

[calliaume]

Just did a quick Google search - one of the other boards said two years ago that "Frank was out of the game due to being associated with an acting career on a different show."

I'm dubious about this claim (both Jenny Lewis and Kellie Martin had appeared on Life With Lucy, among other programs, before their Young People's Week appearances) - unless he didn't disclose it beforehand.

[tyshaun1]

Just did a quick Google search - one of the other boards said two years ago that "Frank was out of the game due to being associated with an acting career on a different show."

Interesting that would be the case when most contestants at that point were struggling/aspiring actors.

[Unrealtor]

Just to spitball on the idea that it was his acting career that caused him to be ineligible, might having a role on a show produced by and/or aired on CBS, even as just a day player, cause someone to fall into the category of "CBS employee?"

[tvmitch]

Just to spitball on the idea that it was his acting career that caused him to be ineligible, might having a role on a show produced by and/or aired on CBS, even as just a day player, cause someone to fall into the category of "CBS employee?"

I'm curious about this, but in a different vein. Syndicated Millionaire comes to mind. That show aired on just about all the stations in my market over its many years. If I worked for a TV station that had aired the show in the past but was not airing it now, would I be eligible? Do these rules only apply to on-air talent, or all station personnel?