Biggest Leaps in Set Technology

[Jeremy Nelson]

I was about to submit Wheel of Fortune for the biggest technological upgrade for one show, with the puzzleboard going from trilons to monitors.

Considering that it also had a significant effect on the amount of production stopdowns, this would be a valid answer as well.

[parliboy]

I'll just troll the room and say that in 1990's Supermarket Sweep, being able to scan in the groceries at check-out rather than hand-calculate must have done wonders for production.

[Bryce L.]

Pyramid comes to mind......$20K and $50K used solari for the score, but by $25K's arrival in 1982, they went LED vane.

FTFY

[aaron sica]

Pyramid comes to mind......$20K and $50K used solari for the score, but by $25K's arrival in 1982, they went LED vane.

FTFY

Thank you!

For further clarification on my post, $50K was vane for the clock during non-tournament play, including the very odd "1 00" when the winner's circle started.

[jjman920]

Was Double Dare 2000 one of the first game shows filmed in HD? And was the set built with that in mind? I feel like it's a bit of a stretch, but could see consideration being made in its leap to make the colors pop and that the set fits on screen for that format. It's set was far more elaborate than what the panel shows had to adjust when they started going to color in the 60s.

[Casey Buck]

How about RGB LEDs? We've come a long way since chase bulbs.

[tyshaun1]

Even with its flaws, I'd say Paranoia deserves a place on this list.

That show was so WAY ahead of it's time (Tomarken's shows seemed to have that curse). It would be a prime candidate for a reboot.

[mystery7]

Pyramid comes to mind......$20K and $50K used solari for the score, but by $25K's arrival in 1982, they went LED vane.

FTFY

Thank you!

For further clarification on my post, $50K was vane for the clock during non-tournament play, including the very odd "1 00" when the winner's circle started.

And Pyramid was not the first show to use that. Chain Reaction's bonus round switched to that supered vane clock from the electronically generated clock that it started with (and switched clock sounds around the same time). Weird to have Solaris together with vane displays (which I call Stavers, since the company that made them was called Staver-Signalex).

First use of Stavers that I know of on a game show was on the Spell Binders pilot in 1978. First time on-air might have been Mindreaders the following year.

[chris319]

Anything that got rid of text on a piece of cardboard or slides in a carousel projector.

[chad1m]

Was Double Dare 2000 one of the first game shows filmed in HD? And was the set built with that in mind?

Based on my research, only five episodes were recorded in high-definition, and I don't think they were ever broadcast that way, since Nickelodeon didn't have an HD feed until years afterward. They were probably the first game show to film in the format, albeit in a limited capacity, though I doubt that held any consideration in set construction.

[chrisholland03]

Anything that got rid of text on a piece of cardboard or slides in a carousel projector.

Yes.  But menu boards were even worse than cardboard or slides in my opinion.

[Fedya]

And Pyramid was not the first show to use that. Chain Reaction's bonus round switched to that supered vane clock from the electronically generated clock that it started with (and switched clock sounds around the same time).

Didn't Pyramid also have an eggcrate clock off stage?  I distinctly recall a couple of cases where a contestant won the Winner's Circle with a fraction of a second and Dick would have the contestant look over at the clock

[aaron sica]

Didn't Pyramid also have an eggcrate clock off stage?  I distinctly recall a couple of cases where a contestant won the Winner's Circle with a fraction of a second and Dick would have the contestant look over at the clock

I'll back you up on this, I distinctly remember it too. I remember it showing "01".

[BrandonFG]

Didn't Pyramid also have an eggcrate clock off stage?  I distinctly recall a couple of cases where a contestant won the Winner's Circle with a fraction of a second and Dick would have the contestant look over at the clock

I'll back you up on this, I distinctly remember it too. I remember it showing "01".

I’ll third this. It happened exactly the way you both described.

[mystery7]

I wonder if that explains when Dick had to ask if a team finished in 18 or 19 seconds during a tiebreaker - (how) did they sync the screen clock with the one offstage?