A showcase worth… You know how, on TPiR, when there's a bonus prize whose value is not subject to determining by the contestant, the announcer will append to the description, "A prize package worth, X dollars!" I thought I remembered, in the earliest TPiR days, of hearing Johnny Olson say "A showcase worth…" at least once. Of course, giving away the showcase price prior to bidding would obviously defeat the purpose!
The Numbers Game. The TPiR home game from 1973 had, for some strange reason, different names for the familiar pricing games than were used on TV. One example was the Any Number game, which they called "The Numbers Game". Yet I have a distinct memory of it being titled The Numbers Game at one point on the show.
Concentration, Bob Clayton era. As a little kid, I could have sworn I heard a contestant call out "umpteen" or "twen-teen". Also, when playing "The Envelope", there was a "ding-ding-ding-ding…" sounded when The Envelope was called on the board, or when the host was cued to pick a card out of the hopper/barrel (whatever that was for). One day, Bob Clayton was instructed to pick a card not by the bell, but by a direct verbal order over the director's intercom! You could hear it on TV, though not really clearly.
J! carrying answer card. In one episode of Art Fleming J!, in the middle of a game, a member of the production crew walked onto the set to tell the host something. Approaching from the left side of the board, he literally had in his hand, an answer card from the J! board.
Spiral stairway on $otC. I'd mentioned in at least one other post that Jack Kelly/Joe Garagiola SotC had the winner walk down a spiral staircase to the lower level of the set, where the prizes were. But according to some still photos someone posted a while ago, that was really just a slightly curved conventional stairway. (Has an episode from that era ever surfaced, BTW?) I must have gotten it conflated with the actual spiral stairs used on The Hollywood Squares, Marshall era, to access the uppermost tier only; never saw those in use, though once or twice they had someone standing on the stairs to model a fur coat prize.
Door Number 4 on LMaD. I wonder if this was an April Fools gag? I distinctly remember Monty telling the contestant that they won Door Number Four, possibly with a "Let's see what's behind Door No. 4" added in. But this was not the signature sliding door. It was actually a turntable, with a bluish, curved concealing wall on one side. I think this was used in late-60s/early-70s episodes for regular games, but here, they had slyly placed a numeral 4 on the outer wall. As for what was behind the door, well, if this half-century old memory is correct, the prize itself wasn't high-end, like a car or appliances, but rather an assortment of clothes. Yes, clothes. But neatly displayed on hangers in a boutique-like setting, with Jay describing each article. It didn't come across as a zonk, so perhaps they were designer labels.
