Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Author Topic: $ale of the Century discussion  (Read 33433 times)

WarioBarker

  • Member
  • Posts: 1916
  • Mind Wanderer
Re: $ale of the Century discussion
« Reply #60 on: August 25, 2023, 01:01:04 PM »
For every lot winner during the daytime shopping era, they had 2 more contestants that bought the cash jackpot and walked.  It was an unintended consequence of the speed round.
I'd say it was also a consequence of having the Cash Jackpot be its own prize level between the car and the Lot. You're going to have very few people turn down a cash payout of over $50,000 to try for the six onstage prizes as well.

WBMG was from an NBC edict that every show have a true bonus round.
In that case, how did Win, Lose or Draw get to be the exception?

If you're going to have an actual bonus round for Sale, tying it in to a shopping-related mechanic is the way to go IMO. As much as we rag on US Temptation, playing Wipeout Super Knock-Off at least earned you Temptation Dollars for the major prizes.
Even so, it feels like it was there to compensate for the five-day limit.
The Game Show Forum: beating the **** out of the competition since 2003.

I'm just a mind wanderer, walking in eternity...

BrandonFG

  • Member
  • Posts: 18544
Re: $ale of the Century discussion
« Reply #61 on: August 25, 2023, 02:38:37 PM »
WBMG was from an NBC edict that every show have a true bonus round.
In that case, how did Win, Lose or Draw get to be the exception?
Didn't the daytime version eventually add a bonus round? Given the show premiered when $ale still had the Winner's Board, so I imagine Bert and Burt eventually got the memo they needed an actual bonus game.
"They're both Norman Jewison movies, Troy, but we did think of one Jew more famous than Tevye."

Now celebrating his 22nd season on GSF!

chrisholland03

  • Member
  • Posts: 1538
Re: $ale of the Century discussion
« Reply #62 on: August 25, 2023, 04:35:25 PM »
WBMG was from an NBC edict that every show have a true bonus round.
In that case, how did Win, Lose or Draw get to be the exception?
Didn't the daytime version eventually add a bonus round? Given the show premiered when $ale still had the Winner's Board, so I imagine Bert and Burt eventually got the memo they needed an actual bonus game.

It absolutely did - in late '88.

chris319

  • Co-Executive Producer
  • Posts: 10639
Re: $ale of the Century discussion
« Reply #63 on: August 26, 2023, 12:06:57 AM »
What that chart doesn't show you are the demos. The great lament about game shows has always been that they attract an older audience. I don't know if game shows had lower production costs than soaps to make them worth it. Consider that five game shows could be taped in one day with minimal rehearsal. Soaps typically taped one show per day with a full rehearsal.

Sodboy13

  • Member
  • Posts: 1555
Re: $ale of the Century discussion
« Reply #64 on: August 26, 2023, 09:44:28 PM »
What that chart doesn't show you are the demos. The great lament about game shows has always been that they attract an older audience.

Speaking from semi-personal experience, Million Dollar Password got axed despite being in the weekly top 10 for almost every episode in its first season, and top 20 for its truncated run in the second, because the demos were certifiably ancient. Though I don't know what kind of audience CBS was expecting to get on a game show with 60 Minutes as its lead-in.
"Speed: it made Sandra Bullock a household name, and costs me over ten thousand a week."

--Shawn Micallef, Talkin' 'bout Your Generation

SuperMatch93

  • Member
  • Posts: 1718
Re: $ale of the Century discussion
« Reply #65 on: November 11, 2023, 04:13:25 PM »
IIRC, and the episode isn't up on YouTube anymore, there was one participant in the tournament who wasn't in that photo.  Wasn't there a black man by the name of Michael who participate? Probably was the replacement for Ray Winston when he was declared ineligible.

It's been reposted; the guy you're referring to is actually Michael Todaro.

-William https://cookcounty.biz
https://www.donorschoose.org/classroom/cpsbermudez
"30 years from now, people won’t care what we’re doing right now." - Bob Barker on The Price is Right, 1983

jlgarfield

  • Member
  • Posts: 115
  • Rider Pride!
Re: $ale of the Century discussion
« Reply #66 on: November 11, 2023, 06:35:06 PM »
^ Re: Michael Todaro: I thought his last name, for the longest time was pronounced "TOH-DAH-ROE". It's actually "TOH-DARE-OH". XD

Also, he was on Jeopardy! in November 1986.

SuperMatch93

  • Member
  • Posts: 1718
Re: $ale of the Century discussion
« Reply #67 on: August 24, 2024, 04:26:05 PM »
From Mort Kamins' recording of the 1983 $ale Tournament of Champions, the field for it. As stated in the image, I am not sure which lady on the top (left or right) is Helen Durvall, and the name of the last participant (also a female) is unknown.

I normally don't bump threads this old, but I was doing some Sale research for a personal project of mine earlier and learned that the lady in the upper right is likely named Maureen McGovern. According to several recollections, she left with the cash jackpot ($54,000) on 5/27/83 and was supposedly the first person to do so. The commercial below aired the 29th, so the clip featured likely aired the following day.



I'll try to find something a bit more conclusive on newspapers.com regarding that.
« Last Edit: August 25, 2024, 04:11:02 PM by SuperMatch93 »
-William https://cookcounty.biz
https://www.donorschoose.org/classroom/cpsbermudez
"30 years from now, people won’t care what we’re doing right now." - Bob Barker on The Price is Right, 1983

rebelwrest

  • Member
  • Posts: 1147
Re: $ale of the Century discussion
« Reply #68 on: August 24, 2024, 06:13:18 PM »

I normally don't bump threads this old, but I was doing some Sale research for a personal project of mine earlier and learned that the lady in the upper right is likely named Maureen McGovern. According to several recollections, she left with the cash jackpot ($54,000) on 5/27/83 and was supposedly the first person to do so. The commercial below aired the 29th, so the clip featured likely aired the following day.

I'll try to find something a bit more conclusive on newspapers.com regarding that.

5/29/83 was a Sunday, so I think the clip featured was the introduction of the cash jackpot unless NBC spoiled the outcome of the following day's episode.  I think we can pin down the beginning of the cash jackpot era as 5/23/83, and the order of the first four cash jackpot winners were:

Maureen McGovern 5/27/83
Richard Heft 7/13/83
Barbara Phillips 8/9/83
Fran Wolfe 9/1/83? (Assuming she won a $66,000 cash jackpot)

And back to the photo of the nine contestants, I don't think that's Ray Winston, and I don't think he participated in the 1983 tournament of champions. I'll explain.

In the lawsuit that Mr. Winston filed against NBC for nonpayment, the dates Mr. Winston taped his episodes were November 11 & 13th, 1983.  NBC was airing the tournament of champions at the time and started airing those episodes in October.

The history of $ale of the Century is one of the more intriguing aspects of game show fandom because we are trying to piece it together with the little bits of info that comes out every few years.
My favorite Win Ben Stein's Money Category:

Where Am I Doc? Urinalysis Restaurant.

Strikerz04

  • Member
  • Posts: 974
  • The Money Will be Spent
Re: $ale of the Century discussion
« Reply #69 on: August 25, 2024, 01:38:39 AM »

I normally don't bump threads this old, but I was doing some Sale research for a personal project of mine earlier and learned that the lady in the upper right is likely named Maureen McGovern. According to several recollections, she left with the cash jackpot ($54,000) on 5/27/83 and was supposedly the first person to do so. The commercial below aired the 29th, so the clip featured likely aired the following day.

I'll try to find something a bit more conclusive on newspapers.com regarding that.

5/29/83 was a Sunday, so I think the clip featured was the introduction of the cash jackpot unless NBC spoiled the outcome of the following day's episode.  I think we can pin down the beginning of the cash jackpot era as 5/23/83, and the order of the first four cash jackpot winners were:

Maureen McGovern 5/27/83
Richard Heft 7/13/83
Barbara Phillips 8/9/83
Fran Wolfe 9/1/83? (Assuming she won a $66,000 cash jackpot)

And back to the photo of the nine contestants, I don't think that's Ray Winston, and I don't think he participated in the 1983 tournament of champions. I'll explain.

In the lawsuit that Mr. Winston filed against NBC for nonpayment, the dates Mr. Winston taped his episodes were November 11 & 13th, 1983.  NBC was airing the tournament of champions at the time and started airing those episodes in October.


I'll hazard a guess: if the tape to air dates line up, Winston (12/8/83?) might have won it before Kathy Riley (1/18/84) did. And under those circumstances, he wouldn't qualify for the '83 tournament, but would've been in the '85 tourney (and John DiMurro and the $13k total would've been the odd man out).

SuperMatch93

  • Member
  • Posts: 1718
Re: $ale of the Century discussion
« Reply #70 on: August 25, 2024, 01:35:42 PM »
5/29/83 was a Sunday, so I think the clip featured was the introduction of the cash jackpot unless NBC spoiled the outcome of the following day's episode.

I'm thinking they did. Supposedly Maureen made it to the jackpot in five shows, so she would have been the one next to Jim.

I've been wanting to visit DC for years now, and if I ever go I should check out the Library of Congress and see if the stash of NBC program cards they have there includes anything Sale related.

ETA: The fish is on eBay (or one of his cousins, anyway).
« Last Edit: August 25, 2024, 08:31:54 PM by SuperMatch93 »
-William https://cookcounty.biz
https://www.donorschoose.org/classroom/cpsbermudez
"30 years from now, people won’t care what we’re doing right now." - Bob Barker on The Price is Right, 1983

TLEberle

  • Member
  • Posts: 15892
  • Rules Constable
Re: $ale of the Century discussion
« Reply #71 on: August 27, 2024, 08:04:14 PM »
And now down to $100.

/I might buy if it had $200 for pots and pans in its mouth.
If you didn’t create it, it isn’t your content.

SuperMatch93

  • Member
  • Posts: 1718
Re: $ale of the Century discussion
« Reply #72 on: August 27, 2024, 08:19:30 PM »
Regarding Ray Winston's non-participation in the '83 TOC, I wonder if the person we'd previously identified in that pic is actually Michael Todaro; perhaps he shaved his head and got a tan the previous summer.  :)

I'm also trying to confirm an additional tidbit from a YouTube commenter on one of Laura Chambers' episodes: supposedly, the $10 and $15 money cards were added on Memorial Day of '83. It was May 30 that year which would place it a week after the cash jackpot was introduced. I'd think of the 23rd as a more likely date though; it would have been hard for Maureen to make it to $510 in five days without some extra dosh from the Fame Game.
« Last Edit: August 30, 2024, 09:20:03 PM by SuperMatch93 »
-William https://cookcounty.biz
https://www.donorschoose.org/classroom/cpsbermudez
"30 years from now, people won’t care what we’re doing right now." - Bob Barker on The Price is Right, 1983

jlgarfield

  • Member
  • Posts: 115
  • Rider Pride!
Re: $ale of the Century discussion
« Reply #73 on: August 31, 2024, 11:34:25 PM »
- Ooh, a snippet of a circa April 1984 show! :D

Neumms

  • Member
  • Posts: 2446
Re: $ale of the Century discussion
« Reply #74 on: September 01, 2024, 01:01:14 AM »
What was “true or false” on the Fame Game board?