$ale of the Century discussion

[jlgarfield]

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.

[Strikerz04]

Top left is Helen.

[jlgarfield]

^ Thanks.

[snowpeck]

Here's a newspaper article about Helen's big win.

[jlgarfield]

^ Holy smoke, Batman. That is quite the find. It sheds a little bit more light on the early months of the show. Thank you for sharing.

So Cathy was the second lot winner, and as such, three such wins occurred during Sally Julian's 50-show run as Jim's assistant (and Mort Kamins won the lot during Lee Menning's first week). We now also have the proper spelling of Helen's surname

[snowpeck]

Michael Todaro's article.

Part 1 and Part 2 of Cathy Powers' article.

[jlgarfield]

^ So, based on the article, Todaro's winning show was on January 26, 1983, not quite a month into the show's run; Powers won on February 4th.

There's been an early 1983 ep of $ale on YouTube for a decade, and based on all this new information, said ep's OAD was 1/31/1983.

[rebelwrest]

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.

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.

[Bill Neuweiler]

So I've had a question about the early run, during Mort's games Jim Perry mentioned that the car came with enough cash to round the total out to $95,000.   95K seemed like an oddly specific number to me, like why not 100K at that point?   I'm just curious if anyone knows was there a reason for that specific amount, perhaps some network rule at the time, or was it influenced by budget?  or did the producer just like the number 95? Inquiring minds want to know!

[jlgarfield]

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 will say this: Michael looks like a bearded John Ritter.

[Neumms]

This struck me as I read the article that called $ale "NBC's hottest new game show." Were ratings sinking when the winner's board premiered? Did it make them go up? And did a drop in ratings prompt the Winner's Big Money Game? Both changes were brought on by the network, right?

[SuperMatch93]

This struck me as I read the article that called $ale "NBC's hottest new game show." Were ratings sinking when the winner's board premiered? Did it make them go up? And did a drop in ratings prompt the Winner's Big Money Game? Both changes were brought on by the network, right?

The WBMG was prompted by a mandate from NBC that each of their games have a proper bonus round.

[Strikerz04]

So I've had a question about the early run, during Mort's games Jim Perry mentioned that the car came with enough cash to round the total out to $95,000.   95K seemed like an oddly specific number to me, like why not 100K at that point?   I'm just curious if anyone knows was there a reason for that specific amount, perhaps some network rule at the time, or was it influenced by budget?  or did the producer just like the number 95? Inquiring minds want to know!

Tax Brackets?


I mean 95k was plenty of money back then, as so was 64k when the Australians did it in 1980. Vincent Smith won $73k-odd a month after the show premiered (the Mercedes was already $36,000 to start with).

[TLEberle]

This struck me as I read the article that called $ale "NBC's hottest new game show." Were ratings sinking when the winner's board premiered? Did it make them go up? And did a drop in ratings prompt the Winner's Big Money Game? Both changes were brought on by the network, right?

my recollection/understanding was that somebody (the producers? The network?) wanted a final act that wasn’t just meandering about then the final decision. The board brought a different problem—everything that wasn’t cash or car came off as a door prize by comparison, and the trips are largely domestic or in The Americas.

I believe Australia changed to the board around this time, but they had bigger prizes generally, plus you risk your boodle every night till you win the bonanza, tap out or lose.

[jlgarfield]

This struck me as I read the article that called $ale "NBC's hottest new game show." Were ratings sinking when the winner's board premiered? Did it make them go up? And did a drop in ratings prompt the Winner's Big Money Game? Both changes were brought on by the network, right?

For a good portion of its run on NBC, $ale was in a hot competition with Press Your Luck on CBS, but $ale won out.