Preemption and Prizes

[Mr. Matté]

In the case of our unaired George Peppard show, I don't recall that anyone won anything.

I pulled up the tape quickly, and Alphabetics was won off the top of the show.  So, does this mean GSN would have done the same due diligence test back in the day before the ran it (Was anybody even talking back then that this was a never-before-seen episode?) or was G-T generally likely to pay in the event of a withheld broadcast regardless?

The contestant who won the Alphabetics on the unaired episode was back for the next episode (and in continuing to be a dick, Peppard says "hot dog" in the day 2 Alphabetics, loses time asking to stop during the round, and then complains that it wasn't fair) so I doubt they would deny him $5,000 especially since on the aired episodes Allen would keep saying to him "you have $5,xxx+ in winnings."

[Clay Zambo]

I have nothing factual to add to this discussion, other than to say that every time I see the subject line, I hear synthesizers crackling and Johnny O enthusiastically announcing, "From Hollywood...it's the game of preemptions and prizes...CONSTERNATION!"

[Nick]

I doubt they would deny him $5,000 especially since on the aired episodes Allen would keep saying to him "you have $5,xxx+ in winnings."

Well, they could have if the episode in question never aired and they wanted to play on the escape clause that allowed them to skip on paying.  While I don't expect to get the answer all these years later, it would be interesting to know when the decision was made to shelve the episode.  They had an awkward voiceover by Gene at the start of the following episode saying that, "The program originally scheduled for air at this time will not be seen" (which was immediately followed by Allen saying, "If you weren't with us yesterday, you... you should have been").

[Otm Shank]

It always struck me (maybe an opinion colored by those who told it first) that it was a think-skinned Fred Silverman that just said yank the episode. It could have been edited creatively just to keep the worst of the rant out of it, and maybe have Gene Wood vamp a long ticket plug the next time they are in the studio. Since there was no puzzle played between breaks, maybe shoot an "audience alphabetics" for a reduced payout with Alan wearing the same suit at a later date (at NBC's expense). Likely, though, there wasn't time to do that.

NBC could have very rightly stuck to the contestant agreement, but I would guess $5,200 even then was a small price to pay for the contestant's silence on the matter (plus $200 to the other contestant who was ethered for decades). It would have also kept the FCC at bay from poking around and maybe determining it was a very arbitrary reason to preempt, ironically touching on the very topic that was being censored.

[chris319]

Guess all you want.

The decision not to air that show came from Mr. Goodson a few days after we taped it.

All Allen had to do was say "let's play Password" to get Peppard off his rant. I was sitting in the booth waiting for him to say it but he didn't.

I don't know if the contestant received their alphabetics money. That was NBC's worry, not ours.

[Otm Shank]

OK, there it is. That's why I put in the caveat, as I sensed this was a case I had a misleading first impression of the story. Thanks for clearing that up.

[Nick]

Guess all you want.

The decision not to air that show came from Mr. Goodson a few days after we taped it.

Surprising to hear.  How would he have even been aware, I wonder?

All Allen had to do was say "let's play Password" to get Peppard off his rant. I was sitting in the booth waiting for him to say it but he didn't.

Makes me wonder why he didn't, but I suppose we could keep digging and digging into the wondering of any long-since-passed event.

Thanks for the added information.

[chris319]

How would he have even been aware, I wonder?

Somebody told him. He was in NY at the time.