The game show "iceberg"

[SamJ93]

I'm sure many of you are familiar with the trend of creating an "iceberg" for a fandom, with an above-the-surface tier consisting of the most well-known stories and 4 undersea levels of increasingly obscure trivia.

If we were to create an iceberg for game shows, which bits of trivia would you include and where? Here are a few starters...feel free to add more. Keep in mind that I tried to approach this from the perspective of a semi-casual fan who may not have done some of the deep dives that we have:

TIER 1: The scandals, Michael Larson, Ken Jennings, James Holzhauer, the TPiR "perfect bid" controversy, the Charles Ingram UK Millionaire cheating scandal

TIER 2: Jim Peck's slip-and-fall on The Big Showdown, Mel Brooks' embarrassing encounter with Bill Cullen on Eye Guess, Kerry Ketchum/Patrick Quinn on Super Password, Mike Richards's J! hosting machinations, Professor Price

TIER 3: Bob Barker initially didn't want to host TPiR, Peter Tomarken's plane crash, George Peppard's P+ rant, Vanna White's miscarriage forcing an entire WoF puzzle to be edited, Thousand Dollar Bee, the "monsters" on early episodes of Supermarket Sweep

TIER 4: Monty Hall's claim that he created Password, TPiR throwing out an entire early episode due to a contestant's ineligibility, Katie Knudsen on ABC Millionaire, a losing contestant verbally abusing Meredith Vieira on syndie Millionaire

[Kevin Prather]

Avocado.

[That Don Guy]

Tier 3: The Our Little Genius controversy; why The Rich List was canceled by Fox after one episode

Tier 4: The 1987 College Bowl national championship tournament (which aired on The Disney Channel), where it turned out some of the teams were inadvertently given some of the questions and answers months earlier

[clemon79]

I'm just wondering how many posts into this thread we get until someone puts something on a tier that is in fact provably false.

[That Don Guy]

I'm just wondering how many posts into this thread we get until someone puts something on a tier that is in fact provably false.

Was it ever confirmed that the "fourth row of the Winners Circle pyramid, hidden behind plywood" on The $10,000 Pyramid did / didn't exist?

[Jeremy Nelson]

I'm sure many of you are familiar with the trend of creating an "iceberg" for a fandom, with an above-the-surface tier consisting of the most well-known stories and 4 undersea levels of increasingly obscure trivia.

If we were to create an iceberg for game shows, which bits of trivia would you include and where? Here are a few starters...feel free to add more. Keep in mind that I tried to approach this from the perspective of a semi-casual fan who may not have done some of the deep dives that we have:

TIER 1: The scandals, Michael Larson, Ken Jennings, James Holzhauer, the TPiR "perfect bid" controversy, the Charles Ingram UK Millionaire cheating scandal

TIER 2: Jim Peck's slip-and-fall on The Big Showdown, Mel Brooks' embarrassing encounter with Bill Cullen on Eye Guess, Kerry Ketchum/Patrick Quinn on Super Password, Mike Richards's J! hosting machinations, Professor Price

TIER 3: Bob Barker initially didn't want to host TPiR, Peter Tomarken's plane crash, George Peppard's P+ rant, Vanna White's miscarriage forcing an entire WoF puzzle to be edited, Thousand Dollar Bee, the "monsters" on early episodes of Supermarket Sweep

TIER 4: Monty Hall's claim that he created Password, TPiR throwing out an entire early episode due to a contestant's ineligibility, Katie Knudsen on ABC Millionaire, a losing contestant verbally abusing Meredith Vieira on syndie Millionaire

I would think Mike Richards would go up one if only because it became such a huge part of the news cycle.

Most of these, to me, belong in Tier 3 or 4. These are super obscure shows, like Thousand Dollar Bee, or facts that don't even make listicles, like claims about Monty Hall or Bob Barker. I didn't even know the Vanna miscarriage one.

I'd put the game show scandals in Tier 2. It's alluded to every now and then in the mainstream media, especially when discussing J! superchamps.

Was it ever confirmed that the "fourth row of the Winners Circle pyramid, hidden behind plywood" on The $10,000 Pyramid did / didn't exist?

I recall Dick Clark talking about it in one of the interviews for the Television Academy.

[Nick]

I didn't even know the Vanna miscarriage one.

Yeah, I'm thinking if people are going to make a show of obscure facts they know, then they should provide the source of said information.

Was it ever confirmed that the "fourth row of the Winners Circle pyramid, hidden behind plywood" on The $10,000 Pyramid did / didn't exist?

I recall Dick Clark talking about it in one of the interviews for the Television Academy.

I recall either Michael Brockman or Bob Boden also mentioning it in the recent Strong interview.  You look at that clip from the premiere week that's floating around, and it sure looks like they've covered up something there.

[Otm Shank]

I didn't even know the Vanna miscarriage one.

Yeah, I'm thinking if people are going to make a show of obscure facts they know, then they should provide the source of said information.

I remember that happening pre-internet days where there was a travel-themed package that aired after the first puzzle. Then at the end there was a still image of the contestant in a circle vignette in the corner with Pat saying something to the effect that "we played another puzzle" and who won for how much.

It would have made the newspapers (early '90s, I think), because I don't think it was hidden information for years that I only would have read online. The puzzle essentially was VANNA'S PREGNANT, which obviously could not air.

There is a source out there somewhere, because my teenage son who has a fascination with ephemerality mentioned it to me, although it was probably some YouTuber or listicle as his source.

[Matt Ottinger]

News of Vanna's miscarriage (and the unfortunately timed puzzle) was covered and reported by the Associated Press in September of 1992.

[aaron sica]

News of Vanna's miscarriage (and the unfortunately timed puzzle) was covered and reported by the Associated Press in September of 1992.

A quick search to newspapers.com confirms this, as well as the puzzle that OtmShank noted.

[Jsach]

This is the clip that aired in place of the round. The puzzle was "VANNA'S PREGNANT" and after it was solved Merv came out and handed Vanna some balloons. I had footage of this somewhere but I can't find it at this moment.

[Kevin Prather]

A clip of it was shown in one of the documentaries from the late 90s/early 00s, along with discussion of the miscarriage. I wanna say it was the Biography on Vanna White.

[BrandonFG]

I'm just wondering how many posts into this thread we get until someone puts something on a tier that is in fact provably false.

Was it ever confirmed that the "fourth row of the Winners Circle pyramid, hidden behind plywood" on The $10,000 Pyramid did / didn't exist?

Not sure, but this thread has a picture from the Cash on the Line pilot. As you can see it looks like a different board.

Looking at this pic, there is a gap between the bottom row and the plywood that presumably covers what could be the 4th row of boxes. Although I can't tell if there's a beveled edge under that first box, thus covering up what could be that 4th row.

[JasonA1]

Looking at this pic, there is a gap between the bottom row and the plywood that presumably covers what could be the 4th row of boxes. Although I can't tell if there's a beveled edge under that first box, thus covering up what could be that 4th row.

But by the point of the pic (the $20,000 era), they would be replicating what was done earlier, and leaving that gap/creating a line there was part of it. The better things to look at would be the earliest pictures of the ABC $10,000 version, or clips like this one from Wednesday of premiere week:



-Jason

[Kevin Prather]

The better things to look at would be the earliest pictures of the ABC $10,000 version, or clips like this one from Wednesday of premiere week:



-Jason

Here's a better quality view from that first week, the second win in this opening.