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Author Topic: Accidentally aired pilots  (Read 1397 times)

Ian Wallis

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Accidentally aired pilots
« on: July 01, 2024, 08:56:47 PM »
We all know the story of the 1990 pilot of To Tell the Truth airing to the east coast.  There's also the Caesar's Challenge pilot which may or may not have aired.  I've got another one:  All-Star Secrets.

My local Canadian TVGuides have been in boxes in my parents' basement for over 40 years.  Finally, for the first time in 40 years I've had the time to start going thru some of them again.  I had a habit for a while of writing little notes beside the actual listings themselves if something was off.

In looking at the All-Star Secrets listing for Jan 29, 1979, I wrote:  Robert Reed, Dody Goodman, Arthur Godfrey, Lee Meriwether and Charles Nelson Reilly.  I also wrote a quick note about a secret for Charles involving bells.  In looking at online episode guides, this listing is from the pilot. 

When I originally wrote that I had no access to pilot information, so I can only conclude that NBC must have aired one of the pilots that day - at least to the East Coast.

Thought it might be of interest.
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Jimmy Owen

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Re: Accidentally aired pilots
« Reply #1 on: July 02, 2024, 12:25:46 AM »
Several Lange NTT pilots aired, as I recall, but it might have just been Sandy Frank trying not to waste product.
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SamJ93

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Re: Accidentally aired pilots
« Reply #2 on: July 02, 2024, 02:06:41 AM »
The Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego? pilot aired sometime during its first season, but it wasn't accidental--I remember a disclaimer running beforehand saying something to the effect of "today's episode of Carmen is a little different!"
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Blanquepage

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Re: Accidentally aired pilots
« Reply #3 on: July 02, 2024, 09:30:51 AM »
After the disastrous live premiere of Throut & Neck, GSN aired the pilot during the 2nd airing. A deliberate airing I'm sure, but the consequence of a bunch of technical accidents that didn't need to be re-aired  ;D

Steve_Bier

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Re: Accidentally aired pilots
« Reply #4 on: July 02, 2024, 10:14:17 AM »
I believe the pilot of the Mike Richards-hosted Pyramid also aired. It was the only episode to use the 1982 theme song. IIRC, Yvette Nicole Brown was one of the celebrities.

SuperSweeper

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Re: Accidentally aired pilots
« Reply #5 on: July 02, 2024, 02:44:56 PM »
I believe the pilot of the Mike Richards-hosted Pyramid also aired. It was the only episode to use the 1982 theme song. IIRC, Yvette Nicole Brown was one of the celebrities.

Yes, pretty sure it was one of the last (if not THE last) new episodes aired. I believe they aired it in place of one of the disastrous Turturro episodes that they canned.

CeleTheRef

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Re: Accidentally aired pilots
« Reply #6 on: July 02, 2024, 03:42:29 PM »
 10 years ago in Italy, a network aired a gameshow pilot... at 4:55 AM  It was neither advertised nor listed on any guide.
The series (with different gameplay) aired a few months later and was shelved after 20 episodes.  :-\

steveleb

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Re: Accidentally aired pilots
« Reply #7 on: July 03, 2024, 03:51:01 AM »
Super Sweeper is 110 per cent correct.  We actually aired the third worst of the Turturro-verse.  If you saw it, thank you and my sincere apologies.

mmb5

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Re: Accidentally aired pilots
« Reply #8 on: July 03, 2024, 06:47:02 PM »
Cram aired their pilot in the middle of the run.  It had a going-and-coming-back-from commercial that didn't exist in the regular series.
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JasonA1

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Re: Accidentally aired pilots
« Reply #9 on: July 03, 2024, 07:38:17 PM »
Cram aired their pilot in the middle of the run.  It had a going-and-coming-back-from commercial that didn't exist in the regular series.

At the risk of sounding pedantic, did this episode have the same set as the series? Because the Cram pilot had an entirely different look, and gameplay elements that didn't make it to air -- namely, no "Rant" to kick off the game.

I do remember seeing at least one episode on GSN that could have been from the "we taped a couple, then retooled" pile, in which Graham himself did the buzzing during "The Rant," among other changes. Perhaps that's what this was?

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gameshowfan2001

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Re: Accidentally aired pilots
« Reply #10 on: July 04, 2024, 12:53:15 AM »
The first taped Cram wasn't meant to air?

JasonA1

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Re: Accidentally aired pilots
« Reply #11 on: July 04, 2024, 01:51:05 AM »
GSN, and probably some other places I can't think of now, had a habit of doing that. They'd tape a couple episodes, figure some things out, and change course for the remainder of the run, burying the "test" results late in the airing season. To wit, Idiotest had a different bonus round with 5 questions in 60 seconds, rather than one test both players tackled. The first two taped episodes of Whammy! had the players start on 0, rather than with $1,000.

And I managed to find my old website that detailed some of the other Cram rules. "The Rant" had 10 ideas to match vs. 8 words or phrases, and teams started with 0 points. In one round 2 variant, the player answering Graham's questions had to stand on a question mark to do so. That resulted in a lot of dead air vs. the later way of doing things where they alternated no matter where they were standing. And they had another version where the 10-points-per-question was only scored if the team managed to do 2 things right in the stunt, with a bonus of doubling all the question points if they played the stunt perfectly.

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Ian Wallis

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Re: Accidentally aired pilots
« Reply #12 on: July 04, 2024, 12:44:02 PM »
Since purposely aired pilots have been brought up, I'll throw in another one:  Guinness Game.  It aired in syndication during spring 1979.  I don't think it was ever repeated as part of the series as I don't recall seeing it again, and I watched it every week.

Oddly, the station that aired the pilot in my area never picked up the series.  I had to see it on a more distant station instead, which never aired the pilot!
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MikeK

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Re: Accidentally aired pilots
« Reply #13 on: July 04, 2024, 01:45:19 PM »
What may have been a pilot for Win Ben Stein's Money aired during the first season.  There were small changes compared to what made it to series, the biggest difference being a tie with Ben in the Best of Ten was worth $5000 instead of an additional $1000.

Matt Ottinger

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Re: Accidentally aired pilots
« Reply #14 on: July 04, 2024, 02:55:26 PM »
What may have been a pilot for Win Ben Stein's Money aired during the first season.  There were small changes compared to what made it to series, the biggest difference being a tie with Ben in the Best of Ten was worth $5000 instead of an additional $1000.

Pardon the detour, and also pardon a trip into the "not your money" department, but the $1000 never made sense to me.  You tie, you get half.
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