25K Pyramid Request

[mmb5]

Saw this on reddit, not sure if anyone can help.  Please let me know if you can:

I am looking for any help I can get to find a recording of the 10/5/1977 episode of $25,000 Pyramid, which featured Kate Jackson and Mike Farrell. We believe this was the episode my dear friend Dave Frankel appeared on as a young man. Dave went on to become an Emmy Award winning broadcaster and Weatherman in Philadelphia, and later a lawyer. He and I were law partners and dear friends. Dave is very sadly at the end of his life now with end stage dementia and is in hospice at home. I am trying to find this episode as part of a tribute his family is doing for him. It would really lift their spirits. Do you have any suggestions for how I might obtain a recording like this? Thank you so much!

[Eric Paddon]

That's not one of the Cullen Pyramids that circulates unfortunately.

[Matt Ottinger]

That would be from the Bill Cullen syndicated run.  I think most collectors only have those grainy episodes recorded off air (from a distance) from a Long Island station that showed them in reruns years after they had gone out of production.  There are at least 29 floating around out there and there might be more. I checked my stash and I don't have that one.

I was told years ago that Viacom had saved them all, but whether they are still around (and who anyone would talk to about them) after the various mergers I don't know.

[Eric Paddon]

29 Cullens (a couple are just partial) is the total that's out there for now.   A couple from the first season are archival copies but the rest are all off-air recordings, most from the 1985 WLIG reruns.    I think only about 3 episodes were recorded off-air during the course of the show's original run (The Lockhart-Shatner partial, the Duncan-Cavett one that was recorded in LA and the Vicki Lawrence-George Maharis one that surfaced on YT last year from WCBS).

[Adam Nedeff]

29 Cullens (a couple are just partial) is the total that's out there for now.   A couple from the first season are archival copies but the rest are all off-air recordings, most from the 1985 WLIG reruns.    I think only about 3 episodes were recorded off-air during the course of the show's original run (The Lockhart-Shatner partial, the Duncan-Cavett one that was recorded in LA and the Vicki Lawrence-George Maharis one that surfaced on YT last year from WCBS).

The Duncan/Cavett episode was actually originally recorded by Bill’s wife Ann. I got the original Umatic tape she used and was going to dub a first gen copy for myself, but the tape actually snapped and disintegrated in the machine.

[cmjb13]

I would normally ask my sister in law who works at Paramount to get me a name, but that’s not possible at this time. Maybe have the person do some searching on the paramount website and call some numbers or send emails to see if they can point this person in the right direction.

Maybe searching on LinkedIn would be beneficial

This may also be a good place to start

https://www.paramountpressexpress.com/paramount-plus/contacts/

[mmb5]

Update.  10/5/77 isn't a certain date.  It's just what IMDB says.  And the poster now isn't 100% confident on the celebrities.  Definite on Jackson, not so sure on Farrell.  4 of Kate's 6 appearances were with a M*A*S*H co-star.

I do know the contestant, Dave Frankel.  Would be a college student at the time, and eventually worked for a long time in Philadelphia television.

[Eric Paddon]

Of the 29 episodes currently in circulation, only one is with Jackson from the 76-77 season with Gary Burghoff.   According to my charts, the contestants in that episode are Jeffrey and Claudia so it's not that one.

The broadcast date is meaningless since the episodes were still being bicycled in those days to different markets and weren't shown on one specific airdate.   

[mmb5]

I know the specific date is meaningless, but it at least narrows down the season.  Thank you for the additional info on Radar's episode.