Barry Enright discussion

[TLEberle]

Not much else. Ratings bad so let's keep the set pieces we have and also we can't change the title so it basically became a non-isolation booth version of 21.

The end game became a bit of an oddity and I remember watching the solo format first and didn't quite get why it existed, but it's not that different from any other show that tweaked something as a response to the sweeps book.

[trainman]

Oh, this is discussion about Barry and Enright? I opened this thread hoping for chatter about the Los Angeles Angels' pitching coach.

[TimK2003]

The B&E shows followed a formula, much like most of the GSN shows. Joker put B&E back on the map and made them a fortune. But by the 80s, the questions were easier than those on 5th Grader. "This 60s group led by Frankie Valli had hits such as "Sherry" and "Big Girls Don't Cry." You know them as the Four what?' Yeah, what a brain buster.

I thought TTD was their best show, though I was fond of their version of Break the Bank. I recall reading that when Joker and Dough were in production, the brainier people were put on Dough, and the less brainier went on Joker. Sounds right to me. Bullseye was okay. I liked it better without the celebs and I thought Jim Lange was a capable host who got stuck with turkeys to host. His hosting skills were better than Jack Barry, IMO.

Agreed that Tic Tac Dough was the most challenging show of their Big 3.  Joker's Wild was the first to have "special categories" that played a bit different than most others (Fast Forward _______ & the Mystery category were the two most used) -- but were only used on occasion.

SIDE QUESTION:  How often did the Mystery/Fast Forward categories appear on the show?

After a while, TTD started to play with Special categories that quickly morphed into the Red Box categories.  Originally they appeared occasionally, like TJW's special categories, but it didn't take long for the red box category to appear in darn near every game AND having up to 3 red box categories in a single game.   

There was nothing wrong with having just the center-box-double-question novelty for each game. 

[Mr. Matté]

Oh, this is discussion about Barry and Enright? I opened this thread hoping for chatter about the Los Angeles Angels' pitching coach.

The Devil's in the details

[MikeK]

Oh, this is discussion about Barry and Enright? I opened this thread hoping for chatter about the Los Angeles Angels' pitching coach.

Note to self:  When the Angels are in-town, go to their hotel and ask the obvious question.  Plus get an autograph or two.

[Dbacksfan12]

Oh, this is discussion about Barry and Enright? I opened this thread hoping for chatter about the Los Angeles Angels' pitching coach.

Coincidentally, one of Barry's brothers is named Dan(ny).

[That Don Guy]

TTD sometimes didn’t show the car as well.

I remember TJW - I want to say the non-CBS episodes - not mentioning any particular make or model of car either.

[Neumms]

I still think Break the Bank could have been good without the stars, how they scrapped them after the Joker pilot. There were more different ways a game could play out.

Make them true-false questions, which keeps play-along value for the slow-witted yet can produce wrong answers. Add a bonus game along the lines of the Gambit Board with cool stuff plus some danger boxes.

For funsies, I’d change the blanks into robbers, then in the end game make the villain boxes cops. The opening spiel could be, “Welcome to our game of hide and seek, skill and strategy, and cops and robbers…it’s the new Break the Bank!” (Yeah, I’ve done way too much thinking about this.)

[That Don Guy]

Speaking of Barry-Enright, somebody on Facebook insists that the CBS version of TJW was "just" a Jack Barry Production, and that Enright didn't get involved until the syndicated version. Is that correct?

[JasonA1]

Yes and no -- right up through the CBS finale, the last bit of the credits said A JACK BARRY PRODUCTION. But starting in January '75, Dan was first up in the credits as the Executive Producer.

-Jason

[TLEberle]

I still think Break the Bank could have been good without the stars, how they scrapped them after the Joker pilot. There were more different ways a game could play out.

Make them true-false questions, which keeps play-along value for the slow-witted yet can produce wrong answers. Add a bonus game along the lines of the Gambit Board with cool stuff plus some danger boxes.

For funsies, I’d change the blanks into robbers, then in the end game make the villain boxes cops. The opening spiel could be, “Welcome to our game of hide and seek, skill and strategy, and cops and robbers…it’s the new Break the Bank!” (Yeah, I’ve done way too much thinking about this.)

Years and years ago I was hanging out at the Palace chat/game show server and in a game of BTB. Lots of stuff revealed and I had a choice of a few places to go in order to find what I needed. I said aloud "Huh. Blanks don't touch and one is exposed so I know that's safe," and there was a gasp or murmur from the crowd. I thought that the game of hide and seek -come- Minesweeper is a better game than tic tac toe, and I'd even go further than true or false for material. Hollywood Game Night's either/or questions in Popped Quiz or the Dis or Dat material from You Don't Know Jack could be delivered just as well as the set up and punchline.

[steveleb]

Pure and simple, ratings and money are the biggest reasons why all of these things happened, good and bad.

Jokers did respectably enough with cbs reruns to warrant first-run production.  They effectively had an in-house distributor in Dick Colbert, who Jack met at Four Star.  And as noted your effective price for a hit goes down if youre willing to make a package deal.  It’s technically illegal but has been common practice for decades.  Read the testimony of a man named Dale Woods that recently came to light in the Sony-CBS dispute.  It’s still happening.

Every one of these shows was at one point offered in some package where Joker and/or Tic was the cornerstone.  And the easiest concept for a station to grasp was a show that followed the sane formula.   No, not every deal actually worked out that way.   But that was always the goal.

And yes, if a manufacturer wasn’t paying for the daily exposure of a fee plug, they didn’t get Jay or Charlie’s dulcid description.  IIRC when cars were win they were described; I believe it was a local LA dealer named Schoemlaw (?) Chevrolet that supplied the cars and paid only when cars were won.

I know I visited that dealership once or twice when car shopping.  I ran into at least two salesmen that sounded and looked like Jack.

[TLEberle]

Schonlaw Chevy but good memory—it’s fun to hear how Jack and Dan were able to make the most of their redemption.

Even if they were treading on the ideas of others there were a few cases where the copycat version is an improvement, at least to me.