Author Topic: This Week's Classic Game Show Television Milestone (Read 5740 times)

AH3RD · « **on:** August 30, 2004, 01:34:51 PM »

SEPTEMBER 4, 1972

Ahhhhhh, yes...truly indeed a red-letter date in the unending, ever-increasing realm of Game Show History.

Following a brief 3-month run of The Amateur's Guide To Love (Mar. - June 1972), a clever mixture of game show and Candid Camera emceed by Gene Rayburn (pre-Match Game 73!), The CBS Television Network sprang back into the foray of game shows full-time by wiping out a 90-minute block of sitcom repeats from its morning schedule in favor of the debuts of 3 exciting new game shows in their place: Jack Barry's The Joker's Wild, Goodson-Todman's The New Price Is Right (a remake of the 1956-65 NBC/ABC original hosted by Bill Cullen), and Heatter-Quigley's Gambit. This Labor Day marked The Eye Network's splendid return to the daytime network game show race for the first time since the demise of the original CBS Daytime edition of To Tell The Truth in September 1968.

"From Television City in Hollywood, CBS presents America's most exciting new show...The Joker's Wild!"

On the premiere telecast of The Joker's Wild (which, aside from brief stints on Generation Gap and Juvenile Jury in 1969 and The Reel Game in 1971, also marked the end of Jack Barry's exile from TV in the wake of The Quiz Show Scandals of the late 1950s), the first 2 contestants were Susan Raphael and Ed Hackey. The first 5 categories used in the very first main round were: "Cooking," "Roaring 20s," "Julius Caesar," "Comic Strips," and "Football." The first person to spin the wheels was Susan (good manners dictate that women go first!), and the first items to spin on the Joker wheels were a pair on "Football" and a Joker--a triple! Sue vied to go off the board and substitute for "Cooking", and with that category she succeeded in correctly answering the first question ever given on The Joker's Wild: "What is the main ingredient in meringue?" Her answer: "Egg whites!", which earned her $50. Ed Hackey made history on The Joker's Wild by being crowned as its first ever champion. Added to his $550, Hackey won a 23-inch color TV set, a $25 gift certificate from Pier 1 Imports, and a Wal-Vac central cleaning system. (The "Money And Devils" round didn't yet exist, preceded by 2 different bonus games: a prize-matching slot machine [in 2 versions], and a Jokers And Devils round.)

Contd...

AH3RD · « **Reply #1 on:** August 30, 2004, 01:36:01 PM »

The first episode of The New Price Is Right, which came on directly after, saw Sandy Florinar, Paul Levine, Connie Dunnall and Myra Carter, beckoned by Johnny Olsen to "stand up!" and "come on down!" as its first four contestants. Host Bob Barker greeted this audience with the following opening speech:

"Oh my! Thank you! Thank you so much. Welcome to The New Price Is Right. And let me assure you fans of the old Price Is Right, that this is your favorite game still based on the pricing of merchandise with wonderful awards for smart shoppers. We call it The New Price Is Right, because we have some exciting new games that you will enjoy right there at home with our studio audience, and we're going to get that first game going right now. Here's the first item up for bids on The New Price Is Right!"

And that very first Item Up For Bids on this new TPIR was a $592 fur coat!!! Connie Dunnall won it and the chance to play the very first pricing game on The New Price Is Right: Any Number, for a $2,746 Chevrolet Vega, which she won, too. Other pricing games to show up on the NPIR debut were "Which Is The Right Price?", where a player selected one price from two possibilities (also won, courtesy of Paul Levine), and "Higher Or Lower," where an item was shown with a price and the player had to decide whether the real price was higher or lower. Paul and Connie faced off in the very first Showcase at the end of the first TNPIR (The Showcase Showdown wouldn't exist for another 3 years), which offered, for the first one, a week's vacation in Acapulco, an Kimball organ, a gas range, and floor tiles; and a second Showcase consisting of roller skates, a stationary bycycle, and a Mazda 808 sedan. The actual retail price of Connie's showcase was $2,307, she bid $1,750; while Paul's showcase was worth $2,500, he bid $2,504 missing the ARP by $4!!! (The Double Showcase rule didn't exist yet either, so Paul just made history by winning the first Showcase ever offered on TNPIR.)

And--well, nothing is known about the debut of Heatter-Quigley's Gambit on CBS, as many of the tapes containing its episodes (save for a precious few!) were erased for reuse...

All three game shows had different degrees of success. The Joker's Wild concluded its 3-year, 686-episode run on June 13, 1975 (superceded the following Monday by Nicholson-Muir's Spin-Off, hosted by Jim Lange), only to find new life in repeats and a return to TV in firstrun syndication in 1977 for a 9-year run. Gambit's 910th and last episode aired on CBS December 10, 1976, after 4 years (Goodson-Todman’s Double Dare replaced it the following Monday), and was brought back by NBC for another year in 1980 under a new moniker, Las Vegas Gambit. (Its host, Wink Martindale, would gain greater fame in 1978 on Barry-Enright's The New Tic Tac Dough.) Of these 3 shows, The Price Is Right (the "New" having been removed from its title in June 1973) has thrived to this very day, with the current CBS Daytime edition still hosted by the unconquerable Bob Barker (Tom Kennedy, Doug Davidson and the late Dennis James having emceed various other editions)!

aaron sica · « **Reply #2 on:** August 30, 2004, 02:00:57 PM »

[quote name=\'AH3RD\' date=\'Aug 30 2004, 01:34 PM\'] Following a brief 9-month run of The Amateur's Guide To Love (Jan. - Sept. 1972) [/quote]
Amateur's Guide actually ran from March-June of '72.

Jimmy Owen · « **Reply #3 on:** August 30, 2004, 02:41:45 PM »

You could have said that except for TorC and "The Family Game," TPIR was Bob Barker's first game show.

Steve Gavazzi · « **Reply #4 on:** August 30, 2004, 04:06:58 PM »

[quote name=\'AH3RD\' date=\'Aug 30 2004, 01:36 PM\'] "Which Is The Right Price?"

"Higher Or Lower," [/quote]
Better known, of course, as "Double Prices" and "Bonus Game"...and for what it's worth, we learned recently that the games did all have their names in 1972, regardless of whether or not they were on the props.

GSNFAN3000 · « **Reply #5 on:** August 30, 2004, 04:47:29 PM »

[quote name=\'AH3RD\' date=\'Aug 30 2004, 12:36 PM\'] Other pricing games to show up on the NPIR debut were "Which Is The Right Price?", where a player selected one price from two possibilities (also won, courtesy of Paul Levine), and "Higher Or Lower," where an item was shown with a price and the player had to decide whether the real price was higher or lower. [/quote]
I think he flipped the PG's around.

"Which Is The Right Price?" (a.k.a Double Prices) was not won by Paul.
He played and won "Higher Or Lower," better known as "Bonus Game"

Kevin Prather · « **Reply #6 on:** August 30, 2004, 09:09:17 PM »

[quote name=\'AH3RD\' date=\'Aug 30 2004, 10:36 AM\'] while Paul's showcase was worth $2,500, he bid $2,504 missing the ARP by $4!!! [/quote]
This is backwards. He bid $2,500 on a $2,504 showcase, not the other way around.

Ian Wallis · « **Reply #7 on:** August 31, 2004, 09:02:03 AM »

Quote

The CBS Television Network sprang back into the foray of game shows full-time by wiping out a 90-minute block of sitcom repeats from its morning schedule

According to TVGuide at the time, CBS had really lost its edge in daytime programming and was looking at overhauling their schedule. The sitcom repeats just weren't cutting it anymore. The first episodes of "Gambit" and "Price is Right" were actually taped in May 1972 (don't know about "Joker"), so it was probably just a case of figuring out when to put them on the schedule.

What I've found interesting is that sometimes the Showcases aren't worth as much as other prizes offered in the show - case in point: the $2746 Chevy as opposed to the $2504 showcase on the first show.

Jimmy Owen · « **Reply #8 on:** August 31, 2004, 09:13:58 AM »

One of the catalysts for bringing on the games had to be that "The Lucy Show" and "Beverly Hillbillies" were promised to local stations that fall. "My Three Sons" and "Family Affair" didn't get to local stations until 1976, as I recall, and FA did move to 4pm on CBS until January 73 when it was replaced by "The Vin Scully Show." CBS was all new starting then and until "All in the Family" joined the daytime lineup in the fall of 75.

Ian Wallis · « **Reply #9 on:** August 31, 2004, 09:27:27 AM »

Quote

One of the catalysts for bringing on the games had to be that "The Lucy Show" and "Beverly Hillbillies" were promised to local stations that fall. "My Three Sons" and "Family Affair" didn't get to local stations until 1976, as I recall,

Back in those days, networks could hold onto shows for as long as they wanted - even after the primetime runs had ended. Shows like "Bewitched", "Brady Bunch", and the shows you mentioned didn't hit syndication for at least a year after their primetime runs ended. "Family Affair" actually hit syndication in fall 1975.

In the late '70s that all changed. "MASH" and "Happy Days" hit syndication in the fall of 1979 while their network runs were still going on. Those were the first two to have that distinction. It was around that time that producers started to know the real value of syndication.

Speaking of "MASH", just about the whole cast played "Pyramid" over the years. "Pyramid" debuted in March 1973, just six months after the Labor Day trifecta.

aaron sica · « **Reply #10 on:** August 31, 2004, 10:58:38 AM »

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Aug 31 2004, 09:27 AM\'] In the late '70s that all changed. "MASH" and "Happy Days" hit syndication in the fall of 1979 while their network runs were still going on. Those were the first two to have that distinction. It was around that time that producers started to know the real value of syndication.
[/quote]
Not to mention that some of the primetime shows, once they hit reruns, underwent a title change as not to confuse the reruns with the first-run shows already airing. "Happy Days" became "Happy Days Again"; two years later, when its spinoff hit syndication, "Laverne and Shirley" became "Laverne and Shirley and Company", and another show which had a brief daytime rerun job, "CHiPs" became "CHiPs Patrol"..

Don Howard · « **Reply #11 on:** August 31, 2004, 12:56:33 PM »

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Aug 31 2004, 08:13 AM\'] CBS was all new starting then and until "All in the Family" joined the daytime lineup in the fall of 75. [/quote]
For which Give-N-Take was the sacrificial lamb. Makes me vomit.

DrBear · « **Reply #12 on:** August 31, 2004, 01:26:12 PM »

[quote name=\'aaron sica\' date=\'Aug 31 2004, 08:58 AM\'] Not to mention that some of the primetime shows, once they hit reruns, underwent a title change ... "Happy Days" became "Happy Days Again"; two years later, when its spinoff hit syndication, "Laverne and Shirley" became "Laverne and Shirley and Company", and another show which had a brief daytime rerun job, "CHiPs" became "CHiPs Patrol".. [/quote]
Thus keeping up an old tradition that seems to have died. Reruns ran as the following:
Gunsmoke - "Marshall Dillon"
Dragnet - "Badge 714"
The Andy Griffith Show - "Andy of Mayberry"
I Married Joan - "My Life with a Cross-Dressing Guy."

And so on.

I think the shows mentioned were about the last ones as syndicators realized that yes, we knew the reruns were the same as the originals and if they were good shows and enjoyable to watch again, we didn't give a hoot. One wonders, tho what current shows would be:
Barney Miller: "The 12th Precinct."
The X Files: "File X."
Friends: "Those Friends People."
Frazier: "Dr. Frazier, Radio Shrink."
Mary Tyler Moore: "Rhoda and Phyllis: The Early Years."
Drew Carey: "Friends in Cleveland with Beer."
Jeopardy!: "Jeopardy WITHOUT Ken Jennings!"

NickintheATL · « **Reply #13 on:** August 31, 2004, 04:02:09 PM »

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Aug 31 2004, 09:02 AM\']
According to TVGuide at the time, CBS had really lost its edge in daytime programming and was looking at overhauling their schedule. The sitcom repeats just weren't cutting it anymore. The first episodes of "Gambit" and "Price is Right" were actually taped in May 1972 (don't know about "Joker"), so it was probably just a case of figuring out when to put them on the schedule.
[/quote]

Actually, that's not quite correct on Price, here is a image, courtesty of golden-road.net of the slate for the first show... taped 8/19/72.

Slate for Show #1

Ian Wallis · « **Reply #14 on:** September 01, 2004, 08:43:31 AM »

Quote

Actually, that's not quite correct on Price, here is a image, courtesty of golden-road.net of the slate for the first show... taped 8/19/72.

I'll go back and check my tape, but I'm positive that the slate for the very first show - one that GSN has never aired and is exclusively in the trade curcuit - said the tape date was May 1972. This was the show where the first showcase win was missed by only $4.

Can anyone confirm or deny?