Author Topic: Beat The Clock '79 (Read 5458 times)

Don Howard · « **on:** November 07, 2004, 10:37:55 PM »

I'm briefly breaking away from the Dallas reunion (ObGameShows re: Dallas--five members of the cast of Dallas, including ol' JR himself played a nighttime special edition of Family Feud in the late 1970s) to inquire about those weeks before Beat The Clock went the All-Star route in the Autumn of 1979.
Aside from the players being regular everyday civilians and not STARS!!!, were there any differences in game play? Different scoring? Different bonus set-up?
And if anyone knows, why did Beat The Clock and Whew! add celebs to the mix? It was a CBS mandate, I suspect.
Thank you in advance for your answers.

Steve McClellan · « **Reply #1 on:** November 08, 2004, 12:56:18 AM »

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' date=\'Nov 7 2004, 07:37 PM\']why did [...] Whew! add celebs to the mix?[/quote]
Sheer, unmitigated stupidity?

JasonA1 · « **Reply #2 on:** November 08, 2004, 06:56:17 AM »

The stunts & follow-ups were worth $500, instead of $250. Other than that, it was all the same IIRC.

-Jason

Ian Wallis · « **Reply #3 on:** November 08, 2004, 09:09:45 AM »

Quote

And if anyone knows, why did Beat The Clock and Whew! add celebs to the mix? It was a CBS mandate, I suspect.

The most likely answer is ratings. THe shows probably weren't doing as well as CBS had hoped, and they added celebrities to try to get the ratings up.

"Whew" didn't add them right away though. They tried having celebrities for a three-week period and then went back to regular contestants for a while before they made the celebrity format permanent.

chris319 · « **Reply #4 on:** November 08, 2004, 02:50:28 PM »

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Sheer, unmitigated stupidity?

Wrong: desperation.

ChuckNet · « **Reply #5 on:** November 08, 2004, 08:32:22 PM »

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"Whew" didn't add them right away though. They tried having celebrities for a three-week period and then went back to regular contestants for a while before they made the celebrity format permanent.

This may have solved a mystery: I've got 1 3/4 eps from a wk w/Trish Stewart and Jamie Farr, and unlike later in the celeb run, the game continued to straddle (i.e., no board w/pre-placed blocks for a team won a match via the first 2 games). Was this from the "trial period" you describe?

ChucK Donegan (The Curious "Chuckie Baby")

Steve Gavazzi · « **Reply #6 on:** November 08, 2004, 11:26:26 PM »

[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Nov 8 2004, 02:50 PM\']

Quote

Sheer, unmitigated stupidity?

Wrong: desperation.

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...which often results in sheer, unmitigated stupidity, so I'd say Steve wasn't really that far off. :-)

gsnstooge · « **Reply #7 on:** November 09, 2004, 08:12:02 AM »

Beat the Clock '79 was up against Card Sharks on NBC.

Ian Wallis · « **Reply #8 on:** November 09, 2004, 08:59:59 AM »

Quote

This may have solved a mystery: I've got 1 3/4 eps from a wk w/Trish Stewart and Jamie Farr, and unlike later in the celeb run, the game continued to straddle (i.e., no board w/pre-placed blocks for a team won a match via the first 2 games). Was this from the "trial period" you describe?

I have those episodes too, and in doing research from old TVGuide listings, I've determined those episodes originally aired April 8 and 9, 1980.

I think they only had that special board with pre-placed blocks when they knew they were going to be cancelled. As far as I know, I think the games continued to straddle even when celebrities were premanently added.

GSWitch · « **Reply #9 on:** November 09, 2004, 10:13:57 PM »

[quote name=\'JasonA1\' date=\'Nov 8 2004, 06:56 AM\']The stunts & follow-ups were worth $500, instead of $250. Other than that, it was all the same IIRC.

-Jason

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They also had returning champions + the famous CBS $25,000 winnings limit.

But they had to screw up Beat The Clock to make it like Tattletales!

Don Howard · « **Reply #10 on:** November 10, 2004, 08:19:54 AM »

[quote name=\'GSWitch\' date=\'Nov 9 2004, 10:13 PM\']They also had returning champions + the famous CBS $25,000 winnings limit.

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Did they use the same "super bonus" stunt--or whatever they called it--until someone won it or was it used for a finite amount of time?

76GMC · « **Reply #11 on:** November 10, 2004, 08:28:05 AM »

They retired the Bonus Stunt after it went five times unaccomplished.

76GMC Rick

ChuckNet · « **Reply #12 on:** November 10, 2004, 11:04:40 PM »

There were also 2 cosmetic changes after the switch to the all-star format:

- The "bleached-out" action shots seen in the opening, along w/the accompanying spiel, were dropped, replaced by shots of the audience, w/their respective celeb team seen running out via a circular super at center-screen ("Winning money today for the red/green section...")
- The opening theme was played live, as opposed to the "canned" version used during the civilian era

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")

Don Howard · « **Reply #13 on:** November 11, 2004, 12:23:43 AM »

Thanks for the replies. The information is much appreciated. So, as in the all-star mess, was there a Bonus Shuffle to determine the championship? And then the bonus stunt was played for 10 times the winning amount shuffled or did they carry over the progressive jackpot idea from the Bud Collyer Super Bonus era?

clemon79 · « **Reply #14 on:** November 11, 2004, 12:54:27 AM »

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' date=\'Nov 10 2004, 10:23 PM\']Thanks for the replies. The information is much appreciated. So, as in the all-star mess, was there a Bonus Shuffle to determine the championship? And then the bonus stunt was played for 10 times the winning amount shuffled or did they carry over the progressive jackpot idea from the Bud Collyer Super Bonus era?

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Yes and yes. The Bonus Shuffle was always part of BTC'79, and always determined the value of the Bonus Stunt.