Sale of the Century bonus rounds

[aaron sica]

[quote name=\'PYLdude\' date=\'Jan 9 2005, 11:04 PM\']The other one was Quicksilver. I can see why you would want to forget that one.

[snapback]70700[/snapback]

[/quote]

Yes, that was it. Thank you. I believe $OTC's last day was 6/24/94, because that USA originals hour premiered 6/27/94. Only reason I think I'm right with that is because I remember taking a glance at those two shows while on vacation...

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'aaron sica\' date=\'Jan 9 2005, 10:53 PM\'][quote name=\'Steve Gavazzi\' date=\'Jan 9 2005, 10:45 PM\'][quote name=\'fostergray82\' date=\'Jan 9 2005, 04:10 PM\']last aired reruns June 1994.

[snapback]70674[/snapback]

[/quote]

I know this is dumb, but it's bugging me...are you sure it didn't go off the air in July?

[snapback]70696[/snapback]

[/quote]

I think it went off the air in June, to coincide with that horrible game show original hour (of which I think "Free 4 All" was one of the shows, but can't for the life of me remember the other one).

[snapback]70699[/snapback]

[/quote]

TJW90 and TTD90 reruns and one non-game show were bumped as of 6/24/94 to make room for Quicksilver and Free 4 All and Caesar's Challenge reruns. $otC and one of the two airings of Scrabble were bumped five(I think) weeks later to make room for non-game show programming.

[Robert Hutchinson]

[quote name=\'PYLdude\' date=\'Jan 9 2005, 11:04 PM\']The other one was Quicksilver. I can see why you would want to forget that one.
[/quote]

At least Quicksilver had a good concept buried in there somewhere.

(Does anyone know where the NAME "Quicksilver" came from, though?)

[curtking]

[quote name=\'Esoteric Eric\' date=\'Jan 9 2005, 05:14 AM\']At the risk of accusations of Mo' Money Syndrome, I offer my GameTweaks (Pat. Forever Pending) that I believe would have improved the Shopping format (after all, they did get rid of it on the daytime $ale, didn't they?):
[/quote]
I don't think that the abandonment of the Shopping format meant that it didn't work. (After all, it worked for over 20 years in Australia.)  I'd love to know the backstory on why it was dropped.  I suspect it was simply a "let's change something" move to increase ratings.

I'll be the first to admit that my judgment is clouded because the Shopping format was far and away my favorite.  (It was on WOF, too, but that's another post.)

By the way, here's a clip from the Aussie SotC (four players!):

Aussie SotC Speed Round

You astute observers will note that the "winner" of the game is from the children's group The Wiggles.  And during the Speed Round, he obviously has "the wiggles".

Enjoy!

Curt

[Ian Wallis]

I believe $OTC's last day was 6/24/94, because that USA originals hour premiered 6/27/94. Only reason I think I'm right with that is because I remember taking a glance at those two shows while on vacation...

Yes, it was the end of June, and "Lucky Day USA" had expanded from 6 to 8 shows - the most they ever had in their afternoon game show block at one time.  In fact, some of John Davidson's interstituals still metioned that they had only 6 shows, and 6 chances to win.

Unfortunatly the 8-show block didn't last long, as by November it was down to 4.  But by then, GSN's debut was less than a month away.

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'curtking\' date=\'Jan 10 2005, 12:02 PM\'][quote name=\'Esoteric Eric\' date=\'Jan 9 2005, 05:14 AM\']At the risk of accusations of Mo' Money Syndrome, I offer my GameTweaks (Pat. Forever Pending) that I believe would have improved the Shopping format (after all, they did get rid of it on the daytime $ale, didn't they?):
[/quote]
I don't think that the abandonment of the Shopping format meant that it didn't work. (After all, it worked for over 20 years in Australia.)  I'd love to know the backstory on why it was dropped.  I suspect it was simply a "let's change something" move to increase ratings.

[snapback]70729[/snapback]

[/quote]

The thing that I had heard in one forum or another was that they were having problems with NBC's ten-match limit on contestants and that it was often taking more than ten days to get a champion all of the way up the scale--the network wanted something that had a guaranteed maximum days of appearance.

As for me, the first format.  After all, they didn't call the show "Pick a Number off a Board."  Like the old big-money quizzes, they offered a big reward for a big risk, as it offered a cliffhanger of whether you wanted to keep what you had or have to face two fresh opponents who could very likely beat you on the buzzer to go for the bigger prizes.

BTW, on the original original (Jack Kelly and Joe G.), there was no scale--you picked your poison when you made your first decision to come back of what prize or prizes you were playing for (lots of people played for a car *and* a trip)--every day, when you won, there were two to four new prizes with the ones you selected to attempt to distract you and make you quit.  (And on the UK version, there were no continuing champs--if you were two pounds away from the car at the end of the game, you had to take the lounge suite or one of the cheaper prizes instead.)

[TLEberle]

A question regarding the first network format:

Back before there was the cash jackpot, what was the price tag to win all the prizes?  

For that matter, the same goes for the network version after the change:  I know the Lot was $600 but know neither the price of the car or all the prizes.

If you know, please tell me.  Please?

[curtking]

[quote name=\'TLEberle\' date=\'Jan 11 2005, 01:22 PM\']A question regarding the first network format:

Back before there was the cash jackpot, what was the price tag to win all the prizes? 
[/quote]
I'm looking at my only SotC episode, which appears to be the first episode.  (A player named Janice wins with $49...someone will correct me if I'm wrong...)

Watch ($1,800) -- $48
Sofa/Loveseat ($3,500) -- $114
Mink Coat ($5,500) -- $181
Europe Trip ($13,316) -- $254
Catalina Sailboat ($21,686) -- $326
Mercedes-Benz ($41,466) -- $390

...and that's it.  There is no "next step" mentioned.

Jim does say "Just to round everything out to $95,000 we will throw in cash $6,682 as well."

So in the initial days on NBC, was it necessary to win an extra day to get everything?  Or did you automatically get all the prizes below where you stopped?

[Ian Wallis]

So in the initial days on NBC, was it necessary to win an extra day to get everything? Or did you automatically get all the prizes below where you stopped?

You got whatever prize you were entitled to when you stopped.  I don't remember very many people actually stopping, but I do remember one from the Friday episode of the first week.  The guy had won two games, got to a living room suite (or something like that) and decided not to risk it and took it.  So the beginning of the second week they once again had three new players.

Also, the amount of money needed to win each prize was dropped during the run - that may have had something to do with the 10-day thing.  I believe initially you had to earn over $600 to win everything, but that was reduced to around $400 several months into the run.  I recall Jim making a comment about it on the show in which they made the change.  I guess they figured nobody was coming close so they had to make it a little easier.

For that matter, I'm surprised there even was a 10-day limit.  While CBS and ABC had restrictions on how much you could win ($25,000 and $20,000 respectively), it appeared NBC didn't have any restrictions - so I just assumed you could win as long as it took to reach the top (or get defeated) - even if it was more than 10 days.

Was the 10-day limit ever mentioned on the air?

[Don Howard]

Something I remember from the first month or so of $otC in 1983, at the end of the week, instead of saying what the next prize up the line was for the new week, Jim would say that the next prize would "be comparable" to the next level prize which was available for the week which was ending. That was awkward phrasing, but I think you know what I mean.

[ChuckNet]

(Does anyone know where the NAME "Quicksilver" came from, though?)

It's another name for the element better known as mercury.

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'ChuckNet\' date=\'Jan 11 2005, 08:58 PM\']

(Does anyone know where the NAME "Quicksilver" came from, though?)

It's another name for the element better known as mercury.

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")

[snapback]70978[/snapback]

[/quote]
I'm hoping the OP meant "why the hell did they come up with that name for that particular show, since it wasn't terribly fast, or indeed sharing of any other mercurial qualities."

[Don Howard]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Jan 11 2005, 11:13 PM\'][quote name=\'ChuckNet\' date=\'Jan 11 2005, 08:58 PM\']

(Does anyone know where the NAME "Quicksilver" came from, though?)

It's another name for the element better known as mercury.

[snapback]70978[/snapback]

[/quote]
I'm hoping the OP meant "why the hell did they come up with that name for that particular show, since it wasn't terribly fast, or indeed sharing of any other mercurial qualities."

[snapback]70982[/snapback]

[/quote]
Quicksilver was one of The Avengers. When I saw Quicksilver, I wanted revenge on USA for yanking $ale of the Century so that garbage could be presented. I grant you, garbage is in the eye of the beholder and when I watched Quicksilver, I beheld garbage.

[TheInquisitiveOne]

[quote name=\'curtking\' date=\'Jan 11 2005, 01:53 PM\'][quote name=\'TLEberle\' date=\'Jan 11 2005, 01:22 PM\']A question regarding the first network format:

Back before there was the cash jackpot, what was the price tag to win all the prizes? 
[/quote]
I'm looking at my only SotC episode, which appears to be the first episode.  (A player named Janice wins with $49...someone will correct me if I'm wrong...)

Watch ($1,800) -- $48
Sofa/Loveseat ($3,500) -- $114
Mink Coat ($5,500) -- $181
Europe Trip ($13,316) -- $254
Catalina Sailboat ($21,686) -- $326
Mercedes-Benz ($41,466) -- $390

...and that's it.  There is no "next step" mentioned.

Jim does say "Just to round everything out to $95,000 we will throw in cash $6,682 as well."

So in the initial days on NBC, was it necessary to win an extra day to get everything?  Or did you automatically get all the prizes below where you stopped?

[snapback]70916[/snapback]

[/quote]

I read on one website (when found, I'll give you the link) that $500 was the tag for every prize on the stage plus the cash added to total exactly $95,000. Since two people did manage to win the $95,000 lot (one contestant was named Mort, and I saw the clip in the Aussie 15th Anniversary Special; the other was mentioned by Mr. Van Ginkel in a thread a while back), so winning it all was very possible.

Back to topic: I have to say the Shopping Round was the best, since it was the very essence of the show. The syndicated version was much better, since winning the lot required that you had to risk the prizes in order to add the cash jackpot, not risk the cash in order to add the prizes, since no contestant on the NBC version was crazy enough to do that (especially David Rogers).

The Inquisitive One

[Robert Hutchinson]

Thank you, Chris, that was indeed it--I did know the definition of "quicksilver" (I read a 900-page novel largely about it a few months back, so I should hope I would know).

Perhaps quicksilver was what the producers had been drinking.