JANUARY 26, 1981
The $50,000 Pyramid, a fourth version of Bob Stewart's legendary Pyramid game show, had its syndicated debut, an almost-full 6 months after the demise of The $20,000 Pyramid on ABC. The debut week saw celebrities JoAnne Worley and Sal Viscuso as the first guests, even though they weren't the first episodes produced for the game; those guested Didi Conn and Brian Patrick-Clarke.
This was the Pyramid which introduced the "round-robin style tournament" format of the series, something which would also be employed for the $100,000 version in 1985. First visit to The Winner's Circle was now worth $5,000, and the second, $10,000. In addition, a new title called "The Player Of The Week" was bestowed upon a civilian member of a team for winning a bonus prize for setting a new record for the week in the main game (e.g. for identifying all seven words in record time). In addition, the contestant who ID'd clues in the fastest time at the end of the week earned the chance to compete in the $50,000 Tournament. The very first victor of the $50K prize was Colleen Messina (on April 3, 1981), with the aid of her celebrity partner Soupy Sales on the category "Things That Are Continued" with four seconds remaining!
The unfortunately short 5-month life of $50,000 Pyramid which resulted can be attributed to a great many factors, but the most obvious are the couple of elements which made it old-hat: the set, which was a reworking of the old $20,000 set, and the omnipresent theme, Ken Aldin's "Tuning Up," which had been the main theme of Pyramid for some 8 years and by this time sounded as if it were a scratchy record played on AM radio. The last new telecasts aired during the week of July 20, with celebrity guests Didi Conn and Nipsey Russell; repeats continued through August, and CBN (now ABC Family) picked up repeats in summer 1982.
Therefore, when it was decided to revive Pyramid for CBS-TV (the very network which carried the original $10,000 Pyramid for just one season and watched in horror as ABC took the game to greater heights) in September 1982, a few alterations were made: Spice up the musical theme! Revamp the set! Slash the dollar amount in half! Move the show to new digs!! But keep Dick Clark as host!!! This new format was workable, and so it was that The New $25,000 Pyramid went on to thrill new viewers as well as its old fans.
