This Week's TV Game Show Almanac

[AH3RD]

MARCH 26, 1973

 

The $10,000 Pyramid, a true classic and overall highly successful television game show created by Bob Stewart and hosted by Dick Clark, had its debut on CBS-TV at 10:30am (Eastern), on the same day of the premiere of the short-lived Jack Barry game Hollywood‘s Talking and the CBS Daytime Drama The Young And The Restless. Pyramid featured a very exciting word communication contest with two teams, each with a guest celebrity and a contestant. The first celebrity guests on the premiere were June Lockhart and Rob Reiner, and the show was recorded from The Ed Sullivan Theater (CBS-TV Studio 50, located at 1697 Broadway near West 53rd Street in Manhattan). On that first show, Rob Reiner was the first celebrity with his civilian partner to successfully climb to the top of the big Pyramid (his winning clue for "Things With A Hole" was "Doughnuts"). That fall, the show featured an opening montage of past Pyramid winners, including Rob Reiner’s winning clue for "Things With A Hole" from the premiere.

During two weeks in November 1973, The $10,000 Pyramid temporarily relocated to CBS Television City's Studio 31 at 7800 Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles, but soon returned back to its home base in New York City. As the new year of 1974 began, The $10,000 Pyramid found itself at odds as it aired opposite NBC-TV’s original Art Fleming-hosted Jeopardy!. Pyramid held its own, but CBS-TV nevertheless (and rather prematurely!) axed the show after a little over a year on the air; its final CBS telecast aired on Friday, March 29, 1974 with celebrity guests Carol Channing and Soupy Sales. However, no mention was made of the fact that this was the last show as, according to original Pyramid announcer Bob Clayton, there were three weeks' worth of episodes that were subsequently videotaped but never aired! (Goodson-Todman’s Now You See It replaced Pyramid on CBS the following Monday.) ABC-TV quickly picked up (or "snatched") the rights to bring back The $10,000 Pyramid to its daytime schedule, and, after a 6-week hiatus, the show returned to the airwaves on The Alphabet Network Monday, May 6, 1974 at 4:00pm (Eastern) with celebrity guests Anne Meara and Soupy Sales. That fall, a once-a-week nighttime $25,000 Pyramid version for syndication in the prime-access time slot emceed by Bill Cullen debuted in local stations, distributed by syndicator Viacom International; it debuted in New York City Thursday, September 12, 1974 on Big Apple CBS affilliate WCBS-TV at 7:30pm (Eastern), with celebrity guests Anne Meara and William Shatner.

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[AH3RD]

The December 23, 1974 telecast of The $10,000 Pyramid saw the game moved to a new weekday time slot at 2:00pm (Eastern) on ABC and a new feature added to the show called "Big 7", which if a team picked a category where a special designated card was hidden beneath somewhere on the mini pyramid game board during the main game, the civilian contestant would be eligible to win a bonus prize if he/she successfully navigated the category. (The "Big 7" crossed over to Bill Cullen's Pyramid version beginning in September 1975, with an amount of available cash varying from season to season.) On Monday, January 19, 1976, the ABC daytime show doubled the stakes and now became known as The $20,000 Pyramid; the first celebrity guests on the retitled game’s first week were Jo Anne Worley and Bill Cullen. Aside from winning Emmies left and right (in May 1976 as "Outstanding Game/Audience Participation Program" and "Outstanding Direction in A Game/Audience Participation Program"), the show had really interesting moments during its ABC run: several high-scoring main games on record via some amazing tie-breakers (the Friday, July 4, 1975 broadcast featuring Lucie Arnaz and Anson Williams with a score 45-44, and the Monday, June 12, 1978 episode with a score 43-42 featuring Sandy Duncan and Nipsey Russell) and the quickest win at the big Pyramid on record (Billy Crystal in November 1977 with an amazing 26 seconds, while a few others have done it in 30 seconds). It also yielded several infamous events: in the Friday, December 19, 1975 episode, where celebrity guest Clifton Davis became the first of two known people to accidentally rip the leather straps off the clue giver's chair in The Winner's Circle (the second was Sandy Duncan), and in a 1977 episode where a very frustrated William Shatner, having blown a shot at 20 grand for his civilian partner in The Winner’s Circle, grabbed up his chair and tossed it onto the floor!

A network primetime celebrity half hour special, The All-Star Junior Pyramid, which aired on Sunday, September 2, 1979 at 7:30pm (Eastern) and featuring Susan Richardson and Tony Danza playing the game for charity with young future stars from the new ABC shows debuting in the fall of that year (one of them on that particular episode was a youthful looking Rob Lowe), turned out to be its only network primetime appearance and led to the daytime version reverting to a full-time Junior Partner Pyramid format featuring civilian adult-children teams (with no celebrities at all!!!!!) between Monday, October 1 and Friday, November 9, 1979. A special Celebrity Junior Pyramid week followed suit with celebrity guests Susan Richardson, LeVar Burton and Michael McKean, but, fortunately, beginning with the Monday, November 19, 1979 telecast, the daytime show went back into its normal $20,000 Pyramid format.

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[AH3RD]

After 8 long years of doling out cash to lucky contestants by the truckload, the 1,808th and final edition of The $20,000 Pyramid aired on ABC Friday, June 27, 1980. The final celebrity guests were Lois Nettleton and Bill Cullen (erstwhile emcee of the by-now canceled 1974-79 syndicated nighttime $25,000 Pyramid). While Dick Clark said this was the final edition he made certain to viewers that they would definitely be seeing it again. (Predictably, Pyramid would leave a profound impact on the 1980s, on CBS Daytime and in syndication, with [New] $25,000, $50,000, and $100,000 formats!) The show ended on a humorous note as the final segment of this finale saw Dick displaying a phoney Winner's Circle round with such sidesplitting categories like "Used Car Dealers You Can Trust," "Hit Shows On NBC-TV", "Things That Kissinger Didn't Foul Up" "Famous Japanese Rabbis," "Oil Companies In Bankruptcy," and "Famous Italian TV Directors" (an inside joke and tribute to Pyramid director Mike Garguilo). Bill Cullen made TV history as the last celebrity on the original Pyramid series to aid his civilian contestant partner to win $10,000 on the show with clues on "Things That End" like "this show...the world one day".

As Dick Clark thanked everyone in the show's fading minutes, Bill Cullen commended him for being a great all-around host. Clark finally says to end the show, "...and we'll see you again soon!" and gathered the entire production crew on-stage, including a rare appearance by Pyramid creator/producer/executive producer Bob Stewart, as the long credits crawl superimposed over them. Effective the following Monday (June 30), The $20,000 Pyramid was replaced with Family Feud.


MARCH 26, 1982


Password Plus wrapped up a shaky yet nice 3 ½-year run, after 800 shows. It survived the loss of original host Allen Ludden, who, due to illness, had to retire from the show back in October 1980 and was superceded by Tom Kennedy. (Ludden took a 4-week sabbatical in April 1980 to have surgery done on him, and Bill Cullen hosted in his stead.) Kennedy guided the game through its most trying transitional period, even in the wake of Ludden’s passing in June 1981 (which was never mentioned on the show).

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[AH3RD]

The final celebrity panelists were Audrey Landers and Tom Poston. Tom Kennedy mentioned his late friend and colleague in the show’s fading moments:


"This is the last in our series of Password Plus. Even though our dear friend Allen Ludden is not with us at this particular moment, as you well know he hosted this show as only as he could do for something like 18 years. I was very proud to have      the last year and a half here at the helm. All I can say is you know the show is going to be back soon..."


Sure enough, 2 years later, in September 1984, Password was back on NBC…in the form of the newly revamped Super Password, emceed by Bert Convy (his next assignment following his stint on the 1982-84 revival of TattleTales on CBS and his last assignment for Mark Goodson [Bill Todman] Productions).

[SRIV94]

[quote name=\'AH3RD\' date=\'Mar 26 2005, 02:43 PM\']Sure enough, 2 years later, in September 1984, Password was back on NBC…in the form of the newly revamped Super Password, emceed by Bert Convy (his next assignment following his stint on the 1982-84 revival of TattleTales on CBS and his last assignment for Mark Goodson [Bill Todman] Productions).

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Which also left the air this week in time (March 24, 1989, to be exact), along with $otC.  Surprised you didn't mention that.  You mentioned everything else.  

Doug -- and the countdown to 1100 continues (but alas, not for very much longer)

[Jimmy Owen]

Wouldn't the pilot for ABC's "Match Game" be Bert's last assignment for Mark Goodson?

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Mar 26 2005, 10:31 PM\']Wouldn't the pilot for ABC's "Match Game" be Bert's last assignment for Mark Goodson?

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Yes it would, as it was taped 10/5/89.

[WorldClassRob]

"Things With A Hole"... interestingly, this clue was used again on the Bill Cullen "Pyramid" and Dick Clark, who was the celebrity guest, had some trouble with the clue... and after almost giving up, he shouted "A Doughnut", remembering the clue that Rob Reiner used on the very first telecast.  It worked, and his contestant partner won $25,000 as time was running out.

I wish Dick Clark the best, and hopes he has a full recovery from his recent illness.