Forgotten Gems of Yesteryear

[Ian Wallis]

I was dubbing an episode of "Temptation" for a trade recently - one that I hadn't watched in a long time - and must admit I really like this game.  For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the show, it was hosted by Art James and was on ABC  in 1967.  It featured three contestants who were shown three prizes each round.  They then had to secretly pick which prize they wanted.  They got the prize if they were the ONLY one who picked it.  In later rounds, Art would sometimes tell two contestants that they picked the same prize and that one of them has to change.  They played about five rounds per show and the winner was the one who accumulated the most each day and returned to play again.

Maybe there wasn't much "game" there, but I found it to be a very interesting half hour.  In the episode I was watching, there was a big car win at the end and it was somewhat suspensful.

Another note:  I'm pretty sure this was just about the earliest show to use the "eggcrate" readouts.

Question:  do you think a show like this could work today?  I think something like this could have some success.

[rebelwrest]

After downloading the clip off of Jamie's Page o' Clips (hope to see more sometime), I was really thinking the same question.  It has a lot of suspense to it and I think no matter what, the black and white episodes and Art James gave a better quality to it than color episodes could give to the game.  As for an host, I would pick Anderson Cooper for his great job on the Mole and this could be along the same line.  I would like to play a bonus game with this and here is what comes to mind.

The Seven Boxes
1 Box contains $50,000 and the other 6 contain an amount between $1 and $25,000

You can remove one box at a time but in order to do it you have a make a minimum amount of money in order to keep it.
For example

Remove 1  $2,700
Remove 2  $4,650
Remove 3  $8,200
Remove 4  $15,000
Remove 5  $50,000

That means if you remove 4 boxes and pick a box containing $14,900 you would lose that money.
Removing 5 would leave you with 2 boxes so it is definitely an all or nothing.
The removing decision would be made one at a time, and the producers could really play with the amounts they put in the boxes.

Hope you like it the idea.  I have been trying to get to the trading circuit but the only things I have are all 5 game show moments gone bananas and the entire 6 hr Johnny Carson Marathon on GSN.  This isnt begging, but a consideration to help me.

[Strikerz04]

Ehhhh, perhaps you should rename it so none of us can confuse that with another $ale incarnation.

I find the game, as it seems (and plus the clip from Jamie's site) extremely interesting.

[Neumms]

[quote name=\'rebelwrest\' date=\'Jul 19 2005, 02:17 PM\']You can remove one box at a time but in order to do it you have a make a minimum amount of money in order to keep it.

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[/quote]

Huh?

The original looked interesting to me, too. If they tried it today, the contestants might start hitting each other, a la Jerry Springer. And if that's what it takes to get a game show on the air, well. . .

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'rebelwrest\' date=\'Jul 19 2005, 12:17 PM\']The Seven Boxes
1 Box contains $50,000 and the other 6 contain an amount between $1 and $25,000
[/quote]
Hey, I have an idea. Instead of seven boxes, we'll have 26. And after opening some, we'll offer the contestant a "Deal" where they can quit and take a lesser prize, or they can say "No Deal" and the game continues.

Some network would definitely pick that up. Maybe not the first time, but it would air somewhere.

(You may send the residual checks directly to me in Seattle.

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Jul 19 2005, 01:45 PM\']I was dubbing an episode of "Temptation" for a trade recently - one that I hadn't watched in a long time - and must admit I really like this game.  For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the show, it was hosted by Art James and was on ABC  in 1967.  It featured three contestants who were shown three prizes each round.  They then had to secretly pick which prize they wanted.  They got the prize if they were the ONLY one who picked it. 

[snapback]91824[/snapback]

[/quote]

Heatter reused this idea as one of the game show segments on Fantasy. It was called Pick-a-Gift, in which one of four prizes were picked by four contestants. Another variation seen on Fantasy was called Write-a-Check, where each player would write a check for an amount between $100-$900, in $100 increments. The player won the dollar amount they wrote their check for if no one else wrote their check for that amount.

[Jimmy Owen]

This was my favorite Art James show, maybe because it was so different from the others he did, very game show noir.  In my area, it was picked up by the CBS affil via B&W kinescope and they would air it at 4:30 in the afternoon, so school didn't interfere with my viewing.

[Don Howard]

[quote name=\'zachhoran\' date=\'Jul 19 2005, 05:49 PM\']Heatter reused this idea as one of the game show segments on Fantasy.

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[/quote]
Heatter reused? That's Mr. Heatter to you, buster. Or at least Merrill. Show some respect. Kids these days, I swear.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Jul 19 2005, 10:37 PM\']This was my favorite Art James show, maybe because it was so different from the others he did, very game show noir.  [/quote]
The Three W's will always be my favorite Art James show, but otherwise I agree, and I only discovered Temptation fairly recently myself.  You rarely see a game show host who gets to essentially play a character while he's running things.  The Inquizitor is the only other obvious example I can think of.

[Dbacksfan12]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Jul 19 2005, 11:32 PM\']You rarely see a game show host who gets to essentially play a character while he's running things.
[/quote]
I still say Todd Newton did a great job playing a game show host on Whammy!

[rebelwrest]

Sorry to be bumping an almost two year old thread, but in this primetime game show age, the dumbed down concept seems to be prevalent.  After getting the episode from Jamie, I think this concept is simple yet very engaging.  I can understand the concept becoming very boring on a daily series scale, but with a nighttime version (hopefully only once a week) and some big prizes, this could become a massive hit.

Also, the post that started this thread mentioned of an episode with a car win.  I already have two episodes that do not have a car win.  I know that at least three eps that are known to exist, but are there anymore?