Author Topic: Hosts Who Had Production Companies.... (Read 8368 times)

TimK2003 · « **on:** September 22, 2005, 07:55:25 PM »

There have been a few times in Gameshowland where hosts had their own game show production company.

But who of those hosts, despite having their own company, still went on and hosted for one of their "competitors"?

For example, Monty Hall hosted Goodson/Todman's "(All Star)Beat The Clock" in-between Hatos/Hall's LMAD incarnations...

Bob Eubanks still hosted Chuck Barris' "Newlywed Game" while Bob hosted & produced "All Star Secrets".

Any others who 'moonlighted' away from their own Game Show production companies?

Mr. Matté · « **Reply #1 on:** September 22, 2005, 08:02:00 PM »

Mr. Martindale on High Rollers.

zachhoran · « **Reply #2 on:** September 22, 2005, 08:03:22 PM »

[quote name=\'TimK2003\' date=\'Sep 22 2005, 06:55 PM\']

For example, Monty Hall hosted Goodson/Todman's "(All Star)Beat The Clock" in-between Hatos/Hall's LMAD incarnations...

Bob Eubanks still hosted Chuck Barris' "Newlywed Game" while Bob hosted & produced "All Star Secrets".

Any others who 'moonlighted' away from their own Game Show production companies?

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Wink Martindale hosted High Rollers while WM Enterprises was co-producing Bumper Stumpers and Martindale-Gilden was producing Second Honeymoon on CBN. He also hosted Last Word while Bumper Stumpers was still in production.

Bert Convy was still hosting Super Password and later hosted the MG90 pilot while Bert and Burt Productions were co-producing WLOD and 3rd Degree(the latter began after SP ended).

dzinkin · « **Reply #3 on:** September 22, 2005, 08:21:31 PM »

Dick Clark hosted "Winning Lines" while his company was producing "Greed."

Jimmy Owen · « **Reply #4 on:** September 22, 2005, 08:28:10 PM »

In 52-53, John Reed King was hosting "Where Was I?" on Dumont for White-Rosenberg Productions while hosting "Why?" (with assistant Bill Cullen) on ABC for his own production company.

calliaume · « **Reply #5 on:** September 22, 2005, 09:21:46 PM »

[quote name=\'TimK2003\' date=\'Sep 22 2005, 06:55 PM\']There have been a few times in Gameshowland where hosts had their own game show production company. But who of those hosts, despite having their own company, still went on and hosted for one of their "competitors"?

For example, Monty Hall hosted Goodson/Todman's "(All Star)Beat The Clock" in-between Hatos/Hall's LMAD incarnations...

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I don't think Hatos-Hall had anything active at the time Monty was hosting Beat the Clock.

Our webmaster has noted elsewhere that it's possible Hatos-Hall had a busted pilot at CBS, and Monty was given the job to host this instead. Chris, could you refresh my memory?

From Mark Evanier's All-New All-Star Beat the Clock entry on his ticket site, after nothing Tattletales' payoffs of the studio audience, which allowed homeless people to get meals for a couple of days:

This was a revival of an earlier Goodson-Todman show — one I never liked. Didn't like it when Bud Collyer hosted the original, didn't like the revival with Jack Narz, didn't like the next revival with Gene Wood, didn't like this one with Monty Hall. I haven't seen the subsequent one with Gary Kroeger but I know I won't like it; not if it consists of people having to do silly stunts before the clock runs down. Audiences didn't warm to this version, either on TV or in person. The producers tried the Tattletales gimmick of having celebrities compete to win cash for the studio audience, and they still had trouble packing the house. Even the homeless folks decided they'd rather go hungry.

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Also, Betty White's autobiography notes Allen Ludden and Grant Tinker had formed a production company, EllTee Productions, around the time Password '75 was ending or Stumpers was cranking up, but obviously nothing made it to air.

SRIV94 · « **Reply #6 on:** September 22, 2005, 10:04:36 PM »

[quote name=\'dzinkin\' date=\'Sep 22 2005, 07:21 PM\']Dick Clark hosted "Winning Lines" while his company was producing "Greed."

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And if anyone wants to consider PUTTIN' ON THE HITS a game show (since some consider GONG to be one), Clark's production company produced POTH while Clark was hosting PYRAMID.

And if they don't, they don't.

Doug -- and the countdown to 1500 continues

tjhornikel · « **Reply #7 on:** September 22, 2005, 10:16:48 PM »

Jack Barry hosted "The Big Surprise" for Louis Cowan's Entertainment Productions while his company produced several shows.

chris319 · « **Reply #8 on:** September 22, 2005, 11:19:21 PM »

Quote

Betty White's autobiography notes Allen Ludden and Grant Tinker had formed a production company, EllTee Productions, around the time Password '75 was ending or Stumpers was cranking up, but obviously nothing made it to air.

Curt, you have found the missing link! I've but skimmed Bets' bio in the bookstore, but had I read it studiously I would have learned about EllTee.

During the run of P+ we knew that Ludden had some kind of mysterious office in Studio City with a secretary named Gail. Allen's call time sheets and emcee language changes were sent to Gail at this office. I've suspected that Allen was working with/for Grant Tinker during this time, now I know the rest of the story. We were thrown off the scent a little bit due to the fact that Allen and Betty's paychecks were made out to Allbets Productions.

Johnissoevil · « **Reply #9 on:** September 23, 2005, 03:34:29 AM »

[quote name=\'TimK2003\' date=\'Sep 22 2005, 07:55 PM\']There have been a few times in Gameshowland where hosts had their own game show production company.

But who of those hosts, despite having their own company, still went on and hosted for one of their "competitors"?

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Jack Barry hosted a pilot for Goodson-Todman while he was developing TJW. Don't know if that counts.

chris319 · « **Reply #10 on:** September 23, 2005, 01:05:34 PM »

In a bizarre twist of game show history, Goodson once took on Jack Barry as some kind of weird pseudo-partner. The bastard child of that relationship was The Joker's Wild, the pilot of which was emceed by Allen Ludden. Eventually the relationship between Barry and Goodson wore out and the next thing you know, Barry displaces Ludden as emcee and Enright displaces Goodson as co-packager of TJW. Basically Goodson helped breathe life into the scandal-tainted corpse of his former competitor. Goodson then wound up producing the former B&E show Concentration while B&E obtained the rights to produce Tic Tac Dough. B&E later went on to produce a blatant rip-off (IMO) of Family Feud. Jack Barry wound up with an FM station in Redondo Beach and a cheap-ass cable company, while Goodson and Todman had local newspapers in New England. And Merv still owns the Beverly Hilton. Despite the urging of people in his company, Goodson never owned the office building at 6430 Sunset Boulevard, nor any other California real estate that I am aware of, which would have been a good investment for him considering. Goodson did have a formidable art collection. And at various points in time, radio station KRLA has been owned by some combination of Goodson, Todman, Art Linkletter and Bob Hope.

And that concludes this episode of "Diversified Holdings of Game Show Packagers".

Clay Zambo · « **Reply #11 on:** September 24, 2005, 10:44:27 AM »

[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Sep 23 2005, 12:05 PM\']In a bizarre twist of game show history, Goodson once took on Jack Barry as some kind of weird pseudo-partner. ... B&E later went on to produce a blatant rip-off (IMO) of Family Feud.

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Do you think that pseudo-partnering lead, in one way or another, to the 70's resurgance of games? One of those moments where the more good games there are, the more likely networks are to buy them?

It's early, but what's the blatant "Feud" ripoff?

byrd62 · « **Reply #12 on:** September 24, 2005, 11:11:46 AM »

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It's early, but what's the blatant "Feud" ripoff?

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I think he meant Play the Percentages, which was more built around general knowledge [and, in the bonus round, "people's feelings"].

BrandonFG · « **Reply #13 on:** September 24, 2005, 12:01:24 PM »

[quote name=\'byrd62\' date=\'Sep 24 2005, 10:11 AM\']

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It's early, but what's the blatant "Feud" ripoff?
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I think he meant Play the Percentages, which was more built around general knowledge [and, in the bonus round, "people's feelings"].

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That's one, but IMHO the closer rip-off was "Hot Potato".

Adam Nedeff · « **Reply #14 on:** September 24, 2005, 02:37:31 PM »

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[quote name=\'byrd62\' date=\'Sep 24 2005, 10:11 AM\']

It's early, but what's the blatant "Feud" ripoff?

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I think he meant Play the Percentages, which was more built around general knowledge [and, in the bonus round, "people's feelings"].

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Actually, "Play the Percentages" was more of a rip-off of "Card Sharks" (estimating answers in a 1-100 range, with the contestants obviously encouraged to think out loud as they reveal their guesses).

And yes, "Hot Potato" was a blatant rip-off of "Family Feud" but you have to spot Barry & Enright points for subtly admitting it on the actual show. In the early weeks when Bill is reading the rules from cue cards, his spiel includes the phrase, "What makes our game different is this..."