Hosts Who Had Production Companies....

[calliaume]

[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. 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.

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No mention of Hollywood Connection, an even more blatant ripoff of Match Game?

I don't have my copy of The Box handy, but that notes when Barry and someone else at G-T did man-on-the-street interviews for a possible pilot (sounds like it eventually became Hollywood's Talking, Barry's were funnier because he'd provided the answers.  When Goodson objected, Barry's reply was "So what?  It's just a pilot."

Did Barry go to G-T after Bob Stewart bade them farewell?

[chris319]

Barry's reply was "So what? It's just a pilot."

I suspect, but cannot prove, that this is how they got into trouble with Twenty One. According to my hypothetical scenario, all run-throughs and the pilot of Twenty One were scripted/rigged. It wasn't until they went on the air with the first show and tried to play the game straight that Twenty One fell to pieces because the format was unworkable in practice. By scripting/rigging the run-thrus and pilot, they could make the format appear to be workable and effect a quick sale to NBC. Again, this is a hypothetical scenario on my part.

Do you think that pseudo-partnering led, in one way or another, to the 70's resurgance of games?

No. There has to be audience interest from the start. Even in those days, game/quiz shows were plagued with the problem of old demographics.

I don't remember ever seeing an episode of Hollywood Connection.

Perhaps someone can help piece together the timing of Jack Barry's post-scandal career. G-T didn't move to California until the late '60s, which is approximately when Barry was doing local talk and game shows on KTLA. Do we know for sure that the TJW pilot was done in California and when?

[Jimmy Owen]

An article in the 12/1/79 TV Guide provided this timeline for Jack Barry:

1958: Pre-scandal B&E sell rights to shows to NBC for 5 million. Post-scandal legal fees consume over a million.

1960:  Moves from NYC to Hollywood, Florida to do a local show.

1962: Persuades KTLA to take him on as a packager.  Hosts four local game shows.  Management changes and Barry is dismissed.

Mid-60's: Acts as uncredited consultant to NBC's "You Don't Say" and creates "Everybody's Talking"
(without on-screen credit).  Emcees game and kid's shows in Canada for Dan Enright and Screen Gems.  

1968: Wins FCC approval to purchase FM station in Redondo Beach, CA.

November 68: CBS programming exec Fred Silverman commissions pilot for TJW.

1969:  ABC taps Barry to host last five episodes of "Generation Gap."

1971: ABC schedules "The Reel Game."

1972: CBS programmer Bud Grant goes through old pilots and finds TJW.


No mention in the article of his work for G-T or his acting stints in "The Addams Family," "Batman" or "What's My Perversion?"

Article also features a small color photo of 1955's "The Big Surprise."

[Dbacksfan12]

[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Sep 24 2005, 03:40 PM\']Do we know for sure that the TJW pilot was done in California and when?

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Check this Ebay link, a poster confirmed in the thread here that it was a ticket to the pilot.

[calliaume]

[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Sep 24 2005, 03:40 PM\'][I don't remember ever seeing an episode of Hollywood Connection.

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Picture Match Game with lesser celebrities, lousy writing, and Jim Lange instead of Gene Rayburn trying to run things.

Limped through a year because it was paired with TJW in many markets, but obviously they planned to put in the TTD revival quickly.  I have a theory B-E had the syndicated version planned for a long time, and CBS asked them to do 9 weeks on the network because it was easy to throw together, Pass the Buck wasn't working, and they may not have been allowed to rerun All in the Family until September.

[chris319]

That ticket is dated more than two years before the debut of Password on ABC. I'm inclined to think G-T didn't have much of a foothold in L.A. at the time.

KTLA was purchased in 1964 by singing cowboy Gene Autry. The first thing Autry did was to get rid of the local game shows and put on shows starring himself.

One wonders what Barry did as an "uncredited consultant" to You Don't Say. I met Jack Barry once at NATPE in early 1976 where he was hawking Break the Bank. He came across as a brusque a-hole.

[Ian Wallis]

I have a theory B-E had the syndicated version planned for a long time, and CBS asked them to do 9 weeks on the network because it was easy to throw together, Pass the Buck wasn't working, and they may not have been allowed to rerun All in the Family until September.

I had read somewhere - either on an internet site or in an entertainment magazine - that "Tic Tac Dough" was supposed to be the first game show to run concurrently five days a week on the network, and in syndication.  When the ratings for the network version tanked, the production company was a little unsure about even going ahead with the syndie version.

That would seem to mean that CBS was hoping "Tic Tac Dough" would be a big hit for them, but as we know it turned out differently.

I really forget exactly where I read that - it might have been on Steve Beverly's site.  (By the way, is Beverly ever going to post the concluding part of the series on "The Price is Right"?)

[Jimmy Owen]

"All in the Family" had been on CBS daytime since late 1975, but CBS did have a committment to run "M*A*S*H" reruns in daytime, which they did starting in Sept. 78 for one year, the de facto replacement for TTD.

Do you think Monty Hall was moonlighting when he went to work for Dick Clark-Ron Greenberg Productions?

[chris319]

CBS did have a committment to run "M*A*S*H" reruns in daytime, which they did starting in Sept. 78 for one year

Did BTC then replace M*A*S*H?

[Jimmy Owen]

AITF and M*A*S*H both went off CBS daytime in Sept of 79.  BTC took AITF's 10am slot and "One Day at a Time" filled the 3:30pm slot M*A*S*H held.

[calliaume]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Sep 26 2005, 12:25 AM\']AITF and M*A*S*H both went off CBS daytime in Sept of 79.  BTC took AITF's 10am slot and "One Day at a Time" filled the 3:30pm slot M*A*S*H held.

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Absolutely right (including the part about All in the Family moving from 3:30 to 10 a.m.).  All in the Family originally displaced Match Game at 3:30 back in 1977, forcing the odious MG at 11 a.m. move.  (You'd think I'd check my own CBS daytime schedule page before posting, wouldn't you?)

Some shows can't be on early in the morning; they're too much to watch.  Certainly All in the Family reruns qualify there.  And Match Game likely had a huge audience of kids home from school at 3:30, which, of course, they lost by moving to 11.

Back to Jack Barry and other notes:

- Was Break the Bank's presentation at NATPE before it premiered on ABC (4/12/76)?  If so:
1) there's another show B&E sold into syndication first, then got on the network
2) why woudn't Barry host the ABC edition, unless ABC told them either Kennedy had to host or no deal?

- G-T's first and second regular shows from California were both Password (the last year of the CBS run and the ABC run).  They didn't really go whole hog in California until 1972, with TPIR and the syndie I've Got a Secret.

[TimK2003]

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Sep 25 2005, 09:08 PM\']I had read somewhere - either on an internet site or in an entertainment magazine - that "Tic Tac Dough" was supposed to be the first game show to run concurrently five days a week on the network, and in syndication.  When the ratings for the network version tanked, the production company was a little unsure about even going ahead with the syndie version.

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...Which brings up an interesting question regarding TTD's 2 bonus games:

Did B&E plan to use the 3-X or O game in the syndicated run as well and instead switched to the B&E tried and true "Get $1K before you hit lightning/the Devil/The Bust Card, etc..." format after the failed CBS run?  Or was the idea of 2 different bonus games (one for daytime, one for night), the original plan?

[chris319]

- Was Break the Bank's presentation at NATPE before it premiered on ABC (4/12/76)?

Yes.

If so:
1) there's another show B&E sold into syndication first, then got on the network
2) why woudn't Barry host the ABC edition, unless ABC told them either Kennedy had to host or no deal?

I dunno. Was he emceeing TJW at the time? Perhaps TJW + BTB + Jack Barry Cable + KFOX + commuting to NY = too much on his plate? Also, if T.K. emceed the daytime version, ABC covered his salary. The salary of the nighttime emcee was covered by B&E, so why not pay yourself?

- G-T's first and second regular shows from California were both Password (the last year of the CBS run and the ABC run). They didn't really go whole hog in California until 1972, with TPIR and the syndie I've Got a Secret.

I was reminded today that G-T had an office in California in the '50s which was headed by Harris Katelman for the purpose of producing G-T's unspectacular dramatic shows.

[SRIV94]

[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Sep 26 2005, 09:35 PM\']I dunno. Was he emceeing TJW at the time? Perhaps TJW + BTB + Jack Barry Cable + KFOX + commuting to NY = too much on his plate? Also, if T.K. emceed the daytime version, ABC covered his salary. The salary of the nighttime emcee was covered by B&E, so why not pay yourself?

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TJW went off network in 1975 (not sure when KTLA started doing the reruns), then the syndie version hit in the fall of 1977.

Doug -- and the countdown to 1500 continues

[BrandonFG]

[quote name=\'SRIV94\' date=\'Sep 26 2005, 10:10 PM\']TJW went off network in 1975 (not sure when KTLA started doing the reruns), then the syndie version hit in the fall of 1977.

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IIRC, the EOTVGS said 1976-77, and the good ratings led to the revival.