The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: jlgarfield on June 25, 2023, 05:46:51 PM
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Hi - the only reason I'm starting a new thread is because, well, bumping older ones is bad form.
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I've been thinking a lot about the 1980s $ale of the Century on NBC. I've heard lots of things regarding the status of the pre-July 1988 NBC eps, and I don't want to open a can of worms, but, at best, they are MIA; however, like what we saw regarding the syndie 1970s Hollywood Squares eps and the original CBS The Joker's Wild, you never know if they will turn up.
Anyway, quite a few early eps of the show have turned up lately (namely Mort Kamins' run for the lot in March of '83, and one ep from January 1984), and this is second-hand info from the commenters, but the first lot winner of that incarnation of $ale, ever, (before the cash jackpot was put in place) was a guy named Michael Todaro.
It also made me wonder, since Mort's first ep concided with the debut of Lee Menning; did they even acknowledge Sally's departure on the last show? I guess we'll never know.
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I imagine Jim did a cursuory “wish her well in her future endeavors”.
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I imagine Jim did a cursuory “wish her well in her future endeavors”.
With validated parking and a return trip to Mars
(https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.WIfoS4jsTZ1pXYPyEmXLxwHaId?pid=ImgDet&rs=1)
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I should mention the only info I have about Michael Todaro is that he participated in the first $ale Tournament of Champions, going up against Fran Wolfe and Helen Durvall (an early lot winner). Fran won that heat, facing off against Mort Kamins and Cathy Powers.
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I imagine Jim did a cursuory “wish her well in her future endeavors”.
I wouldn’t be surprised if she wasn’t mentioned at all.
I do have a very vague memory of when Joe Garagiola replaced Jack Kelly in 1971 (I would have been eight years old)—I don’t think it was anything more than “And here’s our new host, Joe Garagiola!”
EDIT: This appears to be Lee Menning's first episode, and Sally is not mentioned.
https://youtu.be/IQ6833AxGkg (https://youtu.be/IQ6833AxGkg)
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I should mention the only info I have about Michael Todaro is that he participated in the first $ale Tournament of Champions, going up against Fran Wolfe and Helen Durvall (an early lot winner). Fran won that heat, facing off against Mort Kamins and Cathy Powers.
One of the episodes from that heat has been in the circuit for a while; I know at one point it was on YouTube in not-great quality but I can't seem to find it now. (EDIT: It was on David Downs' YT before that went down.)
The heats AFAIK were as follows:
Heat 1: Mort Kamins vs. Barbara Phillips vs. Richard Heft
Heat 2: Cathy Powers vs. Ray Winston vs. someone else
Heat 3: Michael Todaro vs. Fran Wolfe vs. Helen Durvall
Jim mentioned during one of Mort's original episodes that the lot had gone off three times before, so that would line up with Michael, Helen, and the other participant.
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^ I believe that is the same Ray Winston that competed on the Trebek Double Dare.
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^ I believe that is the same Ray Winston that competed on the Trebek Double Dare.
and two others, yes.
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There was a to-do about Ray Winston having lied on his contestant application. It went to Compliance and Practices. All Ray got was a set of luggage.
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^ Wait, what?! That's news to me.
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^ Wait, what?! That's news to me.
yup. He was on (I believe) Split Second, Three for the Money, Double Dare and then Sale. DD put him over the bag limit and he left one of the predecessors off when he filled out that section of the application form and thus eventually missed out on an $83,000 cash jackpot.
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Here's the court document for Winston v. NBC if anyone's curious.
https://law.justia.com/cases/california/court-of-appeal/3d/231/540.html (https://law.justia.com/cases/california/court-of-appeal/3d/231/540.html)
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I'm assuming NBC ultimately did away with that "three game shows in one lifetime" stipulation that same decade?
Chou Chou Grant immediately comes to mind with her $ale appearance in '88, after having already appeared on TJW, PW+, and $100K Pyramid.
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A post from a long time ago had one of our members get Helen's $ale pin.
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From that document we get an interesting glimpse into the economics of daytime network TV in November, 1983.
It cost NBC $137,410 to produce 7 shows, or $19,630 per show, or $98,150 per week.
With six commercial minutes per show $3,272 per minute of commercial time was the breakeven point. This works out to $1,636 for 12 30-second spots.
An NBC executive once revealed to me that a typical game show cost approximately $120,000 per week. This figure is very close to the $98,150 figure calculated above.
That's just the cost side of the equation. We don't know what NBC collected in ad revenue at the time.
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(https://i.imgur.com/gczCWLY.png)
From Mort Kamins' recording of the 1983 $ale Tournament of Champions, the field for it. As stated in the image, I am not sure which lady on the top (left or right) is Helen Durvall, and the name of the last participant (also a female) is unknown.
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Top left is Helen.
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^ Thanks. :)
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Here's a newspaper article (https://www.newspapers.com/article/ventura-county-star-helen-darvall-big/127825647/) about Helen's big win.
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^ Holy smoke, Batman. That is quite the find. It sheds a little bit more light on the early months of the show. Thank you for sharing.
So Cathy was the second lot winner, and as such, three such wins occurred during Sally Julian's 50-show run as Jim's assistant (and Mort Kamins won the lot during Lee Menning's first week). We now also have the proper spelling of Helen's surname
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Michael Todaro's (https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-miami-herald-michael-todaro-sale-o/127827942/) article.
Part 1 (https://www.newspapers.com/article/thousand-oaks-star-cathy-powers-sale-o/127828014/) and Part 2 (https://www.newspapers.com/article/thousand-oaks-star-cathy-powers-sale-o/127828045/) of Cathy Powers' article.
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^ So, based on the article, Todaro's winning show was on January 26, 1983, not quite a month into the show's run; Powers won on February 4th.
There's been an early 1983 ep of $ale on YouTube for a decade, and based on all this new information, said ep's OAD was 1/31/1983.
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(https://i.imgur.com/gczCWLY.png)
From Mort Kamins' recording of the 1983 $ale Tournament of Champions, the field for it. As stated in the image, I am not sure which lady on the top (left or right) is Helen Durvall, and the name of the last participant (also a female) is unknown.
IIRC, and the episode isn't up on YouTube anymore, there was one participant in the tournament who wasn't in that photo. Wasn't there a black man by the name of Michael who participate? Probably was the replacement for Ray Winston when he was declared ineligible.
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So I've had a question about the early run, during Mort's games Jim Perry mentioned that the car came with enough cash to round the total out to $95,000. 95K seemed like an oddly specific number to me, like why not 100K at that point? I'm just curious if anyone knows was there a reason for that specific amount, perhaps some network rule at the time, or was it influenced by budget? or did the producer just like the number 95? Inquiring minds want to know! :D
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(https://i.imgur.com/gczCWLY.png)
From Mort Kamins' recording of the 1983 $ale Tournament of Champions, the field for it. As stated in the image, I am not sure which lady on the top (left or right) is Helen Durvall, and the name of the last participant (also a female) is unknown.
I will say this: Michael looks like a bearded John Ritter.
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This struck me as I read the article that called $ale "NBC's hottest new game show." Were ratings sinking when the winner's board premiered? Did it make them go up? And did a drop in ratings prompt the Winner's Big Money Game? Both changes were brought on by the network, right?
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This struck me as I read the article that called $ale "NBC's hottest new game show." Were ratings sinking when the winner's board premiered? Did it make them go up? And did a drop in ratings prompt the Winner's Big Money Game? Both changes were brought on by the network, right?
The WBMG was prompted by a mandate from NBC that each of their games have a proper bonus round.
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So I've had a question about the early run, during Mort's games Jim Perry mentioned that the car came with enough cash to round the total out to $95,000. 95K seemed like an oddly specific number to me, like why not 100K at that point? I'm just curious if anyone knows was there a reason for that specific amount, perhaps some network rule at the time, or was it influenced by budget? or did the producer just like the number 95? Inquiring minds want to know! :D
Tax Brackets?
I mean 95k was plenty of money back then, as so was 64k when the Australians did it in 1980. Vincent Smith won $73k-odd a month after the show premiered (the Mercedes was already $36,000 to start with).
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This struck me as I read the article that called $ale "NBC's hottest new game show." Were ratings sinking when the winner's board premiered? Did it make them go up? And did a drop in ratings prompt the Winner's Big Money Game? Both changes were brought on by the network, right?
my recollection/understanding was that somebody (the producers? The network?) wanted a final act that wasn’t just meandering about then the final decision. The board brought a different problem—everything that wasn’t cash or car came off as a door prize by comparison, and the trips are largely domestic or in The Americas.
I believe Australia changed to the board around this time, but they had bigger prizes generally, plus you risk your boodle every night till you win the bonanza, tap out or lose.
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This struck me as I read the article that called $ale "NBC's hottest new game show." Were ratings sinking when the winner's board premiered? Did it make them go up? And did a drop in ratings prompt the Winner's Big Money Game? Both changes were brought on by the network, right?
For a good portion of its run on NBC, $ale was in a hot competition with Press Your Luck on CBS, but $ale won out.
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This struck me as I read the article that called $ale "NBC's hottest new game show." Were ratings sinking when the winner's board premiered? Did it make them go up? And did a drop in ratings prompt the Winner's Big Money Game? Both changes were brought on by the network, right?
To give you an idea, this list was right around the same time the Winners Board premiered. Notice the not great clearances for any game not named Price, Wheel, or Scrabble.
(https://64.media.tumblr.com/93e06fef529d0b098dcc1e1f5a9a2e2f/af3ec0e6c6ead930-42/s1280x1920/efa1cca08a8cc4859f12053e699e3ff69632ab22.jpg)
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This struck me as I read the article that called $ale "NBC's hottest new game show." Were ratings sinking when the winner's board premiered? Did it make them go up? And did a drop in ratings prompt the Winner's Big Money Game? Both changes were brought on by the network, right?
To give you an idea, this list was right around the same time the Winners Board premiered. Notice the not great clearances for any game not named Price, Wheel, or Scrabble.
(https://64.media.tumblr.com/93e06fef529d0b098dcc1e1f5a9a2e2f/af3ec0e6c6ead930-42/s1280x1920/efa1cca08a8cc4859f12053e699e3ff69632ab22.jpg)
Wow - I love stuff like this. I wish there was more of it around.
Interesting notes on this:
It looks as if Press Your Luck was just slightly beating Sale of the Century at this time, but if Sale had the same no. of stations it likely would have been ahead.
Super Password - just a few weeks after its premiere and it really wasn't doing that well. The noon slot obviously didn't help.
Body Language with only 103 stations. It's surprising how far the 4 PM slot had fallen by the mid-80s. In my out-of-town TVGuides from the '70s, Tattletales was still listed at 4 PM in most of those editions for its first couple of years, but by around mid 1976 or so, more and more stations started tape-delaying it at 9:30 the next morning. I guess that's why Goodson fought for the 10:30 slot for the Card Sharks revival - he knew it wouldn't do that well if it came on at 4. IIRC, we've read that Press Your Luck had started to drop a fair bit by fall 1985 so CBS was probably more willing to move it by that point.
I guess most of us lamented the expansion of soap operas at the expense of game shows, but I guess when you look at the ratings, there was a good reason why they did it.
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Amused at how you can almost see the exact group of people that switch over to TPIR2 when Wheel ends.
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I guess that's why Goodson fought for the 10:30 slot for the Card Sharks revival - he knew it wouldn't do that well if it came on at 4. IIRC, we've read that Press Your Luck had started to drop a fair bit by fall 1985 so CBS was probably more willing to move it by that point.
I guess most of us lamented the expansion of soap operas at the expense of game shows, but I guess when you look at the ratings, there was a good reason why they did it.
One other reason: airing Card Sharks on CBS in the morning allowed the syndicated version to air in individual markets from 4 PM onward, if memory serves—I think the same held true for Kennedy TPIR. WABC, for example, aired Rafferty Card Sharks at 4:30 PM after Jeopardy!, until the Oprah juggernaut allowed them to move her show to 4 PM and Jeopardy! to 7. (This was a huge deal at the time—all three NYC network stations had been airing network news at 7 PM for decades.)
I would still argue there would have been an audience for network game shows in the afternoon after 3 PM, not that it matters much now. The Rules o’ Daytime (air the games in the morning when wifey is doing the housework, air the soaps in the afternoon after she’s done with them) are long gone.
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You can tell the 3 strongest shows for NBC were Wheel Of Fortune,Days of Our Lives and Another World, because they were cleared by 99 percent of the stations. I wonder if that a big difference in the ratings.
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You can tell the 3 strongest shows for NBC were Wheel Of Fortune,Days of Our Lives and Another World, because they were cleared by 99 percent of the stations. I wonder if that a big difference in the ratings.
Well, if they were cleared by that many stations, I would say you just answered your own question.
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Interesting notes on this:
It looks as if Press Your Luck was just slightly beating Sale of the Century at this time, but if Sale had the same no. of stations it likely would have been ahead.
Not entirely true. If you look at the coverage percents, even though PYL has more stations, it had less coverage than $ale. Most likely because Press was cleared on more smaller market stations than $ale. For instance, I grew up in the Louisville market and PYL was never cleared for its entire run, whereas $ale ran at 10:30 on its NBC affiliate from the beginning. Tampa (where I live now) was similar, they cleared PYL from September 85 to January 86. I think that's why Republic tried to pimp out those reruns in 1987, since there were many instances of this across the country with the larger markets.
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The WBMG was prompted by a mandate from NBC that each of their games have a proper bonus round.
That's what I've always heard, I was just curious what prompted the mandate since it only affected one show. Maybe a new muckily-muck took over daytime.
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Another thing is that Sale was blowing out cash jackpots. Now it’s hidden behind eleven wins plus risking a car and $13,000, and all of those prizes that are given a signal blast every day. This when couple with Scrabble chainsawing $15,500 off their grand prize adds up.
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That's what I've always heard, I was just curious what prompted the mandate since it only affected one show. Maybe a new muckily-muck took over daytime.
Scrabble too, although I think the Bonus Sprint came about a year or two after the Winner's Board.
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To realign - are we talking WBMG or are we talking Winner's Board?
Winners Board appeared in late '84 and WBMG appeared in late '87.
Travis is correct - the Winners Board was driven primarily to differentiate the daytime show from the upcoming syndicated shows, and to eliminate the relatively frequent payout of the cash jackpot. For every lot winner during the daytime shopping era, they had 2 more contestants that bought the cash jackpot and walked. It was an unintended consequence of the speed round.
WBMG was from an NBC edict that every show have a true bonus round.
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My bad. For some reason I thought the Board was the result of the edict, but WBMG makes more sense.
/So now the Bonus Sprint would happen a year earlier, not later than $ale
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Travis is correct - the Winners Board was driven primarily to differentiate the daytime show from the upcoming syndicated shows, and to eliminate the relatively frequent payout of the cash jackpot. For every lot winner during the daytime shopping era, they had 2 more contestants that bought the cash jackpot and walked. It was an unintended consequence of the speed round.
I am still convinced all these years later that the Syndicated shopping era with its cash jackpot only at the lot level was the definitive $ale format. Would love for this to come back one day in this format.
R.
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Travis is correct - the Winners Board was driven primarily to differentiate the daytime show from the upcoming syndicated shows, and to eliminate the relatively frequent payout of the cash jackpot. For every lot winner during the daytime shopping era, they had 2 more contestants that bought the cash jackpot and walked. It was an unintended consequence of the speed round.
I am still convinced all these years later that the Syndicated shopping era with its cash jackpot only at the lot level was the definitive $ale format. Would love for this to come back one day in this format.
R.
I agree wholeheartedly. It was true to the original format, resolved the cash jackpot dilemma, and put the pacing of a lot win in the hands of the contestants (Alice Conkright).
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Travis is correct - the Winners Board was driven primarily to differentiate the daytime show from the upcoming syndicated shows, and to eliminate the relatively frequent payout of the cash jackpot. For every lot winner during the daytime shopping era, they had 2 more contestants that bought the cash jackpot and walked. It was an unintended consequence of the speed round.
I am still convinced all these years later that the Syndicated shopping era with its cash jackpot only at the lot level was the definitive $ale format. Would love for this to come back one day in this format.
R.
I agree wholeheartedly. It was true to the original format, resolved the cash jackpot dilemma, and put the pacing of a lot win in the hands of the contestants (Alice Conkright).
I'll add that I loved the addition of a bonus round to Temptation (Australia), where the contestant had to earn their way towards a large cash pot. It was a fun way of closing out the show, while keeping the basics of the shopping format in place.
Edited: Australia
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This struck me as I read the article that called $ale "NBC's hottest new game show." Were ratings sinking when the winner's board premiered? Did it make them go up? And did a drop in ratings prompt the Winner's Big Money Game? Both changes were brought on by the network, right?
To give you an idea, this list was right around the same time the Winners Board premiered. Notice the not great clearances for any game not named Price, Wheel, or Scrabble.
(https://64.media.tumblr.com/93e06fef529d0b098dcc1e1f5a9a2e2f/af3ec0e6c6ead930-42/s1280x1920/efa1cca08a8cc4859f12053e699e3ff69632ab22.jpg)
Wow - I love stuff like this. I wish there was more of it around.
Interesting notes on this:
It looks as if Press Your Luck was just slightly beating Sale of the Century at this time, but if Sale had the same no. of stations it likely would have been ahead.
Super Password - just a few weeks after its premiere and it really wasn't doing that well. The noon slot obviously didn't help.
Body Language with only 103 stations. It's surprising how far the 4 PM slot had fallen by the mid-80s. In my out-of-town TVGuides from the '70s, Tattletales was still listed at 4 PM in most of those editions for its first couple of years, but by around mid 1976 or so, more and more stations started tape-delaying it at 9:30 the next morning. I guess that's why Goodson fought for the 10:30 slot for the Card Sharks revival - he knew it wouldn't do that well if it came on at 4. IIRC, we've read that Press Your Luck had started to drop a fair bit by fall 1985 so CBS was probably more willing to move it by that point.
I guess most of us lamented the expansion of soap operas at the expense of game shows, but I guess when you look at the ratings, there was a good reason why they did it.
I can imagine how frustrated Mark Goodson was to come up with a good show like Body Language and have relatively few people given the chance to sample it just once. Same with Super Password. The only time I saw Body Language was when I sat in the audience. The Baltimore and Washington CBS stations didn't carry it.
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The only time I saw Body Language was when I sat in the audience. The Baltimore and Washington CBS stations didn't carry it.
Washington didn't carry it, but Baltimore did for some of the run - at that point, WBAL-11 was the CBS affiliate. They carried it at 9:30am from the beginning of the run until September 1985, when they opted for "Break the Bank" instead.
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Really? I never saw it.
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Really? I never saw it.
Well, 9:30's kind of an easy-to-miss slot. WCAU-10 (also then CBS) did the same thing. Thought I remembered from old TV Guides, but I verified with old Baltimore Sun TV listings.
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The only time I saw Body Language was when I sat in the audience. The Baltimore and Washington CBS stations didn't carry it.
Washington didn't carry it, but Baltimore did for some of the run - at that point, WBAL-11 was the CBS affiliate. They carried it at 9:30am from the beginning of the run until September 1985, when they opted for "Break the Bank" instead.
I don't believe it aired in Cleveland at all either, but it did air in Toledo on WTOL in the morning as well (9:30am ?). IIRC, It replaced Tattletales in the same morning slot.
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I'll add that I loved the addition of a bonus round to Temptation, where the contestant had to earn their way towards a large cash pot. It was a fun way of closing out the show, while keeping the basics of the shopping format in place.
I'll second this while noting they completely borked everything else that worked about the shopping endgame dormat.
EDIT: Brain default to US Temptation, not Australian. Eh, it's too hot today.
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I think that Mitch meant Temptation Australia.
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Interesting that Body Language even made it 18 months with such low clearances. I can't imagine the numbers got much better going into 1985, considering its 4:00 competitor The Edge of Night ended in late-1984.
/Between 1982-86, the only CBS game WTKR cleared was TPiR
//They eventually aired Card Sharks in fall '86
///But still no Pyramid
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I can imagine how frustrated Mark Goodson was to come up with a good show like Body Language and have relatively few people given the chance to sample it just once. Same with Super Password. The only time I saw Body Language was when I sat in the audience. The Baltimore and Washington CBS stations didn't carry it.
Body Language wasn't picked up by the Buffalo or Rochester CBS stations either, so I never saw it in its original run. I think the only thing I recall seeing was a brief plug for the show which slipped thru once on one of those stations, otherwise I had no idea it even existed.
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If you're going to have an actual bonus round for Sale, tying it in to a shopping-related mechanic is the way to go IMO. As much as we rag on US Temptation, playing
Wipeout Super Knock-Off at least earned you Temptation Dollars for the major prizes.
A while back on a game show Discord, I had this idea for a bonus round:
Your total at the end of the game is your baseline for shopping, with the same sale prices as the old show. The contestant is asked questions (more difficult than the main game ones) at $50 a pop and given the category before each one. A wrong answer gives them a strike, and three strikes ends the bonus round and forfeits any additional dollars won (essentially giving them the first level prize by default). Once they have two strikes the risk element comes into play: after hearing the category they could cash out at whatever level they were at, or go on.
I had a primetime version in mind sans returning champions for this.
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I might be misreading, but let’s say I go into the Knockoff with $75. Lowest-level prize (say a stainless steel kitchen) is $300. I get five right and then get three strikes, so do I end up with $325 to buy the kitchen or do I stay at $75?
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I might be misreading, but let’s say I go into the Knockoff with $75. Lowest-level prize (say a stainless steel kitchen) is $300. I get five right and then get three strikes, so do I end up with $325 to buy the kitchen or do I stay at $75?
You'd end up with $75 in that case. My initial thought was to use the sale prices from the 80s version with the lowest level prize at $85, so someone who struck out would still likely be able to afford it in that case. If they couldn't I suppose you could multiply their score by some amount (say, 50) as a consolation.
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I think that Mitch meant Temptation Australia.
Yes, I did. Edited
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Body Language wasn't picked up by the Buffalo or Rochester CBS stations either, so I never saw it in its original run. I think the only thing I recall seeing was a brief plug for the show which slipped thru once on one of those stations, otherwise I had no idea it even existed.
That area wasn't kind to BL at all! Went to the old newspaper listings and found this curious listing - May 14, 1985, 10 (Rochester's CBS station) carried Hour Magazine at 5pm, who had Tom Kennedy as a guest. The listing mentioned Body Language. I can't help wondering how many Rochester viewers wondered what that show even was!
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Really? I never saw it.
Well, 9:30's kind of an easy-to-miss slot. WCAU-10 (also then CBS) did the same thing. Thought I remembered from old TV Guides, but I verified with old Baltimore Sun TV listings.
I must have been working or, more likely in those days, looking for work or just sleeping late
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For every lot winner during the daytime shopping era, they had 2 more contestants that bought the cash jackpot and walked. It was an unintended consequence of the speed round.
I'd say it was also a consequence of having the Cash Jackpot be its own prize level between the car and the Lot. You're going to have very few people turn down a cash payout of over $50,000 to try for the six onstage prizes as well.
WBMG was from an NBC edict that every show have a true bonus round.
In that case, how did Win, Lose or Draw get to be the exception?
If you're going to have an actual bonus round for Sale, tying it in to a shopping-related mechanic is the way to go IMO. As much as we rag on US Temptation, playing Wipeout Super Knock-Off at least earned you Temptation Dollars for the major prizes.
Even so, it feels like it was there to compensate for the five-day limit.
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WBMG was from an NBC edict that every show have a true bonus round.
In that case, how did Win, Lose or Draw get to be the exception?
Didn't the daytime version eventually add a bonus round? Given the show premiered when $ale still had the Winner's Board, so I imagine Bert and Burt eventually got the memo they needed an actual bonus game.
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WBMG was from an NBC edict that every show have a true bonus round.
In that case, how did Win, Lose or Draw get to be the exception?
Didn't the daytime version eventually add a bonus round? Given the show premiered when $ale still had the Winner's Board, so I imagine Bert and Burt eventually got the memo they needed an actual bonus game.
It absolutely did - in late '88.
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What that chart doesn't show you are the demos. The great lament about game shows has always been that they attract an older audience. I don't know if game shows had lower production costs than soaps to make them worth it. Consider that five game shows could be taped in one day with minimal rehearsal. Soaps typically taped one show per day with a full rehearsal.
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What that chart doesn't show you are the demos. The great lament about game shows has always been that they attract an older audience.
Speaking from semi-personal experience, Million Dollar Password got axed despite being in the weekly top 10 for almost every episode in its first season, and top 20 for its truncated run in the second, because the demos were certifiably ancient. Though I don't know what kind of audience CBS was expecting to get on a game show with 60 Minutes as its lead-in.
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IIRC, and the episode isn't up on YouTube anymore, there was one participant in the tournament who wasn't in that photo. Wasn't there a black man by the name of Michael who participate? Probably was the replacement for Ray Winston when he was declared ineligible.
It's been reposted; the guy you're referring to is actually Michael Todaro.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmuJSnMR1HY
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^ Re: Michael Todaro: I thought his last name, for the longest time was pronounced "TOH-DAH-ROE". It's actually "TOH-DARE-OH". XD
Also, he was on Jeopardy! in November 1986.
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From Mort Kamins' recording of the 1983 $ale Tournament of Champions, the field for it. As stated in the image, I am not sure which lady on the top (left or right) is Helen Durvall, and the name of the last participant (also a female) is unknown.
I normally don't bump threads this old, but I was doing some Sale research for a personal project of mine earlier and learned that the lady in the upper right is likely named Maureen McGovern. According to several recollections, she left with the cash jackpot ($54,000) on 5/27/83 and was supposedly the first person to do so. The commercial below aired the 29th, so the clip featured likely aired the following day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0Cm6vJ1cu0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0Cm6vJ1cu0)
I'll try to find something a bit more conclusive on newspapers.com regarding that.
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I normally don't bump threads this old, but I was doing some Sale research for a personal project of mine earlier and learned that the lady in the upper right is likely named Maureen McGovern. According to several recollections, she left with the cash jackpot ($54,000) on 5/27/83 and was supposedly the first person to do so. The commercial below aired the 29th, so the clip featured likely aired the following day.
I'll try to find something a bit more conclusive on newspapers.com regarding that.
5/29/83 was a Sunday, so I think the clip featured was the introduction of the cash jackpot unless NBC spoiled the outcome of the following day's episode. I think we can pin down the beginning of the cash jackpot era as 5/23/83, and the order of the first four cash jackpot winners were:
Maureen McGovern 5/27/83
Richard Heft 7/13/83
Barbara Phillips 8/9/83
Fran Wolfe 9/1/83? (Assuming she won a $66,000 cash jackpot)
And back to the photo of the nine contestants, I don't think that's Ray Winston, and I don't think he participated in the 1983 tournament of champions. I'll explain.
In the lawsuit that Mr. Winston filed against NBC for nonpayment, the dates Mr. Winston taped his episodes were November 11 & 13th, 1983. NBC was airing the tournament of champions at the time and started airing those episodes in October.
The history of $ale of the Century is one of the more intriguing aspects of game show fandom because we are trying to piece it together with the little bits of info that comes out every few years.
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I normally don't bump threads this old, but I was doing some Sale research for a personal project of mine earlier and learned that the lady in the upper right is likely named Maureen McGovern. According to several recollections, she left with the cash jackpot ($54,000) on 5/27/83 and was supposedly the first person to do so. The commercial below aired the 29th, so the clip featured likely aired the following day.
I'll try to find something a bit more conclusive on newspapers.com regarding that.
5/29/83 was a Sunday, so I think the clip featured was the introduction of the cash jackpot unless NBC spoiled the outcome of the following day's episode. I think we can pin down the beginning of the cash jackpot era as 5/23/83, and the order of the first four cash jackpot winners were:
Maureen McGovern 5/27/83
Richard Heft 7/13/83
Barbara Phillips 8/9/83
Fran Wolfe 9/1/83? (Assuming she won a $66,000 cash jackpot)
And back to the photo of the nine contestants, I don't think that's Ray Winston, and I don't think he participated in the 1983 tournament of champions. I'll explain.
In the lawsuit that Mr. Winston filed against NBC for nonpayment, the dates Mr. Winston taped his episodes were November 11 & 13th, 1983. NBC was airing the tournament of champions at the time and started airing those episodes in October.
I'll hazard a guess: if the tape to air dates line up, Winston (12/8/83?) might have won it before Kathy Riley (1/18/84) did. And under those circumstances, he wouldn't qualify for the '83 tournament, but would've been in the '85 tourney (and John DiMurro and the $13k total would've been the odd man out).
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5/29/83 was a Sunday, so I think the clip featured was the introduction of the cash jackpot unless NBC spoiled the outcome of the following day's episode.
I'm thinking they did. Supposedly Maureen made it to the jackpot in five shows, so she would have been the one next to Jim.
I've been wanting to visit DC for years now, and if I ever go I should check out the Library of Congress and see if the stash of NBC program cards they have there includes anything Sale related.
ETA: The fish (https://www.ebay.com/itm/166802454893?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=PhoufLbUQNC&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=drl95soUQmG&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY) is on eBay (or one of his cousins, anyway).
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And now down to $100.
/I might buy if it had $200 for pots and pans in its mouth.
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Regarding Ray Winston's non-participation in the '83 TOC, I wonder if the person we'd previously identified in that pic is actually Michael Todaro; perhaps he shaved his head and got a tan the previous summer. :)
I'm also trying to confirm an additional tidbit from a YouTube commenter on one of Laura Chambers' episodes: supposedly, the $10 and $15 money cards were added on Memorial Day of '83. It was May 30 that year which would place it a week after the cash jackpot was introduced. I'd think of the 23rd as a more likely date though; it would have been hard for Maureen to make it to $510 in five days without some extra dosh from the Fame Game.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzvhLVwYZ0c - Ooh, a snippet of a circa April 1984 show! :D
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What was “true or false” on the Fame Game board?
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I imagine questions are posed and money could be won for proper judgment.