The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: TheInquisitiveOne on July 12, 2003, 06:24:14 PM
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Can anyone tell me about the format of the short lived 1982-1983 NBC show Fantasy, Hosted by Peter Marshall?
The Inquisitive One
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It was hosted by Marshall and Leslie Uggams, FYI.
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The show was more along the lines of sob-story shows like \"Queen For A Day\" and \"Strike It Rich\" (with Warren Hull, not Joe Garagiola), where members of the studio audience, and even people at home, win prizes, services and money, if their cause is deemed worthy by Peter and Leslie.
The show only lasted roughly a year, and was replaced with a revival (in part) of Peter's old show -- \"The Match Game - Hollywood Squares Hour\".
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[quote name=\'rugrats1\' date=\'Jul 12 2003, 03:41 PM\'] The show was more along the lines of sob-story shows like "Queen For A Day" and "Strike It Rich" (with Warren Hull, not Joe Garagiola) [/quote]
Kinda. That makes it sound like people stood up and told sob stories in the audience in order to get prizes, and that wasn't always the case. Here's some of the pieces they did over the course of the hour:
* Show some kind of preproduced story, one of personal triumph or great loss or what have you, and then afterwards introduce the subjects of the story and \"make their Fantasy come true\" by giving them some prizes.
* Reunions, either done remotely or live on set.
Two bits you could pretty much count on seeing on every show:
* Four couples would be brought up onstage, and instructed to secretly choose among four prizes or trip locations, with the caveat that they only won that trip if nobody else selected it. On occasion the lucky coincidence would occur where all four sets of contestants would select a different prize, and much rejoicing would occur.
* The \"Fantasy Fountain\" : A couple is stuck inside the Diamond Head / Kroeger BTC / you get the idea \"swirling whirlwind\" booth, with $50 bills blowing all around them. They got to keep whatever they got into the purse after a minute.
That was the general idea. Like I said before, the concept was fairly lighthearted as opposed to playing \"Who Can Be More Pathetic?\", the set was fairly bright, and overall as opposed to watching a soap opera, it was a pretty painless hour of network daytime television.
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That game where the four players or couples won their choice of prizes if no one else selected it was borrowed from the late 60s Heatter-Quigley show \"Temptaton\"(Fantasy was a Heatter solo production in association with COlumbia Pictures). Write a Check was another variation on this game, where a player wrote in an amount from $100 to $900 in $100 increments, and won that amount if no one else picked it.
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Peter Marshall's Fantasy?
I believe that involved Abby Dalton and some whipped cream.
For the record, GSN has shown Fantasy, to my knowledge, precisely once. It aired on the day the network debuted, and unless it was a brief Dark Period stopgap, I don't think it's been seen since.
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[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Jul 12 2003, 07:30 PM\'] Peter Marshall's Fantasy?
I believe that involved Abby Dalton and some whipped cream. [/quote]
Did Harry Freidman or Jay Redack write that for you? :)
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[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Jul 12 2003, 07:30 PM\'] <Funny stuff snipped>
For the record, GSN has shown Fantasy, to my knowledge, precisely once. It aired on the day the network debuted, and unless it was a brief Dark Period stopgap, I don't think it's been seen since. [/quote]
Wasn't it a Game of the Week once or twice also?
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It never aired during the Dark Period or as a Game of the Week. The GOTW segment would have to have been extended as Fantasy was an hour long show and the GOTW was a 30 minute block of time.
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[quote name=\'zachhoran\' date=\'Jul 12 2003, 07:43 PM\'] It never aired during the Dark Period or as a Game of the Week. The GOTW segment would have to have been extended as Fantasy was an hour long show and the GOTW was a 30 minute block of time. [/quote]
Didn't know that. Sorry.
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I remember attending some sort of home show at age nine and seeing some display with a swirling whirlwind set up - I assume to represent all the money their A/C unit would save you if you used it.
I clearly recall saying \"Look! It's the Fantasy Fountain!\"
Guy said it'd been the fifth time he'd heard that today. :)
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Quote:
For the record, GSN has shown Fantasy, to my knowledge, precisely once. It aired on the day the network debuted, and unless it was a brief Dark Period stopgap, I don't think it's been seen since.
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There was one other time that same episode was shown: on the first anniversary on Dec 1, 1995. They repeated the opening marathon on that day.
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The other regular segment that appeared on the show was \"Fantasy Spotlight,\" where new musical talent got a shot at television exposure. Don't know if anyone famous came out of that spot.
And there's why you haven't seen \"Fantasy\" on GSN (outside of the obscurity factor)--that old devil music clearance rearing its ugly head again.
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They often sang the popular songs of the day like the Police's Every Breath you Take, etc.
The show also had a Sweepstakes with a top prize of over $250K Cash and Prizes, co-sponsored by Hardee's. It was the most ever offered on a daytime TV game show up to that point.
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This is one show I actually remembered watching and I was enthralled as a child by that Fantasy Money Fountain. It was a cool show. I voted for it during the Feast of Favorites.
Tim :-)
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As Randy Amasia said regarding PYL, one will look at the show 15 or 20 years later as an adult and realize what they saw in it(PAX's Beat the CLock uses the Diamond Head bonus and Fantasy Fountain-esque gimmick for their bonus round)
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One thing I remember is that Glenn Scarpelli used to be on a lot.
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it's that whole damned young demographics thing that had Heatter and the folks at Columbia Pictures tap Scarpelli(who did a couple of weeks of Battlestars around that time) as a co-host. Didn't help the show :)
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One thing I remember is that Glenn Scarpelli used to be on a lot.
As a celebrity guest host, no doubt...later in the run, a different guest co-host would join Peter and Leslie each wk (Jon-Erik Hexum was one).
Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious \"Chuckie Baby\")