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From the many Mark Goodson-Bill Todman productions I've seen, it looks like on the electronic screen where the money readout is displayed, it seems as though seldom is a dollar sign in front of the money amount. I'm not talking about when a total is superimposed on the screen or shown pre-written or affixed onto a card or a part of the set, but the actual on-set electronic scoreboard.
Only on the Super Match readout, the Family Feud Bullseye/Bankroll round readouts or the Money Cards readout on Card Sharks (and even then not until the third year) do I recall seeing a $ on a GT scoreboard.
A $ would have filled that always vacant first position on the Body Language scoreboards.
To this day The Price Is Right keeps that tradition alive as the Showcase, Showcase Showdown, Plinko, Magic Number and Contestants' Row screens among others leave the $ off.
Are there others from the GT production house that do have the $ on there which I'm just not remembering? And are there any reasons for the lack of a "$"? Was Mark Goodson a $-phobe? The mind races with potential answers to this mystery.
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Wow.
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It's probably not there because it was it was just cheaper not to put the extra eggcrate or scorebord display there to show the "$".
Just an idea.
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Wow.
Either Chris is perplexed by the question or he's perplexed by the presence of the question (I lean towards the latter).
It's probably not there because it was it was just cheaper not to put the extra eggcrate or scorebord display there to show the "$".
But most of the displays mentioned already had the extra space for the $. I'll get a hold of my engineer contancts at NASA to see if they can decipher the mystery. :)
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I believe the $ was omitted to allow for compatibility in case the U.S. dollar was ever replaced with another form of currency.
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[quote name=\'Desperado\' date=\'Feb 12 2005, 07:35 PM\']I believe the $ was omitted to allow for compatibility in case the U.S. dollar was ever replaced with another form of currency.
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But, as the familiar saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
So, WHY would they think that the dollar would be replaced?
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It is a little-known fact that Goodson-Todman contestants were not paid in dollars, but rather in Flooz.
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[quote name=\'SplitSecond\' date=\'Feb 12 2005, 08:53 PM\']It is a little-known fact that Goodson-Todman contestants were not paid in dollars, but rather in Flooz.
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Was Whoopi Goldberg on the center?
Tyshaun
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Maybe it was assumed at some point that the games would be played for points, not dollars. So they didn't use the dollar signs.
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[quote name=\'WhammyPower\' date=\'Feb 12 2005, 06:42 PM\'][quote name=\'Desperado\' date=\'Feb 12 2005, 07:35 PM\']I believe the $ was omitted to allow for compatibility in case the U.S. dollar was ever replaced with another form of currency.
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But, as the familiar saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
So, WHY would they think that the dollar would be replaced?
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Oh. My. God.
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Oh, it's quite true, Mr. Clemon.
It's a widely documented fact that Goodson and Todman belonged to several anti-American extremist groups. Todman was a Nazi sympathizer and Goodson worked for the KGB in the 70's and early 80's. They despised capitalism and viewed the dollar sign to be the symbol of American greed; therefore, the $ is omitted from many of their scoreboard devices. After Goodson died, the $ began slowly appearing (as on Family Feud Challenge and TPIR's newer pricing games). And furthermore, MONKEYS WILL FLY OUT OF MY BUTT.
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[quote name=\'Desperado\' date=\'Feb 13 2005, 07:41 AM\']Goodson worked for the KGB in the 70's and early 80's.
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That of course being KGB radio (1360 on your AM dial) in San Diego. Yeah, that's the ticket. :)
ObGameShows: Dean Goss, who announced LMAD (1985-86) and Wink's HR, among others, did mornings at KGB in 1980-81.
Doug
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[quote name=\'Desperado\' date=\'Feb 13 2005, 05:41 AM\']It's a widely documented fact that Goodson and Todman belonged to several anti-American extremist groups. Todman was a Nazi sympathizer and Goodson worked for the KGB in the 70's and early 80's...
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Well, now that the story is beginning to leak I feel compelled to try and set the record straight.
Goodson's secret double-life as a government agent started with the OSS, the World War II era equivalent of today's CIA. He was positioned on the San Francisco coast to monitor the intelligence chatter for any mention of a possible Japanese attack on the mainland U.S. West coast. It was a noble mission that had him at the waterfront regularly, toiling at many jobs among the riff raff at the docks. This portion of his early life is alluded to in the A&E Biography in the discussion of his compulsive handwashing which developed from trying to remove the fishy smell from his essence.
In that era Goodson's path crossed many times with a local SFPD confidential informant named Merv Griffin. They would exchange information in the soundproof studios of KSFO where the station management cooperated with the OSS by hiring Goodson briefly as a station staff announcer. Unfortunately the Japanese attack that was almost successful occurred several hundred miles South of San Francisco and came without warning from the Bay Area operatives. The embarrassment led to a shake-up that ended Goodson's mission in the city by the bay.
Goodson was subsequently reassigned to the East coast to work on another mission, the details of which remain hazy. The documents available through the Freedom of Information Act concerning this era are still heavily redacted; some pages are almost completely blacked-out. Curiously, Merv Griffin and Goodson cooperated again so many years later in New York during this time. Watch those old tapes of "Play Your Hunch" carefully; even the title of the show alludes to the dual purposes of these two familiar operatives.
We do know that Goodson's teaming with Todman soon after his reassignment to New York was part of a government operation to infiltrate the Madison Avenue advertising community which was suspected of being rife with Communist sympathizers. The power of the advertising industry to subversively broadcast the Commie manifesto was apparent to the goverment. Todman went deep undercover, infiltrating that ad agency / country club crowd that became well known for their 3-martini lunches and their daily commutes to and from the Connecticut suburbs. As such, Todman would spent countless hours at the advertising industry's favorite Manhattan watering holes and in the bar car on the New Haven Railroad line between Grand Central and Greenwich.
A portion of this now stereotyped lifestyle was humorously portrayed in some of the Rock Hudson - Doris Day - Tony Randall movies of the early 1960s. That was one of the earliest pieces of evidence to the workings of what has only recently become known as the entertainment industry's "Gay Mafia". It was retaliation by a group at Universal Studios in Hollywood for the CIA's threatened "outing" of Hudson and others should they fail to cooperate with the government agenda.
Wait, I think I hear someone outside my window! I'd better run. More later!
Randy
tvrandywest.com
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Randy... seeing as they did a movie about Barris, they'll have to do one about Goody-Toddy... any idea who they've got on track to play the masterminds?
Ryan :)
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[quote name=\'Desperado\' date=\'Feb 13 2005, 08:41 AM\']Oh, it's quite true, Mr. Clemon.
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And I thought you looked like an idiot before.
Incidently, his last name is "Lemon" not "Clemon".
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[quote name=\'tvrandywest\' date=\'Feb 13 2005, 10:12 AM\'][quote name=\'Desperado\' date=\'Feb 13 2005, 05:41 AM\']It's a widely documented fact that Goodson and Todman belonged to several anti-American extremist groups. Todman was a Nazi sympathizer and Goodson worked for the KGB in the 70's and early 80's...
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Well, now that the story is beginning to leak I feel compelled to try and set the record straight.
<Post snipped to avoid overquotation.>
Randy
tvrandywest.com
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W0W! IS IT TROOO????? THANKS FOR THE INFO! :D :D :D
(Sorry, I couldn't resist.)
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[quote name=\'Modor\' date=\'Feb 13 2005, 12:40 PM\'][quote name=\'Desperado\' date=\'Feb 13 2005, 08:41 AM\']Oh, it's quite true, Mr. Clemon.
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And I thought you looked like an idiot before.
Incidently, his last name is "Lemon" not "Clemon".
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Mr. Modor, the guy's new. Save your vitrol for someone deserving.
I will handle corrections of my own 'nym as I see fit.
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[quote name=\'Modor\' date=\'Feb 13 2005, 02:40 PM\'][quote name=\'Desperado\' date=\'Feb 13 2005, 08:41 AM\']Oh, it's quite true, Mr. Clemon.
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And I thought you looked like an idiot before.
Incidently, his last name is "Lemon" not "Clemon".
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Sorry about that. I think I get it now, um....Mr. Odor.
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They would exchange information in the soundproof studios of KSFO
[zach] KFRC [/zach]
We do know that Goodson's teaming with Todman soon after his reassignment to New York was part of a government operation to infiltrate the Madison Avenue advertising community which was suspected of being rife with Communist sympathizers. The power of the advertising industry to subversively broadcast the Commie manifesto was apparent to the goverment.
Goodson's first wife, Bluma Neveleff, was a double agent for the Ruskies. It can now be told that, thanks to Bluma, Moscow infiltrated various Goodson-Todman shows, first with that flaming Commie Louis Untermeyer and later with -- get ready for this -- JANICE PENNINGTON!!! You think she knew nothing of Fritz' "double life"? Baloney! How do you think she had such easy access to Moscow?
Why do you think Goodson's favorite color was RED?
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We must remember that covert operations were not limited to the folks at Goodson-Todman. It has been known for some time that Peter Tomarken was an agent for the Mossad -- hence the "Oy, those Whammies!" comment that had to be edited out of every episode of Press Your Luck prior to broadcast.
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It has been known for some time that Peter Tomarken was an agent for the Mossad -- hence the "Oy, those Whammies!" comment that had to be edited out of every episode of Press Your Luck prior to broadcast.
And, as you all know, the $ sign disappeared on Michael Larson's podium when he won the $100,000. Food for thought... :)
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If all this is true, why hasn't anything "happened" to Zach for Knowing Too Much?
Uh, that is, I mean, the score readouts on Wheel of Fortune expanded from six to seven places--but on five-digit totals, the dollar sign disappeared! Merv thought he was out, but they dragged him back in . . .