In the Sande Stewart interview posted on these boards, he said that Willard Scott was who they wanted to be the host. But he made too many demands like first class tix to and from L.A., comped meals and five-star hotels. So they went with John.

Bob did what he was told to get a show on and keep his staff employed.  No questions asked.

Interesting. Thx for sharing. Do you know if the set was rebuilt entirely or had some of it been salvaged from the 80s?

Pure and simple—the distributor had sold the national time for the previous Clark version and believed it had been prematurely canceled.  He wanted exactly the same shoe he used to sell and orchestrated the “hand-off” that justified John.  He also was close with the executives at the company that sold Squares’ ad time ( I briefly worked for them) who knew John had a positive brand.  Bob did what he was told to get a show on and keep his staff employed.  No questions asked.

While I very much liked the "push" rule for the Money Cards, I kind of disliked it when it was at the Big Bet, if someone had $10,000 and an Ace, it was anti-climactic because you knew at WORST, they would win $10,000...I always felt the Big Bet should be subject to a push meaning a loss...

I disliked it when Wink's Tic Tac Dough introduced the red categories.  I realize they wanted to spice the game up some but I preferred the front game less spicy, especially when players were able to match wits round by round.

I don’t like the push rule at all. I realize I’m a curmudgeon, but it’s a gambling game. Offering a bet that you can’t lose feels unnatural.

I totally agree on the red categories. On Joker’s Wild, they’d present the strategic option of avoiding them, but not on Tic Tac. If they wanted to spice something up, spice up the bonus round.

I’ve been watching some of Davidson Pyramid on YouTube of late. I think I remember reading here that the set had been completely rebuilt for this revival but I could be making that up.

It does seem odd that they would have rebuilt that huge set rather than do something new to distinguish this version from the previous one that had just gone off the air a few years prior. It’s obvious that the big pyramid is different (larger trilons, etc), but the rest looks almost identical. I’d think maybe it was cost effective if other pieces of the 80s set were still sitting around somewhere and all they had to rebuild were the portions that weren’t saved. Otherwise, it seems strange that they’d so painstakingly recreate it exactly as it was if there was a budget to build all those big set pieces. I was just curious whether anyone here had any first hand info.

Thanks!