Author Topic: The "Pyramid" Trilons (Read 16545 times)

JepMasta · « **on:** February 28, 2008, 02:23:05 PM »

Hey guys, call me dumb, but I have always wondered something. I used to love watching the $25,000 Pyramid and the $100K version, and I have always wanted to know, how did the trilons work? Did they have a stagehand behind them turning them?

Just curious

Brian~

clemon79 · « **Reply #1 on:** February 28, 2008, 02:33:21 PM »

[quote name=\'JepMasta\' post=\'179279\' date=\'Feb 28 2008, 11:23 AM\']
Hey guys, call me dumb, but I have always wondered something. I used to love watching the $25,000 Pyramid and the $100K version, and I have always wanted to know, how did the trilons work? Did they have a stagehand behind them turning them?[/quote]
Yes. Two of them. As we have mentioned here numerous times.

tvrandywest · « **Reply #2 on:** February 28, 2008, 02:46:57 PM »

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'179282\' date=\'Feb 28 2008, 11:33 AM\']
[quote name=\'JepMasta\' post=\'179279\' date=\'Feb 28 2008, 11:23 AM\']
Hey guys, call me dumb, but I have always wondered something. I used to love watching the $25,000 Pyramid and the $100K version, and I have always wanted to know, how did the trilons work? Did they have a stagehand behind them turning them?[/quote]
Yes. Two of them. As we have mentioned here numerous times.
[/quote]
Yes, with a stage manager to cue the two stagehands. Search the previous posts on this, I remember it was described in glorious detail.

Randy
tvrandywest.com

Robert Hutchinson · « **Reply #3 on:** March 02, 2008, 02:38:22 PM »

I know this is minutiae that no one would probably even remember (or care to remember), but I still wonder just what the setup was--mainly A) what means of reaching all the trilons rapidly they had, and B) how they coordinated the two stagehands. Did they rotate back and forth, or was one stagehand always the "current category" person? It keeps me up at night.

tvrandywest · « **Reply #4 on:** March 02, 2008, 02:56:45 PM »

[quote name=\'Robert Hutchinson\' post=\'179605\' date=\'Mar 2 2008, 11:38 AM\']
I know this is minutiae that no one would probably even remember (or care to remember), but I still wonder just what the setup was--mainly A) what means of reaching all the trilons rapidly they had, and B) how they coordinated the two stagehands. Did they rotate back and forth, or was one stagehand always the "current category" person? It keeps me up at night.
[/quote]
I think we went into great detail last time, but here's the short version:

The stage manager is on the floor below the two stagehands, who are both up in a scaffolding behind the trilons. Stagehand #1 is handling the first category, and stagehand #2 will handle the second category when the game gets there. They just alternate from then on, with stagehand #1 handling categories #3 and #5.

Upon a cue from the control room, the stage manager then cues the stagehand who is holding the trilon in play to turn it in either of the two directions (correct or illegal clue), while cueing the other stagehand to reveal the next category. At that same time when a category is revealed, the other stagehand prepares to turn the subsequent trilon, as it could happen quickly if there is a passed category. When a new stagehand is assigned to that aspect of the show, they rehearse the correography before taping.

Sleep well ;-)

Randy
tvrandywest.com

lobster · « **Reply #5 on:** March 02, 2008, 03:38:26 PM »

[quote name=\'tvrandywest\' post=\'179611\' date=\'Mar 2 2008, 01:56 PM\']
Upon a cue from the control room, the stage manager then cues the stagehand who is holding the trilon in play to turn it in either of the two directions (correct or illegal clue), while cueing the other stagehand to reveal the next category. At that same time when a category is revealed, the other stagehand prepares to turn the subsequent trilon, as it could happen quickly if there is a passed category. When a new stagehand is assigned to that aspect of the show, they rehearse the correography before taping.
[/quote]

Holy crap that's a lot of cues and coordination all to be executed so rapidly.. Are there any photos that exist of the behind-the-scenes?

clemon79 · « **Reply #6 on:** March 02, 2008, 03:54:32 PM »

[quote name=\'lobster\' post=\'179617\' date=\'Mar 2 2008, 12:38 PM\']
Holy crap that's a lot of cues and coordination all to be executed so rapidly.. Are there any photos that exist of the behind-the-scenes?
[/quote]
It's not, though, not with two people. Each person has to mind three boxes over the course of sixty seconds, and never more than one at a time. The only major move would be when Box One guy has to cross over his partner to get to Box Three.

I'm not trying to marginalize what they do, and certainly I am impressed with the flawlessness with which they do it, but I don't think it's a Herculean task in the least.

Neumms · « **Reply #7 on:** March 02, 2008, 04:02:26 PM »

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'179618\' date=\'Mar 2 2008, 03:54 PM\']
It's not, though, not with two people. Each person has to mind three boxes over the course of sixty seconds, and never more than one at a time. The only major move would be when Box One guy has to cross over his partner to get to Box Three.

I'm not trying to marginalize what they do, and certainly I am impressed with the flawlessness with which they do it, but I don't think it's a Herculean task in the least.

[/quote]

What was really amazing is that Concentration had 30 trilons, so 10 stagehands back there on the scaffolding to turn them, all in a much smaller space, as the boxes were smaller than Pyramid's.

No, no, just kidding.

Kevin Prather · « **Reply #8 on:** March 02, 2008, 04:07:05 PM »

[quote name=\'Neumms\' post=\'179619\' date=\'Mar 2 2008, 01:02 PM\']
What was really amazing is that Concentration had 30 trilons, so 10 stagehands back there on the scaffolding to turn them, all in a much smaller space, as the boxes were smaller than Pyramid's.

No, no, just kidding.
[/quote]
Somehow, I got an image of thirty midgets running around turning boxes, and I lol'd.

Jimmy Owen · « **Reply #9 on:** March 02, 2008, 04:43:37 PM »

Okay, now that we have that settled, how did BTB '76 work?

Robert Hutchinson · « **Reply #10 on:** March 02, 2008, 04:49:48 PM »

Thanks for the detailed reply, Randy. I'm actually pretty sure that I had asked the last time you mentioned that you got to see it up close, but you had probably already moved on to some silly paying job or other.

Yeah, that doesn't seem too complicated. When you're the "current category" stagehand, you're looking for either a "right", a "wrong", or a "pass". The stagehand at the next box is always only looking for a "reveal". Beyond what Chris said about going from #1 to #3, the only other cross-up issues might involve coming back to passed categories.

dale_grass · « **Reply #11 on:** March 03, 2008, 01:29:03 AM »

Who controlled the trilon lights?

chris319 · « **Reply #12 on:** March 03, 2008, 10:34:26 AM »

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'179618\' date=\'Mar 2 2008, 12:54 PM\']
[quote name=\'lobster\' post=\'179617\' date=\'Mar 2 2008, 12:38 PM\']
Holy crap that's a lot of cues and coordination all to be executed so rapidly.. Are there any photos that exist of the behind-the-scenes?
[/quote]
It's not, though, not with two people. Each person has to mind three boxes over the course of sixty seconds, and never more than one at a time. The only major move would be when Box One guy has to cross over his partner to get to Box Three.

I'm not trying to marginalize what they do, and certainly I am impressed with the flawlessness with which they do it, but I don't think it's a Herculean task in the least.

[/quote]
You've never worked on a game show, have you?

Quote

Concentration had 30 trilons, so 10 stagehands back there on the scaffolding to turn them, all in a much smaller space, as the boxes were smaller than Pyramid's.

And the sound effects guy off camera making the sound with his mouth (or maybe they hired Mel Blanc to record the sound and put it on a cart).

Quote

I got an image of thirty midgets running around turning boxes, and I lol'd.

Some of those little people stood on ladders to reach the upper rows (instead of using normal-sized people, see? Aw, never mind.)

lobster · « **Reply #13 on:** March 03, 2008, 11:48:09 AM »

I'm curious to know why trilons on any of these shows COULDN'T be automatic? It's not like there'd need to be any high degree of technology present in order to just have trilons spin and snap to certain positions automatically -- and it couldn't have been expensive to rig either; sounds like it could have been done simply with servos & magnets ..

or was this some sort of conspiracy by the Trilon Workers Union Local 106?

Mike Tennant · « **Reply #14 on:** March 03, 2008, 11:59:48 AM »

[quote name=\'lobster\' post=\'179701\' date=\'Mar 3 2008, 11:48 AM\']I'm curious to know why trilons on any of these shows COULDN'T be automatic? It's not like there'd need to be any high degree of technology present in order to just have trilons spin and snap to certain positions automatically -- and it couldn't have been expensive to rig either; sounds like it could have been done simply with servos & magnets .. [/quote]More to break, I would think. The Concentration board was apparently quite the pain at times.