Author Topic: Celebrity Sweepstakes (Read 12471 times)

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #15 on:** February 15, 2010, 11:58:49 PM »

[quote name=\'davemackey\' post=\'235973\' date=\'Feb 15 2010, 11:41 PM\']Carol Wayne actually turned out to be one of those who would be trusted to come up with the correct answer; she actually had a brain inside that impossibly buxom body of hers.[/quote]
I'm sorry, I enjoyed Carol Wayne as much as any sixteen-year-old boy watching Celebrity Sweepstakes or the Tea Time Movie, and you can make all the noise you want to about Mr. Standards and Mr. Practices, but I refuse to believe that somebody with her image and something to prove, and whose husband was the producer, wasn't getting help.

TLEberle · « **Reply #16 on:** February 16, 2010, 12:03:15 AM »

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'235974\' date=\'Feb 15 2010, 08:58 PM\']and you can make all the noise you want to about Mr. Standards and Mr. Practices, but I refuse to believe that somebody with her image and something to prove, and whose husband was the producer, wasn't getting help.[/quote]At some point, if Carol is right every time, the contestants would start betting on her, the crowd would pick her, and it would all level out, right?

Craig Karlberg · « **Reply #17 on:** February 16, 2010, 04:33:34 AM »

If the wagering perameters were $2, $5 & $10, wasn't there a special wager that allowed players to "wager the favorittes" if they had at least $100(or was it $50)? I thought I remembered hearing something like that at some point in the run.

I DO remember that if no celebrity got the question right, a raspy sounding horn goes off & the question's been "scratched". That usually happens about once or twice per show. Also, if only one celebrity got it right, a triangle-like sound was heard/ Was there a bonus prize attatched to whoever picked that lone celeb?

Ian Wallis · « **Reply #18 on:** February 16, 2010, 05:07:17 PM »

Quote

I remember an up and coming young singer from Australia named Olivia Newton-John playing the game once.

You're right. I was actually going over some old TVGuides from 1974 this past weekend and noticed that she played the game within a few weeks of its premiere.

Quote

At some point, if Carol is right every time, the contestants would start betting on her, the crowd would pick her, and it would all level out, right?

FWIW, the final question odds were based on how many questions celebrities missed during the show. For example, if someone missed 2 questions, they were 2:1 on the final question. Carol always seemed to have rather low odds at the end - meaning she usually only missed 1 or 2 questions the whole show.

I guess what I'm trying to point out is that contestants could make a lot of money on Carol during the regular game play, but on the final question where the champion was usually decided, they'd usually have to go elsewhere to make really big bucks.

BillCullen1 · « **Reply #19 on:** February 17, 2010, 03:04:33 AM »

[quote name=\'Craig Karlberg\' post=\'235981\' date=\'Feb 16 2010, 04:33 AM\']If the wagering perameters were $2, $5 & $10, wasn't there a special wager that allowed players to "wager the favorittes" if they had at least $100(or was it $50)? I thought I remembered hearing something like that at some point in the run.

I DO remember that if no celebrity got the question right, a raspy sounding horn goes off & the question's been "scratched". That usually happens about once or twice per show. Also, if only one celebrity got it right, a triangle-like sound was heard/ Was there a bonus prize attatched to whoever picked that lone celeb?[/quote]

IIRC, if only one celeb had the right answer, the contestant could bet up to $100 (If they had that much). This happened once when Bill Cullen was on, and he was the only one with the right answer.

Carol Wayne was nice to look at, and smart as a whip to boot. I don't think she was "helped" in any way with the answers since that would be considered "rigging" which would not make S&P happy.

Eric Paddon · « **Reply #20 on:** February 17, 2010, 12:26:11 PM »

Apparently some celebrities did get briefed with questions and answers because Gil Fates in his book on WML when talking about Standards and Practices, reprints in full the disclaimer from "Celebrity Sweeptakes".

"Some of the questions were based on general and specific knowledge and information furnished by the celebrities to the production company prior to the show. Celebrities have been furnished with joke answers AS WELL AS WITH SOME OF THE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS." (emphasis added).

This wasn't too dissimilar from the disclaimer that ran over the end of HSQ which Fates also quotes. "The areas of questioning designed for each celebrity and possible bluff answers are discussed with each celebrity in advance. In the course of their briefing, ACTUAL QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS MAY BE GIVEN OR DISCERNED BY THE CELEBRITIES." (emphasis added)

If there was any thought that some celebs on Sweepstakes might get some questions ahead of time, apparently the disclaimer was enough to satisfy Standards and Practices.

Dbacksfan12 · « **Reply #21 on:** February 17, 2010, 12:44:06 PM »

[quote name=\'BillCullen1\' post=\'236023\' date=\'Feb 17 2010, 03:04 AM\']I don't think she was "helped" in any way with the answers since that would be considered "rigging" which would not make S&P happy.[/quote]Why? Its still the contestant choice to wager and bet, is it not?

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #22 on:** February 17, 2010, 01:16:30 PM »

[quote name=\'Modor\' post=\'236037\' date=\'Feb 17 2010, 12:44 PM\'][quote name=\'BillCullen1\' post=\'236023\' date=\'Feb 17 2010, 03:04 AM\']I don't think she was "helped" in any way with the answers since that would be considered "rigging" which would not make S&P happy.[/quote]Why? Its still the contestant choice to wager and bet, is it not?[/quote]
I can see a theoretical difference, though. On Hollywood Squares, it doesn't much matter whether the celebrity was given the correct answer or not, since the responsibility of knowing is up to the contestant by agreeing or disagreeing with whatever was provided. On Celebrity Sweepstakes, the game as presented is different. A contestant is supposed to guess whether or not a given celebrity is smart enough to know the answer to a trivia question. If certain celebrities were given answers that they wouldn't otherwise know, it changes the entire complexion of the game since the contestants have no way of knowing which celebrities were being fed answers.

Doesn't make the game "rigged" since the contestants are all equally in the dark, but it does make the central conceit of the show less relevant.

Also, turns out we once had a member here who claimed to have been told that celebrities were fed answers, but that the process eventually stopped. On the other hand, Curt Alliaume spoke to both Jim MacKrell and producer Ralph Andrews who insisted that celebs weren't getting help. Still (on the other other hand), if the first story is to be believed, it sounds like Ralph Andrews ran the show on the up-and-up and that Sugarman was the one feeding answers. MacKrell wouldn't really have been in a position to know for sure one way or the other.

I remain convinced that Mrs. Sugarman wanted to show she was more than a dumb blonde, whether that was actually true or not, and hubby helped make that happen.

Bob Zager · « **Reply #23 on:** February 17, 2010, 02:33:50 PM »

[quote name=\'davemackey\' post=\'235973\' date=\'Feb 15 2010, 11:41 PM\']There was some sort of legal disagreement in the early days of the show over its ownership, but I think it was settled by making it a co-production of Ralph Andrews and Burt Sugarman.[/quote]

Yes, and the revised format of the show, used during the show's last few months, was billed solely as a Ralph Andrews Production (Executive Producer was Larry Hovis, of "Hogan's Heroes.")

Incidently, during the time that Burt Sugarman's name was billed for the show, the Alan Thicke theme music was used. The original theme music, by Stan Worth, returned when the new format, mentioned above, was used.

calliaume · « **Reply #24 on:** February 17, 2010, 03:28:51 PM »

[quote name=\'Eric Paddon\' post=\'236035\' date=\'Feb 17 2010, 12:26 PM\']Apparently some celebrities did get briefed with questions and answers because Gil Fates in his book on WML when talking about Standards and Practices, reprints in full the disclaimer from "Celebrity Sweeptakes".

"Some of the questions were based on general and specific knowledge and information furnished by the celebrities to the production company prior to the show. Celebrities have been furnished with joke answers AS WELL AS WITH SOME OF THE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS." (emphasis added).

This wasn't too dissimilar from the disclaimer that ran over the end of HSQ which Fates also quotes. "The areas of questioning designed for each celebrity and possible bluff answers are discussed with each celebrity in advance. In the course of their briefing, ACTUAL QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS MAY BE GIVEN OR DISCERNED BY THE CELEBRITIES." (emphasis added)

If there was any thought that some celebs on Sweepstakes might get some questions ahead of time, apparently the disclaimer was enough to satisfy Standards and Practices.[/quote]
I'll expand on what Matt wrote above.

I put this disclaimer on my web site when it first started, pulling it straight from the Fates book. A couple of years later, I got an urgent note from Jim MacKrell (which led to an hour-and-a-half phone conversation -- he's a heck of a nice guy). Stars were *not* given the answers in advance, according to Jim (and Ralph Andrews, who wrote me later on). I don't know how they got so many correct answers -- perhaps the questions were easier as the show rolled along.

Other tidbits:

- Carol Wayne may have been as smart as most of us think; MacKrell said when they weren't taping, she always had her nose in a book.
- MacKrell, by the way, is the correct spelling of his last name; some productions used an alternate spelling to keep people from pronouncing it "mackerel" (like the fish).
- MacKrell is a staunch defender of Lin Bolen, who gave him valuable advice on hosting (i.e. the stars and the contestants are the focus, not you).
- He knew the show was coming to an end when he was offered a pilot for another production company while Sweepstakes was still running. However, this was not good news for him; he and his wife had just bought a new house based on the assumption it would be around awhile longer.
- There was a brief flurry of interest in reviving the show around 2000 or so, in the wake of the success of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and the Hollywood Squares revival. (At one point Burt Sugarman's office contacted me to ask how they could find Ralph Andrews.)
- Bill Armstrong was one of the funniest people ever, according to MacKrell -- much more so off camera than on.

I'll dig up my notes on the MacKrell conversation sometime.

Ian Wallis · « **Reply #25 on:** February 17, 2010, 05:08:53 PM »

Quote

- Bill Armstrong was one of the funniest people ever, according to MacKrell -- much more so off camera than on.

Usually the show had four male celebrities and two females. One taping day, one of the female celebrities couldn't make it on time, and Bill sat in for the first three shows, meaning there were five men on the panel, and Carol. The female celebrity (don't remember who it was) did show up for the last two shows.

davemackey · « **Reply #26 on:** February 17, 2010, 09:54:18 PM »

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' post=\'236058\' date=\'Feb 17 2010, 05:08 PM\']

Quote

- Bill Armstrong was one of the funniest people ever, according to MacKrell -- much more so off camera than on.

Usually the show had four male celebrities and two females. One taping day, one of the female celebrities couldn't make it on time, and Bill sat in for the first three shows, meaning there were five men on the panel, and Carol. The female celebrity (don't remember who it was) did show up for the last two shows.
[/quote]
Well, who did the announcing that day? I think the alternate announcers were Joe Seiter and John Harlan.

Jimmy Owen · « **Reply #27 on:** February 17, 2010, 10:20:09 PM »

[quote name=\'davemackey\' post=\'236072\' date=\'Feb 17 2010, 09:54 PM\'][quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' post=\'236058\' date=\'Feb 17 2010, 05:08 PM\']

Quote

- Bill Armstrong was one of the funniest people ever, according to MacKrell -- much more so off camera than on.

Usually the show had four male celebrities and two females. One taping day, one of the female celebrities couldn't make it on time, and Bill sat in for the first three shows, meaning there were five men on the panel, and Carol. The female celebrity (don't remember who it was) did show up for the last two shows.
[/quote]
Well, who did the announcing that day? I think the alternate announcers were Joe Seiter and John Harlan.
[/quote]
Ian can confirm, but I think Bill multi-tasked that day as panelist and announcer. I remember Dick Tufeld announcing the second syndie run.

Mr. Bill · « **Reply #28 on:** February 18, 2010, 10:52:30 AM »

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'236038\' date=\'Feb 17 2010, 01:16 PM\']but it does make the central conceit of the show less relevant.[/quote]
Surely you don't mean this, Matt!

The "P" key is two doors over to the right.

/Mr. Sugar Daddy hasn't had any problems finding women -- remember who he's married to now...

clemon79 · « **Reply #29 on:** February 18, 2010, 11:45:34 AM »

[quote name=\'Mr. Bill\' post=\'236089\' date=\'Feb 18 2010, 07:52 AM\']Surely you don't mean this, Matt!

The "P" key is two doors over to the right.[/quote]
Please to be looking up "conceit."