Find One Episode

[trainman]

[quote name=\'trainman\' post=\'248241\' date=\'Sep 24 2010, 09:15 PM\']And there are a number of '60s "Supermarket Sweep" episodes in the collection of the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago.[/quote]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'248302\' date=\'Sep 25 2010, 06:51 PM\']This is a decades-old memory, but I believe the Chicago museum (whatever it's called) has -- or had -- a handful of original Sweep episodes.  I remember finding them in the database during a search and not choosing them at the time because I was looking for quizzers.[/quote]

Yes, I believe it's called the Museum of Broadcast Communications.

I watched one of the episodes there, which I chose because it was taped in my hometown. It was the first time I learned of the existence of Food Fair supermarkets.

[wiseguy182]

the second chance pilot is out there. the first copy i got was in grade F quality, but it must have been remastered or something, because the second copy i got was in much better quality.

[MrBuddwing]

1. Any one episode of "PDQ" from the week that the "home team" was made up of Peter Marshall and Tom Kennedy and the "challenger" celebrity was Monty Hall (that's right, four game show hosts on the same program, the fourth being PDQ's host, Dennis James).

2. Any one episode of "PDQ" from the week that the "home team" was made up of Don Adams and Barbara Feldon.

3. Any one episode of NBC's "The Match Game" in which the celebs were Liza Minnelli and Milton Berle (if childhood memory serves, it was the first time I'd ever seen Milton Berle in anything).

4. The episode of the original "Tic Tac Dough" featuring my sister's mother-in-law as a contestant.

5. The episode of the original "Jeopardy!" featuring my sister's mother-in-law as a contestant.

[MyronMMeyer]

I'd like to add any of the old Art Fleming Celebrity Jeopardys, which apparently were taken much more seriously than we think of them today. I'd especially like to see the one with Alex Trebek, if indeed he did play.

-M

[DoorNumberFour]

[quote name=\'MyronMMeyer\' post=\'248318\' date=\'Sep 26 2010, 07:52 AM\']I'd especially like to see the one with Alex Trebek, if indeed he did play.[/quote]
Wait, I've never heard of this. When/how did this happen?

[Neumms]

[quote name=\'Game Show Man\' post=\'248284\' date=\'Sep 25 2010, 06:50 PM\']They just added an episode of "Dotto" to tvsgameshow.com, TV4U's video site.[/quote]

Thanks very much. There's a bunch of good stuff there.

Seems like someone should have tried to bring back "Dotto." The play is more interesting than, say, "Tic Tac Dough," and it wouldn't seem like it needs to be rigged to work.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'DoorNumberFour\' post=\'248324\' date=\'Sep 26 2010, 11:51 AM\'][quote name=\'MyronMMeyer\' post=\'248318\' date=\'Sep 26 2010, 07:52 AM\']I'd especially like to see the one with Alex Trebek, if indeed he did play.[/quote]Wait, I've never heard of this. When/how did this happen?[/quote]
That little tidbit came from me, through a researcher and reference book co-author who prefers to remain anonymous.  Here's what I know, copied from a thread I started on the Sony Jeopardy board back in January:

Trebek HAS played Celebrity Jeopardy.  Thing is, it was in 1974.

Don't know if this has ever been mentioned, or if I've got a wonderful new nugget of information. I was checking over some notes a researcher gave me about the Fleming-era Jeopardy, and it turns out that Alex was a celebrity player late in the original run of the show. What my guy found were original paper records from NBC that documented some interesting information about special shows or happenings.

Trebek appeared on one show the week of April 1-5, 1974 (and no, this isn't an April Fool's gag) as part of a special week marking the show's 10th anniversary. The notes say his opponents were Bill Hayes (at the time, a popular soap star) and Bill Bixby. He doesn't have any record of how they performed, who the other celebrities were that week, or why the producers picked two guys named "Bill" for the same show. At the time, Trebek was the host of a short-lived game show called "The Wizard of Odds". In fact, the notes indicate that Trebek made a walk-on appearance a month earlier, on March 7th, to plug his new game.

Celebrity games tied to the show's anniversary were apparently a tradition of sorts, as was using NBC daytime stars as celebs for those shows. According to the notes, a second anniversary game in 1966 featured Hugh Downs, Don Morrow and Monty Hall, and an eighth anniversary game in 1972 featured Peter Marshall, Bill Cullen and Art James. I actually have some photos from the 1972 game in my stash of Bill Cullen stuff.

[Ian Wallis]

I thought the problem with Spin-Off was, while it exists, it is in a tape format that no current broadcast technology can use, and the cost to convert it is presumed to exceed any potential benefit. (Reportedly, this is why GSN didn't get through all of the earliest episodes of The Joker's Wild that were found at the same time.)

Hmmm...hadn't heard that one before but you may be right.  I was under the impression the whole series was converted, but when the ratings weren't that great GSN pulled it after 8 months.

[That Don Guy]

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' post=\'248331\' date=\'Sep 26 2010, 12:16 PM\']

I thought the problem with Spin-Off was, while it exists, it is in a tape format that no current broadcast technology can use, and the cost to convert it is presumed to exceed any potential benefit. (Reportedly, this is why GSN didn't get through all of the earliest episodes of The Joker's Wild that were found at the same time.)

Hmmm...hadn't heard that one before but you may be right.  I was under the impression the whole series was converted, but when the ratings weren't that great GSN pulled it after 8 months.[/quote]
That may be right - I'm pretty sure the reference to Spin-Off not being converted came from this forum, so it shouldn't be that hard to search and find out the facts about the early TJWs.

-- Don

[Ian Wallis]

Speaking of Joker's Wild, while it was great for us fans to see the beginnings of the show, if the ratings were that bad I wonder why GSN didn't jump ahead in the run and show episodes from - let's say - the summer of 1974 onwards.  Admittedly the show was kind of slow in the beginning, but by '74 it more closely resembled the syndicated version which was on GSN for years - and must have done a bit better ratings-wise.

Maybe they could have shown more of the network run that way.

[Blanquepage]

Speaking of Joker's Wild, while it was great for us fans to see the beginnings of the show, if the ratings were that bad I wonder why GSN didn't jump ahead in the run and show episodes from - let's say - the summer of 1974 onwards. Admittedly the show was kind of slow in the beginning, but by '74 it more closely resembled the syndicated version which was on GSN for years - and must have done a bit better ratings-wise.

I recall from many a source over the years that Joker's Wild (and Tic Tac Dough for that matter) were both of little ratings benefit to GSN no matter what version was being broadcast. Might explain why they never bothered putting Bullseye on the regular schedule.
There was even an article published years ago when Jake Tauber was still at the helm in which he stated that quizzers like TJW and TTD didn't do well for the network.

--Jamie

[WarioBarker]

They just added an episode of "Dotto" to tvsgameshow.com, TV4U's video site.

Thanks very much. There's a bunch of good stuff there.

Even better, especially for "Before They Were Stars" lovers -- it's the circulating 7/29/58 nighttime (NBC) episode with Connie Hines. Hard to believe that the show was just a few weeks away from being canned, setting off that huge chain reaction...

4. The episode of the original "Tic Tac Dough" featuring my sister's mother-in-law as a contestant.

5. The episode of the original "Jeopardy!" featuring my sister's mother-in-law as a contestant.

I'd love to hear more about these. Also, is there a PDQ celebrity listing I'm not aware of?

Obgameshow: Hey, I'll toss out another -- the first ABC Password from 1971.

[That Don Guy]

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' post=\'248365\' date=\'Sep 27 2010, 08:28 AM\']Speaking of Joker's Wild, while it was great for us fans to see the beginnings of the show, if the ratings were that bad I wonder why GSN didn't jump ahead in the run and show episodes from - let's say - the summer of 1974 onwards.  Admittedly the show was kind of slow in the beginning, but by '74 it more closely resembled the syndicated version which was on GSN for years - and must have done a bit better ratings-wise.[/quote]
They made a number of changes starting with the 11th episode - I think the only remaining differences from "the version everybody remembers" were:
(a) The champion still went first;
(b) They still had the "Joker's Jackpot" (I remember quite a few Joker's Jackpot winners in the first tournament), so this may have lasted a while;
© No car for winning five games;
(d) They switched to the "jokers and devils" bonus round, but not the "money and devils" one;
(e) I think they still had the "if you keep playing, you risk your winnings" rule.
Anybody have any idea when these were changed as well?

(In the first two weeks, triples were worth $150 instead of $200, and three Jokers won the game without having to answer a question; there was also an entirely different bonus round where each of the three reels showed a prize, and you could either take the three prizes on the first spin or give them all back for a second spin.)

(Speaking of TJW...was there ever a game where they used up all seven Mystery Category questions?)

-- Don

[J.R.]

[quote name=\'Dan88\' post=\'248390\' date=\'Sep 28 2010, 12:35 AM\']Obgameshow: Hey, I'll toss out another -- the first ABC Password from 1971. There just aren't enough episodes of that thing.[/quote]
Your knowledge of game shows is so impressive.

[Ian Wallis]

They made a number of changes starting with the 11th episode - I think the only remaining differences from "the version everybody remembers" were:
(a) The champion still went first;
(b) They still had the "Joker's Jackpot" (I remember quite a few Joker's Jackpot winners in the first tournament), so this may have lasted a while;
© No car for winning five games;
(d) They switched to the "jokers and devils" bonus round, but not the "money and devils" one;
(e) I think they still had the "if you keep playing, you risk your winnings" rule.
Anybody have any idea when these were changed as well?

That was surprising to see that many changes so soon.  Interestingly enough, at the beginning of the 11th episode they had a carry-over contestant who first had to play the old bonus round.  The revised Joker's and Devils bonus was introduced later in that episode.  

The Joker's Jackpot rule was changed then too - for the first two weeks you had to win four games to claim it.  After that it was three.  Also, sometime early in 1973 they changed the rule that once you won the Joker's Jackpot you could keep playing as long as you hadn't reached the CBS maximun $25,000 yet.  In March 1973 a lady left with over $19,000 and was the biggest early winner in the show's history.

Does anybody know exactly when the Money and Devils bonus round started?  Was it after that special celebrity week in January 1974, or did it not start until later - closer to the summer maybe?  I'm sure I remember the Money and Devils bonus in the summer of '74 - and the theme changed around that time too.