$10,000/$20,000 Pyramid

[Pyramid20000]

Why is it that half of the shows episodes were destroyed, just curious?

[Bryce L.]

I would presume that it was due to the wipings being an ongoing thing until some kind of decision at ABC to stop wiping their shows in general around the beginning of 1978 (I know that's where the ongoing archives begin at for All My Children, One Life to Live, General Hospital and The Edge of Night, so I'd guess that the same would go for their game shows from 1978 forward also).

[whewfan]

There is promo picture of Dick Clark behind his podium for the $20,000 Pyramid. The podium is orange, and the Winner's Circle has its original color scheme. Did $20,000 Pyramid originally have the orange colors and later switch to blue?

[BillCullen1]

Did $20,000 Pyramid originally have the orange colors and later switch to blue? 

Yes

[whewfan]

It's too bad GSN doesn't have the early $20k Pyramids that have the orange set. There's a clip with Peter Lawford on 20k Pyramid chasing Dick Clark, and the chairs in the WC are still orange while the rest of the set is blue.

Here's another kinda silly question... did the later $10,000 Pyramid episodes have the show's logo on the podium? Also, at what point did they go from 8 answers per subject to 7? (When I used to play Pyramid online through ICQ in the OLD days, I had two categories called "Go For 8"- a bad pun on "go for it", which you  had to get  8 answers in 30 seconds instead of 7 and a cash bonus for getting

[Vahan_Nisanian]

It's too bad GSN doesn't have the early $20k Pyramids that have the orange set. There's a clip with Peter Lawford on 20k Pyramid chasing Dick Clark, and the chairs in the WC are still orange while the rest of the set is blue.

Here's another kinda silly question... did the later $10,000 Pyramid episodes have the show's logo on the podium? Also, at what point did they go from 8 answers per subject to 7? (When I used to play Pyramid online through ICQ in the OLD days, I had two categories called "Go For 8"- a bad pun on "go for it", which you  had to get  8 answers in 30 seconds instead of 7 and a cash bonus for getting

It became 7 in 30 seconds when the show moved to ABC.

To answer the other question: Yes, it did.

[Ian Wallis]

It seems likely that GSN has all the ABC episodes from '78 to the end.  They aired about six months worth of them in the late '90s and never really went back to them.  I wonder if the CBS version got better ratings on GSN.  They were aired for years on USA and the ABC episodes have largely gone unaired.  To me they'd seem "fresher".

As for episodes being destroyed, we've covered that frequently in the past, but the good news is new discoveries are being made all the time.  There are quite a number of pre-'78 episodes available on youtube.

[Vahan_Nisanian]

If I lived in the 1970's, and I had a U-Matic tape machine, I'd tape ALL the episodes of the New York era of Pyramid from $10K to $50K.

[clemon79]

I wonder what blank U-Matic tapes cost in the 1970s.

[TLEberle]

If I lived in the 1970's, and I had a U-Matic tape machine, I'd tape ALL the episodes of the New York era of Pyramid from $10K to $50K.

Thank you for this, I needed a really good thorough laugh today.

[Matt Ottinger]

If I lived in the 1970's, and I had a U-Matic tape machine, I'd tape all the episodes of New York era of Pyramid from $10K to $50K.

This is truly not meant as a criticism of you or your comment, but no you wouldn't.  For the same reason that people in the late seventies didn't record every single episode of their favorite game shows when VCRs were actually something people had in their home. Even beyond the practicality and expense issue, it's just something that would never have occurred to you to do. Or anyone else.  Maybe you tape an episode here or there, like Andy Warhol did, or like I did in the 80s when I got my first Betamax.  (You're welcome:  )  But you don't keep them all.

Now if you had a time machine and wanted to go BACK to the 70s and record those shows on U-Matic, I'll come along and help!

OK, I didn't mean for the window to open up, and I don't know how to fix that.

[Matt Ottinger]

I wonder what blank U-Matic tapes cost in the 1970s.

In 1981, my fellow students in the advanced TV production class had the option of paying the school $20 for a U-Matic copy of our final project.  I did not, short-sightedly thinking since I didn't have a player I wouldn't have much use for it.  And thus the world is deprived of the first game show I ever produced.

[Bob Zager]

I would presume that it was due to the wipings being an ongoing thing until some kind of decision at ABC to stop wiping their shows in general around the beginning of 1978 (I know that's where the ongoing archives begin at for All My Children, One Life to Live, General Hospital and The Edge of Night, so I'd guess that the same would go for their game shows from 1978 forward also).

IIRC, it was around this same time, that Pyramid, and all other daytime game shows, began showing a "Copyright" year in the closing credits, and I've started to wonder if there is some relevancy to this.  The weekly syndicated versions always showed a "Copyright," caption AFAIK.

[Eric Paddon]

It's too bad GSN doesn't have the early $20k Pyramids that have the orange set. There's a clip with Peter Lawford on 20k Pyramid chasing Dick Clark, and the chairs in the WC are still orange while the rest of the set is blue.

That's from March 1976.   We have an episode from the week before that where contestant Sue Dolleris won $10K at the last second with Nipsey Russell (and which in later years was the WC clip they would show before the Lawford one in opening montages) that shows that transitional color scheme.

No one may have taped every episode of Pyramid but NY Pyramid is the one 70s show that I have seen a higher percentage of off-air recordings of than any other game show.    There's upwards of 20 plus $20K shows from 1976 to 1980 (along with the $10K episodes recorded by the contestant from Week 1 and later winner Preston Jones) and about 30 or so $50K.

[Bryce L.]

^ And I would guess that the significant majority of them being from 1976 or later (as opposed to the 1973-1976 period) would simply be a reflection on the availability of home recording being more widespread in the later time frame, as compared to before 1976.