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Author Topic: This Week's TV Game Show Almanac  (Read 4573 times)

AH3RD

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This Week's TV Game Show Almanac
« on: January 23, 2005, 02:48:52 PM »
JANUARY 26, 1981


The $50,000 Pyramid
, a fourth version of Bob Stewart's legendary Pyramid game show, had its syndicated debut, an almost-full 6 months after the demise of The $20,000 Pyramid on ABC. The debut week saw celebrities JoAnne Worley and Sal Viscuso as the first guests, even though they weren't the first episodes produced for the game; those guested Didi Conn and Brian Patrick-Clarke.

This was the Pyramid which introduced the "round-robin style tournament" format of the series, something which would also be employed for the $100,000 version in 1985. First visit to The Winner's Circle was now worth $5,000, and the second, $10,000. In addition, a new title called "The Player Of The Week" was bestowed upon a civilian member of a team for winning a bonus prize for setting a new record for the week in the main game (e.g. for identifying all seven words in record time). In addition, the contestant who ID'd clues in the fastest time at the end of the week earned the chance to compete in the $50,000 Tournament. The very first victor of the $50K prize was Colleen Messina (on April 3, 1981), with the aid of her celebrity partner Soupy Sales on the category "Things That Are Continued" with four seconds remaining!

The unfortunately short 5-month life of $50,000 Pyramid which resulted can be attributed to a great many factors, but the most obvious are the couple of elements which made it old-hat: the set, which was a reworking of the old $20,000 set, and the omnipresent theme, Ken Aldin's "Tuning Up," which had been the main theme of Pyramid for some 8 years and by this time sounded as if it were a scratchy record played on AM radio. The last new telecasts aired during the week of July 20, with celebrity guests Didi Conn and Nipsey Russell; repeats continued through August, and CBN (now ABC Family) picked up repeats in summer 1982.

Therefore, when it was decided to revive Pyramid for CBS-TV (the very network which carried the original $10,000 Pyramid for just one season and watched in horror as ABC took the game to greater heights) in September 1982, a few alterations were made: Spice up the musical theme! Revamp the set! Slash the dollar amount in half! Move the show to new digs!! But keep Dick Clark as host!!! This new format was workable, and so it was that The New $25,000 Pyramid went on to thrill new viewers as well as its old fans.
« Last Edit: January 23, 2005, 04:07:57 PM by AH3RD »
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passwordplus

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This Week's TV Game Show Almanac
« Reply #1 on: January 24, 2005, 02:22:46 PM »
Has this version(50k) ever aired on GSN?

BrandonFG

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This Week's TV Game Show Almanac
« Reply #2 on: January 24, 2005, 02:28:50 PM »
No...it's owned by a different entity.
"They're both Norman Jewison movies, Troy, but we did think of one Jew more famous than Tevye."

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Don Howard

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This Week's TV Game Show Almanac
« Reply #3 on: January 24, 2005, 03:00:35 PM »
Plus! JANUARY 23, 1984
The premiere of Hot Potato starring Bill Cullen and a sign that hissed smoke. Unfortunately, that program caught a whiff of the celebrity bug and that helped doom the show.

passwordplus

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This Week's TV Game Show Almanac
« Reply #4 on: January 24, 2005, 03:30:54 PM »
[quote name=\'Don Howard\' date=\'Jan 24 2005, 03:00 PM\']Plus! JANUARY 23, 1984
The premiere of Hot Potato starring Bill Cullen and a sign that hissed smoke. Unfortunately, that program caught a whiff of the celebrity bug and that helped doom the show.
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How wuz et plade? Uh putato tozzed tu da conteztanz bi bell kollen? Dat wud b uh gud ideah four uh gam sho!(lol)

Out of the different shows I've seen Bill Cullen host, I think he did best with this one, and it should have lasted longer(if it wouldn't been for the damn celebrity format!)

mystery7

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This Week's TV Game Show Almanac
« Reply #5 on: January 24, 2005, 06:42:23 PM »
[quote name=\'passwordplus\' date=\'Jan 24 2005, 03:30 PM\']Out of the different shows I've seen Bill Cullen host, I think he did best with this one, and it should have lasted longer(if it wouldn't been for the damn celebrity format!)
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Then again, if NBC hadn't given it the Noon Slot Of Death, Hot Potato probably wouldn't have needed the celebs.

zachhoran

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This Week's TV Game Show Almanac
« Reply #6 on: January 24, 2005, 07:00:43 PM »
[quote name=\'AH3RD\' date=\'Jan 23 2005, 02:48 PM\']JANUARY 26, 1981


The unfortunately short 5-month life of $50,000 Pyramid which resulted can be attributed to a great many factors, but the most obvious are the couple of elements which made it old-hat: the set, which was a reworking of the old $20,000 set, and the omnipresent theme, Ken Aldin's "Tuning Up," which had been the main theme of Pyramid for some 8 years and by this time sounded as if it were a scratchy record played on AM radio.

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Ratings was a bigger factor. It got less-than-stellar time slots, winding up in a late night time slot in NYC on WPXI, for example.