Post by billmcdee on Sept 4, 2020 3:17:54 GMT -5
On this very date, way back on Labor Day 1972, while various stations were airing the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethon, CBS aired three brand new daytime game shows after having avoided game shows for quite some time.
One of them still airs to this very day in fact.
Where I lived at the time, near Trenton NJ, we had the best of both worlds, getting both New York and Philadelphia Stations, so I could watch either on WCBS Channel 2 in New York, or WCAU Channel 10 in Philadelphia. We tended to stick with the New York Stations. The debut of these shows happened just 2 days before my first day of Kindergarten. I remember being upset because I loved watching these shows, even though I was only 5 and didn't fully understand them, and yes, on a black and white television set no less. I had a.m. Kindergarten instead of p.m. Way back when, Kindergarten tended to only occur for half days and it wasn't until I began 1st grade that my school day was from 9:00am until 3:30pm. I was in first grade when we got our first color television set, which was huge back then, both in size and in enjoyment!
At 10:00am Eastern time, "The Joker's Wild" debuted with Jack Barry as host. Believe it or not, the program began without the Devil as part of their bonus game. That would come if memory serves two weeks later, starting on Monday, September 18th, with the Jokers & Devils bonus game. It wasn't until late '73 or early '74 that they had the money and devils end game.
At 10:30am Eastern, "The NEW Price is Right" with Bob Barker debuted on CBS. Bob would be at the helm for the first 35 seasons. Drew Carey has been hosting it already for 13 seasons which is very hard to believe. Those last 13 years really flew by for me, but then time does tend to go much faster once you become a parental unit! And believe it or not, there was no "Big Wheel" during the first 3 years of Price, since it was only a 30 minute program. Sadly today, even though it's on for an hour, due to endless commercials, it seems like the actual content of any given episode is barely 30 minutes anymore. I very much like Drew, nothing against him, but it is rare that the show has traditional game line ups anymore. Two car games still, but usually they play 3 or 4 quickie games now instead of just 2, since they seem to seldom if ever feature both a small prize game (e.g. Shell Game, Secret "X") AND a grocery item game (e.g. Hi Lo, Bullseye).
Speaking of which, did you know one of the first 5 original pricing games was called Bullseye? It was not the current game that used grocery items, rather, it was a game played for a new car, and it was impossible to win so they scrapped it early on and retooled it as the Clock Game. Any Number, Bonus Game, Double Prices and Grocery Game were the other 4 pricing games that were featured throughout the first week of programs, and all four of those games remain as part of the 77 pricing games in Prices' repertoire.
Then at 11am, one of my all time favorites (which I am bringing back), "Gambit" starring Wink Martindale as host and Elaine Stewart (Mrs. Merrill Heatter) as the dealer. Gambit did well in the ratings until it began going up against "Wheel of Fortune". In an interview, Wink Martindale recalls telling one of the Gambit producers that he watched an episode of "Wheel" and felt like they (Gambit) had nothing to worry about! Now here we are almost 5 decades later and Wheel is still a powerhouse, but now on primetime only. The daytime Wheel had almost as long a run on NBC as the original "Concentration". Wheel's original run fell short by just a few weeks or so I believe. Wheel on NBC ran from January 6, 1975 through I believe it was June 30, 1989, a total of 5,289 calendar days. The original Concentration on NBC ran from August 25, 1958 through March 23, 1973, or a total of 5,324 days.
Both Wheel and Gambit would return later on to NBC. Wheel rejoined the peacock network in 1991 and didn't last too very long as I recall. Gambit returned in October 1980 as "Las Vegas Gambit" with Martindale as host once again, but it too went off the air sadly in November 1981.
So there it is friends, a rather long game show history lecture. There will be a quiz later (grins).
One of them still airs to this very day in fact.
Where I lived at the time, near Trenton NJ, we had the best of both worlds, getting both New York and Philadelphia Stations, so I could watch either on WCBS Channel 2 in New York, or WCAU Channel 10 in Philadelphia. We tended to stick with the New York Stations. The debut of these shows happened just 2 days before my first day of Kindergarten. I remember being upset because I loved watching these shows, even though I was only 5 and didn't fully understand them, and yes, on a black and white television set no less. I had a.m. Kindergarten instead of p.m. Way back when, Kindergarten tended to only occur for half days and it wasn't until I began 1st grade that my school day was from 9:00am until 3:30pm. I was in first grade when we got our first color television set, which was huge back then, both in size and in enjoyment!
At 10:00am Eastern time, "The Joker's Wild" debuted with Jack Barry as host. Believe it or not, the program began without the Devil as part of their bonus game. That would come if memory serves two weeks later, starting on Monday, September 18th, with the Jokers & Devils bonus game. It wasn't until late '73 or early '74 that they had the money and devils end game.
At 10:30am Eastern, "The NEW Price is Right" with Bob Barker debuted on CBS. Bob would be at the helm for the first 35 seasons. Drew Carey has been hosting it already for 13 seasons which is very hard to believe. Those last 13 years really flew by for me, but then time does tend to go much faster once you become a parental unit! And believe it or not, there was no "Big Wheel" during the first 3 years of Price, since it was only a 30 minute program. Sadly today, even though it's on for an hour, due to endless commercials, it seems like the actual content of any given episode is barely 30 minutes anymore. I very much like Drew, nothing against him, but it is rare that the show has traditional game line ups anymore. Two car games still, but usually they play 3 or 4 quickie games now instead of just 2, since they seem to seldom if ever feature both a small prize game (e.g. Shell Game, Secret "X") AND a grocery item game (e.g. Hi Lo, Bullseye).
Speaking of which, did you know one of the first 5 original pricing games was called Bullseye? It was not the current game that used grocery items, rather, it was a game played for a new car, and it was impossible to win so they scrapped it early on and retooled it as the Clock Game. Any Number, Bonus Game, Double Prices and Grocery Game were the other 4 pricing games that were featured throughout the first week of programs, and all four of those games remain as part of the 77 pricing games in Prices' repertoire.
Then at 11am, one of my all time favorites (which I am bringing back), "Gambit" starring Wink Martindale as host and Elaine Stewart (Mrs. Merrill Heatter) as the dealer. Gambit did well in the ratings until it began going up against "Wheel of Fortune". In an interview, Wink Martindale recalls telling one of the Gambit producers that he watched an episode of "Wheel" and felt like they (Gambit) had nothing to worry about! Now here we are almost 5 decades later and Wheel is still a powerhouse, but now on primetime only. The daytime Wheel had almost as long a run on NBC as the original "Concentration". Wheel's original run fell short by just a few weeks or so I believe. Wheel on NBC ran from January 6, 1975 through I believe it was June 30, 1989, a total of 5,289 calendar days. The original Concentration on NBC ran from August 25, 1958 through March 23, 1973, or a total of 5,324 days.
Both Wheel and Gambit would return later on to NBC. Wheel rejoined the peacock network in 1991 and didn't last too very long as I recall. Gambit returned in October 1980 as "Las Vegas Gambit" with Martindale as host once again, but it too went off the air sadly in November 1981.
So there it is friends, a rather long game show history lecture. There will be a quiz later (grins).