ABC Carnival '74 Across the Board Baloney Bamboozle Be What You Want Beat The Genius Beat The Odds (1962) Beat The Odds (1975) Bedtime Stories The Better Sex The Big Money The Big Payoff Big Spenders Blank Check Body Language Body Talk The Buck Stops Here Bullseye Call My Bluff Card Sharks (1996) Casino Caught in the Act Celebrity Billiards Celebrity Doubletalk Celebrity Secrets Celebrity Sweepstakes Chain Letter (1964) The Challengers (1974) Change Partners Child's Play The Choice Is Yours Combination Lock (1996) Comedy Club Concentration (1985) The Confidence Game Cop Out Countdown (1974) Countdown (1990) The Couples Race Crossword Decisions, Decisions Dollar a Second Duel in the Daytime The Fashion Show Fast Friends $50,000 a Minute Finish Line (1975) Finish Line (1990) Get Rich Quick Going, Going, Gone! Head of the Class High Rollers Hollywood Squares (1965) Hollywood Squares (1985) The Honeymoon Game Hot Numbers Hot Potato House to House How Do You Like Your Eggs? Jackpot (1984) Jeopardy (1977) Jokers Wild Jumble Key Witness Keynotes (1986) King of the Hill Let's Make a Deal (1963) Let's Make a Deal (1990) The Love Experts M'ama Non M'ama Match Game (1962) Match Game (1973) Match Game (1990) Match Game (1996) MatchGame (2008) Mindreaders Missing Links Monday Night QB Money Words Money in the Blank Moneymaze Monopoly (1987) Nothing But the Truth Now You See It (1986) Oddball 100% PDQ Party Line People On TV Play For Keeps Play Your Hunch The Plot Thickens Pot O' Gold Pressure Point The Price Is Right (1972) Pyramid (1996) Pyramid (1997) A Question of Scruples Quick as a Flash Razzle Dazzle Riddlers Run For The Money Says Who? Scrabble (1990) Second Guessers Second Honeymoon Sharaize Shoot for the Stars Shoot the Works Shopping Spree Show Me Showoffs Simon Says $64,000 Question (2000) Smart Alecks Smart Money Spellbinders Spin-Off Split Decision Star Cluster Star Play Strictly Confidential TKO Talking Pictures (1968) Talking Pictures (1976) Tell It to Groucho Temptation (1981) $10,000 Sweep Three of a Kind Tic Tac Dough Tie-Up Top Secret Twenty One (1982) Twenty Questions Twisters Up and Over The Waiting Game We've Got Your Number What Do You Want? What's On Your Mind Wheel of Fortune Whew! Whodunit Whose Baby Wipeout Word Grabbers Write Your Own Ticket You Bet Your Life (1988) You Bet Your Life (1991) You're Putting Me On Show a Random Pilot Show Unreviewed Pilots Bob Stewart Flow Chart | Big SpendersProducer: Carruthers/Warner Brothers/NBC Host: Jack Clark Announcer: Joe Seiter Taping Info: 1975, probably Los Angeles Other Pilots: October 27, 1974, hosted by Pat Harrington Made it to Air: No Availability: UCLA Archive Big Spenders was an auction based spending game hosted by Mr. Failed Pilot himself, Jack Clark. Three pairs of married couples played in this game in order to win prizes based on the betting skills of their spouse. In the beginning, the players are staked with the total dollar amount of the prizes to be given on the show, which for this episode was $7,441. The husbands were then showed the first prize, which was a kitchen table plus 6 chairs. The husbands then locked in the price they believed the prize would cost. The wives than began an auction for the prize with Jack Clark giving an opening bid of $1,700. If a wife bid a price higher than what her husband had locked in, they lost their chance for the prize. If the wife hit the price exact, the couple won the prize. One huge problem came very quickly � lack of a bidding interval. The bids started at a decent clip � $1,710, $1,725 � but then degenerated to single digits, with the next 10 bids just covering $28. In this first prize, two of the couples lost when the wife exceeded their husbands bid, leaving the prize to the winning couple at a price of $1,757, well below the actual price of $1,825. At this point, the bid made by their husbands were deducted from the couples total was deducted from their opening stake, meaning that the couple with the winning bid had their bank docked the most ($1,875). The game then was to continue with the spouses swapping roles (wives guessing and husbands auctioning) until a couple had won three prizes. The money stake then became important in the later rounds since the sum of the initial guesses could not exceed the stake given the players at the beginning. This wasn't a problem on this episode, since the couple who won the first prize also won a lovely green pants suit with a boa and a brass bed to win in just four tries, with one other couple winning a saw/workbench combo. Besides the prizes, they also won the money left in their stake ($2,338) and moved on to the bonus game. The bonus game was the saving grace of this show in my opinion. The winning couple is presented with three groups of prizes with each group containing three prizes. For example, the trip group had a 14-day Vienna trip, a 10-day Japan trip and a 10-day Rome trip. The other two groups were jewelry and cars. The wife then picked one prize from each group, with the caveat that you could only win the prizes if the total price of the three selected was greater than $10,000. After the wife chose, the husband could make changes as he see fit. In this particular show, Winnie the winning wife chose a 1.5 carat diamond, the 10 day Rome trip and a 2-door 1975 Buick Skyhawk. And Willie, the winning husband, chose to change the Skyhawk to a Buick Regal. This proved to be a winning move and final proof that the pilot was fixed, since Winnie's choices totaled only $9,976, while Willie's change broke the bank and upped the total to $10,498, making them a happy couple. And also a departing couple, since there are no repeat champions on Big Spenders. I assume this game was made in reaction to the wild popularity of The Price is Right. However, like Art James' Temptation, being just a pricing game without any true sizzle doesn't make a good game. The bonus game had a little intrigue, but the main game was just tedious. This pilot has been viewed 11180 times since October 6, 2008 and was last modified on Dec 12, 2009 14:46 ET |