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 | Card Sharks (1996)Producer: All-American Television Host: Tom Green Assistants: Deedee Weathers Celebrities: David Hasselhoff, Cindy Garrett, Doug Davidson Taping Info: 1996 at Tribune Studios Made it to Air: Not this version. It was on the air in three previous incarnations (1978-1981, 1986-1989 network and 1986-1987 syndicated) plus a brief 2001 revival. If you've seen the 2001 revival, this one manages to be even worse. In 1995, All-American Television bought the assets of the Mark Goodson Productions format library partially to help Goodson's heirs pay off some hefty estate taxes. They take a look around, notice that only one of their properties (The Price is Right) is airing in America and decide they need to dust off some of the classics and get them back on the air. But not the stodgy way they were done in the '70s and '80s. This is the '90s! And we're the producers of Baywatch! Let's take some elements of Baywatch and put them into a game show! Tom Green, not the Canadian comedian but instead a local sports anchor for a Denver TV station and the former host of Sports on Tap is your new Jim Perry/Bob Eubanks/Bill Rafferty. And since this is Baywatch-meets-a-game-show, we need a bimbo. That position is filled by Dee Dee Weathers, whose credits up to that point consist of a short scene in Tank Girl. And, for good measure, let's ditch every decent game play concept that was in the original, keep the stupid ones, and add ones that are even worse. First off, there are 10 cards on the board. Not two sets of five � one set of 10. Both players play off the same set of cards, meaning one player can flip nine, the other can sweep in and take the tenth and win. Also, there's no more of those pesky survey questions � they're all now those best of 10 questions that dragged the 80s version to a halt. So what group of 10 do we have on this show? Chefs? Business executives? Soccer moms? Nope. Playboy playmates. We'll, if you're going to go for it, might as well really go for it. Also, since there did not seem to be an audience, they're all on stage, so you have 14 people (10 playmates, one host, one assistant and two contestants) on a very small set. If you flip the 10th card, you win the game and get $250 (plus a bonus $250 if you flipped all ten). If you lose, you're done, off the show, never coming back, counting your blessings... The bonus game, one of the most dramatic, nerve wracking, mathematically challenging bonus games ever, has been sold for beans. In its place, is this oddball bonus game involving three celebrities and a diamond of cards. Three non-face cards plus one ace are placed face down in the diamond. Each of the celebrities (taped in advanced) are asked a question similar to the "chip clip dilemmas" used in the 2001 version, and the contestant wins the right to pick one card for each celebrity he or she matched answers for a total of three cards. The player wins 100 times the value of the cards picked or $5,000 if he or she picks the ace. Up until I had seen the tape of this, I really had respected the work of Tom Green. I remember him when I lived in Colorado and he did the weekend sports on the ABC station in town, including Sunday nights when he did it from a recliner with his shoes off. Reading a prompter while lying at an angle has to be very difficult. Even Sports on Tap had its charms. But Dear God, he looked so out of place and so sleazy on this. Fortunately, nobody in Denver saw this, and was able to move back into local sportscasting unharmed. This pilot has been viewed 18283 times since October 6, 2008 and was last modified on Dec 12, 2009 14:46 ET |