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
Jeopardy (1977)
Producer: Merv Griffin
Host: Art Fleming
Announcer: Charlie O'Donnell
Taping Info: March 6, 1977 for CBS
Made it to Air: After a second pilot in 1978, it joined the NBC lineup on October 2, 1978, replacing the soap For Richer or for Poorer and leaving on March 2, 1979 for the expansion of the soap Another World to 90 minutes.
Availability: UCLA Archive
Jeopardy! was a mainstay on the NBC daytime lineup from 1964 until 1975. Not necessarily saddled with bad ratings, it instead clashed with the image of then NBC daytime head Lin Bolen, who wanted flashy shows and hunky hosts. Jeopardy! wasn't flashy and Art Fleming wasn't hunky, so it was shuffled around the schedule until Bolen and executive producer Merv Griffin agreed to a mercy killing. In doing so, Griffin was able to snag a commitment to a flashy show-hunky host combo with Wheel of Fortune and Chuck Woolery. Meanwhile, Jeopardy! was taken into the shop for some tinkering.
The first thing that changed was the dollar values, now they were 2� times the NBC version (25-50-75-100-125 for the first round, 50-100-150-200-250 for the second round). The set was larger (very similar to the 1978 version) and the contestants were now on the right. However, otherwise things seem normal. Charlie O'Donnell introduces the contestants and Art Fleming cordially invites us to play Jeopardy!. But wait, why aren't the contestants sitting down?
Because we have a new first round, silly. Art chit chats with the first contestant, we'll call her Joan, because that was her name. Joan gets 30 seconds to answer any question on the board she wants, and she picks up $75 for mostly low-level questions. Stan comes out, surveys the board, decides to go for high value questions, and plucks off $375. Debbie, our last contestant, tries the same strategy and also plucks off $375 worth. In this round, there is no penalty for an incorrect question. With my jaw still on the ground, we go to commercial.
After the commercial, it's back to normal Jeopardy!. The contestants are sitting down, and they play what they can of the remainder of the board which only has 18 questions left after the prior round plucking. Joan dominates, grabbing the lead with $650 while Stan gets a few more to have $475. Meanwhile, Debbie can't master the buzzer, is stuck on $375, and therefore is in last place at the end of the round. She doesn't get to play anymore. A personal pet peeve in this round was the acceptance of 'stock car racer' for Shirley Muldowney. I didn't sit through Heart Like a Wheel to not have at least some knowledge of Ms. Muldowney's career.
We come back from commercial break, and Art Fleming notes how "Science is Marvelous" because the Single Jeopardy board rotates on a trilon into the Double Jeopardy board. Standard fare here, if you can accept there is only two players and due to the time constraints of the upcoming bonus round only 22 of the 30 clues got played. Stan forges a comeback and is leading $1,700 to $1,350 over Joan when time is called. Stan moves onto the bonus round, since there is no Final Jeopardy!
In the bonus round, known as Super Jeopardy!, the player gets a new board, this time 5x5. He or she has 90 seconds to make a bingo either by clearing a category vertically or clearing a difficulty level horizontally. You could also be cute and go for a diagonal. If you could do this in 90 seconds, you won an additional $5,000. Otherwise, you got $100 per correct question.
When Jeopardy! returned to the air in 1978, the opening round was gone, the losing player leaving after round one stayed, and the bonus was played until a player got three incorrect rather than a time limit. Other than that, the new and improved Jeopardy! limped along for six months in two time slots in 1978 and 1979 before the game would leave network daytime. Two pilots were tried again in 1984 with all of the gimmicks removed, and the rest, they say, is What is History?
This pilot has been viewed 19409 times since October 6, 2008 and was last modified on Dec 12, 2009 14:46 ET
Feedback? Contact me at usgs-pilot at the usgameshows dot net domain