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
Let's Make a Deal
Producer: Hatos-Hall
Host: Monty Hall
Announcer: Wendell Niles
Taping Info: May 25, 1963 at NBC Burbank Studio #1
Made it to Air: It joined the NBC lineup on December 30, 1963, replacing People Will Talk. It jumped to ABC on December 30, 1968 and stayed there until July 9, 1976 when it was replaced by Hot Seat. It also had prime-time runs in 1967, 1969-1971 and 2003, syndicated runs from 1971-77, 1980-1981, 1984-1986 and a daytime network run in 1990.
Availability: It's on the trading circuit, it's at UCLA, it's also aired once on GSN.
Monty Hall was getting his feet wet in the game show biz, cooling his heels after Video Village was canceled working behind the scenes as the producer of Your First Impression. Utilizing his master skills as an ad-libber, Hall along with partner Stefan Hatos developed a game that would involve Hall posing simple deals to players on the "trading floor" by having them exchange simple household items for the possibility of cash or decent merchandise.
The show is pretty much how it went to air. There's a trading floor of some 30-odd contestants, there's an audience in back who just to get to watch, and there's Monty Hall walking around with a microphone. However, if Monty approaches you for a possible deal, you must have something to trade or be able to answer a simple trivia question. The first prize ended up being a semi-zonk, a ratty raccoon fur coat. We would find out later in the show that the coat had in one of its pockets 5 shares of US Steel stock worth $53 a share in 1963 (compare to today here).
However, there were some differences. First, there were no signs and no wacky costumes, all of the members of the trading floor and audience were in coat, ties and dresses. The signs came a month into the series and the costumes a few months later. There were more deals in this pilot than on your typical episode, mostly because the deals were not as elaborate. Also, the Big Deal at the end was different in both how the contestants were picked (the biggest cash winner vs. the biggest merchandise winner as opposed to the top two winners). On the personnel front, there was no Jay Stewart (Wendell Niles did the chores) and no Carol Merrill (an anonymous model). Finally, the theme music would be the Monty Hall pilot standard "That's Entertainment", although there was the live combo in the studio.
One of the problems Monty Hall had in pitching this show to first ABC and then NBC was that network executives were skittish that the show would run out of steam quickly. And if I was watching this pilot, I would wonder the same thing. However, more than 3,000 episodes can't be wrong.
 Welcome to the color-washed Marketplace of America! |
 Monty applies his craft |
 Do you know how many miles I had to drive to run over the animals for this coat? |
 The box! The box! |
 The first of 39,391,249 TVs given away by Deal |
 The zonk in the Big Deal, bales of cotton. Nobody picked this one. |
This pilot has been viewed 16425 times since October 6, 2008 and was last modified on Dec 12, 2009 14:46 ET
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