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
Missing Links
Producer: : Goodman-TodmanHost: : Ed McMahon
Announcer: Johnny Olson
Celebrities: Milt Kamen, Phyllis Newman, Chester Morris
Taping Info: August 21, 1963 in New York for NBC
Made it to Air: The show premiered in September 1963 for NBC, replacing The Price is Right, which moved to ABC. Six months later, Missing Links did also left NBC for ABC, and limped along for another nine months.
Availability: UCLA
I've Got a Secret is popular. Match Game is popular. Why not try to combine them? Unfortunately, like combining barbeque sauce and jello, not all combinations were meant to go together. A very tired Ed McMahon, still recovering from a Bud-fueled Alpo bender, is your host.
The purpose of the game is to identify the missing word from a story you are hearing for the first time. After some brief interlude, a statement is read, and then each of the celebrities tries to guess the word. For each missed guess, one of the six plus signs is turned into a minus sign. When the word is guessed (leaving a quantity of plus signs), or if the word is not guessed after each celebrity had two tries (all six signs are now a minus), the scoring is then determined. The contestant then revealed a prior-to-the-show bet on whether the contestant would get the word or not. If he or she had bet yes, they got $10 for each plus sign revealed. If the bet was no, they got $10 per minus sign. To help in the second set of guesses, the first letter of the word was given to the celebrities. For the sixth statement, the scoring was $20 per sign, but only three guesses were tried instead of six (the first letter was given).
Herb Cutting, an employee of the Mutual Broadcasting System, is the first contestant. Instead of spinning some fascinating tales about the broadcasting industry, he instead tells the story of a scuba diving expedition that went wrong. Now, in most panel games, even though a fair number of questions are answered "no", an equal if not greater number of questions are answered "yes". However, the guess rate here was terrible. Only two of the six statements had the word guessed, once on the fifth try, the other on the last try on statement six. So there were two "yes" statements, and 30 "no" statements. Imagine Jeopardy! if only a handful of people gave the correct question. It was that painful.
The drill repeated for round #2, with a little better batting average (2 yes, 24 no). I don't really know if anything exciting happened in round #2 (a story about an African safari), since I played it at double speed just to get the batting average. The commercials were more engaging. However, even in the first game you could tell the celebrities were exasperated and felt the game was pointless. Milt Kamen seemed to be looking to leave the stage at the first opportunity available.
This was a "rehearsal" show rather than a true pilot, by the time this was filmed the show had already been picked up by NBC. The only episode I have seen was from late in the ABC run (hosted by Dick Clark) where there were three contestants instead of two (the third being a celebrity), each contestant only had 4 statements to get through rather than 6, the first letter was given right away, and the scoring system was always for plus. The latter two changes did help the batting average increase, plus Dick Clark was much less robotic and much more warm with the contestants. These improvements helped it be a mediocre show rather than a bad one.
This pilot has been viewed 10813 times since October 6, 2008 and was last modified on Aug 16, 2010 23:17 ET
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