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| Play for Keeps
Producer: Goodson-Todman
Host: Sonny Fox
Taping Info: 1956, presumably New York
Made it to Air: No
Availability: UCLA Archive
One thing said about Goodson-Todman is that they came out of the game show scandals of the 1950s untarnished, mainly because their games did not play for big money. That's not entirely true, since both Beat the Clock and Two for the Money could be mid-four figure or even five figure paydays if you were lucky. Still, that was small change to the now five-figure payouts being doled out on The $64,000 Question, The $64,000 Challenge and Twenty-One, so Goodson-Todman at least tried a show. Whether this was at the behest of the network (CBS) or the production company is not known. Sonny Fox, hot because of The $64,000 Challenge, is the host.
The show could be considered a souped-up version of the G-T quizzer Winner Take All. Two contestants used lockout devices, one denoted by a bell and another by a buzzer to answer questions. This time, however, the stakes were a little higher. The champion chose from one of ten categories (including the misspelled "World Capitols"). The champion also then wagered part or all of their earnings from their accumulation in previous games, and faced off in a best-of-5 question game. If the champion won, he or she won the money from the house equal to their wager. If they lost, the wager was given to the new player and the old champion left with whatever money they had earned (minus the wager).
The money banded around here was quite a lot. The "champion" at the start of the show had $15,000 in her bank. And this was going to be a daily show! For whatever reason, the game didn't tickle the fancy of CBS, whether it was too boring, Sonny Fox's hosting style was annoying or there was just too much money involved. How the history of game shows may have been different if this made it to air.
This pilot has been viewed 1330 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 |