ABC Carnival '74
Across the Board
Baloney
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Be What You Want
Beat The Genius
Beat The Odds (1962)
Beat The Odds (1975)
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The Better Sex
The Big Money
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Big Spenders
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The Buck Stops Here
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Card Sharks (1996)
Casino
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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)
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The Couples Race
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$50,000 a Minute
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Get Rich Quick
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The Honeymoon Game
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How Do You Like Your Eggs?
Jackpot (1984)
Jeopardy (1977)
Jokers Wild
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Key Witness
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King of the Hill
Let's Make a Deal (1963)
Let's Make a Deal (1990)
The Love Experts
M'ama Non M'ama
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Match Game (1973)
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MatchGame (2008)
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Money in the Blank
Moneymaze
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Nothing But the Truth
Now You See It (1986)
Oddball
100%
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People On TV
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Play Your Hunch
The Plot Thickens
Pot O' Gold
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Pyramid (1996)
Pyramid (1997)
A Question of Scruples
Quick as a Flash
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Run For The Money
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Scrabble (1990)
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$64,000 Question (2000)
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$10,000 Sweep
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You Bet Your Life (1988)
You Bet Your Life (1991)
You're Putting Me On
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Quick as a Flash
Producer: Bernard Prockter Productions
Host: Bill Cullen
Celebrities: Boris Karloff, Wendy Barrie
Taping Info: 1952, International Theatre, New York City for NBC
Made it to Air: Yes. Originally a radio show from 1944-1951, it joined the ABC prime-time lineup on March 12, 1953 at 10:30 PM on Thursday nights until it was replaced on July 9, 1953 by Personality Puzzle. With a different production company, it rejoined the ABC lineup on September 10, 1953 at 8 PM on Thursdays, replacing Carinval. Its final episode was on February 25, 1954, replaced by the game show It's About Time.
Availability: Shokus Video #314, "Game Show X"
Bill Cullen took over as the weekday host of the radio quiz Quick as a Flash on December 12, 1949, and continued until its demise on June 29, 1951. The radio program involved six civilian contestants trying to answer questions (called "races") that gave obtuse clues, usually to some historical event. Usually, the fifth race of the show was a presented as a dramatic presentation. This became the basis of this pilot.
In the TV version, a team of one celebrity and one civilian were presented a play based on a person, place, object or event (e.g.: The stork delivering the Dionne quintuplets). The play would seem to be a stereotypical dramatic scene, but for those in the know of the answer, some of the dialog could prove to be quite humorous. If a player felt they knew the answer, they buzzed in, and if they were right, they would win $25. If the celebrity was the person answering the question, an additional sum of money was given to a charity. The civilian players only could try a second time if they were wrong, the celebrity players only had one guess per race.
One of the races was a "Pyramid" or "Jackpot" race, which started at $100, and would carry over if nobody answered it during the game. Overall, a very enjoyable little exercise that had a surprisingly short run, probably because of the difficulty of shooting four plays per show as well as being on ABC, which at the time was not a well distributed network.
 Opening title card. |
 You can never go wrong with Bill Cullen, even though he didn't come over when the show made it to air. |
 You're a good contestant, Mr. Karloff. |
 And here's Wendy Barrie, who was on the downside of her career. |
 The opening playlet. |
 The pyramid city. Hint: Its not in Egypt. |
This pilot has been viewed 8688 times since October 6, 2008 and was last modified on Dec 12, 2009 14:46 ET
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