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
Simon Says
Producer: Dundas Productions
Host: Bob Barker
Assistants: Susan ?
Taping Info: Early 1970s in California
Made it to Air: No
Availability: It's on the trading circuit
Computers were all the rage in the early 1970s, or at least I've been told. Apparently they were very large, featured a bunch or randomly blinking lights and sounded like the announcer thrown through a modulator. Or at least this pilot would let me to believe. Bob Barker, still with a lucrative gig hosting a syndicated version of Truth or Consequences, was tapped for this hour-long show that was produced for NBC. It is not clear from this pilot whether this would have been daily or weekly.
The show begins with Bob explaining that earlier punch cards were passed out to all 146 audience members (who are all wearing a number) and were then pre-programmed (computer factual error #1: computers cannot be pre-programmed, only programmed) with thousands of facts about the audience. "Simon" points out that the audience member in seat 16 likes to ride cows bareback. Apparently, the audience members were given an incredible lesson in coding in ASCII (or probably EBCDIC on punch cards).
Once the fun of embarrassing audience members is over, the games can then begin. The first game involves an audience member guessing how many dishes she had done in the time of her marriage (computer factual error #2: computers in 1971 could not do graphics at the resolution of the picture of a big stack of dishes shown on the screen). The contestant didn't guess correctly, so instead of winning a dishwasher, she won $10.
Another game featured finding out whether people had things in common. Yet another featured audience members guessing the questionnaire answers from other contestants. A third had men guessing the dimensions of a woman (computer factual error #3: computers did not say "I am computing" while calculating things). Winners got an appliance-level prize, losers got $10. It quickly becomes obvious this is a twist on Let's Make a Deal where the key to the game is not the game itself but rather the banter between Bob Barker and the audience members, trying to coax funny things out of them before a simple 30 second game is played.
If it wasn't for Bob Barker, this truly would have been one of the worst pilots ever. But, with his then 15-year stint on Truth or Consequences, he could handle the audience with ease. The games were pretty insipid and the whole computer motif would have looked hokey to anyone over the age of five. As a side note, the producer (Wesley J. Cox) and the production company (Dundas Productions) were never heard from before or since. Could this had been a nom-de-pilot of Barry-Enright? "The Savers", the first The Joker's Wild theme, was used here as well. Hmmm.
 The titling was done by an Epson FX-80. |
 Bob, doing his thing with the dish lady. |
 Here's a shot of the 146 audience members. It wasn't 146 by the end. |
 They are actually guessing a woman's weight on TV. |
 One of the prizes was an Ampex tape player. Simon incorrectly called this "a stereo." |
This pilot has been viewed 13419 times since October 6, 2008 and was last modified on Dec 12, 2009 14:46 ET
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