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
The Couples Race
Producer: Ron Greenberg
Host: Mike Darrow
Assistants: Janet Greenberg, Amy Greenberg and three unnamed models
Announcer: Bill Wendell
Taping Info: April 27, 1973, CBS Broadcast Center, New York City for CBS
Other Pilots: An earlier pilot was done for NBC with Don Morrow hosting
Made it to Air: No
Take a deck of Milles Bornes cards and throw them against a wall for your set. Take three adult females and dress them like the models from the video for "Video Killed the Radio Star." Have your pre-teen daughters model some prizes as well. Get three old-timey convertibles, paint one game yellow, one game show blue and one game show red. And scream. Mike Darrow comes down from Canada to be your host.
A question is played and the yellow couple gets a TV. And then we go to commercial. And when we come back, Mike Darrow introduces the couples (hey, the guy in the blue car is named Jeff Beck). And then he finally explains the rules. Apparently we are in the "Prize Exchange", where toss-up questions are asked to our three couples, each of which is in the replica car. Sometimes only the men are answering the questions, sometimes the women, sometimes both. When a question is answered (via ringing in with a loud horn rather than a polite bell), the answering team may either choose to bring a new prize into play or take a prize from one of the other couples. Some of the prizes included a television/stereo combo, mink coat and a trampoline. This went on for eight questions.
The second round is called, well, "The Couples Race". Each couple decides who will be the "driver", who will be buzzing in to answer toss-up questions. The spouse will be the "passenger", who will be answering bonus questions after a successful toss-up answer. A tossup question allows the couple to move their car one space. And the car actually moves on stage. A correct bonus question allows a couple to either move their car one more space or to take a prize away from another couple.
Oh, did I mention that a car (specifically a Dodge Charger) is now also in play. Well, it wasn't mentioned either until the first bonus question was answered correctly. At this point, a "car tag", either a circle, square or triangle, could be selected with as a bonus prize. At the end of the round, only one of those three "car tags" will be the actual car, the other two were worthless. After a team got to five spaces, the roles of driver and passenger switched. This continued until one couple got to space ten or time was called. When time was called, a one minute speed round was used. During the speed round, prizes could not be exchanged. Much hilarity ensued since the cars couldn't move very fast during the speed round and the buzzers malfunctioned. I'm tired. This game is so loud. I'm going to take a break, see you in a few minutes.
Ah, that was better. The two couples that didn't win lost their prizes, while the winning couple kept their prizes and moved on to the bonus game. Oh, there was no bonus game. For this pilot, it was a lucky happenstance that the winning couple had selected one of the car tags, otherwise they would have nothing to do for the remainder of the game.
Well, the best thing I could say is that the music cues were done by Edd Kalehoff, and they were awesome in their 1973 Mooginess. Game-wise, it was just too freaking loud. Mike Darrow was screaming, the contestants were yelling, Bill Wendell was louder than his usual self. Any momentum gained in the "Prize Exchange" was lost when Bill Wendell had to do a thirty second spiel about each prize. And those cars, and the set, and the model outfits. Now I'm really tired. Good night.
 A ticket for the pilot. |
This pilot has been viewed 12517 times since October 6, 2008 and was last modified on Dec 12, 2009 14:46 ET
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