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
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Bob Stewart Flow Chart
Word Grabbers
Producer: Ron Greenberg
Host: Jim Lange
Celebrities: David Letterman, George Miller, Johnny Dark, Tom Dressen, Alliene Flanery, Roberta Ferrill, Heather Harwood
Taping Info: January 29, 1976, NBC Burbank
Made it to Air: No
Availability: The January 30, 1976 pilot is available at UCLA.
Other Pilots:
- This show was first tried in the run-through stage in New York City with DJ "Cousin Brucie" Morrow as the host. Celebrities used in the run-throughs included Bill Wendell, Stubby Kaye and the Andrews Sisters. Earlier versions of run-throughs involved many civilians rather than a celebrity format and was called Throw Me a Line.
- The next day, pilots were shot with Zsa Zsa Gabor, Dick Gauthier, Jan Murray, Fannie Flagg, Jack Cassidy, Elayne Joyce and Jay Leno. The review below is for a run through done the day before.
- A weeks worth of shows was recorded at KTTV in 1977 with Art James as host with celebrities Arte Johnson, Jo Anne Worley, Lyle Waggoner, Avery Schreiber, Vicki Lawrence, Pat Harrington and Barbara Feldon. The shows never aired.
- In 1991, it was retitled Class Clowns with host Bruce Gold.
- In 2001, it was retitled yet again, this time to The Smart Alecks, and the host was now Ron Pearson. The comics were mostly unknown, but did include one now-known: Chelsea Handler.
In the process a game show takes from going from an idea to an actual show, there has to be many, many run-throughs to get timing down, see parts of the game that aren't working or basically to see if this idea can even work. With celebrity-based games, this becomes even harder since you are not going to be able to even get B-or-C listers to sit in for these rehearsals. In this instance, we have a rare copy of a run-through with the game Word Grabbers, so this review is not for a true pilot since this is only an 11 minute clip. In this case, struggling comedians were rounded up and the game was played.
Jim Lange, wearing plaid pants that would make Herb Brooks blush, is the ringmaster for this game that pretty much mimics Eye Guess. A statement is read, and the final word is assigned to one of seven possible celebrities. The beginning of the round is pretty much just stabs in the dark, as players start to establish where the answers are. Jim Lange reads the statement, and if the player selects the correct celebrity, $25 is added to the "pot". The celebrity is then asked to answer the statement for an additional $25. For example, the statement "In what sport can you see an athlete reach for a high ..." and the player would need to find the word "fly". After finding the word, if the celebrity says "baseball", an additional $25 is added. The first player to get four matches wins the pot and moves onto the bonus.
The bonus was a sped up version of the main game without the additional part of the celebrities answering the statements. If the player is able to get all seven matches in 60 seconds (or the 62 seconds the contestant got in this run through), the player picked up an additional $1,000 for their first win or $5,000 for their second. It must have been real exciting since David Letterman looked at his watch during the round.
The major flaw in this game was not the game play, which is somewhat weak, but the choice of host. Jim Lange was not the man for this game, since he seemed to be intimidated by Dave and his comedy posse. At one point he told George Miller "not to do jokes", after which George got very passive-aggressive back at him in an exchange that Jim Lange didn't seem to understand. It seems Mr. Lange didn't get the memo that games with weak formats have to be played for comedy. Also, according to producer Ron Greenberg, after some of these run-throughs he decided that the unknowns seemed to work better, and he wanted to go with them. However, he was overruled by the network who wanted more star power, but they did relent and allowed him a slot for one of them. And in a move that apparently would be repeated years later, he pushed for David Letterman. The network chose Jay Leno, who was not in this particular run-through.
(Thanks to Howard Blumenthal for some information on the other pilots)
This pilot has been viewed 13209 times since October 6, 2008 and was last modified on Dec 12, 2009 14:46 ET
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