JANUARY 3, 1975

Jeopardy!, that fun-filled Merv Griffin-created quiz show wherein questions, not answers, paid off, aired its 2,753rd and final telecast on NBC Daytime. The final Jeopardy! episode featured highlights of past shows, including a few clips from the 2,000th episode in 1972 featuring Mel Brooks as The 2,000 Year-Old Man, and a clip of a college tournament telecast wherein a student won over $5,000 in a single game!

The last Final Jeopardy! category was "Fictional Heroines" with the answer "At end of novel, she says defiantly, 'Tomorrow is another day'". (Well, we all know what the question to that was!) Host Art Fleming, who was present for Jeopardy!'s full duration of 11 seasons and 2,753 tapings, capped the whole thing off with a sad farewell. (He would return to host Jeopardy! on NBC in 1978, though.) But the loss of Jeopardy! would be the gain of another, more impressive Merv Griffin creation the Monday afterward...



JANUARY 6, 1975

Wheel Of Fortune, a Merv Griffin-produced game show which involved the tried-and-true word game of Hangman, and a large spinning wheel containing various amounts of cash and several columns that assist ("One Free Spin") or hinder ("Lose A Turn," "Bankruptcy") contestants, had its premiere on NBC Daytime. This came strong on the heels of the cancellation of a previous Merv Griffin production, the Art Fleming-emceed Jeopardy!, after a memorable 11 year-run on The Peacock.

Wheel Of Fortune would tie with The Hollywood Squares as the longest continuously-aired daytime game show on NBC-TV. The show featured, as its original team, Chuck Woolery and Susan Stafford in its humble beginnings. The first word solved was "BURT REYNOLDS," and Ginny Hubert was the first champion on Wheel's landmark debut telecast.

In late 1981, after 6 years, Chuck Woolery split after the Christmas telecast (Friday, Dec. 25) having reached an impasse in a salary dispute (Woolery wanted a $200,000 salary increase to $500,000/year, whilst Merv was offering only a $75,000 increase). Enter the era of ex-weatherman Pat Sajak, who hosted in Woolery's stead effective the following Monday. Susan Stafford remained as Wheel hostess until her departure on October 22, 1982; other models, such as Summer Bartholomew, Vicky McCarthy, and Vanna White (who was first seen as a contestant on The Price Is Right in 1980!!) took turns as hostess before White was given the nod to be hostess full-time on December 13, 1982. In the fall of 1983, King World Productions distributed Wheel Of Fortune for first-run syndication and was an instant hit (so big a hit, in fall 1984 it generated a first-run syndie revival of Jeopardy!!).

Continued...

On January 10, 1989, Rolf Benirshke replaced Pat Sajak as host; 7 months later, on July 14, 1989, Wheel completed a glorious 14-year stay on NBC, only to defect to CBS the following Monday (Sajak had left to host his own ill-fated late night talk show on the very same network!), and Bob Goen was the new star. After 2 years, Wheel bounced back to The Peacock on January 14, 1991, with Pat Sajak, after the fiasco of his late night show, returning to the helm as host. It soldiered on for 9 months before leaving NBC (and network TV, thus) for good, living on only in first-run syndication and repeats on Game Show Network (now GSN).

The first 8 years of Wheel Of Fortune (1975-1983) were memorable due greatly to it being graced with Big Wheels, that funky, fast-paced theme music composed and conducted by Alan Thicke (Growing Pains, The All-New Three's A Crowd). Of course, as we all know, Merv Griffin intervened with his own composition, Changing Keys (obviously for more money!), but nothing will ever match up to Alan Thicke's original Wheel theme.

CELEBRATING 30 YEARS OF WHEEL OF FORTUNE (1975-2005)!

(Sources of info: Game Shows ‘75: Wheel Of Fortune)



JANUARY 6, 1986

The New Card Sharks, a Mark Goodson revival of the popular Goodson-Todman produced 1978-81 NBC game Card Sharks hosted by Jim Perry, premiered on CBS Daytime (replacing the late Body Language, another Mark Goodson Production), but this new version differed in many ways from the original. The set was changed, the music and most notably (in the first four weeks especially), The Money Cards was played differently (concerning the process of changing cards), and there was a new host, Bob Eubanks, and new dealers, models Lacey Pemberton and Susannah Williams!

Later on in the run, 10 people who had something in common began appearing in the front row of an audience, and several times throughout the show, questions were asked about them. In Fall 1986, there was an "Educated Guess" question added, which just played out like a normal Hi-Lo question, except that the person venturing the guess is not limited to 0-99 people. Another feature, the two “Car Games”, was added to the game on October 27, 1986, just after The Money Cards.

The CBS-TV network version of Card Sharks stayed in town until March 31, 1989; there was also a syndicated primetime edition on the side, launched in fall 1986 and lasting for a year, hosted by Bill Rafferty.



Continued...

JANUARY 8, 1979

"It's more than Password, it's Password Plus!"

Password Plus, a fourth incarnation of Goodson-Todman’s tried and true War Of The Words, premiered @ 11:30 a.m. Eastern on NBC Daytime (following the debut of All-Star Secrets, a Bob Eubanks-hosted vehicle). Originally announced in Variety as Password '79, a decision was made two weeks before the debut to change the title to Password Plus. 59-year-old Allen Ludden was back in the saddle as emcee, and Gene Wood was tapped to be announcer; Elizabeth Montgomery and Robert Foxworth, both topnotch Password players of the past, were the first-week celebrities. (John Harlan [who also announced ABC’s Password], Bob Hilton and Johnny Olsen also took their turns at announcing during the run.)

Here, 2 celebrity/contestant teams compete. The object here is to solve a "Password Puzzle", a famous person, place, thing, or title. Up to 5 Passwords are guessed by the teams, with each Password working as a clue to The Password Puzzle. Teams alternate giving clues, with each team receiving 2 chances. When a team guesses a Password, they are given a chance to solve The Password Puzzle to win the round. Teams alternate playing first and giving/guessing as in the classic Password game. Rounds 1 & 2 are worth $100 each, rounds 3 & 4 $200 each. The first team to amass/exceed $300 wins the match and earns the right to play the bonus round: "Alphabetics," a revamped edition of the old “Lightning Round” in the Passwords of the past (and borrowing a bit from ABC’s The $20,000 Pyramid).

Alphabetics is played with 10 Passwords that start with 10 consecutive letters of the alphabet. The celebrity has 60 seconds to convey the Passwords to the contestant as in The Lightning Round. Each Password must be solved or passed before the next Password is revealed, and a celebrity can only go back to those words he/she passed on after revealing all 10. Each Password solved is worth $100, and completing all 10 Passwords wins the contestant $5,000. If the celebrity gives an illegal clue, the potential jackpot was lowered by $1,000.

The game managed to survive the loss of Allen Ludden, who, due to illness, was forced to retire from the show in October 1980 and was superceded by Tom Kennedy. (Ludden previously took a 4-week sabbatical in April 1980 to have surgery done on him, and Bill Cullen hosted in his stead.) An all-celebrity week was scheduled for the first Kennedy week of shows in order to ease the transition, which was comprised of Jim Perry from Card Sharks, Greg Morris, Judy Norton-Taylor and Nancy Walker. Tom said some heartfelt words about Allen before the start of his first show (“To Allen Ludden: with each show, we send you our love. Our thoughts are with you.”), and then moved right into the game. Kennedy did indeed guide viewers through its most trying transitional period, even in the wake of Ludden’s passing in June 1981 (which was never mentioned on the show).

Rich Jefferies had replaced Gene Wood as announcer by this point. Near the end of the run, in March 1982, Jack Narz, Tom Kennedy’s brother, swapped places with him for one game during his week playing Password Plus; Jack hosted and Tom played. On March 26, Password Plus wrapped up a shaky yet nice 3 ½-year run on NBC, after 800 shows. The final celebrity panelists were Audrey Landers and Tom Poston. Tom Kennedy mentioned his late friend and colleague in the show’s fading moments:

"This is the last in our series of Password Plus. Even though our dear friend Allen Ludden is not with us at this particular moment, as you well know he hosted this show as only as he could do for something like 18 years. I was very proud to have the last year and a half here at the helm. All I can say is you know the show is going to be back soon..."

Sure enough, 2 years later, in September 1984, Password was back on NBC…in the form of the newly revamped Super Password, emceed by Bert Convy.

(Sources Of Info: The Rules Of The Game: “Password”, The Allen Ludden Page-Password Plus: 1979-82)



P.S.: sorry about the typo; I meant to type "Almanac," not "Alamanac"! :-P

Is it just me; or is this just a basic cut/paste job from Curt's site?
Furthermore, those three shows that were omitted are not on Curt's site...that's my hypothesis, however...and that Aaron incorrectly states that Sajak returned to the daytime version; which he did not.

If you're going to do this; use your own words; and get the facts right.

Not a flat out cut and paste job, but very close.

And where's the love for the NBC shows that premiered on this date in 1983--Just Men!, Sale of the Century, and that other one...I just can't think of its name. The end game on that other show did kick ass.

Esp. $ale of the Century.

And, Mike the K, you're thinking of "Dream House." Your screen name must be referring to horse racing. ;-)

Amen.

And now I feel completely stupid, as it just dawned on me where your screen name came from. (Shame on me--I should know better than that.) :)

Doug -- and the countdown to 900 continues

*mrrp* Sorry Brandon. The right answer was "The New Battlestars".

And yes, my name has to do with horse racing. How'd you know?

You sure it wasn't Trivia Track?

Hey, let's not forget: happy 22nd birthday, Plinko!

But the CORRECT answer is....Hit Man.

Others of note for this week in history:
JANUARY 6, 1986 The $1,000,000 Chance Of A Lifetime featuring a dynamic theme song.
The big winners on that one still haven't received the full million, have they?

And on the 41st birthday of its host and producer:
JANUARY 8, 1979 All-Star Secrets starring Bob Eubanks, a production of The Hill-Eubanks Group. Announcers included Charlie O'Donnell, Tony McClay and Bill Baldwin.

JANUARY 3, 1977 Shoot For The Stars hosted by lesiure-suited Geoff Edwards with announcer Bob Clayton.
$1500 wins the game and advancement to The Jackpot Round, which began at $1000. "You won $1500. Now you have the chance to win less".

I was curious too, so I looked over the WOF entry. It's not, but it follows along closely enough, and often steals direct verbiage from, enough that I'm not sure it isn't plagarism anyhow.

Today is the exact day and date that $otC premiered (January 3, 1983).

Now that I got that bit of minute information out the way, it is amazing to see how game shows back then decided to start in January rather than the standard fall opening. Was there a reason for this, or was it just the networks' way of midseason restructuring?

The Inquisitive One, asking to all and catering to no one :-)

Since network daytime has always been continuous, there's never been that much of an emphasis of starting in September like in prime time or in syndication, where most contracts run on a September-to-September basis. When a show's ready and there's a hole for it, they'll drop it in.

Back in the day, there were schedule changes quarterly, so you would usually see daytime sked shakeups in late Dec-early January, late March-early April, late June -early July and late Sept-early Oct.

I won't WHOOSH you this time, but watch it. ;-)



Next year should be the final year, I believe.

Jeffries was just a fill-in during the Kennedy era...Gene did indeed announce the handful of 1982 P+ eps that are out there, including the finale, thus maintaining said position for its entire run.

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")

and blackout, $Otc, and hitman debuted in january; blackout in 1988, and $otc & hitman in 1983; those were good game shows on tv; blackout and hitman got axed on april 1st.

Did you even try to make a coherent sentence?

Mentioned by Jason Wuthrich in post 9. For the love of Pete, Zach....would you let others have a chance for once?

When it gives him a chance to show off? Of course not!

January 3, 1983 was a magnificent date for NBC games. Sale, Hit Man & (the Witch of the West) Just Men! The car started on the very first show.

Exactly 10 years later (January 3, 1993) brought more bad luck for me! That's when the famous AFC Wild Card Game was played on NBC, as the Buffalo Bills made a comeback & defeated the (then) Houston Oilers 41-38 in OT!

I don't know which was worse, but I got a headache on both days!

Glad that this got posted.
For the 9th time this thread. Why don't you just fly into the Dallas sky on your broom?

Nah, I'd just send his happy butt back to Houston and just pray he stays there. :) :)

Hopefully the broom will sputter out and he'll fall in The Gulf of Mexico and melt....

Ouch. I think the Witch just got. . .jacked up! :)

Doug -- and the countdown to 900 continues

As a one-time Dallas native, I highly resent that idea. :-P

Besides, the Cowboys had a bad enough season without any witches. >:o

And on January 5, 1979 Bob Eubanks appeared on Jim Perry's "Card Sharks" promoting the debut of "All-Star Secrets".

Kind of ironic....don't you think!

Richard Dawson even eluded to it on an early "Family Feud". He was talking a bit about the show and the upcoming fall schedule, and stated "ABC allowed us to jump the gun a little bit".