I've run into a few cases recently where I've stumbled across shows that have had multiple pilots, a few of which either still didn't sell, or took a long time to get to air. Certainly, there are cases where a producer took a few years between efforts to modify their project, but...

My question is: from a historical standpoint, if a first pilot is followed up by a second in a reasonably short period of time, does this necessarily indicate that a network (or syndicator) was interested in picking up the program (albeit with a few tweaks or set re-designs), or does it more likely indicate that the creator/producer felt so straongly about the concept that they were willing to go to the trouble to shoot a second pilot?

For that matter, who usually pays for this type of second pilot?

As always, any good real-life examples used to illustrate the point would be welcomed!

-Kevin

Unfortunetly, Bob Stewart is not a member of this forum.

Or how about an informative response, Dsmith? GEEZ!

Multiple pilots occur for a variety of reasons. The most common one is that a series of pilot shows are shot on the same day. On some occasions, different variations on gameplay are tried (Catch Phrase), or even different hosts (Whammy!), but they're still taped in the same day. It also wouldn't be unheard of to shoot up to 4 or 5 pilots in a day for one show and choose the best one to edit and present because, hey, you're paying for the studio space.

In the traditional business model, networks or syndicators are the ones that pay for pilots, either in the form of license fees to the production companies or by running all expenses through one of the network's production corporations. You almost never see a production company front their own money for a pilot, at least not successfully.

There are, likewise, a variety of circumstances under which a second pilot taping could occur. A production company may interest a second network or syndicator after the first one passed, and the second distributor may foot the bill for a pilot. The same distributor may feel that, after some time has passed, an updated pilot might make an easier sale to stations (see: Jeopardy 1983/1984). And on rare occasion, if the network has the rights to a show's brand or format, they might ditch the production company and replace them (see: Scrabble Challenge).

It's also important to note that not every pilot is commissioned by a network with the intention of getting the show on air. Networks have development budgets that they must spend each year, or they'll lose their money. Often, friends of network execs will be given money to produce pilots just simply so the networks will know they'll have that development money in future years. Many a Bob Stewart pilot has been commissioned for this very reason.

Three Puzzlers pilots were done simply to get different game outcomes.

G-T had two different shows, both with the title "Mindreaders". The first was a pilot for CBS which never made air. The second was "green-lighted" by NBC without a pilot even being produced, as was the case with Password Plus and Blockbusters. A nominal pilot was done of all of these shows, I believe as an accounting formality so the programming department could claim it spent its pilot budget for the quarter in the use-it-or-lose-it scenario SplitSecond described above. Unfortunately the three major networks no longer have the big fat development budgets they used to.

Different hosts is another reason to have multiple pilots. Remember, TnPIR '94 had 2 pilots with different hosts (did they use the same contestants and games though?!)

Very informative so far, guys... thanks very much.

As an archivist, it's a bit strange looking at some of these efforts years after the fact and try to sort out the motivation behind them.

I was particularly unclear on the financing aspect, though... thanks for clearing that up. I wondered how everyone could afford to produce these shows "on spec", and I guess the answer is: they didn't (and I suppose, still don't). I must admit however, it staggers me a bit to think that the networks had so much money lying around that they'd have departments frantically searching for ways to spend it-- including commissioning shows that they had no intention of airing.

And as I said, the real-life examples are great to read about!

-Kevin

With multiple pilots, you can also, in addition to getting the one usable pilot, have the ability to cut together a shorter, montage-like sales tape with more contestants, and in some cases, more celebrities, for network executives with short attention spans :)

Back in 1990, I worked on an ABC pilot called "Suit Yourself", which produced a total of five pilots, one the first day and four the second day. The first was used as a "dress rehearsal", and let us see what kinks we could work out in less than 24 hours. Like replacing an overeager card-flip mechanism that instead of revealing the next card in play, frequently sent cards flying all over the set. The model on the show did that job for the remaining four shows.

Apparently not enough kinks were worked out, as ABC passed and put on "Match Game" instead :)




These two pilots (Doug Davidson first, then Mark Kriski) were taped a couple of weeks apart.

One unusual pilot that comes to mind is one made for the 1976 "Break the Bank" - several weeks *after* the show was already on the air. This pilot was made to test the new rules where a box would automatically go to the opponent if you got it wrong, rather than returning to it's neutral position. It was probably meant to speed up the game, as several games during the first few weeks of the show took more than one episode to complete. This pilot is easily available on the trade curcuit.

I had always thought if a show wanted to make some rule changes they wouldn't have to shoot an additional pilot part way through the run - unless Barry-Enright really wanted to do a show to see how it would work.

Do any rule changes like that have to get network approval, or is it up to the producers?

Kind of unusual anyway.

Great answers from SplitSecond and Bricon. One has seen and the other has done more pilots than a TWA stewardess!

Just this season we had one of the strangest re-piloting situations ever. "On The Cover" taped a second pilot after just a few weeks of shows were in the can, and only TWO had aired. The set was changed and other tweaks were made. The second pilot was shot with Bud Paxson in the studio. Paxson gave it a "thumbs up". The rest of the season was shot and the alterted version of the show was put back on the air.

For several reasons, host Mark L. Walberg says it was not one of his favorite gigs, to say the least.


Randy
tvrandywest.com

That image gives an entirely new meaning to "Coffee, tea or me?" :-P

Does he harbor any fondness for "Free-4-All"? :)

Lest ye forget, Bricon and I did a pilot together once. It took us at least four hours before we were ready to shoot.

Wow, that must've been one heck of a flight.

(ducking from turbulence on the plane)

Tyshaun

One word: Viagra ;-p
That would be about 10 or 12 points in Scrabble, I think.

Randy
tvrandywest.com

Do you remember who the host and the announcer were for this?

Yeah, don't mention this or his talk show to him, though. When I interviewed him, he was just a tad touchy. He doesn't seem to be completely into this as I have talked to him several times. He is extremely sore at GSN about not picking up RR for a 3rd season. He had some "interesting things" to say about them.

I don't think you can use that.

<<<Pause to allow "Worst Line of the Day" consideration>>>

Aren't brand names and "words that would normally start with a capital letter" illegal?

Doug

Having a few brief meetings with somebody may not present an accurate impression. While he can be outspoken, Mark is among the most intelligent, knowledgeable and creative people in our business. He's also a thoughtful friend and co-worker. He's earned a great deal of my respect, and I enjoy his company. He's one of the good guys.



It's a small "v" before you take one.


Randy
tvrandywest.com

The host was Jim Peck, and the announcer was John Cramer. It was a Pasetta Production. The model's name has slipped from my memory.

For reasons that escape me, we couldn't get Jim's name to ABC guest relations in time for printing on the tickets, so the tickets said "Suit Yourself - a new game show with a Surprise Guest Host".

Really nice man to work with, and way funnier off camera than we ever saw on camera.

And as I pointed out to him, he was safe, as there were no stairs on the Suit Yourself set :)

Though not a game show, Gene Roddenberry tried to sell Star Trek as a "wagon train to the stars" since America was interested in the Western story at the time. He got the go-ahead for the pilot, which was nothing like the space-western he promised. When he showed his pilot to the network in 1964, they rejected it.

In this case, though, they were impressed by the fact that the show did a good job of making them feel like they had actually gone to another world in space. They ordered a second pilot, asking for some parts of the show to be tweaked for various reasons. The second pilot finished up in 1966.

Hope this information is what you are looking for. It falls in lines with the second part of your question.

Laurie Huggins was the card girl's name, if I remember correctly. You'd also mentioned to me once that the staff expressed a certain amount of horror once they realized that an African American card girl would be making her entrance from behind a certain suit symbol.

That wasn't On the Cover's second pilot; it was more like its 20th. Why that show keeps getting so many chances is beyond me. It should have been pronounced dead and buried years ago.

Randy and Brian, hep me out here. Didn't the networks normally do three pilots per quarter back in the day, not counting shows which were developed into a run-thru but not piloted?

Fun facts:

Goodson didn't take development money from the networks. Instead he developed shows in house. This gave him the ability to literally show a game to NBC today and CBS tomorrow.

The money spent by the networks on development and pilots was tax deductible as research and development costs.

Jake Tauber had the title "Vice President, Game Programming" at NBC.

I think it was either three or four. In the instance of Suit Yourself, there were three other pilots vying for a time slot - Split Second, Finish Line, and Match Game. However one of these may have been budgeted to another quarter on the calendar.

As for Match Game, was this the same pilot with Bert Convy? Or did they shoot another pilot with Ross Shafer, with the format they ended up using for the series?

Tyshaun

Wasn't the Vicki Lawrence-hosted Body Talk pilot Mike Burger describes on the Game Show Pilot Light and the Eubanks Gambit pilot also done for ABC around the same time as these?

Last time I checked the Pilot Light, Finish Line was done around that time too.

Yes this was the Bert Convy pilot. After Bert took ill, several host possibilities were given office runthrus, and Ross won out. There was no pilot with Ross taped.



After looking through some of my records, I need more clarification - and I've emailed someone who will probably remember. What I do know is that Suit Yourself taped May 3 & 4, 1990; Match Game October 1, 1990, Body Talk October 12, 1990; and a pilot which slipped my mind, Show Me (host Mark Goodman) taped Sept. 13, 1990. I don't have tape dates handy for Gambit or TKO.

So I may have some of the pilot groups crossed up. There is a common thread to Body Talk, Show Me, TKO and Gambit - none were done at ABC, as there was no studio space available at the time. That could indicate they were done in roughly the same time quarter.

There was another ABC pilot called The Name Game in 1989/1990 or so, which did its first pilot in Scotland (much like Lingo taping overseas), and a second pilot done back at ABC Hollywood.

Sorry if this rambled :)

October 1? Didn't the show go to series September 12?

July 1990...don't remember the exact date, but I definitely remember it being over the summer.

Mike Burger at his Game SHow Pilot Light page says the Convy MG pilot was done in October 1989.

That seems like a lot of pilots vying for just one time slot. Was ABC originally planning to add more than one show to its lineup, or was this a common occurance for network development? I always thought networks maybe shot 3 or 4 pilots before deciding on which one to add as a series.

Tyshaun

Mark Jeffries posted on ATGS in 2002 that ABC was considering ditching the Home Show around the time of said pilots and replacing it with two game shows. Body Talk was one of the pilots considered.

And even after all that piloting, ABC decided to just extend "Home" to 90 minutes.

The year's supply of haggis as a consolation prize was a giveaway. :)

Beg pardon - Oct. 1, 1989.

Bob Boden was with ABC daytime when all the pilots I mentioned were produced-here's his response:

>>> There was no formula or specific number of pilots done at any given time, as
I recall. When we saw a project worth piloting, we would commission it.
Although there were few slots and several competitors, it had more to do with
what was pitched when than when shows would premiere.

Since we never knew how long something would last, we would always like to have back-up pilots that had been shot and tested that were ready to go on in case of failure.

Sometimes there was only one, sometimes more. The typical hold on a pilot was
a year to go to air, so as long as there were more shows in the pipeline, we were
protected.

I honestly don't remember what pilots were done in which order, but I think
it was really more of a steady flow of projects than batches of pilots in a
short time frame. <<<