Pyramid (game show)
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| Pyramid | |
|---|---|
| Image:20kpyramid.jpg Title card from "The $20,000 Pyramid" | |
| Genre | Game show |
| Created by | Bob Stewart |
| Starring | Dick Clark (1973-1988) Bill Cullen (1974-1979) John Davidson (1991-1992) Donny Osmond (2002-2004) |
| Country of origin | Image:Flag of the United States.svg United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Bob Stewart |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ABC, CBS & syndicated |
| Original run | March 26, 1973 – September 10, 2004 |
Pyramid was a American television game show where contestants tried to guess a series of words or phrases, based on descriptions that were given to them by their teammates. It won nine Daytime Emmys for Outstanding Game Show, second only to Jeopardy!, which has won 11.
The original concept which creator Bob Stewart presented to CBS was a rough pilot presentation titled Cash On The Line taped at CBS's Ed Sullivan Theater on Friday, February 2, 1973. It was said the programming executives at the network only liked the second part of the proposed program's format, and suggested that Stewart rework that part into another game; this would eventually become the main game portion of Pyramid, featuring two celebrity-civilian partnered teams.
Stewart then reworked the game and presented another version to CBS, with a bonus round that featured a giant pyramid board and a top $10,000 cash prize which could be won in one minute. He made the point that offering such a large amount of money in such a quick fashion had not been done before on television. There was no second pilot episode taped, but a run-through presentation was made in front of the network executives, with Peggy Cass and Bill Cullen as the celebrities demonstrating the new Pyramid game format.
Contents |
[edit] Broadcast history
The $10,000 Pyramid, with host Dick Clark, made its network debut on March 26, 1973 and was a ratings hit, sustaining its ratings even when episodes were delayed or pre-empted by the Watergate hearings. A year later, the ratings temporarily declined and CBS canceled it. The show was quickly picked up by ABC, and its run there began May 6, 1974.
The first thirty episodes (six weeks) which aired on ABC were taped at CBS's Ed Sullivan Theater while a replica set was built at ABC's smaller Elysee Theater, known also as Studio TV-15. One reason may have been the size of the set (including the giant Pyramid board itself), and Pyramid historian William Padron also states that the CBS union staff objected to seeing their creations moved to an ABC studio. The first episode taped at ABC was broadcast on Monday, June 17, 1974 with June Lockhart and William Shatner.
A weekly syndicated nighttime version, known as The $25,000 Pyramid and hosted by Bill Cullen, made its debut in September 1974, seen mostly on network-affiliated stations during the prime access time slot. This edition lasted until September 1979.
The network daytime version was a ratings success for ABC, usually ranked #3 among daytime game shows. On January 19, 1976, the show increased its top prize and was renamed The $20,000 Pyramid. However, ratings would begin to slide, and ABC canceled the show on June 27, 1980.
From January 26, 1981 to September 4, 1981, the program returned to daily first-run syndication as The $50,000 Pyramid, with Clark as host.
In 1982, the series returned to the CBS daytime lineup, again with Clark as host. The $25,000 Pyramid briefly added 'New' to prevent viewers from thinking the shows were reruns of Cullen's version. It quickly became a hit, and a new nightly syndicated version, The $100,000 Pyramid, also with Clark, was added in 1985. CBS cancelled the daytime version on December 31, 1987, but returned it for an additional 13 weeks of episodes in the spring of 1988 when its replacement, Blackout, failed. Both the $25,000 and $100,000 versions came to an end in the summer of 1988.
Later versions included a short-lived 1991 revival of The $100,000 Pyramid, hosted by John Davidson (game show host), and a 21st century version, the first to be simply be titled Pyramid, hosted by Donny Osmond, which ran from 2002 to 2004.
Clark appeared on the Cullen and Osmond versions as a celebrity player, and offered pre-taped well wishes to Davidson on his version's premiere episode; at the time, Clark was appearing on The Challengers.
[edit] Gameplay
[edit] Clock and score displays
The $50,000 Pyramid was unusual in that the clock in its main game counted up, from 00 to 30 (to facilitate "Time of the Week" scoring). It was also the first Pyramid version to use a fully electronic display for the main-game clock (using a vane-display clock), rather than a chromakeyed Solari board display. During regular gameplay, the Winner's Circle clock was also vane-display, with it starting at "1 00" and counting down from there. The Solari boards were used for the clock during tournament play, going as before (counting down from "30" and "60").
When Pyramid returned to CBS, the clock and score displays were all vane displays (each digit using seven flipper pieces to display numbers). However, during the Winner's Circle round, the player receiving the clues and host Dick Clark would see an eggcrate-display clock to indicate how much time is left. In close wins, home viewers were sometimes shown this eggcrate clock after the win to further prove how little time remained. Sometimes, when time was ran short when the next to last subject or the last subject was being guessed, Clark would advise the clue giver to "Hurry!"
[edit] Set Evolution and Colors - 1973-81
When The $10,000 Pyramid debuted in 1973 on CBS, the shag carpeting, the front game tables, edges of the pylons behind the contestants in the front game, the Winner's Circle railing and chairs, and the front game smaller pyramid were orange. Small amounts of light blue could be found on the background walls except behind the large pyramid. The background behind the large pyramid was accomplished with studio lights in a reddish hue. The large pyramid was a very dark brown. The Winner's Circle trilons had an orange color background on all sides of the trilons including the golden Pyramid symbol side. The color scheme was replicated on the ABC version of The $10,000 Pyramid and on the first couple seasons of The $25,000 Pyramid with Bill Cullen in syndication.
The color scheme changed in late December 1975, shortly before the debut of The $20,000 Pyramid. The front game tables, the Winner's Circle railing and chairs, the front game smaller pyramid, and the background on the large pyramid's trilons with the golden pyramid symbol side only changed to a darker blue color. The category side and the dollar amount side on the Winner Circle trilons retained their orange color throughout the 70s and on the 1981 version known as The $50,000 Pyramid. The edges of the pylons behind the contestants in the front game changed to a whitish yellow. The background color behind the large pyramid accomplished with lighting changed to a lighter blue color. The shag carpet was changed to a golden color. By January 1980, the golden carpet would be removed to display a white kitchen tile motif with a few lines. The $50,000 Pyramid's set during 1981 kept much of the last few changes of The $20,000 Pyramid's set from its last few months in 1980.
The host's lectern did not originally have the show's name on it, but it was later added. The orange set had the show's logo in black lettering. When the set's color scheme was changed, the lectern changed to blue with white lettering. In 1980, a new lectern was introduced, made of plexiglass with a light blue pyramid shaped logo with white lettering. It would be modified and used again on The $50,000 Pyramid during 1981, by simply painting a "5" over the "2" that was previously there.
[edit] Celebrities
June Lockhart and Rob Reiner were the first celebrity guests on the debut week of CBS' The $10,000 Pyramid in 1973. Lockhart was frequently seen as a guest during the 1970s, and Reiner later appeared on two episodes of Cullen's show during its first season.
William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy guested on Kirk vs. Spock week on the ABC Pyramid. On one 1975 episode, Shatner was played the Winner's Circle by himself, giving the clues in one chair then racing to the other and guessing the subject, but he still failed to clear the top box subject "Men Named William (Bill)". The producers decided that since he played by himself, they gave him the prize anyway. Shatner became infamous in 1977 for throwing a chair across the stage when, after clearing each subject to that point, accidentally giving part of the answer on the final subject, "Things That Are Blessed" and costing his partner $20,000. He rarely appeared on the show after that.
Several game show hosts and future hosts appeared as panelists, most notably Bill Cullen, Geoff Edwards, Nipsey Russell, Betty White and Henry Polic II. Clark and Cullen appeared as celebrity guests on each other's shows, and Clark also appeared on three episodes of the Donny Osmond-hosted version.
Billy Crystal holds the record for the fastest Winner's Circle win at 26 seconds, in an episode aired on December 2, 1977. GSN included a 1979 episode where Crystal's achievement was replayed as part of its 50 Greatest Game Shows series; during the preface, host Bil Dwyer revealed that the tape of the original record-setting episode had since been destroyed.
Lois Nettleton and Bill Cullen were guests on the final episode of the ABC version on Friday, June 27, 1980 (In the last Winner's Circle round (with Cullen) the final category is "Things That Come To An End"; the contestant won). The episode is best remembered for presenting, during its closing segment, a possible Winner's Circle round featuring categories that might have been used if the producers "wanted to save the money". (These gag topics are somewhat similar to the names that would later be given to those on Win Ben Stein's Money)
- The gag categories were, in order:
- "Used Car Dealers You Can Trust"
- "Hit Shows On NBC-TV"
(the joke behind this one was that at the time NBC was a distant
third in the Nielsen Ratings against then-front runner ABC) - "Oil Companies In Bankruptcy"
- "Famous Japanese Rabbis"
(Cullen came up with "Ming Toy Rabbinowitz") - "Things (Henry) Kissinger Did Not Foul Up"
- "Famous Italian TV Directors"
(referring to then-Pyramid director Mike Garguilo)
Barry Jenner almost broke Crystal's record in the Winner's Circle, as he and contestant M.G. McCormick went up to the top in 27 seconds in 1987. Kelly Packard also achieved a 27-second mark in 2002 in leading a contestant to a $10,000 win, the fastest win in the Osmond version, while Picabo Street was close behind with a 28-second win in 2003.
On one episode of the $25,000 Pyramid in 1986, Tom Poston and contestant Kris Mallory set a new record by winning no money in the winner's circle. Poston received the clues from Mallory. Contestants had the option to give the clues in the Winner's Circle, but seldom made that choice.
Celebrities who won the $100,000 tournament prize for their partners on the 1980's syndicated version included Shelley Smith (twice), Brian Stokes Mitchell, Mary Cadorette, Audrey Landers, Lauri Hendler, Linda Kelsey, Barry Jenner, Markie Post, Nathan Cook, David Garrison, Teresa Ganzel and Nathan Cook. Cook was the only one whose partner, contestant Keefe Ferrandini, gave the clues.
Betty White was also a semi-regular during the 1980's version. Bill Cullen made his last network television appearance white White on a week of 1987 CBS episodes. White also appeared on Osmond's show on November 25, 2002, with Clark as the other celebrity guest.
Several contestants later returned to the show after becoming celebrities. These include David Graf of the Police Academy film series, who won $10,000 with his partner, Patty Duke, in 1979. When the two were reunited as celebrities for a week in 1985, a clip of the big win was shown, prompting Duke to remember Graf as "the big fellow who almost broke my back!".
Constance McCashin of Knots Landing appeared as a contestant on the Cullen version. She later made frequent appearances on the show as a celebrity guest in the 1980s, including on the debut week of the CBS version of The [New] $25,000 Pyramid in 1982 with Robert Mandan.
Mel Harris of thirtysomething appeared on Pyramid as a contestant in 1979 on the ABC daytime version, and again in 1985 on the syndicated $100,000 version, before finding success as an actress. She later appeared as a celebrity on the Davidson era in 1991 (and a clip of her winning big on the mid-1980s version was shown during the Monday episode of that week). GSN had aired her appearance from 1979, in a complete episode featuring celebrity guests Dick Cavett and Tony Randall, on Thursday, December 5,2002 as part of the channel's then weekly Pyramid Thursday two-hour block.
Kathy Najimy appeared as a contestant in 1985 and later returned as a celebrity on the Osmond version. In a similar fashion, Pine-Sol spokeswoman Diane Amos was also a contestant in 1985 and later returned as a celebrity on a special "Commercial Stars" episode of the Osmond version (with Subway pitchman Jared Fogle).
Michele Lee also of Knots Landing appeared twice on the Cullen version as a celebrity, as well on the CBS and ABC daytime versions during the 1970s. She made her earliest known appearance on the CBS edition during its third week on the air in April 1973 with Jack Klugman.
[edit] Announcers
Bob Clayton was the show's main announcer until he died of a cardiac arrest in 1979. Other New York-based announcers, usually filling in on occasion whenever Clayton was absent, were Alan Kalter, Fred Foy, John Causier, Dick Heatherton, Ed Jordan and Scott Vincent. By 1980, Steve O'Brien was hired as the show's principal announcer for the ABC network daytime edition (as The $20,000 Pyramid), and O'Brien and Kalter then rotated announcing duties until 1981 when the last New York broadcast was produced and aired in syndication (as The $50,000 Pyramid).
Today, Steve O'Brien is the voice-over announcer of PBS' The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and Alan Kalter is the announcer of CBS' The Late Show With David Letterman. O'Brien had been employed at various radio stations as an on-air personality in the New York City metropolitan area, including and most notably at WCBS-FM.
When the show moved to Los Angeles in 1982, Jack Clark announced until 1985, with Rod Roddy and Jerry Bishop substituting on occasion. From then on, Johnny Gilbert, Bob Hilton, and Charlie O'Donnell rotated the announcing position, with Charlie Tuna and Dean Goss filling in on occasion.
Gilbert was the regular announcer on Davidson's version, although both Henry Polic II and Dean Goss filled in for him for several weeks during the first season. John Cramer announced on Osmond's version.
[edit] Versions outside the USA
Foreign editions have been produced as well.
Among them:
United Kingdom: The Pyramid Game for ITV (originally featured on the short-lived Bruce's Big Night as the £1000 Pyramid), produced by London Weekend Television and hosted by Steve Jones, which aired from 1981-1984 and again from 1989-1990. Donny Osmond, who hosted the 2002-2004 version in the US, is hosting a new version called Donny's Pyramid Game on Challenge as of 7 May 2007.
France: Pyramide for France 2, hosted by Patrice Laffont. It was aired from 1991 to 2003.
Germany: Pyramide, first on ZDF from 1978-1994, and hosted by Dieter Thomas Heck, then later called Hast Du Worte?, and airing on Sat.1 from 1996-1998, and hosted by Jörg Pilawa, then Thomas Koschwitz.
Singapore: Aired on Channel 5 in the late 1990s and hosted at various times by Samuel Chong, Benedict Goh and Darryl David. It had the same name as the UK version. It also had a spin-off Malay version aired on Suria, named Piramid.
Estonia: Called Püramiid for TV3, airing since March 2006.
Vietnam: A local version called Kim Tų Tháp and airing on HTV7.
Russia: Called Piramida.
Indonesia: The local version stands several years with title Kuis Piramida.
Chile: The show is called Contrareloj, and the set is a dead ringer to the Donny Osmond-era set. It airs on Canal 13 and is hosted by a female-- Esperanza Silva.
Italy: Rai Due produces "Pyramid" since December 3, 2007.
[edit] Home versions
Milton Bradley made eight editions of the CBS/ABC versions starting in 1974. The dollar values in the MB editions changed over the years as the TV show did, with the eighth edition titled The $50,000 Pyramid, which is now rare.
The Winner's Circle portion of the Milton Bradley home versions was totally unlike the Winner's Circle on the TV show. In the home version, the Winner's Circle was almost exactly like the previous round, where one player would describe a single word to the other rather than the more familiar list of listing items in a category. Bob Stewart later said that this was because there were a limited number of categories - indeed, there are repeated categories in Winner's Circle games throughout the various Pyramid versions - and they didn't want potential contestants to practice with the home game and then see the same categories on the real show.
Cardinal Games created the first $25,000 Pyramid game in 1986, with a picture of Dick Clark on the box, the game had the correct version of the "Winner's Circle" round in the game; the game also had the option of playing it as The $100,000 Pyramid. Endless Games created a similar (to the Cardinal edition) version in 2000, still calling it The $25,000 Pyramid with a second edition based on Osmond's Pyramid in 2003.
The first computer version of The $100,000 Pyramid was released in 1987 for MS-DOS, Commodore 64 and Apple II computers by Box Office Software. Sierra Entertainment released a version from 2001 for the PC; which is mostly based on the 1985 version with some elements of the 1991 version. In 2006, MGA Games released a DVD game of The $100,000 Pyramid with gameplay different from the 80s version.
[edit] Episode status and rights
All versions are assumed to exist, with the following exceptions:
- The original CBS $10,000 Pyramid is believed to be largely erased; the only episodes confirmed are 3 episodes which exist in the UCLA Film & Television archives, one from Wednesday of the premiere week (3/28/1973), with June Lockhart/Rob Reiner, the Thursday episode from the 2nd week of shows (4/5/1973), with Nancy Dussault/Nipsey Russell, and an episode from the Friday episode of the 3rd week of shows (4/13/1973), with Michelle Lee/Jack Klugman. There's also an episode that was taped from it's original airing from June 1973, during the Kaye Ballard/Richard Deacon week, that exists on the trading circuit. A special three-week period where the show originated from CBS Television City in Hollywood rather than its usual New York home base also exists. GSN has aired these episodes (except one) in the past.
- A three-minute pitchfilm that was made to sell the Bill Cullen-hosted $25,000 Pyramid in syndication to TV Stations, featuring clips of previous big money wins from the Dick Clark-hosted $10,000 Pyramid that was airing at the time, exists on the trading circuit. Also on the trading circuit, there's a 45-second clip from the Friday episode of the Lee Meriwether/William Shatner week (6/27/1975), that shows Shatner playing the Winner Circle by himself, which was aired on an episode on the circuit of The $20,000 Pyramid, from 1977.
- GSN has the last two seasons (1978-80) of The $20,000 Pyramid in its archive (which was purchased from Bob Stewart when Sony acquired the rights to that library). It is believed that the tapes of episodes prior to that were erased and recycled by ABC.
- The Bill Cullen $25,000 Pyramid exists in what is believed to be its entirety, but it remains with its original syndicator, CBS Television Distribution (originally Viacom). The $50,000 Pyramid is in a similar limbo, as is the '90s $100,000 Pyramid (discussed below). The $50,000 Pyramid did air as repeats in 1982 on the then-CBN Cable Network, shortly before the premiere of the revived CBS version.
- Sony has rights to the Pyramid game format and most of the numerous incarnations. Sony does not own the following versions: the Cullen $25,000 Pyramid version (held by CBS Television Distribution), the brief 1981 $50,000 Pyramid edition (formerly distributed by CPM Programs) and the Davidson $100,000 Pyramid version (held by CBS Television Distribution and StudioCanal via the latter's acquisition of the library of Carolco Pictures, whose Orbis Communications syndication unit distributed the Davidson/$100,000 Pyramid version).
- The 1980s CBS $25,000 Pyramid is fully intact and did air as complete in repeats on the USA Network, but to date, GSN had only played approximately 350 of the 1,404 episodes, because the bulk of them had not yet been converted from analog to a digibeta format required to air on GSN. However, GSN had not aired any episode of The $25,000 Pyramid since 2003.
- The syndicated 1980s $100,000 Pyramid is completely intact, and have aired on both the USA Network and GSN. However, Sony lately had permitted GSN to air just one season's worth of episodes, about 180 of the 550 episodes, due to certain license fee requirements. The episodes that GSN were airing regularly came from the 1986–1987 season, and although GSN removed this version from its programming lineup on Friday, February 2, 2007, it is scheduled to be seen in a special eight-hour marathon on Monday, December 31, 2007.
[edit] External links
- SuperShow 8000: The Pyramid (an unofficial website)
- $10,000 PYRAMID from Tim's TV Showcase - photos and links
- Game Show Utopia: The $25,000 Pyramid A page devoted to the 1970s syndicated version of the show starring Bill Cullen
- Funny Pyramid clues and answers
- The $100,000 Pyramid at MobyGames
- "The Short-Lived $50,000 Pyramid", an unofficial website
- 80s TV Themes Featuring the themes to the $10,000 and (New) $25,000 Pyramids.
- $100,000 Pyramid Theme Song A one-minute clip of the $100,000 Pyramid theme song, and the intro to a now-defunct $100,000 Pyramid internet game
[edit] Daytime Emmy Award history
| Preceded by Hollywood Squares | Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show 1976 as The $20,000 Pyramid | Succeeded by Family Feud |
| Preceded by Hollywood Squares | Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show 1980 – 1981 as The $20,000 Pyramid tie with Hollywood Squares in 1980 | Succeeded by Password Plus |
| Preceded by Password Plus | Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show 1983 – 1987 as The $25,000 Pyramid | Succeeded by The Price is Right |
| Preceded by The Price is Right | Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show 1989 as The $25,000 Pyramid | Succeeded by Jeopardy! |
fr:Pyramide (jeu télévisé)
Categories: Articles lacking sources from December 2007 | All articles lacking sources | Pyramid (TV game show series) | Game shows | TV word game shows | French game shows | Australian game shows | Bob Stewart game shows | USA Network shows | American Broadcasting Company network shows | CBS network shows | First-run syndicated television programs | Television series by Sony Pictures Television | Television series by CBS Paramount Television | 1973 television series debuts | 1970s American television series | 1980s American television series | 1990s American television series | 2000s American television series
