In the previous post, HSGN looked back at the fiftieth anniversary of the cancellation of the long running NBC game show Concentration and the start of a new era for the network's daytime game show lineup under new vice president Lin Bolen. But CBS would also debut two new game shows and a soap opera that is still on the air 50 years later and that's the subject of part two.
While NBC debuted the new game show Baffle, the first with neon lights, CBS would move The Price is right to an afternoon time period and debut a new game show from Bob Stewart that would spawn numerous revivals. The show, The $10,000 Pyramid.
"Keep your eye on the Winner's Circle," intoned announcer Bob Clayton as the former Concentration host opened the first episode of The $10,000 Pyramid," hosted by Dick Clark. The show, that aired in between The Joker's Wild and Gambit would be the only CBS game show to be taped in New York while the others were taped in Hollywood. Stewart would finally move his production company to California in 1979.
Pyramid was derived from Stewart's biggest success at Goodson-Todman, Password. There were still two celebrity-civilian teams, but instead of a player giving one word clues, they can give a description to get their partner to guess the word without using part of the answer. The team with the most points got to go to The Winner's Circle, where one member of the team would give a list of items that helped their partner guess the subject. If they got all six subjects in 60 seconds, they won $10,000.
Pyramid did well in the ratings, easily beating Baffle. But when Bolen moved Jeopardy from the noon slot to opposite Pyramid, the ratings dropped and after over a year, CBS canceled the show. But lo and behold, ABC picked up the game and six weeks later, Clark was on the network where he hosted American Bandstand every Saturday afternoon. The show would be more successful and run until June 1980. There would be several other revivals since then, including its return to CBS in September of 1982 and the current version that airs in the summer on ABC that's hosted by former NY Giant, Michael Strahan.
The other game show that debuted on CBS was the first game show hosted by Geoff Edwards titled Hollywood's Talking. Slotted after the relocated Price is Right, the show was a revival of a 1967 game show hosted by Lloyd Thaxton and created by Jack Barry. Barry did not receive credit because he was still blacklisted due to his involvement in the quiz show scandals of the 1950s. Like the original, three contestants would compete to identify the subject celebrities were talking about in a series of film clips. The pot started at $150 and decreased as long as the film was unidentified to a minimum of $50. First player to reach $250 won the game and played the Short subjects bonus round for more of their winnings.
Edwards and Barry did not get along, especially after Barry told him to change his voice because he didn't like the way he sounded. Unfortunately, viewers opted for soaps instead of Hollywood's Talking, and after 13 weeks, it was canceled and replace by the much more successful Match Game revival that ran until April 1979. Edwards and Barry would bury the hatchet in 1980 when Edward would become the host of the short-lived syndicated game show Play the Percentages.
Wrapping up this post is the soap opera that also debuted the same day that is celebrating its 50th anniversary, The Young and the Restless. A replacement for another soap, Where the Heart is, it was like other soaps at that time, a half hour. It became very popular and expanded to an hour in February 1980. Y&R, as it's sometimes known by fans, is to this day, the top rated soap opera and bolstered by it's lead in The Price is Right in many markets and local news that airs at noon in the Eastern Time Zone. Though many cast members have come and gone, the one stabilizing factor is the theme song, also known as Nadia's Theme, that was a Top 40 hit for Barry DeVorzon and Perry Botkin Jr.
So that's how daytime TV change 50 years ago. New hosts, including the man who hosted more than 8000 episodes of Jeopardy, Alex Trebek as well as a soap opera that's still popular with several generations.
