Fifty years ago on March 23, 1973, a game show era came to an end and a new era would begin when television's longest running game show at that time, Concentration aired its final episode.
For most of the 1960s, Concentration would air opposite daytime sitcom reruns on CBS. ABC was much of a nonfactor, though the network aired the original Price is Right with Bill Cullen following NBC's cancellation in 1963. There was also a forerunner of Entertainment Tonight titled Dateline Hollywood that was hosted by Joanna Barnes and Rona Barrett and a talk show starring Dick Cavett. Those two shows had short runs and ABC has not had any shows in the 10:30 ET period since then.
But on September 4, 1972, CBS would shake up daytime TV with the debut of three new game shows. They were The Joker's Wild, Gambit and the show the network put up against Concentration that would become TV's longest running game show, a revival of The Price is Right.
Within weeks, The Price is Right would be the show that would cut into Concentration's ratings dominance as the long running game lost a lot of its audience.
The Price is Right, taped at Television City in Hollywood, was bright, vibrant and flashy and like the shows it bookend, had a synthesized sound track while Concentration had a static, older look and was one of the last game shows to use an organist.
To make matters worse, in early 1973, NBC hired a new vice president of daytime programming, Lin Bolen. Hard driving and ambitious and also the model for Faye Dunaway's character in the movie Network, Bolen did not like what she saw in the network's game show lineup. She felt the sets were dated and the network attracted an older audience, including a show that was popular with college students and people on their lunch hour, the original version of Jeopardy.
Concentration producer Norm Blumenthal, who also created every rebus puzzle on the air and for the popular home game, mention in the documentary Thank You for Playing Concentration that he had a couple of confrontations with Bolen. The first came after someone in the audience shouted out the puzzle solution so Blumenthal awarded a contestant a car. Bolen responded by saying. "Give the other contestant the car!" Blumenthal told Bolen to shut up and ejected her from the control room. She also pressured Blumenthal to upgrade the set and award more expensive prizes. Blumenthal refused and on March 23, it would be the end of Concentration.
The final puzzle on the show was "You've been more than kind." None of the contestants solved the puzzle because time ran out, so host Bob Clayton on direction from Blumenthal, split the Birthday Present and awarded both contestants $700. Following a commercial, Clayton would say goodbye and that ended Concentration.
On Monday, March 26, NBC debuted the first game show under Bolen's regime, a revival of the syndicated game show PDQ, with a new title Baffle. It would be the first game show to utilize neon lights. Future NBC sportscaster Dick Enberg would host. NBC's timing couldn't have been worse. CBS debuted a new game show, which will be part of the next post The $10,000 Pyramid and it would trounce Baffle in the daytime ratings. The show would change to all-celebrity format six months later and would be canceled in March 1974.
The same day in addition, to Pyramid, CBS debuted another game show and a soap opera. More details in the next post.
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