Game shows with large numbers of celebrities were popular in 1976. CBS had a big daytime hit in Match Game '76 with Gene Rayburn and NBC got the square with Hollywood Squares that was presided by Peter Marshall. ABC on April 12, 1976, got on the multi star bandwagon with another game that featured nine celebrities but had a much shorter run despite high ratings, a revival of Break the Bank that should have had a longer run.
At that time, Jack Barry and Dan Enright, who reunited after they were blacklisted due to the quiz show scandals of the late 50s, decided to revive a show that was popular on radio and early TV titled Break the Bank. The show was hosted by Bud Collyer and Bert Parks. Barry and Enright decided to build an all new show around the dormant title that would include nine celebrities seated around a giant gameboard that consisted of 20 squares.
Veteran game show host Tom Kennedy would host the show that made it's debut on April 12, 1976. for those who have never seen or heard of the show, here are the rules: The game feature two contestants, one male and one female. They would choose one of the 20 boxes that would connect to two of the celebrities. Kennedy would ask a question and one celebrity would give the correct answer while the other gave the wrong answer. The object was to determined which star was right. A correct answer earned the box while an incorrect answer returned the box to its neutral position. The rule was changed later in the run where an incorrect judgement awarded the box to the opposing player, unless it resulted in a win.
Dollar amounts on the network version were $100, $200 and $300 and they all were connected in threes. The first player to get three boxes of the same amount won the game. There was also a "Wild" box that could be used for any dollar figure and five boxes that were blank. Any player selecting a blank box forfeited their turn. Now the way a contestant could break the bank was to select three of the five moneybags on the board. The player had the option of keeping a moneybag or waiting until later in the game. If they got the three moneybags, they would break the bank.
The celebrities would often give funny answers to the questions and it would also contribute to the show's success. Break the Bank would become daytime TV's second highest rated game show, in between Match Game '76 and the show's lead in The $20,000 Pyramid. But ABC, led by Fred Silverman, had other ideas.
Silverman, who was never a game show fan, except for Family Feud, which he declared in Mary Ann Norbom's book Richard Dawson and Family Feud as "the best game show ever to appear on the air" wanted to expand the network's soap operas One Life to Live and General Hospital from 30 to 45 minutes. So, despite high ratings, on July 23, ABC cancelled Break the Bank after only 15 weeks on the network.
What ABC should have done to keep the high rated show on the air was to move the show to a different time period such as 11 AM EST that was occupied by Happy Days reruns. It would have brought in higher ratings and trigger a ratings battle with CBS's Gambit and NBC's Wheel of Fortune. As for Barry and Enright, they could have taken the show to another network or launch it in syndication. They chose the latter.
After its sudden cancellation, Break the Bank returned that fall in prime time access syndication. Barry would host the show that was unfortunately not seen in the Twin Cities. He wore dark glasses due to the bright studio lights. The only difference from the daytime version was that the contestant who won the most games would go on to the bonus round. In this round, eight of the nine celebrities had money amounts and one had a card that said "BUST". The object was for the player to earn $2000 before hitting the bust card and he or she would win $5000. This would be the standard avoid the bad guy formula that would later surface on the company's other shows such as The Joker's Wild and Tic Tac Dough. The show was not a ratings success and lasted only one year in access.
The other bright spot to Break the Bank was Stu Levin's theme, which was later used on The Joker's Wild Million Dollar tournament in 1980 and the syndicated soap opera news show Soapworld.
Here was a show that had enormous hit potential that was squandered by network interference,
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