WEBVTT - Selects: How Game Shows Work 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:03.840 Hi everybody, it's Chuck here, your curator of the week 0:00:03.880 --> 0:00:07.080 for our Saturday Selects episode. This is a live one. 0:00:07.520 --> 0:00:10.160 We don't release too many live episodes for our Selects, 0:00:10.200 --> 0:00:13.600 but I loved this episode. This was s y s 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:17.360 K live how game shows worked. We toured this same topic. 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:21.799 I'm not sure how many times, but it was one 0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:24.680 of my favorite ones. Uh. This episode is from September. 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:28.920 Did I already say that? I'm not sure, but anyway, 0:00:29.320 --> 0:00:36.440 check it out. It's Josh and Chuck Live. Welcome to 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:45.840 Stuff you should know, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey, 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:48.640 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and there's 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:52.080 Charles W Chuck Bryant. Jerry's not with us, but these 0:00:52.080 --> 0:01:15.480 beautiful people are at the Gothic Theater in Denver, Colorado. Yeah. 0:01:09.600 --> 0:01:22.480 That was easily double last night's reception. That was That 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:24.240 was a good start is what they call that. And 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:25.800 I don't know if you noticed, but there's a lovely 0:01:25.880 --> 0:01:28.440 lady with a Josh sent Me shirt. Oh yes, I 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:34.319 thank you very much. Thank you for loving that. Um. Okay, 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:37.880 so tonight, you guys, you're probably gonna feel like you 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:41.959 just wasted your applause because we're going to be talking 0:01:42.040 --> 0:01:48.280 about game shows. Yes, oh good, you guys are into here. 0:01:48.440 --> 0:01:51.520 That's good because it was a it's a coin toss. Frankly, 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:53.640 about half the people are like, I wonder what the 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:57.200 real topic is, right, he's just kidding. We Actually we 0:01:57.240 --> 0:01:59.200 once did a show and I think Portland and came 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:02.080 out and said it, um, it was the anniversary of 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:04.120 the How the Sun Works show, so we were gonna 0:02:04.120 --> 0:02:07.320 redo it, and like all the people are like, wow, 0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:09.480 we want to like you guys, but we're really mad, 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:12.359 right now, are you kidding? Like, yes, we're just we're 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:16.280 all super high, so we really don't care, right, They're like, 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:22.399 that's why we cheered game shows. So we we wanted 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:24.720 to do game shows in part because Fourth of July 0:02:24.840 --> 0:02:27.239 is coming up. You guys can't have fireworks because it's 0:02:27.280 --> 0:02:30.320 too dry here to set off a firework. It's the 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:34.960 most wildly irresponsible thing you could do. Something tells me 0:02:35.000 --> 0:02:37.240 that some of your militia members are going to shoot 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:43.360 off fireworks anyway, but even still, Fourth of July is coming, 0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:46.639 so we wanted to do something American, and nothing is 0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:51.160 more American than game shows. They're like leisure suit level American, right, 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:59.560 but as yeah, right, you get a free beer as 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:02.360 America and his game shows are. However, it turns out 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:06.480 that the first game show on television was actually British. 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:13.040 It was a British investor. Now we like the bacause 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:22.720 because they live in another country. Right, yeah, And remember this, buddy, 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:26.440 if you shoot into the air, bullets come back down, right, 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:31.320 So just don't shoot into the air. Maybe blanks are okay. 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:35.560 So this first game show in Great Britain, it launched 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:40.119 a night is called Spelling Bee and it was exactly 0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:44.720 what it sounds like, that's right. Freddie Gryswood was the host, 0:03:44.720 --> 0:03:46.440 and he dressed as a school teacher. He kind of 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:48.560 played it up a bit, which was nice, and he 0:03:48.600 --> 0:03:52.360 would say spell this and they spelled it. And if 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:54.920 it sounds boring, it was because even though there was 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:59.720 nothing on TV, it still was not met with warm receptions. 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:03.360 Advertisers liked it. But there was a columnist in The 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:07.480 Independent in two thousand, just eighteen years ago, such a 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:10.760 snarky British thing to say. He said this one of 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:13.960 the few happy consequences of the Second World War was 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:21.640 it took spelling be off air burn yea, like a 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:26.000 good World War two burn. Right, So spelling B, even 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:28.120 though it was boring, it kicked off this huge craze 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:32.880 just immediately. Everyone saw like, okay, if spelling B can 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:35.720 be popular with the advertisers, we can do better than that. 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:38.039 We're America, right, So we took it the ball and 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:40.320 ran with it. We were already familiar with game shows. 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:42.560 We had him on the radio, like we had shows 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:45.239 like Um, you Bet Your Life with Grout show Marks 0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:48.560 was a big one. Um there was what is it? 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:50.960 What's my line? What's my line? That's where you tried 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:55.159 to guess someone's profession by asking them questions. It's like 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:58.720 maybe a step up from spelling B. Right. Then things 0:04:58.720 --> 0:05:01.480 start to get cool with True Their Consequences, which started 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:03.880 out as a radio show and then very quickly moved 0:05:03.880 --> 0:05:09.000 on to TV. Truth or Consequences was this show where 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:11.800 you had to you were asked a question and you 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:15.720 had to answer before Bulah the buzzer sounded, and name 0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:19.280 their buzzer Beulah yeah, which is kind of neat. It's 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:22.239 just a nice little touch, right, And if you didn't 0:05:22.240 --> 0:05:25.560 answer before Bulah went off, um, you had to face 0:05:25.600 --> 0:05:28.120 the consequences. Which is like something wacky, like a mock 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:32.920 execution or something like that. Right. Uh. The coolest thing 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:35.440 about that show though, was that they have you ever 0:05:35.480 --> 0:05:38.600 been to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico or driven very 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:43.960 fast through there? Yeah? Are you from there? Okay? Pretty close? 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:48.320 I think it's in the same state. All right, I'm 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:53.080 a lost Crucis guy myself. But whatever, name dropper, you're 0:05:53.120 --> 0:05:57.920 a name dropping uh. Host Ralph Edwards said that they 0:05:57.920 --> 0:06:01.640 would broadcast a lot from the first town that would 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:06.359 name their city after Truth or Consequences. This is not 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:08.920 a joke, and that's where that town name came from. 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:12.640 Before that, it was the lovely Hot Springs, New Mexico, 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:17.400 and they named it Truth or Consequences. They're like, our 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:19.960 town's name is basically just like a caution sign. We 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:23.000 can we can lose this. We'll still keep the sign 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:25.240 up that says Hot Springs because it's useful, but we're 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:27.400 going to change our name. And they did. I think 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:33.279 they cheaped out personally. Okay, don't tell them that back 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:37.159 in New Mexico that Chucks said that. Okay, So this 0:06:37.240 --> 0:06:41.040 is I think nine was when the game shows started 0:06:41.080 --> 0:06:43.800 coming on TV in the US. And by the fifties 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:46.440 they were like some of the top rated shows on 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:49.600 television game shows where they call them quid shows back 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:51.640 then even they did, and that was pretty much the format. 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:54.120 Like they were. There was actually like thought and like 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:59.640 skill to this um like masteries, yeah, smarts right, there 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:03.720 was like um sixty thousand dollar question, which in today's 0:07:03.760 --> 0:07:10.720 dollars to be the five D five question. That's correct, 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:14.720 thank you. Although you wrote this a couple of months ago, 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:19.000 I thought, I'm really sad that you brought that up. 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:21.240 I was just gonna not mention. All right, well, Jerry 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:23.880 in the future cut that part out. I don't want 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:26.920 to make Josh uncomfortable. Thank you. Jerry's all around us 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:30.960 right now. We live on a hard drive in Jerry's 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:38.720 computer in the future. This is all a simulation. So 0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:41.280 the pressure was on to make these quiz shows as 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:45.760 dramatic as possible, and so producers of these quiz shows realized, hey, 0:07:46.240 --> 0:07:50.440 we can maybe manipulate these things, i e. Cheat and 0:07:50.840 --> 0:07:53.440 build up people who people love to love and people 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:56.320 who love to hate, and America will never know the 0:07:56.360 --> 0:07:58.640 difference and they'll think it's great, right, And that's what 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:01.280 they did. There was this one show called one. You 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:04.480 guys might have seen the movie Quiz Show with John 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:10.560 Treturo and Ray finds I guess not, so we're seeing 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:14.720 worth seeing, right, Um. But it's about this actual scandal 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:17.320 that happened in the US with this one show called 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:19.920 twenty one, and the whole thing started where there was 0:08:19.960 --> 0:08:23.120 this producer for twenty one who approached this blue blood 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:26.880 lip professor named Charles Van Doren and just appealed to 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:29.320 his ego. He said, there's this guy on this show 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:31.480 that I produced. His name is Herb Stemple. He's like 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:34.679 the worst stain of a human being anyone's ever seen. 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:39.520 But you can't stop winning. And America hates him and Revalon, 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:42.120 our sponsor, is gonna leave. We're starting to lose ratings. 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:45.319 You gotta help us, van Doren. Van Dorn's like, okay, 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:47.720 I'll see what I can do. Just feed me the 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:50.160 lines and we'll cheat together and I will help you 0:08:50.400 --> 0:08:56.559 with that was that was okay? So he gets locked 0:08:56.559 --> 0:08:58.640 into this, right, But what Van Doren didn't know is 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:01.840 that he was actually being scammed. It was a scam 0:09:01.880 --> 0:09:05.120 within a scam because Herb Stemple was a plant. Yeah, 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:07.600 he was a plant. They made him wear an ill 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:11.079 fitting suit, they gave him a bad haircut, and they 0:09:11.080 --> 0:09:13.960 tried to make him as unlikable as possible so they 0:09:13.960 --> 0:09:16.679 would have a villain on their hands. And Herb Stemple 0:09:16.800 --> 0:09:18.800 doesn't like this, of course, because you would think like, 0:09:19.080 --> 0:09:21.079 all right, well, then go to the press and expose 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:25.480 this thing. And he did and the press said, you're 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:27.600 just a sore loser. Yeah, they wouldn't. The New York 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:31.520 Times said, nah, you're just a sore loser. Uh. There 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:34.199 was another guy who was the other dude, Stony Jackson. Yes, 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:36.760 Stony Jackson was another. I think he was on the 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:39.440 sixty four thousand dollar question. He went to the New 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:42.800 York Times and Time magazine and said these are all rigged, 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:45.760 none of these game shows are real, and they went, yeah, 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:50.680 you're just a sore loser. So finally there was hard evidence. 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:54.320 There was another question named Otto, and somebody found a 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:57.160 contestants notebook that had the questions and the answers in 0:09:57.200 --> 0:09:59.480 it and took it to the press. And that was that. 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:05.680 And America's reaction was profound, you could say, they had 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:12.640 congressional hearings on it. They amended the Nine Communications Act 0:10:12.720 --> 0:10:17.360 to expressly outlaw dishonest quiz shows. Right, this is like 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:20.000 a very naive time in our country's history. I'm trying 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:23.720 to think of a time when, uh, game show quality 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:26.880 was one of the more important things on the docket. 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:37.560 Right now, I'm depressed, Alicia, Hippies, I don't have to 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:41.120 think Van Doren. By the way, he was actually indicted 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:45.080 for perjury. He was because he had lied to Congress. No, 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:48.640 he told the truth Congress. He lied to a court. Right, 0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:50.360 But I don't think you ever did a hard time 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:52.400 because I said he was a blue blood. Yeah, let's 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:55.560 face it, it was still it was still America. He didn't, 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:59.079 he didn't serve any hard time. So those quiz show 0:10:59.160 --> 0:11:01.520 scandals gave us one of the weird quirks of Jeopardy. 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:05.560 At one point, Mervy, Yes, I still love Jeopardy. Uh. Merv. 0:11:05.640 --> 0:11:09.439 Griffin's wife suggested at one time that he do a 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:14.080 quiz show, and he was like, shut up, nobody wants 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:17.200 to come near a quiz show. Haven't you been paying attention? 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:20.679 And she would you shut up? Why don't you just 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:28.000 make the questions the answers and the answers the questions. 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:32.400 I'm sure they're very lovely people. Actually, that's just how 0:11:32.400 --> 0:11:34.520 he picture it in my head. Is there all drunk 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:40.280 and smoking, Skelly Bangally bracelets on his wife. Julian actually 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:43.360 suggested that, and that's where that interesting quirk of Jeopardy 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:45.839 came from. And by the time the executives figured out 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:50.400 it was actually the same thing, you could still feed 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:56.079 someone the questions or answers, right, so um the scandal again. 0:11:56.160 --> 0:12:00.200 America's response was profound and it almost killed off which 0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:05.040 shows were it not for one of maybe our country's 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:08.120 greatest geniuses ever, manned by the name of Mark Goodson, 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:13.200 who created the greatest game show ever The price is right, Yes, 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:19.480 Mark Goodson and Bill Toddman his partner. I don't recognize him, 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:24.160 just Mark Goodson. So all right, well, you're weird longstanding 0:12:24.200 --> 0:12:26.560 grudge against Bill Toddmen's it's not so much that it's 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:30.400 more an idolization of Mark Goodson. Okay, that's fine. So 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:32.880 what Mark Goodson did he said, Okay, everybody, wait, we 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:35.160 don't have to give up quiz shows. What we're gonna 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:41.160 do is take quiz shows and make them dumber and 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:43.920 then we have game shows. And that's what he did. 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:46.440 They did away with the game. They did away with 0:12:46.559 --> 0:12:50.440 quiz anything, they did away with um having to know 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:53.920 stuff can actually compete on the game. And that's when 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:56.760 they got really good. Yeah, that is when they got 0:12:56.760 --> 0:12:59.200 really good. Brother, you can say that again they did. 0:12:59.280 --> 0:13:03.080 That's when it got really good because this was the 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:05.600 era that we all know and love if anyone watches 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:08.920 the Game show Network, when you could just trot out 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:16.720 drunk celebrities to spew racist and homophobic jokes left and right. Well, 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:25.040 hey make America great again? Right? Uh oh god, it's 0:13:25.120 --> 0:13:31.440 like crowded sea. Just someone big shreds legal. We don't 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:35.080 tread on me, and let's just back away from this 0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:41.960 chuck all right, Jerry cut all that out. Uh here, 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:45.640 celebrities get ain't drunk, which shows like the match game 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:48.079 in Hollywood Squares, and they like flat out got drunk 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:50.199 on the match game. If you've ever seen like behind 0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:53.880 the scene stories, it's pretty great. They just swelled vodka 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:57.200 basically from like a noon on and you would The 0:13:57.200 --> 0:13:59.319 only smart you had to have as a contestant was 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:01.319 to be able to all in the blanks. You had 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:05.880 to be able to speak. That's it. Like this Frank 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:09.800 was embarrassed because his blank squeaked like, that's as smart 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:13.280 as you needed to be. Let's name a body part 0:14:13.679 --> 0:14:16.280 like you, you basically couldn't get it wrong. And if 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:19.120 you got it wrong is because you just guessed wrong. 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:21.800 You had just is is as much of a chance 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:23.680 of guessing right as you had to get right. But 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:26.000 there was always a chance that Nipsey Russell would be 0:14:26.000 --> 0:14:29.920 thinking the same body part. And then you're You're the winner. 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:32.320 It's pretty great. They would carry you out on their 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:34.680 shoulders and give you a bunch of mushrooms because they 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:38.320 were all on mushrooms themselves. Uh. And then there was 0:14:38.360 --> 0:14:41.160 of course a newly wed game, the legendary newly Weed game, 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:44.760 where they would trot out married couples and ask they 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:47.200 would put one of them backstage, ask a question of 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:50.720 the other spouse and say, you know, how would your 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:54.200 would your husband or wife answer this? Are we doing this? Yeah? 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:56.720 I think we have to because it's one of the 0:14:56.720 --> 0:15:01.000 biggest moments in game show history. Was whole Go from 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:05.960 the newly Wed game. We're doing Have you guys ever 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:09.160 heard of Holga from the newly Web game? A few 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:11.400 of you have, Well, the rest of you buckle in. 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:14.680 So there was a woman competing with her husband on 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:16.240 the newly Wed game. Her name is Holga. I think 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:24.920 its name four for for argument's sake. Sure, So Holga 0:15:25.240 --> 0:15:31.000 was asked among her fellow competitors on the game, UM, 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:35.320 tell me, girls, where is the weirdest place specifically that 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:39.040 you personally have ever gotten the urge to make whoopie? 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:47.920 And Holga answered in the ass you can. You can 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:51.800 watch it online when you get home. And poor Holga's like, 0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:57.480 why does everyone laugh? I guess it's funny? And then 0:15:57.560 --> 0:15:59.600 when they brought her husband back and all the other 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:01.880 husband as they said what do you think your wife 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:06.040 would say? And her husband guests in the car. So 0:16:06.080 --> 0:16:08.600 they didn't win, but they definitely went down in history, 0:16:09.120 --> 0:16:12.600 and Holga was still going, why is everybody laughing at me? 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:16.360 Then there was a show called Queen for a Day. 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:18.640 This is an interesting show because it was a big, 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:22.240 big hit with audiences even though it was decidedly strange, 0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:25.840 and that they would bring out women who had genuine 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:30.320 troubles in their life and uh spill their guts about 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:32.280 what was going on in hopes that they would be 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:37.760 voted up via applause meter. To solve those problems with money. 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:41.240 So you literally had ladies on TV talking about not 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:44.960 being able to afford surgery for their sick child, and 0:16:45.000 --> 0:16:48.320 an applause meter is going up while people are going 0:16:48.400 --> 0:16:52.240 crazy and rooting them on. It sounds very strange, and 0:16:52.280 --> 0:16:54.080 it was, but it was a It was a big, 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:56.400 big hit. It was, and in fact, they even stretched 0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:59.160 it from thirty minute show to an hour hunk show 0:16:59.640 --> 0:17:04.000 because advertisers loved it so much. Queen for a Day, 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:06.320 Queen for a Day. So there was another big thing 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:09.600 that happened, um when game shows started to make a comeback. 0:17:10.320 --> 0:17:13.080 They moved from prime time the daytime and the way 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:15.919 that we think of game shows today, which is like 0:17:16.200 --> 0:17:19.000 back to back starting in the morning going well into 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:21.600 the afternoon. You don't even have to turn the channel once. 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:25.160 That started in the seventies when there was this sudden 0:17:25.440 --> 0:17:29.360 spasm of game shows that came on daytime TV out 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:31.760 of nowhere and just said get out of the way, 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:36.879 soap operas, move over, love American style reruns. Uh. It 0:17:36.960 --> 0:17:39.320 just took over and like what we think of his, 0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:42.320 game shows came out of the mid seventies and it 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:44.560 was They made a pretty big splash. Yeah, that was. 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:47.720 In fact, there was an article in the New York Times. 0:17:47.720 --> 0:17:52.080 It said you could watch nine straight game shows between 0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:57.520 and two pm on NBC every weekday. Nine straight game shows. Right, 0:17:57.600 --> 0:17:59.439 It's amazing And this is the world I grew up in. 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:04.359 So I was pretty happy. Kid, say, this is how 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:09.200 I watched Prices, right, that's how I watched and still 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:12.760 watch Pyramid to me, one of the greatest all time 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:15.720 game shows. I love Pyramid. It's no Prices, right, but 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:18.800 it's good. I love Prices, right. I was on the Prices, well, 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:21.440 I was not on which the taping of the Prices right. 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:25.640 It's a big difference. And I will tell that story later, Okay, 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:30.000 put a pin in it. Yeah. So the reason, all right, 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:38.000 the reason Um asked Josh's permission everything I say so. 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:40.600 The reason that game shows made like such a big 0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:44.240 comeback after they were almost dead it was pretty simple. Money. 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:49.640 They're actually really really cheap to make. Um. They came 0:18:49.680 --> 0:18:51.919 back in part again because of Mark Goodson, but they 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:56.120 also came back because there were risk averse executives when 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:58.800 they actually pop up a lot in this show. You'll 0:18:58.840 --> 0:19:03.879 find but in the sixties and seventies, Um variety shows 0:19:03.880 --> 0:19:05.800 were huge. They kind of came in and filled the 0:19:05.840 --> 0:19:09.320 void after quiz shows went away. But they're really expensive 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:12.639 to make. Game shows are not expensive to make. They 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:15.320 used to be even less expensive than they are today. 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:18.199 Like today you have what's called a prize budget and 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:20.919 it's part of your show budget. Did anybody see The 0:19:20.960 --> 0:19:22.919 Power of Ten? It was on for like a season 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:26.000 in two thousand seven? Yeah, no one did, right, that's 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:28.000 why I was on for a season. That the response, 0:19:28.080 --> 0:19:29.800 by the way, But it was like this kind of 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:34.399 slick new game show, complicated rules and everything. Um. But 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:37.160 they had a prize budget for the season of three 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:41.040 million dollars, but they had a top prize of ten 0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:45.760 million dollars, and the producers just kind of hoped, knowing 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:48.880 would ever get to the ten million dollar question. They 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:53.480 basically said, this show is so hard, no one, it's 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:56.800 virtually impossible to get to that ten million dollar question. 0:19:57.359 --> 0:20:03.000 Ipso facto. We're fine. Right, the first contestant got to 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:07.960 the ten million dollar question. I was like, surely that's 0:20:08.280 --> 0:20:09.960 is that true? And I looked it up again in 0:20:10.000 --> 0:20:13.679 the green rooms, like it is still true? Are you 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:16.479 still fact checking? Yeah? I love it. That's the kind 0:20:16.520 --> 0:20:18.639 of quality you can expect from stuff you should not. 0:20:23.560 --> 0:20:26.840 So producers have other levers they can pull if things 0:20:26.880 --> 0:20:29.880 are going badly for them, which is to say going 0:20:29.920 --> 0:20:33.320 great for a contestant, like on the Prices right, if 0:20:33.359 --> 0:20:36.280 if people are winning a lot, they can bring out 0:20:36.440 --> 0:20:38.119 you know, those games are all on wheels. They can 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:40.480 bring out whatever they want. They just bring out the 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:44.520 harder games to play, like a Penny Annie super easy game. 0:20:45.000 --> 0:20:49.080 Penny Anny is is is everyone's winning a lot of money? Uh, Barker, 0:20:49.240 --> 0:20:52.879 Because Barker runs the show, everyone knows that. Yeah, Barker 0:20:52.960 --> 0:20:55.520 might say, well, no, let's bring up plink Oh, because 0:20:55.640 --> 0:20:57.960 we're on a run here and we're going broke and 0:20:58.000 --> 0:20:59.560 I need there's a lot of pets that need to 0:20:59.560 --> 0:21:06.639 be space neutered, so it needs my money. Wandering around 0:21:06.680 --> 0:21:10.280 his bedroom waiting for the return and surgery. Then he 0:21:10.359 --> 0:21:16.360 might try out Cliffhanger, the very tough Cliffhanger with the yodler, 0:21:16.680 --> 0:21:19.359 one of my favorite games, and then the Kuda Gras 0:21:19.480 --> 0:21:22.120 at the end. If everyone is winning, they will bring 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:24.280 out the only game on the Prices right where you 0:21:24.320 --> 0:21:30.000 actually need physical skills? Can anyone name it? Holding one 0:21:30.040 --> 0:21:33.800 who said it that's where he had. You're giving a 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:36.320 lot of beer. It's not. It's there that comes out 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:40.320 of our cut. What So Holding one is the one 0:21:40.320 --> 0:21:42.800 where you have to put from like different distances depending 0:21:42.800 --> 0:21:46.479 on whatever you've guessed for the price. And that's like 0:21:46.840 --> 0:21:48.800 I remember being a kid and seeing like an eight 0:21:48.920 --> 0:21:52.600 year old woman handed a golf butter for nine ft 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:55.360 away and just just like sink it ropping out. That'd 0:21:55.359 --> 0:21:59.240 be so great. Barker always showed off and put it. Well, 0:21:59.280 --> 0:22:01.200 that's why that was even on there was so he 0:22:01.200 --> 0:22:05.720 could get a little golf in at work. Uh. Here's 0:22:05.720 --> 0:22:08.080 the other thing that they do. They also inflate the 0:22:08.119 --> 0:22:12.560 prizes of the of the value of the prizes so 0:22:12.600 --> 0:22:15.320 they can write it off on their income taxes as 0:22:15.320 --> 0:22:19.080 a production company. That's really true. They take out life 0:22:19.359 --> 0:22:21.880 or not life insurance. They probably should take out life insurance. 0:22:22.880 --> 0:22:25.520 They take out insurance policies in case someone wins the 0:22:25.560 --> 0:22:29.439 big prize in themnity insurance. It's amazing they have all 0:22:29.480 --> 0:22:32.280 their bases covered. And then if none of that works 0:22:32.280 --> 0:22:36.000 and somebody wins. I didn't realize this until we research 0:22:36.119 --> 0:22:40.159 this this show. Um, they do lot of style payouts 0:22:40.480 --> 0:22:42.800 to where they come to you and say, hey, congratulations, 0:22:43.000 --> 0:22:45.160 you can have like a tenth of this now, where 0:22:45.160 --> 0:22:48.840 you can have the whole thing over like fifty years. Again, 0:22:48.880 --> 0:22:52.240 congratulations for winning. You can have this new car now, 0:22:52.680 --> 0:22:58.920 or how about this segue or the dashboard today chair 0:22:59.040 --> 0:23:02.800 next year, the car chair. They know what they're calling 0:23:04.520 --> 0:23:08.399 the second the driver's chair, passenger chair, the segue. The 0:23:08.480 --> 0:23:14.880 invention that revolutionize standing, That was gonna change the city 0:23:15.000 --> 0:23:17.440 because we're all in segways. We were there so much 0:23:17.520 --> 0:23:21.479 room on any given sidewalk for thousands of segways. Well, 0:23:21.480 --> 0:23:24.879 they were gonna do away with cars. We wrote a segway. 0:23:24.920 --> 0:23:28.159 Remember that they're hard. Have you guys ever written on 0:23:28.160 --> 0:23:32.320 a segway? They're tough? Head Cracker that was the original 0:23:32.400 --> 0:23:35.760 name for him. I was about to say, Jerry cut 0:23:35.840 --> 0:23:38.919 that out, but you saved it. Thanks. Nice work. All right, 0:23:38.920 --> 0:23:42.359 Where are we so the other thing? Okay, No, I 0:23:42.400 --> 0:23:44.120 know where we are, all right. I'm glad you said 0:23:44.160 --> 0:23:51.880 that got us back on track. So um Prize budgets 0:23:51.880 --> 0:23:54.400 are kind of a new thing as far as game 0:23:54.440 --> 0:23:56.960 shows go. Back in the day, back in the seventies, 0:23:57.040 --> 0:24:00.800 spasm of game shows on daytime. If you did this right, 0:24:01.480 --> 0:24:04.479 you could basically pay for the production costs for your 0:24:04.520 --> 0:24:08.600 show and AD revenue would be just acent profit. Right. 0:24:09.160 --> 0:24:12.719 And they did this because you could trade stuff for 0:24:12.960 --> 0:24:17.160 plugs on the game show. And we didn't realize this 0:24:17.520 --> 0:24:21.280 until well, I guess you realized it years before. I 0:24:21.320 --> 0:24:23.479 was like in my twenties when I realized the Prices 0:24:23.600 --> 0:24:26.399 right was a sixty minute TV commercial. Okay, I was 0:24:26.480 --> 0:24:30.480 researching this show when I realized that, because again, this 0:24:30.600 --> 0:24:33.480 is how I watched Prices Right. It's taken on face value. 0:24:33.680 --> 0:24:36.920 It's just it's in show plug after in show plug, 0:24:37.080 --> 0:24:41.040 whether it's Rice Errony the San Francisco treat or Bush's 0:24:41.040 --> 0:24:44.159 baked beans with more fat than ever before, or the 0:24:44.200 --> 0:24:50.280 new Ford Pinto less uh fiery than it was a 0:24:50.359 --> 0:24:53.639