WEBVTT - SYSK Live: How Game Shows Work 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.560 Welcome to Stuff you should know from how Stuff Works 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:13.440 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh 0:00:13.520 --> 0:00:17.200 Clark and there's Charles w Chuck Bryant. Jerry's not with us, 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:40.320 but these beautiful people are at the Gothic Theater in Denver, Colorado. Yeah, 0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:48.080 that was easily double last night's reception. That was That 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:49.839 was a good start, is what they called that. And 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:51.440 I don't know if you noticed, but there's a lovely 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:54.080 lady with a Josh sent me shirt. Oh yes, I 0:00:54.480 --> 0:01:01.760 thank you for loving that. Um. Okay, So tonight, you guys, 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:04.840 you're probably gonna feel like you just wasted your applause 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:10.759 because we're going to be talking about game shows. Yes, 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:15.160 oh good, you guys are into it. That's good because 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:18.160 it was a it's a coin toss. Frankly, about half 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:20.360 the people are like, I wonder what the real topic is, right, 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:23.600 he's just kidding. We actually we wanted a show, and 0:01:23.640 --> 0:01:26.319 I think Portland's and came out and said that, Um, 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:29.000 it was the anniversary of the How the Sun Works show, 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:31.720 so we were gonna redo it, and like all the 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:34.199 people were like, wow, we want to like you guys, 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:37.280 but we're really mad right now, are you kidding? Like, yes, 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:40.120 we're just we're all super high, so we really don't care, right, 0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:47.360 They're like, that's why we cheered a game shows. So 0:01:47.440 --> 0:01:49.680 we we wanted to do game shows in part because 0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:51.840 Fourth of July is coming up. You guys can't have 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:55.560 fireworks because it's too dry here to set off a firework. 0:01:55.600 --> 0:01:59.680 It's the most wildly irresponsible thing you could do. Something 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:02.440 tells me that some of your militia members are going 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:08.200 to shoot off fireworks anyway, but even still, Fourth of 0:02:08.280 --> 0:02:10.920 July is coming. So we wanted to do something American, 0:02:11.080 --> 0:02:14.000 and nothing is more American than game shows. They're like 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:22.400 leisure suit level American, right, but as yeah, right, you 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:27.040 get a free beer, as Americans game shows are. However, 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:30.800 it turns out that the first game show on television 0:02:30.960 --> 0:02:34.480 was actually British. It was a British investor. Now we 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:44.520 like the base because they live in another country. Right, 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:49.919 And remember this, buddy, if you shoot into the air, 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:53.839 bullets come back down, so just don't shoot into the air. 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:59.680 Maybe blanks are okay. So this first game show in 0:02:59.720 --> 0:03:03.960 Great Britain, it launched in ninety eight, is called Spelling 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:07.919 Bee and it was exactly what it sounds like. That's right. 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:11.079 Freddie Grysewood was the host, and he dressed as a 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:12.680 school teacher. He kind of played it up a bit, 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:16.560 which was nice, and he would say spell this, and 0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:19.360 they spelled it. And if it sounds boring, it was 0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:23.440 because even though there was nothing on TV, it still 0:03:23.560 --> 0:03:27.760 was not met with warm receptions. Advertisers liked it. But 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:30.320 there was a columnist in The Independent in two thousand, 0:03:30.400 --> 0:03:34.520 just eighteen years ago, such a snarky British thing to say. 0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:38.080 He said this one of the few happy consequences of 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:40.880 the Second World War was it took spelling Be off 0:03:40.920 --> 0:03:48.480 air burn. Yeah, like a good World War two burn. 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:52.720 So spelling Be even though it was boring, it kicked 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:56.839 off this huge craze. Just immediately. Everyone saw like, okay, 0:03:57.280 --> 0:04:00.200 if spelling Bee can be popular with the advertisers, we 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:02.840 can do better than that. We're America, right, So we 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:04.600 took it the ball and ran with it. We were 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:06.880 already familiar with game shows. We had them on the radio, 0:04:07.320 --> 0:04:09.840 like we had shows like um, you bet your life 0:04:09.840 --> 0:04:12.680 with grout show Marks was a big one. Um, there 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:15.840 was what is it? What's my line? What's my line? 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:19.040 That's where you tried to guess someone's profession by asking 0:04:19.080 --> 0:04:22.400 them questions. It's like maybe a step up from spelling 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:25.640 b Right. Then things start to get cool with Truth 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:28.200 or Consequences, which started out as a radio show and 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:32.599 then very quickly moved on to TV. Truth or Consequences 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:36.480 was this show where you had to you were asked 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:39.279 a question and you had to answer before Bulah the 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:43.520 buzzer sounded. They named their buzzer Beulah Yeah, which is 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:46.280 kind of neat, right, It's just a nice little touch, right, 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:50.320 And if you didn't answer before Bulah went off, um, 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:53.239 you had to face the consequences, which is like something wacky, 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:57.920 like a mock execution or something like that. Right. Uh. 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:00.520 The coolest thing about that show though, was that they 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:03.040 have you ever been to Truth or Consequences? New Mexico? 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:09.040 Were driven very fast through there. Yeah, are you from there? Okay? 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:12.000 Pretty close? I think it's in the same state, all right, 0:05:13.800 --> 0:05:17.839 I'm a Los Crucis guy myself, but whatever, name dropper, 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:23.400 you're a name dropping uh. Host Ralph Edwards said that 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:27.200 they would broadcast live from the first town that would 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:32.000 name their city after Truth or Consequences. This is not 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:34.560 a joke. And that's where that town name came from. 0:05:34.600 --> 0:05:38.279 Before that, it was the lovely Hot Springs, New Mexico, 0:05:38.880 --> 0:05:43.039 and they named it Truth or Consequences. They're like, our 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:45.599 town's name is basically just like a caution sign. We 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:48.640 can we can lose this. We'll still keep the sign 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:50.880 up that says Hot Springs because it's useful, but we're 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:53.160 gonna change our name. And they did. I think they 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:58.960 cheaped out personally. Okay, don't tell them that back in 0:05:59.040 --> 0:06:03.359 New Mexico that's said that. Okay. So this was I 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:07.120 think nine was when the game shows started coming on 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:09.760 TV in the US, and by the fifties they were 0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:12.960 like some of the top rated shows on television game 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:15.640 shows where they call them quiz shows back then even 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:17.359 they did, and that was pretty much the format like 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:20.360 they were. There was actually like thought and like skill 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:24.040 to this um like masteries. They were yeah, smarts right, 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:28.040 there was like, um, the sixty four thousand dollar question, 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:30.640 which in today's dollars would be the five hundred and 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:34.479 nine thousand, five hundred fifty nine and sixty three cent question. 0:06:35.760 --> 0:06:39.719 That's correct, thank you. Although you wrote this a couple 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:44.000 of months ago, I thought I'm really sad that you 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:46.440 brought that up. I was just gonna not mention. All right, well, 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:49.320 Jerry in the future, cut that part out. I don't 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:52.360 want to make Josh uncomfortable. Thank you. Jerry's all around 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:55.520 us right now. You guys, we lived on a hard 0:06:55.640 --> 0:07:01.480 drive in Jerry's computer in the future. This is all 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:06.080 a simulation. So the pressure was on to make these 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:09.720 quiz shows as dramatic as possible, and so producers of 0:07:09.760 --> 0:07:14.320 these quiz shows realize, hey, we can maybe manipulate these things, 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:18.200 i e. Cheat and build up people who people love 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:20.840 to love and people who love to hate. In America 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:23.600 will never know the difference, and they'll think it's great, right, 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:25.640 And that's what they did. There was this one show 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:28.280 called twenty one. You guys might have seen the movie 0:07:28.360 --> 0:07:33.400 Quiz Show with John Treturo and Ray finds. I guess 0:07:33.440 --> 0:07:38.720 not it's worth seeing, worth seeing, right, um. But it's 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:41.720 about this actual scandal that happened in the US with 0:07:41.840 --> 0:07:44.080 this one show called twenty one. And the whole thing 0:07:44.120 --> 0:07:47.560 started where there was this producer for twenty one who 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:50.680 approached this blue blood lip professor named Charles van Doren 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:53.840 and just appealed to his ego. He said, there's this 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:56.560 guy on this show that I produced. His name's Herb Stemple. 0:07:56.800 --> 0:07:59.800 He's like the worst stain of a human being anyone's 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:03.600 every scene, but you can't stop winning. In America hates 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:07.040 him and Revalon, our sponsor, is gonna leave. We're starting 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:09.840 to lose ratings. You gotta help us van Doren. Van 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:12.000 Dorn was like, okay, I'll see what I can do. 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:14.920 Just feed me the lines and we'll cheat together and 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:20.320 I will help you. By the way, that was okay, 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:23.360 So he gets locked into this right, But what Van 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:26.240 Doren didn't know is that he was actually being scammed. 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:29.400 It was a scam within a scam because Herb Stemple 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:31.920 was a plant. Yeah, he was a plant. They made 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:35.120 him wear an ill fitting suit, they gave him a 0:08:35.120 --> 0:08:38.240 bad haircut, and they try to make him as unlikable 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:41.120 as possible so they would have a villain on their hands. 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:43.800 And Herb Stemple doesn't like this, of course, because you 0:08:43.840 --> 0:08:45.720 would think like, all right, well, then go to the 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:49.400 press and expose this thing. And he did, and the 0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:52.640 press said, you're just a sore loser. Yeah, they wouldn't. 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:56.959 The New York Times said, nah, you're just a sore loser. Uh. 0:08:57.000 --> 0:08:59.840 There was another guy who was the other dude, Tony Jackson. Yes, 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:02.360 only Jackson was another I think he was on the 0:09:02.400 --> 0:09:05.080 sixty four thousand dollar question. He went to the New 0:09:05.120 --> 0:09:08.440 York Times and Time magazine and said, these are all rigged, 0:09:08.720 --> 0:09:11.400 none of these game shows are real, and they went, yeah, 0:09:11.440 --> 0:09:16.280 you're just a sore loser. So finally there was hard evidence. 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:19.960 There was another question named Otto, and somebody found a 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:22.760 contestants notebook that had the questions and the answers in 0:09:22.800 --> 0:09:25.120 it and took it to the press and that was that. 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:31.319 And America's reaction was profound. You could say they had 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:38.280 congressional hearings on it. They amended the nine Communications Act 0:09:38.320 --> 0:09:42.959 to expressly outlaw dishonest quiz shows. Right, this is like 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:45.640 a very naive time in our country's history. I'm trying 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:49.360 to think of a time when, uh, game show quality 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:52.520 was one of the more important things on the docket. 0:09:52.800 --> 0:10:03.200 Right now, I'm depressed, lest hippies, I don't have to 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:06.720 think Van Dorn. By the way, he was actually indicted 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:10.680 for perjury. He was because he had lied to Congress. No, 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:14.240 he told the truth Congress. He lied to a court, right, 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:16.559 But I don't think it did a hard time. I 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:18.360 said he was a blue blood. Yeah, let's face it, 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:21.280 it was still it was still America. He didn't he 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:24.720 didn't serve any hard time. So uh. Those quiz show 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:27.000 scandals gave us one of the weird quirks of Jeopardy. 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:31.200 At one point, Mervy, Yes, I still love Jeopardy. Uh. Merv. 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:35.079 Griffin's wife suggested at one time that he do a 0:10:35.160 --> 0:10:39.720 quiz show, and he was like, shut up, nobody wants 0:10:39.760 --> 0:10:42.840 to come near a quiz show. Haven't you been paying attention? 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:46.280 And she wad you shut up? Why don't you just 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:54.120 make the questions the answers, the answers the questions. I'm 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:58.040 sure they're very lovely people. Actually, that's just how he 0:10:58.120 --> 0:11:02.360 picture it in my head. Is there all draw punkin, smoking, skelling, 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:06.920 bangally bracelets on his wife? Julian actually suggested that, and 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:09.760 that's where that interesting quirk of Jeopardy came from. And 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:12.120 by the time the executives figured out it was actually 0:11:12.160 --> 0:11:15.680 the same thing late on the air, you could still 0:11:15.760 --> 0:11:19.880 feed someone the questions or answers, right, so um, the 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:25.080 scandal again, America's response was profound and it almost killed 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:29.880 off quiz shows, were it not for one of maybe 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:33.000 our country's greatest geniuses ever, manned by the name of 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:37.240 Mark Goodson, who created the greatest game show ever. The 0:11:37.320 --> 0:11:42.199 price is right. Yes, Mark Goodson and Bill Toddman his partner. 0:11:42.800 --> 0:11:48.080 I don't recognize him, just Mark Goodson. So all right, 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:51.520 you're weird, longstanding drudge against Bill Toddens. It's not so 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:54.560 much that it's more an idolization of Mark Goodson. Okay, 0:11:55.160 --> 0:11:58.400 that's fine. So what Mark Goodson did he said, Okay, everybody, wait, 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:00.520 we don't have to give up quiz shows. What we're 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:05.000 gonna do is take quiz shows and make them dumber 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:09.560 and then we have game shows. And that's what he did. 0:12:10.080 --> 0:12:12.080 They did away with the game, they did away with 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:16.040 quiz anything. They did away with um having to know 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:19.520 stuff can actually compete on the game. And that's when 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:22.360 they got really good. Yeah, that is when they got 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:24.800 really good, brother, you can say that again they did. 0:12:24.920 --> 0:12:28.320 That's when it got really good. Thank you, because this 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:30.440 was the era that we all know and love if 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:33.800 anyone watches the Game show Network, when you could just 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:39.679 trot out drunk celebrities to spew racist and homophobic jokes 0:12:39.960 --> 0:12:42.360 left and right. Oh yes, the good old days. Well, 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:50.680 hey make America great again? Right, uh oh god, it's 0:12:50.720 --> 0:12:56.439 like crowded sea. Just someone big sea saw shreds legal. 0:12:56.520 --> 0:13:00.440 We don't tread on me, and let's just back away 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:03.560 from this chuck all right, Jerry cut all that out, 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:10.480 uh jr. Out of here. Celebrities getting drunk, which I 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:12.440 was like the match game in Hollywood Squares and they 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:14.440 like flat out got drunk on the match game. If 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:17.559 you've ever seen like behind the scene stories, it's pretty great. 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:20.960 They just swilled vodka basically from like a noon on 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:23.960 and you had. The only smarts you had to have 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:25.880 as a contestant was to be able to fill in 0:13:25.920 --> 0:13:30.000 the blanks. You had to be able to speak. That's it. 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:34.600 Like this Frank was embarrassed because his blank squeaked, Like 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:38.200 that's as smart as you needed to be. Let's name 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:41.640 a body part. Like you, you basically couldn't get it wrong. 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:43.840 And if you got it wrong is because you just 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:47.000 guess wrong. You had just is is as much of 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:49.320 a chance of guessing right as you had right. But 0:13:49.360 --> 0:13:51.600 there was always a chance that Nipsey Russell would be 0:13:51.640 --> 0:13:54.920 thinking the same body part, and then you were you 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:57.320 were the winner. It's pretty great. They would carry you 0:13:57.360 --> 0:13:59.280 out on their shoulders and give you a bunch of 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:03.520 mushrooms as they were all on mushrooms themselves. Uh. And 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:05.360 then there was, of course the newly Wed Game, the 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:09.360 legendary Newlywed Game where they would trot out married couples 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:11.920 and ask they would put one of them backstage, ask 0:14:12.000 --> 0:14:15.720 a question of the other spouse and say, you know, 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:18.080 how would your would your husband or wife answer this? 0:14:18.559 --> 0:14:20.840 Are we doing this? Yeah? I think we have to 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:24.400 because it's one of the biggest moments in game show history. 0:14:24.920 --> 0:14:29.000 Was Holga from the Newlywed Game? We're doing and now, 0:14:30.960 --> 0:14:33.480 have you guys ever heard of Holga from the Newlywed Game? 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:36.400 A few of you have, well the rest of you 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:39.880 buck Land. So there was a woman competing with her 0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:41.760 husband on the newly Wed Gamer. Name is Holga? I 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:49.280 think husband's name four? For for argument's sake. Sure, So 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:56.640 Holga was asked among her fellow competitors on the game, um, 0:14:56.640 --> 0:15:00.960 tell me, girls, where is the weirdest place typically that 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:05.600 you personally have ever gotten the urge to make? Whoopie? 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:13.560 And Holga answered in the ass you can you can 0:15:13.600 --> 0:15:17.400 watch it online when you get home, and poor Holga's like, 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:23.080 why does everyone laugh? I guess it's funny. And then 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:25.800 when they brought her husband back and all the other husbands, 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:27.960 they said, what do you think your wife would say? 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:32.320 And her husband guests in the car. So they didn't win, 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:35.280 but they definitely went down in history, and Holga was 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:39.760 still going, why is everybody laughing at me? Poor Holgan. 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:42.000 Then there was a show called Queen for a Day. 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:44.280 This is an interesting show because it was a big, 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:47.880 big hit with audiences even though it was decidedly strange, 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:51.480 and that they would bring out women who had genuine 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:56.000 troubles in their life and uh spill their guts about 0:15:56.000 --> 0:15:57.920 what was going on in hopes that they would be 0:15:58.000 --> 0:16:02.120 voted up via applause me eater to solve those problems 0:16:02.200 --> 0:16:06.320 with money. So you literally had ladies on TV talking 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:09.480 about not being able to afford surgery for their sick 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:13.120 child and an applause meter is going up while people 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:17.200 are going crazy and rooting them on. It sounds very 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:19.360 strange and it was, but it was a it was 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:21.080 a big, big hit. It was, and in fact that 0:16:21.160 --> 0:16:24.000 even stretched it from thirty minute show to an hour 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:29.240 hunk show because advertisers loved it so much. Queen for 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:31.520 a Day, Queen for a Day. So there was another 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:34.480 big thing that happened, um when game shows started to 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:37.800 make a comeback. They moved from prime time the daytime 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:40.760 and the way that we think of game shows today, 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:43.720 which is like back to back starting in the morning 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:46.120 going well into the afternoon. You don't even have to 0:16:46.120 --> 0:16:49.800 turn the channel once. That started in the seventies when 0:16:49.840 --> 0:16:53.280 there was this sudden spasm of game shows that came 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:56.880 on daytime TV out of nowhere and just said get 0:16:56.880 --> 0:17:00.560 out of the way, soap operas, move over of American 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:04.320 style reruns. Uh, it just took over, and like what 0:17:04.480 --> 0:17:06.760 we think of his, game shows came out of the 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:09.560 mid seventies and it was they made a pretty big splash. 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:12.240 Yeah that was. In fact, there was an article in 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:14.960 the New York Times. It said you could watch nine 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:19.720 straight game shows between nine and two pm on NBC 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:24.040 every weekday. Nine straight game shows. It's amazing. And this 0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:26.320 is the world I grew up in. So I was 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:30.919 pretty happy. Kid, say, this is how I watched Prices, right, 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:37.199 That's how I watched and still watch Pyramid. To me, 0:17:37.320 --> 0:17:40.040 one of the greatest all time game shows. I love Pyramid. 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:43.159 It's no prices, right, but it's good. I love prices, right, 0:17:43.240 --> 0:17:45.199 I was on the prices. Well, I was not on 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:48.600 Its a taping of the prices right. It's a big difference, 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:51.720 and I will tell that story later, Okay, put a 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:56.440 pin in it. So the reason, all right, the reason 0:17:56.640 --> 0:18:03.639 UM had to ask Josh's permission everything I say so. 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:06.200 The reason that game shows made like such a big 0:18:06.280 --> 0:18:09.880 comeback after they were almost dead, it was pretty simple money. 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:15.280 They're actually really really cheap to make. UM. They came 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:17.560 back in part again because of Mark Goodson, but they 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:21.760 also came back because there were risk averse executives when 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:24.440 they actually pop up a lot in this show you'll 0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:29.160 find But back in the sixties and seventies, UM variety 0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:31.359 shows were huge. They kind of came in and filled 0:18:31.359 --> 0:18:34.240 the void after quiz shows went away. But they're really 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:37.680 expensive to make. Game shows are not expensive to make. 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:40.959 They used to be even less expensive than they are today. 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:43.840 Like today you have what's called a prize budget and 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:46.560 it's part of your show budget. Did anybody see The 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:48.560 Power of Ten? It was on for like a season 0:18:48.560 --> 0:18:51.600 in two thousand seven. Yeah, no one did, right, That's 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:54.240 why I was on for a season response by the way, 0:18:54.359 --> 0:18:56.800 But it was like this kind of slick new game show, 0:18:57.080 --> 0:19:00.560 the complicated rules and everything. Um. But they had a 0:19:00.560 --> 0:19:04.480 prize budget for the season of three million dollars, but 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:08.800 they had a top prize of ten million dollars, and 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:12.199 the producers just kind of hoped, knowing, whatever get to 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:16.440 the ten million dollar question. They basically said, this show 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:20.880 is so hard, no one, it's virtually impossible to get 0:19:20.960 --> 0:19:25.080 to that ten million dollar question. Ipso facto. We're fine. Right. 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:30.119 The first contestant got to the ten million dollar question. 0:19:31.480 --> 0:19:34.639 I I was like, surely that's isn't true. And I 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:36.600 looked it up again in the green rooms, like it 0:19:36.720 --> 0:19:41.240 is still true? Are you still fact checking? Yeah? I 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:43.320 love it. That's the kind of quality you can expect 0:19:43.359 --> 0:19:51.200 from stuff you should not. So producers have other levers 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:54.200 they can pull if things are going badly for them, 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:57.320 which is to say going great for a contestant, like 0:19:57.400 --> 0:20:00.320 on the prices, right, if if people are winning a lot, 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:03.000 they can bring out you know, those games are all 0:20:03.000 --> 0:20:05.360 on wheels. They can bring out whatever they want. They 0:20:05.400 --> 0:20:08.320 just bring out the harder games to play like a 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:12.800 penny any super easy game penny Annie is is everyone's 0:20:12.800 --> 0:20:15.760 winning a lot of money? H Barker, because Barker runs 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:19.359 the show. Everyone knows that. Yeah, Barker might say, well, no, 0:20:19.480 --> 0:20:21.880 let's bring up plink oh because we're on a run 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:24.240 here and we're going broke, and I need there's a 0:20:24.280 --> 0:20:27.960 lot of pets that need to be spade neutered, so 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:33.879 it needs my money around his bedroom waiting for the 0:20:33.920 --> 0:20:38.240 return and surgery. Then he might try tout Cliffhanger, the 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:42.560 very tough Cliffhanger with the the the Yodler, one of 0:20:42.600 --> 0:20:45.640 my favorite games, and then the Kuda Gras. At the end. 0:20:45.680 --> 0:20:48.399 If everyone is winning, they will bring out the only 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:52.200 game on the prices right where you actually need physical skills? 0:20:52.920 --> 0:20:56.199 Can anyone name it? Hole in one who said it? 0:20:57.640 --> 0:20:59.880 That's where he had you're giving out a lot of beer. 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:02.119 It's not. It's their money that comes out of our 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:06.120 cut what So hold on one is the one where 0:21:06.119 --> 0:21:08.520 you have to put from like different distances depending on 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:12.560 whatever you've guessed for the price. And that's like I 0:21:12.640 --> 0:21:14.679 remember being a kid and seeing like an eight year 0:21:14.720 --> 0:21:18.520 old woman handed a golf butter from nine ft away 0:21:18.560 --> 0:21:21.560 and just like sinking it dropping out. That'd be so great. 0:21:23.080 --> 0:21:25.320 Barker always showed off and put it. Well, that's why 0:21:25.359 --> 0:21:27.200 that was even on. There was so he could get 0:21:27.200 --> 0:21:31.600 a little golf in at work. Uh. Here's the other 0:21:31.640 --> 0:21:35.080 thing that they do. They also inflate the prizes of 0:21:35.160 --> 0:21:38.479 the of the value of the prizes so they can 0:21:38.520 --> 0:21:42.040 write it off on their income taxes as a production company. 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:45.840 That's really true. They take out life or not life insurance. 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:49.000 They probably should take out life insurance. They take out 0:21:49.040 --> 0:21:53.240 insurance policies in case someone wins the big prize, indemnity insurance. 0:21:53.800 --> 0:21:56.560 It's amazing. They have all their bases covered. And then 0:21:56.720 --> 0:21:59.879 if none of that works and somebody wins. I did 0:22:00.080 --> 0:22:03.960 realize this until we researched this this show. Um. They 0:22:04.000 --> 0:22:06.879 do lot of style payouts to where they come to 0:22:06.920 --> 0:22:09.359 you and say, hey, congratulations, you can have like a 0:22:09.440 --> 0:22:11.640 tenth of this now, where you can have the whole 0:22:11.680 --> 0:22:16.679 thing over like fifty years again, congratulations for winning. You 0:22:16.680 --> 0:22:19.480 can have this new car now, or how about the 0:22:19.600 --> 0:22:26.960 segue or the dashboard today chair next year, the car chair, 0:22:27.520 --> 0:22:31.879 they know what they're calling the second the driver's chair, 0:22:32.359 --> 0:22:37.840 passenger chair, the sege the invention that revolutionize standing, That 0:22:37.920 --> 0:22:41.760 was gonna change the city because we're all in seguays. 0:22:42.119 --> 0:22:45.439 Were there so much room on any given sidewalk for 0:22:45.680 --> 0:22:48.680 thousands of seguys? Well, they were gonna do away with cars. 0:22:49.720 --> 0:22:53.040 We wrote a segue remember that they're hard. Have you 0:22:53.040 --> 0:22:57.119 guys ever written on a segway? They're tough? Head Cracker 0:22:57.240 --> 0:23:00.600 that was the original name for him. I was about 0:23:00.640 --> 0:23:02.720 to say, Jerry cut that out, but you saved it. Thanks, 0:23:02.920 --> 0:23:07.639 nice work. All right, where are we so the other thing? Okay, No, 0:23:07.920 --> 0:23:09.520 I know where we are. All right. I'm glad you 0:23:09.560 --> 0:23:17.120 said that got us back on track. So um Prize 0:23:17.119 --> 0:23:19.440 budgets are kind of a new thing as far as 0:23:19.800 --> 0:23:21.879 game shows go, back in the day, back in the 0:23:22.000 --> 0:23:25.960 seventies spasm of game shows on daytime. If you did 0:23:26.000 --> 0:23:29.840 this right, you could basically pay for the production costs 0:23:29.880 --> 0:23:34.240 for your show and ad revenue would be just a profit. Right. 0:23:34.760 --> 0:23:38.280 And they did this because you could trade stuff for 0:23:38.560 --> 0:23:42.800 plugs on the game show. And we didn't realize this 0:23:43.160 --> 0:23:46.919 until well, I guess you realized it years before. I 0:23:46.960 --> 0:23:49.119 was like in my twenties when I realized the prices 0:23:49.200 --> 0:23:52.000 right was a sixty minute TV commercial. Okay, I was 0:23:52.119 --> 0:23:56.119 researching this show when I realized that, because again, this 0:23:56.200 --> 0:23:59.080 is how I watched Prices. Right, it's taken on face value. 0:23:59.280 --> 0:24:02.560 It's just it's in show plug after in show plug, 0:24:02.680 --> 0:24:06.640 whether it's Rice Erroni, the San Francisco treat or Bush's 0:24:06.680 --> 0:24:09.800 baked beans with more fat than ever before, or the 0:24:09.840 --> 0:24:15.879 new Ford Pinto less uh fiery than it was a 0:24:15.960 --> 0:24:19.280 year ago. Right, So depending on whether it was like 0:24:19.359 --> 0:24:21.880 Rice Erroney, Rice Erroni would go to Bob Barker and say, 0:24:21.960 --> 0:24:25.159 here's a sac of money, a lifetime supply of Rice Erroni, 0:24:25.720 --> 0:24:30.119 and um, you just go plug Rice Errony on your show. Uh. 0:24:30.359 --> 0:24:33.359 Ford would go to Bob Barker and say, here's a 0:24:33.440 --> 0:24:36.840 fiery death Chap Pinto and we'll give you this an 0:24:36.840 --> 0:24:39.560 exchange for like six plugs on the show. And Barker 0:24:39.560 --> 0:24:42.199 would lean back in his recliner and go, let me 0:24:42.240 --> 0:24:45.959