The Wizard of Odds

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The Wizard of Odds (July 17, 1973-June 28, 1974) was a daytime television game show hosted by Alex Trebek (later of Jeopardy!). Aired on NBC, people from the studio audience vied in a number of rounds. Most rounds had questions and challenges revolving around statistical questions. The program originated from the NBC studios in Burbank, Calif.

Relatively short lived, The Wizard of Odds replaced Sale of the Century at 11 a.m. Eastern/10 Central. Unfortunately, the show did not perform well against CBS' Gambit and, later, Now You See It, and NBC dropped it after less than a year.

The Wizard of Odds was Trebek's first American game show assignment, after starting his broadcast career in his native Canada. It was also known for its jaunty theme song, composed and sung by one of the show's producers — entertainer Alan Thicke, a close friend of Trebek's from their early days on Canadian television. Producer Burt Sugarman packaged Wizard; Charlie O'Donnell, best known for his years on Wheel of Fortune, provided the voice-over.

Following its cancellation, Trebek returned the following Monday with High Rollers, one of the few game show hosts to return the following Monday with a new game show after his last game show ended the previous Friday. (Art James, Jim Lange, Bill Cullen, and Tom Kennedy were the others.) In fact, HR aired in the same timeslot in which Wizard ran, doing considerably better in the ratings for NBC.

[edit] Trivia

The theme song, written and sung by Alan Thicke, is available on the Classic TV Game Show Themes CD, released by Varese Sarabande.
It is believed that all of the original episode tapes were destroyed years ago, due to NBC's policy at the time requiring the reuse of videotapes used to record daytime programs. However, since several other games from the early 1970s have been discovered in recent years, it is possible one or more may have survived.