Jackpot (game show)

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Jackpot!
Format Game Show
Created by Bob Stewart
Starring Geoff Edwards (1974–1975, 1989-1990), Mike Darrow (1985-1988); Announcer: Don Pardo, Wayne Howell, Johnny Gilbert, John Harlan
Production
Running time 30 Minutes
Broadcast
Original channel NBC (1974-1975), USA Network (1985-1988), Syndication (1989-1990)
Original run 1974 – 1990

Jackpot! is a television game show seen in three different runs from the mid-1970s through 1990. NBC broadcast the original version from January 7, 1974 until September 26, 1975, with Geoff Edwards as host. A second version, produced in Canada, aired beginning in September 1985 on the USA Network in the U.S. and was hosted by Mike Darrow. That version ended in 1988, and a third version debuted in September 1989 in syndication, again hosted by Edwards and produced in Glendale, California. That version lasted one year, having been canceled when its distributor went bankrupt.

Jackpot was a Bob Stewart Production and was originally produced at the NBC Studios in New York City. Don Pardo first served as announcer, then was succeeded by fellow NBC staffer Wayne Howell.

Contents

[edit] Gameplay

Sixteen contestants competed for one whole week, with one designated King of the Hill (Queen of the Hill for female contestants), who stood at a circular podium on the right-hand part of the stage. The other fifteen contestants were seated in three-tiered bleachers numbered 1 through 15; each had a special wallet containing a riddle and a varying cash amount. The King/Queen of the Hill selected a number, and the contestant with that number asked a riddle to this player. If answered correctly, the King/Queen of the Hill continued picking numbers; if answered incorrectly, the two contestants switched places, with the contestant who stumped him/her becoming the new King/Queen Of The Hill.

The value of the riddle increased the value of the Jackpot. If the King/Queen of the Hill selected the contestant holding the Jackpot Riddle (one per game) and answered it correctly, these two contestants split the Jackpot. If the last three digits of the Jackpot amount matched a pre-selected target number, the King/Queen of the Hill may have a chance to win a "Super Jackpot" by correctly solving a Super Jackpot Riddle, which the host asked. Either the King/Queen of the Hill or the bleacher contestant who asked the question that brought the Jackpot amount to the target number could respond. If either of them answered correctly, both split a four-to-five digit payoff.

The largest Super Jackpot won in the format's network or syndicated history was $38,750, split between two players on an episode of the the NBC version aired in 1975.

[edit] The three versions

Although played the same way, each version was different in its own right.

[edit] NBC version, 1974-summer 1975

  • In this version the King of the Hill is called the "Expert".
  • The riddles ranged in value from $5 to $200. (Multiples of $5)
  • The Target number could go no higher than $995. A number from 5 to 50 was chosen at random and was multiplied with the target number to make the Super Jackpot (Ex: $500 X 30 = $15,000); if the target number hit $995 and the multiplier read "50", the Super Jackpot was automatically set at $50,000; Bob Stewart Productions simply threw in the extra $250.
  • The Super Jackpot could be played for one of three ways:
1. In the earliest episodes, if a player won a Jackpot whose last three digits matched the target number, the players (whoever asked the Jackpot riddle and whoever answered it) split the Super Jackpot; in later episodes, if a player answered a riddle correctly when the last three digits matched the target number, the host would ask a riddle, and if it were answered correctly, the two players split the Super Jackpot. Note that in the NBC version, only the "Expert" could try to answer the Super Jackpot riddle.
2. Choosing the player that has the Super Jackpot Riddle and answering correctly.
3. Choosing the player that has the Super Jackpot Wildcard and correctly answering the Super Jackpot riddle as posed by Edwards.

There were two other changes made when the Super Jackpot rule changed. Originally, the player who answered the most riddles in the week won a car; this was dropped, and instead a car was given to anyone who answered all 15 riddles in the same game. Also, after a weeklong experiment around Valentine's Day in 1974 (when it was called "The Valentine Riddle"), most games had a "Double Bonus" riddle which, if answered correctly, won the two players involved a trip, usually to somewhere in Mexico or the Caribbean. Also, the randomness of the target number changed; each number from 5 to 50 had an equal chance, except that 15 and 20 were twice as likely as the others.

Visually, the NBC version of the show became most noteworthy for the casual style of dress worn by both contestants and host Edwards, who frequently wore leisure suits, turtleneck sweaters, and open-collared shirts. Edwards' clothing choices represented a radical departure from the typical attire of male television hosts, who almost always wore business suits previously.

Jackpot broke several stylistic conventions that had marked the genre since its inception in the early 1950s. Contestants on this show were more likely than not to embrace each other (in the center of the stage, regardless of gender) after winning, instead of the customary handshake on other shows. NBC and executive producer Stewart apparently also encouraged studio audience members to scream and applaud in a louder-than-normal fashion. Touches like these helped market the program to a demographic of younger women and teenagers.

The show marked Don Pardo's final appearance as a regular game show announcer. He had done games since the pioneering Winner Take All in 1952, which was also the first game hosted by Bill Cullen. After leaving Jackpot during the summer of 1975, some months later he would emerge on a weekly comedy-variety series on which he still works today: Saturday Night Live. He would not appear on another game show until the early 1990s, when he announced for two weeks on Wheel of Fortune, while it was taping episodes at New York's Radio City Music Hall.

[edit] NBC version, July-September 1975

For the last 13 weeks, the format was altered, with these changes:

  • The Target number was dropped, and the Super Jackpot was established at random; it could be worth anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000.
  • Riddles were dropped in favor of straight general-knowledge questions.
  • When the Jackpot question was found, the Expert could either try to answer it, or go for the Super Jackpot by answering all remaining questions in the game, including the Jackpot question. If the player missed the Super Jackpot question, the Jackpot was wiped out, so it was hard to build a Jackpot. If, however, the Jackpot question was the last one found, the Super Jackpot was discarded.

[edit] 1985-88 Canadian/USA Network version

  • The riddles and the Target number returned, but there was no multiplier; the Super Jackpot was created at random. The target number (as in the original) was notified by the last three digits of the current Jackpot total. The contestant whom had the riddle with the value that caused the target number to be hit, asked his/her own riddle instead of the host. Super Jackpots ranged from $2,000-$9,950.
  • The Jackpot started at $100.
  • Riddles were valued anywhere from $50 to $300.
  • If the Jackpot riddle was found and attempted, the King of the Hill and the person with the Jackpot riddle had to trade places regardless if the riddle was answered correctly or incorrectly.
  • If the Jackpot riddle was not found until the last player, an extra $1,000 was added to the Jackpot.
  • In the second season, there was a "$10,000 Riddler Contest" in which the player who answered the most riddles correctly over a period of ten weeks won a bonus of $10,000. First winner of the riddler contest was Bob Hultquist of Belleville Ontario.
  • In the final season of the Darrow version, there was a special riddle called "The $50,000 Riddle". These riddles were considerably harder than the ones usually asked, and all players who correctly answered them split $50,000.
  • Starting in season two (and just like the original), any player who ran the table (answered all fifteen riddles without a miss) won a new car.

[edit] 1989-90 syndicated version

  • In this version, the value of the riddle could only be added to the Jackpot if the riddle was answered correctly.
  • If the King of the Hill "ran the table" (answered all fifteen riddles without a miss), $1,000 was added to the Jackpot.
  • Super Jackpots ranged on this version from $10,000 to $25,000.
  • Riddles ranged from $50-$200.
  • Stephane Dion appeared as a contestant in 1990[citation needed]

[edit] Special riddles

  • One special riddle was a "Double Dollars" riddle; as the name implied, a correct answer to one of these riddles doubled the amount in the Jackpot at that time.
  • There was also an "Instant Target Match" riddle; if this riddle was answered correctly, the Jackpot would be automatically increased to match the Target amount, thus giving the King/Queen of the Hill a chance to answer the Super Jackpot Riddle.

[edit] More special riddles

These appear in more than one version:

  • Bonus Prize Riddles (all three versions) - A correct answer won the King or Queen of the Hill a prize.
  • Return Trip (USA and Syndicated versions) - Correctly answering this riddle resulted in that player being allowed to compete in an extra week of shows.

[edit] Pilots

[edit] 1977 pilot (The Riddlers)

Two years after Jackpot! ended, Bob Stewart produced a pilot involving riddles called The Riddlers, with David Letterman, then still known as a stand-up comedian, as host. The basic format for The Riddlers had five civilian contestants who shared a common occupation compete against five celebrities for an entire week. Letterman would read the first riddle of the day to the team who lost the previous game (or if it were the first show of the week, the civilians). A correct answer allows the first player on that team to ask a riddle to the next person and then on down the line and back. If a mistake is made, control goes to the other team and the process is repeated. The first team to answer nine riddles wins the game, $500, and a chance for an additional $2,000. In the Crazy Quotes end game, the winning team has to answer increasingly difficult questions (which were all quotes supposedly said by famous people) for $100, $200, $300, $400, and $1,000 respectively.

The celebrities for the pilot were Jo Anne Worley, Robert Urich, Joyce Bulifant, Michael McKean and Debralee Scott. Game Show Network aired this unsold pilot on Thanksgiving Day 1998 and October 28, 2000.

[edit] 1984 pilot

In 1984, an unsold pilot was produced for CBS, with Nipsey Russell as host. In this version, the Jackpot started at $150, and that amount was added to the Jackpot for every correct answer to each riddle (doubled to $300 for every riddle answered if the Jackpot riddle was found, but the King of the Hill opted not to go for it immediately). There was no Super Jackpot in this version. If the King of the Hill found the Jackpot riddle last, an additional $5,000 was added to the Jackpot. The winning players (the King of the Hill and the player who posed the Jackpot riddle) played a bonus round called "Riddle-Grams", which was played like Bob Stewart's 1977 game show Shoot For The Stars (both the show and pilot bonus would later become the 1986 short-lived Bob Stewart-produced ABC game Double Talk). The winning players had 60 seconds to solve seven word puzzles known as "riddle-grams" (ex.: "Freezing Dollars", which would be a "riddle-gram" for "Cold Cash"). Each correct answer was worth $100, and successfully solving all seven split $5,000 between the two winners ($2,500 per player). This pilot episode was the only attempt to add a bonus round to the show's format.

The theme music used on the 1984 pilot was "Spring Rain," by Bebu Silvetti. Like many themes Stewart used on his shows, this one was recycled from an earlier program, 1978's The Love Experts, a one-season syndicated entry.

[edit] Themes

The first theme to the 1974-75 show was titled "Jet Set" by Mike Vickers, which is stock music from KPM records. It was later replaced by another Vickers entry, "Gathering Crowds," a piece used for some years on ABC's evening newscasts. Since 1977, both pieces have been used for the baseball highlights show This Week in Baseball. "Jet Set" (first the original recording, then later reworkings) has been the opening theme, and the original recording of "Gathering Crowds" has been the closing theme. The theme used for the 1980s versions was composed by composer Bob Cobert, who supplied packager Stewart with several other themes over the years. The theme was originally used on a 1977 NBC game packaged by Stewart, Shoot for the Stars (coincidentally also hosted by Edwards, who would make his last regular network television appearance on this program) and the 1982 unsold Bob Stewart pilot Twisters.

[edit] Scheduling/Ratings, 1974-75 NBC version

Probably more than any other show, Jackpot! marked a shift in style among daytime network games from hard quizzes hosted by middle-aged men to a youth orientation and specialty themes.

Daytime programming head Lin Bolen decided to place the game at Noon/11 a.m. Central, where the venerable Jeopardy! had run for about eight years. Jeopardy! brought in audiences who did not ordinarily watch daytime television, such as businessmen and college students, due to its intellectually challenging gameplay; these people often watched the show during their lunch hour on restaurant, college student center, or bar sets, rather than at home. The move of Jeopardy! to 10:30/9:30 would cause an audience loss that Jackpot!, aimed at a more traditional female audience, was unable to replace.

Jackpot! replaced The Who, What or Where Game, via a scheduling shuffle with Jeopardy! and Baffle. The breakout popularity of CBS' youth-oriented serial The Young and the Restless led to an erosion of Jeopardy!'s audience, and the new show inherited the ratings problems. Still, Jackpot! earned respectable ratings throughout 1974; it looked at one point to be more promising than its sister show, The $10,000 Pyramid, during the latter's final month on CBS (but before its move to ABC in May, where it became a hit).

On a day in January 1975, NBC News preempted Jackpot! to cover a news conference held by President Gerald Ford, an event CBS declined to cover live. Much in the same way that the original CBS Password lost a great share of its audience to ABC's The Newlywed Game in 1966, many viewers turned to the soap, whose storylines brought them to the point of renouncing their old viewing habits. This provided the foothold for Y&R to break into the daytime Nielsen top ten by the end of the season.

In reaction, Bolen decided to revamp Jackpot! by making use of a new audience analysis technique, focus groups. Geoff Edwards himself said that [1] group participants expressed a strong dislike for the show's foundational riddle format, which Bolen accepted, replacing them with straightforward questions and answers. This was one of several changes instituted when the show moved down one half hour on July 7, 1975. The timeslot also brought much stronger competition, in the form of Search for Tomorrow on CBS and ABC's All My Children, already a big hit with younger audiences.

The combination of those factors led to the end of Jackpot! after a 21-month run, concluding on September 26, 1975. NBC's replacement, Three for the Money, did even worse, running only nine weeks. Jackpot!'s cancellation also marked the first time ever in NBC daytime history that no game shows originated from Rockefeller Center (with all taping at NBC's West Coast studios in Burbank, California instead); only one other game, 1977's Shoot for the Stars, coindicentally packaged by Stewart and hosted by Edwards, would tape at NBC's New York facilities afterward. In fact, the only other daytime show to tape at Rockefeller Center for the remainder of the 1970s would be the serial The Doctors, since Another World and Somerset both shot at off-site studios in Brooklyn.

[edit] Canadian/USA Network version, 1985-88

The program was recorded in Toronto for the Global Television network; because host Mike Darrow had worked in Canada during the 1960s on a Toronto radio station, he was allowed to host Jackpot! without a Canadian-born co-host, unlike on several other U.S.-packaged game shows, where typically the program's voiceover announcer would appear on-screen beside the host to engage in banter and identify contestants entering the game. The national government imposed (and still does) a "CanCon" quota system of requirements, requiring broadcasters to take this otherwise unnecessary measure.

All cash awards to contestants were paid in Canadian currency, which at the time was considerably weaker than the U.S. dollar. The resulting financial advantage lured packagers such as Stewart to produce games in Canada.

Ken Ryan and John Harris, Global staff voiceover artists, served as announcers on this version.

[edit] Syndicated version, 1989-90

This version was mainly seen on low-rated independent stations instead of network affiliates. Jackpot! was usually sent to non-peak times, such as early afternoons and overnights.

However, the show met its demise before the end of a full season not because of low ratings, but because the distributor, Syndicast, had serious financial problems. As a ploy to try to generate sponsorship cash as quickly as possible, the company forced the staff to record over 10 episodes per day for a period of over two weeks. Normally, half-hour weekday "strip" shows like these taped only three to five episodes per day, depending on the studio's schedule. By spring 1990, the company shut down its operations after declaring bankruptcy, and the remaining stations pulled Jackpot! from their schedules immediately. Approximately 120 episodes were produced.

Despite this, Geoff Edwards became the third game show host in the industry to simultaneously emcee a game show on both sides of the U.S./Canadian border, joining Jim Perry and Alex Trebek on this prestigious list. Edwards also hosted The Big Spin, the weekly California Lottery program, at that time as well.

Two veteran Hollywood announcers, John Harlan and Johnny Gilbert, provided the voiceover for this version.

[edit] Hollywood Showdown

Elements of Jackpot! would show up a decade later in the first-run GSN game show Hollywood Showdown. Its producer, Sande Stewart, is the son of Jackpot! creator Bob Stewart and became a production partner of his father during the 1980s. The similar elements include the escalating jackpot with each question, and the larger-than-usual number of contestants, though not as many as the 16 on Jackpot!.


[edit] Home version of the show

Milton Bradley made only one edition of the NBC version in 1974; however, the company created two covers for the game: one with just the logo, and one with a drawing of a female contestant on the cover. Other than that cosmetic difference, the game is the same in both boxes. The play of the game more closely resembles the later 1985-1988 Canadian/USA Network format.

[edit] Episode Status

  • NBC Version - every episode but two was destroyed by the network, according to host Geoff Edwards. A $38,750 Super Jackpot is won on one of them.
  • USA and Syndicated versions - All episodes exist and have been aired on GSN.

[edit] External links

[edit] Pilots

Preceded by
Jeopardy!		 12:00 p.m. EST, NBC
1/7/74 – 7/4/75		 Succeeded by
The Magnificent Marble Machine
Preceded by
Blank Check		 12:30 p.m. EST, NBC
7/7/75 – 9/26/75		 Succeeded by
Three for the Money