History Series / Pyramid

[[caption-width-right:350:This is the $20,000 Pyramid!]]

* AscendedExtra: [[Film/HocusPocus Kathy]] [[WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill Najimy]] first appeared on ''New $25,000'' in 1985 as a civilian contestant; she then appeared as a celebrity partner in the Chuck Woolery pilots (with the 6-celebrity setup), ''Donnymid'', one of the 2009 ''$1,000,000'' pilots, and most recently ABC ''$100,000''.

* Celebrity Edition: In the later seasons of the CBS $25,000 version of the show, all celebrity teams would compete during special weeks for charity.

* ADayInTheLimelight: Dick Clark was a celebrity partner on the Cullen and Osmond versions, and several other people have played as both a civilian and a celebrity.

* EveryEpisodeEnding: During his run on the program, Dick would always end each episode with his trademark SignOffCatchPhrase, "For now, Dick Clark... [[MilitarySalute So long]]." When ''$10,000'' and ''$20,000'' aired on ABC, Clark would add "Join me tomorrow for the ''Bandstand''..." before the phrase on Friday shows, as ABC was also the home of his hit series ''Series/AmericanBandstand''.

* GameBreakingBug: In the event of a tie, the teams originally played extra rounds until one outscored the other. One game had '''three''' tiebreaker rounds because the teams kept getting 7/7 in the tiebreakers at the very last second. Finally, the tiebreaker was changed so that whichever team got its seven words faster won. Still, ''New $25,000'' once got a double tiebreaker due to both teams getting their seventh tiebreaker word on the buzzer.

** Though longtime viewers know it's actually the box ''before'' that one which usually causes contestants the most trouble.
* The Klutz: Dick Clark, as professional as he was, had his moments, in particular when he transposed the numbers of new cars offered on the program multiple times (calling one a 1958 model, instead of 1985, for example).

* Large Ham: Donny Osmond and (to a lesser degree) John Davidson.

* Nintendo Hard: The final two boxes in the Winner's Circle of $100,000 tournaments during the 80s could be very, very tough. They made you earn that 100 grand.

* PressXToDie: Giving the word itself as a clue[[note]]or part of the word (including its first letter), or stating that it rhymes with another word, unless either was already dictated by the category; usually indicated by Dick saying "You may/may not use ____ in your clues"[[/note]] automatically disqualified it; this would be signified by a "cuckoo" sound (or a "burble" on ''Donnymid''). As on ''Series/{{Password}}'', this has been hard to do for some players due to the word being [[SchmuckBait right in front of them]]. In one August 2018 instance, a contestant, playing with Andy Richter and for $100,000, had "Pizza Chains (Restaurants)" as her second subject and immediately gave "Pizza Hut" as her first clue, ending her attempt at $100K after just ten seconds[[note]]She also got buzzed two subjects later with the clue "[=LEDs=]" for "Types Of Light Bulbs"; the "L" in "LED" stands for "light"[[/note]].

* Put on a Bus: The CBS daytime version was cancelled on December 31, 1987. However, when the show that replaced it did poor in the ratings (''Blackout''), the show returned on April 4, 1988, with Dick Clark joking that they were on a 13 week vacation. However, it only lasted for 13 weeks before it was cancelled for good on July 1, 1988.

* RunningGag: An unintentional one- during the early days of ''$100,000'', the audience would be so excited whenever someone won the grand prize during the tournament, they would rush out and swamp the set, they would be hugging and congratulating the contestant, mugging for the camera, often to the point where Dick would have to push his way through to find the winner. This eventually died down, though.

* The Show Must Go On: On the Dick Clark and John Davidson ''$100,000" version of the show, the tournament would be played for as long as it took to find a winner. Sometimes that would only be one day, other times it could go on for weeks. If a contestant won the Winner's Circle in the first half of a tournament episode, the other two contestants would play the second half of the episode for a chance at an additional $10,000 in the Winner's Circle.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: The second ThemeTune (1982-91) invoked this. Although large pieces of it sound like the 1973-81 theme "Tuning Up", said original theme was a piece of stock music composed by Bob Cobert and arranged by Ken Aldin, while the replacement was Bob Cobert's own composition and arrangement.
** For the 1982 version, they allegedly cut the sheet music into segments of two bars each, then turned each segment upside-down.

** In interviews, Dick Cavett relates a story that one week he and Jamie Farr were guests. Dick Clark chatted with Cavett for a minute or so when they realized Farr hadn't said anything, and asked him about it. Farr reportedly replied, "I'm just realizing how fortunate I am to be in the presence of two of the biggest Dicks in show business." resulting in both Cavett and Clark laughing for another minute.
*** This is false, though — Farr's handful of appearances are well-documented, and he never had a male celebrity opponent. Also see the ''Password'' "doe/knob" story, for which Jamie claims to have been present.
*** Dick Cavett was the one to relate this story in an interview with Mark Simone, so it's possible that the incident happened, just Cavett forgot who his opponent was.

* Celebrity Edition: In the later seasons of the CBS $25,0000 version of the show, all celebrity teams would compete during special weeks for charity.

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent:
** For a few weeks in late 1979, ''$20,000'' tried a few children's editions: ''The Junior Pyramid'' (July 9-13) and ''Celebrity Junior Pyramid'' (November 12-16) had celebrities competing with contestants aged 10-12; ''All-Star Junior Pyramid'' (September 2) was a one-time special where Tony Danza and Susan Richardson played against young celebrities from ABC shows to earn $10,000 for charity; and ''Junior Partner Pyramid'' (October 1-November 9) had teams consisting of a child contestant and an adult relative.
** A few special weeks of the 1980s incarnations were dedicated to blind contestants. Obviously in such circumstances, the celebrities did all the clue-giving.

* Large Ham: Donny Osmond

* DoubleUnlock:
** Getting into the $100,000 Tournament on ''Donnymid''. Contestants had to win ''both'' Winner's Circle rounds to get a spot in the Tournament — if the first Winner's Circle was lost, or each contestant won the main game, the chance was forfeit. This, the {{Moon Logic Puzzle}}s, the idiotic judging, and the lack of returning champs all meant that some players had absolutely '''zero''' chance of getting into the Tournament. Then, to actually '''win''' the $100,000, you again had to be victorious in both Winner's Circle rounds in a single episode (paying out at $25,000/$75,000). If nobody did so by the end of the Tournament (which spanned just ''three shows''), the person who won the most in the Winner's Circle during the "week" had their total winnings augmented to $100,000.
** Averted in Ludia's ''$1,000,000'' game, where you only have to win the Winner's Circle '''once''' to get the top prize. Replay value? What's that?

** On a ''$10,000''-era April Fool's show, Creator/WilliamShatner was faced with the impossible Winner's Circle subject "Things That Taste Like Lima Beans". Dick Clark later framed the category slide and displayed it in his office.

** On a ''$10,000''-era April Fool's show, the joke category "Things That Taste Like Lima Beans" appeared in the Winner's Circle. Dick Clark later framed the slide and displayed it in his office.

* BerserkButton: Happens with some frequency to varying degrees to various celebrities (often when they ''almost'' make it or give an illegal clue), but the greatest Button-hitter has to be Creator/WilliamShatner (his example is listed on the show's SugarWiki/FunnyMoments tab).

* RageQuit: In a notorious incident, Creator/WilliamShatner screamed and threw his chair out of the Winner's Circle after accidentally giving an illegal clue on the last box, "Things That Are Blessed".

[[caption-width-right:350:From Television City in Hollywood, it's the $20,000 Pyramid!]]

* AprilFoolsDay: At the start of the second game on April 1, 1983, the categories were loaded in backwards!

** In the first year or so, the camera zoomed out from the pyramid upon a Winner's Circle victory.

[[quoteright:260:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pyramid_2439.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:260:Host Dick Clark with contestant Janet Gleason during the first ''New $25,000'' taping (August 29, 1982). Robert Mandan is the celeb in the other chair.]]

** In the first year or so, the camera zoomed away from the pyramid upon a Winner's Circle victory.

** For the first year or so, the camera zoomed away from the pyramid upon a Winner's Circle victory.

** Classic Era: If a player won the The Winner's Circle, lights inside the dollar amounts on the pyramid board blink, the trilons holding the categories and dollar amounts move around, and the lights around the board form a chasing pattern.

* ShoutOut: "Shows hosted by Dick Clark" was a $50 box on a ''$25,000'' episode.

* SophisticatedAsHell: Dick, quite often. A few celebrity guests [[SeriousBusiness took the game seriously]] but loved to [[LargeHam ham it up]] between rounds... '''especially''' [[Theatre/TheOddCouple Tony Randall]]:

* UnwinnableByMistake: Clue-givers can accidentally render the Winner's Circle unwinnable with an illegal clue (although they can still rack up money from individual subjects), but the subjects themselves have on occasion fallen into this trope. One example in 1985 had the final Winner's Circle subject written as "You Pay Interest On It", only for the judges to immediately invalidate the first clue of "a loan". During the commercial break, the judges reviewed it and decided that virtually any clue given would've violated the spirit of the illegal-wording rule. After an apology from Dick Clark, they restarted Winner's Circle with the time remaining when the contestant reached the final subject and with a new topic ("Things That Have A Pattern"); happily, the contestant won after the first clue.

** Present in the fifth episode from 1973. "FamousLastWords" was ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. It started out easily enough with "Amen", "[[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes That's all folks]]", and "You're out", but once it got to "[[Film/GoneWithTheWind Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn]]", "[[Theatre/RichardIII My kingdom for a horse]]", "From sea to shining sea" (the latter two of which were immediately skipped) and "[[UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln shall not perish from this earth]]"...let's just say answers longer than two words rarely showed up afterward.

After having been trapped in DevelopmentHell for eight years, Creator/{{GSN}} finally raised the curtain on a new edition, now simply titled ''The Pyramid'', on September 3, 2012, with Mike Richards (not [[Series/{{Seinfeld}} Kramer]], but the executive producer of ''Series/ThePriceIsRight'' and future executive producer of ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}) as host. This version (much like the ''$1,000,000'' pilots) served as a back-to-basics refresh after the massive changes with ''Donnymid'', and included a unique way of determining the Winner's Circle prize (see below). The series lasted only 40 episodes before being cancelled due to low ratings.

After having been trapped in DevelopmentHell for eight years, Creator/{{GSN}} finally raised the curtain on a new edition, now simply titled ''The Pyramid'', on September 3, 2012, with Mike Richards (not [[Series/{{Seinfeld}} Kramer]], but the executive producer of ''Series/ThePriceIsRight'') as host. This version (much like the ''$1,000,000'' pilots) served as a back-to-basics refresh after the massive changes with ''Donnymid'', and included a unique way of determining the Winner's Circle prize (see below). The series lasted only 40 episodes before being cancelled due to low ratings.

* RougeAnglesOfSatin: On one episode of ''New $25,000'', a Winner's Circle box read "''Anthing'' with a collar". Dick even pointed out the blooper and awarded the misspelled slide to the contestant.

* DidIJustSayThatOutLoud: ''Series/{{Dynasty1981}}'''s Leann Hunley's partner gave her the clue "You lift" for the answer "Your spirits." While she ''did'' get the correct answer, her first guess was "[[GettingCrapPastTheRadar your skirts]]." Afterwards, she could barely face the camera and could only say, "Not that I would." Dick, ever the professional, said, "Moving on."

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar:
** Although played serious most of the time, there were a few clues and/or answers that brought howling laughter from the audience. None moreso than one clue given by Sandy Duncan to the Winner's Circle category "Things That Are Stiff". In desperate search of a clue when her contestant partner was unable to deduce the category, Duncan blurted out "An erect penis!"
** On a November 1982 episode of ''New $25,000'', when given the Winner's Circle category "Why You Make Love", Didi Conn comes off with "Because you're horny as hell!" Cue the audience losing it.
** On ''Donnymid'', when Lisa Ann Walters was trying to get her partner to say "jug" and grabbed her breasts, jiggled them up and down and said "These are...?"
** In an echo of the aforementioned Sandy Duncan incident, one 1991 episode saw Stuart Damon offer "An erection" as a clue for the final Winner's Circle subject, "Things That Are Stiff"; the contestant got it and won $10,000 as a result, but John Davidson was clearly expecting tape to be stopped, even asking "Are we still on the air?".
** Creator/BernadettePeters pointed to her breasts during her appearance on the original ''$10,000'' version in 1974, when she was trying to get her partner to say "Things Around Your Neck". This was the reason the straps were added to the givers' chair in the Winner's Circle.

* DidIJustSayThatOutLoud: ''Series/{{Dynasty}}'''s Leann Hunley's partner gave her the clue "You lift" for the answer "Your spirits." While she ''did'' get the correct answer, her first guess was "[[GettingCrapPastTheRadar your skirts]]." Afterwards, she could barely face the camera and could only say, "Not that I would." Dick, ever the professional, said, "Moving on."

** If a player won the The Winner's Circle, lights on the walls and arches blink, with a digital ConfettiDrop on the category board.