History Trivia / BreakTheBank1985

* CreatorKiller: ''Break the Bank'' and an accidental age reveal from ''Entertainment Tonight'' essentially killed Gene Rayburn's long game show career. He hosted only one more show, ''The Movie Masters'', at the end of the 1980s before his retirement.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Except for a week of reruns in December 1985, no Rayburn episodes have been rerun, partly because he wanted it as such. About 48 of his 65 shows circulate among collectors, while some of Joe Farago's episodes were rerun by CBN Cable (what is currently Creator/{{Freeform}}) in late 1986. Creator/{{FremantleMedia}} currently holds the rights to ''Bank'' - the distributor, Blair Entertainment, was shut down in 1992 and was acquired by All American Communcations (the producer of Series/{{Baywatch}} and eventual owner of the [[Creator/MarkGoodson Goodson-Todman]] catalog), All American was acquired by Fremantle's predecessor Pearson Television in 1997.

* OldShame: Gene Rayburn was so unhappy with his hosting and the treatment he received on ''Bank'' that he declared an embargo on the episodes he hosted. (Again, whether or not that embargo would still be in place currently, given his death and the fact that the rights to the master tapes have bounced around, is unknown.)

* CreatorKiller: ''Break the Bank'' and an accidental age reveal from ''Entertainment Weekly'' essentially killed Gene Rayburn's long game show career. He hosted only one more show, ''The Movie Masters'', at the end of the 1980s before his retirement.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Except for a week of reruns in December 1985, no Rayburn episodes have been rerun, partly because he wanted it as such. About 48 of his 65 shows circulate among collectors, while some of Joe Farago's episodes were rerun by CBN Cable (what is currently Creator/{{Freeform}}) in late 1986. Creator/{{Disney}}, who owns Freeform, currently holds the rights to ''Bank'' - the distributor, Blair Entertainment, was a subsidiary of Storer Comunications, which was absorbed into New World Communications, which was in turn acquired by [[Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox 20th Century Fox]] in 1997; 20th was bought by Disney in 2019.

* StuntCasting: Richard S. Kline chose Rayburn to host the first three months because he had "star power".

** For most of the run, the front-game buzz-in noise was a "warble" used on B&E shows as a "time's up" signa. For a brief period, somewhat bizarrely, the ''Series/FamilyFeud'' buzz-in noise was used instead.

* StuntCasting: Likely the reason why Rayburn was chosen to host the first three months, as he was still a familiar name.

* StuntCasting: Likely the reason why Rayburn was chosen to host, as he was still a familiar name.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Except for a week of reruns in December 1985, no Rayburn episodes have been rerun, partly because he wanted it as such. About 48 of his 65 shows circulate among collectors, while some of Joe Farago's episodes were rerun by CBN Cable (what is currently Creator/{{Freeform}}) in late 1986.
Creator/{{Disney}}, who owns Freeform, currently holds the rights to ''Bank'' - the distributor, Blair Entertainment, was a subsidiary of Storer Comunications, which was absorbed into New World Communications, which was in turn acquired by [[Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox 20th Century Fox]] in 1997; 20th was bought by Disney in 2019.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Except for a week of reruns in December 1985, no Rayburn episodes have been rerun, partly because he wanted it as such. About 48 of his 65 shows circulate among collectors, while some of Joe Farago's episodes were rerun by CBN Cable (what is currently Creator/{{Freeform}}) in late 1986. (Creator/{{Fox}}, who owned that network from 1998-2001, currently holds the rights to ''Bank'' - the distributor, Blair Entertainment, was a subsidiary of Storer Comunications, which was absorbed into New World Communications, which was in turn acquired by Fox in 1997. Most recently, Creator/{{Disney}} acquired 20th Television along with 20th Century Fox so now ''they'' own the show.)
* MissingEpisode: Gene's tenure. The most common explanation is the fact he was extremely dissatisfied with how he was treated by Kline & Friends, as he mentioned during interviews near the end of his life. As a result, you likely won't be seeing Rayburn's tenure again outside Website/YouTube (unless Gene's death and Fox's acquisition of the Blair library have rendered it void).

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Except for a week of reruns in December 1985, no Rayburn episodes have been rerun, partly because he wanted it as such. About 48 of his 65 shows circulate among collectors, while some of Joe Farago's episodes were rerun by CBN Cable (what is currently Creator/{{Freeform}}) in late 1986. (Creator/{{Fox}}, who owned that network from 1998-2001, currently holds the rights to ''Bank'' - the distributor, Blair Entertainment, was a subsidiary of Storer Comunications, which was absorbed into New World Communications, which was in turn acquired by Fox in 1997.)

* CreatorKiller: ''Break the Bank'' and an accidental age reveal from ''Entertainment Weekly'' essentially killed Gene Rayburn's long game show career; he hosted only one more show, ''The Movie Masters'', at the end of the 1980s before his retirement.
* ExecutiveMeddling: Gene Rayburn was distinctly told '''not''' to goof around as he did on ''Series/MatchGame'', despite a goofy host being totally acceptable in a stunt-based show where the Prize Vault was ''full'' of silly stuff. It seems he wasn't given much of a pre-show briefing, either, as he stumbles around aimlessly more than a few times in the Prize Vault (some people have suggested that he originally thought he was going to host a revival of ''Series/BreakTheBank1976''; that's plausible, considering Kline & Friends was composed of defectors from Barry and Enright). Given that the Prize Vault was ''timed'' (using the seconds the couple had earned in the front game), this was never a good thing when it happened.

** According to the biography ''The Matchless Gene Rayburn'', the reason he was picked to host was to have "star power", so stations would be more likely to pick it up, and hence wasn't treated very well (Kline apparently saw Rayburn as sort of a "means to an end"), and the reason they originally kept the clock running was so Rayburn couldn't make any jokes about the stunts in the Prize Vault.
* HeyItsThatSound: Quite a few sound effects were recycled from Barry–Enright series--the ''Series/TicTacDough'' "category reveal" cue was used for the home viewer puzzle hint, the cue heard when the Number Jumbler stopped was previous used on ''Series/TheJokersWild'' as a "spin start" cue in the bonus round (and in turn had previously been used on ''Series/DoubleDare1976'' {both taped at CBS} and is still used by ''Series/ThePriceIsRight'' {originally for the game ''Penny Ante'', currently for the game ''Vend-O-Price''}), and the "wrong code" cue was used as a "zero" cue in the bonus round of ''Series/PlayThePercentages''.
** Most of the time, the front game buzz-in noise was a "warble" used on B&E shows as a "time's up" signal; at least once, however, and somewhat bizarrely, the ''Series/FamilyFeud'' buzz-in noise was used instead.
* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Except for a week of reruns in December 1985 (the first week of the series), no Rayburn episodes have been rerun, partly because he wanted it as such. About 48 of his 65 shows circulate among collectors, while some of Joe Farago's episodes were rerun by CBN Cable (what is currently Creator/{{Freeform}}) in late 1986. (Ironically, Creator/{{Fox}}, who owned that network from 1998 to 2001, currently holds the rights to it, as the distributor, Blair Entertainment, was a subsidiary of Storer Comunications, which was absorbed into New World Communications, which was in turn acquired by Fox in 1997.)
* MissingEpisode: Gene's tenure. The most common explanation is because he was extremely dissatisfied with how he was treated by Kline & Friends and refused to talk about his experiences on ''Bank'' during interviews near the end of his life. As a result, you likely won't be seeing Rayburn's tenure again outside Website/YouTube (unless Rayburn's death and Fox's acquisition of the Blair library have rendered it void).
* OldShame: Gene Rayburn was so unhappy with his hosting and the treatment he received on ''Bank'' that he declared an embargo on every episode he hosted. (Again, whether or not that embargo would still be in place currently, given his death and the fact that the rights to the master tapes have bounced around, is unknown.)
* PropRecycling: The Numbler Jumbler monitor was recycled from the 1982 ''Series/TwentyOne'' pilot's bonus game; the orange walls used in the front game, meanwhile, came from the set of ''Series/HotPotato''.
* StuntCasting: Likely the reason why Rayburn was originally chosen to host as he was still a familiar name.

** According to a recent biography, ''The Matchless Gene Rayburn'', the reason he was picked to host was to have "star power", so stations would be more likely to pick it up, and hence wasn't treated very well (Kline apparently saw Rayburn as sort of a "means to an end"), and the reason they originally kept the clock running was so Rayburn couldn't make any jokes about the stunts in the Prize Vault.

** According to a recent biography, ''The Matchless Gene Rayburn'', the reason he was picked to host was to have "star power", so stations would be more likely to pick it up, and hence wasn't treated very well (Kline apparently saw Rayburn as sort of a "means to an end"), and the reason they stopped the clock was so Rayburn couldn't make any jokes about the stunts in the Prize Vault.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Except for a week of reruns in December 1985 (the first week of the series), no Rayburn episodes have been rerun, partly because he wanted it as such. About 48 of his 65 shows circulate among collectors, while some of Joe Farago's episodes were rerun by CBN Cable (what is currently {{Creator/{{Freeform}}) in late 1986. (Ironically, Creator/{{Fox}}, who owned that network from 1998 to 2001, currently holds the rights to it, as the distributor, Blair Entertainment, was a subsidiary of Storer Comunications, which was absorbed into New World Communications, which was in turn acquired by Fox in 1997.)

* HeyItsThatSound: Quite a few sound effects were recycled from Barry–Enright series--the ''Series/TicTacDough'' "category reveal" cue was used for the home viewer puzzle hint, the cue heard when the Number Jumbler stopped was previous used on ''Series/TheJokersWild'' as a "spin start" cue in the bonus round, and the "wrong code" cue was used as a "zero" cue in the bonus round of ''Series/PlayThePercentages''.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Except for a week of reruns in December 1985 (the first week of the series), no Rayburn episodes have been rerun, partly because he wanted it as such. About 48 of his 65 shows circulate among collectors, while some of Joe Farago's episodes were rerun by CBN Cable (what is currently [[{{Creator/ABCFamily}} Freeform]]) in late 1986. (Ironically, Creator/{{Fox}}, who owned that network from 1998 to 2001, currently holds the rights to it, as the distributor, Blair Entertainment, was a subsidiary of Storer Comunications, which was absorbed into New World Communications, which was in turn acquired by Fox in 1997.)