History Trivia / Concentration

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Very little circulates from the 1958-73 Creator/{{NBC}} run and the 1973-78 syndicated run, and no clips have been seen in blooper specials. [=NBCUniversal=], the current owner of the format, had until recently no interest in reviving the format or allowing reruns of it on GSN or anywhere, but their attitude may be changing, with Buzzr adding the 1987-91 ''Classic'' run to their schedule on October 1, 2018; whether the earlier runs will also escape tape-trading limbo will remain to be seen. At present, they have played episodes from the May 4, 1987 premiere to December 18 of that same year.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Very little circulates from the 1958-73 Creator/{{NBC}} run and the 1973-78 syndicated run, and no clips have been seen in blooper specials. [=NBCUniversal=], the current owner of the format, had until recently no interest in reviving the format or allowing reruns of it on GSN or anywhere, but their attitude may be changing, with Buzzr adding the 1987-91 ''Classic'' run to their schedule on October 1, 2018; whether the earlier runs will also escape tape-trading limbo will remain to be seen. At present, they have played episodes from the May 4, 1987 premiere to November 05 of that same year.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Very little circulates from the 1958-73 Creator/{{NBC}} run and the 1973-78 syndicated run, and no clips have been seen in blooper specials. [=NBCUniversal=], the current owner of the format, had until recently no interest in reviving the format or allowing reruns of it on GSN or anywhere, but their attitude may be changing, with Buzzr adding the 1987-91 ''Classic'' run to their schedule on October 1, 2018; whether the earlier runs will also escape tape-trading limbo will remain to be seen. At present, they have played episodes from the May 4, 1987 premiere to October 22 of that same year.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Very little circulates from the 1958-73 Creator/{{NBC}} run and the 1973-78 syndicated run, and no clips have been seen in blooper specials. [=NBCUniversal=], the current owner of the format, had until recently no interest in reviving the format or allowing reruns of it on GSN or anywhere, but their attitude may be changing, with Buzzr adding the 1987-91 ''Classic'' run to their schedule on October 1, 2018; whether the earlier runs will also escape tape-trading limbo will remain to be seen. At present, they have played episodes from the May 4, 1987 premiere to October 8 of that same year.

** The 1973-78 episodes that circulate include March 23, 1973; [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DD7sKVErfTo the last five minutes of a 1974 episode]]; the last two minutes of a 1976 show (since taken down from YouTube); a early 1978 episode. Game show legend Wink Martindale has updated on his channel episodes 344 (taped June 27, 1974), 572 (taped December 5, 1974), 1534, 1535 and 1541 (all taped December 2, 1977); none of which were previously available.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Very little circulates from the 1958-73 Creator/{{NBC}} run and the 1973-78 syndicated run, and no clips have been seen in blooper specials. [=NBCUniversal=], the current owner of the format, had until recently no interest in reviving the format or allowing reruns of it on GSN or anywhere, but their attitude may be changing, with Buzzr adding the 1987-91 ''Classic'' run to their schedule on October 1, 2018; whether the earlier runs will also escape tape-trading limbo will remain to be seen. At present, they have played episodes from the May 4, 1987 premiere to September 24 of that same year.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Very little circulates from the 1958-73 Creator/{{NBC}} run and the 1973-78 syndicated run, and no clips have been seen in blooper specials. [=NBCUniversal=], the current owner of the format, had until recently no interest in reviving the format or allowing reruns of it on GSN or anywhere, but their attitude may be changing, with Buzzr adding the 1987-91 ''Classic'' run to their schedule on October 1, 2018; whether the earlier runs will also escape tape-trading limbo will remain to be seen. At present, they have played episodes from the May 4, 1987 premiere to August 13 of that same year.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Very little circulates from the 1958-73 Creator/{{NBC}} run and the 1973-78 syndicated run, and no clips have been seen in blooper specials. [=NBCUniversal=], the current owner of the format, had until recently no interest in reviving the format or allowing reruns of it on GSN or anywhere, but their attitude may be changing, with Buzzr adding the 1987-91 ''Classic'' run to their schedule on October 1, 2018; whether the earlier runs will also escape tape-trading limbo will remain to be seen.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Very few episodes from the first ''20 years'' circulate, and no clips have been seen in blooper specials. Because Creator/FremantleMedia (successor to Goodson-Todman) does not own the rights to the show (NBC does), the Jack Narz era hasn't been rerun. None of the other versions have ever been rerun, either, save for ''Classic'' from 1991 to 1993 on NBC and for a time on the United Kingdom's Sky One. [=NBCUniversal=] has zero interest in either reviving the show or selling repeat rights to GSN (much less anybody).
** Episodes from the first 20 years that circulate include October 15, 1958; February 9, 1959 (hosted by Art James and surfaced in January 2012); September 12, 13 and 16, 1963; a 12-minute clip from 1966; September 1967; October 2 and 3, 1967; Christmas Eve 1968; September 1969; Christmas Eve 1969; March 23, 1973; early 1978. Also on Website/YouTube are [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DD7sKVErfTo#t=3m13s the last five minutes of a 1974 show]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBDumKT0lpM the last two minutes of a 1976 show.]] Lately, game show legend Wink Martindale has been uploading classic episodes from the Narz era, with at least two from the 1977-1978 season and another from 1974-1975, none of which have been previously uploaded.
** A few shows from spring 1971 are at the UCLA Film & Television Archive, paired up with that day's ''Series/SaleOfTheCentury''.
** It seems NBC's attitude is changing, as on September 3, 2018, Buzzr (a digital subchannel owned by Fremantle Media) announced that reruns of Classic Concentration would be added to their schedule beginning October 1, 2018.

** To this day, Creator/{{NBC}} owns the rights to the show and refuses to allow reruns of existing episodes. The show ''is'' listed on the network's formats Web site (alongside ''Series/TwentyOne'' and ''Series/MinuteToWinIt''), though.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQmbiOphgPk This car round]] where things go awry. First, the board revealed the wrong number, so the staff had to stop the clock and reset both it and the board to where they were before the contestant called her numbers. Then, in the last 15 seconds or so, the main monitor went out and she had to squint at a board ''30 feet away'', losing all her momentum. Alex pointed all of this out to the home viewers and commented that, since he thought she would've won had the technical difficulties not come up, he [[MomentOfAwesome let her take the car of her choice]].

* NoBudget: Commonly associated with the 1970s Narz version. Usually, there were at least two prizes worth $1,000, and several prizes topped $500, but [[ConsolationPrize consolation-type prizes]] were often main-game prizes (such as boxed spaghetti dinners, Oreo cookies and bar soap); this helped with the low-rent budget (or at least the perception thereof). By the last season, there was an attempt to increase the appeal of the prizes by matching several of the $500–$1,000 level prizes together into a single prize package, and then make it available as a prize in the Double Play round's new prize-matching game; $1,000 gift certificates to places like Botany 500 and Western Auto were also common, and some of the prize packages were worth $2,000 or more, and European tours for two worth $4,000 were sometimes offered. Despite the low-level prizes, a lucky contestant winning both rounds and, in the process, matching all the prizes … and then coming away with every prize package available in the Double Play round (there were four per round, one of which was a new car) could have a very nice payday of nearly $20,000.

** 1963 (5th): A match between Mitch Miller and MervGriffin, with five 5-year-old children present.

* LineToGod: In February 2011, original series producer Norm Blumenthal started [[http://www.gameshowforum.org/index.php?showtopic=21303 a thread]] on a popular game show forum, in which he has discussed nearly every detail of the series. However, the thread died out in March 2012.

** Another story which may have facilitated ''Concentration'''s fate comes from [[WordOfGod Norm Blumenthal]] himself. When Lin Bolen became head of NBC daytime, she visited the control booth while a telecast of the show was under way. Apparently, a studio audience member shouted out the answer to a puzzle, after which Norm said to give the car--which was on a player's prize rack--to that person. Lin rebuked "Why don't you give one to the opponent?" Norm looked her point blank and told her "Shut up. This is ''my'' control booth." It was pretty much a dare for Bolen to fire Norm and cancel the show, but it was the debut of the return of ''ThePriceIsRight'' on CBS that sealed its fate. Norm explained that he'd have to give a car to everyone if that had happened time and again.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Very few episodes from the first ''20 years'' circulate, and no clips have been seen in blooper specials. Because Goodson-Todman (later Creator/FremantleMedia) does not own the rights to the show (NBC does), the Jack Narz era hasn't been rerun. None of the other versions has ever been rerun, either, save for ''Classic'' from 1991 to 1993 on NBC and for a time on the United Kingdom's Sky One. [=NBCUniversal=] has zero interest in either reviving the show or selling repeat rights to GSN (much less anybody).

** For a themed week, the ''Classic'' set included large neon-lit palm trees. Even after the week was over, the trees stayed because the set designers thought [[RuleOfCool the combination looked cool]]. After this addition, the set designers decided to go further with the "California Fresh" motif by adding more foliage to the set (especially in the "winner's circle" where the bonus round was played) and letting Trebek be more laid back and dress more casually (often with sweaters).

* HeyItsThatGuy:
** Hugh Downs was already well known as the announcer/sidekick on ''Series/TheTonightShow'' during Jack Paar's tenure as host.
** Bob Clayton was the host of a short-lived Creator/{{ABC}} game show, ''Make a Face'', in 1961.
** Ed [=McMahon=] was, in 1969, known across the country as Johnny Carson's sidekick on ''Series/TheTonightShow''.
** Jack Narz, no stranger to the game show genre (''Seven Keys'', ''Series/{{Dotto}}'', ''Series/BeatTheClock'', ''Series/NowYouSeeIt''), was Tom Kennedy's brother (Tom's given name was Jim Narz) and Creator/BillCullen's brother-in-law.
** Alex Trebek was already well-known as the host of ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}''. Strangely, he seemed much more intimate than usual on this show. He also had a deer-in-the-headlights look when contestants would snipe at each other.
** Ralph Branca, the Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher who in 1951 surrendered the "Shot Heard 'Round the World" home run to New York Giants' Bobby Thomson (sending the Giants to the World Series), was a competitor in 1963 and progressed to the show's first Challenge of Champions.

* HeyItsThatVoice:
** Johnny Olson and Gene Wood were prolific announcers for Goodson-Todman over many years; Johnny is most well-known for ''Series/ThePriceIsRight'', while Gene announced the 1976-95 versions of ''Series/FamilyFeud''.
** The show's first announcer, Art James, became an emcee in his own right. He left ''Concentration'' in 1961 to host Goodson-Todman's ''Say When!!'' and do many more (''Series/BlankCheck''; ''Series/TheMagnificentMarbleMachine''; ''The Who, What, or Where Game''; ''Series/SuperPayCards''; ''Series/CatchPhrase'') henceforth. In 1991, things came full circle when he filled in for Gene Wood on ''Classic'' for a week.
** James also appeared in the film ''Film/{{Mallrats}}''; appropriately enough, he played a game show host (Bob Summers) who, unfortunately, could not stop the characters from derailing the show (a ripoff of ''Series/TheDatingGame'') with their antics (such as Brodie's story of how his Cousin Walter [[ADateWithRosiePalms jerked off]] on a plane).

** [[https://vimeo.com/121515834 This documentary]], ''Thanks For Playing Concentration'' has Norm discussing his beginnings, his tenure under Barry-Enright and his ''Concentration'' story. It was produced by his son, Howard Blumenthal.

** Another story which may have facilitated ''Concentration'''s fate comes from [[WordOfGod Norm Blumenthal]] himself. When Lin Bolen became head of NBC daytime, she visited the control booth while a telecast of the show was under way. Apparently, a studio audience member shouted out the answer to a puzzle, after which Norm said to give the car--which was on a player's prize rack--to that person. Lin rebuked "Why don't you give one to the opponent?" Norm looked her point blank and told her "Shut up. This is ''my'' control booth." It was pretty much a dare for Bolen fire Norm and cancel the show, but it was the debut of the return of ''ThePriceIsRight'' on CBS that sealed its fate.

** Ed [=McMahon=] was, in 1969, known across the country as Johnny Carson's sidekick on ''The Tonight Show''.
** Jack Narz, no stranger to the game show genre (''Seven Keys'', ''Series/{{Dotto}}'', ''Series/NowYouSeeIt''), was Tom Kennedy's brother (Tom's given name was Jim Narz) and Creator/BillCullen's brother-in-law.

** Episodes from the first 20 years that circulate include October 15, 1958; February 9, 1959 (hosted by Art James and surfaced in January 2012); September 12, 13 and 16, 1963; a 12-minute clip from 1966; September 1967; October 2 and 3, 1967; Christmas Eve 1968; September 1969; Christmas Eve 1969; March 23, 1973; early 1978. Also on Website/YouTube are [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DD7sKVErfTo#t=3m13s the last five minutes of a 1974 show]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBDumKT0lpM the last two minutes of a 1976 show.]] Lately, game show legend Wink Martindale has been uploading classic episodes from the Narz-era, with at least two from the 1977-1978 season and another from 1974-1975, none of which have been previously uploaded.

** James also appeared in the film ''Film/{{Mallrats}}''; appropriately enough, he played a game show host (Bob Summers) who, unfortunately, could not stop the characters from derailing the show (a ripoff of ''Series/TheDatingGame'') with all sorts of crazy crap (such as Brodie's story of how his Cousin Walter jerked off on a plane).

* HeyItsThatSound: Several sounds on ''Classic'' - the bonus timer beeps were recycled from ''Series/{{Blockbusters}}'', the square-reveal sound from ''TriviaTrap'', and the SpeedRound buzzer from ''Series/FamilyFeud''.

** Johnny Olson and Gene Wood were prolific announcers for Goodson-Todman over many years; Johnny is most well-known for ''ThePriceIsRight'', while Gene announced the 1976-95 versions of ''FamilyFeud''.

** Alex Trebek was already well-known as the host of ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' Strangely, he seemed much more intimate than usual on this show. He also had a deer-in-the-headlights look when contestants would snipe at each other.

** James also appeared in the film ''Film/{{Mallrats}}''; appropriately enough, he played a game show host (Bob Summers) who, unfortunately, could not stop the cast from derailing the show (a ripoff of ''Series/TheDatingGame'') with all sorts of stuff (such as Brodie's story of how his Cousin Walter jerked off on a plane).