Early Installment Weirdness / Game Shows

The long-lived Game Shows viewers see on TV daily - the classics and modern-day shows - are often the result of tweaking the format on the air. Rarely, if ever, does a long-running game show retain the exact feel, flavor, and aesthetic of its early weeks. Often, the producers haven't yet worked out all the kinks in the rules; some gameplay factor that may have worked well in test runs may turn out poorly when actually played out.

In addition, many of the earliest episodes of the long-runners will see the host explain the rules in more detail. Once everyone becomes familiar with how the game works, he'll revert to a brief summary.

By the time a show has been on a few weeks, the rough edges have been smoothed out, contestants are more comfortable with the rules, games involving celebrities will have figured out who plays the game the best and invite them back... the list goes on.

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Examples:

• American Gladiators was very different in the first season:
  • The first 13 episodes were an odd set, showing the Gladiators as very antagonistic instead of just obstacles for the contestants to overcome. The referee also wore an executioner's outfit during this time.
  • The show's hosts were Mike Adamle and Joe Theismann. Joe would leave the series after the first 13 episodes. Interestingly, Mike would be seen wearing a tracksuit during this time.
  • Along with Joe, there were two other Gladiators that would leave around the same time he did - Malibu and Sunny.
  • Assault was done up to be a World War II-themed arena with various oddball barriers at each station. As well, the Gladiators, during the first 13 episodes, wore shades.
  • Powerball was a half-circle ring with no bonus goal.
  • Joust was a bridge-like platform with the goal of either knocking the opponent off or pushing them back. Also the pugil sticks looked like giant Q-Tips.
  • Cannonball allowed players to stick their feet out to kick the Gladiators off their platform. However, after an infamous incident where Malibu was kicked in the face and was wounded, players were forced to keep their legs back and anyone doing that would have that pass disqualified.
  • Point scaling was ridiculous, going into the hundreds.
  • The Eliminator wasn't the Golden Snitch that it was in later series, just adding points to extend a lead or to catch up. When it became the Golden Snitch, the points meant that a contender had to complete it a certain amount of seconds faster than their opponent.
• Bullseye (UK) in its first series was very different to the show British viewers came to love. Different music, a full shot of the board being used instead of the well-known split screen used in darts coverage, a preliminary round where the dart players would throw for the bull to decide the order of play, the Bible being a category, non-dart players not only choosing the category but the value as well, the now-familiar Pounds for Points being played for a set amount of cash, no Bully animations at all outside of the intro and end-of-part stings, and the lowest-scoring team being booted off after the first round. The most striking difference however was that Tony Green was not present at all (although he did appear once on the charity interlude) - Jim Bowen would act as the scorer, clearly struggling with it (it was not unusual for him to have to step in front of the board and move the darts to "check" the scores - possibly as he just needed to stall for time in order to do the calculations!). Tony Green joined the show in Series 2 (albeit out-of-vision, but he would appear on-screen from Series 3 onwards) and the show started to evolve into the better known format.
• Card Sharks:
  • NBC version: Jim Perry explaining that the champion played "the top cards, the red cards," and the challenger played "the lower cards, the blue cards." It wasn't until almost the end of 1978 that this was dropped, and Perry would only use it again when two new players (following the retirement of an undefeated champion) played or it was a celebrity or Teen Week (when new players played each game). Additionally, the opening spiel was standard ("Ace is high/deuce is low/call it right/and win the dough"), but before long viewers were invited to send in their own poems, which Perry would acknowledge in the opening. In addition, the game was often much slower-paced, particularly the Money Cards (it had its own Early Installment Weirdness ... only the first card on the bottom row could be changed), with the pace picking up as the weeks wore on.
  • CBS version: For the earliest weeks in 1986, Gene Wood's introduction was very simple: "From Television City in Hollywood, it's Card Sharks!" right before introducing the host. Also, the absence of the car game and the "10 studio audience members"/educated guess questions. Indeed, during the very earliest weeks, questions were very much along the same lines of the NBC version.
• The Chase was quite subdued in its first series by comparison. The set was darker, and there was a lot less banter involving the Chasers. There were only two Chasers in the roster; the one who was competing was revealed before the titles, and given a profile before facing the first contestant, instead of a humorous mention in a "roll call".
• Countdown, if one were to see the earliest episodes, looks very different even for those more than familiar with the Richard Whiteley/Carol Vorderman era:
  • The obvious differences in the first Channel 4 episode (rebroadcast as part of the channel's 25th Anniversary celebrations) being in the presentation team - Vorderman's role being only to check the workings-out in the numbers game and the roles of putting up tiles fell to "hostesses" Cathy Hytner and Beverly Isherwood. No Susie Dent (resident lexicographer) and celebrity guest in the dictionary corner- this was left to Ted Moult and an "assistant" named Mary. Richard Whiteley's lame puns, on the other hand...
    • In fact, look at clips from pretty much any episode from The '80s and you'll notice that it's not Carol Vorderman putting up the letters and numbers- they went through a couple more after Cathy Hytner left, though. Apparently, even the "vital statistician" role was shared by both Vorderman and a Dr. Linda Barrett for a short period.
  • For much of the show's history the programmes were only half an hour long, now they're three quarters of an hour, and were shown in the late, not mid-afternoon. The adition of the "teatime teaser" (a little puzzle for the viewers at home to do during the break) came in about this time.
  • Of course this pales in comparison with the earlier Calendar Countdown shown on Yorkshire Television - then a spin off of the local news programme! - a pilot of which can at the time of writing be found (however legitimately) on YouTube. For example, the clock ran for 45 seconds instead of 30, and many of the rounds never made it into the current version.
• The Crystal Maze: In the first 2 series, teams who earned between 50 and 99 Gold tokens in the Crystal Dome won an activity day as a prize, with those earning over 100 usually winning a holiday. This was dropped for Series 3 and the activity day would usually be the main prize for teams earning 100 tokens or more - with those earning under 100 simply "winning" a commemorative crystal (given to all contestants anyway). There were also several games in Series 1 which, had they been introduced a year later, would have been considered Automatic Lock-Ins. Instead the game is simply forfeited and the player is asked to leave the cell.
  • The 50-99 token prize was brought back for the 2017 revival.
• Face The Music had a few interesting wrinkles in the early episodes (while the unaired pilot had four contestants playing round 1, with the lowest scorer being eliminated afterwards): the $10,000 level in the bonus game was played for a prize package (and not awarded as a cash prize, unlike later), Ron Ely would chat with the returning champ at the beginning of the show and just before round 2... most importantly, contestants were more sedated. (In the latter example, contestants did not yell "I GOT IT!" –the show's signature phrase – when they rang in to guess the song.)
• Family Feud:
  • Richard Dawson era (1976-85):
    • The original ABC version had the theme played in a lower key and announcer Gene Wood using a more hyped-up voice, as opposed to his more mellow delivery used once the show logged its first couple of months on the air. Also, at least one episode (during the first week) had a new challenging family introduced during the episode's final segment and host Richard Dawson engaging in chit-chat before wrapping up the proceedings for the day. In addition, the buzzer podiums at the Face Off table were thinner, with the more familiar wide buzzers coming about a year into the run.
    • Another early quirk was that, for the first few weeks, the camera shot during Fast Money was noticeably different. Originally, the camera was static for the entire round, thus meaning that the entire board was seen when the questions were asked of both contestants, and that Dawson's and the contestant's backs were to the camera when the point values were added up. After a short time, this was changed to a series of cuts, plus a split-screen for the second contestant's turn - which is how the round is shot to this day. Relatedly, the 1976-85 version is the only incarnation of the show not to have a sound effect when the answers in Fast Money are revealed; this was introduced in the Combs era and has been used ever since.
    • Early on, games were only played to a goal of $200, with single-single-double as the default structure. When this made them drag (thus leading to such filler as the aforementioned chit-chat and introduction of the next family), the goal was upped to $300 and triple-value rounds were introduced.
    • At least one early episode had a question - "Name a TV show with a number in its title" - get thrown out during the Face-Off, after only four contestants (two family members on each side) had a chance to answer. Future episodes had one of two things: Each of the remaining contestants were given a chance to answer, in turn, until at least one answer on the survey was revealed or everyone failed to answer. In the latter instance, the question would be edited out and only questions that had at least one successful Face-Off response would be kept. ^note (Incidentally, the question about numbers in TV titles ... two of the answers weren't that bad, and one — "One Life to Live'' — was perfectly logical, just not on the board.)
    • Also, for the first couple of weeks of shows, Dawson did not kiss the female contestants; he had picked up this practice on Match Game.
    • Very early episodes straddled with at least one Fast Money round being played on the following show after the previous episode ran out of time.
  • Ray Combs era (1988-94):
    • For his first two years on the program, Ray didn't carry the handheld microphone he would use for most of the run.
    • The first two years also featured the family nameplates sliding away to reveal the families in the intro, much like the 1976-85 Dawson run.
    • The original buzzer from Fast Money (a single for zero points and a double for a duplicated answer) was recycled for the first few months until an updated buzzer replaced it. The Combs era also originally used a louder and more jarring strike sound, as well as larger strike graphics.
    • Originally, Combs era games went single-single-single-double-triple. In mid-November 1988, one of the single rounds was dropped, and the format remained the same until Bullseye was introduced.
  • Syndicated era (Louie Anderson, Richard Karn, John O'Hurley, Steve Harvey) (1999-present):
    • During Louie Anderson's first season, announcer Burton Richardson would make up punny rhymes on the families' last names when introducing them. This was quickly retired.
    • The strike sound from the latter part of the 1988-95 run was reused for Anderson's first season. It was replaced with the current sound beginning with his second.
    • For Karn's first season, the Louie Anderson-era scoring system (single-single-single-triple, with only one strike in the Triple round) was retained. Karn was also less of a Large Ham on his earlier episodes, with much less shouting and reliance on his catch phrases. The "party" theme from the Anderson era was initially retained, even being given a remix, until the Combs-era theme and music package was brought back at the halfway point of the season. For Karn's second season, the scoring reverted to single-single-double-triple with a Tiebreaker Round if neither team has hit 300 points, while the theme reverted to the previous "party" theme remix, which stayed put for the rest of Karn's run.
    • At the start of John O'Hurley's run, the show brought back the families doing poses in the intro, as previously seen on the Dawson and Combs runs. This lasted through O'Hurley's entire run, but what didn't last was Burton introducing the families using a more low-pitched and dramatic tone (similar to what he used on Russian Roulette).
    • Steve Harvey's first season didn't have as much sexual or otherwise family-unfriendly material as subsequent ones. The off-color moments that did happen were more organic and spontaneous, and such answers were less likely to appear on the board. This was also the only season taped at Universal Studios in Orlando, which was referenced in the introduction.
• Fort Boyard: Certain things only happened in the first UK series:
  • The gold was referred to as "golden doubloons", which would often not be heard over the teams cheering at their winnings. In later series, it was simply "gold".
  • In the first series, they had to find the "code word"; later this was the "password".
  • In the first series, there were three visits to the Professor; later series only had two.
• The Hollywood Squares:
  • Several published histories of the original 1966-80 version stated that creator Merrill Heatter was disappointed with the early episodes due to the celebrities' joking, which often ground the game to a halt. There was very little actual gameplay (one episode, aired during the first month of the show, had 11 total questions asked, and the next day just eight were asked; surely, there were other episodes with fewer than 10 questions asked). Some quick conferring with the celebrities to get their joke over with and then give their answer plus some editing to chop out the unneeded carrying-on sped up the pace of the game considerably. By the end of November 1966, ^note (a month and a half into the series' run) more than 20 questions were being played a day and the pace was what viewers came to expect.
  • Paul Lynde did not become the permanent center square until about three years in (although he had appeared on the show a few times before). For the first several months, there was no permanent center square; Buddy Hackett was the first before Paul Lynde came along.
  • On the 1986 John Davidson-hosted version, the first two or three weeks had the celebrities names in the same narrow font as the original NBC series. This was quickly changed to the wide Helvetica-type font.
  • Early Tom Bergeron-era episodes used the same end game as latter-day NBC daytime episodes — pick a star and simply win cash, a trip and so forth. This was modified slightly by requiring the contestant to correctly agree/disagree with the chosen star's answer to another multiple-choice question to win the item in the envelope by the end of the first month on the air. The cash amounts in the front game were almost on par with the Davidson version ($500 for the first two games, $1000 for the third, $2000 for any after that, and $250 per square when time was called); these were quickly bumped up (to amounts of $1000, $1000, $2000, $4000 and $500).
• Jeopardy!:
  • Early on in the original Art Fleming version (1964-75), some games had clues where the "answer in the form of a question" format made more sense (an example: "In Kentucky, by 2½ lengths; in Maryland, by 2½ lengths; in New York, by 31 lengths." "What are Secretariat's Triple Crown wins?") This quickly disappeared in favor of more straightforward clues in the style the show uses to this day.
  • The Fleming version had all three contestants receive their winnings in cash (or consolation prizes if $0 or negative); this was changed with the revival in 1984 to increase competition and avoid contestants that might reach a 'target' amount and simply stop playing.
  • The first season of the Alex Trebek era was quite different from later seasons. As was the case in the Fleming era, contestants could ring in as soon as the clue was revealed, and the buzzers made noises to indicate that someone had rung in. Trebek reportedly found the buzzer system a nuisance, and many contestants were screwed over by knee-jerk buzz-ins, so the buzzers were modified at the start of the second season to allow a ring-in only after the clue was finished (indicated by lights around the board), and temporarily lock out the contestant if they ring in too soon.
  • The early Trebek episodes also seem to have more attempts at inciting drama: he would tell the players at the start of every round about the "jeopardy" of losing money on incorrect responses, and likewise say that they were "out of jeopardy" whenever they finished a round. The audience track also included some "ohs" when a contestant provided an incorrect response or was unable to give an answer (as if to say, "My goodness, he lost money on that answer!"). Over time, such melodrama was done away with.
  • Early gameplay was much more relaxed, with lots of chatter from Alex in particular. Despite this, Trebek was a bit more strict on the rules, snapping at contestants who forgot to phrase in the form of a question, or gave a question clearly inappropriate for the category. His admonishments softened through the years, as did his hosting style as a whole, evolving into more of a Sophisticated as Hell Deadpan Snarker who was unafraid to laugh and joke around with the contestants without completely dropping his professional demeanor. He also spent much of the early episodes over-explaining the format at the start of each round, but as on most long-running game shows, this went away once the gameplay mechanics became more familiar to viewers and contestants alike.
  • The clues and category names were originally more straightforward, with only the occasional joke category or gimmicky clue, compared to the mix of humorous clues, puns, Shout Outs, and Moon Logic Puzzles of today. (For instance, a category that might've been just "Automobiles" in 1984 would probably be something cute like "Baby, You Can Drive My Car" nowadays.)
  • Originally, the shot of the clue was usually a zoom-in on the monitor or a dissolve to the clue's text. Over time, the practice of "zooming" the clue out of the board became the norm. Also for a short time, the text was yellow instead of white. A few early episodes also played around with capitalization and formatting; some early episodes had lowercase text, underlining, and other formatting quirks that rarely appeared afterward.
  • The presentation of Daily Doubles evolved considerably over the years. For the first month or so, the sound effect was a sweeping note on a synthesizer, as opposed to the synthesized "trilling" used to this day. Also, relatedly to the change in how clues were displayed, the visual presntation changed considerably. Initially, the camera would cut to the clue monitor, which would flash a "Daily Double" logo before displaying the clue's text. After a while, the cameras would instead cut to a shot of the contestant with the clue's text displayed to the side as they attempted to respond, and a few seasons later, the Daily Double logo began to "flip" out of its corresponding monitor and fill the screen for a couple seconds before cutting to the contestant and clue text.
  • The first week of Season 2 introduced the champion first, and then the two challengers. After that, the show reverted to the longstanding practice of introducing the two challengers before the champion (unless the show began with three new contestants).
• The Joker's Wild:
  • Most of the early weirdness of the CBS daytime run had to do with the various changes to the bonus game. Originally, the contestant was guaranteed prizes, but after spinning a first time he could spin a second time in an effort to get better prizes. The first two episodes also had some of the prizes encircled the , with getting three circles earning the contestant a new car (this was quickly dropped, and a car or vacation was instead added to the wheels). Finally, the bonus game that would be used for much of the CBS run – "Jokers and Devils" (spin up to three times to win a prize package, with the third prize the most expensive and desirable gift) – was in place. (Late in the run came the signature bonus game, "Face the Devil.")
  • While the front game was largely intact for the entire CBS and syndicated run, from the beginning to the end, the very earliest CBS shows had a quirky rule that meant an automatic win and game over by a contestant spinning three jokers. This happened once on the first spin of the game, meaning the opponent – a challenger – never had a chance to play, which led to a hasty rule change starting with the next game whereby the contestant spinning three jokers had to answer a question first.
  • The early seasons used the Real Song Theme Tune "The Savers" by Jean-Jacques Perrey and Gershon Kingsley, being replaced in October 1974 by a Suspiciously Similar Song composed by Alan Thicke. The more commonly known music packages by Hal Hidey (an original composition and a rearrangement of "The Savers") did not appear until 1978.
• Season one of Legends of the Hidden Temple had a much brighter, cleaner, kind of orange tint than the next two seasons, as well as the set not being covered in wildlife and billowing fog. The temple structure was also quite different; the Cave of Sighs, later the Ledges, could be entered and exited, and the temple gate consisted of two large columns rather than an actual gate, as well as the actual staircase leading into the temple behind Olmec's head being significantly closer to ground level. Kirk also wore khaki shorts rather than jeans, and his delivery and commentary were a lot more rough around the edges; this might have been why the next two seasons had Olmec himself deliver the instructions for how to perform each Temple Game and how to cross the moat, which were Kirk's duties in season one. Olmec was also much less of a Large Ham in the first season.
• Let's Make a Deal, in its original form (1963-77), had a lot of weirdness early on.
  • By far the most notable difference was the costumes. For the pilot episode (taped in May 1963) and the first couple of months after the show was picked up as a regular series, there were no costumes — all contestants wore formal clothing. Sometime in circa February 1964, someone brought a sign to get Monty's attention, and he picked her to play. Future contestants got the hint, and then things totally took off when someone wore an outrageous hat to the studio and was picked.
  • Additionally, there were few variants of the trading theme. Most games were simply do you want this "unknown or that unknown," or "a sure thing or the unknown." Once it was clear the show was going to be a hit, more variants on the original theme were added, as were pricing/consumer knowledge games and those playing on what would become known as the Monty Hall Problem (e.g., "three keys on the board, only one starts a car, I'll demonstrate one that's a dud, and now do you want the sure thing, or to try your key knowing it may be a dud.")
  • Wendell Niles was the show's announcer on both the pilot and the first season. He was replaced in the second season by Jay Stewart, who held the role until the original version ended, and went on to become a prolific announcer on several other shows as well.
  • In the 1984 syndicated version, the biggest difference was the lower stakes of the prizes — usually a base-model subcompact car was the grand prize. By the second week on the air, there were at least mid-level sports cars (including the Chevrolet Camaro) offered.
  • As for the CBS revival hosted by Wayne Brady, the first season was taped at the Tropicana Las Vegas, and Alison Fiori was the prize model in early episodes before being replaced by Tiffany Coyne. Cat Gray didn't join as musician until 2011. Wayne also had hair.
• The GSN revival of Lingo (2002-07), hosted by Chuck Woolery, evolved noticeably in its first three seasons:
  • In Season 1, they taped on the set of the Netherlands version. There was no audience, no additional personnel or introduction of any kind, and the Netherlands version's theme song was used. The Bonus Round involved making 5 in a row on a Bingo board to win a prize package including a Croton watch and a Borders gift card. Each correctly-guessed 5-letter word won a ball that would go on the board, and only two were needed to win.
  • Season 2 moved to the U.S. with a new blue and wood-grain set. The rules in Bonus Lingo changed so that the marked-off spaces on the board formed a pattern where 5-in-a-row could be made on one draw. Getting 5-in-a-row on the first draw won a grand prize, and doing so on the second or later draw won a smaller one. Also, for each 5-in-a-row Lingo made in the main game, the winning team also got bonus letters to use if they got stuck (likely because one team in Season 1 won only one ball, and another won zero), and the letters began to reveal more quickly to allow for more guesses. However, there was still no model, Randy Thomas was the announcer (except for the April Fools' Day episode, where Todd Newton held this role instead), and the Netherlands version's theme tune was still used.
  • In Season 3, the set changed to dark blue neon, and the theme tune was replaced with a longer rock piece, two cosmetic changes that stayed until the show's end. The role of model/co-host was also created, first with Stacey Hayes (plus a second model named Paula Cobb for the first two episodes only). However, this season still had a few oddities: Stacey was also the announcer, as she introduced Chuck with a voiceover Couch Gag at the top of the show, and after the Rules Spiel she would also introduce the contestants. Also, there was an Animated Credits Opening with a Rube Goldberg Device painting Lingo balls. For Seasons 4 onward, the show hit its stride as the announcer role was again eliminated, Shandi Finessey took over as model, and the opening became more streamlined: the contestants introduced themselves, and then Chuck introduced himself and chatted with Shandi before jumping right into the game (thus eliminating the Rules Spiel).
• Match Game:
  • The 1970s version had a few weirdnesses early on. Most notably, the show was a lot more laid-back and less humor-based, with tamer questions akin to the 1960s original version — no "Dumb Dora" or "boobs" type questions. (Example from Pilot A in May 1973: "John's daughter came home from college with a ____.") Some questions were even more akin to those that would later be asked on Family Feud (again from Pilot A in 1973: "Name a movie star, past or present, with a great body."). The panelists joked around a lot less, and the chemistry hadn't yet formed — Richard Dawson was the only regular, and neither Charles Nelson Reilly nor Brett Somers appeared until several weeks into the run. Over time, the questions got more bawdy, the panel loosened up (usually with the help of booze), and the game soon hit its stride.
  • In addition, the first six months or so of the 1970s run didn't Fade In with laughter immediately. Announcer Johnny Olson would typically say, "Get ready to match the stars ... " and introduce at least the first celebrity before someone would hold up a card with a humorous saying to entice laughter. By the late winter of 1974, the audience was so revved up that the laughter was already in progress when the opening shot faded in. Also during the first several months, the closing credits (including the full-credit roll) scrolled up the screen in the standard manner of most shows, only to be replaced by a side scroll from right to left at the start of December 1973, while the end-show plugs were moved to the third commercial break.
  • Also, the ticket plugs were basic with just the address superimposed on a background of rotating lights. This changed to the more familiar Match Game ticket plug featuring mixed faces in 1975.
• Password
  • The original Password similarly became more and more difficult as its contestants and celebrities got more experienced with the game. However, this zig-zagged with Password Plus, which reverted to slightly easier passwords, but also made it so that points were scored for guessing what each round's Passwords had in common—a master solution, as it were—which was not always that easy to guess – and adding a 10-in-60-seconds Bonus Round. (All of this carried over to Super Password.)
  • Password Plus
    • The first seven weeks had the Alphabetics board suspended by wires, to the left of the main game set from the viewer's vantage point. By the eighth week, it had been moved to a cabinet at stage right, where the celebrities and the host make their entrance. They had to change the board's placement because it hanged so low that people kept hitting their heads on it.
    • Plus had a "no opposites" rule which was added at the start of the sixteenth week.
  • Super Password:
    • Rich Jeffries announced the first few weeks instead of Gene Wood, who also did most of Plus. Once Gene took over, Jeffries helped Wood with audience warm-ups (a common second job for announcers).
    • The Magic Toaster which housed the Ca$hword was rolled out on the fourth week. Prior to that, the celebrity got it from the standard monitor used to display passwords to the puzzle.
    • In one early End Game, an illegal clue did not get noticed until the contestant won. A snap decision was then made to let the contestant keep the money, likely because the grand prize minimum of $5,000 was being offered. Host Bert Convy even explained "If we don't catch it, it counts." Every other time this happened, this changed to the illegal clue standing with the contestant getting the bad news in the middle of the celebration or after a commercial break in which the tape was checked. One win was negated during the taping break between one episode and the next.
• Pointless has changed frequently since the show debuted in 2009, but for the earlier seasons though:
  • Instead of having 4 teams of pairs in the first series, there were 5. The impetus for this change was the editors noting how much of Alexander and Richard's banter had to be cut for time; removing a team gave more space for the chemistry of the show's hosts to shine. The episodes also started off with a demonstration of the game mechanics.
  • The head to head round in the first series had the two remaining teams trying to keep their scores going above 100 by being asked multiple questions. In the event that both team's scores surpassed 100, the team with the lowest score would go through.
  • Series 2 and 3 had the more traditional 'X out of X' scoring, but it was best three out of five instead of best two out of three from Season 4 to present.
• Press Your Luck has several, especially during the first couple of months on the air. By the time the show began hitting its stride just before Christmas 1983, the early weirdness had gone:
  • The most notable was the opening sequence. Rod Roddy simply introduced the players and spoke of how they planned to take each other out in a game of high stakes but needing to avoid the Whammies!
  • Also: contestants were more sedated (no "Big bucks, no Whammies!"); no Whammy foghorn, along with different sound effects and musical cues; an even more primitive light pattern that cycled repeatedly and sometimes skipped over entire portions of the board; only a handful of Whammy animations (and those were less intricate than the ones that came later, once the show became a hit); and different cash values (including a lower Round 1 top value of $1,250) and fewer cash-plus-a-spin spaces.
• The Price Is Right:
  • During the very early days of the original Bill Cullen era, reportedly there was the possibility that a four-way loss could occur through overbidding on every item up for bids. A rule was quickly introduced where, at Cullen's discretion and to guarantee a daily/weekly champion, certain items would go back to the contestants for bidding if all four contestants overbid. Also, a contestant who overbid was disqualified from the next bidding game. If all four contestants overbid, the item was carried over as a bonus with the next item. There was also a brief time in 1957 when the daytime show tried a new concept. A price to an IUFB was read but it was not the correct price. The contestants had to predict if the actual price was higher or lower than the announced price.
    • Normally there were four bidding games per show. But a few early shows used five games (one such show is at Shokus Video).
  • As for the current CBS version, the first two years under Bob Barker was a very staid, low-key affair. It was only a half-hour long, almost all of the contestants were housewives, the set was largely brown and orange, the pricing games were very simple, there was no Showcase Showdown, and the Showcases at the end were just prizes presented in a straightforward fashion. When it was apparent the show was going to be a hit, the producers began adding new and more elaborate pricing games, requiring more host-contestant interaction and/or physical activity from the contestant. The Audience Participation increased greatly, as audience members were encouraged to shout out gameplay advice and bids. Also, the set was redesigned to be much brighter and more colorful. The show was also expanded to 60 minutes, thus doubling the number of items up for bids and pricing games, and resulting in the addition of the Showcase Showdown (i.e., the "big wheel") to determine which contestants would play for the big prize Showcases at the end. The models became Ascended Extras, often interacting with Bob and the contestants during the games. Also, the Showcases often became themed, usually involving the models and/or announcer in some sort of skit.
  • Originally, the "One Bid" (the "item up for bids" held at Contestant's Row) was always done left-to-right, instead of starting with the newest contestant and wrapping around. Also, the announcer would say some variation of "this can be yours if the price is right" after the One Bid prize descriptions, but after a while this was limited to being used only in the Showcase.
  • The very earliest CBS shows saw the audience silent at the beginning; in fact, even the first episode had Johnny Olson exclaim to each contestant to "Stand up!" before calling them down. Only by the end of the week were they clapping as the show faded in and was Olson saying the now-trademark "Come on down!"
  • On the earliest episodes, the official names for the pricing games weren't actively used on-camera for much of the first season., and on the very first episode, the contestant stood at a podium to play them.
  • And speaking of the Showcase Showdown, it was introduced in an experimental set of hour-long episodes which had a much smaller carnival wheel and seated the three players at Contestant's Row. Once the hour-long format became permanent, the trademark "Big Wheel" was introduced, with the contestants standing onstage to spin it. And even that has its weirdness — early on, the beep sound it made was much quieter, it did not necessarily have to make a complete revolution, and contestants used just one hand to spin the wheel while facing the audience. Also, there was no bonus spin feature until December 1978 — some three years after the Big Wheel itself debuted.
  • Some of the individual pricing games originally had drastically different rules. For instance:
    • For its first few playings, Any Number had a piggy bank near the board.
    • Punch a Bunch, in addition to once having a much uglier logo atop its set, used to have a row of ten holes below said logo, spelling out the word "PUNCHBOARD". This was for use as part of the far more contrived numbering system it originally had, regarding the numbered slips that the contestant pulled out of the punchboard — the slips in the "PUNCHBOARD" row were the only ones on the board that contained numbers; the ones in the board we all know underneath all had "dollar", "hundred", or "thousand" instead. First, the contestant picked a letter in "PUNCHBOARD", with Bob opening it up and revealing the number inside, then the contestant punched out the word second (so if they chose a "4" on the top and punched out a "hundred" on the bottom, they would get $400). Soon, they just switched to using regular slips with cash amounts on them (though the "PUNCHBOARD" section stayed for over a decade after its purpose had been discarded).
    • Penny Ante (now retired): Originally, the contestant had to guess the right prices before accumulating 100 pennies from wrong guesses and real pennies would shoot down from the game board for every mistake they made; also, the two correct prices could be anywhere among the eight possible prices on the board. It was later simplified to giving the contestant three big, fake pennies, and taking one away for every wrong guess, and separating the price possibilities to two groups of four for each item.
    • Cliff Hangers used four prizes instead of three in its earliest airings. It also used a different yodeling song (specifically, "The Silly Song" from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs instead of its more famous one, "On the Franches Mountains").
    • Plinko had noticeable cosmetic changes, mostly in the reveal of the game itself. The first playing used the same fanfare that introduces Grand Game (which also happens to be the tail end of the Family Feud theme), and a different reveal for the right prices of the small prizes.
    • Originally with Gas Money (pick the prices that aren't the actual price of a car to collect cash; you can walk away, but if successful you win both the car and $10,000), the contestant picked what they thought was the car's price first before eliminating the other four wrong prices, a la Deal or No Deal. This confused many contestants, so the game was adjusted to make them just have to pick the four wrong prices while avoiding the correct price instead.
    • Dice Game (roll a die four times, and then determine whether the number you rolled is higher or lower than the next digit in the price of a car) used numbers beyond those on a standard die in its first episodes. Later, the game was made easier by using cars whose prices have only the numbers 1-6 in them.
    • Grocery Game, the first four times it was played, awarded the actual groceries used for pricing. Also, the first two playings had a rule where the contestant would be offered $100 just as long as they didn't go over $7. It's presumed the contestant could quit before that point and just take the $100, but that never wound up occurring.
    • 1/2 Off didn't originally offer a cash bonus for guessing right prices along the way (which, in turn, eliminates more mystery boxes from play).
    • Hi-Lo's original rules involved being able to pick any item and designate it as belonging to the "Hi" or "Lo" row. The contestant would continue until all six items were placed (correctly), or until it was clear that a mistake had been made. The normal rules of simply picking the three "Hi" products likely debuted on the game's third playing at the earliest.
    • Hole in One (mini-golf game; every correctly-guessed price puts the contestant closer to the hole) didn't originally have the "…or two" rule. The earliest playings also used a drum roll during the contestant's putt, which was eventually dropped because contestants found it distracting.
    • Pass the Buck (determine between two small prizes which one is off by $1; for each correct pick, you get another pick at a six-space board, which has one car, three cash amounts, and two "Lose Everything"s) originally had eight spaces instead of six. The other two were another cash amount and another "Lose Everything".
    • Pick a Pair originally had a set resembling a ferris wheel. The game was out of rotation for almost two years, then returned with a table set.
    • Range Game's range (slide the "range" part of the board up until it's within the set range of the right price) used to be a mere $50, thus making it very hard to win. Quickly, the range grew to $100 and then just as quickly to the $150 spread used now.
    • Temptation: Initially, the contestant didn't have the option to change any numbers in the price they formed; they were told the combined value of the prizes and given the take-it-or-risk-the-prizes-for-the-car option.
    • Under Time is Money's original rules, the contestant had 15 seconds to sort a batch of grocery items into three price ranges to win a prize. If they got it right the first try, they won the prize and a $500 bonus. If wrong, they could keep the $500 and leave, or give it up for a second chance. After only two playings, the rules were changed: the time limit was changed to 20 seconds, the player was now told how many they had right, and the $500 bailout was removed—meaning that the contestant always had a free second chance. This made the name of the game practically meaningless, and it was discontinued soon afterwards. The game was revived in 2015 with improved rules: on the first attempt, if the player can get the correct answer in 10 seconds, they win $20,000. On the second attempt, the game switches to timed Trial-and-Error Gameplay — the $20,000 drains away until the player locks in with the correct placements (winning the amount it stops at), or it hits $0.
• Pyramid evolved significantly by the end of its first year on the air. The early episodes often have teams struggling to guess 2-3 words per round, and sometimes having to guess an entire phrase (an episode from the show's first week required a team to convey "shall not perish from the earth"!). The first year's episodes had 8 words instead of 7. By the end of the decade, almost every category had one- or two-word answers, and teams were getting 7 out of 7 more often than not.
  • The first three months (or so) of the 1973 CBS daytime run saw a different Opening Narration, with the camera focused on the Winner's Circle and announcer Bob Clayton saying the following (as a slow zoom-out happened): "Keep your eye on this spot. You are about to see one celebrity and one contestant step into this circle for the chance to win $10,000 in less than a minute. Ladies and gentlemen...this is The $10,000 Pyramid!" A partition that hid the "Pyramid" from view rose, and then there would be the introduction of celebrities and Dick Clark. The partition eventually disappeared, apparently due to difficulty with getting it to raise on cue, but the rest of the intro stayed. By November 1973, this opening sequence was replaced by the more-familiar "Previously on…" sequence.
  • Also, the judging in the Winner's Circle (convey six categories to your partner using only a list) got increasingly strict — no hand movements, no prepositional phrases, and an overall higher regard for precision. One early team even got credit for saying "Things you iron" when the box said "Things you press", which wouldn't have passed in The '80s.
  • The two bonus spaces associated with the show, the "7-11" ($1,100 bonus for getting all 7 words) and "Mystery 7" (a mystery category where the subject is not revealed until after the fact, and sweeping all 7 words earns a bonus prize), went through this too. Originally, the box on the Pyramid board would actually say "Mystery 7", instead of concealing it behind an otherwise-normal category box, but this frequently resulted in teams picking it first. Also, the "7-11" initially offered contestants the choice of taking $1,100 for all 7 words, or $50 per correct word, but almost no one ever took the latter option so it was retired after about two years.
• Sale of the Century:
  • The first 5 months of the 1980s NBC version had no cash jackpot as the final prize; the top prize was simply all six luxury prizes plus how much ever cash was needed to award the contestant exactly $95,000. Also, the target scores to win a given prize were significantly lower – for instance, only $390 was needed to win a Mercedes Benz sedan ... although contestants were rarely scoring more than $70 per game.
  • The first three weeks (15 episodes) of the 1985-86 syndicated version offered all the prizes and the cash jackpot for $830, and the car for $610. In addition, the contestant/ticket plugs and full credit roll were shown every night!
• Tattletales originally had jump-in questions which required the celebs to relate a story about their personal lives, interspersed with "quickie" questions which were multiple-choice. After a few months, it became all-quickies.
• Tic-Tac-Dough, if the 1978 CBS run could be counted, had a number of differences from its far-more famous syndicated run. Getting four X's and four O's resulted in a final tie-breaking question being asked to determine a winner; black boxes, which appeared upon category shuffling after both contestants have had a turn, allowed either contestant to ring in and respond, regardless of who selected that category; outside boxes were $100 and the center box was worth $200 (as opposed to the $200 and $300, respectively, on the syndicated series); and there was a different "Beat the Dragon" bonus game (basically, find the hidden Tic-Tac-Toe to win the prize package).
• Wheel of Fortune:
  • The earliest NBC daytime Wheel episodes have their own weirdness:
    • The "Buy a Vowel" space required contestants to buy a vowel at that moment, at a cost of $250, potentially bringing the contestant's score to a negative amount (multiple eyewitnesses have reported as such). If no vowels were available, the contestant lost his/her turn. And in spite of the wedge's presence, contestants were still allowed to buy vowels at their discretion anyway, making it entirely redundant.
    • Contestants almost always playing a puzzle out to the last letter (to gain as much money as possible to satisfy Lin Bolen's desire for "shopping") and so forth. By September 1975, the game had progressed to the point where it remained for the rest of the original daytime run.
    • Apparently, the first prize showcase of the day was selected by the winner of the first round. It's not exactly known the process, but one theory is that — based on Chuck Woolery's interaction with the first-round winning contestant — each contestant made his preference known prior to the show.
    • The rules for puzzle solving were less restrictive. The staff likely clamped down after they gave one contestant credit for transposing the first and third words of the puzzle TWEEDLEDUM AND TWEEDLEDEE.
    • The total value of the prizes up for grabs rarely exceeded $25,000 in the first few months.
    • Additionally, for about the first year of the show, as announcer Charlie O'Donnell was announcing the value of the prizes up for grabs on that show, the shot faded to an overhead shot of the wheel, with the camera zooming in as the show's logo appeared and a shot superimposed over the center area would eventually fade to host Chuck Woolery coming out. Also, Susan Stafford entered from stage right (from the viewer's vantage point, although this only lasted the first several months) before coming through the curtain as would be customary until the end of the original NBC run.
  • At least two, possibly no more than five, of the earliest nighttime syndicated episodes (from the fall of 1983) had prize budgets comparable to the daytime version. One of those episodes featured $55,000 in prizes just waiting to be won … but when a contestant named Cindy won $25,100 in a single round (on "THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA," guessing the P's and C's after landing on $5,000 each of those times) the producers got the hint that this is the nighttime show, we do like to feature longer puzzles and we do have a $5,000 space.
  • The earliest CBS-era episodes had a drastically-slashed prize budget, with the subcompact Subaru Justy (at just over $6,000) and $5,000 cash as the grand prizes. Regular-round bonus prizes were worth as little as $300. And of course, there were the $50 and $75 spaces during the first couple of rounds, spaces not seen since the earliest NBC daytime episodes. By the time Wheel was established on CBS, the value of the bonus prizes – both main game and bonus round – was upped somewhat (although not quite where it was for the last NBC daytime shows), and $100 was re-established as the lowest dollar amount on the wheel.
  • Through the early 1990s, the show itself was a far more relaxed game, with a typically mellower contestant base, very short puzzles, and few gimmicks; commercial breaks in between puzzles were not uncommon, either. Also, contestants spent their winnings in a "shopping" round that ate up a lot of time. Come the 1990s, the show became faster once the shopping rounds were ditched; many more new categories were introduced to bring thematic variety and longer puzzles; and many new gameplay elements were introduced.
  • Heck, as tied to the show as Pat Sajak and Vanna White are, the entire first six years with Chuck and Susan can be seen as weird. Even so, there are still a few old-school fans who prefer Chuck and Susan.
    • Pat's first year could be seen as Early Installment Weirdness for his tenure, since Susan Stafford was still there. To a lesser extent, the pre-syndication Pat/Vanna era could also apply, particularly since it still had the original Theme Tune and no "Wheel! Of! Fortune!" chant at the beginning.
    • The first set of shows ever taped on-location was done at Radio City Music Hall during Season 6. These possess some weirdness relative to the more contemporary road shows running from Season 7 through 32 (minus Season 8). First of all, the old sound effect package was still in use, predating the changes in the sound effect package at the start of Season 7; there was a flimsier Wheel constructed just for that set of shows; many unusually lavish prizes were offered that were not seen on the show again (such as a Porsche); a lot of the staging was different from later road shows (lots of odd camera angles, contestant backdrops were in different spots); and Don Pardo served as announcer for those two weeks (his only game show duty since the end of Jackpot in 1975). Also, for several years afterward, road shows experimented with staging and camera positioning repeatedly. For instance, until 1996, road shows usually put the bonus puzzle all the way at the top of the board instead of centering it, and occasionally the chyrons would be in a different font and/or color than normal.
  • The first season to use the Prize Puzzle was Season 15, which consisted of an eight-week test run on Fridays only, and had puzzles that directly described the prize. When it was brought back for Season 21, it occurred randomly for one episode per week, no longer described the prize directly, and occasionally offered something other than a trip. Only one season later, it became a daily fixture, and has offered a trip on all but one occasion since.
  • For their first season of use, the Toss-Up puzzles were both valued at $1,000, there were only two instead of three (one at the start of the show, one before Round 4), and there was no Split Screen, meaning that home viewers had no indication other than Pat's voice as to which contestant had just rung in. Also, they would sometimes take up three rows of the puzzle board even if the answer could fit on just two. After their first season, another one was added between the contestant interviews and Round 1, the values were changed to $1,000/$2,000/$3,000, and a split-screen was added so that viewers could see who had just rung in. (The $3,000 one became a "Triple Toss-Up" in Season 37, consisting of three consecutive $2,000 puzzles in the same category, with the third still determining who starts Round 4.)
  • When the Prize wedge was first introduced, contestants picked them up automatically, and then called a letter for the dollar value underneath. It also appears that for a short time, the wedge was not lost if the contestant hit Bankrupt. By 1990, the rules were changed to require a correct letter first, and the wedges were vulnerable to Bankrupt just like anything else.
  • According to sound clips from the few remaining early episodes and personal recollections, it appears that the "Speed-Up" round (used when time is running low) was timed for the first few months, and contestants were not allowed to call vowels for either part or all of the round. By the end of 1975, the time limit was dropped, and contestants were now allowed to call vowels for free during the Speed-Up. Also, until the beginning of the 21st century, it was not unusual for a game to end without a Speed-Up; since about 2002, all games end with one, most likely to increase the chances of a contestant getting to play at least a couple of turns.
  • Some of the categories have gone through this too:
    • Originally, the (now-defunct) lines of categories that offered a bonus for answering a question posed by the puzzle (such as "Where Are We?", where the puzzle described a place that the contestant could then idenfity for a bonus) were played differently. For the first few years, the next contestant(s) in line could play for the bonus question if the one who solved did not correctly answer the bonus question, but by 1995, only the contestant who solved got a chance. The only exceptions were the ill-fated "Megaword", and the occasional instance where a trivia question was tied to the answer instead of the category (for instance, a "Quotation" puzzle whose answer is a song lyric might be followed by a question asking for the artist who sang the lyric), where only the contestant who solved got a chance at the bonus question. The bonus also increased over time: initially $500 ($250 on the No Budget daytime version), it grew to $1,000, $2,000, and finally $3,000 before the line of categories was retired in 2008.
    • Originally, "Clue" could also describe people, fictional characters, or places as well as objects and concepts. The category was later split into "Who Is It?"/"Who Are They?" for people or fictional characters, and "Where Are We?" for places.
    • Typically, "Where Are We?" puzzles used three-part answers, but a few early puzzles used four, a couple used only one, and at least one used only two clues. Conversely, "Who Is It?"/"Who Are They?" used three-part puzzles for its first few months, but quickly downgraded to just one.
    • "Fill In the Blank" was originally an incomplete phrase that had a question mark in place of the missing portion (typically at the end but sometimes in the middle), with the bonus being awarded if the contestant provided the missing portion. By mid-1994, a second Fill In the Blank category arrived, which posed word puzzles similar to Tribond: three phrases (occasionally four) that all began or ended with an identical word (still using question marks for the missing portions), and the bonus was awarded for identifying the common word (for example: ? CITIES ? BROTHER ? -ENGINE AIRPLANE, where the missing word is "twin"). Both versions of Fill In the Blank were used interchangably for a few months until the older of the two was effectively renamed "Next Line Please" (which also omitted the question mark). Also, until mid-1995, "Fill In the Blank" was shown only as "Blank" on the chyron, even though the show previously had no problem with longer category names.
    • For the first few months of its existence, the "Star & Role" category was called "Person/Fictional Character". This change was likely made to include instances of actors and actresses portraying real-life people, as the puzzle GEORGE C SCOTT AS PATTON was categorized as "People" shortly before the name change.
    • Originally, "Same Name" (two names or phrases that are combined by ending in the same word, such as PICNIC & LAUNDRY BASKET) would always spell out the word AND, but when nearly every contestant called N-D-A first, it was traded out for an ampersand. Throughout the first couple years of the 1990s, it would occasionally involve three "names" (e.g. POKER POTATO & WOOD CHIPS). It shrank back to permanently using two in 1996.
    • For its first few years of existence, "What Are You Doing?" appeared far more sporadically than it has throughout The New '10s. Curiously, it also appeared in the Bonus Round twice during its first season of use, but took several years before returning there. Also, a few early uses of the category did not involve "-ING" endings, which are now the default for the category.
    • Initially, "Same Letter" (Added Alliterative Appeal: The Category) did not award a bonus if the eponymous Same Letter was uncovered. Somewhat relatedly, it appeared in Toss-Up rounds a few times during its debut season, but has not since.
    • Both Song/Artist and Title/Author flip-flopped between their inverse forms (Artist/Song and Author/Title) several times before settling on one.
    • "Food & Drink" was originally called "On the Menu", but this led to vastly inconsistent categorization if the answer was a food or drink item not necessarily found on a menu — just CABBAGE was still called "Thing", while HEINZ KETCHUP and ALMOND JOY^note a brand of candy bar were called "Around the House", and BIG GULP^note the trademark used by the convenience store 7-Eleven for a size of their fountain drinks was shoehorned into "On the Menu" anyway (something that Pat subtly called out the puzzle writers for on-air). As a result, the name of the category was changed for the sake of consistency.
    • In general, the category list has become increasingly specific over time. What would've been just a "Thing" early in the show's history could now be "Living Thing", "Around the House", "In the Kitchen", "Food & Drink", or even "What Are You Wearing?" in The New '10s.
• Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego
  • In some very early Season 1 episodes, Greg Lee does not take off his hat during round 1.
  • After round 2 ends during Season 1, the winning gumshoe would pull the cord after the chief shows the runners-up the consolation prize. And after the crook is captured, Greg and the winner are on the map round, where the contestant would write down his desired grand prize trip destination.
  • During the show's second season, the phone call from the crook would be used by different objects (Like a shoe, possibly a reference to Get Smart).
  • The map round during Seasons 1 and 2 had flags in place of markers. When the location is correct, the fluorescent light on the flagpole would light up.
  • In the earliest episodes, before giving each location during the map round, Greg would read a statement pertaining to said location.
  • Due to its large size, when the bonus round was played on the Asia map in season 1, Greg would point out specific geographic regions within the continent.
  • Different sound effects were used during Seasons 1 and 2: early season 1 episodes had sounds from Double Dare (1986) and Season 2 had sounds from Classic Concentration.
• What's My Line?:
  • The very earliest CBS episodes – among those that exist — show evidence of a work in progress:
    • A female model handing out blindfolds for the mystery guest segment (these were left with the panelists later on)
    • Panelists that would be seen as "what the hell" today: an ex-governor, a psychiatrist, a poet, and an entertainment columnist (although to be fair, the entertainment columnist, Dorothy Kilgallen, stayed on until her death 15 years later). Also, you'd also never see a book publisher be a headline panelist today, but Bennett Cerf became a household name this way.
    • A short skit featuring one of the contestants in a given setting, and the announcer saying "Do you know what this person does for a living?" ... followed by a quick spiel of three or four possible occupations, followed.
    • The contestants greeting the panelists to begin their segment, and each panelist allowed one "wild guess" as to their occupation.
    • Arlene Francis not appearing on the first episode, and Bennett Cerf not joining the panel on a weekly basis until the first year of shows were in the books. (Cerf, by the way, was another non-entertainment personality [his day job being running publishing company Random House], the rare one who gelled with the audience and had such superb gamemanship he'd appear on game shows, including Line until his death in 1971.)
  • The earliest syndicated episodes had a short monologue by host Wally Bruner which opened each episode, explaining in detail the concept of the series. By the late winter of 1969, this was dropped and Bruner – after greeting the audience and the obligatory pre-game chit-chat with the panel – went right to the game.

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