1966-69
NBC Game Show produced by
Bob Stewart after leaving
Goodson-Todman. Two contestants faced a board of nine windows in a 3x3 setup. The windows were opened, with the outer eight (numbered) showing answers, for eight (reduced to seven in 1967-68) seconds. Afterward, host
Bill Cullen read a question and the players had to find the window the answer was in; 10 points were awarded for a correct pick, and that player kept going until picking a wrong window.
If the player believed that the answer was
not among the eight shown, s/he said "Eye Guess" and the center window was revealed: the answer if correct, a blank space if wrong. The first to reach 100 points played the
Bonus Round.
While the entire run was destroyed (network practices of the era), from the surviving footage it's clear
Eye Guess ran on
Rule of Funny: the game wasn't taken too seriously, Bill and later announcer Jack Clark bantered at times and lobbed puns at each other, the home game plug used a
Password game at least once, and eventually a prize began to be awarded for four consecutive
wrong picks — both players got
a set of home memory-improvement courses.
- Bonus Round: Three were used.
- The first, only used for the first two weeks (January 3-14, 1966), involved eight sets of celebrity couples. Bill read a name, and the contestant had to find their spouse on the board. Each match awarded $25, and matching all eight won a new car (placed behind the "Eye Guess" spot on the board).
- The second iteration, introduced on January 17, simply had seven prizes of varying value on the board. The contestant continued to pick numbers until s/he found all seven (which also awarded the car) or found the "STOP!" card (which ended the game with all prizes accumulated up to that point).
- The last version, used from September 2, 1968 through the end of the run, replaced the prizes with "GO" cards and didn't use spaces 4-5. The player now won prizes of increasing value for each GO card, whereas the STOP! now took away their prizes; as such, the contestant could now quit at any point, although finding all six GO cards also awarded the car.
- Bonus Space: "Jack's Pot" (a cash jackpot) was added to the bonus round sometime between November 8, 1967 and about July 1968.
- Consolation Prize: During the second bonus round, picking the "STOP!" card first allowed that player to choose another number for a consolation prize.
- Home Game: Four were released, one per year. These were the only ones of Bill's career that had him on the cover. Oddly, the Fourth Edition retains the 1966-68 bonus game.
- Personnel:
- The Announcer: Don Pardo for the first year, Jack Clark for the rest.
- Game Show Host: The venerable Bill Cullen, a good friend of Stewart.
- Zonk: The STOP! card in the second bonus round. The third bonus round promoted it to Whammy.
This show provides examples of:
- Grand Finale: The very last bonus game (September 26, 1969) had Cullen encouraging the player to keep picking numbers. After the car was won, it was revealed that the STOP! card wasn't even on the board — Bill had it all along.
- Real Song Theme Tune: The theme during the first year was "Sugar Lips", by Al Hirt.
- Rule of Funny: The show's bread-and-butter, especially during the second bonus era.
- Spiritual Successor: Quicksilver on USA Network.
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