Trivia / Split Second (1972)

• Foregone Conclusion: According to one recollection, the original version knew the end was near, when the questions started getting easier, and they started having trouble with the equipment. This was elaborated on further in one episode when the equipment failed to operate, and Tom Kennedy said "Welcome to Split Minute".
• He Also Did: Future The Fall Guy and Night Court star Markie Post started her career working on the production crew of the Tom Kennedy version; later producing the Alex Trebek version of Double Dare (1976) and finally serving as a card turner on the Jim Perry version of Card Sharks.^note The latter shows produced by Mark Goodson; whose production company Post worked for before her career took off.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes:
  • The ABC version has been destroyed, like many of its peers on said network at the time. For many years, only two episodes circulated, both from 1975: May 8 (multi-time game show contestant Marvin Shinkman's fifth and final day), and the June 27 Grand Finale. In September 2008, a very early episode (May 24, 1972) surfaced as a black-and-white copy, followed in July 2009 with the preceding three shows (May 19 and 22-23). In June 2013, clips of the show's 1971 pilot surfaced on YouTube, which was followed that September by a clip of a circa-1974 rehearsal game hosted by announcer Jack Clark. In January 2016, two episodes surfaced, this time from 1974; like the '72 shows, these were also in black-and-white, with the first show missing its final segment.
  • The syndicated version is far easier to come by these days. Canadians can see it on GameTV as of December 2013, while Buzzr started rerunning it in September 2019.
  • All of the aforementioned ABC-era footage, as well as about 20 or so episodes of the syndicated run, are on YouTube.
• No Budget: The dollar values for the Monty Hall revival were rather paltry, even for 1986; the three contestants' combined scores rarely reached $2,000 on a good day.
  • Despite the Robb Weller pilot never making it beyond the pilot, it fares even worse in this regard. It maintains the same scoring system as the Hall version ($10-$25-$50/$20-$50-$100), which is outright embarrassing.^note For contrast, the Dick Clark-hosted The Challengers oft had single-episode payouts over $50,000. However, the set, as seen in the link, could be perfectly reproduced today for less than the show's daily prize budget.
  • The GSN version plays for points (25-50-100/50-100-200), and the winner of the Countdown Round receives a flat $1,000.
• No Export for You: For whatever reason, 20 episodes of the Canada-taped 1986 run did not air in America. Buzzr used the American edits of the episodes, and the episode numbers reflect where in the run the US airings fell, confirming the skips.
  • The first 18 episodes were completely passed over, meaning the American run started off with the debut of the purple podiums... and a returning champion, acknowledged as such. Split Second wasn't the only syndicated mid-80s game show to start in the middle of a champ's run, but those at least edited their "debut" to mask that fact.
  • The other two skips were the last episode with the first format, and the first with the second format... which means Americans not only saw a completely different format pop up out of nowhere on Monday, but a completely different champion as well. Even more confusingly, Monty also made a point about the new champ's exciting victory on "yesterday's" show.
• Screwed by the Network: Kind of- the show's ratings began slipping thanks to their lead-in, Password, going with a ton of gimmick weeks and eventually All-Stars, and in turn this show's rating were dragged down too. The 1986 version, meanwhile, was yet another syndicated game that expired quickly due to a lack of good timeslots and stations that carried it.

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