User:Daniel Benfield/Not-For-Broadcast Theatre

Every once in a while, a show does something that's...well, weird, usually. This page covers the things the public was never meant to see – rehearsals and runthroughs, behind-the-scenes footage, gag reels, pranks, wrap tapes, test episodes, and so on.

Rehearsals, runthroughs, and behind-the-scenes footage for unsold pilots are on the Unsold Pilot Theatre subpage.

LEGAL STUFF SO I DON'T GET SUED: I'm only linking to these videos, none of which were uploaded by me, for the purposes of research and as a public record. All footage is copyrighted by their respective copyright holders, and I'm using that wording because there's way too many of them to list here.

Misc.

 * 1990 (CBS News "Bill Cullen File", a compilation of clips from The Price Is Right {9/11/64 ABC Primetime Finale}, I've Got A Secret {various}, Three On A Match {12/17/73}, and Hot Potato {12/1/83 Pilot} that was sent out to affiliates to put together their own reports on Bill's death)
 * [As an example, here's WCBS' edit/report (low audio).]
 * 1996 (Game Show Network Pitch Tape hosted by Pat Sajak, with some great behind-the-scenes clips of GSN's headquarters)

The below aren't exactly "legit" game shows, but have legit game show people involved. Arranged by date.


 * August 6, 1972 (What's My Perversion?, hosted by Jack Barry {Part 2}; panel is Pamela Mason, REGIS PHILBIN, Toni Holt, ROBERT Q. LEWIS; second half has horizontally-stretched video)
 * [More specifically, this is a What's My Line? parody from Woody Allen's film Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask).]
 * 1975-76 (The Bottom Line, a Mobil Oil Dealer film set up to look and feel like a game show, with Bill Cullen hosting!)


 * January 16, 1994 (The Prodigy Challenge, an infomercial for the Prodigy service designed like a game show, with Peter Tomarken and Charlie O'Donnell as host and announcer!; montage of behind-the-scenes footage and clips from the show)
 * [Done long before "the Internet" or "World Wide Web" became household names for computer users. Little is explained about the format, but it's clear from what's shown that three families competed to build up time for a bonus round, somewhat like Every Second Counts in that regard.]

A-M
Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak
 * December 2, 1985 (Test Episode: Ivana/Pat/Taylea/Ingrid/Linda vs. Howard/Brian M./Paul/Brian P./Larry)
 * [Uses a slightly different version of the logo from the 1984 pilots.]

Chain Reaction
 * 1987 (A blooper during Geoff's Missing Links game; has timecode)

The Challengers
 * July? 1991 ("Wrap Party Video", pretty much a mockumentary on the show's creation {not my kind of thing, sorry})
 * [The end of the video has the slate for the August 2, 1991 Finale.]

Concentration
 * April 25, 1987 (Classic Test Episode: Jim vs. Beverly, with Robyn playing later; has slate!)
 * [Aside from a few technical errors and the car game starting at 45 seconds, this really isn't much different from the early series episodes. Also, the second car round is missing, although that seems to be for thematic purposes so the episode is self-contained.]

Deal or No Deal
 * December 18, 2007 ("Make A Wish: Hannah Whitaker" - five-year-old Hannah plays a special 10-case game thanks to the Make A Wish Foundation, with several unusual events; has slate and timecode!)

Decades
 * Late 1995 (Clips of a New Year's Special {Pilot?} that may not have aired, taped on the Wheel of Fortune set!)
 * [I don't normally quote long YouTube comments, but in this case (whammy850) I'll make an exception since I think it's a good one: "WHY do the good ones have to die young?? Peter Tomarken was a true game show host. He owned it and he loved it. He didn't seem to have the goal of getting to something bigger and better. He wasn't just hosting a game show because he was inbetween jobs and needed work. This was his career. This was what he did. I can tell it about him by how he's fanboying about being on the set of WOF and actually getting to play with the wheel. Most of today's hosts either wish they were doing something else or have other careers that define who they are. None of them seem to have this kind of passion for hosting a game show."]

Double Dare (Nickelodeon)
 * July 27, 1990 (Family: "Old Timers" Special, with players including Harvey, Geoffrey Darby {the show's creator}, and Gerry Laybourne {then-president of Nickelodeon!}; has slate!)

Family Feud
 * 1987 ("Spotlight" reel on Ray Combs, including clips of his pilots)
 * 1989 (Behind-the-scenes clip of an intro {Puckett vs. ?}, including a shot of stagehands pulling out the "logo side" of the survey board; has a MySpace logo in one corner, the logo below it indicating that this was originally posted to said site before News Corp. took it over)


 * September 1988-May 1992 (Clips of Kyle Hunter hosting Fast Money during the Combs era {second clip is at :51})
 * [Before the Bullseye era, that much is clear.]
 * 2005? (International Sales Tape)

The Great Getaway Game
 * 1990 (Jim vs. Howard, neither of whom even buzz in for any questions...but there's a good reason, as Wink soon discovers; intro and most of gameplay)
 * [I don't normally quote long YouTube comments, but in this case (RSBtube4, series creator Richard S. Brockway) I'll gladly make an exception: "I was executive producer on "The Great Getaway Game" (I show up at the end of the clip in the red sweater). We were cranking out the shows one day and were about an hour ahead of schedule. Wink is the ultimate pro and could shoot as many as seven episodes in a single day! Anyway, since we had a few minutes of extra time, I thought it would be funny to play a practical joke on Wink and got everyone in the control room on board, including his beautiful and fun wife Sandy. We all knew that nothing bothered Wink on the set…except when a contestant wasn't up to the challenge. Wink wanted the shows to be fun to watch, and that only happens when smart contestants are playing the game. Anyway, I worked it out with both contestants ahead of time. They were in on the joke, and were told to never buzz in and not to answer a single question. Besides the "dumb and dumber" contestants, the other gag was that there was a "special message" for Wink up on the game board. Needless to say, this was a very memorable, fun moment during a long week of taping. The entire crew loved Wink and we had a great time working with him. Long live Wink!﻿"]
 * [On a side note, the man in the yellow sweater is (as a reply to Richard correctly guessed) Rick Sommers, the show's announcer.]

High Rollers
 * April 1988 (Rehearsal game on the final day of taping: full intro and other various clips)

Hollywood Squares
 * 1975? ("The Towering Squares", a skit from a Rich Little TV special {the pilot for a short-lived '76 variety series}, a parody of The Towering Inferno with the actual set, a bunch of regulars, and Peter Marshall himself)
 * [Okay, two things: one, I'm kinda-sorta fudging this one since it did air. Secondly...the fact that neither Peter nor the contestants seem the least bit concerned with what's going on, which gave me a "Creepypasta"-type feeling the longer this skit went on, especially since I'm pretty sure most productions wouldn't keep going if this kind of situation actually happened.]


 * 1999? (From a Dick Clark Bloopers special, outtakes of Tom Bergeron and Whoopi Goldberg doing a local promo for some Channel 3, mainly because one of said station's news anchors is named {and I swear I'm not making this up} Rikki Cheese)

Information, Please!
 * 1940! (One of several radio episodes filmed for use as theatrical shorts during the 1939-42 period, although this is the only one that seems to exist)

Jeopardy!
 * Early 1985? (Season 1 rehearsal game hosted by Mark Richards, with RANDY AMASIA as a contestant!)
 * [Randy would be a contestant on the normal show during the second half of Season 2. Also, Mark has definitely improved since Starcade; it's a shame he seems intent on shoehorning the "either-or" Q&A format into the game shows he does himself, though, since he clearly seems to be more comfortable with a game that doesn't rely on that (or, in the case of Starcade, a knowledge of video games).]
 * 1984-85 (Another Season 1 rehearsal game, also hosted by Richards)


 * June 18, 1990 (Outtakes from a Phone Jeopardy! promo shoot, with Alex Trebek swearing like a sailor {and no, he's not drunk – it's Diet Coke and a glass of water}, viewer discretion is strongly advised)

Let's Make A Deal
 * 1990 (Compilation of clips and behind-the-scenes stuff from the Disney/MGM Studios Live!-esque version of the show, using the same set as the actual program)

Make Me Rich!
 * 2011? (Audience warmup by David Nelson Taylor)

Match Game
 * 1998 (Behind-the-scenes footage, uploaded by announcer Paul Boland)

Merv Griffin's Crosswords
 * 2007 (Behind-the-scenes video/Sales Tape; gotta love how they try to make it seem like the show isn't broken and lame)
 * [Both this and the below are from early on, with the "trip shelves" on the front-row podiums.]
 * 2007 (Extra report on the show, with Mark McGrath and Deyna Devon playing the game; yes, really – the show had two celebs playing the game for fun, but refused to have celebrity games during the actual run...seriously?)
 * [Interestingly, by all indication a full (well, full-ish; no Spoilers here) show was taped with these two. The one time Crosswords had the game played by celebs...and it wasn't meant to air.]

The Million Second Quiz
 * 2013 (Behind-the-scenes rehearsal footage)

Minute to Win It
 * 20?? (Audience warmup by Jay Flats)

N-Z
Name That Tune
 * 1976 (39-minute self-parody where everybody gets into the raunchiness!; first few seconds missing {alternate copies: Bid-A-Note; most of show, has a more complete intro but missing last three segments})
 * [WARNING: Strong language and sexual references, plus a whole lot of other very weird stuff. Not for all ages, for obvious reasons. Viewer discretion is strongly advised.]
 * 1992? (International Sales Tape, with clips of the unsold Peter Allen pilot...although oddly, there's no clips of the Tom Kennedy era)

Now You See It
 * November 27, 1974 (Test Episode #3: Susan {$1,000} at Solo Round, then Gordon vs. Helen with Donna and Diane playing later {Solo Round starts at $14,000}; Buzzr broadcast, video glitches at a couple points during first five minutes)
 * [Last of three test shows for this format. All three also had the Bonus Word, but in the end they just opted to throw said element out upon the format change.]

Password
 * June 11, 1979 (Plus #111: Elaine Joyce & George Peppard; Steve {$8,100} at Alphabetics, then vs. Nancy with Peppard going off on NBC's Standards & Practices; taped from GSN, with credit crunch {alternate copy of George's rants, same source})
 * [Shelved thanks to George's rants, specifically at 7:52 and 14:06 (although the puzzle between said rants having its first two words be "Blow" and "Suck", plus a guess of "Deep Throat", probably didn't help matters). To compensate for the unaired show and the fact the subsequent week (with Sarah Purcell and Bill Anderson) aired Friday-Thursday, the week after that (with Judy Norton-Taylor and Robert Walden) had six episodes taped.]


 * 1980s (Super: Outtakes; profanity by Bert Convy censored by an "OOPS!" graphic cutaway added long after the fact)
 * 1980s (Super: More outtakes; Tom Poston flipping off a staff member {yes, really} censored by an "OOPS!" graphic cutaway added long after the fact)

People Are Funny
 * 1955 (Gag reel of outtakes and goofs while trying to film ads for co-sponsor Paper-Mate {one notes Mother's Day is May 8}, some of which have Art Linkletter!)

Press Your Luck/Whammy!
 * April 17, 1984 (#150: Joe/LaVerne {Day 2 - $9,895}/Diana, the first take with some awkward/funny/awkwardly funny moments; said take is aborted soon after the fourth question is read, but for a pretty good reason... {full second take, with Peter making a brief reference to the first})
 * August 1985 (#500!/Back-To-School Week, Day 1: Jacquie/Matt/Roxy, not aired by CBS or USA!; taped from GSN in Summer 2004)
 * [Per the GSN schedules, this was the 500th episode...and it didn't air on CBS.]
 * 2003 (John Ricci/Lisa/Chris "Mr. Game Show" Colbourne; rehearsal game on the final day of taping, hosted by Mandel Ilagan! {alternate copy})

The Price Is Right
 * 1961 (Message by Bill Cullen to dealers and salesmen of Newport Cigarettes, likely after an episode given the player displays visible behind him)
 * Late October-Early November 1975 (Johnny Olson warmup prior to the taping of #1685D {aired 11/21/75}; audio only)


 * September 1988-May 1992 (Clip of Kyle Hunter hosting the end of Spelling Bee {kinda flatly, as it turns out})
 * [Turntable still has its green wall borders and green carpet, which were replaced by the gold borders and red carpet on May 27, 1992 (#8453D).]
 * March 15, 2004 (Clips of the rehearsal for #2861K {aired 3/29/04})


 * 2004-07 (Clip of Brandon Shaw, specially done for his Bar Mitzvah)
 * [Per the uploader, Video Services Un-Limited, Brandon "got his dog from Bob Barker's foundation and that was our in." The Showcase podiums are visible behind Bob, suggesting that this was done after a taping (or, somewhat less likely, during the next-to-last commercial break of one).]
 * 2005 (Short clip of what Bob sees when he walks out {minus the audience, cameras, etc.}, from a Season 34 taping day)
 * 2005-06 (Clip of a backstage Half Off light test before a Season 34 taping)
 * 2006-07 (Short clip of the stage following a Season 35 taping)


 * November 2006 (Rich Fields' warmup during Season 35)
 * [Rich talks about Dancing with the Stars, noting that Joey [Lawrence] got voted off, then asks the audience for their thoughts on whether Mario [Lopez] or Emmitt [Smith] should win, putting this between November 8 and 15.]
 * Early 2013 (Behind-the-scenes time-lapse by Drew of a taping, with various cameras getting unorthodox shots of various set pieces)
 * Early 2016 (Behind-the-scenes time-lapse from the show's official channel)

Pyramid
 * December 30, 1974-January 3, 1975 ($10,000: Adrienne Barbeau & Tony Randall; uncensored clip of Tony flooring Dick!)
 * [Per the uploader (Craig Shemin), "This has been in my collection for many years. I think I found it on a compilation reel of outtakes that was never commercially distributed. I don't have the whole show.﻿"]
 * 1979 ($20,000: 8mm footage by an audience member of at least one episode with Sandy Duncan and Nipsey Russell {aired the week of April 9-13 or December 17-21}; no audio)
 * July 29-30, 2012 (The Pyramid: Rehearsal footage)

Russian Roulette
 * 200? (International Sales Reel, with the entire second half consisting of clips from the American version!)

Sale of the Century
 * 1982 (Sales Presentation, with clips of the original American version, the British version, and {primarily} the Australian version; first two seconds missing)
 * [While the pitch notes the original NBC series, the clips appear to be from the 1973-74 syndicated version, which was post-NBC and is never mentioned here. (For that matter, neither is original Sale host Jack Kelly, who was replaced by Joe Garagiola in April 1971.) On another note, I'm pretty sure the heavy focus on the Aussie version is partly because it was the look and format the new American version was going to go with.]

Split Second
 * 197? (One {male}/Two {female}/Three {female}; partial Round 2 of a rehearsal game, hosted by Jack Clark!)
 * [First question in the clip is to give relevant Ronald Reagan facts for three displayed "clues". The third is "1ST GOVT. OFFICE", specifically Governor of California, which he held from the start of 1967 through January 6, 1975. As far as I can tell, this is the only thing in this footage which could conceivably narrow the timeframe down.]

Take It All
 * 2012 (Behind-the-scenes clip from the first taping)

Trump Card
 * 1990? (Tommy Mazza doing an audience warmup by singing)

Wheel of Fortune
 * August 1988 (Clips of Tim Brando's audition to replace Pat Sajak as host of the daytime version, done on the nighttime set: David/Jennifer/Ellen)
 * August-November 1988 (Clips of M.G. Kelly's audition to replace Pat, done on the daytime set)
 * April 26, 2012 (#MDI-1/"The LOTTERY EXPERIENCE Game": Mary/Eric/Guy, with a unique Prize wedge, the rarely-used "$1,000 bill" Gift Tag, and an onscreen Bonus Round timer among several other oddities)
 * July 28, 2013 (Clip of Vanna talking to the audience before taping the 9/24/13 episode)
 * July 28, 2013 (Audience-view clip of Round 3 from the above show, including an informational video before said round that was removed from the broadcast version)

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
 * February 6, 2004 (Play It!: Full episode {Part 3}; audio only)
 * August 10?, 2006 (Play It!: The final Million-Point winner!)
 * [The host notes that the show is closing in nine days.]
 * August 19, 2006 (Play It!: Finale {alternate copy of several minutes})
 * 2007 (Outtake from Tom Bergeron's guest-hosting stint)

You Bet Your Life
 * April 7, 1952 (Behind-the-scenes film shown to a gathering of DeSoto-Plymouth dealers)

[The below are "stag reels", compilations of moments they, for the most part, couldn't air.]
 * 1950-61 (The full outtake reel, comprising all of the below and running nearly 90 minutes!)


 * 1950-52 (Seasons 1-3)
 * 1953-55 (Seasons 4-5)
 * 1955-56 (Mostly from Season 6, including a clip from a $2,500 jackpot episode and another mentioning Shrove Tuesday being "next February 14")
 * 1956-57 (Mostly from Season 7, with a moment where the Secret Word Duck lands right on George Fenneman's head!)
 * 1958-59 (Mostly from Seasons 8-9, with a Batten, Barton, Durstine, and Osborn Agency gag plus a replay of the aforementioned Secret Word Duck clip)
 * 1959-60 (Season 10, including some jokes directed at the Quiz Show Scandals)
 * 1960-61 (Mostly from Season 11)