User:Daniel Benfield/Bullseye Video Archive

September 29, 1980 - June 26, 1981/September 28, 1981 - June 25 [September 24], 1982 (390 episodes)

Bullseye, for its faults...I think it's a great show, in all honesty. It's not perfect, and I've seen some compare it unfavorably to The Joker's Wild, but hey...

Aside from early episodes having the $1,000 goal and the later ones being Celebrity Bullseye, the two seasons can easily be distinguished by the announcer: Jay Stewart in Season 1, Charlie O'Donnell in Season 2.

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. Footage ©1975/1979-82 Barry & Enright Productions/Sony Pictures Television and associated entities.

The First Attempts
Before Bullseye was off and running, a pilot was done in 1979 (possibly for NBC, not sure) with a somewhat-different Bonus Island that could pay off over $1,000,000 through doubling and redoubling (shades of Winning Streak, much?).

Before that, in 1975, there was the hey-wait-a-minute-that's-pretty-similar pilot Double Cross, hosted by Jack Barry in what I suspect was CBS trying to make amends for canning Joker in favor of a not-bad game that just got pre-empted a lot and...well, this thing.

Unsurprisingly, neither of these aired.
 * November 16, 1975 (Double Cross: open, partial front-game, and partial bonus round)
 * November 1979 (Bullseye: Gale {$13,000} vs. Scott, with Kei playing later)

Civilian Format
In November or December 1980, the front-game goal was upped from $1,000 to $2,000 with the money amounts per question increased. Sometime during the second half of Season 1, the threshold to win $5,000 at Bonus Island was dropped from ten to seven spins.

The show moved to Television City in January 1981, wrapping Season 1 in April and beginning Season 2 in July. Originally at Studio 31, they moved to 33 in August with the exception of January 1982 (back in 31) and wrapped taping in March '82.

Season 1 (September 29, 1980-June 26, 1981)
 * September 29, 1980 (#A1/Premiere: Royanne vs. Scott {same guy from the Pilot!}, with Capt. Scott playing later {taped 7/15/80, with slate!})

Season 2 (September 28-December 4, 1981)
 * December 4, 1981 (#B50/Civilian Finale: Judy {$7,150} at Lightning {continued from yesterday with two Bullseyes and $1,100 in the Pot}, then vs. Wemkea with Mike playing later; taped from USA on June 6, 1986, with commercials)
 * [The final game ends with $200 in the Pot...by running out of time, with no resolution. Jim only mentions the upcoming switch "on our very next show" before the intro, which makes it even more obvious that Celebrity Bullseye was a desperation move.]

Celebrity Format
For whatever reason, on December 7, 1981 the show was overhauled to be played solely by celebrities. That's fine (at least as a temporary thing), and keeping the idea of returning champs is a touch I've never seen before or since, but the pacing was just...so.......sssssslllllllllloooooooowwwwwwww. Mainly because the celebs played a best-of-three match, with the $2,000 goal remaining in each game.

Unfortunately, the front-game change affected Bonus Island horribly, as the prize package was removed. As a result, a celeb could win at least $4,000 in a match and then another $600 at Bonus Island...and yes, this actually happened at least once.

1981 copyright date
 * December 7, 1981 (#B51/Celebrity Premiere: Lynn Redgrave vs. Harvey Korman; taped from GSN's Feast of Favorites)
 * [Open shows Harvey, Lynn, F. Lee Bailey, Patrick Wayne, Greg Morris, and Gloria Loring.]

1982 copyright date
 * 1982 (Jerry Mathers {Match 2 - $6,700} vs. Tina Louise {$2,300}, continued from last time at the start of Game 3 with Arte Johnson playing later; taped from WOR, with commercials)
 * [Open shows Jerry, Tina, Dick Shawn, Linda Kelsey, Arte, Marcia Wallace, and Robert Mandan.]