Starring | |
Bernard & Claire Boiko | |
Release | |
October 2, 2014 | |
Packagers | |
Game Show Dynamos LLC Winning Pictures |
Game Show Dynamos is a documentary film about a married couple who tries to get their family out of debt by winning on game shows.
Premise[]
A married couple named Bernard and Claire Boiko who won enough money on various game shows to escape debt and follow their dreams. From Tic Tac Dough in 1956 to Jeopardy! in 1967 to Trivial Pursuit in 1993, they competed on national television 28 times as the longest-running record of individual TV game show appearances by a husband and wife team in the world.
SYNOPSIS[]
Game Show Dynamos is a documentary film that tells the true story of Claire and Bernard Boiko who have appeared on more game shows over a longer period of time than any other couple in American History. They each separately appeared on Tic Tac Dough in 1956 and 1957 and got their family out of debt. They garnered appearances on 10 different shows (6 each)which were very different in terms of knowledge and strategy from the 50's to the 90's. The film was produced and directed by documentary filmmaker,their daughter Patricia Boiko.
The film begins with the Boikos individually being introduced to over half a dozen different audiences followed by the title screens of about 30 different game shows, all while a narrator states, “These are my parents, their love affair with game shows and each other lasted almost five decades.” As we learn that the narrator is both the filmmaker and their daughter she continues, “I’m trying to understand how my parents each got to appear on so many game shows despite being so…..different. They were worlds apart from their families and each other.”
The audience then follows Claire and Bernard on a journey from their unlikely meeting to their even more unlikely marriage to their game show successes.
Claire was a struggling actress in New York whose biggest gig at the time was being a stand-in for Rita Hayworth in Hollywood. Bernie was a college dropout who had enlisted in the army after World War II. Their first meeting was a bit of foreshadowing because even though it was their first time meeting, Bernard asked Claire to marry him, and since it was their first time meeting, Claire rejected his marriage proposal. Obviously their story did not stop there though. Claire's acting career eventually evolved into writing and directing plays when she joined the civilian branch of the Army and went overseas to produce soldier shows in Japan where Bernie was stationed. While doing plays for the troops she was able to get to know Bernard better and they eventually did get married while they both were still in Japan.
They came back to the U.S. after Bernard’s tour of duty and got started on building a family. Bernie received money from the G.I. Bill, got a bachelor’s degree, and started his dream career of being a history teacher. Claire became a homemaker and switched from focusing on acting to playwriting. The Boiko’s growing family (they would eventually have five children) took an immediate financial toll on the couple. Despite both of them being college educated professionals their jobs did not pay them enough to cover all of their needs, and they were in perpetual debt. That led to them exploring game shows, a new phenomenon at that time, as a possible option to help solve their money problems. They began watching game shows on television, noticing commonalities among contestants, and figuring out how they could get on a game show themselves. They learned how to present their life experiences in a way that show producers called a “hook”, something peculiar that makes you look interesting and unique. Soon after learning how to present their life experiences as a “hook”, the Boiko's began their game show run, appearing on half a dozen shows each, the longest of any couple. In addition to being contestants on shows like Jeopardy!, Press Your Luck, Concentration, Trivial Pursuit, and To Tell the Truth, they also played a small role in the infamous Quiz Show scandal of the 50's, with Claire meeting the contestant at the center of the scandal, Charles Van Doren, on a game show set one day, and Bernie actually having to testify before the same grand jury as Van Doren.
Over the course of four decades Claire and Bernard were able to use their game show success to ease their financial woes, buy a house, and raise their five children who all grew up to become college graduates with advanced degrees. One of those children directed Game Show Dynamos, in a sense bringing the Boikos’ story full circle.[1]
References[]
Links[]
Official Website
Distributor site