Say When!!

Host

Art James

Models

Ruth Halsey Emily Banks Gunilla Knudson Carolyn White Kristan Johnson Elizabeth Ames

Announcers

Wayne Howell Roger Tuttle (sub) Fred Collins (sub) Mel Brandt (sub)

Broadcast

Test Episode: 12/20/1960 NBC Daytime: 1/2/1961 – 3/26/1965

Packager

Mark Goodson/Bill Todman Productions

ANNOUNCER: "It's time to…" AUDIENCE: "SAAAAAY WHEN!!" ANNOUNCER: "(This portion of) Say When!! is presented by the NBC television network. Here's the host of Say When!!, Art James!"

Say When!! was 1960s game show where contestants picked prizes while trying not to go over a predetermined amount.

Gameplay

Two contestants picked off prizes from a group of four, with a new prize replacing each one that was chosen. At least one prize in each game was a "blank check", where a player could take between one and a stated maximum amount of cases/units of a given product.

For each prize selected, its value was added to the player's score. The goal was to have the total of all the prizes chosen to come closer to a set amount than his/her opponent without going over. Any player who exceeded this limit, roughly half the total value of the twelve prizes available in the current game, automatically lost the game. To prevent this from happening, a player in control could opt to "say when" (freeze) if he/she thought that none of the remaining prizes would keep him/her under the limit, forcing the opponent to beat the frozen player without going over the limit. If neither player exceeded the limit after all twelve prizes had been chosen, the player with the higher total won the game.

The winner of each game kept all of the prizes he/she chose, and the first player to win two out of three games won the match and faced a new opponent.

Peter Pan blooper

On an episode following the show's switch to color in 1964, James did a plug for Peter Pan peanut butter which progressed normally until he put a knife into the empty jar. Due to rehearsing the spot many times (including dropping the knife into the jar), the bottom of the jar was weakened enough that the knife went through the bottom of the jar to James' surprise and audience laughter.

He continued doing the commercial until the bottom of the jar came off, causing the commercial to derail shortly afterward.

Episode status

Due to wiping, only a few episodes exist: a test episode (taped 12/20/60), the fifth episode (January 6, 1961), a Friday show sometime between June 30 and September 15, 1961, and the Peter Pan blooper.

The blooper has appeared on various specials, including The Most Outrageous Game Show Moments and Game Show Moments Gone Bananas.

On September 27, 2020; an episode of this show aired on their 5th annual Lost & Found week on Buzzr.

Other Trivia

This was Art James' first game show as host, and his only one for Goodson/Todman Productions.

Gallery

Tickets

February 23, 1961

November 27, 1963

March 25, 1964

Merchandise

A board game based on the show was released by Parker Brothers in 1961.

Board game box

Advert for Say When!! and Number Please

Studio

NBC Studio 6A, New York City, NY

Australian version

The show ran in Australia from 1962 to 1964 on the Nine Network, hosted by Jimmy Hannan and produced by Reg Grundy. It was later revived as Spending Spree from 1971 to 1976, with the same network, host, and producer. The status of these versions is unknown.

Rating

Music

Carmen Mastren

YouTube Links

The full 1960 test episode
Intro
A full Friday episode from between June 30 and September 15, 1961:

• Part 1
• Part 2

The Infamous Peter Pan blooper (1964)