Bill Wendell announcing. You'd think it'd be produced in New York, hence Wendell did Letterman and some other New York based game shows. Those assorted colors might have triggered the idea for the set for "spin-off" hosted by Jim Lange a year later.
The challenging doesn’t fit. I say if an opponent buzzes, the letter caller gets three seconds to guess the word. If he can’t, then he who buzzed can answer to steal the money or if wrong, lose the amount. With this and lighting up some blanks to start each board, it could have been good.
I kinda see why this didn’t sell, but it could have been a fun show with a few tweaks. For example, I think revealing about 10 of the blanks at the start of each round would have sped up gameplay some. I would have done the scoring differently too, it was a little messed up that a player didn’t even have to get the answer right to collect the money if they weren’t challenged. I liked the bonus game though, kind of a cross between Wheel of Fortune and Scrabble.
Ralph Novak was a longtime movie and music critic at People magazine. He gave Charlie Sheen's movie "Cadence" a bad review, causing Charlie to send back a nasty response.
It's like a battleship or a minesweeper of a classic game show from 2/8/1974 on NBC. Bill Wendell was also an announcer for David Letterman (1978-1980) and (1982-1992) on NBC and on CBS (1993-1995).
i've always said that sometimes daytime network heads can't see a good show when it's staring them in the face there's been a few pilots wink has put up that i think could have sold as is or with a few modifications
1:13 - People Magazine mentioned - when they were just getting started! :D 19:17 - "In addition to the Encyclopaedia, you'll also receive the $100 we started you with..." Well, that's nice of 'em! :D
Man that production was rough. Revealing answers, revealing the wrong tiles because the row selection relied on rhyming letters, a host that didn't explain the entire "bid then challenge" conceit, obvious cuts, score changing between cuts without any in-game events occuring, missed musical cues, two different sets of rules in the endgame... Modern tech (for tile selection) would benefit this game. A tidier opening - taking out the joking with the contestants, and putting in a simple explanation of the challenge system - would help as well.
Yeah, nothing says "This is totally a professional operation and you should give us money," like accidentally revealing part of a four-letter answer, *and then ignoring it and continuing play*. Mistakes happen, but giving away answers and trying to cover it up isn't OK even for a pilot. By game 3 I was feeling way too much Schadenfreude about those seven blanks to start the game. BTW Dick Clark said one of the blocks once fell out of the *Pyramid* Winner's Circle board -- I really wish I could find that one -- so it's really not the mistake that's the problem, especially in that era.
This game ended up being a little too awkward for my tastes. It took a while to get used to the rules: one person picks a letter, but anybody can then buzz in (shouldn't the person who picked the letter get first chance to answer?); the "challenge" system wasn't very clear at first, and didn't add to the gameplay (are they trying to put in poker-style "bluffing" as a game mechanic?)
Definitely. As a poker aficionado I'm predisposed to any game that makes a good effort to use bluffing. However, they ruined it with a subtle but fatal flaw: Darrow keeps asking them to answer, even when there's no challenge. Imagine if, on every poker hand ending without showdown, the dealer asked the bettor to flip their hand over! This disincentivizes bluffing: people feel shame at getting caught, even though they shouldn't, and not answering the question is pretty close to admitting you were bluffing. So they've undermined the mechanism. It's surprising we even saw two bluffs in one episode, and you notice it's only the runaway winner who's doing it.
I found the same opening pilot music in this clip in another video of a Canadian children's TV series, "The Waterville Gang", which can be found at this site: ua-cam.com/video/XFZpQHAFtFc/v-deo.html (look for the music at 5:37; the music for the Canadian video was produced by Score Productions, Ltd.).
I like the set and Mike Darow’s hair. The gameplay relies too much on luck to find letters on the game board. After revealing ten blank spaces in a row, I’d want to run out of the studio. Perhaps if they had a DRAGON behind one of those squares for suspense....🙂 And I’m sorry, but that opening spiel “Letters into words....” is just so uninspired! But the rainbow set makes up for it! Thanks for posting this! It was great to see! Wonder if Wink has anything from another Art James game show...one of the most intriguing: The Magnificent Marble Machine!
I agree with both statements about the blank spaces...way too many; and the opening poem. I mean yeah, most letters work out to spell words. duh. I was also gonna complain about the clues and how vague they are, but on further thought; once you get the first word, it gets easier and the clues made sense. I'm also bummed cause I can't see the board so guessing the words is out for me. but that's a personal problem. I'd still like to have seen more of this game. It's very Jeopardy level, so maybe it could be revamped and put on one of the brainy network channels. Discover? BBC? One of those channels that hosts stuff like Masterpiece Theatre or The Actor's Studio (think that's what it's called).
It should've sold. I'd change the score displays to eggcrates or the modified eggcrates used on MoneyMaze. The bonus game should be changed though. It should be something like you get 4 letters that aren't next to each other. 15 seconds to guess.
I enjoyed playing along with this game but perhaps increasing the value of the questing would offset the disappointment of picking so many blank squares consecutively.
Thanks for sharing this Wink. I can see why this was not picked up as a series. Calling out blank squares is a waste of time and boring, looking for diagonal words is way too confusing, and the categories are way too difficult to be able to play along at home. I have a 4-year college degree, and I had to look up what the bonus word meant since I have never even heard of it.
It doesn’t help that Darow kept forgetting it was $50 in the second round, until he was told by the producer or a staffer (you can faintly hear a voice before he corrected himself). This pilot should have been edited to remove these obvious mistakes.
This is a February 1974 pilot episode of the American unsold game show "Money Words". The three contestants competing on this only pilot episode are Ralph, Helen & Dick. 🇺🇸 🇺🇸
“I’ll try ANTHRACITE.” Yes, it was on the tip of my tongue. Nobody without a degree in geology is going to get that word... unless they’d been given the answers beforehand. I realize pilots are scripted, but this show is missing the air of believability entirely.
Wow. This was...well...I'm not sure how I feel about this pilot. I would love to see more of this gameshow, but I'm guessing it didn't make it in any market. Too bad. I'm thinking Hellen is not so good at this game. Did she even guess a word? Wait, yes she did. She didn't challenge anyone. She played it safe and didn't win. Whereas Dick took all kinds of chances and also didn't win. Interesting. man, those consolation prizes are almost as good as winning the money! Maybe Hellen just came for the take home gifts.
What is it with all these game show pilots with returning champions? I like the concept, and it'd be a blast to play, imo, but that's a lot of dead air when they keep hitting blank after blank.
It's not a bad concept. Seems to be a bit flawed with ending the word at a buzz-in, as if you've built a big enough lead, it's too powerful of a means to end the game. I can understand ending the word if no one challenges, but it seems like the buzz-in could be easily abused. I would probably want to see tweaks before I would buy.
So they replaced Battleships with Words. What a borefest that was to watch. They should have used that board for a Crosswits clone instead. At least it would have been interesting.
This question has been answered before on different pilot videos. One way is that a show makes multiple pilots in order to sell the show. Another way is by making it up as in a plot for a story to build suspense to see if the returning champion will win more. The latter is generally the case, but is not always the case.
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Wow the theme in this pilot sure does sound really catchy for sure. Keep up the great work with these great videos.
That would be composer Edd Kalehoff, the King of the Moog synthesizer music.
@@tyrese3745I wish there was a clean version of the theme. sounds real good! of course I knew that was edd off the spot.
This is an interesting concept. It’s like battleship or minesweeper meets Now You See It. Keep em coming.
This certainly brings new meaning to the simpsons joke: "You sunk my Scrabbleship"
agreed
Darn it! You were only two years ahead of me on that joke lol
If this had made it, the kid in me would've been obsessed with that board😁
Oh yeah
Darrow was later the host of Jackpot (1985-88) in Toronto.
I like it when the color sections light up one by one.
Bill Wendell announcing. You'd think it'd be produced in New York, hence Wendell did Letterman and some other New York based game shows. Those assorted colors might have triggered the idea for the set for "spin-off" hosted by Jim Lange a year later.
Interesting idea, and I really like the theme!
I love the theme song to this show
It's also used in "Take 5", another unsold pilot.
Bill Wendell announcing, so it would suggest this pilot was shot in New York.
The challenging doesn’t fit. I say if an opponent buzzes, the letter caller gets three seconds to guess the word. If he can’t, then he who buzzed can answer to steal the money or if wrong, lose the amount. With this and lighting up some blanks to start each board, it could have been good.
I kinda see why this didn’t sell, but it could have been a fun show with a few tweaks. For example, I think revealing about 10 of the blanks at the start of each round would have sped up gameplay some. I would have done the scoring differently too, it was a little messed up that a player didn’t even have to get the answer right to collect the money if they weren’t challenged. I liked the bonus game though, kind of a cross between Wheel of Fortune and Scrabble.
The most British looking American game show production I’ve ever seen! Fascinating.
R.I.P. Mike Darrow ( A cross between Cross Wits and Scrabble)
This was back in the days Mike still had a nice head of hair (it thinned a little by the time he did "JackPot").
Ralph Novak was a longtime movie and music critic at People magazine. He gave Charlie Sheen's movie "Cadence" a bad review, causing Charlie to send back a nasty response.
Bummed. I loved Cadence. Charlie wasn't all that great in it, but the other actor's were fantastic including daddy Sheen.
It's like a battleship or a minesweeper of a classic game show from 2/8/1974 on NBC. Bill Wendell was also an announcer for David Letterman (1978-1980) and (1982-1992) on NBC and on CBS (1993-1995).
That was a challenging game, thank you for posting
I love this pilot. I do not see why it did not get picked up. Thanks for that Wink.
Maybe because literally like half the game is people picking blanks?
i've always said that sometimes daytime network heads can't see a good show when it's staring them in the face there's been a few pilots wink has put up that i think could have sold as is or with a few modifications
My sentiments exactly rodney.
1:13 - People Magazine mentioned - when they were just getting started! :D
19:17 - "In addition to the Encyclopaedia, you'll also receive the $100 we started you with..." Well, that's nice of 'em! :D
They inadvertently showed Amin
I can dig it; thank you, Wink! I hope you and Sandy are doing well!
You sunk my battleship
Crosswords meets Battleship!
Man that production was rough. Revealing answers, revealing the wrong tiles because the row selection relied on rhyming letters, a host that didn't explain the entire "bid then challenge" conceit, obvious cuts, score changing between cuts without any in-game events occuring, missed musical cues, two different sets of rules in the endgame...
Modern tech (for tile selection) would benefit this game. A tidier opening - taking out the joking with the contestants, and putting in a simple explanation of the challenge system - would help as well.
Yeah, nothing says "This is totally a professional operation and you should give us money," like accidentally revealing part of a four-letter answer, *and then ignoring it and continuing play*. Mistakes happen, but giving away answers and trying to cover it up isn't OK even for a pilot. By game 3 I was feeling way too much Schadenfreude about those seven blanks to start the game.
BTW Dick Clark said one of the blocks once fell out of the *Pyramid* Winner's Circle board -- I really wish I could find that one -- so it's really not the mistake that's the problem, especially in that era.
I wish someone would make this today because you’re absolutely correct
This kind of feels like it should have been on PBS or the BBC.
I was a 70's / 80s game show addict. Can't say this one impresses me much
I googled the winning contestant Ralph who worked for People magazine to see if he was still around. He passed away in 2021 at age 78.
This game ended up being a little too awkward for my tastes. It took a while to get used to the rules: one person picks a letter, but anybody can then buzz in (shouldn't the person who picked the letter get first chance to answer?); the "challenge" system wasn't very clear at first, and didn't add to the gameplay (are they trying to put in poker-style "bluffing" as a game mechanic?)
Definitely. As a poker aficionado I'm predisposed to any game that makes a good effort to use bluffing. However, they ruined it with a subtle but fatal flaw: Darrow keeps asking them to answer, even when there's no challenge. Imagine if, on every poker hand ending without showdown, the dealer asked the bettor to flip their hand over!
This disincentivizes bluffing: people feel shame at getting caught, even though they shouldn't, and not answering the question is pretty close to admitting you were bluffing. So they've undermined the mechanism. It's surprising we even saw two bluffs in one episode, and you notice it's only the runaway winner who's doing it.
This looks like one of those Canadian game shows considering the fact that Mike Darrow is originally from Canada.
I THOUGHT I recognized him from another game show. He hosted the 80's Canadian version of Jackpot.
I found the same opening pilot music in this clip in another video of a Canadian children's TV series, "The Waterville Gang", which can be found at this site: ua-cam.com/video/XFZpQHAFtFc/v-deo.html (look for the music at 5:37; the music for the Canadian video was produced by Score Productions, Ltd.).
It was also used in the unsold pilot, "Take 5".
I like the set and Mike Darow’s hair.
The gameplay relies too much on luck to find letters on the game board. After revealing ten blank spaces in a row, I’d want to run out of the studio.
Perhaps if they had a DRAGON behind one of those squares for suspense....🙂
And I’m sorry, but that opening spiel “Letters into words....” is just so uninspired! But the rainbow set makes up for it!
Thanks for posting this! It was great to see!
Wonder if Wink has anything from another Art James game show...one of the most intriguing: The Magnificent Marble Machine!
I agree with both statements about the blank spaces...way too many; and the opening poem. I mean yeah, most letters work out to spell words. duh.
I was also gonna complain about the clues and how vague they are, but on further thought; once you get the first word, it gets easier and the clues made sense.
I'm also bummed cause I can't see the board so guessing the words is out for me. but that's a personal problem. I'd still like to have seen more of this game. It's very Jeopardy level, so maybe it could be revamped and put on one of the brainy network channels. Discover? BBC? One of those channels that hosts stuff like Masterpiece Theatre or The Actor's Studio (think that's what it's called).
It should've sold. I'd change the score displays to eggcrates or the modified eggcrates used on MoneyMaze. The bonus game should be changed though. It should be something like you get 4 letters that aren't next to each other. 15 seconds to guess.
I enjoyed playing along with this game but perhaps increasing the value of the questing would offset the disappointment of picking so many blank squares consecutively.
Thanks for sharing this Wink. I can see why this was not picked up as a series. Calling out blank squares is a waste of time and boring, looking for diagonal words is way too confusing, and the categories are way too difficult to be able to play along at home. I have a 4-year college degree, and I had to look up what the bonus word meant since I have never even heard of it.
I can see why this show didn't last. It seems they had graphics problems. They wrongfully gave away an M at 6:35.
not really a graphic problem more so the person that is controlling the game board off stage accidently bumped the switch revealing that letter.
It doesn’t help that Darow kept forgetting it was $50 in the second round, until he was told by the producer or a staffer (you can faintly hear a voice before he corrected himself). This pilot should have been edited to remove these obvious mistakes.
Keep em coming Wink man!!! 😀 Hey maybe you can post some unearthed shows from The Magnificent Marble Machine if you can find them!!!
0:10 I can't seem to find a instrumental version of the intro song on YT At All so what is the name of the intro song?
Gone too long by edd kalehoff
This is a February 1974 pilot episode of the American unsold game show "Money Words". The three contestants competing on this only pilot episode are Ralph, Helen & Dick. 🇺🇸 🇺🇸
Sounds like Bill Wendell announcing.
Wheel of fortune meets scrabble
Take my hand and lead me back to the classic goodness!
“I’ll try ANTHRACITE.” Yes, it was on the tip of my tongue. Nobody without a degree in geology is going to get that word... unless they’d been given the answers beforehand. I realize pilots are scripted, but this show is missing the air of believability entirely.
Not necessarily true, I've known about anthracite since late grade-school, and I was raised nowhere near Coal Country.
Wow. This was...well...I'm not sure how I feel about this pilot. I would love to see more of this gameshow, but I'm guessing it didn't make it in any market. Too bad.
I'm thinking Hellen is not so good at this game. Did she even guess a word? Wait, yes she did. She didn't challenge anyone. She played it safe and didn't win. Whereas Dick took all kinds of chances and also didn't win. Interesting.
man, those consolation prizes are almost as good as winning the money! Maybe Hellen just came for the take home gifts.
A journalist from Chicago for a new magazine called People.
What is it with all these game show pilots with returning champions? I like the concept, and it'd be a blast to play, imo, but that's a lot of dead air when they keep hitting blank after blank.
So, what's next? Double Cross?
Keep up the great work! Can’t wait to see it.
Interesting game
The set gives me real Spin-Off vibes.
It's more like a Battleship/Scrabble mash up.
The music is 1970s groovy.
I really want to know what's the name of this song from moneywords.
This show's theme song is cursed
Technical glitches aplenty...LOL...or someone in the booth just had clumsy fingers. I love this concept though.
I can see why this was not picked up as a series. Not a good game show.
Trudeau and Meir were prime ministers, not heads of state
They all look so 70s
It's not a bad concept. Seems to be a bit flawed with ending the word at a buzz-in, as if you've built a big enough lead, it's too powerful of a means to end the game. I can understand ending the word if no one challenges, but it seems like the buzz-in could be easily abused. I would probably want to see tweaks before I would buy.
So they replaced Battleships with Words. What a borefest that was to watch. They should have used that board for a Crosswits clone instead. At least it would have been interesting.
Ok serious time get this on air now but increase the cash a bit and u defenatly got a winner
Sounds like a game of knowledgeable words.
I can see why this never sold. All the blanks make it pretty boring.
Also, it seemed too hard at first.
That format was weird. And the final word screamed LOSS right there.
If this is a pilot, how is there a returning champion?
This question has been answered before on different pilot videos. One way is that a show makes multiple pilots in order to sell the show. Another way is by making it up as in a plot for a story to build suspense to see if the returning champion will win more. The latter is generally the case, but is not always the case.
Scrabble and Crosswords Rip Off👎🏿👎🏾