Las Vegas Gambit Part 1
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- In June 1980, NBC cancelled Heatter-Quigley's flagship show The Hollywood Squares and the revival of High Rollers in favor of a 90-minute (later 60) talk-variety show hosted by future late night icon David Letterman. When Letterman's effort failed miserably after a four-month run, the network obviously decided to make amends to the packager by reviving Gambit.
Plugging the show in at 10 a.m./9 Central, NBC found out, however, that many affiliates would not give the show a chance, due to the increasing popularity of syndicated talk shows like Donahue and Hour Magazine, which station managers thought would draw larger audiences (and, more importantly, larger local advertising revenues) than NBC offerings. Further, even though CBS ran sitcom reruns against Las Vegas Gambit, many of their stations carried those aforementioned syndicated offerings and often won their markets with those, instead of the network feed.
Las Vegas Gambit lasted 13 months. Over the next several months, NBC would rid itself of all the other games on its daytime schedule except for Wheel, which became NBC's sole daytime game show until January 1983.
I was very little when LV Gambit aired. I remembered the second bonus round, which was the Big Numbers taken from High Rollers. Not only Wink was the master of the cards, but was the Man With the Action when he hosted the revived High Rollers.
Las Vegas Gambit is the final production by Heatter-Quigley, Inc.
After that, Merrill Heatter formed his solo production company with his first production Battlestars, while Filmways (later Orion) who owned Heatter-Quigley, formed Century Towers Productions, with only three productions, one is a show on NBC called Just Men!, the other two were 1980s revivals of existing Heatter-Quigley shows Hollywood Squares and High Rollers in first-run syndication.
After the finale, Casino was officially planed to premire next week, But unfortunetly, The series was completely produced 9 episodes and never got picked up.
Las Vegas Gambit premiered on 10/27/80 along with Blockbusters. This last show of the series was a rerun, with Wink telling us it's the last show via picture in picture.
I don't know why I always swore in my mind growing up that Wink was always asking Johnny Olson to read the prize descriptions on this show.
Lee Menning, the hostess on Las Vegas Gambit would also be the hostess on Sale of the Century a few years later.
This was a great show. I'm glad it's up for all of us to see. I must say though, I have a feeling Wink wasn't too upset about the show's cancellation. He was commuting from Los Angeles to Las Vegas every week being he was hosting Tic Tac Dough at the same time this show was on.
Naw. I wish I can have this and other old school game shows like this on my mp3. It will make my commute less stressful. :)
Haha. That's funny, because I was a toddler too when this first aired!! I was born in May 1976, and that meant when Las Vegas Gambit aired, I was barely even 4 years old!! It ended in July 1981, which was before I even went to kindergarten. Somehow though, even at age 4, I knew the concept of the game, and I knew if you went over 21, you busted out. I'm amazed I knew this at age 4 because I have Autism. I loved Wink Martindale's High Rollers in 1987-88 too!
Preston
Catch 21 isn't great but I am glad they did a revival of Gambit again. it's a very good concept. Simple. Easy to convey. Exciting.
The Tropicana, eh? Currently it is the home of "Let's Make a Deal" with Wayne Brady on CBS.
At the tender age of 4, not only was I watching Las Vegas Cambit (and understanding how it was played!!), but I was also watching other
game shows, like Martindale's Tic Tac Dough and Jack Barry's Joker's Wild. I did not like the buzzing sounds when the contestant got answers wrong though, it scared me so much one time I scraped my thigh against the wooden table I was sitting around!! LOL. On the other hand, at age 5, I knew where a lot of towns were in California that many 35 year olds don't!
@johnissoevil It's not Johnny Olson. The announcer is Kenny Williams.
@disneyfan81 I know. But for some reason, I had always thought I remembered Johnny announcing this show (I was only 4 at the time)
Was this version of Gambit shown in Chicago at the time?