As an aspiring game show producer, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that Jack Barry is my biggest inspiration. With the possible exception of Merv Griffin, nobody made quiz shows as exciting & fun as he did. Tic Tac Dough, Twenty One, Bullseye, & The Joker's Wild rank high among my all-time favorites. TJW & TTD are two shows in particular that I would bring back in a heartbeat if I could.
Mr. Jack Barry was a very great game show host that knows how to defeat "The Devil" on The Joker's Wild back from the old days. He did announce his retirement from television due to his health issues until he died from cardiac arrest. Also, He was a very great co-creator of his favorite game show as a innovator of The Joker's Wild.
Thank you, Wink! I miss Jack and was hoping to find some sort of interview with him, and finally came across this one. Been a game show fan all my life and secretly wished I was a host someday, but I'd be camera-shy; it would never work. Still, I can dream..
Hey Wink, this is Rohan. I’ve been a huge fan of game shows growing up. I’ve been watching them and to date, I still watch. I’d like to be a game show host someday!
The taping of Hot Potato (since "gone celebrity") that day was a tense one for various reasons & I think no one onstage was made aware of the news until after the episodes were in the can.
Jack Barry along with Dan Enright would give us Break the Bank with Tom Kennedy, The Joker's Wild, The Hollywood Connection, The NEW Tic Tac Dough, Play the Percentages, Nipsey Russell's Juvenile Jury and my personal favorite BULLSEYE
i mean you were lucky to have such great boss at that time and yes Jack Barry will be still be missed forever but his spirit will anyways still be there in our hearts
In the wake of Jack Barry's death, director Richard S. Kline and several Barry & Enright staffers (including "Judge Von" Eric Warner) left the company to start up Kline & Friends; for their first two shows "Break The Bank" and "Strike It Rich", they even salvaged from B&E's junkyard: the computer from the failed "Twenty-One" pilot as the Number Jumbler, set pieces and monitor/LCD displays from Hot Potato, and sound effects from Tic Tac Dough (the category reveal and shuffling), Joker's Wild, and even Play The Percentages (when a "0" is hit in the bonus round).
Yes, Jack was a great game show creator, producer, and host. It's a shame that the sponsors, essentially, forced him and Dan to rig "Twenty-One". It was a very solid format. As good as its 2000 revival was, I would have liked them to keep the original rules of losing points for a wrong answer and the UNIQUE margin-of-victory based payout. That is, adjusted for inflation. However, they likely had to run it like they did to compete with "Millionaire". If possible, I would definitely revive the show. Thanks, Wink, for sharing this good material with us.
Every show has its flaws, and 21 certainly does. With the loss of points, the game being drawn out was exposed, hence leading to the rigging. And it's not like you can edit, either, because of the way the points can sway. Sure, you could make the questions easier as in the 80's pilot, but you still have the same problem. As for the payout structure, in order to win anything substantial, you have to depend on not only yourself being good, but your opponent being terrible. And let's face it, 21 was always a response to a big money show (even in the 50's), so it wasn't about the questions or the games, but the money. The 2000 version did well with what it could, but it just doesn't have that longevity, especially when it has always been beneath the shadows of The $64,000 Question or WWTBAM.
See, this is what has always bothered me: they could have said no. I am in awe of their talent, but for Jack to say "everyone was doing it" and "the sponsors made us do it" is unacceptable. Jack Barry and Dan Enright had an exceptional amount of talent, producing, creating and, in Jack's case, hosting. Very few game show hosts have ever been able to connect with people the way Jack did. They could have made things work without cheating.
I remember as a child watching Jack Barry host the T.V. show Winky Dink whereby children would put a transparent plastic screen on their television set and they would use a marker to save the cartoon character Winky Dink from danger.
To me, even though Bill Cullen did a good job hosting the Joker’s Wild after Jack Barry’s passing, to me, the show died when Jack Barry died. Rest in Peace Jack.
Jack and Dan were able to come back after the quiz show scandals with Joker's Wild and then Tic Tac Dough, which you hosted. The movie Quiz Show was very good showing their early years.
I still keep the Television series on video tape today even making a DVD copy for personal use. I wish they would do an update of it. I found the book at a used book store years ago and hung onto it as well. It's interesting that when the Twenty One version was re made in 2000 (thanks to the popularity of Who Wants to be a Millionaire) that the show didn't stick and had some strange elements to it that should have been dropped such as having the audience decide who the next contestant should be using the same electronic idea that Millionaire used. Even the idea of using an orchestra for the game show (rather than the usual electronic mixes) seemed pretty dated and over the top. Maybe it was just a boring show by design. I was still a big fan of the show. Thanks to You Tube, today we see how the rigging worked in the 1950s with the differences in how the daytime and night time versions of Tic Tac Dough were produced (daytime wasn't rigged while the night time version was and these are certainly not to be confused with Wink's version that ran very clean twenty years later). After watching the movie Quiz Show, It is hard to believe that viewers couldn't tell if something fishy was going on even before the investigation happened since there was a great deal of bad acting going on. After watching the shows it appears very obvious today.
Tim Babcock I think when people were watching a TV game show back in the 50s and seemingly they were all rigged at the time, it is easy now looking back at it and say oh for sure but when all of the shows were rigged I would guess that they all coached or taught how the contestants to act because if from what I have seen the 21 episodes and the tic tac dough as well as the $64,00 question all of the contestants did the same thing, heavy breathing, wiping there forehead, taking there time, so when your watching and you see this with tv still in its infancy stages people watching or even people watching live are like man it must be so nerve racking for those poor people I couldn't imagine, I think I read somewhere that one of the episodes of 21 still to this day is one of the highest rated or most watched show in television history.
WEWS TV-5 in Cleveland aired promotions for their 11PM news all evening, "Someone whose show airs here on TV-5 has died. We'll tell you who at 11." The next day and for several days thereafter, before each Joker show, local station personality Fred Griffith was featured in a short taped speech announcing Jack Barry had died. He said that because Joker was taped several months in advance, Jack Barry would continue to be seen for a long time to come.
I grew up in Cleveland and don't recall it airing on 5 at all. I recall moving to Beachwood in 1978 shortly after my youngest brother was born. Sometime during the spring or early summer, my parents took us to see the house they would eventually buy. Since I'm a game show nerd, the only thing I recall from that day is walking into the family room and seeing Jack Barry hosting Joker's Wild... but in 1978, it was definitely on Channel 8. At least that's what I remember. It WAS almost 40 years ago, and I admit I could be wrong. :)
You are right about your remembering The Joker's Wild being on channel 8. Later, some time after 1978, tegh show moved to channel 5 WEWS before being replaced by Jeopardy to accompany Wheel Of Fortune at nights. As I recall, channel 8 wanted to air Mary Hartman Mary Hartman and took Jack off to make room.
I remember TJW airing on WEWS-TV here in cleveland when i was in grade school it would come on around 7:30PM i think it was early or late 1984 i think this before Alex Trebek made his debut as host of the show
"TJW" was replaced by "Jeopardy!" on WEWS at 7;30 p.m. in the 1984-85 season. I believe The Joker's Wild and Tic Tac Dough were moved to either WUAB or WCLQ for the 1984-85 season and then onto WBNX for the final season in 1985-86.
I don't know how to feel about Jack's comments @ 3:30, it almost seemed like he has no regrets for the fix and takes the attitude that's it's okay because everyone else did it. but then at around 5:01 he says it's wrong. odd. btw Wink, did you ever find Jack tough to work for? I remember hearing an interview with Geoff Edwards who said Jack was the type who would compliment you on a joke and then a week later he'd retract it and I've heard stories he was a bit of a "perfectionist" behind the scenes.
I will have to check out that Tomorrow Show interview. Over the years, I had heard that Dan Enright was perhaps the main mechanic behind the fix & was deeply regretful of it for the rest of his life. while Jack had always been of the line of "everybody was doing it...we just got caught."
Jack Barry also mc'd"The Reel Game"on ABC TV and he collaborated on"Way Out Games" with his partner Dan Enright.."Way Out Games"was hosted by Sonny Fox.
Interesting to note the entire scenario was not on the up and up. The shows were rigged, and sponsor Geritol was nothing more than a mixture of vitamins, minerals and alcohol (12% alcohol). Geritol was fined about $800,000 for making false claims about its effectiveness. It was all one big fraud.
They're not intellectual contests. The Communications Act (amended in 1960 for game shows) prevent the manipulations of intellectual contests. That's it. Reality TV is immune, so is pro sports.
As an aspiring game show producer, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that Jack Barry is my biggest inspiration. With the possible exception of Merv Griffin, nobody made quiz shows as exciting & fun as he did. Tic Tac Dough, Twenty One, Bullseye, & The Joker's Wild rank high among my all-time favorites. TJW & TTD are two shows in particular that I would bring back in a heartbeat if I could.
Mr. Jack Barry was a very great game show host that knows how to defeat "The Devil" on The Joker's Wild back from the old days. He did announce his retirement from television due to his health issues until he died from cardiac arrest. Also, He was a very great co-creator of his favorite game show as a innovator of The Joker's Wild.
Rip Jack you're shows will live on
R.I.P. Jack Barry, a super awesome game show host!!
Thank you, Wink! I miss Jack and was hoping to find some sort of interview with him, and finally came across this one. Been a game show fan all my life and secretly wished I was a host someday, but I'd be camera-shy; it would never work. Still, I can dream..
Hey Wink, this is Rohan. I’ve been a huge fan of game shows growing up. I’ve been watching them and to date, I still watch. I’d like to be a game show host someday!
I remember on May 3, 1984 watching the TODAY show and John Palmer reported Jack Barry's death. It was quite a shock.
Yeah it was, jack was 66 and seemingly in good health
The taping of Hot Potato (since "gone celebrity") that day was a tense one for various reasons & I think no one onstage was made aware of the news until after the episodes were in the can.
This is where I first heard of the tragic news on ET!
Jack Barry along with Dan Enright would give us Break the Bank with Tom Kennedy, The Joker's Wild, The Hollywood Connection, The NEW Tic Tac Dough, Play the Percentages, Nipsey Russell's Juvenile Jury and my personal favorite BULLSEYE
Hot Potato was another one.
i mean you were lucky to have such great boss at that time and yes Jack Barry will be still be missed forever but his spirit will anyways still be there in our hearts
Not only was he a staple in game shows, but also in children's shows (Juvenile Jury, Winky Dink and You).
In the wake of Jack Barry's death, director Richard S. Kline and several Barry & Enright staffers (including "Judge Von" Eric Warner) left the company to start up Kline & Friends; for their first two shows "Break The Bank" and "Strike It Rich", they even salvaged from B&E's junkyard: the computer from the failed "Twenty-One" pilot as the Number Jumbler, set pieces and monitor/LCD displays from Hot Potato, and sound effects from Tic Tac Dough (the category reveal and shuffling), Joker's Wild, and even Play The Percentages (when a "0" is hit in the bonus round).
I do recall Jack did some acting as well on the side. He played the role of a newspaper reporter on The Munsters.
He also played a TV news anchor on the very first episode of Batman!
Yes, Jack was a great game show creator, producer, and host. It's a shame that the sponsors, essentially, forced him and Dan to rig "Twenty-One". It was a very solid format. As good as its 2000 revival was, I would have liked them to keep the original rules of losing points for a wrong answer and the UNIQUE margin-of-victory based payout. That is, adjusted for inflation. However, they likely had to run it like they did to compete with "Millionaire". If possible, I would definitely revive the show. Thanks, Wink, for sharing this good material with us.
Every show has its flaws, and 21 certainly does. With the loss of points, the game being drawn out was exposed, hence leading to the rigging. And it's not like you can edit, either, because of the way the points can sway. Sure, you could make the questions easier as in the 80's pilot, but you still have the same problem. As for the payout structure, in order to win anything substantial, you have to depend on not only yourself being good, but your opponent being terrible. And let's face it, 21 was always a response to a big money show (even in the 50's), so it wasn't about the questions or the games, but the money. The 2000 version did well with what it could, but it just doesn't have that longevity, especially when it has always been beneath the shadows of The $64,000 Question or WWTBAM.
See, this is what has always bothered me: they could have said no. I am in awe of their talent, but for Jack to say "everyone was doing it" and "the sponsors made us do it" is unacceptable. Jack Barry and Dan Enright had an exceptional amount of talent, producing, creating and, in Jack's case, hosting. Very few game show hosts have ever been able to connect with people the way Jack did. They could have made things work without cheating.
I remember as a child watching Jack Barry host the T.V. show Winky Dink whereby children would put a transparent plastic screen on their television set and they would use a marker to save the cartoon character Winky Dink from danger.
RIP Jack
To me, even though Bill Cullen did a good job hosting the Joker’s Wild after Jack Barry’s passing, to me, the show died when Jack Barry died. Rest in Peace Jack.
Jack and Dan were able to come back after the quiz show scandals with Joker's Wild and then Tic Tac Dough, which you hosted. The movie Quiz Show was very good showing their early years.
I was a fan of Tic Tac Dough for years before I learned that it was a reboot. I thought the 80s show was the original.
I still keep the Television series on video tape today even making a DVD copy for personal use. I wish they would do an update of it. I found the book at a used book store years ago and hung onto it as well.
It's interesting that when the Twenty One version was re made in 2000 (thanks to the popularity of Who Wants to be a Millionaire) that the show didn't stick and had some strange elements to it that should have been dropped such as having the audience decide who the next contestant should be using the same electronic idea that Millionaire used. Even the idea of using an orchestra for the game show (rather than the usual electronic mixes) seemed pretty dated and over the top. Maybe it was just a boring show by design. I was still a big fan of the show.
Thanks to You Tube, today we see how the rigging worked in the 1950s with the differences in how the daytime and night time versions of Tic Tac Dough were produced (daytime wasn't rigged while the night time version was and these are certainly not to be confused with Wink's version that ran very clean twenty years later).
After watching the movie Quiz Show, It is hard to believe that viewers couldn't tell if something fishy was going on even before the investigation happened since there was a great deal of bad acting going on. After watching the shows it appears very obvious today.
Tim Babcock I think when people were watching a TV game show back in the 50s and seemingly they were all rigged at the time, it is easy now looking back at it and say oh for sure but when all of the shows were rigged I would guess that they all coached or taught how the contestants to act because if from what I have seen the 21 episodes and the tic tac dough as well as the $64,00 question all of the contestants did the same thing, heavy breathing, wiping there forehead, taking there time, so when your watching and you see this with tv still in its infancy stages people watching or even people watching live are like man it must be so nerve racking for those poor people I couldn't imagine, I think I read somewhere that one of the episodes of 21 still to this day is one of the highest rated or most watched show in television history.
i wish buzzr would air The Jokers Wild reruns
The Jokers Wild is owned by Sony.
Did Sony pick up the entire Barry/Enright library?
Steve in the 760 Yes, they did.
Yup they picked up the entire Sony Library.
Glad to know that Jack was able to get out of the game show scandals of the 50s and be a legitimate host and producer along with Dan Enright.
WEWS TV-5 in Cleveland aired promotions for their 11PM news all evening, "Someone whose show airs here on TV-5 has died. We'll tell you who at 11." The next day and for several days thereafter, before each Joker show, local station personality Fred Griffith was featured in a short taped speech announcing Jack Barry had died. He said that because Joker was taped several months in advance, Jack Barry would continue to be seen for a long time to come.
I grew up in Cleveland and don't recall it airing on 5 at all.
I recall moving to Beachwood in 1978 shortly after my youngest brother was born. Sometime during the spring or early summer, my parents took us to see the house they would eventually buy. Since I'm a game show nerd, the only thing I recall from that day is walking into the family room and seeing Jack Barry hosting Joker's Wild... but in 1978, it was definitely on Channel 8. At least that's what I remember. It WAS almost 40 years ago, and I admit I could be wrong. :)
You are right about your remembering The Joker's Wild being on channel 8. Later, some time after 1978, tegh show moved to channel 5 WEWS before being replaced by Jeopardy to accompany Wheel Of Fortune at nights. As I recall, channel 8 wanted to air Mary Hartman Mary Hartman and took Jack off to make room.
I remember TJW airing on WEWS-TV here in cleveland when i was in grade school it would come on around 7:30PM i think it was early or late 1984 i think this before Alex Trebek made his debut as host of the show
"TJW" was replaced by "Jeopardy!" on WEWS at 7;30 p.m. in the 1984-85 season. I believe The Joker's Wild and Tic Tac Dough were moved to either WUAB or WCLQ for the 1984-85 season and then onto WBNX for the final season in 1985-86.
@@steve760 ummm this is weird...I am the youngest brother he is speaking of... and I don't remember any of that either
I don't know how to feel about Jack's comments @ 3:30, it almost seemed like he has no regrets for the fix and takes the attitude that's it's okay because everyone else did it. but then at around 5:01 he says it's wrong. odd.
btw Wink, did you ever find Jack tough to work for? I remember hearing an interview with Geoff Edwards who said Jack was the type who would compliment you on a joke and then a week later he'd retract it and I've heard stories he was a bit of a "perfectionist" behind the scenes.
I will have to check out that Tomorrow Show interview. Over the years, I had heard that Dan Enright was perhaps the main mechanic behind the fix & was deeply regretful of it for the rest of his life. while Jack had always been of the line of "everybody was doing it...we just got caught."
@@ericandy88 which would be honest. They didn't murder anyone, so let's have some perspective.
Jack Barry also mc'd"The Reel Game"on ABC TV and he collaborated on"Way Out Games" with his partner Dan Enright.."Way Out Games"was hosted by Sonny Fox.
Charles Van doren turns 90 on February 12
barry produced tic tac dough and the joker.s wild with dan enright.
Wink Martindale would've made a great host of The Jokers Wild besides Tic Tac Dough. Best wishes.
Which game show was seen @1:17?
Break The Bank
well jack barry isn.t still alive.he was born on march 20th in 1918 .he died on may 2nd in 1984.a heart attack is how he died.he was great.
Is Play your Hunch the only game show Merv hosted before he produced his mega-hit Jeopardy! and later WOF?
+Dan Barker Nope-- there's also Word for Word from 1963. And he sub-hosted for Bud Collyer on TTTT at least once.
+Andrew Schroy Merv also hosted the game show "Keep Talking" from 1959 to 1960.
Dan, Merv also hosted at least one episode of Bill Cullen's "The Price Is Right" while Bill was on vacation. It's here on UA-cam.
He also subbed for Bill Cullen on TPIR
Mariah Rambo Amusingly, that was how Merv met Don Pardo, whom he later hired to announce for "Jeopardy!"
Steve Carlin was also the producer and co-creator of "Rootie Tootie"/"Rootie Kazootie".
Ironically, I was born when he died. I was born the next day.
How is that ironic?
As long as Geritol doesn't sponsor a game show again, there won't be anymore rigging. Lol!
Interesting to note the entire scenario was not on the up and up. The shows were rigged, and sponsor Geritol was nothing more than a mixture of vitamins, minerals and alcohol (12% alcohol). Geritol was fined about $800,000 for making false claims about its effectiveness. It was all one big fraud.
Funny how "reality" shows today are flirting with rigging now. How do they get away with it?
They're not intellectual contests. The Communications Act (amended in 1960 for game shows) prevent the manipulations of intellectual contests. That's it. Reality TV is immune, so is pro sports.