Long before David Letterman became the king of late night, he was just another struggling Hollywood comedian. During the 1970’s, Dave was a fixture as a celebrity panelist on many game shows until he finally got a chance to host one of his own. Fortunately, that video has made it online and is hilarious! David Letterman grew up in Indianapolis and eventually worked as a weatherman in local television. He would eventually head to Hollywood, where he worked the comedy circuit and appeared as a game show celebrity panelist. Dave hosted a short lived morning show for NBC that led to his late night gig, Late Night with David Letterman. After a dispute over hosting duties of The Tonight Show, he moved on to CBS in 1993 and has been hosting his Late Show with David Letterman, since. One of Dave’s rarer TV projects was hosting the game show pilot, The Riddlers in 1977. Now a copy has been made available online. The Riddlers placed two teams, one made of five celebrities and one made of contestants with a common theme (five dance instructors were seen in this pilot). One player would read a clue and their partner would have to finish the answer to the hilarious riddle. Solving nine riddles wins $500 and a chance to play the Crazy Quotes bonus game. Missing a riddle, passed play to the other team. In the Crazy Quotes bonus game, players hilariously arranged themselves by intellectual ability to solve a series of more difficult riddles for a jackpot of $2,000. This pilot also features 1970’s celebrity guests Jo Anne Worley, Robert Urich, Joyce Builifant, Michael McKeon, and Debralee Scott. Take a look at the show that could have been, The Riddlers. Too bad – the game was just awful. The...
TV You Were Never Meant to See – Extremely Different Wheel of Fortune Pilots [Kicking Back with Jersey Joe]...
posted by Jersey Joe
Every television show goes through a testing phase before making it to air. The first episodes, called pilots, are designed for producers and network execs to judge if a show is good enough for broadcast or if there are any changes that need to be made. Some shows go through multiple pilots and still never see the light of day. NBC took a big chance in the 70’s and made a big score picking up the now classic game show Wheel of Fortune. Wheel of Fortune scores with a premise as simple as hangman. Spin the wheel, pick a letter, and solve the puzzle. I did a full blogumn on the show’s origins a few years ago. Wheel, like many other shows, went through multiple pilots and hosts before making it to air. For the first time ever, portions of these test episodes have been leaked to the general public. The original premise for Wheel was to be a Shoppers Bazaar. In the first test pilot, shot in 1973 with a very different set was actually named Shoppers Bazaar. This unusual and clumsy pilot featured a very different version of the now classic wheel. Take a look a portion of this test episode that, until now, only NBC executives have seen. Look at the wheel! It’s right out of Las Vegas casino floor or a church bazaar. The show took way too much time in set up and all the prizes on the set got in the way. Plus, the contestants were not in control of the wheel, they were simply told to say, “STOP THE WHEEL!” That premise would have gotten old fast. The puzzle board itself was also a very early working prototype. While it was mechanized, it was very small, and rather unattractive. Chuck Woolery, who did eventually get the job as...