| Revision as of 16:39, 22 May 2014 editChrisP2K5 (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users16,352 edits Undid revision 609170555 by AldezD (talk)this information belongs on the page and is verifiable. Do not remove again.← Previous edit | Revision as of 17:18, 22 May 2014 edit undoChrisP2K5 (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users16,352 edits →Joe Dunn's 1983 retirementNext edit → | ||
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| Any contestant who won five consecutive games received a new car as a bonus, usually a ] or a ]. Contestants continued on the show until defeated, and some champions won over $25,000 in cash and prizes. | Any contestant who won five consecutive games received a new car as a bonus, usually a ] or a ]. Contestants continued on the show until defeated, and some champions won over $25,000 in cash and prizes. | ||
| ====Joe Dunn's 1983 retirement==== | ====Joe Dunn's 1983 retirement====<!---do not remove this section. Several sources are available to confirm this happened.---!> | ||
| {{unreferenced section|date=May 2014}} | |||
| There was, however, one exception to this rule. During the 1982-83 season, a clinical psychologist named Joe Dunn began a long reign as champion that was eventually brought to an end not by defeat but by practices. In his run as champion, Dunn broke two show records. He won sixteen games, earning three cars in the process, and won a non-tournament record of $66,200 in cash and prizes over a total of nine appearances. | There was, however, one exception to this rule. During the 1982-83 season, a clinical psychologist named Joe Dunn began a long reign as champion that was eventually brought to an end not by defeat but by practices. In his run as champion, Dunn broke two show records. He won sixteen games, earning three cars in the process, and won a non-tournament record of $66,200 in cash and prizes over a total of nine appearances. | ||
| At the beginning of the episode that immediately followed Dunn's sixteenth victory, Jack Barry |
At the beginning of the episode that immediately followed Dunn's sixteenth victory, Jack Barry came out and gave a speech saying that Dunn's run as champion, while impressive and joyous for all concerned, had come at a price. Barry's exact words follow:<ref>''The Joker's Wild'', 1983, Barry & Enright Productions. Exact airdate currently unknown.</ref> | ||
| {{cquote|Those of you who have been watching ''The Joker's Wild'' for the past couple of weeks have seen a rather extraordinary thing happen. Never happened before on our program, as a matter of fact. One gentleman has won more money than anybody in the history of this program. This was happy news for all of us, including the gentleman you'll meet in just a moment, but it also created a couple of problems because as most of you know who watch television, network shows have limits on how much money a contestant can win. Well, we used to be a network show but currently we're not a network show; at the same time we're on some network stations, and we've been in constant dialogue...as to what we're allowed to do and what we're not allowed to do.}} | |||
| With that, Barry had Charlie O'Donnell introduce Dunn and brought him out to explain the situation further. He revealed to the audience that all parties concerned, including the champion, had finally completed their discussion and a decision was rendered. Dunn was retired as champion effective immediately. A negotiation point on how much of his winnings Dunn could keep had been argued over, with the imposed limit originally set at $35,000. Barry told the audience that through the negotiation process, the unnamed network agreed to raise the limit in this case to $50,000 and Dunn was to donate the remaining amount to a charity of his choice. | |||
| While Barry never said on air which network came up with the policy, in 1981 ] purchased ''Joker'' for their owned and operated stations. CBS had a policy that all syndicated game shows airing on these stations adhere to their $25,000 winnings limit, a policy that resulted in the cancellation of a deal with ] to air '']'' in 1976. Nevertheless, the limit was never mentioned again. | While Barry never said on air which network came up with the policy, in 1981 ] purchased ''Joker'' for their owned and operated stations. CBS had a policy that all syndicated game shows airing on these stations adhere to their $25,000 winnings limit, a policy that resulted in the cancellation of a deal with ] to air '']'' in 1976. Nevertheless, the limit was never mentioned again. | ||
Revision as of 17:18, 22 May 2014
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| The Joker's Wild | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Jack Barry |
| Presented by | Jack Barry (1972–84) Bill Cullen (1984–86) Pat Finn (1990–91) |
| Narrated by | Johnny Jacobs (1972–79) Jay Stewart (1977–81) Bob Hilton (1979–80) Art James (1980–81) Charlie O'Donnell (1981–86) Ed MacKay (1990–91) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Production | |
| Production locations | CBS Television City Hollywood, California (1972–75, 1990–91) Chris Craft/KCOP Studios Hollywood, California (1977–84; 1985–86) The Production Group Studios Hollywood, California (1984–85) |
| Running time | ~25 minutes |
| Production companies | Jack Barry Productions (1972–75, 1990–91) Barry & Enright Productions (1977–86) Kline & Friends, Inc. (1990–91) |
| Original release | |
| Network | CBS (1972–75) Syndicated (1977–86, 1990–91) |
| Release | September 4, 1972–June 13, 1975 September 1977 - May 23, 1986 September 10, 1990 – March 8, 1991 |
The Joker's Wild is an American television game show that aired at different times during the 1970s through the 1990s. Contestants answered questions based on categories that were determined randomly by a mechanism resembling a slot machine. The show's title refers to the game's slot machine-mechanism also having jokers.
The show was billed as "the game where knowledge is king and lady luck is queen", and was notable for being the first successful game show produced by Jack Barry after his company's role in the quiz show scandals during the late 1950s. The success of the series led in part to the reformation of Barry & Enright Productions in the 1970s, which reunited Barry with his partner Dan Enright. The series was always referred to as a Jack Barry Production in the closing credits, however.
Barry's sons, Jonathan and Douglas Barry, were co-executive producers for the 1990s version, which was produced in association with Richard S. Kline and billed as a Kline and Friends production in association with Jack Barry Productions.
Hosts
 | This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Jack Barry, who created the show and eventually used it to revive his partnership with longtime producer Dan Enright, hosted all versions of the show up until his death in May 1984.
Barry was not the original choice to host, due to his past involvement in the 1950s quiz show scandals. As a result, Allen Ludden hosted the first two pilots for CBS. Barry hosted the local KTLA series in 1971, but CBS was still hesitant to let him host the network run in 1972; while Tom Kennedy, Wink Martindale, and Ludden were the three top choices to host, each was already committed to other shows (Kennedy was tied to Split Second for ABC, where Ludden had just started hosting a revival of Password, and Martindale was to host Gambit which was to premiere the same day as Joker on CBS). They even offered it to Dennis James, who had originally been the favorite to land the host job for Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions' upcoming game show The New Price Is Right. When CBS agreed to a weekday daytime version of New Price, Vice President of Daytime Programming B. Donald "Bud" Grant wanted 15-year Truth or Consequences host Bob Barker, to host New Price instead of James. Barker originally said he would gladly host Joker, but not New Price, however Grant said, "Barker, you will do (New) Price because those other two shows are good, solid game shows that require a traffic cop to run them, and you're not a cop. You have far more talent!" With no alternatives after Grant pushed Barker to New Price (a position he would hold for 35 years) and James was hired by Goodson to host a nighttime syndicated version of the same program, Barry was given the green light to host. Barry's contract, however, was only for sixty-five episodes (thirteen weeks).
By January 1973, with no complaints from the viewers or the network and good ratings, Barry signed a regular contract to host the program and continued in that role up to its cancellation in June 1975. Enright was brought on as executive producer of Joker during its final CBS season, and was mentioned by Barry himself on the program's final CBS episode.
In 1981, Barry hired Jim Peck to serve as a regular substitute host for when he was unavailable. Peck subbed for Barry several times between 1981 and 1984, and the original plan set forth by Barry and producer Ron Greenberg was to have Barry end the 1983-84 season as host, announce his retirement on the first episode of the next season, and hand the show over to Peck on a permanent basis. When Barry died of cardiac arrest in May 1984, Enright posthumously overruled his partner and selected Bill Cullen, who had just completed five months of hosting the cancelled Hot Potato for the company, to take over the series. Cullen hosted for the final two seasons and Peck subbed for him for one week in 1986.
Pat Finn hosted the 1990–91 version.
Announcers
Johnny Jacobs, a longtime friend of host Jack Barry, was the original announcer of The Joker's Wild. Jacobs served through most of its CBS run, with Johnny Gilbert, Roy Rowan, and CBS page Marc Summers filling in for Jacobs on occasion. When the series returned to first-run syndication in 1977, Jacobs, Gilbert, and Jay Stewart alternated the primary announce position. Stewart became the exclusive announcer for The Joker's Wild (as well as for all Barry & Enright-produced game shows at the time) during the 1979–80 season; Bob Hilton announced for the final three months of the 1979–80 season and Art James announced for most of the 1980–81 season, with Stewart returning to announce for the final three months of the 1980–81 season as well as substituting for James during the 1980 Tournament of Champions. In 1981 Stewart was replaced as Barry & Enright lead announcer by Charlie O'Donnell, who announced for the remainder of the series' run. Johnny Gilbert and John Harlan filled in for O'Donnell on occasion.
Ed MacKay, a local Los Angeles radio DJ and one-time overnight news anchor at KNX radio, announced the 1990–91 revival.
Gameplay
The gameplay described below represents the format used from 1977 to 1986. Differences in other versions are discussed in the appropriate section.
Main game
Two contestants, one a returning champion, played. The challenger began the game by pulling a lever to set a slot machine in motion. The game's slot machine consisted of three modified slide projectors which used six-slotted metal discs similar to the wheels used in ViewMaster toys. The discs were spun by electric motors and unused categories were removed from the board by shutting the projectors off.The levers used to "activate" the wheels were obviously props.Many times a stagehand wouldn't be paying attention to the player pulling the lever and the wheels wouldn't spin until they focused on the player's hand action.The sound effects often would either be a step behind the motion of the wheels or there wouldn't be any at all.
The wheels on the machine each contained five different categories, which were revealed to the contestants before the game, and a Joker, which served as a "wild card" and could represent any category. After the wheels stopped, the contestant chose one of the displayed categories and was asked a question in it. If the contestant answered correctly, the dollar value of the question was added to his or her score. An incorrect response allowed the opponent a chance to answer and steal the money. Contestants were also required to answer the question within an unspecified time limit. If the contestant did not give an answer within the time limit, their opponent was given an opportunity to answer. Certain special categories gave contestants a chance to win extra money, by either increasing the question value or allowing them to answer more than one question in their turn. An example of the latter was the "Fast Forward" category, which enabled a contestant to continue to answer until he/she stopped or answered incorrectly.
Question values
The values of the questions were determined by the spin. Categories were worth $50, $100, or $200 if they appeared in one, two, or all three windows, respectively. In addition, spinning a "natural triple" (three of a kind with no Jokers) awarded a bonus. This was initially a single prize, but by 1983 it had been changed to the Natural Triple Jackpot, an accumulating collection that saw one prize added to it for every day it went unclaimed. Each category pair or triple that did not contain a Joker had to be played for face value.
Jokers
When one or two Jokers came up during a spin, a contestant could use them to match any displayed category and create a pair or triple, increasing the value of the question. They could also substitute a Joker for a category in play but not displayed on the wheels (which was referred to as going "off the board") for $50 using one Joker or $100 using two Jokers. In addition, if a contestant spun a natural pair and a Joker, he or she could discard the pair but use the Joker to go "off the board" in that category for $50.
Spinning three Jokers allowed the contestant to choose any of the categories in play during the game. A correct answer automatically won the game, regardless of the contestant's score or whether a full round had been played or not. The winner received either $500 or the total amount he or she had accumulated to that point, whichever was greater. If unsuccessful, however, the opponent could not steal and the game continued as normal.
Using Jokers was optional, and contestants occasionally declined to use them if enough money was at stake for their opponent to win the game or take the lead (e.g., spinning a natural pair and a Joker, then playing the pair for $100 instead of turning it into a $200 triple). By playing this way, the opponent had less of an advantage if the contestant missed the question and the opponent answered it correctly.
Winning the game
Each game was played in rounds, with each player guaranteed a turn unless one spun three Jokers and answered correctly.
If the challenger reached or surpassed $500 on the first turn of the round, the champion had one last chance to spin either three Jokers or a combination that would tie or beat that score. Either player could win the game by reaching $500 with a correct answer to a question missed by the other. If a round ended with the scores tied at $500 or more, the game continued until the deadlock was broken.
Any contestant who won five consecutive games received a new car as a bonus, usually a Buick Skylark or a Chevy Chevette. Contestants continued on the show until defeated, and some champions won over $25,000 in cash and prizes.