Format Update: “Pyramid” for TBS, “The Frame” for The CW
In lieu of our usual Morning Buzz update for now, I think today’s format update deserves its own stand-alone article. It’s very strange. I didn’t expect either of these to happen.
*Pyramid will just not die, and that’s a good thing. That $500,000 Pyramid logo we got is coming in handy. TBS has added Pyramid, hosted by actor, comedian, and Conan sidekick Andy Richter, to its development slate. Conan is on TBS so that makes a nice partnership. It first shot a pilot in 2009 for CBS as The $1,000,000 Pyramid, and then we got downgraded to The $500,000 Pyramid in 2010, then it got severely downgraded and looked like GSN was picking it up. But now it’s over to TBS. Embassy Row is filled with resilient troopers.
Hey, Pyramid is, at least to me, the best game ever made so any way we can see it is cool. The show is pretty light hearted and fun up until we go for the cash, but I’m pretty sure having 60 serious seconds is OK. And to be frank, and to not be completely insulting, after seeing what GSN just did to Lingo, I’m a bit happy they are staying away from Pyramid. It’s been passed on so many times that I wouldn’t get my hopes up necessarily if I were you, but it’s a nice turn of events. We’ll be keeping you posted.
*The CW is also adding a unique reality show to its lineup. The show is called The Frame. The show takes place in each of the eight couple’s apartments or houses. They have to perform various challenges and other tasks. The catch? The camera will be stationary inside their house. You cannot leave the frame of the camera. The couple that spends the most time inside the frame will win the game. Not sure if that’s enough of a gimmick to get me to watch or enough to engross people, but it’s an interesting concept.
I’m not gonna get excited for Pyramid… remember, TBS had Match Game “in development” too….
Yes, but remember Match Game is nothing close to Pyramid.
The Pac-Man version of Pyramid can played here:
http://worldsbiggestpacman.com/play/#64,23
I don’t care if they call it “The $500,000 Pyramid”, “The $250,000 Pyramid”, “The $100,000 Pyramid”, or even “The $32,768 Pyramid”.
As long as it resembles the way it was when Dick Clark was hosting, I’ll be happy.
Or Bill Cullen.
Assuming someone actually decides to bring it back, of course.
Agreed. If Andy Richter can let the game be the star, this oughta be a winner.
Same here, I don’t care if it’s $1,000,000 Pyramid or $100,000 Pyramid. Please, keep the pyramid game Traditional. No Reality stars, no nothing but stars like Vicki Lawrence, Patrick Dempsey, Susan Lucci, Henry Polic II, and Betty White.
As much as I’m excited about Pyramid being in the works for TBS, I just have to say… Henry Polic II?? Really, dude? Henry isn’t even considered a TV star anymore. Maybe he was 20 years ago, but that was then, bro. I get that you really like old school Pyramid, but I think it’s time for you to move into the present. Just sayin…
Yeah, and don’t forget about Constance McCashin, Mary Cadorette, Teresa Ganzel, Barry Jenner, and Dean Goss while you’re at it.
*eyeroll*
I think the point he was trying to make was not having any fake “stars” like those bloody Jersey Shore types or what have you. Rather, someone people actually have a chance at recognizing, and that can actually play the game well instead of sitting there, “looking pretty”, and going “yay im excited to be here…wait pyramid what?”
As much as anyone of us want to disparage the “Jersey Shore” cast or the Kardashians, etc, they are probably more notable to many people than most of “scripted” TV stars, sad to say.
I agree though, I think the point was not getting those specific stars NOW (because, most of them are not “stars” anymore), but, get stars of today of the same type.
People like Henry Polic the whatever number were barely legitimate stars back in the day. Being a supporting player on a middling show who was more recognizable for being a semi-regular on a game show is not many steps above the reality TV pseudo-celebrities of today.
I Doubt that would happen.
the shitty reality tv is the in thing.
It should be called “The Basic Cable Pyramid”
you mean trapazoid :P
Maybe bring back “The $25 Trapezoid”?
(bonus points for figuring that out.)
I got it. That was the Q&A game Jay Leno played a few times with members of the studio audience back in the mid-1990s.
It would be interesting to see how they’d do it, but like the Match Game revival, being on a development slate is a far cry from making the schedule, so I’m holding any expectations in check. After all, a show in development isn’t there in a vacuum–if they happen to have a very strong slate and not a lot of openings on the schedule, something’s not going to make it.
I’ll be in the majority when I say this: I don’t even care if it’s the $5 Pyramid as long as they keep it simple. 7 in 30, 7-11/Mystery 7 or Big 7 (either way is fine by me). Now the big question is not if (because I predict it will be a Go), but when? I think I see a Fall date for it. TBS, make it happen.
Publically, I’m saying I’ll wait and see if they pick it up before I get too giddy.
Privately, I’m saying it will not get picked up and will be passed over yet again for cheaper, stupider fare. There’s too much evidence that networks don’t want shows that require people to think to be an optimist.
Third time a charm. Look like TBS bringing back some great shows after got cancelled or turn down the pilot, remember Conan lost his late night show on NBC but TBS bring it back? Let hope Pyramid would do the same.
Henry Polic II won’t be back as a celeb. His last TV appearance might have been in 1994-95 on a week of Feud where he played with Betty WHite and her poker buddies against Carol Burnett and her kids.
Whatever happened to him?
This coincides with the new $100,000 Pyramid game on Facebook coming this summer. Check this out:
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=110397409035043&sk=app_153284594738391
The news of Pyramid is nice, but I still wish the Cube could come to the US.
”Tyler Perry’s $5,000 Pyramid”
Hosted By Tyler Perry
Announced by David Mann (fat dude from meet the browns)
And celebrities from all his shows and movies
Parting Gifts are Tyler Perry Dvd’s
Oh dear god no.
The one celebrity I’d love to see play Pyramid: Jim Parsons (Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory).
Or NPH (of late, $1,000,000 Password). Richter could draw his celeb friends in, I imagine a convivial atmosphere blended with a good game.
If they bring back Pyramid, I want the up front game to be based on 7 right in :30 and not the near impossible 6 right in :20. I know 7 right in :30 was done all the time. I’d rather have that than the near impossible 6 in :20. I know there is more commercial time now then there was back then.
I want the rules that were used regarding how passed answers were dealt with during the Donnie Osmond years in the up front game and winner’s circle and the rules that made it harder to get credit for right answers in the winner’s circle to go away. I want the old rules for them to return.
If Pyramid does get on TBS, would they use 7:45 for commercials that syndicated shows now use for the 3 or 4 breaks,not including the break that sometimes takes place between shows, or go back to the old way of 6:00? I would think it would be tough to use 7 right if they used the 7:45 format. I’d be ok with 5 in :20 or 6 in :25.
Some things I would like: A contestant going to the winner’s circle twice in the same show gets to keep both monies, even if the 2nd visit results in getting all 6 right. If the budget could afford it, a contestant winning both rounds and losing the 2nd winner’s circle would have the consolation money for that winner’s circle doubled, or (x2.5). A contestant getting a perfect score in the up front game wins something. I think $2,500 is fair. If the other person also gets a perfect score, then the tie breaker winner wins a second prize. With the double and/ or increased monies game shows started using in 2001, that second bonus prize should be $10,000. I’d be ok with $7,500 because that contestant just won $2,500., but I don’t know how much less a cable game show prize budget is from a syndicated or over the air network specific one is.
Bonus cards in the up front game: I hope 2 in each round won’t slow the game down.
Instead of the 7-11 worth $2,200, have one for $1,100 in each game. The mystery 7 in game 2 and a non- mystery prize of about $1,000 in game 1. If only one bonus in each round: $2,200 in round one and mystery 7 in round 2. Mystery 7 prizes should be about the same value. I thought the value range of a Commadore (sic?) 64 to a car was too big a range. I always felt people that won the computer, or camcorder, or similar got cheated while others won a trip or car or the estimated $3,000 piano. My pick for today’s mystery 7 value: $5,000 if 6 in :20 would be used. $3,000 if 7 in :30 would be used. I know trips for $3,000 would be tough to do. I watch The Price Is Right.
I know I wrote a lot. I hope you enjoyed reading it. I hope a powers that be person for the show and or/channel that Pyramid ends up on reads this and uses any or all of my ideas.
May have mentioned this option before, but how’s about updating the 7-11
into a 7-11-21? Here’s how it’d work: 7 right in 30 seconds still gets $1100, but 7 right in 21 seconds getrs $2100…
Upon seeing what I just wrote, I noticed the paragraph indents went away. Should I use blank lines instead of indents?
Wow — GSN letting a Pyramid revival get away to another cable channel is a sad commentary on the state of that train wreck of a network. Although you’re right, TBS will probably do it better.
Not really considering the way they are rerunning the remaining classics to death these days!
I have no insider info, but my gut says this is getting picked up because of the cross-promotional opportunity between Pyramid and Conan, so hopefully I’m right and we can look forward to this happening. I wouldn’t call Pyramid the best game ever, but it’s a lot of fun and Andy doesn’t seem to have a show-crushing ego, so he should be a tremendous fit.
Plus, if he can trash the competition on Celebrity Jeopardy, he should have the wherewithal to do a good job hosting his own game show.
Idea to add some strategy: Round 1 is 5 in 20 seconds; Round 2 is 6 in 25 seconds; Round 3 is 7 in 30 seconds. Allows the ability to play catchup in later rounds, and speeds up the overall pace. This would place more strategy on category selection. The bonus card could be “clean sweep” so it does not matter how many clues were used for a given round.
Thought on a format that stays basically like the original, but, builds in a “ladder” concept to a high dollar amount (I’ll go with the $500k logo in the article here):
First, classic “main” game head to head, with the current “champ” and a challenger.
Whoever wins gets to the winners circle, where they play for an escalating amount of money:
1st win: $25,000
2nd win: $50,000 ($25k more) (55 seconds)
3rd win: $100,000 ($50k more) (50 seconds)
4th win: $500,000 ($400k more) (40 seconds) (One chance)
There is no “losing” or “back to a level” like some of the other shows… I figure, it is going to be hard enough to get through the main game so many times to climb the “money ladder”, that will be enough. If they don’t win, they are still the returning champ, and will play for that level again next time.
Two other things… the “more” part is that, they don’t win $25k and then an additional $50k with a second win… basically, they are building their “winners circle” total with the wins. Also, when playing for the higher $$ amounts, the time on the clock goes down to win. The “one chance” on the $500k is exactly that. If someone is at $100k, they are basically playing one more main game. Lose, they leave with $100k, win, they have one chance at the $500k winners circle.
Also, with considering that just the “winners circle” money tree… you can still give away trips and smaller cash amounts in the main game if you want (“Mystery 7″, etc), that have no effect on the Winners Circle “money tree”.
I like that idea of the money ladder (even though we have enough game shows with money ladders), but I’d tweak it slightly. For the $500,000 level, you get 35 seconds, then if you fail you go back and play the main game. If you win again, for your second attempt at the $500K you’re given 40 seconds and each successful return to the winner’s circle if you failed to complete it before adds another 5 seconds (max being 60 seconds per winners circle attempt) until they win the $500K or they get eliminated in the main game.
All interesting ideas above, but I only hope they don’t make the game too complex. Simple usually does better than complex. I would hope that a simpler format (even with the Dick Clark format) would be sufficient if you have enthusiastic, competent “celebrities” playing (and I would favor keeping the tournament format). The one thing I hope they do like in the Dick Clark era is have returning champs.
BTW, think about the celebrities who appeared on the show. They usually were mostly B-list celebrities on television shows/movies (e.g., not the leading man/woman, but recognizable and likable) or “between” shows, so to speak (not counting the singers). You would hope that Conan’s tie-in/Andy Richter could help pull some interesting people (heck, why not have Conan on the show?). What could happen (but not likely) would be Conan vs. George Lopez for cross promotion). What would really be fun (but would never happen) is have “Talk show week(s)” including Conan, George, Leno, Jon Stewart, Jimmy Fallon, Craig Ferguson, Jimmy Kimmel, and of course, Pyramid alum David Letterman.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF2l3LmWAVA
Tyler Perry’s $5,000 Pyramid, hosted by Tyler Perry as Madea. “Hellurr”. lol, you’re too much, Donna.