 |
| Company type | Division |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1960 |
| Founders | Merrill Heatter Bob Quigley |
| Defunct | 1981 |
| Fate | Partnership dissolved, rebranded as Merill Heatter Productions |
| Parent | Filmways (1969–1981) |
Heatter-Quigley Productions was an American television production company that was launched in 1960 by two former television writers, Merrill Heatter and Bob Quigley. After Quigley's retirement, the company became Merrill Heatter Productions.
On many of Heatter-Quigley's most popular game shows, beginning with Video Village , a key element of the game was enlarged, and in some instances the entire game itself was magnified to larger than life.
In 1961, Heatter and Quigley entered into a partnership with Four Star Television to produce programming, and most of the assets were transferred to Four Star Television. [1] In 1965, it became an independent television production company. [2] In 1965, Heatter and Quigley created and aired a pilot episode of Hollywood Squares hosted by Bert Parks. The show was rejected by CBS, but NBC acquired broadcasting rights to the series. (Peter Marshall became the host of The Hollywood Squares.) In 1969, Heatter and Quigley sold the show, as well as the entire company to Filmways. [3] In 1981, Quigley retired and ended his partnership with Merrill Heatter just before Filmways was bought by Orion Pictures. Quigley died on November 27, 1989. Heatter continued solo and produced new game shows, such as Battlestars , All-Star Blitz , Bargain Hunters, and the 1980s version of High Rollers. On September 28, 1998, Heatter leased the worldwide rights to his solo-developed game shows to King World for a limited time. [4] That option has now expired. CBS Media Ventures currently owns the format rights to Hollywood Squares today, via CBS's acquisition of King World Productions in 2000.
MGM Television acquired the rights from Orion Television to Heatter-Quigley shows with the exception of Hollywood Squares (which is currently owned by CBS Media Ventures) and Wacky Races (which is currently owned by Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution (via Hanna-Barbera)). Orion had sold those rights to King World Productions after Orion closed its television division on November 25, 1991. [5] Today, the rest of the Heatter-Quigley library are owned by Amazon MGM Studios (via Orion Television).
In 2008, Heatter returned to game show production with the GSN game show Catch 21 , based on Gambit. Heatter is co-executive producer with another veteran producer, Scott Sternberg. Heatter died of cancer on October 8, 2017.
Kenny Williams was the announcer on all of Heatter-Quigley's game shows except two: Temptation (announced by Carl King) and The Magnificent Marble Machine (announced by Johnny Gilbert); both shows were hosted by Art James.
Many hosts would become famous for the shows they did for HQ. Peter Marshall became most famous for The Hollywood Squares, Wink Martindale would have his first big hit with Gambit, and Alex Trebek would see his first hit in America (after a long run with Reach for the Top in his native Canada) with High Rollers.
Hollywood Squares is an American game show in which two contestants compete in a game of tic-tac-toe to win cash and prizes. The show originally aired as a pilot on NBC in 1965, and debuted on that network as a regular series in October 1966. The board for the game is a 3 × 3 vertical stack of open-faced cubes, each occupied by a celebrity seated at a desk facing the contestants. The stars are asked questions by the host and the contestants judge the truth of their answers to gain squares in the right pattern to win the game.
Orion Releasing, LLC is an American film production and distribution company owned by the Amazon MGM Studios subsidiary of Amazon.
Warner Bros. Television Studios, operating under the name Warner Bros. Television, is an American television production and distribution studio and the flagship studio of the Warner Bros. Television Group division of Warner Bros., a flagship studio of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). Launched on March 21, 1955 by William T. Orr, it serves as a television production arm of DC Comics productions by DC Studios and, alongside Paramount Global's CBS Studios, The CW, the latter that launched in 2006 and Paramount and WBD have a 12.5% ownership stake each while Nexstar Media Group owns the remaining 75%. It also serves as the distribution arm of WBD units HBO, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim.
King World Productions, Inc. was a production company and syndicator of television programming in the United States founded by Charles King (1912–72) that was active from 1964 to 2007.
Fred Silverman was an American television executive and producer. He worked as an executive at all of the Big Three television networks, and was responsible for bringing to television such programs as Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, All in the Family (1971–1979), The Waltons (1972–1981), and Charlie's Angels (1976–1981), as well as the miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man (1976), Roots (1977), and Shōgun (1980). For his success in programming such successful shows, Time magazine declared him "The Man with the Golden Gut" in 1977.
Gambit is an American television game show based on the card game blackjack, created by Heatter-Quigley Productions. The show originally ran on CBS from September 4, 1972, to December 10, 1976, and was recorded at CBS Television City in Studios 31, 33, 41, and 43. On October 27, 1980, NBC revived the show as Las Vegas Gambit, as a replacement for The David Letterman Show, and kept it on its schedule until November 27, 1981. As the title implied, this edition of Gambit was recorded in Las Vegas at the Tropicana Las Vegas. Both versions were hosted by Wink Martindale and announced by Kenny Williams. Elaine Stewart was the card dealer/co-hostess for the CBS version, while Beverly Malden filled this role for the first half of Las Vegas Gambit, and was later replaced by Lee Menning.
Winston Conrad "Wink" Martindale is an American disc jockey, radio personality, game show host, and television producer. He is best known for hosting Gambit from 1972 to 1976, Tic-Tac-Dough from 1978 to 1985, High Rollers from 1987 to 1988, and Debt from 1996 to 1998.
Filmways, Inc. was a television and film production company founded by American film executive Martin Ransohoff and Edwin Kasper in 1952. It is probably best remembered as the production company of CBS's "rural comedies" of the 1960s, including Mister Ed, The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, and Green Acres, as well as the comedy-drama The Trials of O'Brien, the western Dundee and the Culhane, the adventure show Bearcats!, the police drama Cagney & Lacey, and The Addams Family. Notable films the company produced include The Sandpiper, The Cincinnati Kid, The Fearless Vampire Killers, Ice Station Zebra, Summer Lovers, The Burning, King, Brian De Palma's Dressed to Kill and Blow Out, and Death Wish II.
High Rollers is an American television game show created by Merrill Heatter. Two contestants compete to answer trivia questions and gain control of an oversized set of dice, which they then roll to eliminate the numbers 1 through 9 from a game board in order to win cash and prizes. It is an adaptation of the standard dice game shut the box.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television, previously known as MGM/UA Television, is the television studio arm of the American film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) specializing in broadcast syndication and the production and distribution of television shows and miniseries.
Taft Broadcasting Company was an American media conglomerate based in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Battlestars is an American game show that aired on NBC during the 1980s. The program's concept was developed and produced by Merrill Heatter, featuring a six-celebrity panel. The object of the game is to "capture" the celebrities by lighting up numbers positioned around triangle shapes, inside of which sat each panelist. Similar to Hollywood Squares, which Heatter also co-created and produced, the celebrities are asked questions by the host, and the contestants judge the truth of their answers in order to light up the numbers.
All-Star Blitz is an American game show that aired on ABC from April 8 to December 20, 1985, with reruns airing on the USA Network from March 31 to December 26, 1986. Peter Marshall was the host and John Harlan was the announcer for the series, which was produced by Merrill Heatter Productions, in association with Peter Marshall Enterprises.
Four Star Television, also called Four Star International, was an American television production company. Founded in 1952 as Four Star Productions by prominent Hollywood actors Dick Powell, David Niven, Charles Boyer and Joel McCrea, it was inspired by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz founding Desilu Productions a year earlier. McCrea left soon after its founding to continue in films, television and radio, and was replaced by Ida Lupino as the fourth star—although Lupino did not own stock in the company.
Kenny Williams or Ken Williams, born Kenneth Williams Fertig Jr. in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, was an announcer for American television from the late 1940s to 1980s. He was best known as the announcer of many game shows produced by Merrill Heatter and Bob Quigley. He also appeared on screen as "Kenny the Cop" on Video Village and Shenanigans. He did one show for Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions, Two for the Money, in 1952. As a radio actor in the 1940s to 1950s, he appeared on shows such as X Minus One, where he played Rhysling on the episode "The Green Hills of Earth". He was also one of the announcers for the Buck Rogers radio program, among others. He died at home in Los Angeles, California, on February 16, 1984.
Turner Program Services was the former syndication arm of Turner Broadcasting. It served the same purpose as Turner Entertainment Co.'s distribution unit, with the exception that TPS was more involved in distributing television series rather than films.
PDQ and Baffle are American television game shows created by Heatter-Quigley Productions. Both shows' objective was for contestant/celebrity teams to guess a given word or phrase in the shortest amount of time with the fewest letters given as possible.
Richard Rosner is an American television producer best known for creating the television show CHiPs. Rosner later developed a portable satellite television in partnership with DirecTV.
Blair Entertainment was a television production/distribution company founded by Jack E. Rhodes, operated from 1975 until 1992.
Merrill Gabriel Heatter was an American television producer and writer. He was best known for his collaboration with writer Bob Quigley for over 20 years and the formation of their production company Heatter-Quigley Productions in 1960. The company was responsible for the game shows Hollywood Squares and Gambit and the animated television series Wacky Races.