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TV Powww (often stylized as TV POWWW) was a franchised television game show format, in which home viewers controlled a video game via telephone in hopes of winning prizes.
The TV Powww format, produced and distributed by Florida syndicator Marvin Kempner, debuted in 1978 on Los Angeles station KABC-TV as part of A.M. Los Angeles , and by the start of the next decade was seen on 79 local television stations (including national superstation WGN as part of Bozo's Circus ) in the United States, as well as several foreign broadcasters. While most stations had dropped TV Powww by the mid-1980s, stations in Australia and Italy were still using it as late as 1990. [1]
Stations were originally supplied with games for the Fairchild Channel F console, but following Fairchild's withdrawal from the home video game market, Intellivision games were used. Kempner later unsuccessfully attempted to interest both Nintendo and Sega in a TV Powww revival. [2]
While the underlying technology was standardized across participating stations, the format of TV Powww's presentation varied from market to market. Many presented TV Powww as a series of segments that ran during the commercial breaks of television programming (a la Dialing for Dollars ), while some (such as KTTV in Los Angeles) presented TV Powww as a standalone program.
In the video game being featured, the at-home player would give directions over the phone while watching the game on their home screen. When the viewer determined that the weapon was aiming at the target, they said "Pow!", after which that weapon would activate.
Accounts vary as to what kind of controller technology was involved. Some sources state that the gaming consoles sent to the stations were modified for voice activation., [2] while a 2008 WPIX station retrospective reported that stations without the special voice-activation-equipped consoles would have an employee in the control room manually hit the fire button when the caller said "Pow!" (or "Pix" (pronounced picks) in WPIX's case). [3]
One of the pitfalls of the gameplay was that, due to broadcasting technicalities, there was significant lag in the transmission of a television signal. The player would experience this lag when playing at home, which likely made playing the game somewhat more difficult. (For similar reasons, such a game would be impossible in digital television without the use of a second video chat feed for the player, due to the time it takes to process and compress the video stream; most stations also mandate a seven-second delay to prevent obscenities from reaching the air.)
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There is video evidence for the following Fairchild Channel F games being played on TV Powww:
Kempner marketing documentation also supports the following games being used:
There is video evidence for the following Intellivision games being played on TV Powww:
Kempner marketing documentation and Marvin Kempner's autobiography suggest the following games were available or under development:
The Intellivision title Sharp Shot [14] reportedly comprised four TV Powww games, implying that the simplified versions of the following titles found on this cartridge were also available to TV Powww customers:
| City/Market | Local name | Host | Show Featured on | Network | Air dates |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boston, MA | TV Powww! | Unknown | Unknown | WXNE-TV | Unknown |
| Baltimore, MD | TV Powww! | Stu Kerr | Unknown | WMAR | Unknown |
| Battle Creek, MI | TV Powww! | Unknown | Star Blazers | WUHQ | Unknown |
| Calgary, Alberta | Switchback | Unknown | Unknown | CBRT | 1985 |
| Chicago, IL (Nationwide Cable) | Ray's TV Powww!, Bozo's TV Powww! | Ray Rayner, Frazier Thomas | Ray Rayner and His Friends , Bozo's Circus | WGN Superstation WGN | 1979-1980 |
| Cleveland, OH | TV Powww! | Candy Cramer | Video Arcade | WCLQ | 1982–1984 |
| Columbus, GA | TV Powww! | Unknown | Unknown | WYEA | Unknown |
| Dallas, TX | TV Powww! | B.J. Cleveland | Unknown | KXTX | Unknown |
| Dayton, OH | TV Powww! | Unknown Unknown | Clubhouse 22 (children's version) Evening (adult version) | WKEF | Unknown Unknown |
| Flint, MI | TV Powww! | Unknown | Unknown | WEYI | Unknown |
| Green Bay, WI | Clubhouse Powww! | Gerald "Uncle Jerry" Drake [15] "Barney" | Weekday afternoons | WLUK-TV | c. 1979–1981 |
| Greensboro, NC | TV Powww! | Unknown | Captain Triad | WGGT | Unknown |
| Hartford, CT | TV Powww! | Unknown | Unknown | WTXX | Unknown |
| High Point, NC | TV Powww! | Unknown | Unknown | WGHP | Unknown |
| Hobart, Tasmania | TV Powww | "Jim Shoes" | Saturday Fun Show | TVT6 | 1980s |
| Honolulu, HI | TV Powww! | Fred "Professor Fun" Ball | Unknown | KHNL | Unknown |
| Houston, TX | TV Kid POWWW | Unknown | Unknown | KHTV | Unknown |
| Jacksonville, FL | TV Powww! | Gary Rogers | Unknown | WAWS | Unknown |
| Kingsport, TN Knoxville, TN | TV Powww! | Frances Eden | Unknown | WKPT WTVK-TV | 1981 |
| Los Angeles, CA | TV Powww! | Unknown | A.M. Los Angeles | KABC | 1978–? |
| John Rovick | TV Powww | KTTV | 1979 | ||
| Unknown | TV Powww | KCOP | Unknown | ||
| New York, NY | TV Pixxx | Ralph Lowenstein | N/A | WPIX | 197?–1982 |
| Oakland, CA | TV Powww! | Pat McCormick | Unknown | KTVU | Unknown |
| Regional & Remote Western Australia | TV Powww | Chris Mills | N/A | GWN7 | 1980s |
| Philippines | TV Powww | Various | N/A | BBC-2 | 1970s–1980s |
| Phoenix, AZ | TV Powww! | Unknown | Unknown | KPNX | Unknown |
| Raleigh, NC | TV Powww! | "Barney" | Barney's Army | WPTF-TV | 1979–1982 |
| Rochester, NY | TV Powww! | "Ranger Bob" | N/A | WUHF | 1981 |
| Rockhampton, Queensland | TV Powww | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Early 1980s |
| Sacramento, CA | TV Powww! | Mitch Agruss | Cap'n Mitch | KTXL | 1980 |
| San Diego, CA | TV Powww! | Unknown | Unknown | KCST | Unknown |
| San Francisco, CA | TV Powww! | Pat McCormick | Unknown | KTVU | 1970s–1980s |
| São Paulo, Brazil | TV Powww! | Luis Ricardo Mara Maravilha Paulo Barboza Gugu Liberato Sérgio Mallandro Tânia Alves Christina Rocha | Show Maravilha | SBT | 1984–1989 |
| Spokane, WA | Q6 Powww! | Cal Fankhouser | Unknown | KHQ-TV | Unknown |
| United Kingdom | TV Powww | Peter Powell Mark Curry | Get Set for Summer | BBC1 | 1982 |
| Wagga Wagga, New South Wales | TV Powww | Unknown | Unknown | RVN2 | Unknown |
| Waterbury, CT | TV Powww! | Unknown | Unknown | WTXX | Unknown |
| Wodonga, Victoria | TV Powww | Unknown | Unknown | AMV4 | Unknown |
| Youngstown, OH | TV Powww! | Unknown | Unknown | WYTV | Unknown |
One notable version of TV Powww was used by New York based television station WPIX, called TV-Pixxx (a play on the station's call letters). Hosted by station staff announcer Ralph Lowenstein, it was aired during the traditional weekday afternoon slot of children's TV as an interlude. Participants would be called at home to play a videogame that appeared on their screen. [1]
Participants interacted with the game by saying the word "Pix" to perform game-related actions. Prizes included T-shirts and $10 U.S. savings bonds. They could double their prize or win a bonus prize (such as advance tickets to see upcoming films) by guessing a "Magic Word" (originally common everyday words, later in the last two years one of the 50 U.S. states). For a chance at playing, children could send a postcard with their name, address, and phone number to TV Pixxx.
WPIX's program lasted until 1982; for many New York viewers, TV Pixxx was their first glimpse of the Intellivision home game system. [2]
In the Beastie Boys Book, Michael Diamond claimed to be a regular viewer of the program, but was never picked to play the game, nor saw anyone actually win.
Switchback aired on CBC Television station CBRT in Calgary, Alberta in 1985, also including Intellivision games.
Zap aired in the mornings from 1978 to 1979 on Cleveland, Ohio NBC station WKYC which had a feature similar to TV Powww.
In the early 1980s, Golden West Network (GWN) had a version called TV Powww (or possibly TV Pow), hosted by Chris Mills. There was a spaceship game, a boxing game and a soccer/football game.
A basic version of Space Invaders was broadcast daily after school hours in Rockhampton, north-east coast of Australia during the early 1980s. Children would yell "Pow!" over the telephone, with the host pressing the fire button in the studio. Reaction time varied with the mood of the host. The game was often chaotic, with contestant rapid firing, and sync abandoned when the host was unable to keep up.
The game premiered on SBT in August 1984 and its first host was Paulo Barboza. Shortly thereafter, other hosts like Tânia Alves, Mara Maravilha, Luís Ricardo, Sérgio Mallandro, Gugu Liberato and Christina Rocha presented the game. TV Powww! became a segment of the Bozo show in 1986 and continued until 1989.
The game had a 12 episode run as part of the BBC Saturday morning children's show Get Set For Summer [16] between April 1982 [17] and July 1982. [18]
In 1982 there was a variation of Tv Powww called Telectronico hosted by Reynaldo More. [ RTI TV ] Children could participate by sending coupons from newspaper and waiting for the right phone call. Show took place Monday to Friday at 5:30 p.m.
The Fairchild Channel F, short for "Channel Fun", is a video game console, the first to be based on a microprocessor and to use ROM cartridges instead of having games built-in. It was released by Fairchild Camera and Instrument in November 1976 across North America at a retail price of US$169.95. It was launched as the "Video Entertainment System", but when Atari released its Video Computer System the next year, Fairchild rebranded their machine as "Channel F" while keeping the Video Entertainment System descriptor.
The Intellivision is a home video game console released by Mattel Electronics in 1979. The name is a portmanteau of "intelligent television". Development began in 1977, the same year as the launch of its main competitor, the Atari 2600. In 1984, Mattel sold its video game assets to a former Mattel Electronics executive and investors, eventually becoming INTV Corporation. Game development ran from 1978 to 1990, when the Intellivision was discontinued. From 1980 to 1983, more than 3.75 million consoles were sold. As per Intellivision Entertainment the final tally through 1990 is somewhere between 4.5 and 5 million consoles sold.
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The Yule Log is a television show originating in the United States, which is broadcast traditionally on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning. It originally aired from 1966 to 1989 on New York City television station WPIX, which revived the broadcast in 2001. A radio simulcast of the musical portion was broadcast by WPIX-TV's former sister station, WPIX-FM, until 1988.
Tommy Tallarico is an American video game music composer, musician, television personality, live show creative director and producer. He and his company, Tommy Tallarico Studios, worked on several video games since the 1990s. He co-hosted the television shows Electric Playground and Reviews on the Run from 1997 until 2006. In 2002, he created Video Games Live (VGL), a global video game music orchestra.
A home video game console is a video game console that is designed to be connected to a display device, such as a television, and an external power source as to play video games. Home consoles are generally less powerful and customizable than personal computers, designed to have advanced graphics abilities but limited memory and storage space to keep the units affordable. While initial consoles were dedicated units with only a few games fixed into the electronic circuits of the system, most consoles since support the use of swappable game media, either through game cartridges, optical discs, or through digital distribution to internal storage.
Astrosmash is a fixed shooter video game for the Intellivision console, designed by John Sohl, and released by Mattel Electronics in 1981. The player uses a laser cannon to destroy falling meteors, bombs, and other targets.
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In the history of video games, the second-generation era refers to computer and video games, video game consoles, and handheld video game consoles available from 1976 to 1992. Notable platforms of the second generation include the Fairchild Channel F, Atari 2600, Intellivision, Odyssey 2, and ColecoVision. The generation began in November 1976 with the release of the Fairchild Channel F. This was followed by the Atari 2600 in 1977, Magnavox Odyssey² in 1978, Intellivision in 1980 and then the Emerson Arcadia 2001, ColecoVision, Atari 5200, and Vectrex, all in 1982. By the end of the era, there were over 15 different consoles. It coincided with, and was partly fuelled by, the golden age of arcade video games. This peak era of popularity and innovation for the medium resulted in many games for second generation home consoles being ports of arcade games. Space Invaders, the first "killer app" arcade game to be ported, was released in 1980 for the Atari 2600, though earlier Atari-published arcade games were ported to the 2600 previously. Coleco packaged Nintendo's Donkey Kong with the ColecoVision when it was released in August 1982.
Play2Win was a live interactive game show that originally aired from 2 a.m - 3 a.m. Eastern Time on stations owned by Tribune Broadcasting. It moved to the 3 a.m. - 4 a.m. timeslot on February 27, 2007, where it remained until the show ended on March 10, 2007. The one-hour program featured interactive games where the viewers could win cash prizes.
Ken Uston's Guide to Buying and Beating the Home Video Games was published in May 1982. The book, published by Signet in New York, was a brief strategy guide for many console games in existence at the time. The book was divided into chapters by console type or manufacturer, and each chapter had an article on each game title available for that console. The book was published in paperback, with 676 pages and illustrated throughout with black and white line drawings.
William Cohen was an American actor born in Philadelphia, to an opera actor and singer. As Bill Britten, he is best known for his portrayal of Bozo the Clown in the New York City market.
PlayCable was an online service introduced in 1980 that allowed local cable television system operators to send games for the Intellivision over cable wires alongside normal television signals. Through the service, subscribers would use a device, called the PlayCable adapter, to download the games for play on their Intellivision. It was the first service that allowed users to download games for play on a video game console. PlayCable was not widely adopted, due in part to high costs for users and operators, as well as limitations of the PlayCable adapter. The service was discontinued in 1984.
Sharp Shot is a video game released by Mattel for its Intellivision video game system in 1982. Specifically marketed towards younger children, Sharp Shot is a collection of four simple games where the object is to score points by correctly timing shots at various targets.
M Network was a video game division of Mattel that, in the 1980s, produced games in cartridge format for the Atari 2600 video game system.
The Fairchild Channel F is a home video game console released by Fairchild Camera and Instrument in November 1976. It has the distinction of being the first programmable ROM cartridge–based video game console, and the first console to use a microprocessor. It was launched as the Fairchild Video Entertainment System, or Fairchild VES for short, but when Atari released their Atari Video Computer System, Atari VCS, later Atari 2600 the next year, Fairchild renamed its machine.
The 1970s was the first decade in the history of the video game industry. The 1970s saw the development of some of the earliest video games, chiefly in the arcade game industry, but also several for the earliest video game consoles and personal computers.
WGN America was an American subscription television network, owned by the Nexstar Media Group - the company's only wholly owned, national cable-originated television channel. The channel in its final form under the WGN branding ran a mixture of entertainment programming for most of the broadcast day and a straight-news format—via a daily national prime time newscast, NewsNation—during the evening and early overnight hours.
