You Don't Say!

Last updated
You Don't Say!
Ydstitle.jpg
Created by Ralph Andrews
Bill Yagemann
Presented by Jack Barry
Tom Kennedy
Clark Race
Jim Peck
Narrated by Jay Stewart
John Harlan
Country of originUnited States
Production
Running time22–26 minutes
Production companiesRalph Andrews Productions
Desilu Productions
(1963-1967)
Paramount Television
(1968-1969)
Warner Bros. Television
(1975)
Original release
Network KTLA (1962–1963, 1975)
NBC (1963–1969)
ABC (1975)
Syndicated (daily, 1978–1979)
Release
  • November 25, 1962 (1962-11-25) - March 22, 1963 (1963-03-22)
  • April 1, 1963 (1963-04-01) - September 26, 1969 (1969-09-26)
  • April 27, 1975 (1975-04-27) - June 29, 1975 (1975-06-29)
  • July 7, 1975 (1975-07-07) - November 28, 1975 (1975-11-28)
  • September 18, 1978 (1978-09-18) - March 1979 (1979-03)

You Don't Say! is an American television game show that had three separate runs on television. [1] The first version aired on NBC daytime from April 1, 1963, to September 26, 1969, with revivals on ABC in 1975 and in syndication from 1978 to 1979. The last two incarnations were executive produced by Ralph Andrews and produced (with Gary Hunt) and directed by Bill Carruthers.

Contents

NBC broadcasts were produced by Ralph Andrews-Bill Yagemann Productions in association with Desilu Productions (later Paramount Television). Ralph Andrews Productions produced both of the 1970s versions, with the ABC series produced in association with the Carruthers Company and Warner Bros. Television and the syndicated series produced in association with Viacom Enterprises.

Tom Kennedy hosted the original You Don't Say! and the 1975 revival while Jim Peck hosted the 1978 series. John Harlan was the announcer for almost the entire run of the series in its various incarnations, except for part of 1963 when Jay Stewart announced.

Similar to the announcer's function on Password , either Stewart or Harlan would whisper the name being guessed, along with a description.

Game play

NBC

Two teams competed, each composed of a celebrity and a contestant. The object was to convey the name of a famous person or character by giving clues, leading to words that sounded like part of the person's name (near the end of the run, places were also used as subjects). The contestant then had to sound the words out to figure out the person in question. The celebrities were not allowed to use anything that might give away the answer or to give a clue that would lead to the proper name of the person. They also could not say the clue to the contestant, with the penalty being loss of control for any violation. Each correct guess won a point, with three points winning the game.

For example:

Or:

Proper names could not be used as clues, such as "Our president who was married to Jackie Onassis was named John F..." for "Kennedy". Clue-givers were also not allowed to describe a word that is spelled like part of the name.

The winning contestant played the Bonus Board for a chance at $300. A famous name (sent in by a home viewer) was given to the celebrity, who tried to convey the name to the contestant by way of clues. Guessing the word on the first clue won $300. Each additional clue reduced the value by $100. The celebrity could help on all three clues.

If the contestant won the front game 3–0, winning the Bonus Board on the first clue awarded the $300 plus a new car, usually a Pontiac. In this situation, the celebrity was not allowed to help on the first clue.

Home viewers whose Bonus Board clue led to a car win also won a special prize. At one point this was 100,000 Top Value trading stamps, then one million stamps.

Players on the daytime version stayed until losing twice or winning seven times (NBC's limit at the time). On the primetime version, two new players competed for the entire show with a trip awarded to whoever won the most cash.

ABC

When the show returned in 1975, it also returned with a new format influenced largely by the success of CBS's Match Game . The two teams were replaced by two individual players competing with the assistance of four celebrities on a panel.

The celebrities once again tried to convey the identity of a famous person or place to the contestants. One celebrity gave a clue to the controlling contestant, who had five seconds to guess who it was with a correct word guess. If it wasn't guessed, the next celebrity in line gave a clue to the next contestant. This continued until one player guessed the word, with a maximum of four clues. A correct guess on the first clue was worth $200, and decreased in $50 increments for each clue needed afterward. $500 won the game and a chance to win $10,000 more at the Bonus Board.

At the Bonus Board, the contestant had to give a maximum of six (originally five) clues to four famous names or places to the celebrities. If a celebrity guessed one name correctly, the contestant won $500, which doubled to $1,000 if two names were guessed correctly, and then $2,000 if three names were guessed correctly. If all four names were guessed correctly, the contestant won $5,000. However, in the event that each of the celebrities guessed the name after only one clue (four clues in total), the contestant won $10,000.

Players competed until either losing twice or exceeding ABC's winnings limit of $20,000 (but were allowed to keep winnings of up to $25,000).

Syndicated

Peck's version was played very similar to the ABC version, but with a few changes to accommodate the syndicated series (since the then-standard process of "bicycling" tapes shuffled the airings from city to city and made returning champions impractical). Two contestants played on Monday and Tuesday of a particular week, while two more played on Wednesday and Thursday. In a tournament fashion, the highest scorers from those games played each other on Friday. Instead of cash being awarded on a scale for each correct answer, every answer scored only one point, regardless of the number of clues necessary, with five winning the game. Correct answers were worth $100 on the Monday–Thursday shows and $200 on Fridays, but these payouts were not reflected in the scoring.

If the game ended in a tie due to time running out, the player who needed fewer clues during the course of the game was declared the winner.

The Bonus Board was played exactly the same as the ABC run for $5,000 in cash on Monday–Thursday shows. The Friday game, which was harder than the rest of the week, was played for $10,000 in prizes. This time, the player was allowed a maximum of five clues.

Broadcast history

KTLA (1962–1963)

You Don't Say! began as a local series on Los Angeles station KTLA in November 1962 with Jack Barry, still in exile from the networks in the wake of the 1950s quiz show scandals, as host.

NBC (1963–1969)

You Don't Say! moved to NBC's afternoon lineup on April 1, 1963, at 3:30 PM Eastern (2:30 Central) with Tom Kennedy replacing Barry as host. For most of its run, the show placed a solid second against the popular CBS soap The Edge of Night and numerous weak ABC soap operas. A nighttime version in 1964 was not as successful, running from January 7 to May 12.

On July 15, 1968, One Life to Live debuted on ABC at 3:30/2:30 and was a ratings success. In what may have been the largest housecleaning of its daytime schedule ever, NBC dropped You Don't Say! and three other games ( Personality , Eye Guess , and The Match Game ) on September 26, 1969. Replacing You Don't Say! on the lineup was the serial Bright Promise , which ran until 1972.

KTLA (1975)

The 1975 revival was also given a trial run on KTLA, airing on Sunday nights from April to June 1975. Originally hosted by local radio personality Clark Race with Kennedy as a regular panelist, these roles were reversed later in the show's brief run.

ABC (1975)

With CBS' revival of Match Game bringing celebrity games back into popularity, Andrews managed to interest ABC in a similar revival of You Don't Say! Kennedy was called upon to reassume his role as the show's host, doing so ten days after ending a three-year stint on ABC's Split Second ; the show entered ABC's schedule on July 7 at 4:00 PM (3:00 Central), replacing The Money Maze . However, many affiliates either tape-delayed the network feed until the next morning or preempted the 4:00/3:00 slot entirely, garnering low ratings for the revival despite facing NBC's soap opera Somerset and two low-rated CBS games, Musical Chairs and Give-n-Take .

Meanwhile, CBS' The Edge of Night had been its lowest-rated soap opera since a move in 1972 to 2:30/1:30. With As the World Turns set to expand to a full hour, the network decided to oust the 19-year-old show (which debuted on the same day As The World Turns did in 1956 and packaged by the same company). In the first instance of a daytime serial moving to another network, Procter and Gamble Productions agreed to CBS' terms and moved The Edge of Night to ABC. ABC, desperate to get some affiliates back on board, banked on the show's instant familiarity and decided that the only viable slot for that show was 4:00/3:00.

On November 28, You Don't Say! ended its five-month run, giving way to The Edge of Night the next Monday; as a result, a special Christmas week of shows with children playing, which Tom had plugged on-air during the last few weeks and would have continued the tradition from the NBC era, was never seen. According to an ABC press release dated November 6, 1975, You Don't Say! was slated to return to ABC's daytime schedule at a later time, but for unknown reasons, this never occurred.

Syndicated (1978–1979)

You Don't Say! returned on September 18, 1978, as a daily syndicated series, with Viacom Enterprises serving as the co-producer. However, due to Tom Kennedy hosting Name That Tune , the hosting reins were taken instead by Jim Peck.

This version did not sell to many markets, and those who ran it tended to do so in non-peak slots (save for WPIX in New York, which aired it at 8:30 PM as part of a primetime syndicated game show block with the premiering Tic Tac Dough and reruns of the syndicated editions of Let's Make a Deal and To Tell the Truth , as did KHJ-TV in Los Angeles). With little to no promotion, the show ended its run completely before even making it through the first half of 1979.

Music

Composer Rex Koury was the musical director for the 1960s version, leading a small combo in the studio consisting of organ, xylophone and harp. Koury would play appropriate music after each name was guessed, or a generic "win cue" when a game was won.

Stan Worth composed the theme for the 1970s versions, called "Downwind".

Related Research Articles

<i>Match Game</i> American television game show

Match Game is an American television panel game show that premiered on NBC in 1962 and has been revived several times over the course of the last six decades. The game features contestants trying to match answers given by celebrity panelists to fill-in-the-blank questions. Beginning with the CBS run of the 1970s, the questions are often formed as humorous double entendres.

<i>Card Sharks</i> American television game show

Card Sharks is an American television game show. It was created by Chester Feldman for Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions. The game features two contestants who attempt to predict the outcome of survey questions to gain control of a row of oversized playing cards, then determine whether the next card drawn is higher or lower. The title Card Sharks is a play on the term "card sharp", a person skilled at card games.

<i>Pyramid</i> (franchise) American game show

Pyramid is an American game show franchise that has aired several versions domestically and internationally. The show was developed by Bob Stewart. The original series, The $10,000 Pyramid, debuted on March 26, 1973, and spawned seven subsequent Pyramid series. Most later series featured a full title format matching the original series, with the title reflecting an increasing top prize. The game features two contestants, each paired with a celebrity. In the game, the contestants and celebrities attempt to identify words or phrases through clues given by their teammates. The title refers to the show's pyramid-shaped gameboard, featuring six categories arranged in a triangular fashion. The various Pyramid series have won a total of nine Daytime Emmys for Outstanding Game Show, second only to Jeopardy!, which has won 13.

<i>Name That Tune</i> American music game show

Name That Tune is an American television music game show. Originally created and produced by orchestra conductor Harry Salter and his wife Roberta Semple Salter, the series features contestants competing to correctly identify songs being played by an on-stage orchestra or band.

<i>Password</i> (American game show) American television game show

Password is an American television game show in which two teams, each composed of a celebrity player and a contestant, attempt to convey mystery words to each other using only single-word clues, in order to win cash prizes.

<i>Win, Lose or Draw</i> American television game show

Win, Lose or Draw is an American television game show that aired from 1987 to 1990 in syndication and on NBC. It was taped at CBS Television City, often in Studios 31, 33, and 43 at various times. It was co-produced by Burt & Bert Productions and Kline & Friends for Disney's Buena Vista Television. It has also had two versions on The Disney Channel: Teen Win, Lose or Draw from 1989 to 1992, and a revived version known as Disney's Win, Lose or Draw which aired in 2014. New York described Win, Lose or Draw as "a knockoff" of the board game Pictionary, however, Burt Reynolds and Ed McMahon referred to playing the game at Burt's home during the August 2, 1978 episode of The Tonight Show, with Johnny Carson, three years before Pictionary was created.

The Joker's Wild is an American television game show that aired at different times between 1972 and 2019. In the show, contestants answer questions based on categories determined randomly by a mechanism resembling a slot machine. The show's title refers to the game's slot-machine mechanism also having jokers.

<i>Now You See It</i> (American game show) American TV series or program

Now You See It is an American television game show created by Frank Wayne for Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions. The object of Now You See It is to answer general knowledge trivia questions by finding the answers hidden in a grid, similar to a word search puzzle.

<i>Jackpot</i> (game show) American game show

Jackpot is an American and Canadian television game show produced by Bob Stewart which saw contestants attempting to solve riddles in order to win cash and prizes.

<i>Go</i> (game show) American TV series or program

Go is an American television game show created by Bob Stewart and aired on NBC from October 3, 1983, to January 20, 1984. The show featured two teams, each composed of four contestants and a celebrity. The teams had to construct questions one word at a time to convey a word or phrase to their teammates. The concept of Go was based on "Instant Reaction", an endgame played on two different iterations of another game show created by Bob Stewart, Chain Reaction - in 1980 on NBC and from 2006 to 2007 on GSN.

<i>Body Language</i> (game show) American game show

Body Language is an American game show produced by Mark Goodson Productions. The show aired on CBS from June 4, 1984, until January 3, 1986, and was hosted by Tom Kennedy. Johnny Olson announced until his death in October 1985; Gene Wood and Bob Hilton shared the announcing duties afterward, having substituted on occasion before then.

<i>Split Second</i> (game show) American game show

Split Second is an American game show that was created by Monty Hall and Stefan Hatos and produced by their production company, Stefan Hatos-Monty Hall Productions.

<i>Tic-Tac-Dough</i> American game show

Tic-Tac-Dough is an American television game show based on the paper-and-pencil game of tic-tac-toe. Contestants answer questions in various categories to put up their respective symbol, X or O, on the board. Three versions were produced: the initial 1956–59 run on NBC, a 1978–86 run initially on CBS and then in syndication, and a syndicated run in 1990. The show was produced by Barry & Enright Productions.

<i>Blackout</i> (game show) American television game show

Blackout is an American game show that was broadcast on CBS as part of its daytime schedule from January 4, 1988 until April 1, 1988. The program was created and produced by Jay Wolpert. The game features two contestants, each paired with a celebrity. Contestants attempt to solve word puzzles consisting of a sentence or short paragraph with four blank spaces. Players guess each missing word based on hearing clues recorded by their partner, but with the playback being muted or "blacked out" at certain places by their opponent.

<i>Caesars Challenge</i> American television game show

Caesars Challenge is an American game show that aired on NBC from June 14, 1993, to January 14, 1994, and was recorded at the Circus Maximus Theatre of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ahmad Rashad hosted the series and, in keeping with the theme of the show's location, he was assisted by a man dressed as a Roman gladiator. Dan Doherty played the role for most of the show's run, with Chad Brown and Zach Ruby handling the earliest episodes before Doherty joined the show.

To Say the Least is an American game show that aired on NBC from October 3, 1977 to April 21, 1978. The show was produced by Heatter-Quigley Productions, hosted by Tom Kennedy and announced by Kenny Williams.

<i>The Price Is Right</i> (1956 American game show) American game show

The Price Is Right is an American game show produced by Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions, wherein contestants placed successive bids on merchandise prizes with the goal of bidding closest to each prize's actual retail price without surpassing it. The show was a precursor to the current and best-known version of the program, which premiered in 1972 on CBS's daytime schedule. It makes The Price Is Right one of only a few game show franchises to have aired in some form across all three of the Big Three television networks.

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.

Snap Judgment is an American daytime game show hosted by Ed McMahon and announced by Johnny Olson which ran on NBC from April 3, 1967, to March 28, 1969, at 10:00 AM Eastern. The program was created and produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman.

<i>Password Plus</i> and <i>Super Password</i> American television game shows

Password Plus and Super Password are American TV game shows that aired separately between 1979 and 1989. Both shows were revivals of Password, which originally ran from 1961 to 1975 in various incarnations. With only subtle differences between them, both Password Plus and Super Password retained the format of play as their predecessor, with two teams of two people each—a celebrity and a contestant—attempting to guess a mystery word using only one-word clues. A new feature included a series of five passwords as clues to an overarching puzzle for the teams to solve.

References

  1. Hyatt, Wesley (1997). The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television. Watson-Guptill Publications. p. 476. ISBN   978-0823083152 . Retrieved 22 March 2020.