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"I got to Goodson-Todman in a roundabout way. In August '56, I was out of work, and I bumped into Monty Hall on the street. He said, 'I know the attorney who represents Goodson and Todman. You got any ideas?'" --Bob Stewart, as quoted in The Box |
Of course he did. Bob Stewart was one of the Game Show World's most significant contributors. He is credited with creating and/or producing at least 18 game show concepts that aired nationally. He began working for Goodson-Todman Productions in 1956, an association that would continue until 1965, when he formed his own production company.
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"I was staff producer at WRCA in New York, now WNBC. I practically begged the station manager to let me put on this game show I created called The Auctioneer. I go the idea from an auction I used to watch on Fiftieth Street during my lunch hour... [The Auctioneer] later became The Price Is Right." --Bob Stewart, as quoted in The Box |
On The Price is Right, he worked with two people that would be long-time workers for Bob Stewart Productions: host Bill Cullen and musical director Bob Cobert. Cullen was a young, aspiring comedian who had an aptitude for hosting, and being a panelist on, game shows. Cobert would score many BSP themes of the 70s and 80s. Stewart was also the mastermind behind Password, a simple word-association game using just one-word clues. Stewart would be unsuccessfully replaced by Jack Barry at G-T, who had been shunned from television from the quiz show scandals.
Stewart's first venture after Goodson-Todman
was the successful Eye Guess (hosted by Bill Cullen), which spent
nearly 4 years on the NBC daytime lineup. The success wasn't long
lasting, as the primetime show The Face is Familiar ended up a
disappointment for him. Broadway Actor Larry Blyden hosted the celebrity
game Personality, and a second short-lived show, You're Putting
Me On, completed the 60s for the new executive producer.
In 1969, Stewart had no shows on network schedules, so he was working on new ideas. Second Guessers, a game with an interesting concept marred by very cheap production values and a poor host (Jack Carter) did not sell. Stewart would produce no more shows until 1971. Although Says Who, a game almost exactly like The Match Game but using personality traits of the celebrities and contestants didn't sell, Three on a Match, a True and False Q&A game show with Concentration-like aspects, was sold to NBC and stayed on the schedule for over three years.
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"I presented Mark [Goodson] an idea called Three of a Kind, which later became To Tell The Truth... "I brought in three people. One of them had been in the infantry in World War II and was now managing a grocery store. Mark brought some of his producerts and they questioned these people for fifteen minutes. Then they had to vote separately. I said, "Before you vote, if anybody is positive about who the real person is, raise your hand." Nobody did. The show went on that December." --Bob Stewart, as quoted in The Box |
1972 would be another quiet year for the
young production company, as one pilot, The $10,000 Sweep, did
not sell. However, that would soon change, as Sweep evolved
into Stewart's most famous game show just one year later.
The next year, Jackpot, a game of
riddles, would premiere on NBC. The top prize of $50,000 was never
won ($38,750 was the highest win). On March 29, 1974, Pyramid
was suddenly cancelled by CBS. ABC was eager to add Pyramid
to its schedule, and did so on May 6 of that year. Bob Stewart sold
another big-money game show called Winning Streak to NBC, promising
contestants a chance at over $100,000 (the copy in the trading circuit
had a top win of $2,120). The show's rules were too confusing for
many viewers, and lasted only 6 months. In September 1974, BSP decided
to begin to syndicate a new weekly game show: The $25,000 Pyramid.
Played like The $10,000 Pyramid, the nighttime version offered
more money, and even later, a new car. Blankety Blanks would
come and go after two months in 1975.
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"On Password, we had to decide whether or not to show the word on the screen. Finally, we decided that we had to because for the people at home much of the humor came from their knowing it while the panelists didn't. The show also had Jack Clark whispering, "The password is." He did that for my mother. She was a Jewish immigrant who couldn't read English. I knew that she would watch the show and that she and some of my other relatives couldn't read." --Bob Stewart, as quoted in The Box |
Although no new concepts debuted in 1976, it would prove to be an important year for BSP. On January 19, the sign on the giant pyramid changed to reflect the new title: The $20,000 Pyramid. Truly, nothing changed except a slightly revised payout structure if a bonus round was won. However, the bigger news was that Pyramid had become the third-highest rated game show on daytime television for the '75-'76 season, finishing behind ABC's Break the Bank and CBS' Match Game 76. Pyramid remained in the third position through the '77-'78 season, until succumbing to the pressure of NBC's Wheel of Fortune. Pyramid was the only BSP show to ever climb to the top 3 in network ratings.
Three new concepts marked the 1977 season.
Shoot for the Stars was sold to NBC the year before and began broadcasting
January 3, 1977. This game was about finding popular sayings that
had two words concealed through synonyms (i.e. "Fast as a Light"
would be "Quick as a Flash") and lasted nine months. A
new word-association game was being planned, and it involved two celebrities
that formed a question, one word at a time, for their contestant partner.
This concept would lead to a pilot called Get Rich Quick, hosted
by Steve Edwards. The main game was based on this format, and had
a very odd bonus round. Although Get Rich Quick didn't make
it to air, the same elements would appear again in the future. BSP
also made another unsold pilot called The Riddlers, a game similar
to Jackpot but with a team of five contestants against a team of
five celebrities.
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"It was fun to work at Goodson-Todman. I was a top producer. I made great money, but it frustrated me that I couldn't determine my own fate. Mark always had the final say. I had this idea where you name of series of things and I've got to tell you what you are talking about. Somebody would say, "a photograph, a license, a social security card," and I'd say, "things in a wallet." Mark didn't like the idea, and it frustrated me that I couldn't get it out there. It later became the endgame for The $25,000 Pyramid." --Bob Stewart, as quoted in The Box |
In
1979, the pilot for Chain Reaction was shot. The object of
the game was to make a chain of seven words of word associations, and
the end game used the Get Rich Quick idea. The game was sold
to NBC and had a five-month run that ended June 20, 1980. One week
later, June 27, 1980, would be the last day that The $20,000
Pyramid would air.
The
next project for BSP was a revival of Pyramid. In January
1981, The $50,000 Pyramid premiered in syndication, with lower
payouts but with $50,000 Tournaments, but was gone before the 1981-1982
season began. BSP became the last major game show production company
to move to California from New York after The $50,000 Pyramid left
the airwaves. Three pilots were made in 1982: Caught in
the Act, Twisters and The $25,000 Pyramid. Caught
was a game similar to Pass the Buck with an excellent endgame.
Twisters was an odd game, with a giant shuffleboard table and ten
contestants. Pyramid
was a revival with a tweak that Stewart had tried on a few occasions during
the original network runs: contestants play both games of the day, and
whoever won more money came back on the next show.
The earliest that this tweak is believed to have been tried was
the week of November 19, 1973, which has been aired on Game Show Network.
Although Caught in the Act and Twisters
would never be sold, CBS bought Pyramid and the show premiered
on September 20, 1982. After a few weeks, the name was changed to
The New $25,000 Pyramid to alleviate confusion between the network
version and the syndicated version (which aired in repeats until the mid-1980s).
With the renewed success of Pyramid, BSP reworked Get Rich Quick
for the second time as Go, and it premiered on October 3, 1983.
It was Gone January 20, 1984. In 1984, the "New"
was dropped from the title of The $25,000 Pyramid. In 1985,
Jackpot was revised and begun three years on USA (it was taped
in Toronto, Canada), and a syndicated version of Pyramid hit the
air, The $100,000 Pyramid. This version was exactly like
the network version, except for quarterly $100,000 tournaments for the
three fastest $10,000 or $25,000 winners.
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"I walked out on an awful lot of money. I never got a nickel from any of my shows. Goodson just couldn't understand why I would want to leave. People always think you are doing it for money. Over lunch at the Four Seasons the first thing he said was, "Okay, let's negotiate. What can we give you?" I told him I just wanted to try it myself. He said, "Bob, I've made you my prince." I said, "Mark, I want to be a king." --Bob Stewart, as quoted in The Box |
1986 would mark the final new concept for
BSP, and it was just a reworking of a previous format. Double
Talk was just Shoot for the Stars with a bit more money.
It was gone in four months. December 31, 1987 would be the last
day of The $25,000 Pyramid, replaced by Blackout, but Pyramid
replaced Blackout three months later. It only lasted another
three months. The syndicated version of Pyramid would end
in 1988, also. Jackpot would come back in 1989 in syndication
as a Bob Stewart-Sande Stewart Production.
The show lasted only a year, and when The $100,000 Pyramid
had a 14-month run beginning January 7, 1991, it was a Bob’s son Sande
Stewart as the executive producer, marking the end of BSP on television.
Sande Stewart has had moderate success in the years he has been sole producer. Although Sports on Tap and Remember This, two shows from the mid-1990s, were not hits, he has produced some Game Show Network originals; Inquizition and Hollywood Showdown were two of his more successful shows. The $100,000 Pyramid is coming back to syndication in 2002 with Donny Osmond as host.
Even though BSP hasn't produced a show in twelve years, Bob Stewart's legacy lives on. His best-known creation, The Price is Right, was reworked and has been a daytime staple since 1972. To Tell the Truth just finished a 2-year run in syndication. Password is the best-known word-association game now, which was partly created by Stewart. Reruns of Pyramid are shown daily on Game Show Network, and a new version with a $100,000 Tournament is currently in syndication. The official website of Pyramid is a visual treat.
Stewart may have retired from producing game shows, but his genius lives on.
Biography Updated: 15 Nov 2002
