Merv tried again, but no one was buzzing about Buzzword! Go behind the scenes with TV and radio legend Wink Martindale! Facebook: / winkmartindalegames Twitter: / winkmartindale SUBSCRIBE: bit.ly/1galy1L
So, this is where Wheel of Fortune's car prize cue had its origin. Pretty interesting pilot I'll say. Pity it didn't make it, but at least it had a legacy.
A revamped version of the theme song would later be used for the game show Merv Griffin's Crosswords, the last show he would produce before he died in 2007.
A few things changed and this could have sold. 1. Cash should have been depleting with each letter revealed. 2. The rotating player to stop the letter works. However, anyone can buzz in. 3. Extra is fine. Trigger is fine. Lock out or something should have been in there. 4. They should have had the player stop the traveling light. They should also have been banking it into the prize pack to be up for grabs in an end game. Cash to determine the winner. But the prize package at the end comes throughout the game. 5. Super buzzword should play similar to the last wheel puzzle. Every word you got in the game and a free letter for winning the game is a letter given in the Super buzzword.
Buzzword is one of my favorite game show tunes of all time... and for the first time, while watching a show, I almost felt like the game was just a vehicle for the THEME itself... not a good sign, so bizarre... but not the worst thing I've seen, even from Merv. Thank you for sharing Wink! Been wanting to see this pilot for a long time. It's always fascinating to see these and wonder "what could've been?"
I second that emotion especially before June 6th 2025 which would have been Merv Griffin's 100 birthday and he should get his last game show on The game show Network and his own Roku channel or Pluto TV yeah the Merv Griffin channel
If I may make some request for the following: 2 heads are better than one and duel in the daytime with Peter Tomarkan, all-star BAFFLE with Dick Emberg, big spenders with Pat Harrington, cash tornado with Jim Perry, eye Q with Henry Pollick II, fortune hunters with Bob Hanley, hollywood teasers with Rob Weller, I predict with Monty Hall, $ale of the century (1975) with Joe Garagiola, simon says with Bob Barker, spin-off with Jim Lange, wheel of fortune (1976) with Alex Trebek (sub), winfall with Flint Cole, and wizard of odds with Alex Trebek.
Seems like Merv was obsessed with trying to make that 3rd hit. He struck gold with Wheel of Fortune & Jeopardy but just couldn't get the third jewel of his triple crown: despite several attempts they all failed: Winfall, Buzzword, Monopoly, Headline Chasers (sorry Wink), Crosswords and a few I'm probably forgetting. As far as buzzword goes: it needs tinkering, it gets repetitive fast. A lot of rules aren't properly explained if at all & Ron is very wooden as host. Despite the fact this wasn't great. Thanks as always for sharing these Wink. I especially enjoy seeing stuff that didn't sell.
The good: scrambled words always allow for a play along feature, and not knowing which prize will light up is fun. The giant board is nice, too. The bad: not enough risks or game play unpredictability. I think Merv played it a little too safe there, and there's no way the show could survive with that many high end prizes.
Yawn. The chance to bank a car for unscrambling one word would be pretty amazing in the 1980s. But big prizes or not, dang, this game is slow and painful. Revealing and unscrambling the letters in a word shouldn't take three minutes, but it does. No bueno.
Great find as always @Wink Martindale The set looks slick and high quality but I can see why this didn't sell, it looked too easy and the expensive prizes would break the budget. Plus you have no idea which prize was being selected as the letters are moving around.
Buzz word was okay. The bouncing of the lights goes back to Press Your Luck but I know where the Wheel of Fortune car cue from the 90s came from. Then later used on Merv Griffins crosswords
They didn't mention how the players earn the cash along with the prizes. Which would explain the hundreds of dollars on the player's scoreboards. I would assume a player would be locked out of the rest of the puzzle if they gave an incorrect solution.
Had Buzzword been sold instead of giving away a Ford Mustang we could've give away a lot of cars that were stolen from Classic Concentration hosted Alex Trebek (from Jeopardy in which it was also produced by Merv Griffin) like a Ford Festiva, a Dodge Shadow, an Isuzu I-Mark, a Buick Skyhawk, a hatchback version of the Ford Escort, a Toyota Tercel EZ and more along with Trips to Las Vegas and San Diego, A Home Computer, A Exercise Bike, A Jet Ski and So On.
Well, as Pat Sajak would say as the wheel is about to stop on Bankrupt, Ooooooh Boy!!! I can see why it didn't sell. Should've tried it for syndication with a bit more development.
I like the Merv Griffin's Crosswords theme (which I believe was used originally on Wheel of Fortune), as well as the Red/Yellow/Blue motif, the gameplay is painfully bland with hardly any excitement. I can see why this didn't get launched. 3:34 - Also I love how self-aware Ron was with what he was saying there.
The scrambled word basis is good. The rules are much too complicated, making the game stop and start, thus messing up the pace. WoF has bonus prizes but the main game doesn't stop for a contestant to win them, does it? While the golf cart was being described and the "daisy" was being guessed, the other two contestants could have downed several canapés and a cup of coffee.
K.K., Lance & Julie are the 3 contestants competing on this first/only pilot episode (aired in June 1986) of the American unsold TV show "Buzzword". 🇺🇲 🇺🇲
I don't hate the concept, but the pacing is just too slow for what it is. This would have worked better with fewer delays between rounds and smaller prizes to keep the budget from exploding.
Is it just me or does the host look like a real-life Ken doll? I don't like the fakeness of some game show hosts. It was worse back in the '70s and '80s in my opinion!
Hollywood? When was the last time NBC produced a TV program in Hollywood? They were in Burbank for 40 years, and everything moved to Universal City about 6-7 years ago. Neither of those places is Hollywood, although both of them are Hollywood-adjacent.
So, describe loads of prizes, unscramble a word, get random prize worth random value, describe loads of prizes, unscramble a word, get random prize worth random value...keep going two more times...very...uh...boring.
Of course nobody was abuzz about the show-they must've thought _J!_ and _Wheel_ were enough. At least _Wheel_ found a use for the theme, so that's saying something.
This host is super generic as a type-casted game show host. But I gives that makes sense given it’s a pilot. However, I strongly wish they did a better job with the script for the show. Such a snoozer of a show tho.
Not a good pilot - it deserved not to sell. Boring game, overpriced prizes that would've been cut 50-75% in budget if had gone to series, and lack of variety. NBC was right not to pick this up.
Wink Martindale because premieres are still basically the same as livestreams and Susan Wojcicki was the one who made it happen in 2018 and it’s her fault, sorry but I’d like you to stop premiering things since people love it.
@@WinkMartindaleGames Ok sorry!, how about I’ll say that Premiering videos on RU-vid is still too popular almost not that exciting, and filming and posting is a lot easier and way more sense and exciting than just premiering it.
@@WinkMartindaleGames I think I may have an idea, Wink (or John). You announce these "premieres" in advance and when people click on it and see they have to wait, they get disappointed.