We believe the time line was, Joker's Wild was cancelled and Barry & Enright needed something new. This would eventually turn into Bullseye! Enjoy this very rare pilot!
The X shaped lever to spin the wheels was different. Not as dramatic as the big slot lever from The Joker’s Wild. Barry & Enright must have bought out Hollywood’s stock of slide projectors for all of their game shows.
The theme tune used here was “Pressure Cooker” on the album “Big Band Moog”. The intro to the song sounds quite a bit like the Break the Bank theme. My guess is that Jack Barry used this track again, on the BtB pilot, and when that show went to series, he had Stu Levin record a soundalike. Barry would do the same with Bullseye, which used a commercial track for the pilot and a Hal Hidey soundalike for the series theme.
The intro is identical. That point where Jack is introduced, the melody stops, and you only hear the percussion, is very reminiscent of the point on the BtB intro where the celebrities are introduced. The chord changes are similar...
@@joeambrose3260 Cool from back in the day when The Jokers Wild was filmed from Studios 31 and 33 aka The Bob Barker Studio at CBS Television City until Joker moved to the old KCOP-TV studio until 1986 respectively with Tic Tac Dough.
I can see why this was re-worked into Bullseye. A single game could go on forever, as there's so possibilities that lead to $0 turns. At least with Bullseye the game definitely advances after every correct answer.
Double Cross pilot's theme song (Big Band Moog - Pressure Cooker) used to be on RU-vid. Sadly, the user who uploaded that video was removed. So it's impossible to listen to the theme song anywhere again.
Rare episode of the great Mr. Jack Barry was originally telecast on CBS in the 1970's and I prefer him on The Joker's Wild was his most notable from his old game show days. Can "Mr. Quizzer" from Me-TV's Toon In With Me could possibly host "Double Cross".
Bullseye was to be the first $1,000,000 game show, but that was grossly reduced before the premiere. Jim Langue would ultimately host the first show of that kind regardless.
Always fascinating to see these early-stages-of-familiar-shows pilots. You can definitely feel like this is a less polished mid-70s Bullseye, spliced with some Joker's Wild aesthetics and other B-E staples, like the choose-your-own-category idea that would pop up in similar form in Play the Percentages. I actually find this take on Bullseye's pot building and question contracts pretty fun. The idea that you can gamble in two ways, by rolling the category wheels to rack up higher value questions and different categories, and also by playing as many questions as you want, is a novel one I would have liked to see realized in another show.
I'm guessing that the game board tech was modified slide projectors with spinning wheels that were controlled by custom electronics. The same type of thing that was used Joker's Wild and/or Press Your Luck (the latter was done by CBS Stage Electronics; not too sure about the former).
As you can see if a person does not like a category, they can keep on changing their minds until they wind up pushing the show into The Young and the Restless. What I would do is if you don't like a category you can play the category anyway or you can change your mind one last time and take the risk but you have to play that second choice. And who knows, you might actually get right answers.
Definitely should have been a limit on how many spins and if it were my show: when you spin again the money doesn't carry over and the dollar amounts in the windows get reduced.
What are the titles of the pieces of music for the player introduction, main game win, and bonus round win? I thought the main theme was sad. After hearing the cue for the bonus round win, I got teary-eyed.
It always amazes me what similar elements exist among the different B&E game shows of the 70s. The randomness of how categories are selected, the risks involved to the contestants, especially in the end games, and how smoothly the game flowed.
That was fun. I am glad they corrected the rules when Bullseye came on TV. They could have made it a 4 digit readout when they were banking. I love the pilot other than that.
Thanks, Wink. I looked at the female contestant and guessed flight attendant and was correct when Johnny Jacobs stated that she was one. However, I was wrong about the male contestant. I guessed some type of athlete, but, of course, I was wrong.
This looks like it could have made it because it combined elements of Joker which was cancelled by CBS and not syndicated yet and Bullseye not born yet. Then again with the return of Joker, it was good they made a separate show out of Bullseye.
@@KevinMCombes I agree. Two question choices of both category and value, as well as a mandatory contract before deciding whether to take the cash or risk it. Of course, taking money meant you were guaranteed to get something on top of parting gifts (though now that's not always the case: some of ABC's "Fun and Games" game shows do NOT give money to challengers/shut-out players as "To Tell The Truth" now gives NO cash for wrong votes).
I also noticed that this pilot was recycled into the "Fast Forward" categories on "The Joker's Wild", where a contestant could answer as many questions, provided they kept answering correctly, otherwise their score went back to their original number, prior to their spin.
This clearly evolved into Bullseye, without the fast forward type risk or bad spin. Bonus round of course is the avoid the bad guy and win a prize package.
How often does a Barrry & Enright show have to use that "worn out" Break the Bank theme? That's the thing with Barry (Enright I wouldnt be surprised either), I wouldn't be surprised if it was either his way, or the highway.
A lot of people would disagree. They only used it on Break the Bank and the special 1M ToC of TJW. This was the original song that Stu Levin based it off of, and its at least a little catchy. Its not random beeps and boops like The Jokers Wild normal theme. So, to answer your question, twice.
The problem with the stuff Barry-Enright did in the 70s was all the recycling of ideas. They missed a trick with this one really as the whole ramping up of money value for the questions was a great idea, but I suspect anyone viewing the pilot will have dismissed it as too similar to what went before early on, which is a pity.
