Hard to believe that Geoff Edwards covered the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, and was interviewed by NBC's Tom Pettit after it had just happened...
Too bad Geoff had to make that promo announcement for “another world” expanding to a one hour format. That’s the kind of change that eroded daytime and slowly took a number of game shows off the schedule.
I've been trying to remember this literally for years.... The only thing I could really remember was the way the 15 people were set up on those risers.... Then I stumbled across this video and it all came back. Thanks for helping me solve a riddle that's been bugging me for the longest time!
$38,750 in 1975 = $194,500 in 2021. Nice payout! And gawd those noo yawk / noo joyzee accents are the sound of my childhood. I miss those days. BONUS TRIVIA - the 1974-1975 season of Jackpot was shot studio 8H at Rockefeller Center. Just a few months later that would become the home of a brand new live-broadcast sketch comedy program currently in its 46th season on NBC
I found this show (which I haven't seen in well over 40 years) to be exciting and laugh out loud funny. And watched the whole video without drifting off to some other clip. This should come back to TV ASAP!
Sad that nearly all the mid-1970s "JackPot" shows from NBC were "wiped" (videotape was reused), and the original episodes are lost. This was actually a fun show to watch, and I loved when Geoff gave what should've been the correct answer when a contestant was wrong. If the answer Geoff gave seemed awful, the camera panned right in his face during a chorus of boos from the audience. Probably Geoff's best daytime series.
I just commented elsewhere that this was my favorite series of his, and was arguably his best work. I might say "The New Treasure Hunt" was in second place, but sometimes the teasing could be eye-rollingly over the top. 🙂
The 1985-88 version, aired on USA Network in America and Global in Canada, hosted by Mike Darrow (of Dream House and The $128,000 Question) and taped in Toronto (home of the 2019 NBA Champion Toronto Raptors, Renee Paquette’s favorite NBA team), is the best-known of the three incarnations!
Jackpot! was taped in legendary Studio 8H at Rockefeller Center. This show has an air date of January 3, 1975, which means it was likely taped in late 1974. Saturday Night Live premiered in Late 1975 from 8H and has occupied the studio ever since. If you take the 30 Rock tour they take you to Studio 8H. Sometimes you get to go inside, and sometimes you can only look through the big window behind the audience risers up on the 9th floor. In either instance it's fun to see the giant studio, and envision the Jackpot! set with it's big blue cyclorama occupying that entire space. Think of how much fun those contestants must have had running back and forth in that legendary television production space. And they had no idea Saturday Night Live would soon call it home for the next 45 years.
What's really amazing is... Geoff Edwards was a DJ over KMPC Los Angeles and - he was also doing Treasure Hunt during this time out of LA. So, he had to commute 3,000 miles to do this show as well. WOW!
I attended a taping of the show around that time. They would tape on weekends given Geoff Edwards busy schedule. There was a later run of the show taped in Los Angeles.
This was amazing to watch in such great quality. In case anyone is wondering, with inflation that Super Jackpot was worth nearly $195,000 in 2021 dollars.
Need to bring this game back with these same rules, (target number, multiplier, amounts added before riddle was revealed, and so on). This was a great game. Fun and exciting.
I would've started each game with $100 in the Jackpot. Also, a riddle in the Super Jackpot gateway wallet, so the expert must still solve two riddles: the one the player holds (Target match or Super Jackpot gateway) and the one Geoff holds, to win the Super Jackpot. Finally, Jackpot riddler and Expert switch places regardless of solving the riddle or not.
I was surprised when she said "Down payment" My father bought a huge house in '74 for approximately $29,000 I'm assuming that she is probably going to purchase a home in Queens or suburban Connecticut. Were they really that much, even back then?
Biggest super jackpot I recall was 995 x 50 for $49,750. Not won. Great show, great concept. Indeed should be revived. RiP Geoff and Don. Both in 2014.
Good thing Jackpot! aired on NBC4 something WSM-TV was at that time.Unfortunately,the same couldn’t be said for Jeopardy! hosted by Art Fleming since the station didn’t give on its Noon show.
For some reason, Geoff Edwards' explanation of the answer to the "Super Jackpot" riddle got clipped out. The riddle was "I'm a Carpenter and he's a Shepard, but we were both in the same line of work. What line of work were we in?". The answer was "Astronauts": Both Alan Shepard and Scott Carpenter were members of the Mercury 7. Shepard also landed on the moon in early 1971, when he hit a golf ball on the surface of the moon (he's best remembered for this). I don't think anyone at NBC knew this yet, I believe both Shepard and Carpenter would be involved in the network's coverage of the joint U.S. Russian Apollo/Soyuz space mission that summer; Shepard worked alongside Jim Hartz and John Chancellor on NBC television' while Carpenter worked with Jay Barbree an Russ Ward on NBC Radio.
Adjusted for inflation, if she answered the same "Super Jackpot" riddle in 2019, she'd have won over $185,000 dollars. No wonder she was SO excited on this one.
It was actually composed by Michael Vickers, formerly of Manfred Mann. Sample Opening: “How ya doin’? This is Mel Allen, and we got a baggage full of stuff ready for you! The defending World Series Champion Boston Red Sox are running out of time to repeat as World Champions, but has time run out for them? The Chicago Cubs are on a roll right now, but do they have what it takes to win their second World Series in 4 years? And Bryce and Kayla Harper become the proud parents of a new baby boy. We’ll have the latest on this late-breaking story. So get your baggage ready! Cause we got a cabin to go to right now on This Week in Baseball!”
He was the single most creative talent in the history of game shows. Besides Jackpot, he created To Tell the Truth, The Price Is Right, Password, Pyramid, and many other great games.
It's from Friday January 3 1975 and also has a clip of gene Rayburn match game cbs on nbc one of the 1st time match game went on The same 2 stations a promo for whell of fortune was on this as well
Funny that this episode is in its entirety but I can see reasons why. Two to be exact. The Super Jackpot win that is now in 2024 dollars $226000, and that fairy comment that gave me a hell of a chuckle. Can't believe that fairy got slipped by, and I know the SJWs will say it's offensive. Poppycock. I got a good laugh. Nothing wrong with it.
I understand only 2 episodes of this show survive? Also interesting is the fact that the theme music was later co-opted by the iconic syndicated "This Week in Baseball" show with Mel Allen that ran from 1977 into the 2000s.
January 3, 1975 was also the same day that the final episodes of the original "Jeopardy!" with the late Art Fleming and "Name that Tune" hosted by the late Dennis James aired and were replaced by "Wheel of Fortune" by original hosts Chuck Woolery and Susan Stafford and "Blank Check" hosted by the late Art James, three days later. RIP Geoff Edwards and Don Pardo
Worst mistake Lin Bolen made, along with the malfunctioning marble machine, the (not so) fun factory, and the gong show (which was too controversial for daytime audiences). Bringing back Jeopardy (for a short run) and the addiction of card sharks and a improved edition high rollers helped NBC get back their back to the top of the daytime ratings.
And Wheel of Fortune has been on TV ever since--in case you forgot! Some-day You Tube will come up with all those other old Jackpot episodes from 1974, as another person requested. Note that the numbers turned from left to right, starting with a blank, followed by 1 to 9, and then to 0 (zero). That's eleven options for each rotating digit! Geoff Edwards also hosted Lucky Pair, a forgotten game show that aired in Los Angeles in the late 60's-early 70's!
Does anyone know the title of the theme music? It's canned music "Production music." This particular song was also used for a while on "This Week In Baseball" in the mid 70s.
My VERSION of Jackpot would be much different! I would have 2 contestants answer riddles correctly to spell the word JACKPOT! For each correct riddle & a letter is $1,000 & for all 7 letters $25,000 then to the bonus game for $100,000 & A NEW CAR!!
I'm curious as to what this was recorded with. We all know NBC wiped the masters. And the first Betamax recorders didn't hit the market for another 4 months. Home recording was almost unheard of at this time.
Sorry, but this as far as I know was the only full episode that survived "wiping," a common practice in television back then (see Wikipedia on "Wiping"). Also....later on, the riddles were gone and replaced with Hollywood Squares-style questions, which was their "jump-the-shark" moment. I watched this show, at least when I wasn't in school.
Blame that bad wardrobe idea on NBC daytime programmer Lin Bolen. As for Geoff, consider that he also wore tuxes on "The New Treasure Hunt" in weekly nighttime syndication during that same era.
Geoff Edwards' wardrobe is exactly what I remember the most about this game show. Made him look similar to then-American Basketball Association head coaches Larry Brown and Doug Moe.
Is that the late Geoff Edwards?! Where.s his tuxedo from Treasure Hunt?! Or is that Paul Lynde.s twin brother?! By the way Robin Hoods FAIRIES?! HAHA 😂 I.ll bet Archie Bunker & Paul Lynde would of had a ball with that.
That wardrobe was the result of a mandate by NBC’s head of daytime programming, Lin Bolen. She also meddled in the Jackpot! format, changing feom riddles to Hollywood Squares-esque questions. Within months, Jackpot! was history.
9:58 Super Jackpot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This show should be brought back (with of course, with a new host) in it's original format, with two exceptions: Contestants wouldn't share the "Jackpots" and "Super Jackpots". Instead, for example, if a "Jackpot" is $1,700, both the contestant correctly answering the "Jackpot riddle" and the contestant asking it would each win $1,700; and if a "Super Jackpot" is $38.750, and if it's correctly answered, then both the contestant correcting answering a "Super Jackpot riddle" would each win $38,750. With inflation being what it has been since 1974-75, producers of the revival certainly could afford to do it. The second exception is that there would be a "Super Jackpot Riddle" every week, so every group of sixteen contestants would have a shot.
