The Joker's Wild (First Pilot; December 8, 1968) 

This is such an archival video. Clearly, a better video copy of the pilot yet. I will watch anything with Allen Ludden in it. It was like watching him emcee an episode of Password. He was a stinking legend! I wish and hope other episodes from 1969 are available.

This is a great video. Thank you so much for posting it. I had read about the existence of this pilot more than 20 years ago, but I never thought I would actually see it...wonderful! I’m a huge Rosemary Clooney fan, and will provide some commentary on Rosie: In July of 1968, the year of this pilot, Rosie was hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital after suffering a devastating nervous breakdown onstage. After she was released, she began to gain a lot of weight due to the medications that her doctor prescribed and consumption of too many calories. In October of 1968, she taped cameo appearances for Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. Subsequently, she taped this Joker’s Wild pilot. This was an incredible difficult time for Rosie... dealing with tremendous financial, career and personal problems, but she actually handles it quite well. Take a look at Rosie’s response to Pat Paulsen at 1:20- 1:26. Also, you can hear Rosie’s distinctive laugh occasionally throughout the show. If you have any other videos featuring Rosemary Clooney, I’d love to see them!!!

ALLEN LUDDEN IS A GREAT GUY

In between his Password Years.

Outstanding game show from 1968, Allen Ludden was awesome hosting The Joker's Wild!

Dan Enright had nothing to do with the development of The Joker's Wild as he was if I'm not mistaken in Canada; it was all Jack Barry - and he deserves credit for never giving up all the way to the time CBS agreed to put the series on the air. These two pilots and the Honeymoon Game didn't fair well, but the local version on KTLA back in 1971 (which had three contestants instead of two) was the seed needed to go national.

Rich Little is still with us as of June 18th 2022! All the others are gone but not forgotten....but Rich is still around! I'd love to ask him about this episode.

They forgot to give the answer to the music question that Carol hilariously guessed "The wristwatches". Pretty sure it was the Strawberry Alarm Clock. Also, holy crap did that guy botch Paul McCartney's name. I'm surprised they accepted his answer.

"From Hollywood, here is the game where knowledge is king and Lady Luck is queen. It's "The Joker's Wild". And here is the host of our show, Allen Ludden!"

Would be nice to win 1,000 gallons of gas nowadays.

I noticed that this first pilot of the Joker's Wild was in Black and White B&W rather than Color

Why does Pat Paulsen look like the most depressed man in histotry?

This is the highest quality version of the pilot I’ve ever seen!

The time buzzer is the same used in Barry's version starting in 1977 and later on Tic-Tac-Dough in 1982.

Thank goodness they didn't go with format with the celebrity panel asking the questions!

1968 pilot.. That is the season of the 58 2/3 consecutive innings of no-run baseball hurled by the TWIN D..Later in 1988 that record was broken by another LA DODGER= OREL "BULLDOG" HERSHISER= 59 innings in a more hitter friendly decade than in 1960's seasons. But.. Drysdale threw 6 straight complete game shutouts..another record that has yet to be broken, not even by HERSHISER..

I can imagine the living categories format combined with the second format of "Play the Percentages" being used on "The Hollywood Connection" instead of the Match Game rip-off they used.

That's definitely different. I'm used to the Jack Barry episodes.

Awesome moog theme

Great celebrities, but it's weird seeing Allen Ludden hosting this show.

This honestly isnt too different from the finalized formula. Its very close honestly!

That famous Beatle Paul Mack Courtney.

Carol has comedy movie star qualities.

21:56 - yes there are natural triples spun too but no bonus for that here.

Only rich little is only alive am I correct

Poor Allen, saddled with this unstomachable smorgasbord

I never knew Ludden hosted the pilot .

0:53, Here Comes Allen

LOVE!!! Oh mylanta, that was great! I love Allen Louden and to see him when he was so young. Man, Rosemary Kluney! I knda wish they had kept this format with the stars repping the categories. Probably was expensive though. I love the winners spot where they pull the lever to see what prizes they get. Man, I was laughing through this whole thing.

It's always interesting to see where iconic games got their start, but in this case, Jack Barry really overthought this format in its infancy. I don't think the idea of answering questions from all of the categories is such a bad one in isolation, it's got shades of what would go into Double Cross and ultimately Bullseye, but the celebrities are entirely unnecessary. The number of changes the CBS version went through early in its run show it still wasn't ready when it did get picked up, but when it finally did get into a stable state, it was a game that showed simplicity was the way to go all along.

I'm surprised Allen Ludden hosted a version of The Joker's Wild.

I see that this is the first appearance of the iconic eggcrate display.

Rich little

Wow, maid service as one of the prizes at the end!! Looks like that surprised everyone else too. Did any other game show of the time, or any time, offer that??

Really mccourtney

Do they have a bonus round on the pilot episode???

Nice to see Irene Ryan! But Rich Little was tediously unfunny imo.

What is a marketing consultant

Damn, didnt he ever have dark hair? I guess you could call his hair color ...Betty White.

Is there ANY voices Rich Little cannot do??

which celebrities are still alive

what is a tax accountant

Too bad, that there was no bonus round where you can win money and avoid the Devil.

Rich little