Wow! For television geeks, this is akin to unearthing the Rosetta Stone! If it doesn't result in a 5-10 year stretch, would you mind telling us HOW you acquired this show? Dick Cavett perhaps?
Believe it or not, I can see this game getting rebooted. It was definitely ahead of its time. With some games as wild as like The Wall and Deal or No Deal having been successful, The Money Maze would certainly be successful today.
@@VahanNisanian I would think it depends on whose in the crow's nest and if the runner understands the directions. I remember a clip from one of those bloopers and practical jokes episodes where a woman told her husband to "get the hell out of the maze" when she knew they couldn't win.
I don't think it would. Too much of a bear to shoot, especially in a rented studio. Think about how long it took to have to set up stunts for American Gladiators...
@@VahanNisanian My guess would be 1-2 wins a week. Unlike other shows which can provide easier/tougher material in the end game ("Wheel of Fortune" does have bonus puzzles which are fairly easy and some which are impossible, ditto for "Pyramid", etc.) Due to the massive cost of production for "Moneymaze", I would guess the goal was one big win each week. However, since the "Moneymaze" end game didn't rely on smarts as much as skill, it would be tougher to build in those easier/difficult maze patterns to get big winners each week. The $10,000 win in this show looks like an easier maze, due to the longer straight paths built in. Still, all of those, "RIGHT! NO, LEFT!" calls, required in 60 seconds...make it a challenge even WITH an easy maze. You can try to make for an easier win, but contestants can always gum up the works.
Indeed! He’s truly amazing. But years of watching Letterman means I can’t take him seriously! 😅 (and Whammo sounds just like something they’d make up on the Late Show... 🤣)
@@purplefuku Whammo was not only a bubble gum but also a huge toy company. Hula hoop, etc. It's great to hear him say it. Classic announcer voice. He's a legend in the business.
RU-vid is quite a time machine because it transports me back to 1974 and 1975 (and the first grade) when I watched "Pyramid", "The Big Showdown", and "The Money Maze" after school. Thanks so much for posting this long-lost gem!
Nick was also a news anchor at WKRC-TV12 in Cincinnati. He also voiced the title character in "The Mystery Files of Simon Q", a long-running radio feature.
That’s remarkable game show and George Clooney father was a great game show host and in the near future I like to host a game show to bring back abc game show the money maze.
As great as a game show host as he was, Nick Clooney was an even better news anchor...there's not enough of his work on the internet, period, but as little as there is of him as a game show host, there is little of him as a news anchor that has been preserved on RU-vid and that's very unfortunate.
@@disneyfan8178 The Paley Center episode is a kinescope contributed to the museum by Andy Warhol. I've never seen it but it's listed on their website archive. There's no details as to air date, etc. Allegedly Andy recorded it off his home television screen. The episode posted here is indeed the first episode (and only confirmed existing episode) to surface since 1975. I'm glad it finally did! I didn't post it but some mysterious person did.
What a find! Thanks to the fans who had a Betamax or early Panasonic VHS for doing what ABC failed to do: preserve an episode from a terrific game show the network had erased. Even just an episode or two from the actual run is a treasure. The show was a cancellation victim for two reasons: It was enormously expensive to take apart and build the maze (if the Lincoln Square facility had existed at the time ABC might have been able to keep this studio for "The Moneymaze"). Also ABC's head of daytime of programming wanted to purge any game shows in New York that wouldn't move to Los Angeles. Only Bob Stewart and "The $20,000 Pyramid" had enough clout to stay put. Amazingly, ratings didn't really have much to do with the cancellations of "The Moneymaze" and "The Big Showdown." They were pretty solid. The music for both "The Moneymaze" and "The Big Showdown" was by longtime Goodson-Todman supplier Score Productions. It was Dick Cavett's only foray into producing game shows via his Daphne Productions. The director was Arthur Forrest, longtime director for WNEW-Channel 5's "Wonderama"; he also directed ABC's "Kids Are People, Too."
Yes, they should have moved the show to ABC Television Center in LA at some point despite they're being squeamish. In that event, the new announcer would've been either Johnny Jacobs or Charlie O'Donnell.
Like The Big Showdown, this show is something of a cult classic. Both premiered and cancelled on the same day. This show is the original Masters of the Maze.
Mary Paoli are a very pretty lady who clean sweep this game and with eight seconds left, she cleaned house with total winnings of $22,200, P.S. Mary's husband gave so much encouragement, strong support and partnership resulted this big money maze successful win!!
I actually remember this episode. I remember when one of the prizes was a mink coat. That prize stood out from all the other bonus prizes and I believe was also the most expensive bonus prize. I also remember this was the only time Nick Clooney cried over the contestants’ success. One other episode I remember was a hapless couple who only had two runs at the $10,000 and only won $10 for their troubles. I remember in that couple, the wife was the more domineering one and when she got frustrated at her husband’s poor performance in the maze, she got angry and told him to “get the hell out of the maze.” This was decades before reality programming and a rare instance of poor sportsmanship on a TV game show at that time. Today, poor sportsmanship is all over TV. I grew up in New York when both “The Money Maze” and “The Big Showdown” had their run. I was in fourth grade. I was saddened that both shows were cancelled as New York in the mid-1970s was losing game show tapings to Los Angeles. The head of ABC Daytime Programming was a real douche cancelling both shows because he wanted them in L.A. By the way, I live in Orange County, California now, lol. 😂
Hi Mike T and all! This is the only one I have. I'm sorry I didn't post it sooner but I am glad folks are enjoying it now. This show looks like a lot of fun for everyone involved.
I remember watching the show, although it was on a delayed broadcast on WMAL-TV 7 (now WJLA) in Washington, DC, when there was no school. This was a great show, but deserved a longer run. It was replaced by the short lived revival of You Don’t Say starring Tom Kennedy. Five months later, YDS was replaced by The Edge of Night, which ABC acquired from CBS.
I'm still trying to find out who "All fun and games" is, or if there is a way to send a personal message. I'm not very familiar with the current youtube parameters. Years ago it was possible to send a private message to the person who posted the video. Don Lipp sent me this episode on VHS about 15 or 20 years ago after we established an email friendship. After Don passed away his son sent me some nice emails also. I never shared this video with anyone because Don asked me not to, but I did send a copy to the Paoli family, which Don Lipp approved of. Ever since this episode appeared on youtube I've been dying to know if it was one of the Paoli Family who posted it, one of the Lipp family, or somebody else altogether. It's purely a curiosity. The most important thing is that the whole world can now see at least this one marvelous episode of The Money Maze, which may be the only fully existing episode of the actual broadcast run.
Dave, you are spot on! Thank you so much for sending us this video roughly 20 years ago. It is because of you we have this to share. It was very kind of you to reach out and mail it to us. All we had were stories and memories and it was fantastic to receive a copy to have. I hope it's OK with you that I posted it for the general good of having this as public record. I'm sure anyone who was involved with this show would be glad to see the public enthusiasm - nearly 50 years later.
@@allfunandgames1110 I'm so glad you posted it so every game show fan can see this long lost classic. I have no idea how to get an old VHS recording onto youtube. Thanks.
Hi there, I know that The Money Maze ABC from 1974-1975 is the tapes were erased, but I want to see them so badly, So I want you or someone to upload The Money Maze ABC from December 23,1974 to July 4,1975 with All Episodes in Full Episode not to mention the other websites about this on video at Google Drive, Mega or OneDrive site for me please.
This aired in Buffalo, NY on WKBW-TV after local show- Dialing for Dollars- also Nick was a news anchor back in Buffalo, NY on WGRZ NewsCenter 2 in the late 1980s to early 1990s
@@sparklecanada0112 Nolan Johannes passed away in 2015 at the age of 81 after he left wkbw-tv he went to wnep-tv channel 16 Scranton Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania and that's where he retired in 1996
This is a bitter but sweet memory lane of this show and the Big Showdown. I was 11 years old at the time in the 1974-1975 season when I lost my father at a young age on 3-2-75. Thanks for posting this.
According to the copyright at the end, it was 1974 so it couldn't have been filmed in 1975. Nick Clooney did a solid job as host especially toward the end showing gratitude toward the contestants and almost made him cry too.
This is episode #83, taped on 4/5/75. I do not know the airdate. The person who posted this recording edited out the on-camera slate at the very top of the show. Thankfully the commercials were preserved and posted. The commercials are a historical part of the broadcast within the context of daytime television in 1975. David Doyle, Gene Wood, etc.!
The copyright on TV shows, particularly daytime shows, back in the 70's, frequently indicated the year the show first went on the air. The on-screen copyright credit was not always updated as the show progressed through it's production run because the eventual air dates were not necessicarily determined until after the individual shows were recorded. Money Maze didn't update it's copyright credit throughout it's run. And yes, Nick getting emotional at the end of the game seems completely sincere. It's a great thing to see on a game show.
Wonder if there are any episodes with Clooney singing a little "intro" song/jingle later in the series... "Life's a chance.. A happenstance.. Come with me, and wander free.. Try my way, and you'll be on top.. All the time! "
I also remember that little intro song jingle. The audience would say “all the time “ after Clooney finished that tune. Sometimes he would have the audience sing that jingle as well.
Some thoughts. This was I think the only non kid game show that allowed young kids to attend a taping of the show. It certainly helped for the 10,000 dash as they yelled the countdown the loudest. The producers had complete control over who won 10,000. Take the dash shown above. Move the tower side for the zero in the lower left to a different side and the 10,000 would be extremely difficult. Extra time would be needed to reach the correct side.
I have heard rumors that the moneymsze is coming back in 2024. Can anyone confirm this by telling me the network air dates host or anything else they might be aware of
I hear it was mainly canceled because it was too expensive to produce. It would take a full day to set everything up and another day to take it down on top of the day of taping. So with workers getting significant overtime pay and having to rent the studio for 2 additional days each time, they went way over budget.
14:12 It's time for the Catch Up Round. And to quote the late legendary NY Yankee Yogi Berra "It's not over, until it's over." Because the Nevins, can still pull off the mother of all comebacks and dethrone the defending champion Paolis. One problem, the Paolis have control in this round and will be the inquisitors. So a 29 point deficit means they have to correctly answer 8 questions WITHOUT A MISS along the way. CATCH UP ROUND CATEGORY: End of the Decade So let's see how they fare in their quest to victory.
When i first saw this episode air back in 1975. I recognized his face Don resembled Chuck Woolery. and it was an awsome episode. thank you for uploading it. Memories
Jamie Locklin revealed that the entire run exists but the tapes weren’t properly cared for and have tracking issues. Don’t know why this would exist but The Big Showdown wouldn’t.
"The Big Showdown" aired at 1:30 central, following the popular, "The $20,000 Pyramid". As this was in the middle of ABC's afternoon schedule, it is likely most affiliates aired the show direct from the network feed, so there was no need to record, "Showdown". "The Moneymaze" aired in a horrible timeslot, 3 central/4 eastern, in which many stations chose to run local/syndicated programming. It is likely those tapes were from a station which time shifted "Moneymaze" to a different time the following day, and for whatever reason, never recorded over those tapes. If those tapes were not held in a temperature/humidity-controlled area, the tape would stick together, and as it unspooled, the oxide on the tape would stick as well and come off the tape, resulting in video dropout. I would still try to watch those shows! The moral of the story--keep those old VHS tapes in a cool, dry, dark place, and run them at least once a year!
@@TheTVsnob On the West Coast, "Money Maze" was fed at 11 am, "Big Showdown" at 11:30. In Seattle, KOMO db'd "Maze" at 3:30 pm. I would race home from school to watch it.
@@kenjohannessen9908 I ran home from school also to watch The Moneymaze. I posted that once on the game show network message boards. Don Lipp read that and contacted me. We had a long wonderful email correspondence friendship because of my simple comment. There's a WHOLE lot more to the story but I wanted to share that tidbit.
@@TheTVsnob I hope your theory is correct, but sadly it seems impossible. It's the only possible chance that this show exists (an affiliate recorded them yet somehow has not disposed of the tapes all these years later). Certainly ABC didn't invest any money in storage of game show videotapes. These shows were recorded on 1-inch reel to reel: A gigantic plastic storage box for each single episode was required. It seems impossible that a commercial affiliate station would have all those 1-inch tapes in storage 45 years later. Most likely the original tapes were re-used by ABC week by week, and no archive of the show was ever created in the first place. That's why videotape was invented... it was reusable and inexpensive, compared to film. Only Goodson Todman had the insight to spend the money to preserve their shows. Indeed, to your point, ANY additional existing episodes of The Money Maze would be precious, even if in poor quality.
I guess a mink coat must've been some sort of status symbol among women at that time..... or why would you even wear one? And nowadays.....PETA would want to have a word with you.
PETA wasn't a thing back then, The Price is Right, Hollwood Squares and Let's Make a Deal all gave out minks -which back then were worth more than cars. Monty Hall gave out minks on the revival of Split Second as late as 1986.
Never saw an episode from the actual series before this. The idea of a grown man or woman running through a maze is hilarious. Clooney does a good job, but Kalter is over the top as announcer. I would love to see more, if they exist.
Yes, I thought Alan was trying to be a bit like Johnny Olson back then, but by the time he got the David Letterman job nearly a quarter-century after, he had developed his own style, I'm sure.
This was taped at the ABC Television Center East Coast studios in the Lincoln Square section of Manhattan, the very same area where the network's flagship station, WABC-TV Channel 7, is located at.
The Money Maze was taped in Studio ABCTV-1. More recently it's been the stage of the original Millionaire with Regis and for the past 20 years, The View. I've been to tapings of both Millionaire and The View specifically for the purpose of wanting to experience the exact same space of where The Money Maze once existed.
Correct me if I'm wrong but, didn't the top prize increase to $20,000 toward the end of the run? Also, that "Birthday Cake" button, didn't it get a multi-colored paint job?
It was always 10K. The pilot had 12 towers and no revolving doors in the center, FWIW. Uncertain about the "Birthday cake". If they revived it, the maze would be virtual.
@@MDCSWildcats86 The "birthday cake" wasn't always there. Originally it was a skinny podium that wobbled from side-to-side when the maze runner hit it. I guess they changed it to something more solid to keep it from breaking or malfunctioning.
