As a teenager, I always thought this was a high-brow game, as I had trouble answering the questions, and Art James was such a smooth host- a pleasant memory from my youth...
Wonderful to see. I was on the 3W's (and was a two-time champion) in 1973. What I wouldn't give to see those videos again. But thanks for this vid! Brings back tremendous memories. Used to play the home game with friends in grad school. Art James was a lot of fun, and he really kept the pace going.
Wow! First time I've looked this up. I was on this show. It was great fun. One of the few quiz shows out of NYC, as I remember. I think I won some money, enough for three month's rent, I believe. I even remember the final category: "General John J. Pershing." I knew three things about him and it turned out that they were the correct answer to each of the three W's.What luck! I didn't bet enough, though, to win. I believe some lady aced me out to win by about $5. A very fun experience.
This was Art James' biggest hit and his longest-running show. In the days of three major networks long before thousands of cable channels, a slight hiccup in the ratings meant the death-knell of cancellation. (ABC executives later admitted they should have never cancelled "The Price is Right.") A run of three or more years was a SOLID hit (which made "Concentration, "Jeopardy!" and "The Hollywood Squares" phenomenoms). Five years was a great run back then for The 3 Ws.
Wow -- My mother was on this show in 1971 and was a champion four times (her loss on the fifth and final show is a funny story). I tried to find tapes of the shows (I even contacted the producer) but no luck. I also tried finding any episode at the Museum of Broadcasting in NY. This is the first place I've seen this. Thanks for posting it.
I had a lot of fun doing it. I remembered Giles Goat Boy bec. I had stayed at a friend's apt and seen it on the shelf the nite before. It was the time of a transit strike (as in The Out of Towners) and I barely got into town before the train stopped, then walked to the apt on upper east side. The contestants & Art J. were nice. Lot of fun. More interesting than today's shows.
"Who What, Or Where" spent much of it's run at 12:30 P.M. Eastern time. On many NBC stations, it was back-to-back with the original "Jeopardy!" (in some cities, "Jeopardy!" was at 12 Noon; in some cities where local NBC stations had noon newscasts, "Jeopardy!" was seen at 1 P.M.). It was a great hour-long lunch-time block of mind-challenging game shows.
In the early 60s when he hosted "Say When", he did a commercial advert for Skippy peanut butter.....and somehow, the jar had cracked and leaked all over him. He took it all in good humor! ;)
I heard Betty White mention in a interview the classic Password game show of the 1960s and 1970s could not be revived in that format today due to the "dumbing down" of our society. And the only "hard quiz" show that exists today is "Jeopardy!" . But the majority would rather watch someone pick out a suitcase full of cash rather than 3 people using their knowledge to win cash and prizes..
I remember watching this show when I was about 8-10 years old when I used to come home from school for lunch. This and Jeopardy. It was pretty intellectual stuff for a little kid. Do kids anywhere go home for lunch anymore?
Before taking over as the announcer on The 3 Ws, Mike Darrow had been the host of the original "Dream House" on ABC (remember those Kingsbury Homes?). That show was cancelled and replaced by a show that's still running today (albeit now in a one-hour format): All My Children, which originally starred soap queen Rosemary Prinze.
Peter F - no. Dennis James was born Demi James Sposa; Art James was born Artur Simeonvich Elimchik. In addition, Dennis James was born in 1917, while Art James was born in 1929. He could've been an older brother; they really weren't related.
From the Rose Bowl question, it is possible to determine that this show taped in December, 1970. A more specific date might be determinable from the NBC Master Books broadcast log, if the names of the contestants were written down.
Later on in the run of this show.. when contestants punch in their wages they are displayed immediately.. i think that started maybe in 1973 or something... i think the pot limit though they still had the players declare their wages though ... speeded up game play in the front game i guess ..
I talked to Clare 15 years ago about her appearance on this show. This is what she said: "I'd gone to NYC with my husband who was there for a business meeting. I knew enough to say outlandish things at the tryout that might make me stand out. So when they notified me that I was on, I went down on the train from Rhode Island, planning to stay at the apartment of a friend who was out of town, on the upper East Side, I think in the 70s. And it was the start of the transit strikes that were later documented in "The Out of Towners" - remember the movie, with Sandy Dennis and Jack Lemmon. The train was the last one into the station before the strike which was supposed to start at 10 - I remember the train was running late and wasn't going to make it in to the station by ten but fortunately someone took pity on us and let us come on in, not stalled out in CT somewhere! When I got to the station, Port Authority, about 42nd st. west, there were no taxis. There were no busses. The strike was on! I had an overnight bag. AND I WALKED UP FIFTH AVENUE ALL THE WAY to the apartment! I was a little scared, but it wasn't as bad as I had thought it might be. I thought Fifth would be busy at 11 pm but it wasn't, I remember it was really empty." "Of course I couldn't sleep well. I remember waking up and looking up at a bookshelf over the door into the bedroom, and seeing "Giles Goat Boy" and thinking now they might ask me about THAT! Then I had to walk down to Rockefeller Center the next morning." "I remember almost nothing more until the actual show. My kids had done some extra work in Hollywood before we moved to RI, so I knew my way around studios, etc. I was not surprised that I only saw Art James at the time of the actual show. He was polite; I always enjoyed him, was sorry to see a few years ago that he'd died. And then, during the show, one of my questions was WHO WROTE GILES GOAT BOY?!" "But, as you know, I didn't win. The one who did had been on several times before. I won some Kava Coffee, instant, and a kind of silver-plate-and-glass carafe that didn't last long, and a gas grill which was pretty cheesy, really. But I did have fun doing it!" Clare
In '74, this show was replaced by "Jackpot". Ironically, 3Ws announcer Mike Darrow hosted the second incarnation of "Jackpot" ('85-'88).....but it was the Canadian version, instead.
I know that The Who What or Where Game was revived as The Challengers but wasn't there an attempt to revive The Who What or Where Game as The New Who What or Where Game? I found out because the late Randy Amasia was a contestant on there.
Mike Darrow is best remembered for being the host of the first season of The $128,000 Question, as a fill-in announcer on Tic Tac Dough and as the host of the USA Network version of Jackpot.
Afraid not. For that matter, they don't show good stuff like this either, nowadays! Come to think of it, kids don't have cool lunch boxes either! (I had a Secret Agent lunch box, at that time) ;)
