The Game Show Pilot Light

%PilotCount% Pilots Sliced, Diced and Analyzed

The Game Show Pilot Light is a site where the idea of the game show is celebrated if not its execution. Every year, many pilots are made whose makers are hoping will make it to the air and bring in the steady profits that a game show can make. A good number of these pilots never make it for one reason or another — the game is too much like another game, the concept could not work day in/day out, the game is too dull or the audience for the game would be too limited.

Pilots fall into two general categories. The first kind of pilot are those commissioned by the network and usually have a better chance of making it to the air, mainly because the network is footing the bill on this one and would like to see their investment recouped, even if it's for a limited period of time. The second kind is those created by the production company themselves. These are more risky, since the producer will be shopping this pilot to several networks and syndication services in the hopes of getting the show on the air.

This site showcases both the successful pilots and the failed ones. Even a successful pilot will show differences between it and the game that eventually makes it to air. The first pilot for The Joker's Wild, a successful game for more than ten years, started out as a celebrity-based game. Or, a failed pilot will become a successful one after retooling. The pilot for Celebrity Doubletalk was a failure for Bob Stewart in the mid-60's, but the end game eventually became the main game of The $10,000 Pyramid in the early-70's.

I currently have %PilotCount% pilots that I have seen and reviewed. I generally have five sources for pilots:

• Purchase from a video clearinghouse such as Shokus
• The "trading circuit", which means a tape or a DVD of the episode has been traded amongst collectors and can be acquired from them. Searching for the particular show on Google will yield people from which you can obtain a copy of the show.
• The The UCLA Film and Television Archive has viewing abilities for some shows as long as arrangements are made ahead of time. You simply can't walk in and watch an episode.
• The The Paley Center in both New York City and Beverly Hills have viewing stations available for a small donation to watch some shows.
• Some private collectors who wish to keep their collections private have provided me opportunities to view portions of their collections. They have not allowed me permission to reveal who they are. Hence "private".

If you're coming over from my old site (www.mikeburger.com/pilots), you'll notice that I now have a comment section. You will need to be a registered user in order to post comments. Additionally, this whole wiki/content management system is new to me, there's some administration features I'm just not used to yet. Please be patient.

If you went or have access to a pilot that I do not have here, please e-mail me through the 'Contact us' link on the left. Please do not send me YouTube links. I will get to those someday.

I hope you have as much fun reading this site as I've had putting it together.


--Mike

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