ABC Carnival '74
Across the Board
Baloney
Bamboozle
Be What You Want
Beat The Genius
Beat The Odds (1962)
Beat The Odds (1975)
Bedtime Stories
The Better Sex
The Big Money
The Big Payoff
Big Spenders
Blank Check
Body Language
Body Talk
The Buck Stops Here
Bullseye
Call My Bluff
Card Sharks (1996)
Casino
Caught in the Act
Celebrity Billiards
Celebrity Doubletalk
Celebrity Secrets
Celebrity Sweepstakes
Chain Letter (1964)
The Challengers (1974)
Change Partners
Child's Play
The Choice Is Yours
Combination Lock (1996)
Comedy Club
Concentration (1985)
The Confidence Game
Cop Out
Countdown (1974)
Countdown (1990)
The Couples Race
Crossword
Decisions, Decisions
Dollar a Second
Duel in the Daytime
The Fashion Show
Fast Friends
$50,000 a Minute
Finish Line (1975)
Finish Line (1990)
Get Rich Quick
Going, Going, Gone!
Head of the Class
High Rollers
Hollywood Squares (1965)
Hollywood Squares (1985)
The Honeymoon Game
Hot Numbers
Hot Potato
House to House
How Do You Like Your Eggs?
Jackpot (1984)
Jeopardy (1977)
Jokers Wild
Jumble
Key Witness
Keynotes (1986)
King of the Hill
Let's Make a Deal (1963)
Let's Make a Deal (1990)
The Love Experts
M'ama Non M'ama
Match Game (1962)
Match Game (1973)
Match Game (1990)
Match Game (1996)
MatchGame (2008)
Mindreaders
Missing Links
Monday Night QB
Money Words
Money in the Blank
Moneymaze
Monopoly (1987)
Nothing But the Truth
Now You See It (1986)
Oddball
100%
PDQ
Party Line
People On TV
Play For Keeps
Play Your Hunch
The Plot Thickens
Pot O' Gold
Pressure Point
The Price Is Right (1972)
Pyramid (1996)
Pyramid (1997)
A Question of Scruples
Quick as a Flash
Razzle Dazzle
Riddlers
Run For The Money
Says Who?
Scrabble (1990)
Second Guessers
Second Honeymoon
Sharaize
Shoot for the Stars
Shoot the Works
Shopping Spree
Show Me
Showoffs
Simon Says
$64,000 Question (2000)
Smart Alecks
Smart Money
Spellbinders
Spin-Off
Split Decision
Star Cluster
Star Play
Strictly Confidential
TKO
Talking Pictures (1968)
Talking Pictures (1976)
Tell It to Groucho
Temptation (1981)
$10,000 Sweep
Three of a Kind
Tic Tac Dough
Tie-Up
Top Secret
Twenty One (1982)
Twenty Questions
Twisters
Up and Over
The Waiting Game
We've Got Your Number
What Do You Want?
What's On Your Mind
Wheel of Fortune
Whew!
Whodunit
Whose Baby
Wipeout
Word Grabbers
Write Your Own Ticket
You Bet Your Life (1988)
You Bet Your Life (1991)
You're Putting Me On
Show a Random Pilot
Show Unreviewed Pilots
Bob Stewart Flow Chart
The Waiting Game
Producer: Hatos-Hall
Host: Jim Peck
Announcer: Jay Stewart
Taping Info: mid-to-late 70s (based on fashions/music) for ABC
Made it to Air: No
Other Pilots: Unknown
It's hard to come up with new ideas to make a quiz-based game show. One idea that hasn't really been tried is rewarding the player who buzzes in second the most. A strange concept for sure, but fortunately Hatos-Hall at least gave it a shot, and their efforts can be further used to convince mankind never to do this again. Jim Peck, presumably still on his ABC-exclusive contract, is your host.
On the Logan's Run style set, the three players' podiums actually are in a semi-circle so that they face each other. And since the game is a bit convoluted, and to show you the "explain it in a sentence problem" with the game, I'll just use Jim Peck's explanation of the rules: "Each category of questions has an easy question first and a harder one second. If you ring in and answer an easy question, that means you will give the harder ones to your opponents -- but it will be worth more points." This will be easier to understand once we play a question.
For that first question, Jim Peck read the question "What government office does Clarence Kelly" hold. Jay Stewart then begins to count upward from one through some modulator to make him sound like a computer, and Esther buzzes in after Jay says "four". She's right, and is awarded four points. The other two players are then play for the harder question, with the countdown starting from four. Joan answers her question correctly for nine points.
After a few questions, the countdown then went to going in twos rather than ones. In either round, ten points was the final chance to buzz in. If neither player could answer the hard question correctly, the player who answered the easy question was given a free chance at the hard question. Unfortunately, we're also subjected to Jim Peck singing a clue.
After a predetermined amount of questions, the points are converted to dollars -- $10 per point. Why they just didn't do the conversion at the time of answering is baffling to me. And now we're sort of going to play Split Second. The player in first place was given three points, the second place player two and the third player one. Now the players play the game to ten, reverting back to the single increment clock. First to 10 points moves to over to The Bonus Clock.
The Big Clock looked pretty much like a big version of the classic rectangle Westclox Alarm Clock. Each hour hand had a prize attached to it. The clock started, and changed hands every five seconds. The player's job was to simply stop the clock. But, if the player let the clock go past an hour, they lost a chance to win that prize. When the player decided to stop the clock, they won the prize that is hidden by the later hour. The hours contained nine prizes, one car and two "jackpot" spaces, which were worth an increasing jackpot starting at $5,000 which increased $500 for each time not won. In the first game, the player stopped between 4 and 5 and won a trip to Hawaii. If she had waited until between 5 and 6, she would have won the jackpot.
And notice I said "first game". Unfortunately, they go back and do this all over again. It was pretty painful to watch once, and then you realize you're only halfway through. It had some cute ideas, but they don't make a very interesting game. This Waiting Game truly does suck, and I think I'll be watching Hungry Hungry Hippos instead.
This pilot has been viewed 8965 times since October 6, 2008 and was last modified on Jan 12, 2010 22:13 ET
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