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Concentration occurs as venerable TV game show based on the children's memory game of the same name.

It aired in NBC for 15 years (1958-1973) the long haul of any giveaway thereon network, & aired inside syndication for Little phoebe extra (1973-1978). The remaking of the game, known as Classic Concentration, aired number one-begin in Concentration's old network, NBC, from 1987-1991, with reruns airing through the end of 1993. Various hosts starred in the foremost Concentration, including Jack Barry, Hugh Downs and Bob Clayton. Jack Narz hosted the syndicated version; Alex Trebek hosted Classic Concentration.

Barry & giveaway-partner Dan Enright along with Robert Noah and Buddy Piper, created Concentration. The foremost daytime episode (hosted by Downs) airy August 25, 1958. Barry late that season hosted the prime-instance edition that debuted October 11, 1958 (replacing Twenty-One) , but once a quiz show scandals broke, Barry was forced from his hosting duties. NBC in time assumed production of the indicate.

What's a rebus?

All told versions, ii contestants competed to solve the rebus behind doors of numbers. For example:

Picture of the Two of clubs = "TOO"
"LI" + the picture of the register till = "LITTLE"
Picture of the hand holding higher deuce fingers = "TOO"
Picture of the hen "lay"ing eggs + "T" = "LATE"

compeer "Too little, too late."

Rules of the game
Both contestants (a single the giving champion) sat prior to a board of Thirty squares, which concealed the rebus, list of prizes & favorite squares (view in the image below).

1 at once, a contestants known as retired ii counts. Whenever a prizes or even favorite action didn't match, a opponent took his/her turn, and then in.

Still, whenever a streaming video player did match, whatever prize was printed in the card was situated on a board behind the contestant; or even, he/she can perform an action.

Further importantly, the match besides revealed ii pieces of the rebus, which identified the individual, sentence, place, tool, etc. A streaming video player may try to solve a rebus or possibly see ii further amounts, however even in case he/she was wrongly, he/she saved control. Commonly, a streaming video player waited to solve the puzzle until it experienced studied a good part of the rebus across many matches.

Special spaces
Additionally to a prize cards, there were the below action cards:

Untamed - Self-explanatory; provided an automatic match. Normally, a further half of the natural match was besides given at that point, allowing for even ternion (or for instance, more) pieces of the rebus to become revealed at another time. Early, players uncovering 2 Untamed cards won a $500 bonus & chose 2 extra counts; their natural matches were so revealed, the prizes went on it contestant's side & as much as captain hicks pieces of the rebus were revealed.

Late in a begin, having 2 Uncivilized cards in the equivalent turn won the streaming video player a freshly car – unremarkably the Chevrolet Nova – which he/she kept, no matter of the punt's effect.

Choose 1 Gift - A contestant at that moment was allowed to take a select his/her opponent can develop within their possession & put it in his/her have rack. Normally, there were 2 sets one by the game.

Forfeit A single Gift - A streaming video player immediately experienced to give higher one of a prizes he/she experienced inside his possession to his/her opponent. Besides deuce sets by the game.

As well involved were ii or even triad joke prizes (like the banana skin or torn teddy bear). These actually served when insurance markers against opponents' Choose cards & a Waive cards he/she will stumble upon.

Winning the game
The streaming video player world health organization offered the right believe won his/her gifts; he/she likewise earned $100 whenever there were there are no prizes in the rack. A loser forfeits entirely his/her gifts.

In the period of a early years of the start, there was there is no bonus game; the giving champion just faced a fresh opponent. A bonus game - foremost played around 1960 - went thusly:

A Envelope & its Mysterious Contents - The contestant selected a single away from many possibilities. the prize was either cash or even the grand prize like a car.

A Cash Wheel - The streaming video player spun the carnival-nature and severity wheel, containing various dollar numbers. A top prize was $2,000.

Champions continued until either discomfited or even by winning Xx games. Reportely, this happened upright another time (around 1966 by Ruth Horowitz), although some sources document more 20-game champions.

Concentration "Challenge of Champions"
Beginning around 1963, the top quaternary players of the last Xii months returned to play the right-of-seven tournament (styled the la the World Series. the gr& prize was $1,000, the hike in the world and a favorite trophy dubbed "The Connie" (sculpturesque fallowing Rodin's A Thinker).

Longevity
In March 23, 1973, after 3,796 episodes (featuring a reported 7,300 rebuses), the indicate ended its Fifteen year rerun in NBC. A number one puzzle was "It Happened One Night" & a survive puzzle was "You've Been More Than Kind."

Concentration remains a hanker-heading giveaway within NBC, & held a record for longest continuous day process in network television until it was eclipsed in April 1987 by the 1972 version of The Price is Right. Concentration currently ranks quaternary on the long-do listing of long-heading daytime/syndicated giveaway (behind TPiR & a syndicated diarrhea of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!).

Prizes, prizes and more prizes
Each versions of Concentration offered an telling array & kind of prizes. A single retrospective of a original series reported the resulting prize tally:

512 cars. 397 boats. 1,287 household & foreign trips & sail. Xii trips around the world. 857 fur coats. Many diamonds.

In addition, there were numberless gift certificates, travel trailers, aeroplane, playing pools, article of article of furniture, kitchen appliances (big & little), rooms of furniture, wearable, stereos & televisions, todays nights retired on the town & virtually any more item seen in any mail-sequentially catalog. Of these history of a 1958-1973 series reported the amount prize giveaway at $10 million.

Speaking of prizes, a prime values were deliberately good deal, very much little than people of the heavy-money quiz shows implicated when a share of the Quiz show scandals of the late-1950s. Barry & Enright deliberately saved a winnings on line-value to refrain from any guide that it, as well, was infected.

Unremarkably, there was at least a single prize worth to a higher degree $1,000; nevertheless, 100% a more prizes were worth to a lesser degree $500, using numerous in the $10-$100 range. The board of prizes seldom totalled to a higher degree $2,000-$3,000 & champions seldom took at home to a higher degree that around ware in the period of their stay (though a bit of protracted-lived winners approached $10,000).

Syndicated run (1973-1978)
When NBC canceled Concentration, Goodson-Todman Productions obtained the production rights to the indicate (although the format itself was & is however owned by NBC) & produced the 5-a-week syndicated revival of the indicate. A indicate premiered within September 1973 and ran five years. Jack Narz hosted, by using Johnny Olson announcing.

A indicate ran in numerous of the equivalent NBC stations (including flagship WNBC-TV in New York) that carried a network version half a dozen year earliest. G-T run into a equivalent phenomenon 5 years late, whilst a daytime Match Game was dropped by CBS but revived in 1st-rerun syndication. Of these key difference was a indicate's origination; when Fifteen years around Just released York, Concentration was at present produced at Metromedia Square within Hollywood.

A game wwhen a equivalent as prior to, by using deuce newly contestants competing daily. A system au fond were a equivalent, except a joke prizes & a Throw overboard A single Gift cards were scrapped. a freshly Free streaming Look space allowed a contestant to briefly open higher ii when-of-however available prices, which he/she thought would aid him solve the rebus.

Besides, Narz announced the whereabouts of quadruplet of the prizes (to give players a "head start") at the commencement of each gage; &, uncovering both Uncivilized cards around one turn earned a streaming video player a $250 bonus, which he/she saved disregardless of the game's effect. &, a streaming video player was spotted an additional $250 in case he/she solved a rebus & didn't stand any prizes.

a winner played the fresh bonus spherical known when Double Play, by using a recently car as the top prize for solving ii rebuses inside Ten seconds. In the period of the 1977-1978 year, players determined their Double Play prize pack by finding ii squares from either a 9-space board & competing for the foremost prize pack matched.

To this day, Concentration is the exclusively could have-alone giveaway by Goodson-Todman's but not invented by Goodson, Todman or even even even a producer working for or by having the duo (like Bob Stewart, Frank Wayne or NBC staff producer Bob Noah). A Hollywood Squares component of the 1983-84 NBC Daytime game The Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour also fits into a category.

Classic Concentration
NBC & Mark Goodson Productions brought a indicate back when Classic Concentratiin on May 4, 1987. Alex Trebek was a persons, & Gene Wood was the regular announcer. Marjorie Goodson-Cutt, girl of Mark Goodson, was a prize exemplary for virtually all of the indicate's start. A series endwise September 20, 1991, but NBC brought a indicate back inside reruns a year fallowing its cancellation & ran the babies until the prevent of 1993.

When last versions featured the mechanically-operated bet on board by having Thirty trilons, Classic Concentration used the computer-generated board sustaining Xxv squares. Gameplay, still, was similar to its predecessors. This version featured nine pairs of prizes, deuce-ace "WILD" cards (although a few games got upright a single "WILD" card), & ii "TAKE" cards (of these red, of these green), which were similar to the "Take One Gift" squares in the original version however can be utilized per contestant anytime when making the match. Contestants won $500 for picking deuce "WILD" cards & $1,000 for picking tons ternary.

the winner of the independent game got a risk to win one of eight cars in the bonus around. A contestant got Xv numbered squares to see from either. Seven pairs of matching car list were hidden behind a squares, too when of these car title that experienced there is no match. Whenever a contestant matched completely 7 pairs of cars inside a allotted period, he/she won a go car that was matched. the clock began at 35 seconds & increased by 5 seconds for both period that a contestant did non win a car. In the period of the dog, a pair of "Five Bonus Seconds" cards were added in a 2nd game of every indicate, awarding the contestant world health organization matched it & won his/her game 5 extra seconds to the clock.

Originally, a contestant world health organization right solved a rebus puzzle in a independent game played a bonus spherical when the opponent was eliminated. Late, a independent game became a right-of-3 match in which a number one streaming video player to solve ii rebus puzzles played the bonus around. Eventually, a winner played a bonus around when solving a single rebus, however a opponent was eliminated fallowing deuce losses instead of of these. Giving champions were originally allowed to win 5 games, however it were late retired in case it won the car.

Prefer a original series, Classic Concentration conducted an annual "Tournament of Champions," which invited the better players from either a last year to compete for a grand prize. the 1st tournament took place inside 1988, by owning a grand prize a hike in the area of the world. A winners of the 1989 across 1991 tournament took page an upscale car.

Catch phrase

In a period of the original NBC dog, Downs or even Clayton would typically say, "Not a match, the board goes back," when the contestant's selections didn't match. Within recent years, talk show host David Letterman — himself the frequent celebrity guest in giveaway in the period of his early career — has taken to using the sentence too, every now & again fallowing a comedy bit has fall through, and more days for there are no apparent understanding in the least.

Episode status
100% of the 1958-73 episodes keep around been destroyed by NBC. Single two or three remain on the commodities trading prevent; Shokus Videos is known to own a tournament episode from either the late 1960s, & Xii Downs/Clayton episodes & a syndicated Narz episode have been observed in the UCLA broadcasting archive. A Narz episodes' fate is uncertain. A Trebek episodes stand been preserved, however there are no versiin of this indicate has aired on GSN or anywhere else due to a fact that NBC still holds the rights to the indicate.

I Remember Concentration Game
Allows users to download a copy of "I Remember Concentration", a PC game that recalls the game show of the sixties and seventies.

IMDb: Concentration
Information about game show that used two contestants who tried to solve the puzzle first. Show ran from 1958 to 1979 using various hosts.

Concentration Images
Features show commentary and host images of Bob Clayton and Hugh Downs.


Arts: Television: Programs: Classic Television






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