A Wisdom Archive on Dan Enright

The initial broadcast of Twenty One was played honestly, with no manipulation of the game by the producers. Unfortunately, that broadcast was, in the words of producer Dan Enright, "a dismal failure"; the first two contestants succeeded only in making a mockery of the format by how little they really knew. Show sponsor Geritol, upon seeing this opening-night performance, reportedly became furious with t ...

Read more here: » Twenty One game show: Encyclopedia II - Twenty One game show - Scandal

The Break the Bank title was revived in 1976 as part of a celebrity-driven game show that, aside from the name, had virtually no connection to the previous series. This Break the Bank debuted on ABC April 12, 1976 with Tom Kennedy as host, running until July 23 of that year. The show then jumped to syndication on September 18, and ran until September 11, 1977. Jack Barry, co-producer of this show with partner Dan Enright, hosted the syndicated series. It was the first game show produced b ...

Read more here: » Break the Bank: Encyclopedia II - Break the Bank - 1976-77

Concentration is a TV game show based on the children's memory game of the same name. It aired on NBC for 15 years (1958-1973) the longest run of any game show on that network, and aired in syndication for 5 more (1973-1978). A remake of the game, called Classic Concentration, aired first-run on Concentration's old network, NBC, from 1987-1991, with reruns airing through the end of 1993. Various hosts starred in the first Concentration, including Jack Barry, Hugh Downs and Bob Clayton. Jack Narz hosted the synd ... Including:

• Concentration game show - What's a rebus?
• Concentration game show - Rules of the game
• Concentration game show - Special spaces
• Concentration game show - Winning the game
• Concentration game show - Concentration Challenge of Champions
• Concentration game show - Longevity
• Concentration game show - Prizes prizes and more prizes
• Concentration game show - Syndicated run 1973-1978
• Concentration game show - Classic Concentration
• Concentration game show - Catch phrase
• Concentration game show - Episode status

Read more here: » Concentration game show: Encyclopedia - Concentration game show

It may or may not have been inspired by the resurrection of quiz-scandal figures Jack Barry (creator and host of the mid-1970s hit The Joker's Wild) and Dan Enright (the reputed mastermind of the Twenty-One fix and Jack Barry's production partner, restored to their former partnership as Joker was about to move from network to syndication production), but a resurrection of The $64,000 Question arrived in 1976. Selected PBS outlets showed surviving kinescopes of the original Question in the summer of 1 ...

Read more here: » The 64000 Dollar Question: Encyclopedia II - The 64000 Dollar Question - Revivals

The World Series of Poker is the most prestigious set of poker tournaments in the world. World Series of Poker - Origins. The original World Series of Poker was started by Tom Morehead of the Riverside casino in Reno and was an invitational event. The set of tournaments the World Series of Poker (WSOP) would evolve to was the brainchild of Las Vegas legend, casino owner, and poker player Benny Binion as well as his two sons Jack and Ted. The Binion family not only nurtured the WSOP, but poker in gene ... Including:

• World Series of Poker - Origins
• World Series of Poker - Evolution
• World Series of Poker - Harrah's Takes The Pot
• World Series of Poker - The Marketing of the WSOP
• World Series of Poker - The main event
• World Series of Poker - Main Event Overview

Read more here: » World Series of Poker: Encyclopedia - World Series of Poker

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Barry eventually began grooming a successor host for The Joker's Wild, his periodic fill-in Jim Peck, and planned to retire in 1986. (Joker! Joker!! Joker!!!, the children's version, lasted until 1981.) He did not live long enough to make that plan happen. On May 2, 1984, less than a month after completing Joker's seventh syndicated season and returning from a visit to his daughter in Europe, Barry suffered a massive heart attack during a morning jog in Central Park. He died at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, after ...

Read more here: » Jack Barry television: Encyclopedia II - Jack Barry television - Death

In 1956, Barry and Enright debuted Twenty One, which was sponsored by Geritol, and Tic Tac Dough. Both game shows were hosted by Barry. In 1958, on one episode of Twenty One, a game between challenger Charles Van Doren and champion Herb Stempel was found to have been rigged. (The 1994 movie Quiz Show was based on the Stempel-Van Doren contests.) Within three months of the published revelation, Twenty-One was cancelled; another Barry-Enright production, Tic-Tac-Dough, was cancelled as well. Bar ...

Read more here: » Jack Barry television: Encyclopedia II - Jack Barry television - The quiz show scandals

In 1969, Barry embarked on an idea which would launch his national comeback. He developed and produced a pilot for The Joker's Wild in association with Goodson-Todman Productions, emceed by Allen Ludden. CBS held off on picking up the series at first. Barry reworked the format and launched a local version in 1971 on Los Angeles' KTLA. The Joker's Wild made its national debut on CBS in 1972 with Barry hosting and producing the show (as Jack Barry Productions) until CBS cancelled it in 1975. Jack Barry Productions, meanwhile, pro ...

Read more here: » Jack Barry television: Encyclopedia II - Jack Barry television - Career revival

The first (and arguably best-known) of these series was a long-running quiz show which aired variously on ABC, CBS and NBC from 1949 through 1957. It began on radio, and generally had Bert Parks as a host. Bud Collyer co-hosted from 1948 through 1953. The show was always one of the highest-paying quiz shows. The ultimate goal was $250,000, although no one ever won that amount during the run of the show. Even in the early days, though, contestants routinely won $10,000, a large amount during that period. Contestants were drawn from the studio audience. The contestant chose a category of questions to be asked, and recei ...

Read more here: » Break the Bank: Encyclopedia II - Break the Bank - The First Version

The Joker's Wild debuted on CBS September 4, 1972, incidentally on the same Labor Day as the modern incarnation of The Price is Right as well as Gambit. It ran for 686 telecasts until June 13, 1975 on that network. After a syndicated rerun cycle of the last CBS season proved successful in 1976, the show returned to first-run syndication in September 1977 and continued for nine seasons, lasting until September 1986, after 2,340 episodes, making a grand total of 3,026 telecasts. A short-lived revival ran from Septembe ...

Read more here: » The Joker's Wild: Encyclopedia II - The Joker's Wild - Broadcast History

Tic-Tac-Dough - The Original Version. Tic-Tac-Dough premiered on daytime television in 1956, hosted at first by co-creator and co-executive producer Jack Barry, who also hosted soon-to-be-popular (and scandal-ridden) Twenty-One. Barry yielded Tic-Tac-Dough's hosting to Gene Rayburn (1956-1958), known better as the later host of the long-running Match Game. Rayburn, in turn, yielded to the show's announcer, Bill Wendell, who hosted the original show's daytime version until its de ...

Read more here: » Tic-Tac-Dough: Encyclopedia II - Tic-Tac-Dough - Broadcast History