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| The player would then throw the dice onto a long table, with a well with a trap door at its end. If "Showdown" came up on the first roll, the contestant would win $10,000. If not, the number shown (between one and ten) would serve as the payoff point. The contestant then had 30 seconds to roll the dice as many times as he or she possibly could, with Cunningham handing off new pairs of dice for each roll and Peck removing a completed roll from the well by pushing the dice into the trap door. Every time the player hit the payoff point, it netted the contestant $250 and an extra five seconds of rolling time after the conclusion of the original 30 seconds. If "Showdown" came up, the contestant earned $5,000, plus any money won by hitting the payoff point. | The player would then throw the dice onto a long table, with a well with a trap door at its end. If "Showdown" came up on the first roll, the contestant would win $10,000. If not, the number shown (between one and ten) would serve as the payoff point. The contestant then had 30 seconds to roll the dice as many times as he or she possibly could, with Cunningham handing off new pairs of dice for each roll and Peck removing a completed roll from the well by pushing the dice into the trap door. Every time the player hit the payoff point, it netted the contestant $250 and an extra five seconds of rolling time after the conclusion of the original 30 seconds. If "Showdown" came up, the contestant earned $5,000, plus any money won by hitting the payoff point. | ||
| If after the initial 30 seconds the player had not rolled "Showdown," but had hit the payoff point at least once, he or she would receive whatever bonus time he/she had earned (five seconds per point) to roll "Showdown;" the payoff point bonus, of course, went out of play at this point. If the player rolled "Showdown" during the bonus time, he or she earned $5,000 in addition to whatever payoff point money was accumulated in the initial 30 seconds. |
If after the initial 30 seconds the player had not rolled "Showdown," but had hit the payoff point at least once, he or she would receive whatever bonus time he/she had earned (five seconds per point) to roll "Showdown;" the payoff point bonus, of course, went out of play at this point. If the player rolled "Showdown" during the bonus time, he or she earned $5,000 in addition to whatever payoff point money was accumulated in the initial 30 seconds. Rolling "Showdown" at any point during their reign as champion retired a player immediately. | ||
| ==Broadcast history== | ==Broadcast history== | ||
Revision as of 03:25, 27 April 2009
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| The Big Showdown | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Game show |
| Directed by | Dick Schneider |
| Presented by | Jim Peck |
| Narrated by | Dan Daniel |
| Theme music composer | Score Productions |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Don Lipp Ron Greenberg |
| Producer | Shelley Dobbins |
| Production location | ABC Studio TV-15, New York City |
| Running time | ~22-24 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | ABC |
| Release | December 23, 1974 – July 4, 1975 |
The Big Showdown is a game show that aired on the ABC television network from December 23, 1974 to July 4, 1975. Jim Peck, making his national television debut, was the host, and Dan Daniel, then a disc jockey on New York City's WHN radio, was the announcer. The series was recorded at ABC's New York studios and packaged by Don Lipp and Ron Greenberg, with assistance by MCA Television.
Main game
Round 1 (The Big Showdown)
Peck read the first question of the game to three contestants (usually including a returning champion) as a one point toss-up for control of the board. The player who answered it got to choose from six categories, with questions ranging from 1-6 points (symbolized on the game board as faces on a die) in value, depending on the category. The player who answered the first question began the game by choosing a category, with its corresponding point value. All of the questions were toss-ups; with the first player to buzz in and answer correctly gaining control of the board. There were no penalties for answering incorrectly; however, any player missing a question got locked out for the rest of the question, with the other players eligible to buzz in and answer.
A number was determined before the round to be the "payoff point," and the first player to hit it would win a cash bonus ($25, $50, $75, $100, or $500, set by a randomizer dial in host Peck's podium). A player had to hit the payoff point exactly — if a contestant was in danger of surpassing it with any correct answer, he or she would be locked out of that particular question, and a player could not select a category that was worth more than the value needed to hit the target number. In the event of a "double block" (two contestants who could not attain the payoff point on a particular category), the player who selected the category got to hear the entire question unopposed (although he or she still had to buzz in to answer). Trailing contestants often used this as a vital strategy to disable the contestant(s) in the lead, in order to gain an upper hand.
Once the target number was reached, that player won the cash bonus, and a new target number was established, raised proportionally to several points above the leading contestant's score. The first round consisted of at least four target numbers, sometimes five, depending on the amount of time used before going into the "speedround" (discussed below).
Two sets of categories were played (the first one using only two target numbers, and the second set of categories using its third and subsequent target numbers), and a 90-second "speedround" finished off the first segment (with each payoff point after the one currently in play worth $100). At the end of the round, the player with the lowest point score retired from the game with his or her winnings, and the two remaining contestants advanced to the "Final Showdown." In the event of a tie for second place, Peck asked the two players a tie-breaking question from the one-point category, with the first to buzz in with a right answer moving on to the second round, and an incorrect response eliminating that player from the game. In case of a three-way tie, Peck would ask up to two questions, and the contestants who gave correct answers moved on (in this case, a wrong answer, and the remaining two automatically moved on).
The Final Showdown
In the "Final Showdown," the two remaining contestants competed to hit a payoff point of seven. Three categories were played (again represented by faces on a die), and the point values were 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The same rules from the first round applied; a player could not exceed seven points, and all questions were toss-ups. The first player to reach seven points won the game and an additional $250.
Bonus Round
The champion of the day now had a chance to win $10,000 by rolling dice. The dice were standard six-sided dice, but the sixes were covered up with a board on which the words "Show" and "Down" were printed on one die apiece. Model Heather Cunningham joined the show at this point to assist the contestant by handing him or her the dice to roll.
The player would then throw the dice onto a long table, with a well with a trap door at its end. If "Showdown" came up on the first roll, the contestant would win $10,000. If not, the number shown (between one and ten) would serve as the payoff point. The contestant then had 30 seconds to roll the dice as many times as he or she possibly could, with Cunningham handing off new pairs of dice for each roll and Peck removing a completed roll from the well by pushing the dice into the trap door. Every time the player hit the payoff point, it netted the contestant $250 and an extra five seconds of rolling time after the conclusion of the original 30 seconds. If "Showdown" came up, the contestant earned $5,000, plus any money won by hitting the payoff point.
If after the initial 30 seconds the player had not rolled "Showdown," but had hit the payoff point at least once, he or she would receive whatever bonus time he/she had earned (five seconds per point) to roll "Showdown;" the payoff point bonus, of course, went out of play at this point. If the player rolled "Showdown" during the bonus time, he or she earned $5,000 in addition to whatever payoff point money was accumulated in the initial 30 seconds. Rolling "Showdown" at any point during their reign as champion retired a player immediately.
Broadcast history
ABC debuted The Big Showdown on the day before Christmas Eve, a day when most of the traditional homemaker audience for afternoon shows were likely busy making preparations for the upcoming Christmas holiday. Since a network almost always promotes a show most heavily at the time of, and immediately prior to, its debut, this meant that many people, after the 1974-1975 holidays had passed, knew little about Showdown. Its competition on NBC, the long-running serial The Doctors, was then at the height of its popularity.
Due to these two factors, Showdown fell victim to cancellation as did its sister show Money Maze and three other ABC games, on two consecutive Fridays (June 27 and July 4). Rhyme and Reason, hosted by Bob Eubanks, replaced Showdown.
Pilot
The show's pilot, titled Showdown, featured a slightly different set and theme, and Dirk Fredericks (former announcer of the original Beat the Clock) was the announcer. It featured identical rules to the actual show. When ABC bought the show, the producers added the word "Big" to the name because a show produced by Heatter-Quigley Productions that aired on NBC in 1966 also used the name Showdown, which was hosted by Joe Pyne.
Peck's fall
On one episode about halfway through the show's run, Peck made his entrance by walking down the spiral staircase at the back of the set to his podium at the program's beginning. Upon reaching one step, however, he slipped and fell onto the floor resulting in laughter and applause from the audience. After the fall, he got up and remarked "Sure! You people would applaud a lynching!"
After the show returned from a commercial break, Peck walked back to the staircase and kicked the offending stair.
Production changes
Beginning sometime in January, the show began with a montage featuring clips of players making $10,000 and $5,000 rolls; this was almost identical to the opening sequence of the program preceding Showdown on ABC's daytime schedule, The $10,000 Pyramid. (The only surviving episode from the series only features $5,000 winners, however.)
Statistically, a player should win $10,000 on at least one out of 36 attempts, but far more than 36 shows went by without a winner. The results in the $5,000 rolls proved that the dice were not loaded, but as the weeks passed the producers likely became somewhat embarrassed by the big prize never being awarded. Finally, on the 100th show sometime in April 1975, the winner rolled "Showdown" on her first roll. For the rest of the run, the series used a clip of the $10,000 roll to open each show.
Episode status
The pilot and episode #67, the episode featuring the aforementioned Jim Peck fall, are the only two full episodes known to exist, as well as a partial episode recording that consists only of the bonus round.