Happy 35th Anniversary, Pyramid!

Happy 35th Anniversary, Pyramid!

On March 26, 1973, The $10,000 Pyramid, the game show where a contestant could win $10,000 in 60 seconds, first debuted on CBS at 10:30 am ET. Its first celebrities were June Lockhart and Rob Reiner, with the first ever ten grand won on episode 1 by Rob. This week, my favorite game show of all time, Pyramid, is celebrating it’s 35th anniversary!

The show’s gone through many changes over the years, from orange shag carpeting and a winner’s circle made of plywood and trilons, to blue and purple colors with a winner’s circle made of rafters and flat screen TV’s. And of course, we mustn’t dare forget the ever growing money amounts. $10,000; $20,000; $25,000; $50,000... even all the way up to $100,000! This show gave away a lot of cash over the years!

My favorite part of the show is the winner’s circle. It can get rather nerve-wracking, but it’s still a lot of fun to play along. I think for me personally, it’s a lot of fun to try to think of clues for the categories. I’m terrible at receiving them.

Now onto the hosts… Dick Clark is hands down, my favorite Pyramid host. What I loved best about him was that Dick was being himself and wasn’t trying to be a perfectionist on the air. He was truly grand on the show but at the same time made mistakes just like any other person would. And he really made me feel good about myself, we both seem to have the same trouble with math. In the winner’s circle, it was always classic whenever he tried (and usually succeeded) in giving the perfect clues, usually making the celebrity involved feeling like garbage, as in “why didn‘t I think of that?”.

I've seen several episodes of Bill Cullen's 1970's $25,000 version. I thought it was really good. Of course, it didn’t have the same feel as the Dick Clark era, but it was very decent and Bill seemed to do a good job like he would do on just about any show. I love his uncle/grandfatherly personality. I'd recommend any Pyramid fan to get a hold of an episode if you can.

John Davidson to me was a different story for the most part... I remember watching this show whenever school was out when I was 6 and loving it. And the thing that did help this version out somewhat is that it was a Bob Stewart production. However, seeing a couple episodes, years later.. I just got this really weird vibe from him when it came to hosting. The same vibe I got when I saw him hosting Hollywood Squares. It’s a very uncomfortable one… I can’t stand to see him host anything. I see myself watching episodes pretty much for the celebrities and the game play only.

I really enjoyed Donny Osmond on Pyramid. No, this was not my favorite version at all. It had too many nitpicks. Like the strict judging for one. If it wasn’t for the celebrities, I wouldn’t have as many episodes on tape. This is a revival were even the minor nitpicks could get to you. But Donny to me was a very warm, outgoing person who knew the rules and really did a good job helping everyone feel at home.

I’d say my favorite version of Pyramid is $10,000/$20,000, with 1980‘s $25,000 as a close second. Both of those versions to me had some of the best celebrities on the show’s history. And I love the charm of the ‘70’s eras. David Letterman, Billy Crystal (who is hands down, one of the BEST players of the show), Nipsey Russell, Loretta Swit, Bill Cullen, Betty White, Dick Cavett, Vicki Lawrence… I could go on and on. My least favorite version is the 2002-04 Osmond revival. As I mentioned in my paragraph about Donny Osmond, the rules were way too strict. In many cases, it seemed like you had to say the entire category word for word to get it correct, and the 6-phrase-20-second system in the main game felt a bit rushed to me. The rules were so much better on the previous eras. Donny’s hosting and the celebrities are definitely the positives for me as far as that goes. I loved seeing Hal Sparks, Mo’Nique, and Melissa Peterman. There was also Betty White and Dick Clark for the special Dick Clark Challenge. This version had a very wide range of stars, they even got Jared Fogle! I admit all of them weren’t the best players, but many of them were certainly fun to watch.

Now it’s time to dig out some of my tapes and DVDs and squeeze in a bit of a marathon in honor of this occasion. Happy anniversary to my all-time favorite game show!