The Joker's Wild (CBS, The Pilot Episodes), "The Savers" (( Stereo ))

[MrLehnerd]

thanks for correctin me year i was off some ...anyway i feel after he died show died too...agree are not

[tvtimetravel]

@MrLehnerd Jack died in 1984, and the show ended in 1986 with two years of Bill Cullen hosting.

[Jiltedin2007]

From Hollywood, the Game Show where Knowledge is King and Lady Luck is Queen. It's The Jokers Wild. And here is the Star of the Jokers Wild.....Jack Barry.

[4thtroika]

Cool music!

[artytoons]

The "Savers" theme was used for the pilot for the game show "Simon" with Bob Barker as the host around 1972. "Simon" was a talking computer which fit the electronic moog theme music.

The pilot didn't sell which allowed Barker to host "The New Price Is Right".

[professorintellect]

Le Batard uses this on his radio show down here to play "douche or no douche" been looking for it for ages

[familyfeudfan95]

this song reminds me of Musical Chairs, that kids game. anyone up for a round??? haha

[Jiltedin2007]

I loved this theme better than the other one they had back in the Mid 70's.

[1980sVideoVault]

Why were there so many dumb players

on The Joker's wild from 1972 to 1975, as

innovative as this game show was?

[megamanj2004X]

@1980sVideoVault perhaps back in 1972 the question were somewhat more harder then they were in the late '70s/1980s. And no there weren't a lot of dumb players, just some of the material was tougher during that time period.

[visor109]

"JOKER...JOKER...JOKER!!!!""

[PatrioticPirate]

I LOVE this song! thanks for posting it in stereo!

[Stratman78]

After the two pilot episodes, the show finally originated on CBS from Septmber 4, 1972 and ended on July 13, 1975. But the show didn't end there.The last CBS season was reran in syndication by the big-market independent stations in 1976 and turned out successful, the show went back on the air in 1977.

The "Syndicated Version" ran from September 1977 to September 1986.

[bwitz72]

Also.. what was the "Joker's Jackpot" (the $2,500 under Jack's podium desk)?  I am only familiar with the syndicated version and not the CBS version.

[gamshwfan]

The joker's Jackpot was where a players main game winning went if they lost a game; bonus round prizes were safe. Players were risking their winnings by deciding to come back and play again; it took 4 games (later 3) to win the jackpot.

[blozier2006]

@bwitz72 if you won three games in a row, you got the jackpot. if you lost, your cash went in the jackpot.

[bwitz72]

Was it normal to go a long time between the pilots (dec 68/jan 69) to the start of the regular series (sept 72)?

[Hondo20132]

They needed to decide the host.

[iLoveClassicTV]

Awesome theme music! Reminds me of one of my favourite albums, "The Well Tempered Synthesizer", along with 80's-era 'video game' music. I'd love to see a complete episode, but I don't live in America so I'll have to wait till there is a DVD release.

[moogyboy6]

"The Well-Tempered Synthesizer" was Wendy Carlos's second LP. I can sort of see what you mean, although WC was never quite as garish with her synthesizer tones as P&K were. At any rate, the Moog synthesizer was considered really "with it" at the time, and I'm sure really helped The Joker's Wild click with audiences as a hip new '70s-style game show.

[gamshwfan]

This theme song "THE SAVERS" seems ahead of it's time. It would have been more suited for the 1980's because that's when game shows started to become electronic in a sense. It fit well on the SIMON SAYS pilot with Bob Barker because that game was centered around an electronic computer but not THE JOKER'S WILD at the time because they were not vert electronic. So the second theme song would have been better first if you know what I mean. So the theme had good rhythym but it was just timing.

[Noveltooner]

Actually, years before "The Joker's Wild," "The Savers" had been the theme for Maxwell House coffee commercials and its "percolator blend." It was synched to the bubbling of the coffee seen in the clear glass or plastic cap of the percolator. (Slow drip coffee machines eventually replaced percolators; they make great coffee, but are rather dull visually.)

[gamshwfan]

Thank you for the information. It makes perfect sense.

[Stratman78]

Actually, "The Savers" came off the 1967 album, 'KALEIDOSCOPIC VIBRATIONS: Spotlight On The Moog' by Jean-Jacques Perrey and Gershon Kingsley.

You can get that disc on CDnow. along with their other album 'The in Sound from Way Out!'

[lph10012007]

This synthesizer version is different from the arrangement I remember on the show itself. But a little searching through Wikipedia & other sources confirmed that the two songs share the same composers (Jean-Jacques Perrey and Gershon Kingsley)

[lph10012007]

Does anyone know who composed the theme music? It sounds remarkably like the one the Disney parks used to use for the Main Street Electrical Parade.

[Gazdatronik]

It should, because it was. Good ears!

[codeman38]

Perrey & Kingsley wrote the Electrical Parade theme too. So it's no surprise they sound similar.

[VikutaaChyaaruzu]

@codeman38

I bought one of Kingsley's songs through iTunes -- the song I'm referring to specifically is his well-known "Pop Corn" instrumental.

[vintagetv]

I saw a Joker's Wild home gam on ebay. Not sure what they were asking for, just thought you'd like to know.

[dnm728]

I once had a TJW board game, but I believe I'd thrown it away a few years ago. If there are still any TJW home games floating about, let me know.

[dnm728]

Before we veer too far off the track, let me expound on secondchance1977's first response to my statement on TJW's return:

Reruns of TJW turned up in syndication about a year after CBS cancelled the show. Response was positive enough for the show to make more new episodes of TJW, starting in 1977.

After Jack Barry's death in 1984, Bill Cullen took over as host for the remaining two years of TJW's run.

[dnm728]

Last frame is from the final CBS TJW episode (6/13/1975), just before they darkened the windows.

Barry & Enright would have the last laugh as TJW would return in syndication.

[secondchance1977]

for over 8 years!

[dnm728]

Jawohl.

[secondchance1977]

jawohl?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

[dnm728]

It's a German affirmative - you wouldn't understand unless you knew German.

[secondchance1977]

I dton. What does it mean?

[dnm728]

"Jawohl" (ya-VOLE) is a dialectic form of "Ja" meaning "Yes."

[secondchance1977]

Oh? well, i never knew that. Thanks for telling me! :)

[darthchaosofrspw]

1:17. The Devil, rumored to be a caricature of Jack Barry himself.

[dnm728]

Yep. If you remove the goatee, mustache, horns and pointed stick and smoothed out the ears, he would resemble Jack Barry.

[kes1963]

the era of "synthasized" game show themes LOL

[secondchance1977]

1 sorry to give you the thumbs i ment to give you the thumbs up!

2 The 1970s seemed to be the era of synthiasized game shows! Like this, Tattletales, the PRice is right, concentration, etc

[megamanj2004X]

also the 1972-76 CBS version of "Gambit" also used a synthesizer as did the 1971-74 version of the ABC "Password" theme and "Match Game" 1973-82 and the 2nd CBS TJW theme from 1974-75 called "Joker's Jive" also used a synthesizer as well.

Most new shows that came out in the early '70s definitely cranked up a lot of synthesizers in their themes.

[dnm728]

Good to see still frames from the early "Joker's Wild" episodes, including two early versions of the endgame (prizes on the wheels, then "Jokers and Devils.").

Still frame at 1:16 is a losing spin of the J&D version of the endgame. Here the Devil has a pitchfork with him, and when they went to the more popular Money Wheels (aka Face the Devil) version, they removed the pitchfork.

[spacemonkey68]

This is the greates thing I have ever seen in my entire life

[Stratman78]

My apologies to everyone for I took this video down a few days back. I've been trying to get this the audio in Stereo for I've been having a problem with.