The Honeymoon Game (1970)--The Joker's Wild in a former life

This unsold pilot actually aired as a one-shot special in some markets in October, 1970. Jack Barry attempted to sell this pilot to become a regular syndicated 90-minute game show. Since it did air as a special, couldn't this technically be considered Jack Barry's first aired production after the quiz show scandals?
Anyhoo, Jim MacKrell helmed this reworking of The Joker's Wild pilots with Allen Ludden, and it was complete with the celebrities asking the questions in their own categories. Second time to sell this format wasn't the charm, unfortunately. Maybe in a couple years, Jack.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Jim MacKrell
• gameshow
• TJW
• pilot
• Jaye P. Morgan

[BlackwoodCompany]

Do you have the rest?

[blanquepage]

Yes.

[bluebear1985]

Jack Barry did have a couple of attempts at hosting before The Joker's Wild. In 1969, he hosted the final weeks of a short-lived series on ABC called The Generation Gap. In 1971, he hosted The Reel Game for a few months, also on ABC. It wasn't until September 4, 1972, that The Joker's Wild would debut on CBS.

[WhatsAYak]

@PatrioticPirate - No, the theme for this pilot was recycled from the short-lived late 60s game show, Funny You Should Ask.

[JMK101237]

I had a wonderful time hosting Game Shows...this was a wonderful opportunity for me to work with the legendary Jack Barry. All these years later...what a good time I had with all the game shows I hosted...Jim MacKrell

[PatrioticPirate]

The sound effect for the spinning wheels was part of "The Savers." Was that used as the theme for this?

[gshowguy]

@Rlotpir1972 That font's called "Go", BTW. And they used that font on "Go" for the timers.

[Rlotpir1972]

The eggcrate scorecards were the same as from "The Newlywed Game" and "Hollywood Squares".

[WarioBarker88]

The format is, of course, "Joker's Wild", but the Bonus Heart feels out-of-place. And why did Barry go back to using celebrities when it's obvious that it didn't work in 1968?

Also, a pretty funny blooper at 4:34 -- "Politics, Kid Stuff, and...a big, white dot." Couldn't Jim or the Governor have worked in a snide remark to the board on that...or the Governor himself, whose category appeared in place of the dot? Or even politics *it*self?

Kind of weird, but it might have been edited out.