Continuing the 1972 CBS game show celebration with this lost Gambit pilot from 1979. I always felt this was a good revival of the format...I hope you agree and enjoy it! The Winker
At 17:56 you can see the original Gambit logo on the back of the cards. (Always liked the face card designs on the Gambit deck.) And to my knowledge, Stan Worth's theme is the only game show theme that had a kazoo in it!
It's the Las Vegas Gambit Show......it's the Las Vegas Gambit showw-ohhhh. You'll win cash, you'll win prizes, you'll win a combination of cash and prices. Right on before blockbusters.
Thanks so much for posting this! We have been waiting to see how this version of Gambit actually turned out. Honestly, I think this should have sold with few modifications. The placement of the 6 Ball device on stage was a little weird, but that's really the only thing I found off. The Answer Machine changed the strategy of the game as no couple could answer answer multiple questions in a row (except when the other couple froze), so that changed game strategy considerably. It still seemed to work reasonably well. Thanks again Wink!!
What a way to spend Labor Day, Winkster! 1:45 - That's the same randomizer sound effect heard later on _Battlestars._ And I tell ya, it sounds more like a Speak & Spell: "Spell: He gets up very early. R-O-O-S-T-E-R. That is correct. Now spell: It's in the paper every day." As much I as was enthralled with the Six-Ball Machine, it just doesn't meld well with the simple blackjack formula of the old Gambit. Maybe give it its own show?
Maybe Six-Ball and the answer machine could have been their own show, replacing the Gambit card part with a front game based on the midway game where you roll balls down a ramp into slots. There was part of the California lottery game show a little like that. Here each couple has their own ramp, each slot has a letter, (P-R-I-Z-E?) light them all to win. As long as you answer the puzzles, you keep earning balls. Play passes when you're wrong, or maybe when you land on an already lit letter.
This was an absolute joy to watch! This should have sold to NBC in this format, the Big Numbers game just didn't work with Gambit (although it was great for High Rollers)
From this "Gambit" pilot, it looks like the unpredictable answer machine is what gave the 2 couples letters of the answer, whether or not it is a little or a lot, right after a question is asked, and they have 5 seconds to know it.
What an interesting pilot compared to the version that they went with. Definitely a bigger use of technology here and actually a much more colorful stage :) Very interesting...
The letter machine worked out better than I thought it would be. Although the six-ball looked like fun, I still would have preferred the Gambit Board for the bonus round.
actually i think this should have been on the air. this format is very exciting and the six ball game to me looks like a predecessor to Plinko and what game show fan doesn't like Plinko. Unfortunately The Fred Silverman Years at NBC IMHO we're a pretty bad time for the network and a lot of good ideas like this show never made it to air. thank's wink for posting this. it's a damn shame it didn't sell
well i mean the format not the material used to earn the prizes/cash as superball is skeeball and you kinda have to roll the ball up a hill. in this case your rolling a ball gently and trying to position it in a way to win a prize or get cash. just like plinko where you try to position a chip on the board to get the big money and avoid the zeros or in this case dead holes
For the most part, I agree with it being a good revival. Answer Machine was a plus, but with the risk of not getting enough info, I think both couples should play. Six-Ball was also fun, but needed some more risks, like losing a letter in Gambit, for example. I'd put 6Ball over the Gambit Board... never cared for it's low risk/low reward structure.
The Answer Machine is a great idea. Six Ball is fun once or twice, but I can't see basing a show around it. Much like "Bonus Shuffleboard" on Monty's Beat The Clock, seeing it day after day, and knowing it isn't really related to the main game at all, gets sort of dull fast. Not something you would make sure to tune in each day to see.
So I have to wonder and ask, during 6-Ball, if three balls or 4 landed in the same prize, was that considered a dead ball? Did it pop out and roll around elsewhere? What if both Jacks and both Aces were filled by 4 of the balls? Two cars?
Time to play recycled SFX: the board's "dialing" effect sounds like the one used on Battlestars. The bell for correct answers would later be used on Hot Potato.
I was confused by the bonus game at first. Only six balls and lighting up the word Gambit. The ejecting ball from the letter part was pretty neat. The answer machine had to have been matching to order Wink's questions. I wonder if anything went wrong in the main game to cause multiple takes.
The way I see it, the Six-Ball Machine didn't have enough risk. If you got a dead ball, there should've been some serious consequences (wipe out the entire board? wipeout a few "Gambit" letters?). There wasn't enough Jeopardy.
+WinkMartindale: Not bad, but glad they went with LAS VEGAS GAMBIT and returned to the original format, btw what was your take of the 1990 pilot with Bob Eubanks?
I find the Answer Machine and the "6-ball" board too "arcade"-like to work with Gambit's blackjack. Rather, I do see those two work better in a separate game show with more "arcade" games -- besides pinball, that's done. Neat pilot none-of-the-less, just the games doesn't seem to mingle as "Gambit" was marketed as a casino game.
Because Gambit was the basis of Catch 21. Merrill Heatter and Bob Quigley created that game format. Catch 21 had 3 solo players, though. Gambit was married couple v. married couple.
groovy tune. i'd like to play the skeeball game and yeah...pac man came out 5 months after this ...i doubt this isn't the first place this font showed up.
So does the "c" in Punch A Bunch on The Price is Right, even today. The only thing preventing a Namco lawsuit is this is 1979, and Pac Man came out in 1980.
If "Gambit" were revived today, one other option might be to use celebrity/contestant teams instead of married couples. Or, conversely, "Singles Weeks" where unmarried contestants would team up with celebrities.
Sorry, but this just isn't good. The questions should all be buzz-in, and the answer randomizer just doesn't fit in. Bonus game is odd, but if you kept it, you should not keep the letters in GAMBIT lit unless you are a returning champion. New champs should have to start from scratch.
"Gambit" was the original "Catch 21" before "Catch 21" became a show on Game Show Network. This was a classic.
Kinda sad this didn't take off. That pinball-esque bonus round would've been my favorite as a kid.
This would've lasted a good three or four years on NBC daytime.
That felt more like Skee-Ball than it did pinball, though.
Obviously taped at NBC in Burbank. That whistling crowd sound effects always give it away. Great share & thanks as always Wink!
At 17:56 you can see the original Gambit logo on the back of the cards. (Always liked the face card designs on the Gambit deck.) And to my knowledge, Stan Worth's theme is the only game show theme that had a kazoo in it!
That carpet is driving me crazy.
It's the Las Vegas Gambit Show......it's the Las Vegas Gambit showw-ohhhh. You'll win cash, you'll win prizes, you'll win a combination of cash and prices. Right on before blockbusters.
Bring this back, Wink!
This one features Debbie Bartlett pre-“Dreamhouse”. Great find!
And before she cut her hair.
Thanks so much for posting this! We have been waiting to see how this version of Gambit actually turned out. Honestly, I think this should have sold with few modifications. The placement of the 6 Ball device on stage was a little weird, but that's really the only thing I found off. The Answer Machine changed the strategy of the game as no couple could answer answer multiple questions in a row (except when the other couple froze), so that changed game strategy considerably. It still seemed to work reasonably well. Thanks again Wink!!
What a way to spend Labor Day, Winkster!
1:45 - That's the same randomizer sound effect heard later on _Battlestars._ And I tell ya, it sounds more like a Speak & Spell: "Spell: He gets up very early. R-O-O-S-T-E-R. That is correct. Now spell: It's in the paper every day."
As much I as was enthralled with the Six-Ball Machine, it just doesn't meld well with the simple blackjack formula of the old Gambit. Maybe give it its own show?
Love this format! Never saw a chase pattern like the one on the big "Gambit" sign in the background. The whole set is nice!
Maybe Six-Ball and the answer machine could have been their own show, replacing the Gambit card part with a front game based on the midway game where you roll balls down a ramp into slots. There was part of the California lottery game show a little like that. Here each couple has their own ramp, each slot has a letter, (P-R-I-Z-E?) light them all to win. As long as you answer the puzzles, you keep earning balls. Play passes when you're wrong, or maybe when you land on an already lit letter.
Wink I loved this version. I really liked the end game!
This was an absolute joy to watch! This should have sold to NBC in this format, the Big Numbers game just didn't work with Gambit (although it was great for High Rollers)
From this "Gambit" pilot, it looks like the unpredictable answer machine is what gave the 2 couples letters of the answer, whether or not it is a little or a lot, right after a question is asked, and they have 5 seconds to know it.
Correct answer sounded like the same one on Hot Potato (Bill Cullen in 1984) and Wordplay (Tom Kennedy in 1987)
And also in High Rollers '78-'80 whenever a contestant successfully knocked off all the numbers in a column during the main game.
That word game thing is foreshadowing to the "last word" ten years later
I loved that show
What an interesting pilot compared to the version that they went with. Definitely a bigger use of technology here and actually a much more colorful stage :)
Very interesting...
And pac man playing the Gambit G
Really enjoyed this! Worth the wait!! Thanks Wink!
A young Debbie Bartlett 4 years before Dream House. NICE!
Wink of an eye Martindale and Debbie Bartlett also on Dream House with Bob Eubanks (1983-1984)
Debbie Bartlett would later become the model on the game show "Dream House".
Definitely a Magnificent Marble Machine vibe in both the main game and the bonus round. Personally, I think Las Vegas Gambit was a lot more exciting.
I've been waiting months to see this, and I'm so glad you have it. That Six-Ball game was fun. Too bad it never made it to LVG.
Production company would've gone bust.
HUZZAH! What fun to see this!
Great pilot. I assume it was taped at The Burbank Studios (formerly NBC Studios).
With the canned applause used on this taping, you figured that out!
The letter machine worked out better than I thought it would be. Although the six-ball looked like fun, I still would have preferred the Gambit Board for the bonus round.
Would love to see this remade. I tend to write an article about this show. Hope to do so soon.
It was... this little thing called "Catch 21".
@@wschmrdr Catch 21 is a completely different show than from Gambit.
@@newstarcadefan it's based off of Gambit. Of course Catch 21 doesn't have couples as contestants.
Nice upload, Wink!
Thanks for sharing it.
actually i think this should have been on the air. this format is very exciting and the six ball game to me looks like a predecessor to Plinko and what game show fan doesn't like Plinko. Unfortunately The Fred Silverman Years at NBC IMHO we're a pretty bad time for the network and a lot of good ideas like this show never made it to air. thank's wink for posting this. it's a damn shame it didn't sell
+Matt Shroyer You mean Superball, right? Plinko's that other game with the chips.
well i mean the format not the material used to earn the prizes/cash as superball is skeeball and you kinda have to roll the ball up a hill. in this case your rolling a ball gently and trying to position it in a way to win a prize or get cash. just like plinko where you try to position a chip on the board to get the big money and avoid the zeros or in this case dead holes
Speaking of TPiR, I don't think Bob Barker would be a very happy camper at the 13:30 mark or so.
Cool game please post more!
Well, a version of this did sell-Las Vegas Gambit a few years later.
14:36 It looks like there was a, um, suggestion for the cut of the cards.
For the most part, I agree with it being a good revival. Answer Machine was a plus, but with the risk of not getting enough info, I think both couples should play. Six-Ball was also fun, but needed some more risks, like losing a letter in Gambit, for example. I'd put 6Ball over the Gambit Board... never cared for it's low risk/low reward structure.
The Answer Machine is a great idea. Six Ball is fun once or twice, but I can't see basing a show around it. Much like "Bonus Shuffleboard" on Monty's Beat The Clock, seeing it day after day, and knowing it isn't really related to the main game at all, gets sort of dull fast. Not something you would make sure to tune in each day to see.
Yes, you would. You'd watch to see if the couple completes "GAMBIT" and wins $10,000!
The Gambit machine must have been expensive to build.
This version was the better version Wink.
It looks like the pilot was picked up because the show became "Las Vegas Gambit" a year later.
So I have to wonder and ask, during 6-Ball, if three balls or 4 landed in the same prize, was that considered a dead ball? Did it pop out and roll around elsewhere? What if both Jacks and both Aces were filled by 4 of the balls? Two cars?
Time to play recycled SFX: the board's "dialing" effect sounds like the one used on Battlestars. The bell for correct answers would later be used on Hot Potato.
+Robert Lopresti And the sound when the letters are revealed on the Answer Machine was later used on "Scrabble".
Wow that's twice in a row for the van sandt
Was this pilot shot at NBC?
Very entertaining but a slight improvement would be to fill in letters one at a time and whoever buzzes in first gets to answer
The bonus round looks similar from the super Ball from the tpir
I was confused by the bonus game at first. Only six balls and lighting up the word Gambit. The ejecting ball from the letter part was pretty neat. The answer machine had to have been matching to order Wink's questions. I wonder if anything went wrong in the main game to cause multiple takes.
Baffle meets Gambit.
The way I see it, the Six-Ball Machine didn't have enough risk. If you got a dead ball, there should've been some serious consequences (wipe out the entire board? wipeout a few "Gambit" letters?). There wasn't enough Jeopardy.
Jeopardy...Jeopardy...what a word. WE'RE RENAMING THE SHOW JEOPARDY. Woops wrong show.
What was the original name of jeopardy?
It was called What's The Question?
Brian Schwartz yes
Interesting... I wonder why we never saw The Answer Machine used in a game show of its own... Seemed out of place here, though.
Did they win agai and did they get the car?
+WinkMartindale: Not bad, but glad they went with LAS VEGAS GAMBIT and returned to the original format, btw what was your take of the 1990 pilot with Bob Eubanks?
How much for that fancy Ski-ball machine? And will you provide delivery?
I find the Answer Machine and the "6-ball" board too "arcade"-like to work with Gambit's blackjack. Rather, I do see those two work better in a separate game show with more "arcade" games -- besides pinball, that's done. Neat pilot none-of-the-less, just the games doesn't seem to mingle as "Gambit" was marketed as a casino game.
Going the Scrabble/Definition route with its questions, I see.
+Andrew Rae - More like the Baffle format.
In terms of the bonus round, I'd much prefer the Gambitboard!
Didn't think I'd like the bonus round; guess I was wrong. It's pretty cool.
Why this show remind me of catch 21
Well, they both involve blackjack and trivia. And Merrill Heatter.
Plus the Gambit franchise predates Catch 21 by 36 years...
Because Gambit was the basis of Catch 21. Merrill Heatter and Bob Quigley created that game format. Catch 21 had 3 solo players, though. Gambit was married couple v. married couple.
Why aren’t the video and audio in sync?
Did this version of Gambit ever have a full run on tv
No, this was an unsold pilot.
groovy tune. i'd like to play the skeeball game and yeah...pac man came out 5 months after this ...i doubt this isn't the first place this font showed up.
16:40 Oops. A flash frame in the edit.
All little bit of double entendre in those questions and answers.
Apparently, this version of Gambit did not have Daily Doubles.
Wow, you look like you've barely changed in oh, 40 years! :)
Where was this taped? When was it taped in Las Vegas?
+jokerswildfan1972 It was taped at The Burbank Studios ... formerly known as NBC Studios.
Robert Lopresti Exactamundo, dude!
What dues Skeeball have to do with Blackjack? They were lucky to be able to drop that feature before the game became popular.
That disco theme though.
Ummm...no Eilane in this version????
landfill!
In a way, this format should have been used when the show returned.
I could watch hours of 6 ball
At least you were brutally honest about that Answer Machine, Wink. I think that machine took away from the game.
Anybody see Pac-man in the title? lol
I did
Same here.
Jon McCaleb same here
I did and also what I also found funny is that during the CBS Run of Gambit from 1972-76 had the same font as Namco which owned the rights to Pac Man
I was thinking the same thing!
The g looks like pac-man
I would say the same thing
So does the "c" in Punch A Bunch on The Price is Right, even today. The only thing preventing a Namco lawsuit is this is 1979, and Pac Man came out in 1980.
That was the classic Baby Teeth typeface. archives.sva.edu/blog/post/a-brief-tour-of-milton-glasers-typography
If you have GSN, CATCH 21 was a remake of this show.
Not bad, but I can see why it didn't sell
What's the mechanism in the ball/machine in the bonus round?
How does this look so much like Pac-Man?
The smiths couple kind of looks like George and weezie from the Jefferson's tv show
The hair… the clothing… urrrgh
I was a year old in 1979.
This is the second pilot episode of the American game show "Gambit". 🇺🇲 🇺🇲
Love this game, but hate this stupid answer machine.
I have to be honest...this was not that good a format for "Gambit".
+SuperGamer7 Yeah, I like the Gambit Board better.
Don't like the answer machine or the end game.
If "Gambit" were revived today, one other option might be to use celebrity/contestant teams instead of married couples.
Or, conversely, "Singles Weeks" where unmarried contestants would team up with celebrities.
Sorry, but this just isn't good. The questions should all be buzz-in, and the answer randomizer just doesn't fit in. Bonus game is odd, but if you kept it, you should not keep the letters in GAMBIT lit unless you are a returning champion. New champs should have to start from scratch.
This is so corny and that Gambit machine has nothing to do with the game. It’s not really a computer.