Folks, it is with the heaviest of many, many hearts to tell you all that our beloved friend James E. Narz aka Tom Kennedy, the brother of the late Jack Narz, has sadly passed away today. He was 93 years old. Rest in Peace, Mr. Kennedy.
Better than Hollywood Squares, though Tom Kennedy's Break The Bank lacks a bonus round. This was remedied when Jack Barry himself took over for season 2, and while it was the mindless *Face The Devil* style bonus round (in Break The Bank's case, randomly choose celebrities until, [a: You win, [b: Wuss out/quit, or [c: Go bust), it's better than all of Hollywood Squares' bonus rounds until the latter half of Tom Bergeron's run.
Ironically enough, Hollywood Squares was basically Tic-Tac-Dough with celebrities. I guess Jack and Dan wanted to return the favor by ripping Merrill and Bob back after the latter two ripped off the former two to begin with.
As someone who watched a game show where NOBODY chose the cartoon category, but kept choosing all the others on Trump Card (or was it Caesar's Challenge?), I can feel the sentiment. Great thing about Jeopardy! is that if too much time hasn't been wasted giving out wrong questions or drawing a blank, contestants are eventually FORCED to go to a category they've been avoiding all round as it would be the only one left. In other words, no "unlimited" quizzes for a category on Jeopardy!.
And as the main theme song on Barry and Enright’s obscure non-game show series “Soap World,” which was ironically had some involvement by King World, the same King World that would go on to distribute Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! in 1983 and 1984 respectively.
Fred Silverman canceled this show because it reminded him too much of Hollywood Squares which he absolutely hated and that was incredibly stupid because it was the second highest rated Daytime game show of that year making it an absolute success for ABC and you never get rid of anything that is succeeding. Not to mention all he did in its place was expand two soap operas by 15 minutes each. Sounds like an abuse of power if you ask me.
@@MIKECNW He found game shows to be a waste of time and not as entertaining as scripted programming. I completely disagree with that. The unpredictability of game shows makes them even better in my opinion. It's also fun to watch people go head to head with each other and win big at any moment. Not to mention playing at home with the contestants while watching never gets old.
Break The Bank suffers the Double Dare problem i.e. Double Dare 1.0=Jeopardy!. Double Dare 2.0=Beat The Clock. Funnily enough, the Barry-Enright Break The Bank is the 2.0 (Hollywood Squares style). Never seen 1.0 or the infamous 3.0 with Gene Rayburn. Bullseye is another one with two completely different games. 1.0=The Joker's Wild. 2.0=throwing darts.
Folks, it is with the heaviest of many, many hearts to tell you all that our beloved friend James E. Narz aka Tom Kennedy, the brother of the late Jack Narz, has sadly passed away today. He was 93 years old. Rest in Peace, Mr. Kennedy.
93 is a good innings. May he RIP.
I hardly remember watching this show, but I really like it. It's like "The Hollywood Squares", but with a twist.
Better than Hollywood Squares, though Tom Kennedy's Break The Bank lacks a bonus round. This was remedied when Jack Barry himself took over for season 2, and while it was the mindless *Face The Devil* style bonus round (in Break The Bank's case, randomly choose celebrities until, [a: You win, [b: Wuss out/quit, or [c: Go bust), it's better than all of Hollywood Squares' bonus rounds until the latter half of Tom Bergeron's run.
Ironically enough, Hollywood Squares was basically Tic-Tac-Dough with celebrities. I guess Jack and Dan wanted to return the favor by ripping Merrill and Bob back after the latter two ripped off the former two to begin with.
Gorgeous video.
Thanks for posting this! Episodes of BTB are hard to find these days.
LHJ (Lawrence Hilton Jacobs) was a good game player and I loved Joey Bishop's complaint when his side of the trilon board got blanks.
Like Joey, Lonnie Schorr was guilty of doing that too..
Break the bank what a great tv-classic.
Shot in the same studio at the ABC Prospect lot as "Family Feud", which I attended in Sept. of 1978.
These shows always risk leaving a celebrity hanging out to dry going unchosen. Bill Dana was that celebrity on this episode.
As someone who watched a game show where NOBODY chose the cartoon category, but kept choosing all the others on Trump Card (or was it Caesar's Challenge?), I can feel the sentiment.
Great thing about Jeopardy! is that if too much time hasn't been wasted giving out wrong questions or drawing a blank, contestants are eventually FORCED to go to a category they've been avoiding all round as it would be the only one left.
In other words, no "unlimited" quizzes for a category on Jeopardy!.
The tuck, Pike and laid out positions are also gymnastics moves
This theme was used during the tournament of champions on The Joker's Wild.
And as the main theme song on Barry and Enright’s obscure non-game show series “Soap World,” which was ironically had some involvement by King World, the same King World that would go on to distribute Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! in 1983 and 1984 respectively.
16:13 Farrah-Umberto-Carl-Karla
The Game Show Network and their Leastern Time Zone bias!
Hal did excellent. 😀👍
00:01 the joker's wild $1.000.000 championship tournament theme
You do know both shows were produced by Jack Barry? Also this aired after the network version of Joker ended but before the syndicated one took over.
A “boing” sound effect from “Match Game ‘98”
This one had it first though :)
Is this the same Hal Schwartz that was later a contestant on Sale of the Century in the 80s?
Could be. Most were able to do the game show runs to try to drive interest.
Bill Dana before his guest appearances on “The Golden Girls.”
Fred Silverman canceled this show because it reminded him too much of Hollywood Squares which he absolutely hated and that was incredibly stupid because it was the second highest rated Daytime game show of that year making it an absolute success for ABC and you never get rid of anything that is succeeding. Not to mention all he did in its place was expand two soap operas by 15 minutes each. Sounds like an abuse of power if you ask me.
Agreed. I was so cool because it was so much like the "Hollywood Squares".
@@jackbusby9602 What do you think it was about that show that he hated so much? It was one of my favorites.
What was it with that SOB?
@@MIKECNW He found game shows to be a waste of time and not as entertaining as scripted programming. I completely disagree with that. The unpredictability of game shows makes them even better in my opinion. It's also fun to watch people go head to head with each other and win big at any moment. Not to mention playing at home with the contestants while watching never gets old.
@@mitchellries256 Yeah but if they brought good ratings and he knew they were popular, why do away with them. Sounded like a selfish fool.
Though it would likely get a different title, I would love to see this format rebooted.
Break The Bank suffers the Double Dare problem i.e. Double Dare 1.0=Jeopardy!. Double Dare 2.0=Beat The Clock.
Funnily enough, the Barry-Enright Break The Bank is the 2.0 (Hollywood Squares style). Never seen 1.0 or the infamous 3.0 with Gene Rayburn.
Bullseye is another one with two completely different games. 1.0=The Joker's Wild. 2.0=throwing darts.
Lawrence just curse at 8:59
If big rosey-greer breaks tom-kennedy every game-show host will be all over him.
Danyel Gibout is so HOT!!!
Way too complicated, it failed. Look at Larry's Afro!