Odd

I lost track of the story about the long lost G-T pilot called Make Your Move. But I picked it up again recently on Game Show Forum. The story has taken an odd twist. Or should I say an Oddball twist?

GSF did obtain the tape of Make Your Mark. As I wrote a while back, the competition was not intense. Matt Ottinger distributed copies to GSF members who chipped in twenty bucks to charity. The board has been chatting about the 1960s show ever since. Their opinion is distinctly negative. One interesting note: Robert Earle hosted the pilot. You might call it a comedown from his College Bowl glory days.

The twist is that the film reel also contained another unsold G-T pilot called Oddball from 1986. This show isn't quite so lost and found. In fact, a few minutes of the pilot has been available on YouTube for years. Jamie Farr hosted this combination of Match Game and Password (or so it's been described.)

BuzzerBlog tracked down one of the civvie contestants on Oddball, a political consultant named Randy Economy. (In his line of work the poor guy has probably had to endure endless jokes about "it's the economy, stupid.") In a long interview Randy talks about the show and how he ended up in the pilot. It's well worth a read for some insights into the development of a game show, even if the show never saw the light of TV. Before his political consulting days, Randy worked for Game Show Network in its infancy, and he has some nice stories about GSN.

My guess is that both pilots, Make Your Move and Oddball, will eventually surface on YouTube. The we can all watch.

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