| "THESE THREE PEOPLE WILL COMPETE IN A CLASSIC BATTLE OF KNOWLEDGE AND STRATEGY. ONLY ONE OF THEM WILL HAVE THE CHANCE TO WIN THE TOP PRIZE OF $10,000 TODAY ON..." The Big |
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| A Don Lipp/Ron Greenburg Production in association with MCA Television air dates: 12/23/74-7/4/75 on ABC daytime host: Jim Peck announcer: Dan Daniels HOW TO PLAY: Three players would be read a toss-up question and whomever buzzed in with the right answer scored 1 point and picked one of 6 categories shown on the board. Each category was assigned a point value from 1-6. Before the first category was selected, a payoff point would be set at 7 or 8, and the cash payoff would be set randomly at either $25, $50, $75, $100, or $500. The first player to reach the payoff point exactly won the cash shown on Jim's podium. If a category is selected which would put a player over the payoff point for a correct answer, those players would not be allowed to answer the question. Once a payoff point was reached, the next payoff point would be 7 or 8 points higher than the last one. At one point during the first round, the categories would change. During the final 90 seconds of the first round, each payoff point would be worth a flat $100. In the Final Showdown, the 2 highest scorers from the first round would battle it out to be the first to reach 7 points. Three categories worth 1-3 points would be displayed. A player cannot answer a question if a correct answer would put him/her over 7 points. The first player to score a total of 7 points won $250 and a shot at another $10,000. In the bonus round, assisstant Heather Cunningham would hand the champ a pair of dice. One die would have "Show" in place of a 6, with the 6 on the other die being replaced by "Down". If (s)he rolled ShowDown on the first roll of the dice, (s)he won $10,000! If not, the number rolled would become the payoff point. The player rolled as many pairs of dice as possible for 30 seconds, or until (s)he rolled ShowDown, thereby winning $5,000 in addition to $250 for each roll of the payoff #. Every time ShowDown was not rolled, Heather handed the player another pair of dice. If ShowDown was not rolled within the first 30 seconds, each roll of the payoff point gave the player another 5 seconds to win $5,000 by rollong ShowDown, this time without the payoff point. If the player won $5,000 or $10,000 by rolling ShowDown, (s)he retired undefeated. If not, (s)he faced 2 newcomers on the next show. OTHER INFO: The Big Showdown became the first of 3 game show hosted by Milwaukee native Jim Peck while he was under contract with ABC, with the next 2 being Hot Seat in '76, and Second Chance from '77. From there he also hosted a syndicated revival of You Don't Say! from '78-'79, Three's A Crowd from '79-'80, and filled in for Jack Barry, and later Bill Cullen on The Joker's Wild. He also served as the reporter/announcer on Divorce Court. He is now a member of the public relations staff at Marquette University while hosting a local PBS program. Each episode featured Jim making his entrance onto the set via a spiral staircase. Well, the most memorable episode, known as "The Big Falldown", featured JIm tripping and landing on his keister during his descent! After stepping up to his podium, Jim said "Well...Sure. You people would applaud a lynching!" Back to my game show joint or my homepage. |