This is Fair Shake, a feature where I look at good game shows that didn’t get a fair shake. Basically, these were shows that in a perfect world could have lasted a long time, but for whatever reason they did not.
One of those game shows was one of my favorites of my late teenage years and was actually one of the more popular game shows of the late-1990s. And it was hosted by one of my favorite people in all of game shows.
Today, I’m looking at Debt, the game show where three contestants saddled with thousands of dollars in debt had the chance to have their debts paid off.
The show created by Sarah Jane West was hosted by Wink Martindale. Wink needs no introduction, but I’ll give him one anyway. Born in Jackson, Tennessee, he broken into show business as a disk jockey for WPLI in Jackson. In 1959, Martindale’s rendition of “Deck of Cards” was one of the biggest selling records of 1959, moving over a million units and peaking at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100. Four years later, it reached #5 on the UK singles charts.
Martindale’s TV debut was for WHBQ-TV in Memphis hosting sci-fi children’s show Mars Patrol. His first game show was in 1964 with What’s That Song? for NBC as Win Martindale. His TV breakthrough came in 1972 with the CBS gameshow Gambit. He would host two versions of the show (the first lasting for four years), with a second version, Las Vegas Gambit, lasting for just over a year.
In 1978, Martindale got his most famous hosting gig, hosting the reboot of 1950s game Tic Tac Dough. This would by far be the most successful incarnation of the show, with Wink hosting the game for seven years. He left the show and branched out into his own production company in 1985. His first creation, Headline Chasers, had Merv Griffin as a co-producer, but it didn’t prevent it from bombing. It was cancelled after just one season in 1986. He wouldn’t have Tic Tac Dough to run back to, as that show was cancelled the same year. Martindale’s next creation, Bumper Stumpers, would have better luck, airing on both USA Network and Global Television in Canada from 1987 to 1990.
While working on Bumper Stumpers, Wink hosted a reboot of High Rollers (another one-and-done show that I will probably touch on in this feature soon) and The Last Word (three months and done). In June 1990, Martindale hosted and produced The Great Getaway Game for the Travel Channel. It would be Wink’s second one-and-done show as producer and fourth as host since leaving Tic Tac Dough.
In 1993, Martindale teamed with Bill Hillier for a series of interactive game shows (interactivity was big in the early 1990s), allowing players to win prizes from home. The first and most popular was an adaptation of the board game Trivial Pursuit, premiering on June 7. Nine months later, Shuffle, a list-ordering game, and Boggle, another board game adaptation, premiered on The Family Channel. After fourteen weeks, Shuffle was replaced by Jumble, based on the popular newspaper game of the same name. The show had two runs, the first in the summer of 1994, and a second around the holiday season, replacing Boggle. Jumble ended on December 30, 1994, as did Trivial Pursuit, but the latter show continued to air in reruns until July 1995.
Announcing the show was Julie Claire. Claire’s bounced around, appearing in small roles on a lot of TV shows, including Curb Your Enthusiasm, Entourage, Boston Legal, NCIS, CSI: Miami, and Scandal. She had a recurring role on the eighth season of 24. In the role of security guard was actor Kurt Engstrom. Engstrom has some small actor roles to his credit and believe it or not, appeared on an episode of Singled Out in 1995.
The show premiered on June 3, 1996 and replaced Shop ‘Til You Drop, which moved to the Family Channel, and was paired with Supermarket Sweep for the duration of its run.
On with the game. In the two seasons on the air, the first round, known as General Debt, took two different formats.
In season 1, the three players’ debts are averaged out and that is their starting point. The player who had the least debt pre-average got to pick from one of five pun-style categories and a dollar amount, from -$50 for the easy questions to -$250 for the hardest ones. Also, the questions took the “I am”, “You are” (or I’m, you’re) format, and contestants are penalized for an incorrect answer. Behind one of the 25 slots is the “Debt-onator”, the question deemed the most difficult of the 25 in the round by the producers. That question was worth -$500.
If the format sounds familiar, then you can probably imagine how Merv Griffin felt. This was pretty much Jeopardy!. Merv Griffin Enterprises sued the creators of Debt. Also, in early episodes, the logo looked very similar to the Visa card logo. This was changed about a month after the series took air. Also, the Debt piggy bank from Season 1 was Hamm from Toy Story. Good Lord, how did this show last this long?
Merv Griffin Enterprises won in court, and the first round format was changed in the second season. After the averaging of debts, a toss-up question was asked. It was worth -$1 and the right to pick the first category. The five questions in the category (still the same $-50 to -$250) were asked, and the last player to give a correct answer in the category got to pick the next one. One of the five categories was the Debt-onator, doubling all the values of the category. Also, the “I am, you are” phrasing was scrapped. Huge timesaver.
The player with the highest debt remaining when all clues were played (a rarity) or when time was called was eliminated from the game and left with a $200 savings bond and a piggy bank.
The second round for both seasons was Gambling Debt. A category was revealed and the details of said category, and players bid back and forth as to how many questions out of five they could answer correctly. The bidding continued until one bids the maximum of five, or until one challenges the other by saying “Prove it!” If they proved it, the value of the category was deducted from their debt. If not, the deduction went to their opponent. The first category was worth -$300, with subsequent categories being worth -$400, -$500, -$750, and finally -$1500. The player with the least debt left, or had a mathematically larger margin than what was left available won the game and had the chance to had their debt paid off in full. The losing player got a piggy bank and $500 savings bond.
The show’s bonus round was played in two parts. The first was “Get Out of Debt”. A category and details about the category are revealed, and the winning player had to give ten correct answers in one minute or less. Passing was allowed, and wrong answers carried no penalty; however, any missed or passed questions were not repeated. If they got ten right, their original debt was paid in full.
The second part was “Bet Your Debt”, where Wink asked the player one question about their favorite thing in the world of pop culture. They could gamble what they had won to that point (either their original debt that was paid off if they got all ten or whatever amount they had won during the first two rounds if they didn’t) on the one question. If they got it right, then whatever they had won doubled. Otherwise, they lost it all. If they lost on this question, they would get the piggy and a $1,500 savings bond for getting 10 right in Get Out of Debt, or a piggy and $1,000 savings bond if they didn’t.
It’s a light-hearted show with an easy format to follow. So why didn’t this show get a fair shake?
Simple: blame it on the network. The show was on Lifetime Television, a cable channel geared towards women. But when the Lifetime brass found out that more than half the audience for the show was men, the plug was pulled after two seasons on August 14, 1998. No, seriously. The show got cancelled because as it turned out, guys watch game shows too. I'm pretty certain the lawsuit against Merv Griffin had a hand in the cancellation too.
Following its cancellation, some local stations bought a package of reruns in hopes that the show would land in syndication. It did not, and the show was not revived. Just as sad, this was Wink’s last game show hosting gig for more than a decade. He would have just one since: the short-lived Instant Recall for Game Show Network in 2010.
If there’s any show that deserved a fair shake, it’s this one. Hell, I wouldn’t mind a comeback either. I mean, we could certainly use one in this climate.