Concentration (1985 pilot)


Taped
1985
Run time
30 Minutes
Host
Orson Bean
Announcer
Gene Wood
Origination
ABC Television Center, Los Angeles, California

This is chronicling the failed 1985 pilot of Concentration.

Game format[]

Main Game[]

Two contestants faced a computer animated game board consisting of 25 numbered squares. Behind those numbers were pairs of words that connect together and match in some way. The hidden words cover up a rebus puzzle which the contestants try to solve. To start the game, two puzzle pieces were revealed at the start. On a player's turn he/she picked off two numbers at a time. If the numbers he/she picked uncovered a match, he/she won $100 and revealed pieces of a puzzle. If he/she doesn't match, a funny reaction would occur and control of the board goes to the opponent. Also on the board were three Wild Cards and when one was uncovered, another number on the board revealed the natural match; so therefore three pieces were revealed instead of two; no mention was made of any bonus for matching the Wild Cards since it did not occur. The first player to solve the puzzle kept the cash and went on to play the bonus game for prizes and $5,000 cash.

Bonus Round[]

In the bonus round instead of 25 numbered squares, the winning contestant was faced with 15 numbered squares. Behind the numbers were seven matching pairs of prizes plus one unmatched prize which acted as a decoy to distract the contestant. The winning contestant's objective was to match as many prizes as they can within the time limit; the time was 50 seconds plus 10 for every bonus round loss. Each time a match was made, the contestant won the matched prize. If he/she can match all seven prizes before time ran out, the winning contestant also won $5,000.

Trivia[]

According to John Ricci, Jr. (the manager of Wink Martindale's social media) ten pilots were taped.

The pilot used the sound from the bonus round called "Fast Money" from Family Feud (circa the late Ray Combs era) anytime when an answer was revealed on the board and all other previous versions (excluding Dawson '76 and Gameshow Marathon respectively) have carried over the sound since. It was first used on Trivia Trap in 1984.

The pilot's theme song was later used as a main theme song for Classic Concentration. Additionally, the bonus round was also carried over from the pilot but with matching cars instead of prizes.

Although the Mark Goodson logo is present, the spiel "This is Gene Wood speaking for Concentration, a Mark Goodson Television Production!" was never said during the ending.

14 years later, the main game from this pilot was also previously used in the handheld game released by Tiger Electronics in 1999.