| Jay Wolpert | |
|---|---|
| |
| Name | Jay Wolpert |
| Born | January 29, 1942 |
| Place | The Bronx, New York |
| Died | January 3, 2022 |
| Place | Los Angeles, California |
| Cause Death | Complications of Alzheimer's disease |
| Occupation | TV Producer |
Jay Wolpert (born January 29, 1942; died January 3, 2022) was an American television producer and screenwriter.
Life and Career[]
Wolpert was born in the Bronx, New York City on January 29, 1942. His first television appearance came as a contestant on the original version of Jeopardy! (with Art Flemming) in 1969. He competed in the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champion that year and won. Wolpert's upset win was notable for defeating the two highest-winning contestants in regular Jeopardy! play up to that point, Jane Gschwend and Elliot Shteir.
Game Show Productions[]
Wolpert began his game show-producing career working for Dan Enright in Canada. He later worked as a producer and creator of game shows for Chuck Barris Productions and Goodson-Todman Productions. While at Goodson-Todman, he served as producer of The Price is Right with Bob Barker from 1972 until 1978 and also created the game show Double Dare with Alex Trebek (not to be confused with the later, unrealated show that premiered a decade later on Nickelodeon with Marc Summers in 1986) for CBS which ran for a short-time from 1976 until 1977.
Wolpert left Goodson-Todman to form his own production company, and his first game show was the 1979 series Whew! for CBS with Tom Kennedy. Wolpert produced the series with Burt Sugarman for most of its run. Whew! was cancelled in 1980 and Wolpert did not return to television with a series until January 1983, despite shooting several pilots in the interim. On January 3, 1983, Wolpert's Hit Man debuted on NBC with Peter Tomarken as its host. Hit Man lasted or no more than thriteen weeks on the air.
Five years later in 1987, and after a failed syndicated pilot based on a classic board game Trivial Pursuit with Steve Morris (the show would receive two other versions based on it in 1993 and in 2008 where both incorporated interacti elements), Wolpert returned to daytime television with the series Blackout with Bob Goen for CBS. Debuting on January 4, 1988 in place of The $25,000 Pyramid with Dick Clark, the Bob Goen-hosted Blackout ended after thirteen weeks of episodes and was replaced by a revival of Family Feud with Ray Combs (which began airing on July 4, 1988); new episodes of The $25,000 Pyramid aired for thirteen weeks after Blackout's cancellation.
In 1990, Wolpert launched a new series on the Lifetime network based on a pilot he had shot in 1981 with Tomarken as host. On February 5, 1990, Rodeo Drive debuted with comedian Louise DuArt hosting. Rodeo Drive ended its run on August 31, 1990 of that year; the show had aired twelve weeks of new episodes prior to that and had been in reruns until the program was removed from Lifetime's lineup.
After a hiatus, Wolpert returned to the Goodson Productions team and produced a new The Price is Right series for Goodson and Paramount Television. The (New) Price is Right with Doug Davidson debuted in syndication in September 1994, with Wolpert producing. Ratings for The (New) Price is Right were lacking resulting in a cancellation after sixteen weeks in January 1995.
In 1996, Wolpert and The Family Channel (Formerly CBN/Christian Broadcasting Network, then FOX Family, later ABC Family and now Freeform) teamed up for two series. One was Wait 'til You Have Kids!! with Tom Parks, a reboot of a shot-lived 1972 syndicated game show The Parent Game with Clark Race. The other was $hopping $pree (not to be confused with a popularly active rotating pricing game from The Price is Right of the same name) with Ron Pearson which ran for two years and was Wolpert's longest-running game show in his company's history. After Shopping Spree went of the air in August of 1998, Wolpert's company stopped producing programming. He was also the executive producer of the 1998 revival of Match Game with Michael Burger.
In the 2010-11 season, Wolpert was listed as a consultant during the credits of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (or Millionaire for short) with Chris Harrison and had some input in that season's format changes.
Screenwriting to Acting[]
Wolpert turned to screenwriting, penning the script for The Count of Monte Crisco (2002) and receiving a story credit for all films of the Pirates of the Caribbean series.
He also had some acting roles. He played the OB-GYN who tells Diane Keaton's character Nina Banks (nee Dickerson) she is pregnant in Father of the Bride Part II.
Death[]
On January 3, 2022; Wolpert died in Los Angeles from complications of Alzheimer's disease at the age of 79, just 26 days shy from reaching his 80th birthday.
Goodson-Todman shows produced[]
The Price is Right (1972-1978)
Double Dare (1976-1977)
The (New) Price is Right (1994-1995)
Match Game (1998-1999)