Tuesday, September 8, 2015

What Might've Been: The Object Is... (1963)

American Bandstand host Dick Clark added a second gig at the end of 1963 with his first game show assignment. The Object Is... premiered on ABC on December 30, 1963, and lasted just three months, falling victim to declining ratings.

Perhaps the problem prevalent with Object was that it was too derivative of the popular Password, which, at the time, was airing on CBS, and would move to ABC nearly a decade later. You'll see what I mean when you look at this episode from March 1964, the pentultimate episode.




As it happened, ABC acquired Missing Links from NBC, and gave Clark the MC's job, since Ed McMahon was contractually bound to NBC (The Tonight Show). That didn't last, and it would be nearly a full decade before Clark landed another game show (The $10,000 Pyramid). Originally, Object had three teams instead of two, but downsized in an effort to save the show. All that did was make it more obvious that it was based on Password.

Rating: A-.

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