Jack Barry (television)
Encyclopedia
Jack Barry was an American
television
game show
host and producer via Barry & Enright Productions
, his production company
with Dan Enright
. Barry's career was nearly ruined in the quiz show scandal of the late 1950s, but he made a successful comeback in the business over a decade later.
, New York
, graduating from Lindenhurst High School. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania
's Wharton School of Finance and Commerce, in Philadelphia. In the 1940s he began on radio, where he met his eventual business partner Dan Enright
. Once television broadcasting began, Barry and Enright would get involved in local programming, and eventually national programs, thanks in part to the success of early Jack Barry hits such as the children's show Winky Dink and You
(reputedly the world's first-ever interactive television program) as well as Juvenile Jury
and Life Begins at 80. In the 1950s, Barry and Enright got involved in game shows, with Barry hosting The Big Surprise
. He was eventually dismissed from his hosting duties and was replaced by Mike Wallace
, persuading Barry to begin packaging game shows by himself.
(sponsored by Geritol
) and Tic-Tac-Dough
. Both quiz shows were hosted by Barry. In a 1991 PBS
documentary Barry's partner, Dan Enright, said that after the first unrigged broadcast of Twenty-One, sponsor Geritol complained to Barry and Enright the following day about the dullness of that episode (the two contestants repeatedly missed questions). According to Enright, "from that moment on, we decided to rig Twenty-One."
In 1958, a match between challenger Charles Van Doren
and champion Herb Stempel
was found to have been rigged, with Van Doren having been provided answers in advance. (The 1994 movie Quiz Show
was based on the Stempel-Van Doren contests.) Within three months of the published revelation, Twenty-One was cancelled. Dough Re Mi
and 3 other shows were taken over by NBC. Another Barry-Enright production, Tic-Tac-Dough
, was cancelled as well. Barry next hosted the nighttime version of a new show Barry and Enright created with Robert Noah and Buddy Piper, Concentration
. With the quiz show scandal ramping up, Barry left Concentration after four weeks. Barry and Enright were forced to sell their shows to NBC
.
Though Enright and producer Albert Freedman actually carried out the riggng of Twenty-One, Barry admitted in the 1970s and 1980s his role in covering up for the partners. However, Barry himself was apparently not averse to "juicing" a show, even after the Twenty-One and Tic-Tac-Dough debacles left his career in eclipse. A veteran quiz producer once said that in the 1960s, when Barry was working on a pilot of a Mark Goodson
-Bill Todman
production featuring "spontaneous" filmed responses, Barry would feed his respondents scripted lines to make them funnier.
with Columbia-Screen Gems, while Jack Barry went to California
. The two collaborated on small Canadian-produced quiz shows including Line 'em Up, Photo Finish, shot in Montreal, and It's a Match, taped in Toronto. It was on these shows that a number of young American and Canadian producers and directors got their start, including Mark Phillips
and Sidney M. Cohen
.
-area radio station (KKOP 93.5 FM, Redondo Beach
, later renamed KFOX, now KDAY
). In later interviews, he stated that he bought the station specifically because it would require him to have a license from the FCC
, and that if the FCC would be willing to grant him a license, it would decisively demonstrate that his reputation was no longer "tainted" by the game show scandals. Barry also owned a cable TV system in Redondo Beach.
In the mid-1960s, Barry was featured on KTLA
(Channel 5 in Los Angeles) in a variety-format program dubbed The Jack Barry Show. This started as a weekly program but slowly became locally popular, because it featured celebrities performing in Los Angeles who wanted to promote their local appearances. The show continued for about a three-year period, during which at one point it became a daily program and was also, rather briefly, syndicated.
An interesting feature of this program was the appearance of a group of five children dubbed "The Juvenile Jury," later "The Paramount Panel" (KTLA was then owned by Paramount Pictures
, who also served as the syndicator when Barry's show went national), who commented on news and other current events amusingly. Art Linkletter
, at that time, had a popular program
based principally on such a format, so in some sense, the Barry show was attempting to capture this audience segment (as well as revive the memory of one of Barry's popular 1950s TV creations).
Notable among the child actors on this panel was Gary Goetzman
, today a well known director and producer of major films. Probably Barry's unfortunate game show experiences sensitized him to people ostracized by the Hollywood establishment of the time. As an example, he had a number of artists and comedians as guests on the show who had been blacklisted during the McCarthy
period of the 1950s and were attempting to return to the American stage in the mid-1960s. The musical director of the program, Kip Walton, was responsible for bringing in major jazz
artists with regularity, such as Lionel Hampton
.
After a successful three-year run the show was canceled, mainly because of scheduling changes on the station brought into effect by a purchase of KTLA from Paramount by an investment group headed by Gene Autry
, which later controlled the California Angels (now the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
) baseball team and Channel 5.
which discussed game show hosts, "he began to receive calls: Would he fill in for five weeks on this game show? Yes. Of course." Barry appeared on a few local game shows in Los Angeles during this time (mostly on KTLA
), which included a local version of You Don't Say!
, which would be hosted nationally by Tom Kennedy. Barry even dabbled in acting, playing a newsman on the premiere of the mid-1960s TV series Batman
. He also did a guest reporter spot on the TV series The Addams Family
.
Finally, in 1969 he became a host again, for ABC
's The Generation Gap
, replacing original host Dennis Wholey
for the final weeks of its series.
Later in that year, Barry embarked on an idea which would launch his national comeback, and eventually become the most successful game show project of his career. He developed and produced two pilots
for The Joker's Wild
in association with Goodson-Todman Productions, emceed by Allen Ludden
. CBS
held off on picking up the series at first. In 1970, Barry produced a pilot with a similar concept called The Honeymoon Game, hosted by Jim McKrell
. After that failed to sell, Barry reworked the format and launched a local version of The Joker's Wild in 1971 on Los Angeles' KTLA
, while early in that same year also selling The Reel Game
to ABC. Barry also hosted this show, pitting three contestants in answering questions centered around vintage newsreel footage, for cash prizes, and the chance for a new car (which no contestants won during the run). The series ran weekly in prime-time for 13 weeks.
The Joker's Wild made its national debut on CBS in 1972 (the same day The Price Is Right
with Bob Barker
debuted) with Barry hosting and packaging the show (under the Jack Barry Productions name) until CBS cancelled it in 1975. Jack Barry Productions, meanwhile, also packaged Hollywood's Talking
, Geoff Edwards
' first game show, and Blank Check
, hosted by veteran quiz and game host and announcer Art James
. Even before Joker, however, Barry had displayed no loss of concurrent hosting and production skill, doing both with The Reel Game
and a 1970s revival of Juvenile Jury
.
Barry even brought Dan Enright back as The Joker's Wilds executive producer toward the end of its first network run, mentioning Enright at the end of the final CBS installment. The two renewed their working partnership full-time in 1976, launching Break the Bank
, hosted by Tom Kennedy, on ABC's daytime lineup. (When ABC cancelled the show despite decent ratings, Barry himself hosted and produced the show for weekly syndication during the 1976-77 season.)
In the fall of 1976, Barry sold reruns of The Joker's Wild's final CBS season to several stations, including New York's WOR-TV
and Los Angeles' KTLA
. These reruns rated highly enough that Barry and Enright chose to bring the game back into production for first-run syndication
beginning in 1977, with Barry again the host. The show was distributed by Dick Colbert Television Sales and produced at the Chris Craft Studios of KCOP-TV in Hollywood. The series was seen in Los Angeles on KHJ-TV
, despite being produced at KCOP, and despite the test run of the final CBS season having aired on KTLA the season before. Joker eventually did air on its flagship, KCOP, during the last several seasons.
The new, syndicated Joker was a huge success, enough that it enabled Barry to reach back to his days as a children's program creator and host, launching in 1979 Joker! Joker!! Joker!!!, a weekly kids' version of The Joker's Wild in which children could win savings bonds (their family members assisted them in playing the bonus rounds).
The new Joker was so successful that Barry and Enright gambled on reviving a show whose reputation had been somewhat damaged by the ancient quiz show scandal. Tic-Tac-Dough
, with new host Wink Martindale
, first had an unsuccessful eight-week run on CBS' daytime schedule in 1978. The syndicated run of the show (debuting in the fall of 1978) became successful and ran for eight years with Martindale and in its final year, with Jim Caldwell as host. From there, Barry & Enright in the 1970s and early 1980s developed and produced games like Bullseye, Play the Percentages
, Hot Potato
, and Hollywood Connection
. They also produced several unsold pilots such as Decisions, Decisions. They even developed a resurrected Twenty-One in 1982, though this version never saw air. In due course, Barry & Enright Productions moved to film and series television production work.
In his final years, Barry renewed ties with NBC
and began developing game show projects, including Hot Potato, which proved to be his last that made it to television. He also made an attempt to sell The Joker's Wild and Tic Tac Dough to NBC affiliates in an attempt to remove a winnings limit of $50,000 imposed due to the amount of CBS affiliates (in compliance with a network rule) airing both series, as NBC imposed no such winnings limit on its or its affiliates' programming. That limit was eventually removed shortly before Barry's death.
, eventually began grooming a successor host for The Joker's Wild
, his periodic fill-in Jim Peck
, and planned to retire from hosting in September 1984. On May 2, 1984, less than a month after completing Joker's seventh syndicated season and returning from a visit to his daughter in Europe
, Barry suffered a massive cardiac arrest
during a morning jog in Central Park
. He died at Lenox Hill Hospital
in New York City
, after doctors were unable to save his life. Barry's body was flown back to Southern California, and is now buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park
, Glendale, California
.
In February 1978, he sustained an ankle injury while jogging; yet he did not miss any episodes. Instead, Barry sat on his podium chair during the time he was recovering from the injury.
Prior to his death, Barry had planned to appear in the season-opening episode of The Joker's Wild and announce his retirement, then bring in Jim Peck and hand over the hosting reins to him.
Instead, Bill Cullen
became the new host of The Joker's Wild and continued to do so until the syndicated version ended in September 1986. Peck did host a few more weeks' worth of episodes in Cullen's place before the series ended.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
game show
Game show
A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...
host and producer via Barry & Enright Productions
Barry & Enright Productions
Barry & Enright Productions , was a United States television production company that was formed in 1947 by Jack Barry and Dan Enright.-History:Jack Barry and Dan Enright first met at radio station WOR in New York, where...
, his production company
Production company
A production company provides the physical basis for works in the realms of the performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, and video.- Tasks and functions :...
with Dan Enright
Dan Enright
Daniel "Dan" Enright was one of the most successful game show producers in American television. Enright worked with Jack Barry from the 1940s until Barry's death in 1984. They were partners in creating programs for radio and television...
. Barry's career was nearly ruined in the quiz show scandal of the late 1950s, but he made a successful comeback in the business over a decade later.
Early life and career
Barry was born and raised in LindenhurstLindenhurst, New York
Lindenhurst is a village in Suffolk County, New York, on the southern shore of Long Island in the Town of Babylon. The population was 27,819 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Lindenhurst is located at ....
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, graduating from Lindenhurst High School. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
's Wharton School of Finance and Commerce, in Philadelphia. In the 1940s he began on radio, where he met his eventual business partner Dan Enright
Dan Enright
Daniel "Dan" Enright was one of the most successful game show producers in American television. Enright worked with Jack Barry from the 1940s until Barry's death in 1984. They were partners in creating programs for radio and television...
. Once television broadcasting began, Barry and Enright would get involved in local programming, and eventually national programs, thanks in part to the success of early Jack Barry hits such as the children's show Winky Dink and You
Winky Dink and You
Winky Dink And You was a CBS television children's show that aired from 1953 to 1957, on Saturday mornings at 10:30 a.m./9:30 central. It was hosted by Jack Barry, and featured the exploits of a cartoon character named Winky Dink and his dog Woofer, with sound effects provided by Joseph Scholnick....
(reputedly the world's first-ever interactive television program) as well as Juvenile Jury
Juvenile Jury
Juvenile Jury is an American children's game show which originally ran on NBC from April 3, 1947 to August 1, 1954. It was hosted by Jack Barry and featured a panel of kids aged ten or less giving advice to solve the problems of other kids.-Controversy:...
and Life Begins at 80. In the 1950s, Barry and Enright got involved in game shows, with Barry hosting The Big Surprise
The Big Surprise
The Big Surprise is a television quiz show broadcast in the United States by NBC from October 8, 1955 to June 9, 1956 and from September 18, 1956 to April 2, 1957. It was hastily created by NBC in response to the overwhelming ratings success of The $64,000 Question, which had premiered on CBS in...
. He was eventually dismissed from his hosting duties and was replaced by Mike Wallace
Mike Wallace (journalist)
Myron Leon "Mike" Wallace is an American journalist, former game show host, actor and media personality. During his 60+ year career, he has interviewed a wide range of prominent newsmakers....
, persuading Barry to begin packaging game shows by himself.
Quiz show scandal
In 1956, Barry and Enright launched Twenty OneTwenty One (game show)
Twenty One is an American game show which aired in the late 1950s. While it included the most popular contestant of the quiz show era, it became notorious for being a rigged quiz show which nearly caused the demise of the entire genre in the wake of United States Senate investigations...
(sponsored by Geritol
Geritol
Geritol is a US trademarked name for various dietary supplements, past and present. Geritol is currently a brand name for several vitamin complexes plus iron or multimineral products in both liquid form and tablets, containing from 9.5 to 18 mg of iron per daily dose...
) and Tic-Tac-Dough
Tic-Tac-Dough
Tic-Tac-Dough is an American television game show based on the pen-and-paper game of tic-tac-toe. Contestants answer questions in various categories to put up their respective symbol, X or O, on the board. Three versions were produced: the initial 1956–59 run on NBC, a 1978–1986 run initially on...
. Both quiz shows were hosted by Barry. In a 1991 PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
documentary Barry's partner, Dan Enright, said that after the first unrigged broadcast of Twenty-One, sponsor Geritol complained to Barry and Enright the following day about the dullness of that episode (the two contestants repeatedly missed questions). According to Enright, "from that moment on, we decided to rig Twenty-One."
In 1958, a match between challenger Charles Van Doren
Charles Van Doren
Charles Lincoln Van Doren is an American intellectual, writer, and editor who was involved in a television quiz show scandal in the 1950s...
and champion Herb Stempel
Herb Stempel
Herbert Milton "Herb" Stempel is a television game show contestant and subsequent whistle blower on the fraudulent nature of the industry, in what became known as the quiz show scandals...
was found to have been rigged, with Van Doren having been provided answers in advance. (The 1994 movie Quiz Show
Quiz Show
Quiz Show is a 1994 American historical drama film produced and directed by Robert Redford. Adapted by Paul Attanasio from Richard Goodwin's memoir Remembering America, the film is based upon the Twenty One quiz show scandal of the 1950s...
was based on the Stempel-Van Doren contests.) Within three months of the published revelation, Twenty-One was cancelled. Dough Re Mi
Dough Re Mi
Dough Re Mi was an American game show that aired on NBC from February 24, 1958 to December 30, 1960. The series was hosted by Gene Rayburn and was somewhat of an answer to CBS' Name That Tune, which began in 1953....
and 3 other shows were taken over by NBC. Another Barry-Enright production, Tic-Tac-Dough
Tic-Tac-Dough
Tic-Tac-Dough is an American television game show based on the pen-and-paper game of tic-tac-toe. Contestants answer questions in various categories to put up their respective symbol, X or O, on the board. Three versions were produced: the initial 1956–59 run on NBC, a 1978–1986 run initially on...
, was cancelled as well. Barry next hosted the nighttime version of a new show Barry and Enright created with Robert Noah and Buddy Piper, Concentration
Concentration (game show)
Concentration was an American TV game show based on the children's memory game of the same name. Matching cards represented prizes that contestants could win...
. With the quiz show scandal ramping up, Barry left Concentration after four weeks. Barry and Enright were forced to sell their shows to NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
.
Though Enright and producer Albert Freedman actually carried out the riggng of Twenty-One, Barry admitted in the 1970s and 1980s his role in covering up for the partners. However, Barry himself was apparently not averse to "juicing" a show, even after the Twenty-One and Tic-Tac-Dough debacles left his career in eclipse. A veteran quiz producer once said that in the 1960s, when Barry was working on a pilot of a Mark Goodson
Mark Goodson
Mark Goodson was an American television producer who specialized in game shows.-Life and early career:...
-Bill Todman
Bill Todman
William S. "Bill" Todman was an American television producer born in New York City. He produced many of television's longest running shows with business partner Mark Goodson.-Early life:...
production featuring "spontaneous" filmed responses, Barry would feed his respondents scripted lines to make them funnier.
After the scandal
Dan Enright found television work in CanadaCanada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
with Columbia-Screen Gems, while Jack Barry went to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. The two collaborated on small Canadian-produced quiz shows including Line 'em Up, Photo Finish, shot in Montreal, and It's a Match, taped in Toronto. It was on these shows that a number of young American and Canadian producers and directors got their start, including Mark Phillips
Mark Phillips (producer)
Mark Phillips is the owner of Mark Phillips Philms & Telephision, located in Los Angeles, California. He is currently the executive producer of My Ghost Story on bio and The Protectors on A&E...
and Sidney M. Cohen
Sidney M. Cohen
Sidney M. Cohen is a Canadian television director specializing in live multi-camera productions requiring minimal editing and is also a TV program creator.He was born in Montreal, Quebec and began his career with CFCF-TV and later CBC Television...
.
Move to Los Angeles
After being unable to find national broadcasting work for several years in the wake of the quiz scandal, Barry decided to purchase a Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
-area radio station (KKOP 93.5 FM, Redondo Beach
Redondo Beach, California
Redondo Beach is one of the three Beach Cities located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 66,748 at the 2010 census, up from 63,261 at the 2000 census. The city is located in the South Bay region of the greater Los Angeles area.Redondo Beach was originally part of...
, later renamed KFOX, now KDAY
KDAY
KDAY in Redondo Beach and KDEY in Ontario are a pair of synchrocasting radio stations based in South Los Angeles that airs an Classic hip-hop format aimed at African Americans in the 18-49 range. The station is owned by Magic Broadcasting, LLC and broadcasts at 93.5 MHz on the FM dial...
). In later interviews, he stated that he bought the station specifically because it would require him to have a license from the FCC
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
, and that if the FCC would be willing to grant him a license, it would decisively demonstrate that his reputation was no longer "tainted" by the game show scandals. Barry also owned a cable TV system in Redondo Beach.
In the mid-1960s, Barry was featured on KTLA
KTLA
KTLA, virtual channel 5, is a television station in Los Angeles, California, USA. Owned by the Tribune Company, KTLA is an affiliate of the CW Television Network. KTLA's studios are on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson...
(Channel 5 in Los Angeles) in a variety-format program dubbed The Jack Barry Show. This started as a weekly program but slowly became locally popular, because it featured celebrities performing in Los Angeles who wanted to promote their local appearances. The show continued for about a three-year period, during which at one point it became a daily program and was also, rather briefly, syndicated.
An interesting feature of this program was the appearance of a group of five children dubbed "The Juvenile Jury," later "The Paramount Panel" (KTLA was then owned by Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
, who also served as the syndicator when Barry's show went national), who commented on news and other current events amusingly. Art Linkletter
Art Linkletter
Arthur Gordon "Art" Linkletter was a Canadian-born American radio and television personality. He was the host of House Party, which ran on CBS radio and television for 25 years, and People Are Funny, on NBC radio-TV for 19 years...
, at that time, had a popular program
Kids Say the Darndest Things
Kids Say the Darndest Things is an American comedy series hosted by Bill Cosby that aired on CBS as a special on February 6, 1995 then as a full season from January 9, 1998 to June 23, 2000...
based principally on such a format, so in some sense, the Barry show was attempting to capture this audience segment (as well as revive the memory of one of Barry's popular 1950s TV creations).
Notable among the child actors on this panel was Gary Goetzman
Gary Goetzman
Gary M. Goetzman is an American film and television producer, and is perhaps best known as co-founder of Playtone with Tom Hanks. Born in Los Angeles, Goetzman began his career as a child actor. In 1984, director Jonathan Demme tapped Goetzman to co-produce the Talking Heads concert film Stop...
, today a well known director and producer of major films. Probably Barry's unfortunate game show experiences sensitized him to people ostracized by the Hollywood establishment of the time. As an example, he had a number of artists and comedians as guests on the show who had been blacklisted during the McCarthy
McCarthyism
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...
period of the 1950s and were attempting to return to the American stage in the mid-1960s. The musical director of the program, Kip Walton, was responsible for bringing in major jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
artists with regularity, such as Lionel Hampton
Lionel Hampton
Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy...
.
After a successful three-year run the show was canceled, mainly because of scheduling changes on the station brought into effect by a purchase of KTLA from Paramount by an investment group headed by Gene Autry
Gene Autry
Orvon Grover Autry , better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s...
, which later controlled the California Angels (now the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are a professional baseball team based in Anaheim, California, United States. The Angels are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. The "Angels" name originates from the city in which the team started, Los Angeles...
) baseball team and Channel 5.
Return to game shows
"Slowly," said a 1984 article in TV GuideTV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
which discussed game show hosts, "he began to receive calls: Would he fill in for five weeks on this game show? Yes. Of course." Barry appeared on a few local game shows in Los Angeles during this time (mostly on KTLA
KTLA
KTLA, virtual channel 5, is a television station in Los Angeles, California, USA. Owned by the Tribune Company, KTLA is an affiliate of the CW Television Network. KTLA's studios are on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson...
), which included a local version of You Don't Say!
You Don't Say!
You Don't Say! is an American television game show that had three separate runs on television. The first version aired on NBC daytime from April 1, 1963 to September 26, 1969 with revivals on ABC in 1975 and in syndication from 1978-1979...
, which would be hosted nationally by Tom Kennedy. Barry even dabbled in acting, playing a newsman on the premiere of the mid-1960s TV series Batman
Batman (TV series)
Batman is an American television series, based on the DC comic book character of the same name. It stars Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin — two crime-fighting heroes who defend Gotham City. It aired on the American Broadcasting Company network for three seasons from January 12, 1966 to...
. He also did a guest reporter spot on the TV series The Addams Family
The Addams Family (TV series)
The Addams Family is an American television series based on the characters in Charles Addams' New Yorker cartoons. The 30-minute series was shot in black-and-white and aired for two seasons in 64 installments on ABC from September 18, 1964, to April 8, 1966...
.
Finally, in 1969 he became a host again, for ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's The Generation Gap
The Generation Gap
The Generation Gap was a primetime American game show that aired from February 7 to May 23, 1969 on ABC. It was originally hosted by Dennis Wholey for the first ten episodes, after which he was replaced by Jack Barry. Fred Foy announced during the entire run....
, replacing original host Dennis Wholey
Dennis Wholey
Dennis Wholey is an American television host and producer, and the author of a number of self-help books, one of which was a New York Times bestseller. He currently hosts This is America with Dennis Wholey, an interview program shown throughout the U.S...
for the final weeks of its series.
Later in that year, Barry embarked on an idea which would launch his national comeback, and eventually become the most successful game show project of his career. He developed and produced two pilots
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...
for The Joker's Wild
The Joker's Wild
The Joker's Wild is an American television game show that aired at different times during the 1970s through the 1990s. Contestants answered questions based on categories that were determined randomly by a mechanism resembling a slot machine....
in association with Goodson-Todman Productions, emceed by Allen Ludden
Allen Ludden
Allen Ludden was an American television personality, emcee and game show host, perhaps most well known for hosting various incarnations of the game show Password between 1961 and 1980.-Early years:...
. CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
held off on picking up the series at first. In 1970, Barry produced a pilot with a similar concept called The Honeymoon Game, hosted by Jim McKrell
Jim McKrell
James "Jim" MacKrell is an television personality, best known for emceeing television game shows such as Celebrity Sweepstakes and The Game Game. He was born in Little Rock, Arkansas...
. After that failed to sell, Barry reworked the format and launched a local version of The Joker's Wild in 1971 on Los Angeles' KTLA
KTLA
KTLA, virtual channel 5, is a television station in Los Angeles, California, USA. Owned by the Tribune Company, KTLA is an affiliate of the CW Television Network. KTLA's studios are on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson...
, while early in that same year also selling The Reel Game
The Reel Game
The Reel Game was a game show that aired on ABC from January 18 to May 3, 1971. The series was hosted by Jack Barry and announced by Jack Clark....
to ABC. Barry also hosted this show, pitting three contestants in answering questions centered around vintage newsreel footage, for cash prizes, and the chance for a new car (which no contestants won during the run). The series ran weekly in prime-time for 13 weeks.
The Joker's Wild made its national debut on CBS in 1972 (the same day The Price Is Right
The Price Is Right
The Price Is Right is a television game show franchise originally produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman, and created by Bob Stewart, and is currently produced and owned by FremantleMedia. The franchise centers on television game shows, but also includes merchandise such as video games, printed...
with Bob Barker
Bob Barker
Robert William "Bob" Barker is a former American television game show host. He is best known for hosting CBS's The Price Is Right from 1972 to 2007, making it the longest-running daytime game show in North American television history, and for hosting Truth or Consequences from 1956 to 1975.Born...
debuted) with Barry hosting and packaging the show (under the Jack Barry Productions name) until CBS cancelled it in 1975. Jack Barry Productions, meanwhile, also packaged Hollywood's Talking
Hollywood's Talking
Hollywood's Talking is a short lived American game show based the 60s quizzer, Everybody's Talking, and produced by Jack Barry. It ran on CBS for three months in 1973, debuting on March 26 and ending on June 22 to make room for a new version of Match Game.It was hosted by Geoff Edwards, with...
, Geoff Edwards
Geoff Edwards
Geoffrey Bruce Owen "Geoff" Edwards is an American television actor, game show host and radio personality. Over the past decade and a half, he has been a writer and broadcaster on travel. He was born in Westfield, New Jersey....
' first game show, and Blank Check
Blank Check (game show)
Blank Check is an American game show that aired on NBC from January 6 to July 4, 1975. It was promoted as "television's first ESP game". Art James was host, with Johnny Jacobs as announcer....
, hosted by veteran quiz and game host and announcer Art James
Art James
Art James was an American game show host, best known for shows such as The Who, What, or Where Game and Pay Cards!. He was also the announcer on the game show Concentration....
. Even before Joker, however, Barry had displayed no loss of concurrent hosting and production skill, doing both with The Reel Game
The Reel Game
The Reel Game was a game show that aired on ABC from January 18 to May 3, 1971. The series was hosted by Jack Barry and announced by Jack Clark....
and a 1970s revival of Juvenile Jury
Juvenile Jury
Juvenile Jury is an American children's game show which originally ran on NBC from April 3, 1947 to August 1, 1954. It was hosted by Jack Barry and featured a panel of kids aged ten or less giving advice to solve the problems of other kids.-Controversy:...
.
Barry even brought Dan Enright back as The Joker's Wilds executive producer toward the end of its first network run, mentioning Enright at the end of the final CBS installment. The two renewed their working partnership full-time in 1976, launching Break the Bank
Break the Bank (1976)
Break the Bank is an American game show created by Jack Barry and Dan Enright and produced by their production company Barry & Enright Productions...
, hosted by Tom Kennedy, on ABC's daytime lineup. (When ABC cancelled the show despite decent ratings, Barry himself hosted and produced the show for weekly syndication during the 1976-77 season.)
In the fall of 1976, Barry sold reruns of The Joker's Wild's final CBS season to several stations, including New York's WOR-TV
WWOR-TV
WWOR-TV, virtual channel 9 , is the flagship station of the MyNetworkTV programming service, licensed to Secaucus, New Jersey and serving the Tri-State metropolitan area. WWOR is owned by Fox Television Stations, a division of the News Corporation, and is a sister station to Fox network flagship...
and Los Angeles' KTLA
KTLA
KTLA, virtual channel 5, is a television station in Los Angeles, California, USA. Owned by the Tribune Company, KTLA is an affiliate of the CW Television Network. KTLA's studios are on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson...
. These reruns rated highly enough that Barry and Enright chose to bring the game back into production for first-run syndication
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
beginning in 1977, with Barry again the host. The show was distributed by Dick Colbert Television Sales and produced at the Chris Craft Studios of KCOP-TV in Hollywood. The series was seen in Los Angeles on KHJ-TV
KCAL-TV
KCAL-TV, channel 9, is an independent television station in Los Angeles, California, USA, owned by the CBS Corporation. KCAL-TV shares its studio facilities with KCBS-TV inside CBS Studio Center in the Studio City section of Los Angeles, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson.-Digital...
, despite being produced at KCOP, and despite the test run of the final CBS season having aired on KTLA the season before. Joker eventually did air on its flagship, KCOP, during the last several seasons.
The new, syndicated Joker was a huge success, enough that it enabled Barry to reach back to his days as a children's program creator and host, launching in 1979 Joker! Joker!! Joker!!!, a weekly kids' version of The Joker's Wild in which children could win savings bonds (their family members assisted them in playing the bonus rounds).
The new Joker was so successful that Barry and Enright gambled on reviving a show whose reputation had been somewhat damaged by the ancient quiz show scandal. Tic-Tac-Dough
Tic-Tac-Dough
Tic-Tac-Dough is an American television game show based on the pen-and-paper game of tic-tac-toe. Contestants answer questions in various categories to put up their respective symbol, X or O, on the board. Three versions were produced: the initial 1956–59 run on NBC, a 1978–1986 run initially on...
, with new host Wink Martindale
Wink Martindale
Winston Conrad Martindale , known professionally as Wink Martindale, is an American disc jockey and television game show host.-Radio:...
, first had an unsuccessful eight-week run on CBS' daytime schedule in 1978. The syndicated run of the show (debuting in the fall of 1978) became successful and ran for eight years with Martindale and in its final year, with Jim Caldwell as host. From there, Barry & Enright in the 1970s and early 1980s developed and produced games like Bullseye, Play the Percentages
Play the Percentages
Play the Percentages is an American game show hosted by Geoff Edwards which aired in syndication from January 7 to September 12, 1980. Bob Hilton became the main announcer after Jay Stewart announced for the first several weeks....
, Hot Potato
Hot Potato (game show)
Hot Potato was a television game show broadcast on NBC in the United States from January 23 to June 29, 1984. Bill Cullen was the show's host and Charlie O'Donnell was the announcer....
, and Hollywood Connection
Hollywood Connection
Hollywood Connection was an American game show that ran in syndication from September 5, 1977 to April 1978. Jim Lange hosted the series, while Jay Stewart announced...
. They also produced several unsold pilots such as Decisions, Decisions. They even developed a resurrected Twenty-One in 1982, though this version never saw air. In due course, Barry & Enright Productions moved to film and series television production work.
In his final years, Barry renewed ties with NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
and began developing game show projects, including Hot Potato, which proved to be his last that made it to television. He also made an attempt to sell The Joker's Wild and Tic Tac Dough to NBC affiliates in an attempt to remove a winnings limit of $50,000 imposed due to the amount of CBS affiliates (in compliance with a network rule) airing both series, as NBC imposed no such winnings limit on its or its affiliates' programming. That limit was eventually removed shortly before Barry's death.
Death
Since 1981, Barry, along with then-producer Ron GreenbergRon Greenberg
Ron Greenberg is an American television game show producer who worked on numerous successful network and syndicated programs of that genre from the 1960s through the 1990s...
, eventually began grooming a successor host for The Joker's Wild
The Joker's Wild
The Joker's Wild is an American television game show that aired at different times during the 1970s through the 1990s. Contestants answered questions based on categories that were determined randomly by a mechanism resembling a slot machine....
, his periodic fill-in Jim Peck
Jim Peck
James Edward "Jim" Peck is an American television and radio personality based in Milwaukee and is perhaps best known for his time as a game show host.-Early career:...
, and planned to retire from hosting in September 1984. On May 2, 1984, less than a month after completing Joker's seventh syndicated season and returning from a visit to his daughter in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, Barry suffered a massive cardiac arrest
Cardiac arrest
Cardiac arrest, is the cessation of normal circulation of the blood due to failure of the heart to contract effectively...
during a morning jog in Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
. He died at Lenox Hill Hospital
Lenox Hill Hospital
Lenox Hill Hospital, on Manhattan's Upper East Side in New York City, is a 652-bed, acute care hospital and a major teaching affiliate of New York University Medical Center. Founded in 1857 as the German Dispensary, today's 10-building Lenox Hill Hospital complex has occupied its present site since...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, after doctors were unable to save his life. Barry's body was flown back to Southern California, and is now buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park
Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale
Forest Lawn Memorial Park is a privately owned cemetery in Glendale, California. It is the original location of Forest Lawn, a chain of cemeteries in Southern California. The land was formerly part of Providencia Ranch.-History:...
, Glendale, California
Glendale, California
Glendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population is 191,719, down from 194,973 at the 2000 census. making it the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the 22nd largest city in the state of California...
.
In February 1978, he sustained an ankle injury while jogging; yet he did not miss any episodes. Instead, Barry sat on his podium chair during the time he was recovering from the injury.
Prior to his death, Barry had planned to appear in the season-opening episode of The Joker's Wild and announce his retirement, then bring in Jim Peck and hand over the hosting reins to him.
Instead, Bill Cullen
Bill Cullen
William Lawrence Francis "Bill" Cullen was an American radio and television personality whose career spanned five decades...
became the new host of The Joker's Wild and continued to do so until the syndicated version ended in September 1986. Peck did host a few more weeks' worth of episodes in Cullen's place before the series ended.