- Heatter-Quigley Productions
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Heatter-Quigley Productions was an American television production company that was launched in 1960 by two former television writers, Merrill Heatter and Bob Quigley.
In 1965, they created the classic game show The Hollywood Squares, and they sold their company to Filmways.
On many of Heatter-Quigley's most popular game shows, beginning with Video Village, a key element of the game itself was magnified, in some cases to larger than life. Other examples included:
- Hollywood Squares, which easily fit into that category as it featured a gigantic tic-tac-toe board
- High Rollers, featuring an extra large pair of dice
- Gambit, utilizing a large deck of playing cards in a game of blackjack
- The Magnificent Marble Machine, which featured a huge pinball machine
- Hot Seat, with an over-sized lie detector (referred to by host Jim Peck as a "galvanic skin response machine").
Kenny Williams was the announcer on all of Heatter-Quigley's game shows except for two: Temptation (announced by Carl King) and The Magnificent Marble Machine (announced by Johnny Gilbert), with both shows hosted by Art James.
In 1981 Quigley retired and ended his partnership with Merrill Heatter, just before Filmways was bought by Orion Pictures. He died in 1989. Heatter continued going solo and produced new game shows, such as Battlestars, All-Star Blitz, Bargain Hunters, and the 1980s version of High Rollers. On September 28, 1998, Heatter leased the worldwide rights to his solo-developed game shows to King World for a limited time. [1]That option has now expired.
MGM Television acquired the rights retained by Orion Television to the Heatter-Quigley shows. Today, the remaining series of the Heatter-Quigley library are owned by MGM Television, which was co-distributed by Sony for a short time.
In 2008, Heatter returned to game show production with the GSN game show Catch 21, based on Gambit. Heatter is co-executive producer with another veteran producer, Scott Sternberg.
Titles by Heatter-Quigley Productions
- Video Village/Video Village, Jr. (1960–1962)
- Double Exposure (1961)
- People Will Talk (1963)
- The Celebrity Game (1964)
- Shenanigans (1964–1965)
- PDQ (1966–1969)
- Showdown (1966)
- Hollywood Squares/Storybook Squares (1966-1981 version)
- Temptation (1967–1968)
- Funny You Should Ask (1968–1969)
- Wacky Races (1968-1970, co-produced with Hanna-Barbera, rights owned by Warner Bros.; the only non-game show produced by the company, although it was intended to have a game show element)
- Name Droppers (1969)
- Gambit (1972–1976)
- Runaround (1972–1973)
- Amateur's Guide to Love (1972)
- Baffle (1973), a revival of PDQ.
- All-Star Baffle (1974), Baffle with no "civilian" contestants.
- High Rollers (1974-1976; 1978-1980)
- The Magnificent Marble Machine (1975–1976)
- Hot Seat (1976)
- To Say the Least (1977–1978)
- Bedtime Stories (1979)
- Las Vegas Gambit (1980–1981)
Titles by Merrill Heatter Productions
- Battlestars (1981–1982)
- Fantasy (1982–1983) (co-produced by Earl Greenberg Productions and Columbia Pictures Television)
- The New Battlestars (1983)
- All-Star Blitz (1985) (co-produced by Peter Marshall Enterprises)
- Bargain Hunters (1987) (co-produced by Josephson Communications, Inc.)
- High Rollers (1987–1988) (co-produced by Century Towers Productions)
- The Last Word (1989–1990) (syndicated by Turner Program Services)
- Catch 21 (2008-present) (co-produced by Scott Sternberg Productions)
Notes and references
Categories:- Companies established in 1960
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer subsidiaries
- Television production companies of the United States
- Companies disestablished in 1990
- Television series by Heatter-Quigley Productions
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