Memory Game

Joe Garagiola's Memory Game
Format	Game Show
Created by	Merv Griffin
Presented by	Joe Garagiola
Narrated by	Johnny Olson
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	120
Production
Running time	30 Minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Original run	February 15 – July 30, 1971

Memory Game (sometimes referred to as Joe Garagiola's Memory Game) was a short-lived American television game show that aired on NBC. The series – hosted by former baseball star and then-current Today personality Joe Garagiola – ran from February 15 to July 30, 1971.

The show's creator and packager was Merv Griffin, and its announcer was Johnny Olson, a legendary game-show announcer more synonymous with Goodson-Todman Productions, who would launch CBS' The New Price is Right the following year.

Gameplay

Five contestants, one of them a returning champion, competed and were spotted $50 at the start of the game. Before each round, they were each given a booklet containing the questions and answers to be used in that round. The time they had to study the material varied per round. Once the study time period elapsed, the show's assistants collected the booklets, and Garagiola began randomly asking questions from the booklet.

The champion – who was seated in the number 1 position – could elect to answer or call out an opponent's number (2 through 5). That player could answer or call any of his/her opponents to answer, and so on until a time's up buzzer sounded. At that time, that player had to answer. A correct answer was worth $5, a wrong answer lost that amount. Play continued in similar fashion until all the questions were exhausted.

Subsequent rounds were played with increased stakes ($10 in Round 2, $20 in Round 3 and all future rounds). The winner at the end of the show won a $1,000 bonus and returned the next day to meet new challengers. A three-day champion retired undefeated and won a new car.

Broadcast history

Memory Game was one of eight shows NBC attempted to program in the 1:30 PM (12:30 Central) time slot between 1968 and 1975; like most of the others, CBS' As the World Turns and ABC's Let's Make a Deal (formerly seen on NBC) soundly defeated it in the ratings.

Three weeks after this show's cancellation, NBC moved Garagiola to another daytime game, Sale of the Century, which he hosted for the rest of its original run. Three on a Match, hosted by Bill Cullen, replaced Memory Game on the NBC schedule.

Production

According to The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television by Wesley Hyatt (Watson-Guptill Publications, 1997), Griffin did not identify his production company on the end credits of the program. The talk-show host and entertainment mogul never gave any explanation for his decision.

Episode status

Much like other NBC games of the era, most episodes of Memory Game are believed to have been wiped as per network practices. Five episodes are known to exist at the UCLA Film and Television Archive.^[1]

References

1. ^ UCLA Archive: Memory Game

External links

• Memory Game entry at Internet Movie Database.