Underplayed Gems

The Joker's Wild (1972)

The Joker's Wild poster
Directed by
Richard S. Kline
Genre
Game Show, Family
Country
United States
Length
1 season, 164 episodes
Rating
8.5 of 10 from 4 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this series is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

Contestants answer trivia questions based on categories chosen by a slot machine-like device. The show mixes knowledge with chance, as joker symbols let players pick any category.

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What happens

The Joker's Wild is an American television game show that aired at different times between 1972 and 2019. Contestants answer trivia questions based on categories determined randomly by a mechanism resembling a slot machine. The show's title refers to the game's slot-machine mechanism also having jokers, which may be used to represent any category. The show was billed as "the game where knowledge is king and lady luck is queen", and was notable for being the first successful game show produced by Jack Barry after his company's role in the quiz show scandals during the late 1950s. The success of the series led in part to the reformation of Barry & Enright Productions in the 1970s, which reunited Barry with his partner Dan Enright. It aired on CBS from 1972 to 1975, and from 1977 to 1986 in broadcast syndication. A children's version, titled Joker! Joker!! Joker!!!, aired from 1979 to 1981, also in syndication. Barry also served as host of The Joker's Wild until just before his death in 1984, and was replaced by Bill Cullen afterward. Jim Peck also filled in for both Barry and Cullen at various points. Barry's sons, Jonathan and Douglas Barry, were co-executive producers for a revival of the series that aired in 1990 and 1991, which was produced in association with Richard S. Kline and billed as "a Kline and Friends production in association with Jack Barry Productions". Pat Finn hosted this version of the show. The series returned in 2017 on TBS, with Snoop Dogg as host, appropriately titled Snoop Dogg Presents The Joker's Wild. He was also co-executive producer with Michael Strahan. In December 2018, it was announced that the show would be moving to TNT in 2019. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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