The $25,000 Pyramid (Cullen) (VTR July 26, 1974)

From the trading circuit.
25k Pyramid with Bill Cullen
VTR 7-26-74
Celebrities: ANne Meara & William Shatner

[@blindsportslover]

Hard to believe this show's almost 50 years old.

[@scottmiller6495]

Tremendous win and excitement and 25000 was a big win in 1974!!!!!

[@PraveenSrJ01]

It is worth about $250,000 today in 2022

[@scottmiller6495]

You'll Never Ever See Anything like this ever again Period!!!!!

[@tomcunniffe7435]

That's Ben Stiller who comes up at the end of the show!

[@georgemaster689]

If I knew how to work a VTR back in the day and I was 10 years older, I would have this wonderful series along with the daytime shows with Dick Clark! Too bad I don't 😣

[@ralmcg]

Like most of Dick Clark's 1970's Pyramid shows, Bill Cullen's $25,000 Pyramid was taped in New York City. Bob Clayton was the announcer for the New York shows.

[@gracie2298]

What a treat to see Shatner at this age. I loved him in Boston Legal, sorry never was a Trekkie, missed him there.

[@meehow72]

Can't blame Susan for all the sexual references. Shatner was hot when he was young

[@PraveenSrJ01]

William Shatner is well known for Rescue 🛟 911

[@PraveenSrJ01]

@@gracie2298 cool 😎

[@bruce415]

I saw this on the original broadcast, very fond memories. Thanks for uploading this, really enjoyed it!!!

[@KiddBloo86]

A young and adorable Ben Stiller. ☺️❤️

[@kcindc5539]

His $25K prize is equivalent to $150,997 in 2022. No wonder he flipped out. Wow.

[@scottmiller6495]

One of the most exciting wins in the history of this show, WOW!!!!!

[@SonnyBubba]

To put a $25,000 win in 1974 into context: In 1973, The New Treasure Hunt had a $25,000 jackpot and rightly described it as “TV’s richest treasure.” This was only the second game show since the Twenty One scandal in the 50’s to have a prize that big. Also remember, there was no lottery anywhere, and there were no casinos anywhere in the United States except for Nevada.

[@JsClassicTV]

By 1974, a few states/U.S. terriroties did run scratch ticket lotteries - in order of earliest to most recent by '74, Puerto Rico, U.S Virgin Islands, NH, NY, NJ, MA, CT, MI, PA, MD, DE, IL, ME, OH, RI. had tickets. All in the northeast or midwest. No states in the south, upper midwest or west had anything sans Nevada. For a modern comparison with how much the $25,000 prize was, according to the CPI inflation calculator, $25k in July 1974 is the same as $139,974.19 in October 2021. Whew!

[@ricknibert6417]

The Ohio Lottery had just started and gave one lucky person $300,000 each week.

[@brockreynolds870]

Most all of the beautiful homes on the Cul De Sac in Knots Landing were built in 1973/74.... and they were all between 60,000 and 70,000$ brand new. So this kind of a win is a LOT of money back then.

[@SyncopateTheShot]

As much as I think Bill Cullen is the dean of game show hosts and probably the best host of all time, Dick Clark outshined him on this one.

[@libertubey2199]

Yeah, while Bill is great, as he usually is, this is Dick Clark's baby.

[@georgemaster9979]

I'm glad that they showed the taping location here.

[@jayalhadeff3663]

I wish they could televise these episodes

[@ChrisBakerauthor]

Shatner certainly had fun describing the dances. For Charleston, he should have just said, "Capital of West Virginia."

[@samturner64]

Just curious, how do you do the upscaling to these masterpieces?

[@JsClassicTV]

It mostly depends on the source material itself. If the raw video captures and preserves interlaced video, I will deinterlace and double the frame rate via YADIF in Virtualdub2, resize to 4:3 aspect ratio, and then compreas to h 265 in handbrake. I've been trying it out now with avidemux as well for some light video editing, brightness, contrast, etc.

[@martinfelsenfeld6012]

That was taped on my sister-in-law's birthday!

[@F4evrsoon]

My grandma has that Samsonite train case! 😄💗

[@taralucas7172]

The music is slightly different than the newer version with Dick Clark. It’s kinda funky LOL

[@Rlotpir1972]

It was better than Colbert's version and today's.

[@chapter7thomas]

I never saw these shows from 1974. But Anne needed to speed up her descriptions.

[@georgemaster4225]

Shatner got moves!

[@PraveenSrJ01]

Rescue 🛟 911

[@carrieheffernan1685]

Do you mean when he was doing the dance moves or flirting with the contestant? LOL.

[@christopherangel6690]

Nice condition on the tape!

[@stevenburns8817]

this is from the actual studio mastertape. KZbin applies heavy compression but it still looks better than any VHS copy!

[@georgemaster9979]

@@stevenburns8817 It's like watching the production in person.

[@kingporter67]

WOW, with eleven seconds left, he wins $25,000 and a young Ben Stiller makes a television debut!!

[@Rlotpir1972]

16 seconds. Timer DID NOT stop. Show could've had the digital eggcrates, but kept the primitive Solaris clock until 1981.

[@davidjackino8831]

Whatever became of Benji? 😃

[@bruce415]

Today you know him as Ben Stiller

[@jeffreyking7033]

😆

[@louisbuzzi869]

Awesome.

[@JsClassicTV]

Anne said "rhyme, dime" for "words that rhyme" surprised she didn't get buzzed for that EDIT: I lied lol. She really said "lime, dime", not "rhyme". D'oh! Or in the first round, "the circus man who lifts weights" would likely got buzzed later on

[@der22672]

Bill clearly told her just to give a list or she would be buzzed. That was being too descriptive.

[@JsClassicTV]

@@der22672 the judges in the NYC Era were lax when it came to rules like that. They weren't really consistent until like 79 or 80 for prepositions

[@meehow72]

I think the "rhyme, dime" was overlooked because he had already given the answer to the other clues.

[@brockreynolds870]

I slowed it down, and listened VERY carefully... she didn't say "Rhyme".... it was hard to tell because he was talking over her and giving the correct answer while doing it, but she said "Lime..... Dime".

[@JsClassicTV]

@@brockreynolds870 I think you may be right. The contestant says "rhyme" almost the same time Anne says "lime" - her strong Brooklyn accent definitely didn't help matters. 🤣😛

[@elemmayo2602]

I'm surprised the announcer didn't say their name and production company at the end

[@randolphtwells1360]

Anne Meara said "the circus man who lifts weights" is not a illegal clue on the first round for playing $10,000 at the pyramid because an illegal clue shows any thing that is not necessary to use. Here are some examples, and they are using hands, synonyms, antonyms, rhyming, saying the first word on the card (using part of the word), or giving a prepositional phrase. So, the word "who" is not a preposition, and the judges did not buzz her if she said "the circus man who lifts weights over his head," and the result would be a disqualification for giving a prepositional phrase. [$25,000 Pyramid Reference]

[@der22672]

But that's not a list though Randolph. She was being too descriptive.

[@stixnatedogg]

It baffles me that this series hasn’t been rerun since the 80s. Maybe ownership by Sony and distribution by CBS Media Ventures (successor to Viacom) is preventing it? Seems odd considering it’s the same arrangement in place with Wheel/Jeopardy…

[@georgemaster9979]

I hope that Buzzr gets this in the near future.Would be good to see again.

[@Rlotpir1972]

@@georgemaster9979 BUZZR, no. GSN, maybe.

[@banjochris]

They literally can’t find the tapes for the Cullen version, unfortunately.

[@ChrisBakerauthor]

If you look closely, you can see that they had actually planned to have ten categories in the bonus game. Then somebody realized that it would be way too difficult to get ten in one minute.

[@Rlotpir1972]

Maybe 90 seconds.

[@Chainsawslots]

Anne Mears wastes so much time with "this is ...."

[@Chainsawslots]

Cant believe they accepted burn to make a scent for incense.

[@kissfanmac]

Why wouldn’t they?

[@sean9448]

I can see why Shatner's colleagues on Star Trek didn't like him. He was a bit arrogant.

[@chapter7thomas]

Corn and wheat is not ANYTHING WITH SEEDS. They ARE seeds. Yes...its all Anne's fault.

[@fkd1963]

Gee, this is only 47 years ago. . . .

[@brockreynolds870]

No they re not. Corn and wheat are PLANTS. WE just happend to eat the seeds.

[@wschmrdr]

You open up a kernel of corn, it has a seed in it. Perfectly acceptable.

[@ChrisBakerauthor]

I wonder why they didn't switch partners after the first game. Anne was definitely better than Shatner. The girl never got to play with her.

[@jmiller297]

Apparently, she is, or dude wouldn't have won the $25,000.

[@pem1974]

Li'l Ben(jy) Stiller at 22:55

[@63utuber]

Why "go on" when they had no chance of even tying?

[@der22672]

Anne was too descriptive with "STRONG THINGS OR PEOPLE". The judges should've buzzed her. 🤔🤔

[@kissfanmac]

Nah. She did right.

[@paulnguyen8910]

You might have to thank Sony Pictures TV for this rerun.

[@JsClassicTV]

Sony hasn't rerun old pyramid on TV for years.

[@paulnguyen8910]

@@JsClassicTV Yet this show's part of the Stewart library, and Sony owns it.

[@georgemaster689]

@@paulnguyen8910 I'm sincerely hoping that Buzzr gets this one.I want GSN to seeth and wonder why they never created a classics channel.

[@georgemaster9979]

@@paulnguyen8910 I wonder if the whole series is intact with all episodes complete.

[@banjochris]

@@georgemaster9979unfortunately according to the folks that run the Bill Cullen website, no one can find the tapes of this version of Pyramid.

[@Chainsawslots]

Anne Meara isnt great at this game

[@jeprice08]

I beg to differ.

[@Chainsawslots]

@@jeprice08 she was dreadful

[@jeprice08]

@@Chainsawslots She was able to help him win the big money at the end.