June 13, 1978 (FINISH LINE)

[Cephas]

Includes only the second known video of Finish Line.

[SteveGavazzi]

So...um...that showed up.  Wow.

Finish Line seems like a neat idea.  That said, after watching this episode, I can totally see why they went back to Give or Keep -- the presentation seemed half-baked at best, and I suppose there's not much of a rush to fix it when the less malfunction-prone set for the other game is still lying around.

[Brian44]

As for Finish Line not remaining in the rotation, I could have sworn that I read here or on Game Show Forum that Bob's disdain for horse racing also had something to do with this.

[Briguy]

I wonder how a game like "Finish Line" would have done with Drew Carey as host?

Brian

[actual_retail_tice]

Finish Line moves so slowly. It's like they tried to dress up Give it Keep to make it more fun but got the opposite result.

[mellongraig]

Some other observations I noticed:

1. The show is now giving three consolation prizes at this point, moving it up earlier than the timeline indicates.
2. Jay Wolpert is still on the show. He left later this year, still unsure which episode as of yet.
3. The beeps are still weak sounding ones on the Showcase Showdown, became more current sounding later this year (probably when Match Game 78/PM adopted the current sounding ones too).
4. The curtain on the right side of the audience is still lifted up a bit (probably because of The Carol Burnett Show taping there), was no longer by the time Shower Game/It's Optional premiered.

There may have been more to catch but these are the main ones I saw.

[Briguy]

Some other observations I noticed:

1. The show is now giving three consolation prizes at this point, moving it up earlier than the timeline indicates.
2. Jay Wolpert is still on the show. He left later this year, still unsure which episode as of yet.
3. The beeps are still weak sounding ones on the Showcase Showdown, became more current sounding later this year (probably when Match Game 78/PM adopted the current sounding ones too).
4. The curtain on the right side of the audience is still lifted up a bit (probably because of The Carol Burnett Show taping there), was no longer by the time Shower Game/It's Optional premiered.

There may have been more to catch but these are the main ones I saw.

I can name two, and you'll have to watch the video to see what I mean. It's during the fourth pricing game, and it involves the perfect Contestants' Row bid -- although it does depart from normal practice, as it was a man who won his way on stage here -- and the presentation of the pricing game (Bullseye, as it turns out) prize. They're two things that would never pass today.

Brian

[TPIRighteous]

Finish Line seems like a neat idea.  That said, after watching this episode, I can totally see why they went back to Give or Keep -- the presentation seemed half-baked at best, and I suppose there's not much of a rush to fix it when the less malfunction-prone set for the other game is still lying around.

It's also Give or Keep that takes a minute and a half longer to play. The slow-moving finish line really drags the excitement down.

Plus, this game has 8 different read-outs, but we only see one at a time because of the tight shots of the finish line and the horse. It makes it impossible to follow along with the math. In fact, we never get much of a dedicated shot of the SP prices at all; we have to rely on Bob to read them off for us.

[plinkowin2010]

During the pricing game Bullseye, I noticed the curtains behind contestants row revealed the the window for the production booth. I also noticed they gave the full description of the grocery products. The show must have had a lot of sponsors during that time. Even the sp products had the brand name mentioned. Majority of the prizes, like appliances had the blue go go,'s on them. Today most of the prizes brand names don't get mentioned.

When did the the description of the grocery products and SP products started to change doing away from mentioning the name of the products company

[Axl]

I still love the zoom-out, dolly-down thing they did for the first bidder on each IUFB in this era, and they're really going crazy with all the up-down movements in this episode.  I suspect this was shortly after TV City upgraded from counterweighted camera dollies to compressed gas dollies.  The new dollies had much smoother elevation movement and allowed you to get the camera much closer to the floor.  Looks like Marc really enjoyed getting to shake them down.

That was a peculiar edit right before the second half tease.  I wonder if maybe they forgot to set up the lightbox properly heading out of the segment and had to stop down to fix it.

I don't remember the way they slacked the game display electrical cables during the turntable spin being so noticeable on camera before.  Did they later come up with a better way to thread the cables under the floor?

[SteveGavazzi]

That was a peculiar edit right before the second half tease.  I wonder if maybe they forgot to set up the lightbox properly heading out of the segment and had to stop down to fix it.

I've noticed that in the early days of the hour format, the mid-bump always seemed to be edited in.  I'm not sure how long it lasted, though, so I can't say whether the edit on this episode was an anomaly or just more obvious than usual because they cut away from a shot of the contestant.

[NickintheATL]

I've noticed that in the early days of the hour format, the mid-bump always seemed to be edited in.  I'm not sure how long it lasted, though, so I can't say whether the edit on this episode was an anomaly or just more obvious than usual because they cut away from a shot of the contestant.

It was an anomaly here.  Usually it progressed just as smooth as you would expect.

I will also add that there are a few mispunches by the Technical Director on this episode.  Since we have a full credit roll, I see a name I don't recognize and associate with the show.  Must be someone filling in.

[MSTieScott]

This episode appears to confirm that in Finish Line, just like Give or Keep, the contestant won the three prizes he/she decided to "keep."

Here's what William won:
Barbecue: $301
Supply of iced tea: $25
Dining set: $1,453
Paint: $27
Clock: $25
Decanter: $30
Showcase: $7,321

Total: $9,182, which matches William's display at the end of the show.

[Briguy]

This episode appears to confirm that in Finish Line, just like Give or Keep, the contestant won the three prizes he/she decided to "keep."

Although I seem to recall that with Wink Martindale's upload of Finish Line a while back, I guess I had suspected this to be true for Finish Line -- that the contestant won the "keep" prizes regardless of outcome.

Incidentally, what were the values of those other three gifts -- the ones given back? Might make interesting conversation to see just how many ways there were to win, since G/K and Finish Line were games where you could make a mistake on one or (albeit very rarely) even two and still win.

Just as a side note: for both Give or Keep and Finish Line, I'd have made the rule where they won all six prizes if they won the game ... the other three prizes being a bonus. I've always thought that. But that's just lil' 'ol me.

Brian

[blozier2006]

Incidentally, what were the values of those other three gifts -- the ones given back? Might make interesting conversation to see just how many ways there were to win, since G/K and Finish Line were games where you could make a mistake on one or (albeit very rarely) even two and still win.

Here's what I was able to find...

First pair:
Paint: $27 (Horse)
Dish: $19 (Finish line) (the eggcrate erroneously showed $11 for this)

Second pair:
Yogurt maker: $17 (Finish line)  (the eggcrate erroneously showed $28 at this point; should've read $36)
Clock: $25 (Horse)

Third pair:
Sealer: $26 (Finish line) (the eggcrate erroneously showed $54 at this point; should've read $62)
Decanter: $30? (Horse) (the eggcrate erroneously read $77, should've been $82, I believe)

Edit: Are images disabled here? I've got a screencap of the board at the end of the game, was going to post it. The red number next to "decanter" looked fuzzy to me, but I think it said $30, wanted to see if anyone else could get a clearer look at it.