Barry & Enright hypocrisy

[tpirfansince1972]

I gather a good portion of us here know and/or remember the stink Barry & Enright made when Price is Right's Check Game had the original name Blank Check. 

Blank Check was a very short lived B&E property back in the mid 1970s for a very short time.  Price is Right's Blank Check debuted some six years later, but B&E bellyached about Price using that name, and thus Check Game's name resulted from it.

Conversely, Price's Bullseye game (the grocery item game) debuted in 1976, some 4 years before the Barry/Enright Jim Lange hosted "Bullseye" debuted.

I think Mark Goodson was classy enough to just let that go though, but I wonder if he could have made a case.

Similarly, the program seemed to turn a blind eye when the 2007 "Temptation" game show debuted, which was a horrible recreation of "$ale of the Century".

[Chief-O]

Similarly, the program seemed to turn a blind eye when the 2007 "Temptation" game show debuted, which was a horrible recreation of "$ale of the Century".

Doubt that would've been much of an issue.....Fremantle produced "Temptation".

[GRWHAMMY the 2nd]

i think "bullseye" as a term is too general for such a thing

keep in mind that they'd also had to go argue against the UK show of the same name with darts and trivia

[gamesurf]

I think Mark Goodson was classy enough to just let that go though, but I wonder if he could have made a case.

I don't know the details of Enright's lawsuit or how good his lawyers were. If the way it's been repeated on internet message boards over the years is accurate, Enright's claim was stupid and wouldn't have held up.

But the merits of the case don't really matter--it's "lawfare". It would have cost everyone involved more time and money and resources to fight the trademark infringement claim than it would to just change the name. Goodson might have won on the merits, but it would never have been worth the trouble for Goodson to fight it. I suspect Enright knew that when he filed his suit.

[Alfonzo]

Notice the lawsuit was filed after Jack Barry's death. I sincerely doubt that if Jack was still around in some capacity the lawsuit would have ever happened as Jack was in very friendly terms with Mark Goodson and Bob Barker.

[blozier2006]

The way I've heard it, the only reason Dan Enright made a fuss at all, was since he was considering trying to put Blank Check (the blink-and-miss-it train wreck from 1975) back on the air (apparently losing Joker and Tic Tac Dough to cancellation was nearly a death-blow to B&E in 1986, and Enright knew it).

[SteveGavazzi]

The way I've heard it, the only reason Dan Enright made a fuss at all, was since he was considering trying to put Blank Check...back on the air

This is correct.  I don't know that the revival attempt and the lawsuit have been explicitly linked, but they both happened, and given the timing, it's pretty much impossible that they weren't related.

[Sizeman]

i think "bullseye" as a term is too general for such a thing

Yeah, let's not forget of the "Bullseye" Combs-era Family Feud segment (another Goodson-Todman production, of course).

[Ccook]

A show could have a similar name as a show or a show's component but have differing objectives. There was a Wheel of Fortune in the early 50s  (prizes were awarded from a wheel for people doing good deeds) and there was certainly no stink raised when Merv Griffin launched his version in 1975.

"Blank check" is simply a phrase, as is "temptation" as a word. Where were the controlling interests for Heatter-Quigley when Price came up with their "Hot Seat" game (Hot Seat was a 1976 ABC game with married couples) or the "Temptation" game (a 1967 show with Art James; contestants try to outguess each other in selecting prizes)? The only time I recall a show threatened with a lawsuit for having a similar concept was To Tell The Truth, which Art Linkletter charged resembled his "Lie Detector" segment of People Are Funny (which comes across as an ersatz Truth or Consequences.)

Titles seem to be gray areas in creativity, and only in showbiz could the matter of a name cause such a stink.

[blozier2006]

The only time I recall a show threatened with a lawsuit for having a similar concept was To Tell The Truth, which Art Linkletter charged resembled his "Lie Detector" segment of People Are Funny (which comes across as an ersatz Truth or Consequences.)

Actually I can add another... Goodson-Todman sued Ralph Andrews and Bill Yagemann over the original 1960s You Don't Say!, which GT claimed was too close to Password... and because of that suit, YDS had to change their set to put host Tom Kennedy off to one side of the desk (he'd originally stood between the players, just like Allen Ludden on Password).

[Ccook]

Showing how old I am (66), I harken back to 1963's short-lived show The Object Is, the first game Dick Clark would host. It cribbed from You Don't Say! In that it involved identifying names, and from Password in that it involved using one-word clues (the clues being inanimate objects). It even used the little wallets with the name concealed. It's a wonder GT and Desilu didn't file a joint suit against it.

[GRWHAMMY the 2nd]

"Blank check" is simply a phrase, as is "temptation" as a word. Where were the controlling interests for Heatter-Quigley when Price came up with their "Hot Seat" game? (Hot Seat was a 1976 ABC game with married couples.)

And then there's the spin-off WWTBAM format, also called "Hot Seat" that's in use in some countries (Australia being one that comes to mind for that specific format).

[alansh42]

A show could have a similar name as a show or a show's component but have differing objectives. There was a Wheel of Fortune in the early 50s  (prizes were awarded from a wheel for people doing good deeds) and there was certainly no stink raised when Merv Griffin launched his version in 1975.

Wheel of Fortune goes back to a tarot card, which was probably based on carnival games that go back at long as there have been carnivals.