“The $10,000 Pyramid”, a true classic and overall highly successful television game show, which was 
created by Bob Stewart and hosted by Dick Clark, had its debut on Monday, March 26,1973 on CBS-TV 
at 10:30am (Eastern). The basic premise of this program is that it featured a very exciting word 
communication contest with two teams, each with a guest celebrity and a contestant. The first portion 
of the game had a player on each team give clues to a common group of words/items, which was a 
category selected from a mini pyramid-shaped game board, by describing each one of them at a time 
(seen through a video monitor on their own podium) for their partners to guess correctly within a time 
limit of thirty seconds.

After three rounds have been usually played, the team with the highest score wins the match, and 
moves into the other portion of the game (to be played at known as “The Winner's Circle”) for a chance 
to win a large cash prize. In the second part of the game, one player (most likely the celebrity guest) 
proceeds to make clues by only giving a list of the items or common elements related to the category 
that his/her partner has to identify quickly. If the team is successfully able to have all six categories 
answered correctly within a time limit of one minute (60 seconds), which was designed and created in 
the configuration of a giant pyramid, the contestant then wins for himself or herself that large cash prize 
(which was offered at $10,000 during its initial run at the time).

The first celebrity guests on the premiere were June Lockhart and Rob Reiner, and the show was 
videotaped from the Ed Sullivan Theater (CBS-TV Studio 50) located at 1697 Broadway near West 53rd 
Street in Manhattan. On that first episode, Rob Reiner was the first celebrity with his civilian partner to 
successfully climb to the top of the big pyramid (his winning clue for “Things With A Hole” was 
“Doughnuts”). However, it was said later that Rob Reiner told privately to host Dick Clark afterward 
during a taping break that he personally thought the game was to easy to play, and was doubtful that 
the show would be successful beyond its first thirteen-week ratings cycle.

“Pyramid” did initially well in its morning time slot on CBS-TV, sandwiched between “The Jokers Wild” 
and "Gambit" on the daytime schedule. However, the show was sometimes pre-empted and/or had 
delayed episode broadcasts due to the Watergate scandal hearings coverage on the three broadcast 
networks at that time. During two weeks in November 1973, “Pyramid” temporarily relocated to CBS 
Television City’s Studio 31 at 7800 Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles, but soon returned back to its home 
base in New York City.

As the new year of 1974 began, “Pyramid” began to slip slightly in the ratings department when NBC-TV 
placed the original Art Fleming-hosted “Jeopardy!” in the same time slot as competition. Just as 
“Pyramid” began to recover its ratings, CBS-TV prematurely cancels the show, and its last telecast for 
the network was on Friday, March 29, 1974 with celebrity guests Carol Channing and Soupy Sales. 
However, no mention was made of the fact that this was the last show as, according to original 
“Pyramid” announcer Bob Clayton, there were three weeks’ worth of episodes that were subsequently 
videotaped but never aired.

As quickly as the first CBS “$10,000 Pyramid” version vanished from the airwaves, there were two 
interesting developments that occur which would bring back the show as soon as possible (and as 
reality). There were talks that there was to be a planned once-a-week nighttime “$25,000 Pyramid” 
version for syndication in the prime-access time slot, and it was to be hosted by Bill Cullen (an existing 
promotion pitch tape in selling the show is currently making the tape trading circles as of now). The 
updated show was initially sold to various stations (including most notably WCBS-TV the flagship station 
of the network here in New York City) by syndicator Viacom International.

The other newsworthy development of note was that ABC-TV simply picked up (or “snatched”) the rights 
to bring back “The $10,000 Pyramid” to its daytime schedule (that fact was considered unheard or really 
quite rare In the broadcasting industry at that time). After a mere absence of just five weeks, the show 
returned on Monday, May 6, 1974 at 4:00pm (Eastern) with celebrity guests Anne Meara and Soupy Sales 
(host Dick Clark said on the end of that episode, “Well, after our first day back here on the air...”). 
Although “Pyramid” was now seen on a different network, the first six weeks of the show were still done 
from the CBS-owned Ed Sullivan Theater.

Beginning June 1974, production of new episodes of “The $10,000 Pyramid” were now videotaped at its 
new home ABC Studio TV-IS (“The Elysee Theater”), located at 202 West 58th Street between Broadway 
and 7th Avenue in Manhattan (situated about six blocks northward from the Ed Sullivan Theater). The 
show also now had a brand-new set duplicating the original Jim Ryan design created for the first CBS 
version, but there were some minor differences between the two of them, and it was tailored made to fit 
within the confining pattern of this new studio’s layout. The reason I had once heard from announcer Bob 
Clayton that the show could not take its original set to the new production facility owned by ABC-TV is 
because the technical and craft union employees at CBS-TV (who built that former particular set in their 
own scenery shop previously) had forbidden of its use to be done at a rival and competing network.

The celebrity guests on the first episode of “The $10,000 Pyramid” produced and videotaped from ABC 
Studio TV-15 which aired on Monday, June 17, 1974 were June Lockhart and William Shatner, and it 
became Dick Clark’s second (but last) game show that he would host from that building (his previous 
assignment there was for the short-lived “Missing Links” owned by Goodson-Todman in 1964). As the 
daytime version of “Pyramid” was now doing quite well at its new network and time slot, the new 
nighttime syndicated “$25,000 Pyramid” with host Bill Cullen made its New York City debut on Thursday, 
September 12, 1974 on WCBS-TV at 7:30pm (Eastern), with celebrity guests Anne Meara and William 
Shatner on that first episode aired there. While all trips to the big pyramid offered a cash prize of $10,000 
on the daytime version then at that point, the nighttime show offered a cash prize of $25,000 (as a grand 
total) if a contestant won both of the two main consecutive qualifying games in the same episode.

On Monday, December 23, 1974, “The $10,000 Pyramid” moved to a new weekday time slot at 2:00pm 
(Eastern). It was on this episode that a new feature was added to the show called “Big 7”, which if a 
team picked a category where a special designated card was hidden beneath somewhere on the mini 
pyramid game board during the main game, the civilian contestant would be eligible to win a bonus prize 
if he or she was able to get a perfect score of seven points within a round. Although for years it had 
usually offered a cash bonus of $500 in a “Big 7” category on the daytime version, the bonus prize that 
was first offered on that said episode (but not won on that date however) was a vacation trip to the Virgin 
Islands. It should be noted that on the first CBS daytime version that each category in the main game had 
eight words/items contained, while all subsequent versions just simply went to seven words/items.

The “Big 7” bonus concept did crossover to Bill Cullen’s version beginning in September 1975, but the 
amount of cash that was available changed season to season. During the 1975-1976 season, it was for 
a cash prize of $1,000. However, the “Big 7” card on the nighttime show was later modified to become 
“The Big Money” card where cash prizes were available anywhere between $1,000 and $5,000 (depending 
on the particular episode in question) during the 1976-77 and 1977-78 seasons. Oddly enough, the “Big 7” 
card returned during the final 1978-79 syndicated season, but the prize that was usually offered was a 
Chevy Chevette compact automobile with a bonus garage door opener.

Meanwhile on the daytime version, “Pyramid” was starting to show some very subtle and minor changes 
in the game format and its set design. Beginning with episodes airing during the third week of December 
1975, the host and contestant podiums plus those five octagon-shaped pylons in the background 
changed colors from a rust or tangerine orange to an aqua blue (although Dick Clark’s podium did switch 
back to its original scheme but just only temporarily). There would be more subsequent design and color 
changes on the set throughout the remainder of its runs on ABC-TV and in syndication while based in New 
York City. However, on Monday, January 19, 1976, the ABC daytime show was renamed simply as “The 
$20,000 Pyramid” with its very slightly revised cash prize and game winning structure. The first celebrity 
guests on the retitled daytime show were Jo Anne Worley and Bill Cullen.

On the “$20,000” version, If a contestant wins one main game, he or she has a chance to win a grand 
total of $10,000 in cash at the big pyramid. If that player does not succeed at the “Winners Circle” in 
going to the top of the board, then he or she will play in another main game but with a different opponent. 
If the champion (or “continuing player”) wins his/her second game, that person now plays at the big 
pyramid for a grand total of $15,000 in cash. The rules and applications are used here again, and if that 
same player wins three or more main games in a row, that contestant will try for a grand total of 
$20,000 in cash. Under these rules, all contestants stay on the show until they win at the big pyramid at 
once at whatever cash prize level that had won or are defeated by their opponents in the main game. 
However, the two contestants on any episode of the syndicated “$25,000” version play against each 
other only in both main games throughout the entire half hour (and no “returning” champions).

During the 1976-77 season, a new extra bonus winning concept for a perfect score of 21 points in the 
main game (for a cash prize of $1,000) was introduced first on the daytime version. The nighttime 
version would soon later adopt it as well, but only during the 1977-78 season, for a cash prize of $2,100. 
In a very pleasant moment, “The $20,000 Pyramid” had won its first Daytime Emmy Award in May 1976 
as “Outstanding Game/Audience Participation Program”, with staff producer Anne Marie Schmitt 
accepting the trophy from ceremonies host Bob Barker (who did announce the winner on the nationally 
televised show seen on CBS-TV), while its director Mike Garguilo received an award for “Outstanding 
Direction in A Game/Audience Participation Program”.

While 1977 was quite a very solidly stable and great year for both the daytime and nighttime “Pyramid” 
versions, the next few years would present a real greater challenge to the show’s own ultimate fate. On 
Monday, January 16,1978, “The $20,000 Pyramid” moved into the 12:00 noon (Eastern) slot on ABC-TV 
with a special set of seven shows presenting in a somewhat first roundrobin elimination tournament 
style format (and only for this version) featuring past champions with their celebrity partners to 
compete for an additional cash prize of $20,000. At the conclusion of these special episodes, the 
daytime “Pyramid” resumed its normal format basically throughout 1978 and eariy 1979.

Many historic game-playing events had occurred on both the “$10,000” and “$20,000” Pyramid 
versions. The highest scoring main games on record (through some amazing tie-breakers) occurred 
during the Friday, July 4,1975 broadcast featuring Lucie Amaz and Anson Williams with a score 45-44, 
and on the Monday, June 12, 1978 episode with a score 43-42 featuring Sandy Duncan and Nipsey 
Russell. The celebrity guest, with his civilian partner, who was able to win at the big pyramid in the 
quickest time on record was Billy Crystal in November 1977 with an amazing 26 seconds (while a few 
others have done it in 30 seconds).

Most notable (and quite competitive) celebrity matchups that had occurred during the daytime show’s 
runs on CBS-TV and ABC-TV included Tony Randall vs. Jack Klugman, William Shatner vs. Leonard Nimoy, 
Billy Crystal vs. Sal Viscuso and Tony Randall vs. Dick Cavett. Bill Cullen had been a very frequent guest 
on the Dick Clark-hosted versions of “Pyramid”, and Dick Clark himself was twice a celebrity guest on the 
syndicated “$25,000” version. The two most surprising celebrity appearances on the daytime show 
occurred during the 1976-1977 season when Carol Burnett played the game (opposite Vicki Lawrence) 
for just one episode, and popular singer Connie Francis had been a guest on an entire five-show stint. 
One of the more infamous events in the show’s history occurred on the set when during the Friday, 
December 19, 1975 episode, celebrity guest Clifton Davis became the first of two known people to rip by 
accident the leather straps off the clue givers chair in the Winner’s Circle (the second was Sandy Duncan).

On Monday, February 26, 1979, an episode of “The $20,000 Pyramid” was broadcast on ABC-TV with 
celebrity guests Jo Anne Woriey and David Letterman (plus future “Jeopardy!” champion Roy Holliday). 
This episode is now in the Museum of Television & Radio in New York City for viewing only, and in August 
1997, the show and that episode in question was permanently “adopted” Into its collection with 
cataloging support made possible by William A. Padron of New York City in the Museum’s sponsored 
“Adopt-A-Program” project (with a contribution plus a name credit that had been placed alongside the 
program in its Macintosh Computer Database system). During May 1979, “Pyramid” host Dick Clark wins 
his first Daytime Emmy Award as “Outstanding Host for A Game/Audience Participation Program”, but he 
was not in attendance to receive his trophy at the nationally televised ceremonies as seen on CBS-TV.

During the third week of July 1979, a special series of episodes with young school-age contestants plus 
celebrity guests Susan Richardson and Jimmy Biao were featured on “The Junior Pyramid”. There were 
some slight modifications in the game format and prize winnings to accommodate the abilities of the 
civilian players, but it was considered a modest success. Surprisingly, in Its only network primetime 
appearance, “The AH-Star Junior Pyramid” then surfaced as a celebrity half hour special on Sunday, 
September 2, 1979 at 7:30pm (Eastern) featuring Susan Richardson and Tony Danza playing the game 
for charity with young future stars from the new ABC shows debuting in the fall of that year (one of them 
on that particular episode was a youthful looking Rob Lowe). Oddly enough, between Monday, October 1 
and Friday, November 9,1979, the daytime version reverted to a full-time “Junior Partner Pyramid” 
format featuring civilian adult-children teams (with no celebrities at all). A “Celebrity Junior Pyramid” 
special week soon followed with celebrity guests Susan Richardson, LeVar Burton and Michael McKean, 
but beginning with the Monday, November 19, 1979 episode, the daytime show resumed back into its 
normal “$20,000 Pyramid” format (thankfully). Meanwhile, the nighttime “$25,000 Pyramid” with host 
Bill Cullen ended its successful five-season run in syndication.

However, perhaps the most personal and dramatic change within the show’s staff occurred on that 
fateful day of Thursday, November 1,1979 when original “Pyramid” announcer Bob Clayton passed away 
due to a cardiac arrest he suffered while at his private home. Beginning in the fall of 1978, however, he 
had started to miss a certain amount of tapings because of a possible personal illness condition. Bob 
Clayton himself was a smoker who used to light up during the show’s taping breaks, and sometimes 
ignored the no smoking policy set by the network (and perhaps even complaints from celebrity guest 
Tony Randall). While I was not in attendance on the day of the studio taping where the announcement 
was made that he had died, I had heard that there was a moment of silence with some weeping show 
staff members in grief. Many substitute announcers that filled-in during Bob Clayton’s absence included 
Fred Foy (of “The Lone Ranger” fame) and Alan Kalter (formeriy with “The Money Maze” and now on 
“The Late Show With David Letterman”). In 1980, weekend WABC Musicradio 77 disc jockey Steve 
O’Brien (who is now doing fill-in duty on Oldies WCBS-FM in New York City) was hired as the new 
voice-over and warm-up announcer of the show. 

Kitchen-type floor tiles (removing the carpeting) and a new zigzag rug design on the contestants’ 
platform (which celebrity guest David Letterman once said of It in on the Monday, March 17, 1980 
episode that it must have been purchased at “the other Korvettes”), ratings had slipped dangerously 
towards the bottom (as in twenty-first place) that ABC-TV finally decided to issue a cancellation notice 
at the show just as the month of March 1980 ended. It was also during the same time that NBC-TV 
would cancel three of its daytime game shows to be later replaced by the new 90-minute morning show 
hosted by David Letterman.

After the show had received its second Daytime Emmy Award (in a tie with NBC-TV’s “The Hollywood 
Squares”) as “Outstanding Game/Audience Participation Program” in May 1980, with Executive 
Producer and show creator Bob Stewart accepting the trophy (who was not in a real joyous mood 
because he told the audience there that the show was canceled), the final telecast of “The $20,000 
Pyramid” occurred on Friday, June 27, 1980 with celebrity guests Lois Nettleton and Bill Cullen, who had 
just finished a stint hosting “Chain Reaction” on NBC-TV the previous week. While host Dick Clark 
conceded that this was indeed the show’s last episode, he did mention on the air that it would be back 
someday. As an exciting and perhaps appropriate climax of sorts, Bill Cullen succeeds helping his civilian
partner to win the last $10,000 prize on the show on these clues on “Things That End” with “this 
show...the worid one day”.

For the final segment of this landmark episode, Dick Clark then displays categories that never were 
used on the big pyramid such as “Hit Shows on NBC-TV”, ‘Things That Kissenger Didn’t Foul Up” and 
“Famous Italian TV Directors” (an inside joke and tribute to Mike Garguilo). After or about when the 
entire show staff joins everyone on-stage, Dick Clark finally says to end the show, “...and we’ll see you 
again soon!” When I had seen this last episode as first aired on that date above, I personally had a very
low funk and depressing feeling towards its end. By the way, this particular broadcast has been making 
the rounds in the tape trading circles as well.

However, a brand new syndicated version ‘The $50,000 Pyramid”, distributed by Chicago-based CPM, 
Inc., began to surface as a mid-season show on various local, mostly independent stations (including 
WPIX-TV here in New York), and it made its debut on Monday, January 26, 1981 throughout the country. 
While the host of this version was still Dick Clark, the celebrity guests seen on that “premiere” telecast 
which first aired were Jo Anne Worley and Sal Viscuso. However, production actually began on Sunday, 
January 11, 1981 with the real debut guests for the first week were Didi Conn and Brian Patrick Clarke, 
followed by Lois Nettieton and Nipsey Russell during the second week with episodes videotaped on 
Monday, January 12, 1981. In other words, television viewers that tuned-in on the so-called premiere 
telecast were actually seeing an episode intended to be broadcast during the third week.

In a sense, the “$50,000’, version was basically a bare-bones program with no real bonus prizes for 
perfect scores in any given round(s). The game format and structure resemble much like the previous 
“$25,000” version hosted by Bill Cullen, but now the cash prizes were really scaled back. If a contestant 
had won one main game, he/she would try to win a cash prize of $5,000 in cash at the big pyramid. If 
that same contestant won two consecutive games in a row, he/she would attempt to win at the big board 
for a grand total of $10,000 In cash. In order to qualify to compete for a top $50,000 prize, the contestant 
would have to be “the Player of the Week” in getting a perfect score of seven points in the fastest time 
during the main game. After receiving a bonus of a vacation trip to Europe for the effort, that contestant 
(regardless if he/she never wins a main game or goes to the big pyramid) then plays in a special (but 
somewhat tedious) round-robin style tournament for a grand total of $50,000 in cash.

Ratings wise, ‘The $50,000 Pyramid” basically was a failure in that department, despite being in some 
high profile time slots. The last first-run telecast ever occurred on Fnday, May 29, 1981 with repeats 
continuing until the first week of September 1981. Meanwhile, the prevlous ABC daytime “$20,000 
Pyramid” version wins its third Daytime Emmy Award as “Outstanding Game/Audience Participation 
Program” during its eighth annual national ceremonies telecast hosted by Dick Clark on Thursday, May 
21, 1981 (I was personally hoping the show would win that trophy as I was watching it on that date). 
Executive Producer Bob Stewart, accepting the award along with staff producers Anne Mane Schmitt and 
Jane Rothchild, jokingly remarked to the audience, “This is the second award that we have won since 
we’ve been canceled. We have won more awards for being off the air then we are on the air, which does 
tell you something.” Later, director Mike Garguilo wins his fourth Daytime Emmy Award for “Pyramid” in 
the “Outstanding Direction for a Game/Audience Participation Program”, and receives the trophy from 
presenter Richard Dawson who announced the winner in that category. In his acceptance speech, Mike 
Garguilo says that although he was sorry that the show was canceled to make room for “Love Boat” 
repeats, he said that “Pyramid” is still a great show and would someday come back.

The New York era of the “Pyramid” game show (and the entire genre from the city itself along with the 
syndicated “To Tell The Truth” during its brief 1980-81 season) essentially concluded in 1981 after a 
great eight-year run. On Monday, September 20, 1982 at 10:00am (Eastern), the show returned to 
CBS-TV as “The [New] $25,000 Pyramid”, featuring Constance McCashin and Robert Mandan as the 
premiere guests, and with episodes now videotaped at CBS Television Citys Studio 33 located at 7800 
Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles. A subsequent daily nighttime “$100,000” version, which was 
syndicated originally by 20th Century-Fox Television, premiered on Monday, September 9,1985 on 
various stations (such as WWOR-TV in New York) with debut guests Vicki Lawrence and Brian Mitchell. 
Both of these versions (still with host Dick Clark) would continue well into 1988. A new “$100,000” 
version, which was syndicated by Orbis Communications-Carloco Pictures (then later distributed by 
Multimedia Entertainment), featured John Davidson as the new host. This latest edition was videotaped 
at CBS Television City’s adjacent Studio 31, and had aired between Monday, January 7,1991 and Friday, 
March 6,1992.

As a concluding footnote to the “Pyramid” era in New York City, episodes of “The $20,000 Pyramid” that 
first aired in 1978 and 1979 were being regularly broadcast on Game Show Network, a cable channel 
(owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment) that is currentiy available In at least fifteen million homes, 
between Monday, October 13, 1997 and Sunday, April 12, 1998. While these encore telecasts did indeed 
relive the legacy of this great classic game show once again (which is also my all-time favorite that was 
quite an influence in my personal life), there is a very important part of its history that has been lost 
forever. While the first home of “Pyramid” at The Ed Sullivan Theater (CBS-TV Studio 50) is currently the 
principal base of operations and production of “The Late Show With David Letterman”, ABC Studio TV-15 
(its second full-time sound stage facility) no longer exists. In 1985, ABC-TV sold the former “Elysee 
Theater’ to a non-broadcast developer. Upon after completion of this real estate transaction, the building
was quickly demolished and was replaced in 1987 with a very tall private school building now situated on 
its site. There is no evidence at all now on that block there was ever a television studio in existence...and 
that's a real pity!!!