The $25,000 Pyramid (1982)

The $25,000 Pyramid
Premiere	September 20, 1982
Finale	July 1, 1988
Creator	Bob Stewart
Host	Dick Clark
Network/Provider	CBS
Style	30-minute game show
Company	Bob Stewart Productions
Origin	USA

The $25,000 Pyramid (1982) is the fifth edition of the game show that started as the The $10,000 Pyramid in 1973. It aired on CBS daytime from 1982 to 1987 then was brought back on April 4, 1988 for a three-month run. Dick Clark was the host.

In this edition, contestants who win the first game vie for $10,000 in the Winner's Circle. If the same contestant wins two games in the same show, he/she vies for a total of $25,000. Payoffs on the Pyramid windows, in ascending order, were $50, $100, $150, $200, $250 and $300.

Two bonus cards were used in the main game. "7-11" offered an $1100 bonus for getting all seven subjects in the time limit (originally the contestant had the option to play for the $1100 or $50 per answer if there was uncertainty about getting all seven) and "Mystery 7" offered a prize but as a challenge the category's subject matter is not disclosed.

The tie-breaker in the main game was changed. Scores are erased, and the team that caused the tie selects one of two categories to play off in 30 seconds. The time used becomes the time the other team must beat to win the game. If a game ends in a 21-21 tie (the maximum in regulation), the tie-breaking team wins a $5000 bonus.

This edition was canceled New Year's Eve, 1987 and replaced by a new CBS game show, Blackout. Three months later, The $25,000 Pyramid was brought back, presumably by popular demand but widely believed as a stop-gap action as the CBS version of Family Feud was being prepped. Feud replaced Pyramid on July 4, 1988.

This edition's theme was a Bob Cobert-arranged variation on Ken Aldin's original theme "Tuning Up" (which Cobert composed and Aldin arranged). There had been discussion going on at CBS about bringing the show back as a replacement for the soap opera Guiding Light, which the network canceled September 18, 2009. The new version of Let's Make a Deal was greenlit instead. Another pilot had been prepared as a possible replacement for As the World Turns, which CBS canceled on September 17, 2010, but a new talk show called The Talk was given the go-ahead.

Bob Stewart Productions produced this version of the series. Sony Pictures Television, as the successor-in-interest to Bob Stewart Productions (later renamed Stewart Tele Enterprises) after SPT predecessor Columbia Pictures Television purchased that company in 1994, is the show's distributor.

In-Depth

At a Glance: Additional information about the series

DVD Releases

There are no DVD releases for this show.