History Series / WinningStreak

* TotallyRadical: Bolen wanted all NBC emcees to be young and/or hip-looking, so the 56-year-old Cullen had shoulder-length hair, butterfly collars, and leisure suits. By December 26, Cullen was allowed to dress his age.

* TotallyRadical: Bolen wanted all NBC emcees to be young and/or hip-looking, so the 56-year-old Cullen had shoulder-length hair, butterfly collars, and leisure suits. Amusingly, this was kicked out by December 26.

** '''August 9:''' "You can double your money with every word, and you may win over $100,000 — or you may go broke. The decision is yours...this is ''Winning Streak'', starring Creator/BillCullen!"
** '''December 26:''' "The stakes get higher and higher with every single letter, but only '''one''' player will win it all on...''Winning Streak''! With your host, Bill Cullen!"

(''deepbreath'')

And you thought offering insanely huge amounts of money that are deliberately hard to win was a ''recent'' idea...

!!GameShowTropes in use:

* GameShowWinningsCap: None, which is how the show could offer more than $400,000 to each player. Forget the idiocy of Fred Silverman, '''this''' would've brought down NBC.
* Personnel:
** TheAnnouncer: Don Pardo.
** GameShowHost: Bill Cullen.
** StudioAudience
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!!This show provides examples of:
* {{Calvinball}}: ...But it makes a bit more sense upon viewing them in action.

** The theoretical top prize of $819,200 is completely outlandish for the 1970s ([[FailedASpotCheck really, nobody noticed that?!]]), but actually fits quite well as a big-ticket, if unorthodox, prize in the post-''Series/WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire'' landscape.

But the original format was rather dangerous, with major problems had some particularly smart/gutsy contestants been on. While the claim was that players could win over $100,000, the theoretical top prize in ''each game'' on a network that didn't have a GameShowWinningsCap was actually a whopping '''$819,200'''.

** The Money Board had 18 spaces arranged in a square, with the contestant's face superimposed in the middle over the show's logo. [[Series/SecondChance Sound familiar?]]

Not related to the long-running Irish game show of the same name, which has been running since 21 September 1990 and is funded by the Irish National Lottery with a top prize that can actually be won.

!!GameShow Tropes in use:

** The theoretical top prize of $819,200 is completely outlandish for the 1970s (really, nobody noticed that?!), but actually fits quite well as a big-ticket (albeit unorthodox) prize in the post-''Series/WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire'' landscape.

''Winning Streak'' replaced ''Series/ThreeOnAMatch'' (which had the same personnel and creator) on July 1, 1974 at the behest of Lin Bolen, swapping timeslots with ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' and facing Creator/{{CBS}}' popular ''{{Gambit}}''. The Peacock dropped both on January 3, 1975, with ''Streak''[='s=] timeslot given to [[WheelOfFortune some new show]] by MervGriffin.

** The theoretical top prize of $819,200 is completely outlandish for the 1970s (really, nobody noticed that?!), but actually fits quite well as a big-ticket (albeit unorthodox) prize in the post-''WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire'' landscape.

''Winning Streak'' replaced ''ThreeOnAMatch'' (which had the same personnel and creator) on July 1, 1974 at the behest of Lin Bolen, swapping timeslots with ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' and facing Creator/{{CBS}}' popular ''{{Gambit}}''. The Peacock dropped both on January 3, 1975, with ''Streak''[='s=] timeslot given to [[WheelOfFortune some new show]] by MervGriffin.

GameShow hosted by Creator/BillCullen and produced by BobStewart which ran on Creator/{{NBC}} from 1974-75. Two contestants picked letters from a 4×4 board with a category on top, and each question's answer started with the chosen letter. The first to buzz-in and answer correctly was given the letter to take (and place in one of the seven positions on the front of each podium) or pass it, with an incorrect answer awarding that letter to the opponent. The first contestant to spell a word which fit the category moved on to the Money Board.

GameShow hosted by BillCullen and produced by BobStewart which ran on Creator/{{NBC}} from 1974-75. Two contestants picked letters from a 4×4 board with a category on top, and each question's answer started with the chosen letter. The first to buzz-in and answer correctly was given the letter to take (and place in one of the seven positions on the front of each podium) or pass it, with an incorrect answer awarding that letter to the opponent. The first contestant to spell a word which fit the category moved on to the Money Board.

** '''August 9:''' "You can double your money with every word, and you may win over $100,000 — or you may go broke. The decision is yours...this is ''Winning Streak'', starring BillCullen!"

* NoBudget: See above. Winnings generally hovered around $2,500 in the original format, and subsequent changes knocked it down even further.

** Part of the original maingame (picking letters from a board, with the question's correct answer beginning with that letter) got recycled into Bill's later ''{{Blockbusters}}'' (1980-82).