Whether by design or coincidence, the May 29, 1987 edition of Classic Concentration had as one of its contestants Cecil W. Stroughton, who had been hired as the first official White House photographer by President John F. Kennedy and whose most famous photo was the November 22, 1963 picture of Lyndon Johnson taking the oath of office on Air Force One shortly after Kennedy was assassinated. May 29, 1987 would have been JFK's 70th birthday.
Specific trivia:
Blooper: At least once in the mechanical board era (known to have happened when Clayton hosted), the board caught fire during a game.
Once in a while on the original and Narz shows, a square not called will accidentally rotate, showing the item behind that number. If this happens, the item is switched with that of another random uncalled square.
Channel Hop: Six months after its cancellation on NBC, Concentration aired in syndication for five seasons. After a nine year break, it returned to NBC as Classic Concentration.
Corpsing: Marjorie Goodson-Cutt would occasionally fall victim to this on Classic, usually after Alex comments upon what she's doing. Sometimes Alex or even Gene Wood would crack up at her antics, as well.
Keep Circulating the Tapes: Very little circulates from the 1958-73 NBC run and the 1973-78 syndicated run, and no clips have been seen in blooper specials. NBCUniversal, the current owner of the format, had until recently no interest in reviving the format or allowing reruns of it on GSN or anywhere, but their attitude may be changing, with Buzzr adding the 1987-91 Classic run to their schedule on October 1, 2018; whether the earlier runs will also escape tape-trading limbo will remain to be seen. At present, they have played episodes from the May 4, 1987 premiere to March 11, 1991 (including the final two episodes from August 29-30, 1991).
The 1958-73 episodes that survive and circulate include October 15, 1958; February 9, 1959 (hosted by Art James); September 12, 13 and 16, 1963; a 12-minute clip from 1966 (which may be from a video on YouTube—it starts with the resumption of a game from March 29, 1966 then has the game's start from the day before spliced in after); a September 1967 episode; October 2 and 3, 1967; December 24, 1968; a September 1969 episode; December 24, 1969; a ten-minute clip of a color videotape broadcast from July 23, 1971; March 23, 1973 (the finale, and the only full episode known to survive in color note The solution of the first puzzle is missing ). A few shows from spring 1971 are at the UCLA Film & Television Archive, paired up with that day's Sale of the Century, and a few others are held at the Library of Congress. Of the rest, a lot is likely to be lost forever due to the poor preservation practices of the era. note An unsourced claim on the show's Wikipedia page says that this version is now owned by CBS Television Distribution due to fin-syn rules, which may or may not explain NBC's reluctance towards allowing reruns.
For the longest time, only one Narz episode in its entirety circulated: an early 1978 episode. The last five minutes of a 1974 episode and the last two minutes of a 1976 show (since taken down from YouTube) were also posted online. Game show legend Wink Martindale uploaded on his channel episodes 344 (taped June 27, 1974), 572 (taped December 5, 1974), 1534, 1535 and 1541 (all taped December 2, 1977); none of which were previously available. Buzzr added this version to its schedule on March 30, 2020, marking the first time these episodes were TV since their original airings 40+ years before.
Before the 2018 Buzzr airings, Classic Concentration had been previously rerun on NBC (1991-93) and on Sky One in the United Kingdom.
Line to God: In February 2011, original series producer Norm Blumenthal started a thread on a popular game show forum, in which he has discussed nearly every detail of the series. However, the thread died out in March 2012.
This documentary, Thanks for Playing Concentration, has Norm discussing his beginnings, his tenure under Barry-Enright and his Concentration story. It was produced by his son, Howard Blumenthal.
Long Runner: The original version ran for 14 years and 7 months, making it NBC's longest running game show.
1963 (5th): A match between Mitch Miller and Merv Griffin, with five 5-year-old children present.
1968 (10th): A match between Downs and Clayton, with series producer/puzzle creator Norm Blumenthal taking the reins.
1969 (11th): During Ed McMahon's brief tenure as host, he played the game against Johnny Carson while Clayton hosted.
1971 (13th): A "behind-the-scenes" look at the show where, once Clayton got behind the board, he was greeted by Downs.
1972 (14th): For that day (August 25) and the ensuing week, 14-year-olds played the game.
Missing Episode: According to Blumenthal, most of the original series was wiped. The Narz era onward is intact.
No Budget: Commonly associated with the 1970s Narz version. Usually, there were at least two prizes worth $1,000, and several prizes topped $500, but consolation-type prizes were often main-game prizes (such as boxed spaghetti dinners, Oreo cookies and bar soap); this helped with the low-rent budget (or at least the perception thereof). In addition, instead of awarding a new car by matching two Wild Cards in one turn, that prize reverted back to $500, later halved to $250. By the last season, there was an attempt to increase the appeal of the prizes by matching several of the $500–$1,000 level prizes together into a single prize package, and then make it available as a prize in the Double Play round's new prize-matching game; $1,000 gift certificates to places like Botany 500 and Western Auto were also common, and some of the prize packages were worth $2,000 or more, and European tours for two worth $4,000 were sometimes offered. Despite the low-level prizes, a lucky contestant winning both rounds and, in the process, matching all the prizes … and then coming away with every prize package available in the Double Play round (there were four per round, one of which was a new car) could have a very nice payday of nearly $20,000.
One-Book Author: Neither Paola Diva nor Marjorie Goodson-Cutt has any other TV/film credits, although Goodson-Cutt did go on to become a prolific dancer/choreographer.
Everyone remembers the Red and Green Classic Takes. But hardly anyone remembers the one Purple Take that was used for about two weeks between having no Takes and two Takes.
Prop Recycling: Classic's signature car holding staircase was redressed for a set in a special primetime episode/TV movie of NBC's Days of Our Lives while Classic was still in production, but on hiatus.
Screwed by the Network: Lin Bolen wanted to cancel all games hosted by middle-aged men on technologically obsolete sets; on September 4, 1972, CBS replaced daytime repeats of The Beverly Hillbillies with The New Price Is Right, which won over most of the Concentration audience. The first victim of Bolen's agenda, Concentration bowed on March 23, 1973.
Another story which may have facilitated Concentration's fate comes from Norm Blumenthal himself. When Lin Bolen became head of NBC daytime, she visited the control booth while a telecast of the show was under way. Apparently, a studio audience member shouted out the answer to a puzzle, after which Norm said to give the car—which was on a player's prize rack—to that person. Lin rebuked "Why don't you give one to the opponent?" Norm looked her point blank and told her "Shut up. This is my control booth." It was pretty much a dare for Bolen to fire Norm and cancel the show, but it was the debut of the return of The Price Is Right on CBS that sealed its fate. Norm explained that he'd have to give a car to everyone if that had happened time and again.
To this day, NBC owns the rights to the show and refused for many years to allow reruns of existing episodes. The show is listed on the network's formats Web site (alongside 21 and Minute to Win It), though. Finally averted when NBC gave the rights for Classic to Buzzr, which began airing October 1, 2018, with the Narz version joining the schedule starting March 30, 2020.
There were many times during the 1958–78 era where the board "malfunctioned", such as a trilon turning the opposite direction from the others after a puzzle was solved.
The Classic computer board "malfunctioned" in an oddly similar way. Near the end of the run, the last four squares in a game were one prize and two Wild Cards. The contestant matched the last remaining prize (a video camera) with one Wild Card, revealing those three spaces...however, a glitch in the program wouldn't allow the last Wild Card (housed in square 18) to be removed, and it kept flipping back to the number square. Alex commented that the glitch had "never occurred in the 4 1/2 years on our program." (Even with the obstruction, both contestants were able to deduce this puzzle's solution, but the contestant who made that final match didn't respond before the buzzer.)
For a theme week, large neon-lit palm trees were added to the Classic set. The designers thought they looked cool, so they decided to keep them around permanently, and doubled down on the motif by adding more foliage to the set (especially in the "winner's circle" where the bonus round was played), and letting Trebek be more laid back and dress more casually (often with sweaters).
This car round where things go awry. First, the board revealed the wrong number, so the staff had to stop the clock and reset both it and the board to where they were before the contestant called her numbers. Then, in the last 15 seconds or so, the main monitor went out and she had to squint at a board 30 feet away, losing all her momentum. Alex pointed all of this out to the home viewers and commented that, since he thought she would've won had the technical difficulties not come up, he let her take the car of her choice.
Originally, Alex would insist in the car round that contestants select one number at a time. As the series went on, contestants started selecting two at a time and Alex decided not to fight it.
What Could Have Been: The first idea bantered about was to have drawings of famous people gradually revealed for each match, then just simple phrases. Neither concept worked, and it was through Blumenthal's drawing talents that the rebus puzzle concept came about.
Apparently, the USA Networkhad the rights to rerunClassic, but it never did before they eliminated their game shows in 1995. However, Fremantle Media's Buzzr, which reruns many shows from the Goodson-Todman library, started airing reruns of Classic in October of 2018. The Narz version joined the schedule in March 2020.
While Classic was still airing in reruns, an unsold pilot called Classic Concentration II was produced. There would have been a minigame where contestants could build up a jackpot by matching words to complete a phrase.
and the last two minutes of a 1976 show (since taken down from YouTube) were also posted online. Game show legend Wink Martindale uploaded on his channel episodes 344 (taped June 27, 1974), 572 (taped December 5, 1974), 1534, 1535 and 1541 (all taped December 2, 1977); none of which were previously available. Buzzr added this version to its schedule on March 30, 2020, marking the first time these episodes were TV since their original airings 40+ years before.