Spoilers Off applies to all Trivia pages, so all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
For the Game Show:
- I Am Not Spock:
- Alfonso avoided any opportunity to do the "Carlton Dance", even mentioning that GSN gave him a deal that he wouldn't have to do it. Didn't stop at least one contestant from doing it for him, though.
- One contestant even went as far as to call him "Carlton" in his interview. The slightly-miffed host told him to call him "Alfonso".
- Keep Circulating the Tapes: As with so many other game shows, this is pretty much the only way to see the Martindale era. Only four CBS episodes and ten NBC episodes- plus the 1979 and 1990 pilots, and two minutes of the Casino attempt- are known to circulate.
- Despite GSN's heavy rerunning of Catch 21, the first season has not rerun since about 2009.
- Prop Recycling:
- The Las Vegas version recycled set pieces from the 1979 pilot (mainly the large light-up Gambit sign), and when the Gambit Galaxy endgame was instituted, the dice, insurance markers and table from High Rollers were dug out of storage (the show having been canned only about a year prior); the buzzers and question card holder are still part of the table, just unused.
- The distinctive cards used on the show would later be used on The Price Is Right for their pricing game "Hit Me!", another blackjack-based game.
- Screwed by the Network: Kind of- the main reason for ABC not picking up the 1990 pilot was Orion Pictures' financial issues at the time (they held the rights to the H-Q library at the time thanks to their 1982 merger with Filmways, which had acquired H-Q in the late 60s); the year after, Orion went bankrupt and eventually got sold to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
- Un-Canceled: GSN revived Catch 21 in 2019, keeping Alfonso and pairing him up with Witney Carson.
- What Could Have Been:
- When Gambit was picked up for CBS's Fall 1972 lineup, Bob Barker expressed interest in hosting a quiz show, preferring it or The Joker's Wild. CBS vice president of daytime programming Bud Grant swayed him in favor of doing The Price Is Right, telling him ”Barker, you will do Price because those other two shows are good, solid game shows that merely require a traffic cop to run them, and you’re not a cop. You have far more talent!”
- The 2019 revival did well enough to warrant another season; GSN sent out casting calls in March 2020, with the intention to tape episodes that May & June. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic went into full-swing not long after the casting notices went out. Said season was shelved and later cancelled, making the first season of the revival the only one.
