Bullseye (American game show)

Bullseye, billed as the game in which daring determined the fate of the players, was the title of an American game show that aired in syndication from September 29, 1980 to September 24, 1982. Jim Lange was the host, and the show was produced by Jack Barry and Dan Enright. Jay Stewart was the announcer for the first season, and Charlie O'Donnell announced for the second and final season.

Notes

• The original pilot, made in 1979, featured a somewhat different bonus round. To begin, the player stopped a "Number Jumbler," which contained numbers from 3-5, or a Bullseye. The windows on the gameboard all contained either Bullseyes or lightning bolts. Starting with the $1,000 (or more) won during the main game, the contestant stopped the windows, and if all three of them contained Bullseyes, it doubled his or her money. This process continued until reaching the number in the contract set by the "Number Jumbler," or a lightning bolt appeared (which bankrupted the player). If the "Number Jumbler" was stopped on a Bullseye, the contestant could continue to spin, up until breaking the $1,000,000 barrier (which, starting at $1,000, would take ten spins). For obvious reasons, this ambitious game was considerably scaled back for the show as aired.
• Bullseye was among the earliest game shows to use plungers as buzzers (half-shaped oval oversize buttons which can be pushed down by two to three inches), which are used in this show to stop the spinning wheels. The phrase plunger was never used, instead identified as buttons.
• Bullseye was well-known in its day for having one of the most expensive and stylish sets of any game show. It featured lots of neon and chaser lights, giant slide-projector windows, a large moving "bonus island" with a plunger for the endgame, and a bombastic music package (including a main theme strongly reminiscent of the Santa Esmerelda disco hit "Don't Let Me Be misunderstood", which had been used itself on the pilot) to round out the show's "look and feel." A popular story among genre fans is that, during the period Bullseye originated from NBC Studios in Burbank, no less an authority than Johnny Carson (whose Tonight Show taped just across the hall from where Bullseye was recorded) gave a personal thumbs-up to the set design.
• By the end of its run, Bullseye had moved to Studio 33 of CBS Television City in Hollywood, a venue perhaps best known as the home of The Price is Right (today Studio 33 is known as "The Bob Barker Studio") and The Carol Burnett Show, plus countless other television programs (the set was too big to fit into the Chris Craft Studios, home of The Joker's Wild and Tic Tac Dough). The switch from NBC Studios in Burbank to CBS Television City in Hollywood occurred sometime around the start of 1981. The Bullseye logo behind the studio audience was placed in the same spot as the logo for The Price Is Right.
• Bullseye was one of three Barry & Enright-produced quiz shows of the time; its "sister" series were The Joker's Wild and Tic Tac Dough. Among students of game show history, these three series are considered to be the core of B&E's "comeback" following the disastrous quiz show scandals of the late 1950s. After the cancellation of Bullseye, Jim Lange was to return with a new B&E game show, Twenty-One in its place. That game show never made it to the air.
• Not to be confused with an entirely different British game show, also called Bullseye.