The Joker's Wild

The Joker's Wild was a popular American game show of the 1970s and early 1980s, billed as the game "where knowledge is king and lady luck is queen".

Notes

• As he had done in the past, Jack Barry would begin each broadcast by saying Thank you and a most cordial welcome once again to The Joker's Wild. And at the end of each broadcast, Jack would ask the players to come back on the next show...which they would, of course...some 20 or 30 minutes later with new wardrobe for the next taping. These were two traits Barry used in the 1950s when live television was in place.
• In the mid-1990s, Philips produced two games for its ill-fated CD-i platform based on The Joker's Wild. These games featured "real" hosts and were based more or less on the first syndicated series. Wink Martindale "hosted" the first and best-known of these games (with Charlie O'Donnell as the announcer), while Marc Summers could be found on a special "Junior" edition of the game. Martindale incidently was among the first candidates to host the original series when networks were still not 100 percent sold on Jack Barry as host due to his involvement in the quiz show scandals of the 1950s.
• Board game manufacturer Milton Bradley produced four editions of The Joker's Wild home game, the fourth of which was actually branded for Joker! Joker! Joker!.
• Although Joker is commonly named by several game show historians as the first series Jack Barry was part of following the disastrous quiz show scandals, that isn't actually true. Barry had hosted two earlier series (The Generation Gap and The Reel Game) prior to the premiere of Joker (the latter of the two produced and created by Barry himself), and some evidence suggests he and partner Dan Enright were "silent partners" in several game shows of the 1960s (both in the United States and Canada), defying their unofficial blacklisting by the industry. Enright was brought on as executive producer of The Joker's Wild during its final CBS season.
• It has been said from sources that the concept of The Joker's Wild came as early as the mid-1960s, and that Jack Barry pitched the concept to Goodson-Todman Productions. G-T was not impressed with the format, so Barry eventually continued working the format for several years before CBS finally gave him the green light to put the series on the air (following a local tryout on station KTLA in Los Angeles one year prior to debuting on CBS).
• In 1980, The Joker's Wild became the first television program to advertise that it was giving away $1,000,000. It was the total purse for a special tournament of champions; the eventual winner received $500,000 of that total, half of which went to the charity of his or her choice. The remainder of the money was divided among the other participants in the tournament, depending on how they performed, with once again half of their winnings going to charity. Rob Griffin won the top prize. Other tournament of champions were held prior to this, but no ToCs were held after the 1980 tournament. Appropriately, Barry and Enright used the theme from Break the Bank (which they produced in 1976 and 1977) as the special music for the tournament.
• Beginning in 1981, Jack Barry on occasion would follow the same path as Bob Barker, encouraging all pet owners to have their pets spayed or neutured at the end of show.
• The 1990-91 version of The Joker's Wild paid tribute to Jack Barry with a memorial plaque placed on that version's slot machine.
• There has been many instances in which a contestant, faced with either losing the game or spinning three jokers in order to win, actually spinned three jokers. One contestant, Hal Sheer, rubbed his suit, and spinned three jokers, causing host Jack Barry to pass out temporarily. Afterwards, Barry told Sheer never to take that suit off again for the rest of his life. Joe Dunn was also faced with a similar situation like Sheer on two different occasions, and spun three jokers to continue on as champion.
• Although it was a Barry & Enright-produced game show from 1977 onward, The Joker's Wild was copyrighted and a property of Jack Barry Productions during its entire run and in the 1990 version, with Barry's sons John and Douglas Barry as co-executive producers.
• The theme music of the show's first incarnation was titled "The Savers." In 1997, it was renamed, "Peanuts, Popcorn, and Cracker Jack". It originally appeared on the 1967 release, Spotlight On The Moog (Kaleidoscopic Vibrations) by electronic music arists Perrey and Kingsley. A second theme, composed by Alan Thicke was introduced in 1974, titled Joker's Jive, and would be used for the 1974-75 season and for the closing of the first syndicated season. Both versions would be replaced in 1978 with the so-called Whistle Theme, a remixed version of Perrey & Kingsley's "The Savers" composed by Hal Hidey.
• It was rumored that the aforementioned original opening and closing themes were used on the final broadcast with Jack Barry as host in mid-1984, in tribute to Barry, who had passed away.
• The CBS version of "The Joker's Wild" was produced mostly at CBS Television City's Studio 31, but in the final months of the network run, it was produced at Studio 33. The syndicated version was videotaped at the KCOP's "Chris Craft Studios" for all but the final season. The 1990-91 version was produced at CBS Television City's "Bob Barker Studio" 33.