Monty Hall is still dealing
Host’s original game show will live on via BUZZR
BEVERLY HILLS How does a game show launched 52 years ago still have life in it? Let’s Make a Deal’s original host, Monty Hall, isn’t telling.
“It’s a secret we don’t divulge,” says the playful Hall, 93, who launched the iconic contestants-in-costumes format in 1963.
Hall and Wayne Brady, who hosts the current version of the show on CBS, met at Hall’s house recently to discuss Deal and other shows in connection with this week’s launch of BUZZR, a classic-game-show package on 15 Fox-owned stations, including nine of the top 10 TV markets.
The service, available via digital antenna and soon on various cable subchannels affiliated with each station (buzzrplay.com), will feature shows from the 1950s to 1980s, including Deal, Family Feud, To Tell the Truth, Password, Match Game, Beat the Clock, What’s My Line and Card Sharks. Deal’s 1963 pilot will air Saturday (8 p.m. ET/PT).
“We’re embracing the vintage and the retro,” says BUZZR General Manager Ron Garfield, who is overseeing FremantleMedia North America’s 40,000-episode game-show library. “The format has evolved, but it stands the test of time.”
In addition to digitized episodes of half-hour game shows, the service will create programming related to topics such as fashion and future celebrities.
Other planned features include clip reels with old commercials and panelists smoking and drinking on air. “The whole thing is about it being playful and entertaining,” Garfield says.
Although the shows may have greater appeal to an older audience, Garfield points to the popularity of Buzzr Games, a YouTube channel featuring YouTube stars in reformatted versions of Feud, Clock and other shows. Hall says game shows, while not as dominant as they were 40 or 50 years ago, have enduring appeal.
“The game show has its niche, and it will always be there,” says Hall, whose show introduced viewers to unappealing prizes known as “Zonks” and the prospect of contestants choosing one of three doors in hopes of winning “the big deal of the day.”
Viewers can imagine themselves being contestants, Brady says. “Not everyone is going to be in the NFL, but anyone at home can come on a show or pick a door or a box. Everybody wants money.”
Over the years, Hall befriended fellow hosts Peter Marshall ( The Hollywood Squares) and Dennis James ( Name that Tune), and looked up to I’ve Got a Secret’s Bill Cullen. “He was my first idol.”
Before Brady can say who his game-show idol is, Hall interjects: “You’d better say Monty Hall, or this conversation is over.” Brady does, explaining what he has learned from Hall’s shows.
“Watching Monty be a good guy is inspirational. It was about the contestant,” Brady says. “What I took away is bringing the human element to doing something which can be as artifice-filled and shiny as a game show.”
Asked about wild moments on their respective shows, both hosts offered animal stories. Brady’s involves a capuchin monkey that was supposed to give him a highfive but instead “popped me in my eye.” Hall responds: “Critic!”
Hall’s tale features an elephant. “When we said ‘ Open up Door No. 3,’ (model) Carol Merrill was holding this baby elephant, which was tethered, and the elephant freaked. It went backstage, down the ramp and onto Prospect Avenue and was last seen in downtown Los Angeles.”