Shark Bytes

Was I the only one who noticed that when Jay was standing next to Monty, the 'deal' was something good like a new car, living room set or a trip to Hawaii, but when Jay was nowhere to be seen, the 'deal' was always a zonk, usually with Jay in a costume?

I figured that out when I was seven and couldn't believe how stupid the contestants were.

Some of the Zonk prizes that were given away on Let's Make A Deal weren't really bad at all--such as an Army size box of Cheerios or 15 Pizza Hut pizzas. I know of some poor families that could use those kinds of prizes.

Incidentally, even if you don't know the Spanish language, Trato Hecho! (the Mexican LMAD) was airing on Univision Saturday mornings; and it's as much joy to watch as the American English version, though the prizes given are of even less monetary value. If Univision has, indeed, discontinued airing Trato Hecho!, the reruns should find a new life on the GSN channel.

Does anyone have access to the old LMaD broadcasts from 1964? My parents were on the show (prior to my birth) and I never have seen that episode.

I've always wondered about the people who run real prizes that they couldn't possibly use, e.g. apartment dwellers winning patio sets, or little old ladies winning motorcycles. I know the folks who got zonks could forfeit them and get a consolation prize instead. Could the people who won a real prize do the same? Or did they have to take delivery and then try to sell the item through the classified ads?

I loved this show! I played it with friends. I was always "Monty Hall" and they would be contestants. We'd use Monopoly money, Uno Cards,even RummyKub to represent money. Players would choose to trade away a shoe for a book. They had their choices of dresser drawers. it was great. Of course, the big deal always involved doors, even if I had to use the closet door.

As for the show itself, I didn't care for when they added the computer monitor. It was being hi-tech for the sake of being hi-tech. Boxes, curtains, wallets, etc. were enough.

"LET'S MAKE A DEAL!" {The Marketplace of America} served all traders and viewers since 1963 as A STEFANO HATOS-MONTY HALL PRODUCTION (1963-1986), A RON GREENBURG-DICK CLARK PRODUCTION (1990-1991) & A MONTY HALL PRODUCTION for RENEGADE ENTERTAINMENT (2003).

"As LET'S MAKE A DEAL (NBC-TV):"

NBC-TV Daytime
12/30/1963-6/26/1964 NBC-TV Monday-Friday at 2:00-2:25PM
6/29/1964-9/29/1967 NBC-TV Monday-Friday at 1:30-1:55PM
10/2/1967-12/27/1968 NBC-TV Monday-Friday at 1:30-2:00PM
7/9/1990-1/11/1991 NBC-TV Monday-Friday at 10:00-10:30AM

NBC-TV Nighttime
5/21-9/3/1967 NBC-TV Sunday at 8:30-9:00PM
3/4-18/2003 NBC-TV Tuesday at 8:00-9:00PM

"As LET'S MAKE A DEAL (abc-TV):"

abc-TV Daytime
12/30/1968-12/26/1975 abc-TV Monday-Friday at 1:30-2:00PM
12/29/1975-7/9/1976 abc-TV Monday-Friday at 12NOON-12:30PM

abc-TV Nighttime
2/7-5/1/1969 abc-TV Friday at 9:00-9:30PM
5/9/1969-1/16/1970 abc-TV Friday at 7:30-8:00PM
1/24/1970-1/9/1971 abc-TV Saturday at 7:30-8:00PM
1/18-8/30/1971 abc-TV Monday at 7:30-8:00PM

"As LET'S MAKE A DEAL (Syndicated):"
Weekly Nighttime Syndicated by abc Films (Worldvision Enterprises) from 9/13/1971 to 9/4/1977

"As LET'S MAKE A DEAL (1980-1981):"
Daily or Nightly Syndicated by Catalena Productions (Worldvision Enterprises) from 9/22/1980 to 9/11/1981

"As THE ALL-NEW LET'S MAKE A DEAL (1984-1986):"
Daily Only on Syndicated by Telepictures (Warner Bros. Television) from 9/17/1984 to 9/12/1986.

HOSTS:
MONTY HALL (1963-1991)
BOB HILTON (1990)
BILLY BUSH (2003)

ANNOUNCERS:
WENDELL NILES (1963-1964)
JAY STEWART (1964-1977)
CHUCK CHANDLER (1980-1981)
BRIAN CUMMINGS (1984-1985)
DEAN GOSS (1985-1986)
DEAN MUCHIO (1990-1991)
VANCE DeGENERES (2003).

"Let's Make A Deal" never really jumped, but it has had it's highs and lows. Low= when NBC cancelled it in 1968, High= when ABC picked it up in 1968 and put it into syndication (that's where GSN got it's LMAD reruns from), Low#2= when ABC cancelled LMAD, Low#3= when a canadian version was produced in 1980 (Jay Stewart had gone to Barry & Enright Productions) and poor syndication in the U.S. High#2= when production returns to Los Angeles in 1982 for Telepictures, but low budget hurts this revival. (Still no Jay Stewart because in 1982 he went to work for Reg Grundy Productions and Carol Merril had retired to Hawaii). Low#4= The Loss of Stefan Hatoes, Jay Stewart and Carol Merril)and when LMAD returned to NBC and was produced in Florida, and to think Bob Hilton could host! Low#5= Thinking that Monty Hall could save this mess! Low#6= The 2003 version (The show finally jumped the shark!)

"Let's Make A Deal" was one of my all-time favorite game shows in my pre-puberty years. It appealed to my MAD magazine/Allan Sherman-ish sense of humor (which I still have!) and I loved Monty Hall. Underneath the auctioneer-ish banter was, and is, one of the nicest guys ever on TV. I liked Monty so much that I actually had his picture, cut out from our local Boston paper's TV guide, on my wall just before we moved (I was all of 10). As far as I'm concerned, he could offer me a trip around the world any time and I'd take it. Imagine how excited I was when I got to know a very dear friend (no longer with us) who was a great Canadian sportscaster, and who actually worked with Monty back in the '50s on TV in Hamilton, Ont.! "He seemed like just another guy", I was told, "and I had no idea he'd become so big. I won't rip Monty, though, because he's a nice Jewish guy like you!" Truer words were never spoken. By the way, Monty once said in an interview that his "Deal" identity "absolutely and deeply hurt" him at times, because he wanted to be known in Hollywood for his prodigious work and emceeing on show-biz and Jewish charity events. Today, he's just that- and doesn't take a penny for those duties. Long live Monty Hall!

Never jumped! Monty Hall was the best game show host ever! Just wondered if anyone knows that actress Joanna Gleason is Monty Hall's daughter... among other things, she has been seen on Friends as a co-worker of Rachel's (one of the ones who wants to stop smoking) at Ralph Lauren.

Never jumped! After all, it was what it was. But a sad, ironic side note: Jay Stewart, forever pictured struggling down the aisle with the enormous boxes, would later shoot himself to death in 1989. He had suffered from such severe back pain for years, trying to relieve it with various medications, that he simply couldn't take it anymore. Jay C. Fix (his real name) was 71, and a heck of a nice guy. I was a pharmacy technician in the West Hollywood neighborhood near his apartment.

A true GS classic...never jumped in any of its original incarnations, and while the 80-81 Vancouver-based revival came close (Big Deals worth between $4K-$5K??), it was still LMaD, and Monty was his usual self...for the record, I don't think the decision to do that version from the Great White North was as much about "national pride" as it was about saving money and defraying expensive prod costs. However, in an attempt to make it edgy, Stone-Stanley decided to bring it back in 1996 as "Big Deal", hosted by Mark DeCarlo (formerly of "Studs"), and w/Big Bad Voodoo Daddy as the live house band. Deals included a cow-milking contest, a family breaking the windows of their home, and tossing Elvs dummies into a classic car...thankfully, the show's Sun-at-7 (EST) slot resulted in frequent football pre-emptions, and thus the well-deserved demise of this half-assed revival. Fortunately, Monty will be back on hand as producer for the upcoming NBC revival in a coupla mos, so it'll at least be better than Big Deal, even though that's not saying much at all.

FYI on the Zonks: Most people who get/got zonked were usually offered an alternate prize after the show. Many of the zonks were unusual animals, which were rented by the show for the occasion. Legally, a contestant could insist they be awarded that prize, but very few had the wherewithal to care for the animals, so when offered a TV instead, they took it. I do recall one occasion when a woman got zonked with a hippopotamus, and it qualified her for the Big Deal.

To the sadistic poster above, what is wrong with Monty Hall? He was a good man. "Let's Make A Deal" was one of television's greatest game shows ever. This was a test of how greedy contestants were. It went like this: you came with nothing, so would you take what was given to you, or take a chance and hope that you can leave with something better? Monty worked that concept to perfection and made this compelling television. That is why its initial run ran for 14 years. The subsequent versions, though missing somewhat in quality and running for a much shorter amount of time, were also good. Monty Hall also made a great decision in the 1984 edition of "Deal." Sidelined with laryngitis, Monty called upon Geoff Edwards, another fine host, to take over for the week. The choice was right because Geoff worked on a show that followed a format strongly resembling that of "Deal." That show was called "Treasure Hunt," a semi-knockoff of LMAD that had contestants search for a jackpot ($20,000 plus $1,000 for each day that it was not found, up to $50,000) among 50 boxes. There were other prizes too (cars, trips, and other novelties) that were given away...if the contestant refused to take a guaranteed cash prize for selling the box. There were also junk prizes called "Clunks." That is self-explanatory. This show gave Geoff the experience needed to do the "Deal" because of its uncanny resemblance. Anyway, this show was one of the smartest of its time and helped in giving birth to another fantastic game show..."The Price Is Right." Finally, I have heard that NBC and a syndicated partner are currently working on reviving LMAD for daytime syndication and nighttime network programming. With Monty Hall as executive producer, this may work out to be the grandest revival of this era. Let's just hope that there are enough people that are not drawn into the crapfest that is reality television to make this one a winner. I wait with baded breath...

If any show ever defined the inner greed that people have it is LMAD. This show with host Monty Hall, announcer Jay Stuart and hostesses Barbara Lyon and Carrol Merrill was a staple of ABC daytime for years. The cheesy sets along with the live band were enough to attract every person that wanted to OD on PoppyCock. I swear, Monty Hall must have kept the PoppyCock people in business. He would always have it on a tray that Jay Stewart was sentence to bring down to the floor. The contestants would have to guess how much this crap cost and to this day I don't remember anyone ever getting it right. How many furs from Dicker and Dicker of Beverly Hills were given away? Ah, the cars, the cars. Vegas, Novas, and any other piece of crap you wouldn't be caught dead in unless it was free. I do remember one time when Monty got his. He went to a lady and said that he would give her a $100 for every dime she had. She pulled out a roll. From that time on that tight old bastard would set a limit on how many of a certain item he would pay for. It was really neat to see the women start jumping up and down and beat the living crap out of Monty. If you remember, he would move up to the top tier of the section when he knew the person had won the Big Deal of the Day. "And now here's America's top trader, Monty Hall."

Companies are obviously paying out the ass to have their products as prizes. It gets annoying after a while. Thank God Monty has at least $1,000 in his pocket in most show.