mkaiser-1
Barry and Enright, the creators of Tic Tac Dough and The Joker's Wild, really bombed with this show.I was fortunate to speak with Art James on the phone, and he said "We called this show 'Blank Mind'." The premise is this. 5 contestants on one side of the stage, one contestant on the other side (the checkwriter). The check writer has 5 different numbers infront of him, and chooses one. That number will be inserted into a Blank Check. Before that happens, a tossup question is asked, which is usually a very simple riddle, such as, what word connects with Moon and Lagoon (Blue of course). The player that answers the riddle correctly gets to guess which one of the 5 numbers the check writer is holding in his hand. If the number is guessed right, the checkwriter and player switch places. However if he's wrong, then the checkwriter keeps playing. The game continues until 4 numbers are placed into the check. The winner is the last checkwriter to put in the last number. In the bonus game, audience members are chosen, and each has one of two possible prizes, and the checkwriter must guess what prize they chose. If right, the checkwriter wins the prize and goes on. Otherwise, the audience member wins the prize. If the checkwriter should guess all 3 prizes, then he wins a new car.Really, there's no skill involved here, it's a very simple game of guessing numbers (The Price Is Right is about guessing numbers in prices, but then again, TPIR also has over 70 different games and a much more durable premise) and the riddles are usually no brainers too. The bonus round is also very anticlimactic and slow.Art James really did the best he could with a format that Art himself admitted was a very weak show. Art would also host other short lived shows like The Magnificent Marble Machine (pinball anyone?), and Catch Phrase (A game of guessing animated rebuses. Great premise but possibly too difficult for some audiences). Art did have a couple of modest hits, including Say When!(A Price is Right variant where you can't spend more than 2000 dollars) and The Who What or Where Game (A Jeopardy! alternative)
