“Jeopardy!”…Behind The Scenes Game Board
In the bottom photo, we see the back of the game board in NBC Studio 8G, which is game board unit C. I think there were at least three game boards, units A, B and C which were loaded before the show and wheeled into place as the show progressed. On the set there was a curtain that covered the board.
Notice the white cloth tabs on the back of each door: those were used to pull the $ amount card out of the way to reveal the question card. Above is the question card and all of the heavy paper cards in the squares had red cloth tabs attached to the top of them. When a contestant picked a subject and then a $ amount, the stagehand behind the board grabbed the small wooden handle at the top of the metal door and pulled the top back slightly, grabbed the tab and pulled the white tab to remove the $ amount card and expose the question card.
The back of the door was spring loaded and snapped back holding the question card in place. After the question was answered, that question card was removed leaving a solid blue one in its place. Thanks to Glenn Mack for the photos and to Mark Ogden for the workings of the board. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
Wow, that’s an amazing shot. I always wondered how that worked in “the analog days.”
This is so cool! I’ve always wondered how the prize board worked on “Concentration”, where they could wipe the prize off of one contestant’s column and onto another contestant’s column in one smooth action. I’ve also wanted to see the back of that game board with the clicking and turning triangle-shaped pieces.
The good old days
Don’t you mean “after the answer was questioned”?
😉
The great John Hudimac operated the board camera. He was able to execute a perfect zoom into any question on the board. I filled as a camera op on “Eye Guess”. This show used a similar board, but I was not able to smoothly zoom into a box unless I did a slow “soap opera” move. The director hated me.
This is a question card that shows the pull tabs.