‘Hollywood Squares’…Unaired Pilot AND How Peter Marshall Won The Job
‘Hollywood Squares’…Unaired Pilot AND How Peter Marshall Won
I don’t think Bert Parks was ever really seriously considered for the role of host of this show, but for the pilot pitch to CBS…he’d be an OK choice. Obviously not though. After the pilot sat on Fred Silverman’s desk for six months, Heater & Quigley did another pilot with comedian Sandy Baron. CBS thought Parks to corney and Baron to “New Yorky”.
The director of the pilot, Larry White took the show to NBC after Silverman passed and they liked it, but they too did not like either host. This is when Peter’s name got put in the hat.
The short version is that Bob Quigley saw Peter in a Kellogg’s commercial and called him. They flew him to Sherman Oaks, showed him the pilot and Marshall liked it, but asked why they were interested in him and not Parks or Baron. Quigley said they wanted a “nonentity”. Marshall replied, “then, I’m your man”! The rest as they say is history.
Marshall’s starting salary was $1250 per week and the stars were paid union scale, which as the time was $750 a week.
Most don’t know it, but this was actually Marshall’s second time to host a game show. The first was a local LA show called ‘Stimulus’ which only ran for ten weeks, but it gave him some good experience.
By the way…Peter had reported long ago that NBC had dumped all of those tape archives, and he was right BUT! Low and behold, a cable channel somewhere found 3,500 episodes in their warehouse. Thanks to them, we can see most of these classic shows. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
Here’s the link to Part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syMXK0Gxncc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrSvImHsUX4
Yep, I finally am back to uploading, and I forgot I had this saved weeks ago! Lazy me… Here’s a great one! It’s the original 1965 pilot of the classic cele…
Peter Marshall has said in interviews and written in his autobiography that Heatter/Quigley were looking at Dan Rowan to host Squares. Marshall was angry with Rowan over how Rowan treated Marshall’s partner Tommy Noonan when he was dying, so the main reason Marshall took the Squares gig was “To screw Dan Rowan out of a job.”
I remember a Mad Magazine article from when I was a kid that had insurance policies we’d like to see (or some such premise). One of them was “Having to Watch Bert Parks on TV Insurance.” I always found him annoying, except on the episode of WKRP when he played Herb Tarlek’s brother. It was perfect casting. I guess at one point he also played Prof. Harold Hill in “The Music Man.” That would have been perfect casting.
In the late 50’s, Bert Parks hosted a game show on NBC called County Fair. Along with his exposure as Host of the annual Miss America Pageant on NBC, may be would had made him a logical choice.