Big Deal (game show)

Did You Know?

• In 1998, Buena Vista Television wanted to revive Let's Make a Deal with Gordon Elliott as host, planning to launch it for syndication in fall 1999, but the revival never aired.
• Let's Make a Deal resurfaced on NBC in primetime in 2003 with Billy Bush as host, but was cancelled due to low ratings.
• The show was revived again in daytime on CBS in 2009 with Wayne Brady as host.

Format

The program borrowed the basic structure of Let's Make a Deal, but mixed in physical challenges reminiscent of Truth or Consequences. Some of these challenges were used to win a modest prize, which contestants could then risk for a mystery item hidden behind a curtain or inside a box. Other stunts offered different prizes depending on how well or poorly the contestant did. A number of these games took place right in the studio. In one, a contestant was strapped into a giant "skill crane" and given oversized grabbers. Their partner raised and lowered them to snatch large teddy bears. Each bear represented a cash amount or a prize, and the contestant could grab as many as they wanted. But one bear had a person hidden inside; trying to grab it would "scare" the bear, making it run away and causing the team to lose everything. Another game had contestants listen to a popular song sung by a fat lady—a Wagnerian Valkyrie performed by Anne-Marie Bosche' Clinkenbeard, who butchered the original tune. Guessing the song correctly won a prize. In a "man vs. monkey" game, a contestant stood on top of a small building while a chimpanzee stood on an identical one. As a tribute to King Kong, the man raced the chimp to swat toy airplanes out of the "sky" (the planes were suspended from modified ceiling fans that spun). Beating the monkey won the prize. Couples competed to launch small teddy bears at a spiked wall using a slingshot; the couple that "killed" the most bears won a prize. Host DeCarlo once asked the studio audience if anyone wanted to "kill" the show's enormous frog mascot, a large prop built onstage. He selected someone from the audience, who had 30 seconds to shovel pennies onto a scale. When time was up, the player could either take a bribe or check if they had shoveled at least 200 pounds of pennies. If they succeeded, they won a large prize plus the exact amount of money they had shoveled. Regardless of whether the player took the bribe or went for the big prize, if the scale showed at least 200 pounds of pennies, a giant anvil dropped onto the frog. A notable feature of many stunts was contestants deliberately destroying their own property to win something better. For example, one stunt involved throwing baseballs at the windows of one's own house to earn new furnishings and new windows.