Bob Stewart (television producer)
Bob Stewart | |
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Pyramid | |
Board member of | Stewart Television |
Children | 3 |
Awards | Daytime Emmy Award |
Website | stewarttelevision |
Signature | |
Bob Stewart (born Isidore L. Steinberg; August 27, 1920 – May 4, 2012) was an American television game show producer. He was active in the TV industry from 1956 until his retirement in 1991.[1]
Stewart is known for creating some of the most popular game shows for
As of 2023, three Stewart creations are airing on television: The Price Is Right, Pyramid and Password.
Early life
Stewart was born Isidore Steinberg in
During World War II, Stewart served in the Air Force. After his 1946 discharge, he enrolled in a radio-writing course. Within weeks, his instructor hired him to work at a New York City radio station.[1]
Stewart with Goodson-Todman
Stewart's early broadcasting career included a stint at WNEW in New York City, and then at NBC's flagship TV and radio stations, WNBC-TV and AM, also in New York. In the book The Box, the native New Yorker said he got the first spark for The Price Is Right during his tenure as a staff producer at WRCA-TV (now WNBC-TV) when he happened to observe an auction taking place on 50th Street on his lunch hour. He developed the idea into the working title of The Auctionaire.
Stewart joined Goodson-Todman Productions in 1956, after he bumped into broadcaster (and future game show producer-host) Monty Hall on the street and Hall told him he knew Goodson-Todman's attorney. "You got any ideas?" Stewart quoted Hall as asking.
CBS' To Tell the Truth, emceed by Bud Collyer, hit the air less than one month after the original Price debuted, in December 1956. Stewart said he auditioned the concept to Goodson and his producers by trying to have them guess which one of three men had been in the infantry in World War II and was now managing a grocery store. (The original pilot, hosted by Mike Wallace and existing as a kinescope, was titled Nothing But The Truth.)
Five years later, in 1961, Stewart scored again with
Stewart was one of a coterie of Goodson staff producers who came up with ideas for game shows and segments. Producers such as Stewart, Frank Wayne, Chester Feldman, and Gil Fates earned Goodson's respect not only for their concepts but for their skill in executing them.
Leaving Goodson-Todman
By 1964, he seriously considered leaving Goodson-Todman Productions after proposing an idea for a new word association game to Goodson, which Goodson rejected. When Stewart gave his notice, Goodson tried to get him to reconsider by making him a full partner in the company, but when it was revealed that Stewart's own name would not be added to the company name, Stewart decided to resign, though Goodson-Todman would retain all rights to his creations up to that point.
Stewart's rejected idea would go on to become
Bob Stewart Productions
Shortly after leaving Goodson-Todman, the primetime version of The Price Is Right had been canceled by ABC, and rating for the daytime version were falling. Stewart's first production under his own banner (Bob Stewart Productions) was the memory game Eye Guess, which aired on NBC daytime from January 3, 1966 to September 26, 1969, and featured close friend Bill Cullen, as emcee.
Stewart's next entry, the
Other than Eye Guess, Stewart's other moderate early success was Three on a Match, hosted by Cullen, which aired on NBC from August 2, 1971 to June 28, 1974.
Stewart's biggest success with his second production company, Basada, Inc. (named after his sons Barry, Sande, and David), and one of TV's most honored and popular game shows, was
Pyramid's network run would span 15 years, off and on, with escalating dollar amounts in the title reflecting increases in the payoff amount over the years. It had proven to be one of the most enduring game shows, airing almost continuously between first-run network or
The original The $10,000 Pyramid aired on CBS until March 1974, when it was canceled during a rating panic. It then moved to ABC, where the top prize increased to $20,000 in 1976. The $25,000 Pyramid aired from 1982 to 1987, and again briefly in 1988, on CBS. The show was also popular in syndication, running weekly from 1974 to 1979, and in daily versions from January to September 1981, 1985 to 1988 (concurrently with the CBS version), and January 7 to December 6, 1991. Clark hosted all of these versions except the weekly series (with Bill Cullen) and the 1991 series (with
Pyramid nearly led to Stewart's one significant foray outside the world of TV games, when he was hired to produce occasional panelist David Letterman's NBC daytime show in 1980. However, due to creative disagreements, Stewart left the staff four days before the show's premiere.
Bob Stewart Productions was the last major game show production company to relocate from New York to Los Angeles. Its first show there in full-time production was The Love Experts for syndication in the fall of 1978, but Pyramid remained in New York until 1981. Coincidentally, during the first half of 1980 the company's New York-based Pyramid on ABC was competing in the same 12:00 noon (Eastern) time slot against its Los Angeles-based Chain Reaction on NBC (both shows were cancelled in June of that year).
Other Stewart productions, mostly employing a word or puzzle format, included
By 1982, almost all of the Bob Stewart games originated from Hollywood, except that the updated versions of
Jackpot! and Chain Reaction were moderate successes for Stewart in their 1980s runs on
Retirement
In the mid-1980s, Stewart began winding down his career, and his son, Sande, gradually took over operations, with all shows after 1987 being known under Bob Stewart & Sande Stewart Productions. In 1990, the company was renamed Stewart Television. Bob Stewart would fully retire in 1991 after the second run of The $100,000 Pyramid was canceled, with Sande taking over full operations. Sande later produced some game shows on his own, including Your Number's Up, which went up against the elder Bob Stewart's Pyramid, Remember This?, Sports on Tap, Inquizition, Hollywood Showdown, Missouri Lottery Fun & Fortune, The Oklahoma Lottery Game Show and Powerball Instant Millionaire.
Stewart Television was sold to
While Stewart was not an active producer after 1991, he served as a Creative Consultant in his son's new production company, Stewart Television, and was listed on the official website as Stewart Television's founder.
Until 2006, Stewart held a record for the most Daytime Emmy Awards in game show production. The record was broken by
In 2010, Stewart was inducted into the
Death
On May 4, 2012, Stewart died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California of natural causes. On June 16, 2013, during the 40th Daytime Emmy Awards, Stewart was posthumously honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award. His son Sande Stewart accepted the award on his behalf.[5]
Bob Stewart shows
- Eye Guess (1966–1969, NBC)
- The Face Is Familiar (1966, CBS prime time)
- Personality(1967–1969, NBC)
- You're Putting Me On (1969, NBC)
- Three on a Match (1971–1974, NBC)
- Pyramid
- The $10,000 Pyramid (1973–1974, CBS; 1974–1976, ABC)
- The $20,000 Pyramid (1976–1980, ABC)
- The $25,000 Pyramid (1974–1979, weekly syndication)
- The $50,000 Pyramid (1981, daily syndication)
- The (New) $25,000 Pyramid (1982–1988, CBS)
- The $100,000 Pyramid (1985–1988, daily syndication)
- The $100,000 Pyramid (1991, daily syndication)
- 1974–1975, NBC
- 1985–1988, USA Network
- 1989–1990, daily syndication
- Winning Streak(1974–1975, NBC)
- Blankety Blanks(1975, ABC)
- Shoot for the Stars (1977, NBC)
- Pass the Buck(1978, CBS daytime)
- The Love Experts (1978–1979, daily syndication)
- Chain Reaction (1980, NBC daytime, 1986–1991 USA Network)
- Go (1983–1984, NBC)
- Double Talk (1986, ABC; revival of Shoot for the Stars)
References
- ^ a b c Nelson, Valerie J. (August 27, 1920). "Bob Stewart, creator of popular TV game shows, dies at 91". KansasCity.com. Retrieved May 7, 2012.
- ^ "Bob Stewart, 91; TV Producer Created Classic Game Shows". oregonlive.com. Retrieved May 7, 2012.
- ^ Los Angeles Times: "Bob Stewart dies at 91; TV producer created popular game shows" |By Valerie J. Nelson May 6, 2012
- ISBN 978-1-59393-730-0.
- ^ "Bob Stewart, Legendary TV Game Show Producer, Dies at 91". The Hollywood Reporter. April 5, 2012. Retrieved May 7, 2012.