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"The NBC Television Network Presents... (toy piano- and slide whistle-fanfare) Concentration!"
That famous opening spiel was heard for the very first time when the popular game show based on the children's game, created by Jack Barry, Dan Enright, Robert Noah and Buddy Piper, in which matching like cards is the key, while adding the ever-popular "rebus" puzzles to create an endlessly fascinating game of wits, had its debut on NBC Daytime. Concentration went on to become the longest-running daytime game show in NBC history, airing for 15 years and 3,796 shows, through March 23, 1973.
Concentration was emceed by Jack Barry (1958), Hugh Downs (1958-68) and Bob Clayton (1969-74). Many guests hosts appeared between '68 and '69, including Art James, Bill Mazur, and Ed McMahon! Two NBC prime-time series of Concentration were spawned as well: a four-week run in 1958 with Barry (October 30 to November 20), and a five-month full-color run in 1961 with Downs (April 17 to September 18). In 1968, Downs won an Emmy for hosting the daytime Concentration.
Shortly after its debut, Jack Barry and Dan Enright were forced to surrender their rights to this show as a result of The Quiz Show Scandals. At the end of the NBC run, the rights to Concentration switched to Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions, who oversaw both of the later versions of this show: the 1973-79 syndicated edition hosted by Jack Narz (Now You See It), and the 1987-91 NBC Daytime revival, Classic Concentration, emceed by Alex Trebek (Jeopardy!). It remains one of only 3 programs in Goodson-Todman's entire game show repertoire that was not created by the company; the others are The Price Is Right (created by Bob Stewart) and the Hollywood Squares component of The Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour.
The videotapes of virtually every segment of the original 1958-73 NBC-produced version of Concentration were unfortunately destroyed or wiped clean for reuse by The Peacock Network (save for a precious few!), but all of the Goodson-Todman-produced episodes remain. NBC still retains the rights to the show, which explains the appalling dearth of repeats of Concentration on Game Show Network.
Afterword: Bob Clayton, the final host, signed a contract with Bob Stewart Productions to be the announcer of the hit game show which premiered on CBS the very Monday following Concentration's demise on NBC: The $10,000 Pyramid! Hugh Downs later became an anchor for ABC News, hosting the TV news magazine 20/20 with Barbara Walters. Ed McMahon became the aide de camp of Johnny Carson for thirty years on his Tonight Show. And, of course, Jack Barry's exile from TV due to The Scandals (aside from brief emceeing duties on Juvenile Jury and The Reel Game) would officially end with the September 4, 1972 CBS Daytime premiere of The Joker's Wild!
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Today's Tv Game Show Almanac, AUGUST 25, 1958
