Stewart Television

Stewart Television was an American game show production company formed by Bob Stewart in 1964 originally based in New York City.

History

Stewart found a job and started creating game shows for Goodson-Todman Productions in 1956. One of the first game shows he created was The Price is Right aired on NBC and was hosted by Bill Cullen. The second game show Stewart created was To Tell the Truth the same year. The third was Password in 1961. In 1964, Stewart left Goodson-Todman and formed his production company Bob Stewart Productions.

His first production for his independent company was the game show Eye Guess that aired in 1966 and was co-produced by Filmways and lasted until 1969. In 1973, he created the successful Pyramid game show series starting with The $10,000 Pyramid with his son Sande Stewart who joined his father the same year and produced the series and also formed another production company Basada, Inc. on February 23, which was named after his sons: Barry, Sande, and David Stewart.[1] As years went by, the series changed its name from The $10,000 Pyramid all the way to The $100,000 Pyramid.

New Location

In 1978, Bob Stewart Productions was relocated to Los Angeles, California, with its first syndicated program at its new location, The Love Experts. Programs already on air in the meantime were still taped in New York, mainly The $20,000 Pyramid and Pass the Buck. In 1982, Stewart revived The $25,000 Pyramid, but to keep the name and the game show confused with Cullen's version, the format was renamed as The New $25,000 Pyramid with Dick Clark as host. The show was taped at CBS Television City in Hollywood, California. The same year, Bob and his son Sande created the unsold game show Twisters. It would be the first game show credited by Bob Stewart & Sande Stewart Productions (which would officially exist starting in 1987). Another game show was Go, that was based on the bonus round of Chain Reaction produced alongside his son, Sande one year later. In 1985, Bob Stewart formed another production company called Bob Stewart Cable, Inc. for game show programs produced for cable. There were only two game shows and were taped in two Canadian cities and produced for the USA Network. The first game show was Jackpot!, that was revived from its 1974 incarnation and was taped in Toronto, Ontario. The other was Chain Reaction and was revived from its 1980 incarnation in 1986 and taped in Montreal. By 1987, Bob Stewart semi-retired and his son took over operations. In 1990, the company was renamed again as Stewart Television. Under the new name, the cable production company was renamed as Stewart Cable TV, Inc..

Sande Stewart in the meantime formed Stewart Tele Enterprises and produced the revived The $100,000 Pyramid in 1991 and was hosted by John Davidson and was canceled in 1992 after its second season and Bob Stewart fully retired the same year.

Sony

In 1994, Bob Stewart sold his company to Sony Corporation. Sande, in the meantime, went ahead and created and produced more game shows with his own independent company Sande Stewart Television. A majority of Bob Stewart's game shows Sony owns has been aired on GSN. Two of Bob Stewart's game show formats have been revived into new incarnations. They were Pyramid and was hosted by Donny Osmond in 2002 for syndication and Chain Reaction in 2005 produced by British television producer Michael Davies' production company Embassy Row in association with and distributed by Sony Pictures Television aired on GSN and was hosted by Dylan Lane. Ironically, Embassy Row would be acquired by Sony Pictures on January 14, 2009.[2][3][4]

Today, Stewart Television is an active in-name-only unit of Sony Pictures Television.[5]

Employees

Recently said was Bob Stewart’s son Sande Stewart, who joined the company in 1973.

The most prolific announcers for Stewart were Don Pardo and Bob Clayton. Pardo was an announcer on most of the Stewart productions that originated from New York for NBC (examples are Eye Guess, Three on a Match, Winning Streak, and many others). Clayton was an alternative for Pardo, as he was the first announcer for Pyramid, and also announced for Blankety Blanks, Pass the Buck, and Shoot for the Stars.

Another longtime employee for Stewart Tele Enterprises is Jeopardy! game show announcer Johnny Gilbert, who would serve his announcement duties on the 1980 incarnation of Chain Reaction, The (New) $25,000 Pyramid, Double Talk, and both 1985 and 1991 incarnations of The $100,000 Pyramid. He was also an announcer at Barry & Enright Productions and Merv Griffin Enterprises. Charlie O'Donnell, Dean Goss, and Bob Hilton were also fill-ins for Pyramid eventually. The above mentions were also employees for Stewart.

Wheel of Fortune announcer Jack Clark who has served his duties on The $10,000 Pyramid and The New $25,000 Pyramid until 1985. He was also an announcer for the short-lived game show/talk show The Love Experts, Eye Guess, The Face Is Familiar and the unsold game show pilot The Riddlers. He had also hosted pilots for Stewart which failed to sell as well.

Dick Clark was another longtime employee that was the host of all except two Pyramid incarnations from 1973-1988. One of the other longtime employees was a close friend to Bob Stewart; Bill Cullen, who has hosted the syndicated version of The $25,000 Pyramid among other series: Pass the Buck, Blankety Blanks, Winning Streak, Eye Guess, Three on a Match, The Love Experts, and the 1980 version of Chain Reaction.

Ann Marie Schmitt was the producer of most of the Bob Stewart series. Another member of the production staff was Erin Perry, who is the daughter of game show host Jim Perry. Francine Bergman and David Michaels were associate producers of most of Bob Stewart's 1980's game shows. Directors included Mike Gargiulo and Bruce Burmester.

Library

Sony Pictures Entertainment owns almost the entire Bob Stewart library. There are exceptions of three Pyramid incarnations SPE does not own. First, The $25,000 Pyramid hosted by Bill Cullen, was originally distributed by Viacom Enterprises and is currently distributed by CBS Television Distribution. Second, The $50,000 Pyramid was distributed by CPM, Inc. Currently there is no status on who owns that incarnation. Finally, The $100,000 Pyramid hosted by John Davidson was distributed by Orbis Communications and produced in association with Carolco Television in its first season, and distributed by Multimedia Entertainment in its second season. This incarnation is held by NBCUniversal Television Distribution and distributed by NBCUniversal Television Distribution. However, Sony Pictures owns the formatting rights.

CBS Television Distribution also has distribution rights to The Love Experts.

Many of the game show tapes have been destroyed due to network practices. Others have fallen into the public domain and others through the game show trading circuit.

Created by Bob Stewart for Goodson-Todman

These are the titles created by Stewart for Goodson-Todman that are now owned by FremantleMedia

Created by Bob Stewart for Stewart Television

These are the titles created by Stewart for his company that are now owned by Sony Pictures Television

Unsold pilots

Titles with distribution rights held by CBS Television Distribution

Titles with distribution rights held by NBC/Universal

Other properties

Past company names

References

  1. ↑ "Business Profiles / New York" BASADA INC. businessprofiles.com, Retrieved on August 27, 2012
  2. ↑ Sony Pictures Television Acquires Michael Davies' Embassy Row, reuters.com
  3. ↑ Nellie Andreeva "Ad Week" Sony TV Acquires Embassy Row adweek.com, Retrieved on July 17, 2013
  4. ↑ Sony Corporation of America Sony Pictures Television Acquires Michael Davies' Embassy Row sony.com, Retrieved on July 17, 2013
  5. ↑ STEWART TELEVISION, INC. businessprofiles.com, Retrieved on March 5, 2015

External links

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