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Gambit was a television game show, created by Wayne Cruseturner, produced by Heatter-Quigley Productions that aired on CBS from September 4, 1972 to December 10, 1976; it premiered the same day as two other successful CBS game shows, "The Price is Right" and "The Joker's Wild" (1972-1975).
Main game
Wink Martindale asked a series of questions, usually multiple-choice or true-false, to two married couples. The couple who buzzed in and answered the question correctly got to control the next card off of an oversize regulation deck (whose style and size would later be used in The Price is Right pricing game "Hit Me") of 52 playing cards. (The first would be shown before the question, the rest would be presented face-down.) Once a couple got control of a card, they had the choice to either add the card to their own hand or force their opponents to take it (unless they're frozen; see below). The objective of the game is quite similar to Blackjack, to get your hand as close to 21 without going over, or obtaining blackjack with an ace and a face card or a ten. As in blackjack, the value of cards 2 through 10 are as shown; face cards (Kings, Queens and Jacks) count as 10s and an Ace counts either as a 1 or 11.
After a couple received any card, if they had the lead (a tie was not good enough), they could elect to freeze their board, disallowing any more cards to be added to their hand. Once this happened, the other couple answered questions until one of the following conditions occurred:
Conditions for winning
There were four ways to win:
* Getting 21, which not only won the game, but the Gambit Jackpot, which started at $500 and went up $500 at the start of each day (at the start of each match on Las Vegas Gambit), except that if it was won with the last card of the day, it started the next day at $500;
* Having the opponents go over 21, even if the winners did not have any cards;
* Freezing, and then having the opponents miss a question before getting a higher score without going over 21;
* Having the opponents freeze, and then getting a higher score without going over 21.
Each game won was worth $100 ($250 on Las Vegas Gambit). Two wins earns the match and the right to head to the Bonus Round.
The Gambit Board
The winning couple played the Gambit Bonus Board. They faced a large game board with 21 cards, numbered 1 through 21 (18 screens on Las Vegas Gambit). Each card concealed a prize; along with each prize the couple won, they received a card added to their hand from the deck.
The game ended in one of three ways:
* The couple elected to stop before reaching 21 (especially if they feared the next card would push them over 21 or in some instances, if they got a desirable prize they wanted to keep).
* Going "BUST" (over 21), at which point they lost everything they found on the board.
* Reaching 21 exactly, wherein they won a new car ($5,000 on Las Vegas Gambit) plus the Gambit Jackpot.
During the CBS run, returning champions could continue until winning a grand total of $25,000, and would be required to relinquish any winnings over that amount.
Also during the CBS run, in the show's first three years, they ran an annual promotion where the first couple to get a two-card 21 in the bonus round won either $200 a week for a year or $10,000, depending on the year.
There were a number of recurring prizes on the CBS version, including:
* "Anniversary Dinner" - the couple would be flown to a city on their next anniversary and be treated to dinner; there were three of these on the board when this was played, each with a different city - usually two in Europe, but the third was always Burbank.
* "Suit" Cards - one card of each of the four suits of cards; each was worth $500, plus $500 for each card the couple got in that bonus round of that suit.
* During December, trips to various football bowl games, including the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, and Cotton Bowl, were offered. (The problem was, a couple that won more than one of these trips couldn't use them all as they all had to be taken around New Year's Day, and like most trips given away on game shows, have to be taken within a year of winning them and cannot be transferred.)
One prize occasionally offered during the bonus round was "Beat the House": contestants winning this prize would then have the opportunity to play one hand of blackjack (standard single-deck rules, with the possible exception that there did not appear to be any cases in which contestants "split a pair" or "doubled down") against the house (as personified by Martindale) for a cash prize.
The bonus round for the Las Vegas Gambit pilot featured a "Living Deck", a group of 52 audience members, each holding a different card. Every time the couple earned a prize, the audience member with the selected card would win the same prize. During the early episodes of the actual series, a couple could elect to stop only when their hand totaled 17 or more.
The Gambit Galaxy (Las Vegas version)
The second half of the Las Vegas run featured "The Big Numbers", a game borrowed from another Heatter-Quigley game, High Rollers, which Wink Martindale would eventually host six years later. The couple was presented with a pair of dice, and was asked to "knock off" the numbers 1 through 9 from a board in front of them. To do this, the couple eliminated numbers that added up to the total they rolled (for instance, if the couple rolled a 10, they could eliminated 4 and 6; 3 and 7; 1, 2, 3 and 4 or any other combination that added to 10.) Each number the couple knocked off won $100 per number, and if all nine were knocked off, an accumulating "Gambit Galaxy" prize package was awarded. In the event a double was rolled (e.g. a pair of ones, twos, threes, fours, fives or sixes), then an insurance marker is awarded and can be used in the event a bad number is rolled.
This version's last week of shows consisted of reruns from an earlier "Singles Week" (in which teams of two complete strangers were paired up to play the game); during the close of the Friday show, a taped picture-in-picture announcement was shown of Martindale stating it was the last episode and that the program would be replaced by the Regis Philbin Show the following Monday.
Theme music
Mort Garson composed the theme for the CBS version, while Stan Worth composed the theme for the NBC revival. Those tracks can be found in our "Listen" section.
Scheduling history
CBS, 1972-76
CBS put Gambit in originally at 11 a.m/10 Central, where it defeated NBC's Sale of the Century. It also easily beat Alex Trebek's American debut program, The Wizard of Odds, which NBC began in July 1973. On April 1, 1974, CBS moved the show ahead a half-hour to 10:30/9:30, where it faced NBC's struggling quiz Jeopardy!. NBC moved Jeopardy! to the afternoons on July 1 and placed one of many Bill Cullen-Bob Stewart collaborations, Winning Streak, in the slot. That show's weakness made late 1974 the high point of Gambit's original daytime run, at least in the Nielsen ratings.
However, Wheel of Fortune would later on debut on January 6, 1975. Not only did Wheel impact Gambit's audience, but NBC's expansion of Another World in the afternoons forced CBS to return The Price is Right to the morning after a two-year run at 3/2 Central. In order to make room for Price, the network decided to return Gambit to its original slot on August 18, where it remained for the rest of its run. At that slot, Gambit had to go against its sister Heatter-Quigley show High Rollers. The network cancelled the four-year-old game on December 10, replacing it with Goodson-Todman's Double Dare.
NBC (Las Vegas), 1980-81
In June 1980, NBC cancelled Heatter-Quigley's flagship show The Hollywood Squares and the revival of High Rollers in favor of a 90-minute (later 60) talk-variety show hosted by future late night icon David Letterman. When Letterman's effort failed miserably after a four-month run, the network obviously decided to make amends to the packager by reviving Gambit.
Plugging the show in at 10 a.m./9 Central, NBC found out, however, that many affiliates would not give the show a chance, due to the increasing popularity of syndicated talk shows like Donahue and Hour Magazine, which station managers thought would draw larger audiences (and, more importantly, larger local advertising revenues) than NBC offerings. Further, even though CBS ran sitcom reruns against Las Vegas Gambit, many of their stations (or even ABC stations) carried those forementioned syndicated offerings and often won their markets with those, instead of the network feed.
Las Vegas Gambit lasted 13 months. Over the next several months, NBC would rid itself of all the other games on its daytime schedule except for Wheel, which became NBC's sole daytime game show until January 1983.
Episode status
It is believed very few episodes exist except for one episode of the original series (see an episode in the "Watch" section of our site) and a few episodes of the Las Vegas version (see the final episode above). In the fall of 1977, reruns of the original CBS version of Gambit aired in syndication (primarily on WPIX New York and KHJ-TV Los Angeles), so it is possible that the episodes from the original version may exist.
Pilots
Two pilots were made in an attempt to revive the series, neither of them sold.
1990 Pilot
A pilot for another revival was shot for ABC in 1990 with Bob Eubanks as host.
Two solo players compete. The assistant reveals the first card. Two answers are put on the board and Bob reads a statement. The first to buzz-in either guesses the statement applies to both of them, one (naming that one in the process) or neither. If they’re right they get control of the first card, if not their opponent does. They can keep it or pass it to their opponent. The rest of the cards in the game are not shown. Now after getting control, the contestant decides where an unknown card goes. If they go over 21 at any time, they lose. A player is allowed to freeze their hand after two cards if they feel they have enough to win. That forces the other into solo play where they must keep answering questions to receive cards. They must beat their opponent without busting to win. If they bust or fail to answer a question, their opponent wins $100 and one game. If they beat the score they get the game. If anybody scores 21 on the nose, they win the game and the Gambit Jackpot, this time starting at $1000 and still growing by $500 per match. First to win two games goes to the bonus.
The third game in a match, if needed, is played differently. The champion decides where the first unknown card goes. Then they receive the next card by default. Following this, questions are brought back into play as above.
In the bonus round, the winner tries to beat the dealer. They get five chances for cards. Three answers are now revealed, and they have to decide whether statements apply to none, one, two or all three items. If they get a question right, they earn a card. They can continue up to five cards or when they want to freeze. After their hand is set, the dealer begins drawing cards. They draw as long as their total is 16 and below and stay at 17 and above. If the dealer busts or does not beat the player, the contestant wins $5000. If the player gets 21, they win $10,000.
Orion (which had acquired the rights to the Heatter-Quigley library) was going through financial problems at the time, and the pilot did not sell.
The Casino Pilots
Originally, Las Vegas Gambit was to have been replaced by a new Heatter-Quigley game show, titled Casino, hosted by Jim Perry. It is believed that nine episodes of Casino were produced, but the series was never picked up on NBC; instead, Regis Philbin hosted a talk show in that timeslot. Another attempt to get Casino on television occurred in 1983, this time hosted by Peter Tomarken, which also did not make it to TV.
2000 Casino Pilot
A third attempt was made for GSN; this was hosted by Ron Pearson and co-host Tanya Memme. This pilot was made for GSN, and distributed by KingWorld (who has the format rights to the Merrill Heatter library).
In this pilot, three players competed.
To start, each player was given one card to start, meaning that each player had a base value to start (ala regular blackjack). Then host Pearson asked a series of questions for control of the next card. The first player to buzz-in with a correct answer wins $100 and control of the next card. When the card was revealed, the player in control can choose to either take that card or pass it to one of his/her two opponents. At any point in the game, the player in control can ask for a "Freezer Question" in which a correct answer freezes his/her score. As in regular Blackjack, the object of the game is to get to 21 or as close to 21 as they can without going over (anything over 21 equals a loss). In this game, a player can actually bust another player if the card he/she received puts that player over the top; not only that, if there's one player left standing, no questions were asked and cards were revealed immediately. The winner of the round wins $1000; the first player to reach 21 not only wins the round but also wins a bonus of $2100 in cash. At the end of the second round, the player with the lowest score is eliminated from the game. Question & game values double in Round 2.
Round 3 was played with the two remaining players, plus correct answers were now worth $300. The first player to reach 21, be closest to 21 or bust the other player wins the game, $3000 more, keeps the cash, and goes on to play the bonus game.
In the Bonus Round, the winning player was shown three prizes in which he/she is playing for. Then three down cards were displayed on three positions numbered 1, 2 & 3. Then host Pearson asked four questions and correct answer earned an additional down card (for a maximum of four & a maximum grand total of seven). After the questions were asked, the winning player used the total number of down cards to make three hands which were given headstart cards in advance. The winning player chose which down card to take after which that card was revealed, then placed it in anyone of those hands. Each time a hand reaches 18 or more, the winning player wins the prize behind the hand; each time a hand hits 21, the player wins the prize and the usual $2100 bonus; if all three hands hit 21, in addition to three prizes, he/she also wins $100,000. If at anytime the winning player busted on any one hand, the game is over and he/she loses the prizes; but to prevent that from happening, the winning player can choose to stop and take the prizes after each choice of cards (but only if at least one prize was won).
International Versions
A British version of the show was produced by Anglia Television for ITV, notable for its opening title sequence featuring various casino equipment including playing cards, casino chips, a roulette wheel and a fruit machine. It started in 1975 as a programme shown in the Anglia region only, but became a networked show in 1978 and ran until 1985, The original host was Fred Dinenage later succeeded by comedian Tom O'Connor, and Michelle Lambourne was the card dealer. The programme returned briefly in the early 1990s, but only in the Anglia region and was hosted by Gary Thompson.
In the ITV version, each game was worth £20, the Gambit Jackpot started at £200, and increased by £50 until won or until it hit £500. Also, no cars were offered in the endgame.
In Australia, a version produced for the Nine Network briefly aired in 1974. The host was Peter Hitchener and the dealer was Ros Wood. It was produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation.
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