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The History of Starcade
by Jim and Mavis Caruso,
jm Production Company
Some pictures courtesy of Jeff Kinder and
The
Dragon's Lair Project
Used with permission.
In 1981 while lying on the beach at Caneel Bay,
Mavis and I came up with the idea of producing a TV game show using
video arcade games. Back then the games were the "hot item" with the
kids, especially 12-year-old boys.
We wrote the script and put the production
together. Mike Eruzione (Captain of the Gold Medal winning US
Olympic Hockey team) hosted our first Starcade pilot. We thought a
sports competition was just what the games needed to gain
respectability. We had a high profile “Star” guest player, Larry
Wilcox (Chips) to play the winner of the contest on a brand new game
that was just hitting the arcades, "Donkey Kong."
First Host Mike Eruzione and Guest Star Player Larry Wilcox
We had 24 contestants on stage divided into
three teams, with each team member playing at the same time as the
others for high score. The set was very "high tech" with fog, strobe
lights, and the sounds of the games. Nolan Bushnell and Chuck E.
Cheese asked a local distributor to go to the manufactures and talk
them into loaning us 24 games to use in the pilot. We had eight of
each of, Defender, Centipede and Pac-Man for the contestants to
play.
We knew nothing about the technical aspects of
the games and just figured video is video and TV's video so we could
just put game video in the broadcast video. WRONG and that was just
the beginning of the problems. Getting the show up and running so we
could start taping took at least 10 hours after we were in the
studio. Everyone was running low on patience. Larry's agent wanted
him to leave, Mike is nervous and blowing his lines, the Director
(me) is having a tough time keeping the crew and the production side
all under control, the Producer (Mavis) is trying to keep the
contestants, the guest and the rest of the show together.
Besides the 24 contestants, the host and the
"guest star" we had 43 crew members that all had to do something at
a precise time during shooting to make the whole thing work.
Finally, "ROLL TAPE.” In five more hours, we got enough on tape to
be able to edit the first show together. Editing took another 12
hours. We went on the air Sunday, Sept. 13, 1981 at 6 PM on KRON
(NBC) in San Francisco. The overnight ratings showed that STARCADE
beat out all of the competition and actually built audience in the
second quarter hour.
We thought that we had a hit and that the
networks or syndication would be beating down our doors to get
Starcade. WRONG. We did air Starcade a few more times in Fresno,
Santa Barbara and some of the smaller markets in California where we
did get some decent ratings, but we could not get Starcade picked up
so, back to the drawing board. We developed a new format, wrote the
script, designed a set, and built the model so our prospects would
the idea of what Starcade would look like when it went on the air.
This new concept and format was more or less, what finally went on
the air in 1982.
We made several appointments in "Hollywood" and
went down to pitch the "new" Starcade. The first person that we
pitched was Phil Ross, the VP of O&O (owned and operated stations)
programming at NBC. We knew we were pitching to the decision maker
because as we sat down he, with a flourish, pushed a button on his
desk and the office door closed.
Pitch meetings usually last about thirty-eight
seconds, then eyes glaze over and you know it’s time to leave and
you do because you might want to come back some day. Phil closing
the door gave us a jolt of confidence and we started waving our
arms, showing him the set, reading the script, and showing the first
pilot, the ratings.
 After
about 3 hours of this Phil looks up at us and says, "How did you two
get in here anyway"? We told him we just called and made an
appointment. He says, "That took a lot of 'chutzpah' but, go see
this guy, he’s usually in my waiting room, his name is Alex Trebeck.
If he'll host the show, make a new pilot and bring it back and I'll
show Starcade to all five of my station managers. (Networks were
only allowed to own five stations then.)
We met Alex, who was not working, as he was
moving from his Mulholland Drive house to his Mother in law’s house.
We offered him 5K to do 3 pilots and he almost kissed us both in the
middle of the street he was so happy at getting some work and the
prospect of a series on NBC.
About four hectic weeks later, we were ready and
went into production at The Bridge Studios in San Francisco. We
"live" switched three cameras, which only the networks did in those
days. Nobody in SF had ever done such a thing and luckily, for us,
no one that was working on the crew knew much more about producing
broadcast TV than we did. If it worked we did it, after all we had
been educated producing commercials, corporate training videos and
watching TV since we were born.
NBC sent a C&P (compliance and practices) lawyer
up from Burbank to oversee the legalities of the project and help
with the rules of the game. The next day the VP of NBC C&P division
in New York shows up. Game show rules and regulations were strict
because of the fixing scandals in the 60's.
The network wanted us to hide the names of the
manufacturers of the games and not refer to them at all. We said
that was not the agreement that we had with the game makers and that
we were absolutely not going to break our word to Bally-Midway,
Nintendo, Nolan Bushnell, etc. The C&P people finally capitulated
and we went ahead with the production and all of the manufactures
got the exposure that they were promised.
Alex as host was himself, just the same as you
see him today on Jeopardy. He was formal and precise. He looked as
if he was not having any fun, but we finally got him to loosen up
and he really got into it. Alex worked hard and was definitely
interested in positive outcome. In fact, we (Alex , Mavis, and I)
all spent 24 hours straight, together in an edit suite in San
Francisco to put the second pilot together.
We delivered six broadcast quality dubs of
Starcade to NBC and guess what? Ross liked it but his five station
managers did not. They had such remarks as "no home audience
participation" or "who wants to watch kids play games,” "how does
the viewer participate in the show?” The best one was "video games
are destructive to kid's minds so we don't want to show them on OUR
TV station.” “They are bad for kids.” This all has not changed
today, as we are sure that you know, just different people saying
the same old stuff.
 Anyway,
we were not about to give up; we had over $60k of our own money
invested in Starcade and a lot of backing from the manufactures, of
course. We started shopping the pilot around looking for a network
or syndication or an agent. We introduced to the producer of The
Cisco Kid, Jack Rhodes of Rhodes Productions. He told us he
might have something or at least an in if we were willing to put it
on cable. Cable was just getting started and had about 20%
penetration of all the TV homes in the US, We said OK, if it was the
right company. It turned out that it was the leading cable pioneer,
Ted Turner.
 We
were told Ted had a potential sponsor who committed to buy time on
WTBS the Super Station, if they could find the right show. The
sponsor was Parker Brothers who were one of the first to make video
games for home play. Ted sent the Chairman of the Board of Turner
Program Services, Sid Pike out to San Francisco to make the deal.
TPS was to become the syndication arm of Turner Broadcasting
Company. Starcade was the second TV show that they had acquired. The
first was The WWF. We made a deal for to produce 13 shows. Turner
would air one a week on Saturday at 9 AM (6 AM in the west) and
would sell the show to other independent or network affiliates
through Turner Program Services.
Now that we had a deal, we finished the set,
continued to develop the idea and started writing the final script.
After getting a shooting script, we started auditions for the host,
announcer, the video/audio crew, the equipment, and locating a
four-wall studio that was suitable to produce in and have room for
an audience. Our basic concept was to do a live show. Live to tape
that is, with a minimum of editing. We did the final editing at
Vidtronics in Hollywood.
We also had to get the word out to potential
contestants so that we could start auditions. We had to put "the
bible" together. This book is all of the rules and regulations under
which we will produce the show. It included, contestant selection,
how they would qualify, how they would be matched up, how prizes
would be awarded. It also included how taxes would be paid, all
insurance provisions, including errors and omissions and a million
other details required by everyone involved with the production,
syndication and broadcast and oh yes, Uncle Sam.
 We
wanted a new face for host and started auditions among "unknowns"
because we wanted a fresh approach for this important position. We
finally selected Mark Richards whose lifetime ambition was to be a
game show host.
We started to work out all of the technical
considerations of combining non-NTSC video with broadcast standards.
We finally just pointed a video camera at the game screen and
decided we would have to live with the scan lines on some games. We
followed the action on the video arcade game’s screen just as we
would do on any live event.
Scoring presented a set of unique problems. Like
how you make a game stop exactly at the end of 30 or 40 seconds each
time it is played? None of the game techs, game designers or
manufactures could solve that one. This was the critical element
because without an exact precise playing time for each contestant
there would be NO CONTEST. We tried everything to access the game's
scoring and make it stop, which worked on some but not all games.
We finally started looking at what was available
to us in video to help us solve the dilemma. A brand new digital
device was introduced that would freeze a frame of video on command.
So all we had to do was design and build a clock that would trigger
the freeze frame. We locked a second camera on the games score box.
Then we connected a Radio Shack TRS-80 to our clock connected to the
freeze frame box. At the precise end of the playing period the exact
video frame would freeze and it would set off the buzzer too. Simple
huh?
The Starcade Set
Starcade went on WTBS on Saturday mornings and
found an audience. In fact, when cable penetration reached 40% of
the US Nielsen started rating the shows. Starcade’s ratings went as
high as a 7.8 nationally and that was good for our coverage. We went
to NATPE (the TV broadcast convention) and met Ted Turner. He asked
us if we would "strip" the show. We told him absolutely since this
meant that it would show 5 days a week instead of once and that we
could produce 26 weeks or 130 shows instead of 13. We shook hands
with Ted and that sealed the deal, well almost.
Because of this commitment from Ted we could
move ahead and really become independent TV producers. We also had
Starcade on the air so it was not a problem to get contestants. In
fact, we had over 5,000 applicants that came from all over the US.
All of them had to pay their own way and for their stay in San
Francisco. The prize brokers were beating down our doors with prizes
from all over the country.
We only had two casualties. We lost a second
prize round and we replaced Mark Richards because Turner felt that
we should have a “name”. We auditioned several “game show host” and
selected Geoff Edwards. Geoff was great to work with and really got
into the games. We understand he is still an avid video game player.
Geoff Edwards, Host of Starcade
The rest is history as they say, but everyday we
hope along with millions of Starcaders that history just might
repeat, and we’re ready.
We put
www.starcade.tv up about 10 years ago and it has been quite
successful. Each month we get hundreds of new Starcaders signing up
from all over the world, most of which have never seen the show, but
like to see the game movies and other history. Many more tell us
they remember running home from school to watch and what fond
memories they have. Over half of the contestants have checked in and
let us know what they have been doing in the last 25 years. A lot of
those tell us how being a Starcade Contestant helped to shape their
lives in a positive way for which we are thankful.
Some just log onto
www.starcade.tv and go to
Jim’s Gallery to see the Maserati Racing Videos and photos of these
beautiful cars, and some other pretty pictures.
Starcade Forever…
Starcade Web Site
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