''Say When!!'' is an American

game show A game show (or gameshow) is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment where contestants compete in a game for rewards. The shows are typically directed by a game show host, host, who explains the rules of the program as well as commentating a ...

hosted by

Art James Art James (born Arthur Simeonovich Efimchick; October 15, 1929 – March 28, 2004) was an American game-show host, best known for shows such as '' The Who, What, or Where Game''; '' It's Academic''; and '' Pay Cards!'' He was also the announce ...

that aired on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

television from January 2, 1961, to March 26, 1965. The show was a

Mark Goodson Mark Leo Goodson (January 14, 1915 – December 18, 1992) was an American television producer who specialized in game shows, most frequently with his business partner Bill Todman, with whom he created Goodson-Todman Productions. Early life and e ...

Bill Todman William Selden Todman (July 31, 1916 – July 29, 1979) was an American television producer and personality born in New York City. He produced many of television's longest-running shows with business partner Mark Goodson, with whom he created ...

production and James' only game show for them.

Wayne Howell Wayne Howell Chappelle (February 16, 1921 – July 8, 1993) was a voice-over announcer for the NBC television and radio networks from 1947 through 1986. He was born in Lexington, Kentucky, and became one member of a core group of New York-based ...

was the announcer, with occasional substitution by Roger Tuttle,

Mel Brandt Melville Brandt (June 18, 1919 – March 14, 2008) was an actor and NBC staff announcer. Early life Born in Brooklyn, New York, Mel Brandt’s military records state that he attended college for two years, and his civilian occupation was ac ...

, and Fred Collins. The models alternatingly consisted of Ruth Halsey, Emily Banks, Gunilla Knutson, Carolyn White, Kristan Johnson, and Elizabeth Ames. Carmen Mastren was the show's music director. The series aired live in black and white (switching to color in mid-1964) from NBC Studio 6A at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York.

Game play

Two contestants, one a returning champion, competed. At the beginning of each game a dollar goal was revealed and four prizes were displayed. The contestants then took turns picking one prize at a time (when a prize was picked, another prize replaced it). Once picked, the dollar value of the prize was added to the contestant's total. The object for the players was to get closer to the goal than their opponent without going over. Once either player came within $250 of the goal she/he could "say when" (freeze), forcing the other to continue playing until she/he either won the game by beating the frozen total, or losing the game by exceeding the goal. One of the recurring prizes was the "Blank Check", which usually involved a grocery-related item. The contestant who chose it could select up to a certain amount of it times the product's individual cost. The individual price would then be revealed and multiplied, with its total then added to the contestant's score. (James' later game show ''

Blank Check A blank cheque or blank check in the literal sense is a cheque that has no monetary value written in, but is already signed. In the figurative sense, it is used to describe a situation in which an agreement has been made that is open-ended or v ...

'' was not actually based on this "prize", but on adding digits to a four-digit cash prize.) A best-of-three match was played to determine the champion, with players keeping all prizes won outright.

"Peter Pan" incident

During one episode following the switch to color, James was doing a live commercial for Peter Pan peanut butter. The spot went normally until, as he had done several times during rehearsals for the spot, he dropped a table knife into the glass jar as he held it up; on this instance, however, the bottom of the jar broke and the knife fell out of the bottom. James continued the spot to laughter from the audience, which held as the bottom part of the jar (now a fully visible circle) came "unglued" from the peanut butter. "It's great peanut butter," James said. "The jar is something else". He later said, "My mother told me there'd be days like this".

Episode status

Due to

wiping Wipe or wiping may refer to: Hygiene * Toilet paper or wet wipes, or their use Arts and media * Wipe (transition), a gradual transition in film editing * Wipe curtain, a kind of theater curtain * ''Wipe'' or ''Screenwipe'', a television series ...

, a run-through taped in December 1960 and an episode from 1961 are the only regular episodes in existence. The latter show was discovered in 2014 and uploaded to

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. In the 1960 run-through, the format was somewhat different: two games were played, and the winners of those games competed head-to-head; the goal in each game was $2,000. Both episodes were kept using the

Kinescope Kinescope , shortened to kine , also known as telerecording in Britain, is a recording of a television program on motion picture film directly through a lens focused on the screen of a video monitor. The process was pioneered during the 1940s ...

format. A third episode, the January 6th, 1961 episode, was discovered and uploaded to YouTube in July 2023. The Peter Pan incident also exists, as a clip running just under two minutes (the episode of origin is believed to have been destroyed). A portion of this footage was used on both NBC's '' Most Outrageous Game Show Moments'' and VH1's ''Game Show Moments Gone Bananas''; the full version is available for viewing on

Buzzr Buzzr (stylized as BUZZR) is an American digital broadcast television network owned by Fremantle North America, a unit of the Fremantle subsidiary of RTL Group. The network serves as an outlet for the extensive library of classic game shows ow ...

aired an early episode of the program during its 5th annual "Lostnfun" marathon on September 27, 2020.

Australian version

The show ran in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

from 1962 to 1964 on

Nine Network Nine Network (stylised 9Network, and commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of the five main free-to-air television ...

, hosted by

Jimmy Hannan Jimmy Hannan (25 August 1937 – 7 January 2019) was an Australian radio and television personality, variety show host, singer, entertainer and game show host of the 1960s and 1970s. One of the pioneers of television, he appeared regularly on v ...

and produced by Reg Grundy. It was later revived as ''Spending Spree'' from 1971 to 1976 on Nine, which was also hosted by Hannan and produced by Grundy.The Saddle Club to Ship to Shore, Memorable TV Guide to Australian Television
The archival status of the Australian versions is unknown.

References

{{reflist

External links

Say When!! episode at YouTubeSay When!! clip (Peter Pan blooper), 1964 at YouTube
NBC game shows 1960s American game shows 1961 American television series debuts 1965 American television series endings Black-and-white American television shows Television series by Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions Nine Network original programming 1962 Australian television series debuts 1964 Australian television series endings 1960s Australian game shows 1970s Australian game shows Black-and-white Australian television shows