Sunday, December 10, 2017

A Classic Reborn: Classic Concentration (1987)

Nearly a decade after its last run, Concentration returned home to NBC in 1987, still produced by Mark Goodson, who now was going it alone after long-time business partner Bill Todman had passed away.

Classic Concentration, as it was known, ran for four years of first run episodes (1987-91), with reruns continuing until the end of 1993. During this entire period, Alex Trebek not only hosted Concentration, but the syndicated Jeopardy! (which he still does today), and had taken over another Goodson revival, To Tell The Truth, for the end of its NBC run.

The puzzles were reduced in size from 30 tiles to 25, and, as you'll see in this sample video from Christmas Eve, 1987, the puzzles were also a little easier.



A choice of 8 cars in the bonus round? Yep. It was more than what they were doing over on Hollywood Squares at the same time (the John Davidson era ended in 1989). After acquiring the rights to the franchise shortly after the departure of co-creators Jack Barry & Dan Enright in 1958, NBC still owns the series nearly 60 years later.

Rating: A.

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