A Classic Reborn: Las Vegas Gambit (1980)

Apparently, Bob Quigley had a good reason to retire after the 1980-1 season.

Quigley and long time partner Merrill Heatter, decided to relocate Hollywood Squares to Las Vegas after it was cancelled by NBC. However, the network was more than willing to take a chance on Heatter-Quigley reviving an earlier CBS series, also in Sin City.

Las Vegas Gambit bowed in October 1980, more than a month after Squares began its 15th season (1st in syndication), with Wink Martindale returning as host. Unfortunately, the viewer interests had changed in the four years since the original Gambit had ended, and NBC no longer ruled daytime. Las Vegas Gambit was inserted after David Letterman's daytime talk show was cancelled, but about a year later, this Gambit ultimately went bust, too.

Then again, the Tropicana Hotel had also been home to a syndicated game, Dealer's Choice, which went through two hosts in its two years on the air, a few years earlier. It just wasn't meant to be a place for a game show.

Here's the series opener:



Not as much fun as the original.

Rating: B.