What Might've Been: Yahtzee (1987-8)

 I spent many a night growing up playing Yahtzee with my mom, and sometimes, also with my brother. 

In 1987, veteran game show producer Ralph Andrews, partnered with actor-turned producer Larry Hovis (ex-Hogan's Heroes) and his business partner, Gary Bernstein, to develop a game show based on the long running dice game, which, at the time, was marketed by Milton Bradley, and since then, by Hasbro.

A pilot was offered to ABC that fall, with Peter Marshall, more than a year removed from All-Star Blitz, as host, aided by Teresa Ganzel (ex-The Duck Factory). Yahtzee, the game show, was an amalgam of High Rollers, which had been revived that year by Merrill Heatter and his new partner, Rick Rosner, Hot Potato (competing teams of 3 contestants under a specific theme), and any number of celebrity panel games, such as Blitz, Match Game, and, of course, Hollywood Squares, which was in its 2nd season under Rosner's stewardship.

Our panel: Charles Nelson Reilly (ex-Match Game, The Ghost & Mrs. Muir, etc.), Jo Anne Worley (ex-Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In), Rhonda Bates (ex-Rollergirls, Speak Up America), Bruce Baum, and Robert Ridgely (ex-The Gallant Men), by this point known more for commercials and cartoons (i.e. Flash Gordon, Tarzan, Sky Commanders).

ABC passed, and the series went into syndication in January, with Ganzel now part of a rotation of co-hostesses working with Marshall. Unfortunately, the series never got out of the starting gate due to a lack of station interest. It didn't play in the 518, as I recall, as it would've been killed by High Rollers, Hollywood Squares, Jeopardy!, & Wheel of Fortune. When the series began, Hovis, who had been a writer-producer-panelist on Liars Club, took on those same gigs, plus taking over as announcer.

Unfortunately, this really does have an unhappy ending. A falling out between Hovis & Bernstein and Andrews led to the former pair being arrested in February. Hovis would later sue for defamation over the incident, which all but ended his TV career. I think part of the reason Worley was a regular was because she & Hovis had previously worked together on Laugh-In.

Rating: B.