Neither Bolen or Merv liked the pilot, even during the taping: Lin felt there was no real excitement between the players and gameplay, calling the entire thing (especially the set) 'old fashioned', while Griffin knew that 'Everything about it was wrong.' Test audiences were also unenthusiastic, as they could not understand the gameplay (including why players had to buy vowels), were unable to see the puzzle board, and referred to the game as 'very slow' and 'not challenging'. The top winner, determined by prizes rather than money, played a Bonus Round called 'Shopper's Special' which involved identifying the name of the bonus prize the contestant was shown all vowels in the puzzle, then had 30 seconds to give one correct consonant and solve the puzzle (in this case, ISLE OF CAPRI) to win a trip there.īazaar was, to put it mildly, a disaster.

It also had two $0 spaces plus one each of Free Vowel and Your Own Clue, the latter of which gave clues via an on-set telephone to the players.Īt the end of each round, the money earned by all three players was applied to prizes they had chosen prior to the taping (denoted by an Accounting Department) if a contestant covered her lowest prize's value, she would win it upon solving a puzzle and subsequent earnings were applied to the next item on her list. The puzzle board and Wheel were very different: the former used pull cards, while the latter stood in the center of the stage and had no Bankrupts, two (later four) Lose A Turn wedges, and one each of Buy A Vowel and Free Spin. With Chuck Woolery as host and Mike Lawrence as announcer, the show had contestants (all female) who solved Hangman-style puzzles, but their winnings were determined by a vertical mechanical Wheel stopped by Woolery. The first pilot, taped in September 1973, put more emphasis on shopping for prizes at the behest of NBC boss Lin Bolen, who had commissioned the pilot to boost network daytime ratings among women 18-34. ' You are at the Shopper's Bazaar! And now, here is the host of the Shopper's Bazaar: Chuck Woolery!'

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