Pow!Pow!Pow!Pow!Pow!
April 30, 2015 8:16 AM Subscribe
In the late seventies and early eighties TV stations embraced the video game craze by granting lucky viewers the chance to play them on the air by shouting POW! into their phone.
TV POWWW! was developed by Marvin A. Kempner. A franchised game in the tradition of Dialing for Dollars, the segments were only a couple minutes long and folded into existing programing such as Barney's Army on North Carolina's WPTF (above) or hosted by local talent such as Frances Eden on Tennessee's WKPT.
New York City's WPIX rebranded it as TV PIXXX! and players would shout PIX! instead, although according to a station retrospective they relied on technicians to convert the voice commands to button presses.
By about 1983 TV POWWW! had disappeared from the US, although it continued for a time in overseas markets (Brazil's SBT carried it from 1984-86.) Most stations quietly let their license lapse, but Barney's Army sent it off in memorable style. (The station manager was reportedly "pissed.")
TV POWWW! was developed by Marvin A. Kempner. A franchised game in the tradition of Dialing for Dollars, the segments were only a couple minutes long and folded into existing programing such as Barney's Army on North Carolina's WPTF (above) or hosted by local talent such as Frances Eden on Tennessee's WKPT.
New York City's WPIX rebranded it as TV PIXXX! and players would shout PIX! instead, although according to a station retrospective they relied on technicians to convert the voice commands to button presses.
By about 1983 TV POWWW! had disappeared from the US, although it continued for a time in overseas markets (Brazil's SBT carried it from 1984-86.) Most stations quietly let their license lapse, but Barney's Army sent it off in memorable style. (The station manager was reportedly "pissed.")
I remember it on UK Saturday morning kid's show "Get Set For Summer". I believe they used the Intellivision 'Space Battle' game as part of a competition.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 8:30 AM on April 30, 2015
posted by GallonOfAlan at 8:30 AM on April 30, 2015
Right into the early '00 there was a similar gameshow on Irish language channel TG4 hosted by a cartoon troll called Hiúdaí. Callers would control games by pressing certain numbers on their telephone keypad (e.g. 6 for left, 9 for right). Each tone registering as an input. This gave the gameshow a very distinctive din: the shrieking of the troll, the roar of the audience, and the frantic mashing of the keypad by the frustrated caller.
Just found out it's from a Danish franchise called Hugo. Astonished how little information I can find on the Irish version. It only ended just over a decade ago.
posted by distorte at 8:38 AM on April 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
Just found out it's from a Danish franchise called Hugo. Astonished how little information I can find on the Irish version. It only ended just over a decade ago.
posted by distorte at 8:38 AM on April 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
@distorte We're dreadful at archiving that sort of thing. Try finding anything on Mike Murphy's computer-based quiz show for example.
Either that or RTE are crap at releasing archive stuff.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 8:41 AM on April 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
Either that or RTE are crap at releasing archive stuff.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 8:41 AM on April 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
I just came across this segment from Green Bay's Channel 11 (WLUK, I think) that features a show very much like Barney's Army. Now I'm wondering if that was franchised as well.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 8:49 AM on April 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 8:49 AM on April 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
TV Pow was a memorable part of my childhood in Jacksonville, not least of which because I was called one afternoon and got the high score for not only the day but also for the week. This got me a visit to the studio and an appearance with the host (who was known as "The Coach", if I remember correctly) and two prizes: a bike and two tickets for a fishing trip. Being no big fan of fishing, I sold the tickets to my Dad and older brother and got myself one of these. Good times.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 8:50 AM on April 30, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 8:50 AM on April 30, 2015 [5 favorites]
WPIX! I'm surprised anybody remembered the PIX thing!
Some kids were clearly robbed of victory by a half-asleep technician: PIX!..............fire.
posted by delicious-luncheon at 8:51 AM on April 30, 2015 [4 favorites]
Some kids were clearly robbed of victory by a half-asleep technician: PIX!..............fire.
posted by delicious-luncheon at 8:51 AM on April 30, 2015 [4 favorites]
I have very vivid memories of sitting in my friends' parents' bedroom, watching afternoon rerun crap like Gilligan's Island, and getting excited when these would come on. We never understood why people didn't just yell "Pixpixpixpixpixpixpixpixpix".
posted by foldedfish at 8:57 AM on April 30, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by foldedfish at 8:57 AM on April 30, 2015 [2 favorites]
This seems like an ancestor of the "Twitch plays..." phenomenon.
posted by Sangermaine at 9:00 AM on April 30, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Sangermaine at 9:00 AM on April 30, 2015 [2 favorites]
Am I right in assuming that this couldn't work in the age of satellite TV, because the delay is longer than with cable or antenna?
posted by roll truck roll at 9:09 AM on April 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by roll truck roll at 9:09 AM on April 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
I remember these shows. Sometimes, you'd get a kid who knew how to play and the PIXes would be deliberate. Other times, you'd get a kid who just PIX! PIX! PIX!-ed.
Who knew at the time that this was the dawn of gaming as a sport?
posted by zippy at 9:10 AM on April 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
Who knew at the time that this was the dawn of gaming as a sport?
posted by zippy at 9:10 AM on April 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
We never understood why people didn't just yell "Pixpixpixpixpixpixpixpixpix".
Some did, particularly during the Space Battle game. That frustrated me because you couldn't fire more than once at a time, so that strategy made your shots effectively random.
Am I right in assuming that this couldn't work in the age of satellite TV, because the delay is longer than with cable or antenna?
It couldn't work in broadcast TV anymore, at least in the US, because there's now a delay built in lest someone say a naughty word.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 9:13 AM on April 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
Some did, particularly during the Space Battle game. That frustrated me because you couldn't fire more than once at a time, so that strategy made your shots effectively random.
Am I right in assuming that this couldn't work in the age of satellite TV, because the delay is longer than with cable or antenna?
It couldn't work in broadcast TV anymore, at least in the US, because there's now a delay built in lest someone say a naughty word.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 9:13 AM on April 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
I love the real-time animation - fantastic!
posted by stevil at 9:21 AM on April 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by stevil at 9:21 AM on April 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
I'm surprised anybody remembered the PIX thing!
When we got basic cable in late 1981, I would tune into WPIX and WGN and WTBS just to see what TV in other cities was like. Georgia Championship Wrestling in Atlanta! WGN has different cartoons! and WAIT WHAT IS THIS O MY GOD WE HAVE BEEN DEPRIVED OF THIS WONDERFUL AMAZING VOICE-COMMANDED VIDEO GAME! PIX!PIX!PIX!
Shit, even I would scream it at the TV, and I wasn't about to call NYC, way back when Long Distance charges were so exorbitant. When I finally played the game PIX!PIX!PIX! was based on ... on an Intellivision? ... I would yell PIX!PIX!PIX! while mashing the buttons.
I haven't thought of PIX!PIX!PIX! in a loooong time but now I'll be screaming it inside my head all day. Thanks!
posted by not_on_display at 9:27 AM on April 30, 2015 [4 favorites]
When we got basic cable in late 1981, I would tune into WPIX and WGN and WTBS just to see what TV in other cities was like. Georgia Championship Wrestling in Atlanta! WGN has different cartoons! and WAIT WHAT IS THIS O MY GOD WE HAVE BEEN DEPRIVED OF THIS WONDERFUL AMAZING VOICE-COMMANDED VIDEO GAME! PIX!PIX!PIX!
Shit, even I would scream it at the TV, and I wasn't about to call NYC, way back when Long Distance charges were so exorbitant. When I finally played the game PIX!PIX!PIX! was based on ... on an Intellivision? ... I would yell PIX!PIX!PIX! while mashing the buttons.
I haven't thought of PIX!PIX!PIX! in a loooong time but now I'll be screaming it inside my head all day. Thanks!
posted by not_on_display at 9:27 AM on April 30, 2015 [4 favorites]
We had TV Powww! on the Captain Cosmic afternoon show on KTVU (which also introduced me to Star Blazers). A friend was on it once. It was difficult.
Another relic of the time is Starcade, a contestant game show where teens competed on coin-op video games. A couple friends were on that, too.
posted by rhizome at 9:34 AM on April 30, 2015 [5 favorites]
Another relic of the time is Starcade, a contestant game show where teens competed on coin-op video games. A couple friends were on that, too.
posted by rhizome at 9:34 AM on April 30, 2015 [5 favorites]
I'd never heard of Barney's Army before, and I was trying to figure out what it was about the style of the guy in the vest of the Barney's Army website header that was so familiar to me. Something in the expression on his face was driving me nuts, the weird curve of the mouth. And then it hit me.
posted by jason_steakums at 9:47 AM on April 30, 2015
posted by jason_steakums at 9:47 AM on April 30, 2015
The "death of POW" video is also amazing. I laughed at the hapless kid still trying to play the game as it exploded. I hope he still got a T-shirt.
posted by roll truck roll at 10:12 AM on April 30, 2015
posted by roll truck roll at 10:12 AM on April 30, 2015
I used to watch TV Pow!, hosted by Pat McCormick, as a kid growing up in the Bay Area (would include footage with this comment, but apparently it's not easy to find). I had absolutely no idea it was a national phenomenon, I always just figured it was a local show unique to the San Francisco area.
I guess this is as close to a "When I was a kid we didn't have your fancy toys so this is what we did for entertainment..." story as I have. It seems preposterous today to think that this was ever an actual thing.
posted by The Gooch at 10:18 AM on April 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
I guess this is as close to a "When I was a kid we didn't have your fancy toys so this is what we did for entertainment..." story as I have. It seems preposterous today to think that this was ever an actual thing.
posted by The Gooch at 10:18 AM on April 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
Oh, wow. I watched Barney's Army on WPTF in Raleigh, NC pretty much every day after school. I never got to call in for TV POWWW!!!! though. We used to make fun of kids voices especially when it was a really little kid who would quietly and awkwardly say "pie-oh" in a drawl and miss the ships by a mile every time.
pie-oh
(whiff)
pie-oh
(whiff)
pie-oh
(whiff)
posted by freecellwizard at 10:24 AM on April 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
pie-oh
(whiff)
pie-oh
(whiff)
pie-oh
(whiff)
posted by freecellwizard at 10:24 AM on April 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
This is what I imagine it's like to be stuck with a one-button mouse.
posted by The Tensor at 10:38 AM on April 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by The Tensor at 10:38 AM on April 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
Ctrl-Pow!
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 10:40 AM on April 30, 2015
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 10:40 AM on April 30, 2015
I have it on good authority that foxes are fantastic at this.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 10:50 AM on April 30, 2015
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 10:50 AM on April 30, 2015
We had TV POWW! here in the Hartford, CT market as part of an afternoon show on WTXX hosted by an ALF knock-off named TX. Their version allowed two kids to play head-to-head with lopsided scores typically being somewhere around 15 to 3. I also seem to remember a lot of kids not scoring anything as absolutely nothing would happen on screen no matter how loud they yelled "POW".
posted by dances with hamsters at 10:56 AM on April 30, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by dances with hamsters at 10:56 AM on April 30, 2015 [2 favorites]
I remember this! Kids yelling "PIX! PIX PIX!" into their phones. It was mesmerizing.
posted by zarq at 10:59 AM on April 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by zarq at 10:59 AM on April 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
From the NYTimes link: "The prizes offered to players would make the Regis Philbin of ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'' blush. ''I won a $10 gift certificate for Sam Goody and a 'TV Pixxx!' T-shirt,'' said Charlie Anderson, a contestant in 1980."
Sam Goody! And 10 bucks at that store was a big deal back then! Further reading.
posted by zarq at 11:21 AM on April 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
Sam Goody! And 10 bucks at that store was a big deal back then! Further reading.
Sam ran a toy and novelty store in lower Manhattan when in 1938 a customer came in one day and asked his help in finding some 78 recordings. He was able to track some down and soon began to offer a service in finding rare, out of print recordings. He found this to be a lucrative business, with a lot of profit potential. Eventually, he got rid of the toys and moved uptown.The Lasar blog post mentioned in that link is here, and it's a great read.
By 1955 his flagship store on 49th street would get four thousand customers a day and it rang up 7% of the total record album sales for the entire country. One store. And he was a masterful promoter. In order to help transition people away from 45 rpm singles to full albums, he gave away 40,000 free turntables to anyone spending $25 or more. He was also the first known discounter, selling albums in the mid-fifties for $3.25 while everyone else stuck to the list price of $3.98. And he employed salespeople...not just cashiers or clerks...people who knew music to advise customers on which was more electrifying, a Eugene Ormandy recording of a symphony or a Leopold Stokowski.
posted by zarq at 11:21 AM on April 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
Oh my God, I actually was a contestant on Pat McCormick's TV Pow! (Hello, neighbor The Gooch!) I won a kit to make a fringed leather hippie purse.
I so miss Pat McCormick. His voice doing the evening weather forecast on KTVU was our cats' cue that it was time to get off our laps and go to bed...
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 11:41 AM on April 30, 2015 [6 favorites]
I so miss Pat McCormick. His voice doing the evening weather forecast on KTVU was our cats' cue that it was time to get off our laps and go to bed...
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 11:41 AM on April 30, 2015 [6 favorites]
On then-independent Channel 30 WAWS out of Jacksonville we had Safari Sam (later Jungle George), who showed old Looney Tunes and did TV POW in afternoons.
The obviously (to a trained eye) used Intellivisions to supply their game, which could be detected by their use of the Intellivision's distinctive on-board character ROMs for scores (especially that dot in the middle of the zero), and the uncertain timing on when on-screen actions occurred made it fairly clear that someone off-camera was pressing a button when the kid on the phone shouted POW, which made it difficult to do well at the games. I had assumed that they used stock Intellivision games, with my guesses at the time being the shooting bits of Space Spartans (which I now think is mistaken) and a slot machine game that I also have been unable to identify.
These days Channel 30 and former competitor 47 are both FOX stations owned by Clear Channel, which appeared to happen while I was at college. Such a shame, 30 had personality.
posted by JHarris at 11:53 AM on April 30, 2015 [2 favorites]
The obviously (to a trained eye) used Intellivisions to supply their game, which could be detected by their use of the Intellivision's distinctive on-board character ROMs for scores (especially that dot in the middle of the zero), and the uncertain timing on when on-screen actions occurred made it fairly clear that someone off-camera was pressing a button when the kid on the phone shouted POW, which made it difficult to do well at the games. I had assumed that they used stock Intellivision games, with my guesses at the time being the shooting bits of Space Spartans (which I now think is mistaken) and a slot machine game that I also have been unable to identify.
These days Channel 30 and former competitor 47 are both FOX stations owned by Clear Channel, which appeared to happen while I was at college. Such a shame, 30 had personality.
posted by JHarris at 11:53 AM on April 30, 2015 [2 favorites]
Huh, that's weird. Only because it was the only time I ever heard anybody talk about it, I have always thought that TV Pow used the Fairchild Channel F console, but now that I look at screenshots and the machine's sub-2600 graphics more akin to the Magnavox Odyssey2 I'm pretty sure they must have been talking about something else.
posted by rhizome at 12:33 PM on April 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by rhizome at 12:33 PM on April 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
They originally used the Channel F, but soon switched over to the Intellivision. I imagine places that signed up early kept using the Fairchild.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 12:49 PM on April 30, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 12:49 PM on April 30, 2015 [3 favorites]
I remember kids yelling PIXPIXPIXPIXPIXPIXPIX so fact they would forget to breathe, so that by the end of their allotted time they were saying PIX! (WHEEZE) PIX! (WHEEZE) PIX!
posted by KingEdRa at 4:52 PM on April 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by KingEdRa at 4:52 PM on April 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
Did anyone else think of this guy when they saw Pat McCormick?
posted by DRoll at 5:04 PM on April 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by DRoll at 5:04 PM on April 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
TV Pow was a memorable part of my childhood in Jacksonville, not least of which because I was called one afternoon and got the high score for not only the day but also for the week. This got me a visit to the studio and an appearance with the host (who was known as "The Coach", if I remember correctly) and two prizes: a bike and two tickets for a fishing trip. Being no big fan of fishing, I sold the tickets to my Dad and older brother and got myself one of these. Good times.
I was a little too old for TV Pow, but my brother was OBSESSED with it, and with The Coach.My brother won for a week sometime around 1979 and got a $25 gift certificate for Toys R Us. It was funny to watch every day and see how differently kids approached winning. Some would pay close attention and yell POW! at strategic times, while others would just chatter "powpowpowpowpow" as fast as they could.
posted by hollygoheavy at 6:19 PM on April 30, 2015
I was a little too old for TV Pow, but my brother was OBSESSED with it, and with The Coach.My brother won for a week sometime around 1979 and got a $25 gift certificate for Toys R Us. It was funny to watch every day and see how differently kids approached winning. Some would pay close attention and yell POW! at strategic times, while others would just chatter "powpowpowpowpow" as fast as they could.
posted by hollygoheavy at 6:19 PM on April 30, 2015
Jesus. TV Pow. Star Blazers. Intellivision. Starcade. Channel F.
If you need me, I'll be having an 80s nostalgia-related lie-down.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 2:20 AM on May 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
If you need me, I'll be having an 80s nostalgia-related lie-down.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 2:20 AM on May 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
LOL!
I WAS ON TV POW! Won a stupid board game. I recall I missed out on something better...Meh.
...Oakland, CA's KTVU. I recall it was hosted by Pat McCormick about ~2:30 - 3:00 during or just before Scooby-Do.
posted by xtian at 3:46 PM on May 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
I WAS ON TV POW! Won a stupid board game. I recall I missed out on something better...Meh.
...Oakland, CA's KTVU. I recall it was hosted by Pat McCormick about ~2:30 - 3:00 during or just before Scooby-Do.
posted by xtian at 3:46 PM on May 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
Aaaaah! I am so jealous of you KTVUers who actually got on the show. I sent in my postcard or whatever but never got called, and I WOULD HAVE WON. See, that shooting gallery game they used was from the Fairchild Semiconductor videogame console, which nobody in the world had but my brother and me since my dad worked at Fairchild. I was an absolute expert at that game. An expert.
I remember there being better prizes than you're describing, like tickets to Marriott's Great America. I must have blocked the hippie purse kit etc. out of my mind. Pat McCormick 4EVA.
posted by queensissy at 6:46 PM on May 1, 2015
I remember there being better prizes than you're describing, like tickets to Marriott's Great America. I must have blocked the hippie purse kit etc. out of my mind. Pat McCormick 4EVA.
posted by queensissy at 6:46 PM on May 1, 2015
CTRL-F "Starcade"
best of the web status: GREEN.
Someone, a few years ago, gave me a DVD containing a pristine copy of Star Wars: Lifeday and episodes of Starcade.
Yep.
Starcade is totally more watchable.
posted by Mezentian at 9:12 AM on May 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
best of the web status: GREEN.
Someone, a few years ago, gave me a DVD containing a pristine copy of Star Wars: Lifeday and episodes of Starcade.
Yep.
Starcade is totally more watchable.
posted by Mezentian at 9:12 AM on May 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
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