The $50,000 Pyramid

Name: The $50,000 Pyramid
Genre: Documentary

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One year of the Pyramid format at its highest stake, between the $20,000 and $25,000 versions.

The $50,000 Pyramid opens with a main title sequence of 23 seconds.

At 23 seconds, it opens well under the 37-second median for documentary sequences in this catalogue.

It arrived on Syndication in 1981, when Romper Room, Truth or Consequences and Soul Train were also on the network.

1 sequence

The opening titles

23s

Off air in April 1981: the board lit and the set empty.

1987–2002NBCDocumentary

Robert Stack in a trench coat, a synthesiser and a fog machine — the most frightening thing on American television that was not fiction.

1983–2006PBSDocumentary

LeVar Burton reading to children for twenty-three years, and "but you don't have to take my word for it".

1988–2013FoxDocumentary

The programme Fox launched itself on, and the one that turned a network into a switchboard.

1989–MTVDocumentary

Sixteen seconds and an acoustic guitar — a format whose whole argument is in the title card.

1986–ITVDocumentary

Say what you see, and a golden robot called Mr Chips who was the reason anyone watched.

1980–1988SyndicationDocumentary

The weekly chart countdown as a dance routine, with its own troupe named after it.