Heatter-Quigley Productions

Heatter-Quigley Productions was an American television production company that was launched in 1960 by two former television writers, Merrill Heatter and Bob Quigley.

History

On many of Heatter-Quigley's most popular game shows, beginning with Video Village, a key element of the game itself was magnified, in some cases to larger than life.

• Video Village (later Shenanigans) employed a huge "living boardgame" motif that used contestants as tokens.
  (The popular late 70s Canadian game show Mad Dash is similar to Video Village.)
• Hollywood Squares featured a gigantic tic-tac-toe board
• High Rollers used an extra large pair of dice in a game similar to "Shut the Box"
• Gambit had a large deck of playing cards in a game of blackjack
• The Magnificent Marble Machine featured a gigantic pinball machine
• Hot Seat used an oversized lie detector

In 1965, Heatter and Quigley created and aired a pilot episode of Hollywood Squares hosted by Bert Parks. The show was passed on by CBS, but when NBC acquired broadcasting rights, Heatter and Quigley sold the show to Filmways television. In 1981, Quigley retired and ended his partnership with Merrill Heatter just before Filmways was bought by Orion Pictures. Quigley died in 1989. Heatter continued going solo and produced new game shows, such as Battlestars, All-Star Blitz, Bargain Hunters, and the 1980s version of High Rollers. On September 28, 1998, Heatter leased the worldwide rights to his solo-developed game shows to King World for a limited time.^[1] That option has now expired. Incidentally, CBS Television Distribution now owns the rights to Hollywood Squares today, via CBS's acquisition of King World Productions.

MGM Television acquired the rights retained by Orion Television to the Heatter-Quigley shows, with the exception of Hollywood Squares format rights that Orion sold to King World Productions after Orion closed down its television division on November 25, 1991.^[2] Today, the remaining series of the Heatter-Quigley library are owned by Orion Television (a subsidiary of MGM Television) since 2013.

In 2008, Heatter returned to game show production with the GSN game show Catch 21, based on Gambit. Heatter is co-executive producer with another veteran producer, Scott Sternberg.

Employees

Kenny Williams was the announcer on all of Heatter-Quigley's game shows except for two: Temptation (announced by Carl King) and The Magnificent Marble Machine (announced by Johnny Gilbert), with both shows hosted by Art James.

Many hosts would become famous for the shows they did for HQ, with Peter Marshall being most famous for The Hollywood Squares, while Wink Martindale would have his first big hit with Gambit, and Alex Trebek would see his first hit in America (after a long run with Reach for the Top in his native Canada) with High Rollers.

Titles by Heatter-Quigley Productions

• Video Village/Video Village, Jr. (1960–1962)
• Double Exposure (1961)
• People Will Talk (1963)
• The Celebrity Game (1964)
• Shenanigans (1964–1965)
• PDQ (1966–1969)
• Showdown (1966)
• Hollywood Squares/Storybook Squares (1966-1981 version)
• Temptation (1967–1968)
• Funny You Should Ask (1968–1969)
• Wacky Races (1968–1970, co-produced with Hanna-Barbera, rights owned by Warner Bros.; the only non-game show produced by the company, although it was intended to have a game show element)
• Name Droppers (1969)
• Gambit (1972–1976)
• Runaround (1972–1973); a British version of this show aired 1975-81
• Amateur's Guide to Love (1972)
• Baffle (1973), a revival of PDQ.
• All-Star Baffle (1974), Baffle with "civilian" contestants playing the bonus round, picked from the studio audience.
• High Rollers (1974–1976; 1978–1980)
• The Magnificent Marble Machine (1975–1976)
• Hot Seat (1976)
• To Say the Least (1977–1978)
• Bedtime Stories (1979)
• Las Vegas Gambit (1980–1981)

Titles by Merrill Heatter Productions

• Battlestars (1981–1982)
• Fantasy (1982–1983) (co-produced by Earl Greenberg Productions and Columbia Pictures Television)
• The New Battlestars (1983)
• All-Star Blitz (1985) (co-produced by Peter Marshall Enterprises)
• Bargain Hunters (1987) (co-produced by Josephson Communications, Inc.)
• High Rollers (1987–1988) (co-produced by Century Towers Productions and syndicated by Orion Television Syndication)
• The Last Word (1989–1990) (syndicated by Turner Program Services)
• Hollywood Teasers (1993; unsold revival of All-Star Blitz, distributed by MCA TV)
• Catch 21 (2008–2011) (co-produced by Scott Sternberg Productions)

Notes and references