Syndication: (January 1986)

The Pyramid shows are some of the best game shows in the history of the Genre.  From it's infancy on CBS as The $10,000 Pyramid, to ABC where inflation made it the $20,000 Pyramid, the first nighttime run with Bill Cullen and the $25,000 Pyramid, to the weird rules of the $50,000 Pyramid, to CBS as the New $25,000 Pyramid, then the pinnacle of Pyramid that was the $100,000 Pyramid.  The last two incarnations with John Davidson and Donny Osmond, while watchable both had problems, but that's not here nor there.

A big reason why the show was so popular was the intense end game simply known as the Winners Circle where the celeb and the contestant tried to climb the pyramid of 6 subjects in 60 seconds or less for a big cash prize.  Sometimes you get to see dazzling feats of mental agility there, case in point Billy Crystal's 26 second climb or Barry Jenner's 27 second climb for $100,000.  But sometimes, you get moments where you point at your TV and say, "Hey, I can do much better than that."  Well, here is one of those moments. 

This is Jackee Harry.  Back in the mid 80s, she had one of the hottest sitcoms on TV in 227.  She played Sondra Clark, the young, sexy building vamp.  And she was one of the hottest things in TV.  She enjoyed playing Pyramid, however she wasn't that good at the end game.  She did alright in the front game, but her end game prowless is best left unsaid.  Well, until today.  She got up to the Winners Circle with her partner and proceeded to have some problems.

She got through the first two without much problems, but then here's where it all fell apart for her.

When "Things with a Lens" came up, she had some good clues to start with A camera and a photographer's camera.  But then she blurts out Contacts and quickly she gets buzzed.  I mean, it happens in the winners circle.  You bobble one subject.  But, more often than not, you brush it off and move on, since you need to get your partner a good score.

"Tasks or Chores" is next and she immediately said Duties.  That should have gotten buzzed.  According to the Webster's Concise English Thesaurus, the synonyms for Duty, in the saying of doing your duty or duties, are Job, Assignment, TASK OR CHORE!  I don't know how that slipped by the judge, since in the $100,000 version, they were quite strict.  But then she said Teenager's duties and right then the contestant got it.  So, maybe the judges felt bad and gave her the $200.

Next up, "Things that are stuffed".  You got Turkeys, Bras, Toy Animals.  That sort of thing.  She did say animals at first.  But then she slipped again and said...."Stuffed Animals"  BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!  The judge finally woke up and already it's looking bad.  I mean, only a few people have gotten 2 buzzes in 1 bonus round.  I know Stuart Pankin did it and Adrienne Barbeau did it, but they were good players who just had bad rounds. 

Finally, we get to the last one, "Things with a Crest"  Yeah, I'm having problems with that one.  I can only think of two and that being a family Shield and a toothpaste tube, but even then that seems like one you'd see at the top for when they do the $100,000 Tournaments.  Jackee then said a wave.  Which does have a crest, but then she said A Wave Top.  Then after about 4-5 seconds of deliberation the judge has hit the buzzer and the bonus game is over.

Wow, Three, should be FOUR buzzes in the bonus game.  That's something completely rare in itself.  I know that Adrienne Barbeau got two buzzes, should have been three on one go round that's floating around on YouTube.  I have Stuart Pankin's double buzzer on tape as one of the first Pyramid episodes I recorded, or had recorded off of GSN.  It's nearly as bad as Tom Poston helping his contestant out on winning $0 on the big pyramid.

Anyways, Dick Clark had to explain to Jackee all of the mistakes.  Contacts are Lenses, which is true, and you can't do that in the game.  We know she said stuffed for Things that are Stuffed and for Dick who needed confirmation about the Crest buzz, the judge pointed out that the Wave Top is the Crest, so it was a direct definition.  The contestant wound up with a grand total of $350.

I think the best part out of this was the contestant trying to cheer Jackee up by saying that all of those subjects were hard, especially Things that are Stuffed.  I don't know why, but myself and Dick Clark got a laugh out of all of this.  Mainly because if she was giving instead of Jackee, she'd at least have made about $500 or so, which in the realm of Pyramid was a "good score"

While it was easy to bobble up one subject, Jackee proved that she just didn't know how to play the game.  Three Buzzes and having Dick Clark completely school you at the end did you no favors.  She may have enjoyed the game, but she just didn't know how to play it and I doubt she was even brought back.  Which is for the best because 227 took off and she would be famous enough for that.  That is until Jackee Harry starred in the ABC series Sister Sister in the mid 90s.  I would say something kind about that show, but like most sappy mid-90s ABC shows, that one sucked too.