Identify two old daytime game shows

Cafe Society
1

I vaguely remember two game shows from the early 1960’s that I can’t remember the name of, but maybe some old-timer on the Dope will recall.

The first one was squares laid out on a stage like a cake-walk. I don’t know how it was determined, but the contestants walked so many steps on the stage and stopped on certain squares. I don’t remember what happened on each of the squares, but the layout and bonuses were the same every game. The one thing I do remember, on one square they brought out a wheelbarrow filled with pennys and gave the contest(s) a small pail and shovel like a kid would play with at the beach. You had so many seconds to scoop out as many pennys as you could and you got to keep them. Talk about a cheap game show!

The second show took place on a small man-made island maybe a couple of hundred feet in diameter. The contestants actually followed clues and dug up other clues or prize money out of the sand.

Any ideas?

2

The first program you refer to would appear to be Video Village, which had several runs in the early 1960s.

The second program is probably Treasure Isle, which ran in 1967-1968- a little out of the time frame.

3

The first one is probably the show I am thinking about. It certainly fits my memory of the show.

The second one may be a hit also. I remember more digging in the sand then moving around in a boat, as described in your link, but it may have been contestants moving from isle to isle and then digging.

I wasn’t sure about the time frame. I remember the first show in B&W and the second in color, but I don’t know whether that is how they were broadcast or when we had a color TV.

Thanks for the reply.

4

That first one sounds familiar, but I can’t recall a name.

I remember Treasure Isle. It was about the time we got our first color television set, and I remember that being one of the shows offered in color (many shows were still broadcast in black and white, so having a color set did not matter.)

5

I’m pretty certain that the first one is Video Village as well–they had a version for children; at the end, the kids “fished” from a bridge for their prizes! As a side note, we loved this show so much that we made up a version of it to play in our back yard, using our toys and stuffed animals as prizes. Unfortunately, we did not have the gigantic dice cage used to determine how many spaces to move, but we improvised with that too, using regular dice. Seems lame now, but boy did we have fun with it back then!

6

If it helps your memory any, this site has a clip from Video Village in its database.

7

Just FYI: The kids’ version aired on Saturday mornings and was called Shenanigans , hosted by the inimitable Stubby Kaye.

The second one was indeed Treasure Isle . It aired from the Colonnade Beach Resort in Palm Beach, and was hosted by the equally inimitable John Bartholomew Tucker.