Unfortunately, as of last Friday, "Sale of the Century" is no longer on GSN. However, we did get one Lot winner of the Winner's Board era, which I will discuss in this latest blog entry.
Curtis Warren
Yes, the same guy with the wacky hair on "Win Ben Stein's Money" and "Greed" (where he briefly became the biggest winner in game show history) once won the Lot on "Sale of the Century" back in the day, though he didn't have the wacky hair back then. Debuting on the second episode that aired in 1986 (January 7th, for those playing at home), Curtis was the first to clear all ten prizes off the Winner's Board (winning the CAR on his second day, and the $10,000 on his tenth day). During his eleven days on Sale, he accumulated a combined score of $863, averaging $78 per show, and if the Shopping era were still in play, based on the scores he accumulated during his run, he would have won the CAR on his sixth day (a typical run for a successful champion), All the Prizes on his eighth day, and the Lot on his tenth day. Speaking of the Lot, his grand total in cash and prizes was $136,288.
Now, had the show decided to continue the progressive Cash Jackpot during the Winner's Board era, Curtis would have won a Cash Jackpot worth $119,000, and a grand total of $205,288, both of which would have been records for "Sale of the Century" (surpassing David Rodgers {$109K Cash Jackpot} and Tim Holleran {$166K+ grand total}, respectively).
Winner's Board Thoughts
One of my issues with the Winner's Board that I've mentioned before is the fact that the Cash Jackpot is a flat $50,000 instead of a Progressive Jackpot (like the Australian Sale). After watching the Winner's Board era and thinking about it a bit, I've decided that had I been running the show at that time, I would cut the Winner's Board down to 16 squares (8 prizes), getting rid of the two Cash Prizes ($3,000 and $10,000) and one of the two "WIN" cards in the process, thereby making the champion have to win nine games for the LOT instead of 11 (which is a little bit too much, IMHO). I would also have kept the progressive jackpot (which is why I got rid of the Cash squares, since they would have been unnecessary with a progressive jackpot). Finally, I would have had the champions risk their prizes after every game like the Australian version, because the American version makes keeping the big prizes a little too easy (which might have been their intention, but if you're going to go for a big lot, you have to let them earn it).
I'm disappointed that GSN decided to drop Sale just as we were in the middle of a big championship run (Crystal Miller, who had just won her eighth show when we left her) and were about a week or so away from Lisa Munoz's Lot run. Hopefully we'll be able to see them again, either on GSN or the new Buzzr TV network.
