The $10,000 Pyramid
 "Keep your eye on this spot! You are about to see one
celebrity and one contestant step into this circle with a chance
to win $10,000 in less than a minute! Ladies and gentlemen, this -
is the $10,000 Pyramid!!"
The $10,000 Pyramid debuted on Monday 26 March 1973 on
CBS-TV at 10:30am. Dick Clark originally hosted the show, which
over the years morphed into The $20,000 Pyramid, The
$25,000 Pyramid and The $50,000 Pyramid.
Faltering ratings prompted CBS to prematurely cancel the show
on 29 March 1974 with celebrity guests Carol Channing and Soupy
Sales. After an absence of just five weeks, the show returned on
ABC-TV (Monday 6 May 1974) with celebrity guests Anne Meara and
Soupy Sales.
That same fall, a once-a-week night time $25,000
Pyramid version for syndication in the primetime slot debuted
with host Bill Cullen and celebrity guests Anne Meara and William
Shatner.
 This show also evolved into the popular $100,000 Pyramid
from September 1985 to August 1988. Dick Clark hosted once again. The
$100,000 Pyramid returned once more in the 90s with John
Davidson as the host.
The first celebrity guests on the premiere were June Lockhart
and Rob Reiner. Reiner went on to become the first celebrity with
his civilian partner to successfully climb to the top of the big
pyramid (his winning clue for "Things With A Hole" was
"Doughnuts").
The highest scoring main games on record (through some amazing
tie-breakers) occurred on Friday 4 July 1975 in a broadcast
featuring Lucie Arnaz and Anson Williams (with a score of 45-44),
and on Monday 12 June 1978 with a score of 43-42 in a show
featuring Sandy Duncan and Nipsey Russell.
The celebrity guest, with his civilian partner, who was able to
win at the big pyramid in the quickest time on record was Billy
Crystal in November 1977 who won in an amazing 26 seconds (while a
few others have done it in 30 seconds).
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