This Date In NYC "Pyramid" History: Monday, June 17, 1974 (45 years ago).

ABC-TV in daytime airs the first episode of "The $10,000 Pyramid" that was recorded at its new home known as Studio TV-15 (the Elysee Theatre), which was located at 202 West 58th Street in Manhattan (New York City).  Prior to that broadcast, the show had spent six weeks, since its pick-up and relaunched by the network on Monday, May 6 on the air, with 30 episodes taped inside the Ed Sullivan Theater at 1697 Broadway.

The celebrity guests featured were June Lockhart and William Shatner.  The show now had a new, smaller set that duplicated the original Jim Ryan design created first at CBS-TV, and that it would be able to fit within the smaller stage layout there, built at a cost of $80,000.  The continuing civilian contestant. who was previously seen on the last "Pyramid" episode taped at the Ed Sullivan Theater, was on that first episode of the show done at TV-15.  Shatner was the first celebrity guest, during that week on that particular stage, to help win his contestant partner at the giant pyramid on the category "Things That Cling".

Thus, "Pyramid" would see spend the next seven years calling TV-15 its studio home, from June 1974 to April 1981, with the many different dollar amount versions it would be able to record from there.  The studio would see a very busy time during the 1970's, with other television shows using that same production facility as well, such as "The Big Showdown", "Blankety Blanks", "Kids Are People Too", and numerous other genres of programs to numerous in mentioning.

Sincerely,

William A. Padron

wapadron@...

wapadron@...