Missing Links (game show)
Encyclopedia
Missing Links is a Goodson-Todman
Mark Goodson
Mark Goodson was an American television producer who specialized in game shows.-Life and early career:...

 game show hosted by Ed McMahon
Ed McMahon
Edward Peter "Ed" McMahon, Jr. was an American comedian, game show host and announcer. He is most famous for his work on television as Johnny Carson's sidekick and announcer on The Tonight Show from 1962 to 1992. He also hosted the original version of the talent show Star Search from 1983 to 1995...

 which originally ran on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 from September 9, 1963 to March 27, 1964.

Nipsey Russell
Nipsey Russell
Julius "Nipsey" Russell was an American comedian, best known today for his appearances as a guest panelist on game shows from the 1960s through the 1990s, especially Match Game, Password, Hollywood Squares, To Tell the Truth and Pyramid...

 was a panelist on this series, and whenever he appeared the host asked him to give a poem. This started Russell's trademark to do poetry when he was a guest on game shows, which eventually led to two games having him as the central subject – Rhyme & Reason
Rhyme and Reason
Rhyme and Reason is an American television game show that aired on ABC from July 7, 1975 through July 9, 1976. Bob Eubanks hosted the show, with Johnny Jacobs serving as announcer.-Gameplay:...

 in 1975 (where he was a regular panelist), and Your Number's Up
Your Number's Up
Your Number's Up is a game show that aired on NBC from September 23 to December 20, 1985. The show was hosted by Nipsey Russell with Lee Menning as co-host...

 (which he hosted) in 1985.

Gameplay

A panel of three celebrities faced a studio contestant who came in with an unusual story. He/she gave a statement with a blank at the end or near the end, and then each panelist tried to guess the missing word. A correct answer from one celebrity won $50 for the contestant (unlike most panel shows using this type of format), but an incorrect answer passed the turn to the next star. If all three missed, the host gave the starting letter to the answer and the round continued as before, with a correct guess earning $25.

Three guests played each day, with the final guest being a celebrity.

On the August 21, 1963 pilot, the guest predicted whether each word would be guessed or not. If the guest predicted that the word would be guessed, he or she earned $10 for each of six chances remaining. Predicting the word would not be guessed earned $10 for each wrong guess. On the last of six statements, each panelist took only one guess with the first letter revealed and a correct prediction earned $20 per incorrect guess or chance remaining, depending on the guest's prediction.

Broadcast history

Missing Links debuted on September 9, 1963 at 11:30 AM Eastern (10:30, Central), replacing The Price is Right in a scheduling shuffle with Concentration
Concentration (game show)
Concentration was an American TV game show based on the children's memory game of the same name. Matching cards represented prizes that contestants could win...

 (which took Prices slot at 11:00/10:00) against Seven Keys
Seven Keys (game show)
Seven Keys is an American game show hosted by Jack Narz and based on Chutes & Ladders that aired from September 12, 1960 to January 15, 1965 on KTLA and ABC.The first KTLA series is one of the few non-syndicated television game shows to air daily in nighttime...

 on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 and local programming on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

.

On December 30, ABC swapped Keys out and introduced Dick Clark's first foray into game-show hosting, The Object Is
The Object Is
The Object Is was a game show which aired on ABC from December 30, 1963 to March 27, 1964. The series was the first game for host Dick Clark...

. Both Links and Object were cancelled on March 27 of the new year, with Links replacing Object the following Monday on ABC and Clark becoming the show's host.

Links immediately ran into ratings trouble with NBC's replacement, Jeopardy!
Jeopardy!
Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories...

, and only slipped further when CBS debuted The Jack Benny
Jack Benny
Jack Benny was an American comedian, vaudevillian, and actor for radio, television, and film...

 Daytime Show (actually repeats of Benny's nighttime series
The Jack Benny Program
The Jack Benny Program, starring Jack Benny, is a radio-TV comedy series that ran for more than three decades and is generally regarded as a high-water mark in 20th-century American comedy.-Cast:*Jack Benny - Himself...

, which had moved to NBC by this point) on August 24. Faced with very tough competition, Links bowed on Christmas Day 1964 after fifteen months.

Episode status

The series is believed to have been destroyed
Wiping
Wiping or junking is a colloquial term for action taken by radio and television production and broadcasting companies, in which old audiotapes, videotapes, and telerecordings , are erased, reused, or destroyed after several uses...

 as per network policies of the era. The December 24, 1964 episode is held by the UCLA Film and Television Archive
UCLA Film and Television Archive
The UCLA Film and Television Archive is an internationally renowned visual arts organization focused on the preservation, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles. It holds more than 220,000 film and television titles and 27 million feet of...

.
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