Concentration/Funny

Concentration may have been simple, but it was by no means without humor.

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Original Series (1958-73)

• During one episode, Hugh Downs noticed that there were more "Forfeit One Gift" squares than usual and that they turned around to show a blank space with no clues whatsoever. At his insistence, all the trilons turned to show their "prize sides" — all "Forfeit One Gift" — followed by their "puzzle sides". The "puzzle side" of the board was completely blank.
• 1971: After the first match of a game in Squares 17 and 19, those two trilons turned to show...two eyes, giving the impression that the board was staring at everyone! Here's a re-creation of what it looked like.

Syndicated (1973-78)

• (Nothing as of yet, but here just in case.)

The Bastardized Pilots (1985)

• The point of matching related words appears to have been like Eye Guess (1966–69), in that humor was supposed to come from mismatching...but unlike Eye Guess, which used a straight Q&A and got humor from obviously wrong answers, these attempts at reviving Concentration used a potential Standards & Practices nightmare of predetermined word connections, trying to glean humor from mismatches that a knowledgeable contestant could reasonably link.
  • Using words backfired immensely during one taping — according to a YouTube comment from a contestant on one of the pilots, two predetermined connections were "mother-father" and "kiss-pucker". Sounds simple, until you realize the words this player blindly picked off. As for what happened next...

Contestant: The live audience roared in laughter. Bean and I looked at each other in stunned awkward silence, and moved on.
(separate comment) The highlight of this experience for me was meeting Mark Goodson, he was very gracious and personally thanked me for doing a good job - I was thrilled. Orson Bean, on the other hand, was obviously stressed out, didn't seem to enjoy the gig, and by the time we taped my episode, he was not very friendly off camera.

Classic Concentration (1987-91)

• Marjorie Goodson-Cutt once appeared on-camera with a fake mustache. Alex Trebek commented that she now had her own soup strainer.

Other Versions

• (Nothing as of yet, but here just in case.)