The Generation Gap, created in an effort to capitalize on the nation's increasing preoccupation on society's "generation gap," pitted a team of adults (the "Older Generation") against a team of teenagers (the "Younger Generation") in a general knowledge quiz. Dennis Wholey helmed the show until April 11. April 18, 1969 marked Jack Barry's return to TV quiz shows.
Each show featured a least one celebrity on one of the teams. David Henesy from Dark Shadows and his mother appeared on the premiere, and other celebrities throughout the 16-run included Hugh O'Brien, Peggy Cass, Soupy Sales, Orson Bean and even Garry Moore!
David Henesy guested on the premiere and Hugh O'Brien appeared on episode 5.
Each show featured popular musical guests such as Bill Kenny of the Inkspots, The Ohio Express, and The Brooklyn Bridge. (From left to right)
The Game:
Dennis posed questions to individual members of each team, a correct answer worth 20 points. The older generation was asked questions about the "youngsters' scene" and the younger generation team was asked questions pertaining to "the old days."
The opposing team was given a chance to gain points by predicting whether or not their opponent could answer his/her question at 5 points per correct prediction.
The format was minorly tweaked and this little prediction rule quickly scrapped.
At the end of each round, a quick Cross Generation round was played in which toss-up questions were asked. A correct answer was worth 10 points; a wrong answer cost the team 10 points. A total of three rounds were played per show.
At the end of the show, each team member of the winning team received the cash prize accrued by their team. The losing team split their respective accrued amount.
In this episode, the younger generation demolished the old-timers. I'm sure $245 wasn't bad for a teen in '69.
The Generation Gap was a very audio-visual show, many of the questions containing movie clips or news footage. As noted earlier, musical guests appeared to both perform and play a part in the questions. Furthermore, the show itself was just full of colour.
I personally found this to be a neat show, but sadly it just didn't click with the audience.
The Generation Gap was not aired in the the sequence in which it was taped. For example, episode #3 was actually the first taped show, and the aired premiere was actually the second taped show. No clue why.
Of interest to archivists: every episode exists except for episode #10 (aired April 11, 1969.) The 1968 pilot exists as well, although the video it is reportedly completely faded. The premiere episode is spreading around the trading circuit like wildfire.
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