Monty Hall to receive 'Ralph Edwards Award'

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Monty Hall to receive 'Ralph Edwards Award'

Monty Hall, who changed the face of daytime fortunes at two networks with Let's Make a Deal and is one of Hollywood's top stalwarts for charitable fundraisers, is the winner of the 2005 Game Show Congress Ralph Edwards Award for Service to Broadcasting.

Hall, who turns 83 in late August, will receive the award at the fourth annual Game Show Congress convention in Los Angeles a few days before his birthday.

The announcement was made jointly by GSC founder Paul Bailey and GSC Legends Chairman Steve Beverly. Producer Gary Edwards, son of the award's namesake, will present the statuette to Hall at the second annual GSC Legends Luncheon.

The native Canadian pounded the pavement in New York for years, sending his noted "A Memo from Monty" to network and ad executives, before finally nabbing a variety of emcee slots at NBC in the late 1950s----including Cowboy Theatre and game show The Sky's the Limit.

Born Monte Halperin in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Hall was tapped to substitute for Jack Barry on NBC's Twenty One for the entire summer of 1958 but was moved aside after four weeks when the network ordered Barry back on the show when Barry and his partner Dan Enright were accused in New York media of show-fixing.

Hall quickly moved over to CBS for a four-month stint as host of the comedy game show Keep Talking.

The show which Hall credits for launching him as a national name was CBS's Video Village. Created as a starring vehicle for Jack Narz, Village opened up for Hall when Narz temporarily left the show for personal reasons after 13 weeks. When Narz opted not to return, Hall took over as permanent "mayor" of the Village and its Saturday morning children's counterpart.

During the two-year stint, he partnered with Art Stark to sell Your First Impression to NBC as a noontime game with Bill Leyden.

After Village was abruptly canceled in June 1962, Hall began with partner Stefan Hatos developing the show which would make him a television legend. Let's Make a Deal premiered Dec. 30, 1963, at 2 p.m. (ET) on NBC. Eventually, the ratings increased to the point NBC opted to challenge CBS's venerable number one daytime show As the World Turns at 1:30. World Turns was eased out of the top Nielsen slot within nine months.

The Peac*ck Network opted to give Hall a nighttime berth for Deal Sundays at 8:30 for 15 weeks in the spring of 1967. The half-hour between Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color and Bonanza had not proved successful and NBC killed a lame sitcom, Hey, Landlord! to make room for Deal. Predictions were for a quick death against The Ed Sullivan Show and The FBI.

Critics far underestimated the strength of Let's Make a Deal. By July, the nighttime version climbed into the top 20 of the Nielsens. By August, the game soared to the number six.

Hall lobbied for a permanent nighttime version on the schedule. In a 2000 interview with TVgameshows.net, the emcee/producer said: "You know what I was told? Here we were with top ten ratings against The FBI and Ed Sullivan---and Ed didn't do reruns during the month of July," said Hall. "I was told by an executive at NBC: 'Oh, we don't do shows like that on our fall schedule. We don't do shows like that during the regular season.' Hall was further insulted when, the following January, NBC chose to insert a nighttime version of Hollywood Squares on Friday nights. "That was okay, I suppose, because it was a celebrity show," he said in the TVgameshows.net interview.

In the fall of 1968, with his five-year contract expiring with NBC, the network saw how serious Hall was. NBC again refused a nighttime version of Deal and Hall took the entire package to ABC, which was overjoyed to grant a prime time edition, in December 1968.

Instantaneously, the daytime audience followed Deal to ABC and the entire afternoon ratings strengthened while those on NBC began to erode.

Hall's nighttime version continued for two and a half years before moving to twice-weekly syndication in 1971, where it remained until 1977 (ending with a once-a-week edition in 1976-77 from Las Vegas).

The daytime Deal finally ran its course in 1976 but returned for revivals in 1981-82 from Canada and 1984-86 in a version distributed by Telepictures. Hall produced another version for NBC in partnership with Dick Clark and Ron Greenberg in 1990. After new host Bob Hilton failed to click the ratings meter, the now white-haired Hall returned as "special guest host."

Two editions without Hall---Fox's Big Deal in the '90s and NBC's later prime time attempt with Billy Bush---were not successful.

In the '70s and '80s, Hall returned as host of It's Anybody's Guess, The All-New Beat the Clock and a revival of his 1972-75 hit with Tom Kennedy, Split Second.

During his extensive television career, Hall remembered the words of the man for whom he worked in a butcher shop in his youthful years in Canada. "He paid for me to go to college and he told me two things." Hall remembered in a teleconference with Union University students in 2001. "He said, 'All I ask is that you pay me back when you can, and I know you will, and always remember to give back to people who give you a chance."

As president of Variety Clubs International, Hall was responsible for raising more money than any Hollywood performer for children's hospitals across the world. He continues to emcee charity affairs throughout the country. "People ask me why I keep doing all of these things," Hall said from his office in Los Angeles. "Well, who are you going to turn down?"

"Monty's untiring efforts for children's charities all over the world make him an ideal choice for the Ralph Edwards Award," said Beverly. "Ralph raised millions of dollars for war bonds and other charities through Truth or Consequences and Monty has followed that same tradition throughout his life and career."

tvgameshows.net-February 22, 2005


Congratulations Monty, you're the greatest!!!