Post by owlcroft on Apr 1, 2014 15:29:40 GMT -5
Milt has a secret vice; he likes to watch a particular quiz show on TV. He seems to be alone in this devotion. The show's producers (Harry Baxter and Art Healy) have been told by a TV exec (who's half their age) that if the ratings don't improve their program is getting the ax.
They come up with a crazy notion. They'll increase the top prize to a million dollars. And it's no problem that they don't have that kind of money; they're betting they can rig the contest so that the contestant only goes so far and then leaves empty-handed.
Back at Gull's Way, there's been another wager. Mark says even he could succeed on Hardcastle's favorite show. Off he goes to Baxter's and Healy's production office where he meets their charming assistant, Diane Templeton. She takes a liking to him. Art and Harry like him even better. He's the perfect underdog for their scheme.
Mark's career as "The San Quentin Kid" gets off to a blazing start. His task is to answer questions about auto racing. The prize rises with each question, and it's all-or-nothing-at-all each time. Hardcastle (who starts out scoffing and says he should settle for the first day's take and get out) is soon cheering him on.
After a few episodes, as the prize money starts to mount, Mark becomes a celebrity--with fan mail and T shirts. But it's not all skittles and beer. There's prep time, too, with Hardcastle quizzing him on racing history. It's the judge who first notices an odd correlation between the questions Mark has been studying, and the ones that turn up on the show.
He becomes suspicious. Mark is annoyed and suspects his motives. Even Harper wonders about that. Is Milt just worried that all this success will mean the end of their partnership?
We never get to find out. Things at "The Million Dollar Trivia Master" start to go sour. Diane Templeton overhears the producers plotting Mark's rise and fall and they become aware that she's overheard. Shortly after that, she dies in a carefully arranged "accident."
Even Mark might be starting to smell the fish now. He continues on though, and Milt uses his time in the studio to hunt for evidence, which he finds in the form of a tape made of a bug that was planted at Gull's Way.
Meanwhile, the producers are getting very nervous. Not only do they have to come up with a final question that McCormick can't answer, but also each suspects the other of having murdered their assistant. To their mutual surprise, the real villain turns out to be their ever-upbeat show host, Bryce Benson, who likes game shows even more than Hardcastle does.
Things boil to a climax, with Mark reluctantly making one last visit to the studio, though he feels like a total patsy. The producers confess to Hardcastle and the police close in on Benson. On camera, the host launches into an eerie diatribe in defense of game shows and then tries to run. With Mark in pursuit, he climbs into the scaffolding and plummets to the stage.
After the dust settles, Mark discovers the envelope with the final "million dollar question" and surreptitiously reads the contents. From his facial expression, it's apparent that he was one plot twist away from becoming a millionaire.
In the epilogue, the money may be history, but the sponsors' prizes have arrived. There's lots of cool stuff, including a year's supply of puppy chow for the judge (and a puppy to go with it). Aww.
*******
Written by Carol Mendelsohn and Larry Forrester (story by Tony Michelman and Scott J. Schneid)
Premiered Nov. 11, 1985
They come up with a crazy notion. They'll increase the top prize to a million dollars. And it's no problem that they don't have that kind of money; they're betting they can rig the contest so that the contestant only goes so far and then leaves empty-handed.
Back at Gull's Way, there's been another wager. Mark says even he could succeed on Hardcastle's favorite show. Off he goes to Baxter's and Healy's production office where he meets their charming assistant, Diane Templeton. She takes a liking to him. Art and Harry like him even better. He's the perfect underdog for their scheme.
Mark's career as "The San Quentin Kid" gets off to a blazing start. His task is to answer questions about auto racing. The prize rises with each question, and it's all-or-nothing-at-all each time. Hardcastle (who starts out scoffing and says he should settle for the first day's take and get out) is soon cheering him on.
After a few episodes, as the prize money starts to mount, Mark becomes a celebrity--with fan mail and T shirts. But it's not all skittles and beer. There's prep time, too, with Hardcastle quizzing him on racing history. It's the judge who first notices an odd correlation between the questions Mark has been studying, and the ones that turn up on the show.
He becomes suspicious. Mark is annoyed and suspects his motives. Even Harper wonders about that. Is Milt just worried that all this success will mean the end of their partnership?
We never get to find out. Things at "The Million Dollar Trivia Master" start to go sour. Diane Templeton overhears the producers plotting Mark's rise and fall and they become aware that she's overheard. Shortly after that, she dies in a carefully arranged "accident."
Even Mark might be starting to smell the fish now. He continues on though, and Milt uses his time in the studio to hunt for evidence, which he finds in the form of a tape made of a bug that was planted at Gull's Way.
Meanwhile, the producers are getting very nervous. Not only do they have to come up with a final question that McCormick can't answer, but also each suspects the other of having murdered their assistant. To their mutual surprise, the real villain turns out to be their ever-upbeat show host, Bryce Benson, who likes game shows even more than Hardcastle does.
Things boil to a climax, with Mark reluctantly making one last visit to the studio, though he feels like a total patsy. The producers confess to Hardcastle and the police close in on Benson. On camera, the host launches into an eerie diatribe in defense of game shows and then tries to run. With Mark in pursuit, he climbs into the scaffolding and plummets to the stage.
After the dust settles, Mark discovers the envelope with the final "million dollar question" and surreptitiously reads the contents. From his facial expression, it's apparent that he was one plot twist away from becoming a millionaire.
In the epilogue, the money may be history, but the sponsors' prizes have arrived. There's lots of cool stuff, including a year's supply of puppy chow for the judge (and a puppy to go with it). Aww.
*******
Written by Carol Mendelsohn and Larry Forrester (story by Tony Michelman and Scott J. Schneid)
Premiered Nov. 11, 1985
