August 25, 1958…”Concentration” Debuts On NBC<\/p>\n
The original network daytime series, “Concentration”, appeared on NBC for 14 years, 7 months. With 3,796 telecasts, this was NBC’s longest running game show. Hugh Downs was the original host and served from ’58 till ’69. During this time, Hugh was also Jack Paar’s side kick on “Tonight” but in ’63, Downs became the new anchor on “Today”. In ’85, The Guinness Book Of Records recognized Hugh Downs for holding the record for the greatest number of hours on network television. <\/p>\n
“Concentration” had a lot of homes, but the daytime version was always inside 30 Rock. From ’58 till ’65 Studio 3A was home. 1965 till 1967, it was 3B, and 8G from ’67 till ’73. This was the last show on the NBC roster to go color and that happened November 7, 1966.<\/p>\n
There were two short lived night time versions…one was hosted by Jack Barry in 1958 for four weeks from Studio A at NBC’s 67th Street location, which was where the “Home” show was done. The second primetime version was April to September of ’61 from the Ziegfeld Theater on Monday nights with Bob Clayton as host.<\/p>\n
When Downs left in ’69, Bob Clayton took over, but three months later Ed Mcmahon hosted for six months during Clayton’s leave of absence for an illness. <\/p>\n
The show ended in ’73, but six months later, it was back on NBC as a Goodson – Todman syndicated production from the west coast with Jack Narz as host, and ran till ’78. Art James was the original announcer. By the way, the girl in the photo is PA Patty Prebble who later married Jack Barry. -Bobby Ellerbee<\/p>\n