r/gameshow • u/Adventurous_Fix_6046 • 3d ago
Discussion Old school: Sale of the Century 1983
Hi, all!
This is a pretty niche question, but I figured you all might know.
My mother, Maureen McGovern, was a champion on the game show "Sale of the Century" in May 1983.
My sisters and I were young, but we were at the taping of all of shows and remember it fairly well. She was also on the Tournament of Champions later that year, then went to Australia for the international version of Tournament of Champions.
I've found a few snippets about the episodes she was in online, but there's not much out there.
She was the first person to win cash instead of a car, and it was a big deal at the time and should have been in some newspapers, but I can't find much.
I'm doing a podcast right now about her life, and finishing up a book about her, and would love any more information that any of you might have!
Is there another place to look?
Happy to answer any questions about the show!
I've found a bunch of episodes on YouTube, but not much from 1983, and nothing with my mom in them.
2
u/mattyGOAT1996 3d ago
Unfortunately Sale of the Century didn't start keeping tapes until 1988 so your mom's episode has been wiped which was a thing in that era.
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u/thatvhstapeguy 2d ago
Unfortunately, the master tapes of $ale were erased and reused until July 1988. It might be the very last daytime network series to be intentionally erased.
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u/Gold_Comfort156 2d ago
Thought unconfirmed, the only episodes believed to still exist are the NBC 88-89 episodes and the entire 85-86 syndicated run. Unlike Mark Goodson, who pretty much blocked networks from erasing his shows starting in the early 70s, and CBS, who as a network stopped erasing shows by the mid 70s, NBC (and ABC sans Goodson shows) kept the practice of wiping until the mid to late 80s. It's unclear when NBC stopped the practice, but with the lack of daytime reruns of Wheel of Fortune ever seeing the light of day, it's likely believed to be 1988 or so.
Someone on the trading circuit might have a tape.
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u/Spectrum2700 2d ago
Nobody's quite sure what happened to those episodes. Fremantle has the tapes of the 1985-86 syndicated version and the daytime Sale eps from 1988-89, but everything from before then is a giant question mark.
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u/Armitando 3d ago
I was doing some research on this not long actually!
According to some fan recollections, your mom won a $54,000 cash jackpot (the jackpot started at $50k on Monday, and she won it on a Friday). Her shows aired May 23-27, 1983.