George Long

Hello! And welcome back to our series of guest posts by game show veteran George Long. When we last heard from George (three weeks ago), he was taking us through his behind-the-scenes work on Going For Gold. But as you’ll see, that gig was far from the last time he’d find himself on the production team of a game show…

(Oh, and if YOU’d like to share YOUR game show adventures with the HowToWinGameShows.com audience, just email me at stephen@howtowingameshows.com, and let’s discuss it!) But right now, heeeere’s George…

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GL: Immediately after the first series of Going for Gold finished, word came through that Sale of the Century‘s contestant coordinator was leaving to visit her family in Zimbabwe for three months, and it was agreed that I’d be the best person to take over from her. I’d been manning the Sale game computer just before this, and it was plain that I picked things up quickly. As the replacement contestant coordinator, I was now not only in charge of the “Sacrificial Lambs”; I was responsible for choosing them, booking them, meeting and greeting them on the day, and generally being their counsellor and Mother Duck! The first batch had already been organised, so they were all unknown to me. Quite a few, though, were VERY excited to meet “George Smiley”, as they were long-time Sale viewers…

George “Smiley” Long, during his run on ‘Sale of The Century’

When I was let loose on the cabinets containing the profiles of people who had auditioned, I decided we needed to ‘sex the show up’ a bit – to get rid of the large number of Nigels and Maureens and have a few more younger, attractive people. The cabinets were filled with the audition forms, each of which featured a photo and qualifying quiz score at the top. The contestants here were possible choices for all current Grundy game shows including Keynotes, which I had declined earlier. That particular show didn’t want the high scorers, but did want characters with interesting tales to tell. I had taken part in that year’s Grundy’s audition in another huge hall, and was given the job of being the question master. This would stand me in good stead later. I remembered some of my interviewees who didn’t get picked – quite frankly, they would have scared the viewers off! But I had also interviewed some people with great stories and personality, and they did get chosen.

When it came to contestant numbers for Sale of the Century, the calculation was easy. In a worst-case scenario, if the carryover champion got beaten each night, we needed at least 11 contestants. If we had a car winner on the Friday, we needed 12. We generally had three spares, including at least one from the local area. Spares were essential, in case people may have fallen ill (or had a pressure cooker fall on their head!) or indeed chickened out. Any spare contestants not used in one show would be used on the next. We generally therefore had 15 contestants standing by. They all sat in the ‘Sacrificial Lamb’ audience seats.

I turned up to the studio every Saturday and Sunday to do coordinate the contestants, with all of their bios ready for Kerry the producer, after booking them ten days earlier and sending them all their instructions.

Between shows, Kerry and I would look at the remaining waiting contestants, and I’d report on how they’d performed in rehearsal and how confident they were. Here is a tip for readers – if you’re shy as a mouse, you may not be used that readily, and could be simply used as ‘cannon-fodder’! I spent a lot of time encouraging the contestants at rehearsal and then briefing them behind the set during recordings and technical breaks; encouraging, reassuring, congratulating and commiserating. Just as had happened in the shows I competed in, I accompanied the winner back to their dressing room after they had ‘been shopping’, where they selected their next outfit, then I went down to choose the other two contestants with Kerry for the next show.

It was exciting and stressful at the same time. The rapport I built with many contestants meant they were often invited back to do pilots or in-house rehearsals for Grundy’s, with a view to possibly making appearances on other shows. One of the people who appeared at this time was a little-known person called Simon Cowell. He plainly did better out of it than I did!

Simon Cowell’s on 80 points!

After winning his game, here’s Simon Cowell with ‘Sale of the Century’ host Peter Marshall and hostess Maria Rice Mundy

During this time, I also served as a production assistant on the show. One of my duties in the studio was holding the cue cards describing the ‘Gift Shop’ prizes for hostess Maria Rice Mundy to read. The prizes rotated on a revolving stage and I stood in the aisle, so she could read them. I spent the Thursday and Friday preparing the cue cards with the prize department, for the weekend recordings. When it came to the writing, I was very good at sometimes “polishing a turd”, as the old phrase goes!  I did this most weekends when I was not doing the contestant coordination.

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And that’s where we’ll leave George’s story for this week. But it’s far from the end of his behind-the-scenes game show journey, as you’ll see next Tuesday, when he scores gigs on other successful productions, in addition to Sale of the Century!

Until then, then!