Concentration: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

Producers Jack Barry and Dan Enright created this classic game show, based on the children's matching memory game Concentration. The first match aired on August 25-29, 1958, but it seemed doomed when Barry and Enright (because of their roles in the fast-unfolding Quiz Show Scandals) were forced to relinquish their ownership of the game. However, NBC-TV took over production and the rest is history. 2 contestants, including a returning champion, competed to solve a rebus hidden beneath a board of 30 numbers (1-30). The board itself concealed the names of prizes(good or joke),wild cards and other action cards (described below). Each player in turn, called out a pair of numbers. No match gave his/her opponent control of the board, but a match gave whatever prize was printed on the card or allowed him/her to perform an action.

Series details

• Title: Concentration
• Format: Game Show
• Language: English
• Premiere date: 1958-08-25
• Final broadcast date listed: 1959-08-04
• Status in TVmaze: Ended
• Network listed by TVmaze: NBC
• Network country: United States
• Typical episode runtime: 30 minutes
• TVMaze ID: 7025
• TVDB ID: 77099

Cast and credited roles

• Gene Wood — Announcer
• Johnny Olson — Announcer
• Wayne Howell — Announcer
• Art James — Announcer
• Bill McCord — Announcer
• Jim Lucas — Announcer
• Alex Trebek — Host
• Jack Narz — Host
• Hugh Downs — Host
• Bob Clayton — Host
• Don Pardo — Substitute Announcer
• Vic Roby — Substitute Announcer

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 1958-01-14; final listed air date 1959-08-04; episode order: 260.
• Season 2: episode order: 4.
• Season 3: episode order: 260.
• Season 4: episode order: 260.
• Season 5: episode order: 26.
• Season 6: episode order: 260.
• Season 7: episode order: 260.
• Season 8: episode order: 260.
• Season 9: episode order: 260.
• Season 10: episode order: 260.
• Season 11: episode order: 260.
• Season 12: episode order: 260.
• Season 13: episode order: 260.
• Season 14: episode order: 260.
• Season 15: episode order: 260.
• Season 16: episode order: 260.
• Season 17: episode order: 260.
• Season 18: episode order: 260.
• Season 19: episode order: 260.
• Season 20: episode order: 260.
• Season 21: episode order: 260.
• Season 22: episode order: 260.
• Season 23: episode order: 10.
• Season 24: episode order: 100.
• Season 25: episode order: 260.
• Season 26: episode order: 260.
• Season 27: episode order: 260.
• Season 28: episode order: 260.
• Season 29: episode order: 25.

Source and licence

Adapted from Concentration on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.