History of Break the Bank

ABC Daytime (April 12, 1976-July 23, 1976)

Break The Bank premiered on the ABC afternoon daytime schedule on April 12, 1976. Hosted by Tom Kennedy, with announcer Johnny Jacobs, this Jack Barry-Dan Enright produced game had these nine celebrities as debut guests: Abe Vigoda, Alice Ghostley, Jo Ann Plufg, Dick Gautier, Jan Murray, Lynda Carter, Liz Torres, Robert Hegyes, and Marjoe Gortner. Although there were no regular panelists, Jan Murray and Liz Torres appeared the most times during the 15-week run.

Game shows were one of the biggest genres on television during the mid-70's. Just the year before, a record 26 game shows were playing on network and syndicated schedules.

Break The Bank proved to be very popular. According to A. C. Nielsen, Break The Bank was the second highest rated network game show during the October 1975-April 1976 measured television season. Match Game '76 was first and The $20,000 Pyramid was third. The show was seen nationally at 2:30 p.m. Eastern/1:30 p.m. Central.

Surprisingly enough, Break The Bank lasted only 15 weeks. ABC cancelled the show on July 23, 1976. The mid-70's was a time when soap operas were expanding to one hour. At that time, ABC needed extra time to accommodate the expanding time given to One Life To Live and General Hospital. These two soaps were expanding from 30 minutes to 45 minutes. An extra half-hour was needed. Thus, this spelled death for Break The Bank.

Jack Barry-Dan Enright tried to bring back Break The Bank during the 1976-1977 syndicated season as a once-a-week show. This incarnation was hosted by Jack Barry. It proved to be unsuccessful. Click for the nighttime version.

Milton Bradley produced a Break The Bank board game in 1976. It follows the TV game's format fairly closely.

The show's theme music was also used on Barry-Enright's "Joker's Wild" Million-Dollar Charity Tournament that aired in November of 1980. The theme was also used for a syndicated show that was produced by two men named Mike and Roger, who had previously worked for Colbert Television Sales, the company that distributed the syndicated versions of "Break the Bank," "Joker's Wild," and "Tic-Tac-Dough." The show was an "info-tainment" program called "Soapworld," and it was a ratings disaster for Mike and Roger, who lost $750,000 on it during the program's one-season run.

They then made the incredible decision to try syndicating a game show in 1983, at a time when game shows in prime-time access were losing out to other "info-tainment" shows such as "Entertainment Tonight," "PM Magazine," and "The People's Court." Not only that, the show they chose for their next effort was one on the NBC daytime schedule that had been going downhill for more than a year, and had nearly been cancelled at one point. Nevertheless, they put it on and it went straight to No. 1 among syndicated programs and continued in that position even to this day!

What a rags-to-riches success story for Mike and Roger -- Mike and Roger King, who made a fortune after syndicating "Wheel of Fortune!"

Rules Change (Not For Air Episode)

Thanks Jack and Dan for giving BTB fans many
hours of game show excitement!

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Remember to enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope!
Click here for theme
Three of these boxes will Break the $5,000 Bank!
Is this one of them?
Or is it this one?
Or this one?
We'll find out in a moment in this game of hide and seek,
as these nine celebrities...

all join us in playing. . .

Now meet our host: Tom Kennedy

Here's how we play Break The Bank:
Our game board has various denominations of money in groups of three.
There's also money bags scattered here and there.
Here's what a typical board might look like:

the three $100 boxes touching each other along one of the sides,
the three $200 boxes each touching each other,
and the three $300 boxes, and again they touch each other.
The five money bags are scattered all over
and a wild box which can be located anywhere and be used for any value.
The remaining boxes are blank, they have no value,
but they do not touch each other along any of the sides.
Get three of the same and you win.
Get three money bags, and you break our bank which is at $5,000.
For every question used, you'll hear a true answer from one celebrity
and a false one from the other.
And the first player to get three of the same money boxes wins!