Barry & Enright Productions

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Barry & Enright Productions (or simply referred to as: Jack Barry-Dan Enright Productions or Jack Barry & Dan Enright Productions), was a U.S. television production company that was formed in 1947 by Jack Barry and Dan Enright.

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[edit] History

In 1956 Barry & Enright created the game shows Twenty-One and Tic Tac Dough. The company, along with Robert Noah, also created and produced the original version of Concentration. Two years later Twenty-One was cancelled as part of the quiz show scandal, when it was revealed that the producers pre-arranged outcomes. The scandal led to Congressional legislation against the rigging of game shows. In 1959 Tic Tac Dough was also cancelled. Barry & Enright were forced to sell their game shows to NBC, including Concentration, and the company later ceased to exist.

In 1971 Dan Enright came back to television as executive producer for All About Faces. After an unsuccessful stint working with former rival Goodson-Todman, Jack Barry first staged a comeback as an emcee, replacing Dennis Wholey on the short-lived game show, The Generation Gap in 1969, then formed a production company and in 1971, sold The Reel Game to ABC (he also hosted the 13-week game show), and in 1972, permanently resurrected his career by hosting the hit game show The Joker's Wild, which he reputedly created while with Goodson-Todman.

In 1975 Enright rejoined his partner in Barry & Enright Productions, and their collaboration continued until Barry's death from a heart attack in 1984. Enright kept the company name and continued running the company. The company ended in 1991 after the 90s version of Tic Tac Dough was dissolved. Dan Enright died of cancer in 1992. Although the production company was primarily known for game shows, it also worked on other projects such as the comedy films, Private Lessons (1981) and Making Mr. Right (1987).

A common practice on all 1970s Barry & Enright games was an automobile was awarded for any player who won five front games in a row. On most games, players continued playing until defeated.

Bonus rounds were of a game of chance, in which players faced a bad guy (such as The Devil on The Joker's Wild or The Dragon on Tic Tac Dough). Winning these bonus games awarded the players cash and prize packages worth anywhere from $3,000 to $4,000 in winnings, which may include trips. The Joker's Wild and Tic Tac Dough offered these prize packages if players accumulated $1,000 or more in bonus money without the bad guy revealed, while on Bullseye, players can win the prize package plus win a possible jackpot of up to $10,000 in cash, which can be accomplished by spinning three bullseyes in a row on one spin.

All of the cash and prize winnings were rounded to the nearest 50th dollar, except on The Joker's Wild, where it's rounded to the nearest 25th dollar due to the value of the money cards in the Face The Devil bonus round.

[edit] Ownership of properties

The Barry family, along with former Wheel of Fortune letter-turner and Enright's companion Susan Stafford, sold Barry & Enright Productions and its library of game shows to Columbia TriStar Television sometime in 1994, before the launch of Game Show Network on December 1 of that year.

Today, the pre-scandal library is owned by NBC Universal and the post-scandal library including the 1950s version of Tic Tac Dough is owned by Sony Pictures Television. There are two exceptions: the 1990 edition of Tic Tac Dough is held by Granada International through their accquisition of the ITC library, and the 1989 kids' version of Pictionary is held by NBC Universal through their ownership of the MCA library.

[edit] Known employees

Some known employees have included Susan Stafford who was vice president for public relations. Another noted staffer was Louis M. Heyward, who was vice president for development. Heyward is the father of Andy Heyward, who is chairman and chief executive officer of DiC Entertainment. Barry's sons Jonathan and Douglas Barry, Dan Diana, Chris Sohl, Gary Cox and Ron Greenberg were prominent employees of Barry & Enright.

Barry & Enright producer Richard S. Kline, set designer John C. Mula, and music composer Hal Hidey would leave the company, following Jack Barry's death, to form Kline & Friends, where they would co-produce the game show, Win, Lose or Draw, with Burt Reynolds and Bert Convy. Gary Cox left following Barry's death to join Reg Grundy Productions, which was adjacent to Barry & Enright in Century City, as an associate producer of Sale of the Century. Ron Greenberg departed Barry & Enright a year before to produce other game show projects.

Longtime Chuck Barris game show announcer Johnny Jacobs, a longtime friend of Jack Barry's, was the primary announcer of all Jack Barry-produced and Barry & Enright produced-game shows from 1972 to 1977, while working on Barris' The Newlywed Game, The Dating Game and The Gong Show, among others. In 1977, a year after Let's Make A Deal went off the air, its announcer Jay Stewart replaced Jacobs as its primary announcer for four years, and was also its primary spokesman for all Barry & Enright projects outside of the game show world. Jacobs, who died in 1982, did fill in for a few months during the 1978-79 season of The Joker's Wild, and in addition, Johnny Gilbert was also used as a fill-in. Bob Hilton was also used as a fill-in announcer towards the final weeks of the 1979-80 season.

In 1981, Stewart left Barry & Enright productions following his daughter's suicide, replaced by longtime Wheel of Fortune voice Charlie O'Donnell. The popular Charlie O. would remain with Barry & Enright until the cancellation of Joker and Tic Tac Dough. Again, Johnny Gilbert filled in for O'Donnell on occasion, as well as Marc Summers and John Harlan.

Jack Barry, Jim Peck, Geoff Edwards, Wink Martindale, Art James, Tom Kennedy, Jim Lange and Bill Cullen were the main hosts during that period. Nipsey Russell and Jim Caldwell also hosted at least one game show from B&E. Jim Perry, Peter Tomarken, Patrick Wayne and Bill Rafferty were given auditions for future game show pilots, none of which were produced. Wayne however went on to host the 1990 revival of Tic Tac Dough.

[edit] Titles by Barry & Enright Productions

[edit] Owned by NBC Universal Television

[edit] Owned by Sony Pictures Television

[edit] Other productions

[edit] External links