Talking Pictures

Talking Pictures was a game show pilot produced for NBC in 1963. The show was created by Art Baer and Ben Joelson. Unfortunately, there is virtually no information about the show and Jim did not remember how the game was played. Monty Hall's production company later taped two pilots for a game show titled Talking Pictures in 1968 and 1976. Hall's version combined elements of Concentration with celebrity guests. It is not known if this 1963 pilot was played in a similar fashion or not. Since it was produced by a different production company, it was very likely a whole different game.

However, Jim shared some background information behind this unsold pilot in a 2005 interview. Not only did Jim shed a little bit of light on this obscure game, but he also explained how he changed his name. At the time he was hired to do Talking Pictures, Jim was still performing with his birth name of Jim Dooley.

"When I first started, the first pilot film I did for NBC was a show created by Art Baer and Ben Joelson called Talking Pictures. Art and Ben created a couple of game shows, then later were also noted as the head writers of The Love Boat [in the 1970s]. Art and Ben went to NBC talking about me to host this show, and at the time there was a Jim Dooley doing commercials for Northeast Airlines. The network executives said they were not...I don't mean to be disparaging to somebody...but that was not what they were looking for [in a host]. Fortunately, Art and Ben said, 'No that's not the Jim Dooley we're talking about.' If that hadn't occurred, I don't know if I would have had a career. So we then took my mother's maiden name of Perry and that was because of my wife June. She said, 'You have to change the last name. You can't change the first name. I don't want to be thinking, 'uh, what's your first name?' So we kept the Jim and changed my last name to Perry.

"NBC sat on that Talking Pictures pilot film for almost a year. They were trying to make up their mind which one of two pilot films to put on the air. They finally decided on the other one. I don't know whatever happened to it. It was called Jeopardy! as I recall." (laughs)

So Jim Dooley became Jim Perry but only on television. At home among his family and friends, Jim was still called Jim Dooley. We now also know what game show pilot was passed on by NBC to instead launch one of the most successful game shows in history: Jeopardy!