Dan Enright - Return To Success

Return To Success

In 1972, after two failed attempts to sell a pilot, CBS bought from Barry the game show that would permanently revive his career as a host and producer: The Joker's Wild. One of the original pilots of The Joker's Wild was produced in 1969 during Barry's collaboration with Mark Goodson and Bill Todman and was emceed by Allen Ludden. Although credited as "A Jack Barry Production", there had been speculation that ex-partner Enright was somehow involved with the show, and indeed Enright was credited as executive producer in the show's final year on CBS. Nonetheless, Joker proved to be a success. In 1975 it was canceled by CBS but reruns of Joker did so well on local Los Angeles and New York TV stations that in 1977 a whole new series was produced for syndication. The syndicated Joker ran until 1986 (with Bill Cullen succeeding Barry after his death).

By 1977, Barry and Enright had resumed their partnership full-time. In the spring of 1976 they sold a revival of Break the Bank to ABC. Despite promising ratings, the daytime network version hosted by Tom Kennedy was canceled. A weekly first-run syndication version aired from September 1976 to September 1977, hosted by co-packager Barry.

Barry and Enright later found their longest-lasting success with syndicated versions of Joker and the revived Tic-Tac-Dough with Wink Martindale hosting.