Barry & Enright Productions

Background

Barry & Enright Productions (also known as "Jack Barry-Dan Enright Productions" and "Jack Barry & Dan Enright Productions", and formerly known as "Barry, Enright, & Friendly Productions") was a television production company that was formed in 1947 by Jack Barry and Dan Enright. Ed Friendly, who was a producer at NBC, was also working with the duo. Their first game show was Juvenile Jury and their second was Life Begins at Eighty. Eventually in 1950, both game shows made it to television.

In 1959, Barry and Enright were forced to sell the library to NBC after being implicated in the scandals involving the rigging of various game shows, most notably their program Twenty-One; said scandals were later adapted into the 1994 Hollywood Pictures film Quiz Show. Enright moved to Canada to work for that country's arm of Columbia Pictures' Screen Gems subsidiary, where he spent most of the 1960s, while Barry took a position at the Fragrance Process Company in Manhattan and worked a number of small-scale TV shows (including an acting role on an episode of The Addams Family), eventually also moving to Canada with Enright in 1966. After an unsuccessful stint working with former rival Goodson-Todman, Barry first staged a comeback as an emcee, replacing Dennis Wholey on the game show, The Generation Gap in 1969. Before then, he formed a production company known as "Jack Barry Productions" in 1968 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 game show The Joker's Wild, which he reputedly created while with Goodson-Todman. In 1971, Dan Enright returned to U.S. television as executive producer for All About Faces.

In 1975 Enright rejoined his partner and reformed Barry & Enright Productions, Jack Barry Productions became an in-name-only division of B&E, and their collaboration continued until Barry's death from a heart attack in 1984. Enright kept the company name and continued running the company, but he changed Barry's policies and altered some practices that the staff members disagreed with. In 1987, B&E co-produced a British game show called Chain Letters with Tyne Tees Television and Action Time. During the same year, the company created the only game show they produced for cable broadcast known as Bumper Stumpers in association with Global Television Network (who reran the program from 1990-1995), Wink Martindale Enterprises and USA Network (who ran the program in the US). In 1990, Jack Barry's sons created a revival of Tic-Tac-Dough under the revival of the independent company Jack Barry Productions. The company wasn't under the Barry & Enright company as Dan Enright continued running B&E. The 90s versions of Tic-Tac-Dough and The Joker's Wild including the 1989 revival of Juvenile Jury were all canceled in 1991. B&E was later renamed "Stafford-Enright Productions" with former Wheel of Fortune hostess Susan Stafford, a long time friend and companion of Dan Enright, as president. Stafford and Enright later married in 1992, but Dan Enright died of cancer on May 22 of that year and Stafford-Enright was renamed to "The Susan Stafford Company".

On December 7, 1992, Sony Pictures Entertainment acquired the post-1959 Barry & Enright game show library. In 1995, Columbia TriStar International Television revived and co-produced Chain Letters with Action Time. The remainder of the series: Twenty One and the 1989 version of Pictionary are currently owned by NBCUniversal Media, LLC.

1st Logo (April 12, 1976-December 28, 1990)

Visuals: There is a stretched out "E" going through the stretched out letter "B". Inside it says "BARRY & ENRIGHT". Sometimes you would see the name "JACK" and "DAN" inside the "E". The logo is also referred to as "A JACK BARRY & DAN ENRIGHT PRODUCTION" with the word "PRODUCTION" below the logo.

Variants:

An in-credit variant saying "A BARRY & ENRIGHT FILM" or an in-credit text "A BARRY & ENRIGHT PRODUCTION" appears at the start and end credits of the 1981 movie Private Lessons (shown on occasion on the Showtime Networks) and Making Mr. Right. It appears as copyright text on The Joker's Wild/Tic Tac Dough special from 1981.
An in-credit text was seen on the UK game show Chain Letters.
April 1976: Only the "BARRY & ENRIGHT" text is present within the "B-E" and no other text is seen above or below. This appeared on the first two weeks of the 1976 daytime run of Break the Bank.
A scrolling in-credit version of the large "B-E" was seen in the closing credits of the 1976-77 CBS live-action Saturday morning kids' show Way Out Games (starring Sonny Fox), which Barry and Enright produced in association with MGM Television (the MGM Television logo of the time followed the credits, with the "Wog," the show's animated mascot, flying past Leo the Lion after Leo roars once). It is unknown whether or not the tapes still survive (in that case, Way Out Games would now be owned by Turner Entertainment Co./Warner Bros. Television), or if CBS "wiped" the tapes to use for other shows (although, by that time, CBS was taking archiving tasks more seriously than NBC or ABC).
Early seasons of The Joker's Wild doesn't have the ampersand (&) symbol in the logo as well as the 1977-78 series The Hollywood Connection with Jim Lange.
1978-1980: The word "PRODUCTIONS" is seen below the logo. Plus the first names "JACK" and "DAN" are not in the logo. Although a few late 1979 episodes of The Joker's Wild would briefly revert back to the first logo design with the names "JACK" and "DAN" inside, as they did in the 1st season. Also on 1979 episodes of Tic-Tac-Dough, the logo would appear in shadow mode.
1979-1990: It's only referred to as "A BARRY & ENRIGHT PRODUCTION" with "A" centered on top of the logo and "PRODUCTION" centered on the bottom. This was first used on Joker Joker Joker. On the pilot for Bullseye, there is a large "A" at the top of a smaller sized Barry & Enright logo with "PRODUCTIONS" underneath.
The premiere of Bullseye strangely uses an in-credit notice, but the voiceover is still present. The logo returns on the second episode.
This logo would appear in shadow mode in the middle years.
1984-1990: There is a line below the letter "A" and "PRODUCTION". Several 1984-1985 episodes of Tic-Tac-Dough with Wink Martindale and starting on season 2 of Bumper Stumpers, this version doesn't feature the letter "A" and would have "PRODUCTIONS" below instead.
The logo would appear in different colors: gold, blue, red, white, or yellow based on the credits.
On Hot Potato, the B-E logo is a red still logo on a stand-alone blue background. And some early episodes of Hot Potato, (such as the premiere episode from January 23, 1984) would use the 1980 variation on a standalone blue background.
Sometimes, the logo is omitted. This is frequently due to the Columbia-TriStar Television logo being sloppily added to shows converted to Digital BetaCam in the late 1990s. Original network airings also frequently truncated the credits.
Pictionary has the logo chrome textured and is displayed against a purple-dark blue gradient background. The logo shines.

Technique: A chyroned computerized graphic. On the first three episodes of the ABC Break the Bank, the logo zooms in. On some 1978 episodes of The Joker's Wild, the logo would scroll and then zoom in. On some episodes of Play the Percentages from early 1980, instead of the show's title scrolling up with the copyright and production company already with it, the show's title name scrolls like normal but once the show's title name finishes scrolling upward, the "BARRY AND ENRIGHT PRODS." copyright name stamp fades in. And it fades in between the title name and the copyright year.

Audio: Just the end title theme from any show with an announcer spiel: "[Title of the game show] is a Jack Barry-Dan Enright Production" or "[Title of the game show] is a Jack Barry & Dan Enright Production". Johnny Gilbert who was filling in for The Joker's Wild in 1978 would announce his name first before saying the rest. The final episode of The Joker's Wild hosted by Bill Cullen and most episodes of Break the Bank between week 2 of the daytime run and the fifth syndicated episode omitted the voiceover.

Availability: It appeared on the 1976 version of Break the Bank, Way Out Games, Pictionary, Tic-Tac-Dough, and The Joker's Wild. Many of these shows have not been rerun since GSN last aired them in the late 1990s, but recordings of varying quality circulate among collectors. As of April 2023, Break the Bank is part of GameTV's schedule, and is the only current source of this logo.

2nd Logo (June 18, 1990-March 8, 1991)

Visuals: In the credits, there is a purple updated 1976 Barry & Enright Productions logo, this time having a shadow effect. Below it says "BARRY & ENRIGHT" in a bold font and the word "P R O D U C T I O N" in a smaller font and spread out to fit under the name

Technique: A chyroned computerized graphic.

Audio: The end-title of the theme with the announcer's voice-over:

Larry van Nuys: "(This is Larry van Nuys), [Title of the game show] is a Barry & Enright Production".

Availability: Was only seen on the 1990 revival of Tic-Tac-Dough, the second season of Juvenile Jury, and two other game shows: All About the Opposite Sex and Hold Everything!.