Heatter-Quigley Productions
By Sean Beard
Heatter-Quigley Productions
(1960-1982)
The two individuals named are Merrill Heatter and Bob Quigley, two former television writers, who started the company in 1960. It was sold to Filmways in 1966 soon after creating their biggest hit "The Hollywood Squares". They also co-produced the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series "Wacky Races" in 1968. Heatter and Quigley split up just as Orion was buying Filmways in 1982 (Heatter continued solo and Quigley retired).
Nickname: "HQ"
Logo: Superimposed on the screen is the message arranged thusly: This Has Been A MERRILL BOB HEATTER QUIGLEY Production; between their names is a strange conjoined "HQ" symbol consisting of a lowercase "h" in its upper half and a capital "Q" on the bottom. As this appears on screen, announcer Kenny Williams (who performed those duties for all H-Q shows) would read this as part of the end-credit announcements. By the early Seventies, a Filmways byline was added to this ID (with the parent company's logo added in 1978).
SFX: None-this is a still logo
Cheesy Factor: The rather bizarre "HQ"
Music: The show's closing theme
Availiability: Can be seen on the original edition of "The Hollywood Squares", now running on Game Show Network and the Hanna-Barbera cartoon "Wacky Races" on Boomerang. The original "Hollywood Squares" (along with whatever is left of "Video Village", "The Magnificent Marble Machine" and the original editions of "Gambit" and "High Rollers" among others due to pre-1978 network videotape archive destruction) is now owned by MGM Worldwide Television.
Scare Factor: None
Merrill Heatter Productions
(1982-Early 1990s)
After Merrill Heatter and Bob Quigley dissolved their
partnership, Heatter continued producing game shows with markedly
mixed success.
Nickname: "mh"
Logo:After the credit roll finishes, this is abruptly
superimposed on the screen:a stylized, conjoined lowercase
"mh" (in the same font as the Heatter-Quigley
"H-Q" logo, this time thicker with another
"mh" centered inside) with MERRILL HEATTER PRODUCTIONS
centered under it.
As with the H-Q shows, an announcer usually read the
pronouncement "[show title] is a Merrill Heatter
Production!" when the logo appeared.
SFX/Cheesy Factor: On "The New Battlestars",
this logo had a tacky flipping effect over the ending scene. Also
consider the rather tacky design of the logo, even for the
Eighties
Music: The theme music's outro
The KingWorld Connection: In 1999, Heatter sold the
worldwide rights to his solo-developed game show formats to
KingWorld. CBS Enterprises (KingWorld's parent company) now
licenses the rights to Heatter's shows worldwide.
Avaliability: Was seen on All-Star Blitz, Battlestars, and
the 1987 revival of High Rollers (for Orion Television
Syndication) among others. Unless Heatter's solo efforts are
picked up for Game Show Network's schedule, you'll only see this
on off-air tapes.
Scare Factor: Low, for its sudden appearance....elevated to Median for the New Battlestars variant