The dollar amounts kept going up, but Clark, who hosted the show for the bulk of its long run on two different networks and in syndication, was always the smooth, empathetic rock of stability. Celebrities were paired with civilians in trying to guess hidden words from a series of rapid-fire clues. Forget those ball drops on New Year's Eve; Clark's dramatic set-ups made Pyramid's final round the most electric 60 seconds in all of TV gamedom.
By Richard Zoglin