TV Game Show Pilots Fighting for Air Time : Television: With a huge potential payoff at stake, producers of programs for syndication hope to spell trouble for ‘Wheel of Fortune.’

A videotape is popped into a machine and Merv Griffin appears, eager to tell everyone about “the biggest project I’ve ever worked on.” Best known today for his involvement with hotels and TV programs, Griffin is now out pushing an enterprise that combines elements of both: “Monopoly,” a syndicated game show.

After Griffin’s brief spiel on the tape--”Peter Tomarken is a wonnnnderful host”--the pilot for the program runs. Salespeople representing Griffin and King World, which will distribute the show, are blanketing the country, playing the cassette for TV station executives who might buy “Monopoly.”

Griffin and King World already produce and distribute the nation’s top two syndicated shows, “Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy!” If they can sell their video version of the classic board game to enough stations to make it worth producing, they stand to make millions.

But it won’t be easy. The offices of TV station executives are thick with salespeople these days. This is selling season for the syndicated television industry, a period that will culminate with frenzied deal-making this month at the National Assn. of Television Program Executives convention in New Orleans.

Dozens of syndicated offerings are vying for attention in categories ranging from talk shows (“Voices of America With Jesse Jackson”), to series (“The New Dragnet”) to network reruns (“Head of the Class”) to the offbeat (“TV Personals”). Nowhere does the competition appear steeper than in game shows, however. The bright lights, bells, buzzers and toothsome hosts belie the cutthroat nature of the business.

Fighting for syndicated slots this round--the programmers’ convention will be the Bonus Round--are “Monopoly”; “Trump Card” from Warner Bros.; “The Challengers” from Dick Clark Productions and Buena Vista Television; “Quiz Kids Challenge” from Guber-Peters; and remakes of “Tic Tac Dough” from ITC, “The Joker’s Wild” from Orbis Communications and “Name That Tune” from Orion.

Out of those game shows, which are considered to be the major contenders for success, and the countless lesser hopefuls, only two, maybe three will make it into production, say industry experts.

The problem is that there are few time slots available for new syndicated shows. Besides “Wheel” and “Jeopardy!,” which each appear on more than 200 stations across the country, valuable time slots already are taken by other types of syndicated programs. “Oprah Winfrey,” “Entertainment Tonight” and “A Current Affair” are still going strong.

Nonetheless, the potential payoff is great enough that for many production companies it is worth the expense of taping a pilot and unleashing a sales team. Most game-show producers sell their programs through “cash plus barter.” That means they not only get paid by the stations buying the show, but they keep the rights to some of the available commercial time, which they sell themselves. If they syndicate their program to enough stations--70% of the country is generally considered the minimum--the producers can sell lucrative national advertising spots.

Game-show sales may also get a boost this year from an advertiser backlash against trashy programs. “There’s advertiser resistance to titillating talk shows and magazine shows of a tabloid nature,” says Jon Gluck, vice president of programming for MMT Sales Inc., which advises stations. National advertisers are growing concerned about advertising on “the ‘Geraldos,’ the ‘Hard Copies,’ the ‘Current Affairs’ and even the ‘Oprahs’ and ‘Donahues,’ ” he said. Games shows, says Gluck, offer “a very healthy advertising environment.”

In addition to the lure of cash and lovely prizes that await successful game-show producers, this year’s contestants smell an opportunity.

“There’s a feeling that the time is right to challenge ‘Wheel,’ ” says Gluck. Although it remains a strong No. 1, Vanna White’s show is slipping in the ratings and competitors are anxiously awaiting the day the wheel stops spinning.

While each game-show producer is trying to carve a separate niche, all keep an eye on the basic elements that have made “Wheel” an institution. More than anything else, game shows have to get viewers involved. Part of the genius of “Wheel,” say observers, is that it’s designed to make the folks at home feel smarter than the contestants. Even when an answer becomes obvious, the show’s contestants often must wait to guess. By that time, viewers are ready to burst, wishing they could tell Vanna the answer.

“You’ve got to have a game show people can play along with,” says Rick Feldman, general manager of Los Angeles station KCOP Channel 13.

Feldman already has purchased “Tic Tac Dough” and “Joker’s Wild” for next year, believing that the remakes already have “recognizability.”

A look at some of the games shows considered to have the best chance of making it:

* “Monopoly”--Griffin and the King Brothers have managed to boil down the board game so it takes less than a half hour to play. But Monopoly purist may squirm at the way this is accomplished. Contestants gain properties by guessing easy questions (Q: Wabbit hunter. A: Elmer Fudd.). The players buy houses and hotels off-camera during the commercial breaks and a midget in a tux runs around a giant board to mark where each player has landed. The host, the midget and winner dance around the board at the end of the game.

Michael King of King World says that his Monopoly rules are a little different than the standard rules, but he argues that “nobody really plays Monopoly by the same set of rules.”

“Merv may not know what casinos to buy, but he knows what game shows to buy,” says Bill Carroll, director of programming for Katz American Television, a consulting firm. “Merv was able to take hangman and make ‘Wheel of Fortune.’ I can’t discount his ability to take a board game and make it a video game.” Nonetheless, he says it’s too early to tell whether the show will make it.

* “Challengers”--With Dick Clark as host, this game asks contestants tough, often topical and newsy questions. The producers plan to tape the show year-round so they can keep the questions current. The show is designed to air just before or after evening newscasts, a lucrative location for syndicated fare. “We thought the audience interest in question-and-answer shows was being underserved,” says Jamie Bennett, senior vice president at Buena Vista Television, which will distribute the program. “ ‘Wheel of Fortune’ is a wonderful show, but you don’t watch ‘Wheel of Fortune’ to get information. There is a viewer benefit when you get information.”

“ ‘Challengers’ is the obvious front-runner,” says Carroll of the Katz consulting firm. “They’ve got the Big Mo. They were first in the marketplace, they have a good pilot, a credible host, an aggressive syndicator. Put that all together you’ve got deals.”

Feldman, on the other hand, complains that “Challengers” is “derivative--too much like ‘Jeopardy!’ for its own good.”

Sample pilot question: Name the two sons in “Death of a Salesman.”

* “Trump Card”--Donald Trump has lent his name to the show, but not his body. The show is like bingo with the winner spelling out T-R-U-M-P.

“Right now they have a name, they don’t have a game,” scoffs Carroll. “If I want to play bingo, I go to the parish hall.”

* “Name That Tune”-- Entertainer Peter Allen is set to host this remake. “They have a good pilot,” says Feldman. “It’s really more miscellaneous trivia than a quiz show.”

“It’s played more for entertainment value than anything else,” says Carroll. He found host Allen a little too much “like a hyperactive kid,” but declared that “fixable.”

* “Quiz Kids Challenge”--The first game show from movie moguls Jon Peters and Peter Guber will pit kids against adults in a battle of the brains.