REMEMBERING JAMES R. CARUSO, TV AND VIDEO GAME PIONEER
My friend and mentor Jim Caruso, pioneering television producer and co-creator of STARCADE, the world’s first video arcade game show, passed away peacefully on January 27th, 2021. He was 88.
In the late 1970s, James R. Caruso and Mavis E. Arthur were vacationing in the Caribbean after producing a series about personal computers for Electronic Data Systems when they were first struck with inspiration: What if we created a TV show that captured the excitement and competition of video games, they asked? Their answer was STARCADE, a studio-based game show in which skilled video game players competed head-to-head on the first generation of arcade games (Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Galaga) for cash prizes.
To realize their shared vision, Jim and Mavis pooled their own resources, contacted video game distributors, and enlisted the help of video game legend Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari; Mr. Bushnell helped them find contestants during auditions at the Chuck E. Cheese Pizza Time Theater arcades he owned at the time. Then, in 1981, Jim and Mavis taped their first STARCADE pilot at KRON in San Francisco starring Mike Eruzione, Captain of the 1980 Gold medal-winning US Olympic Hockey Team. That pilot later aired on several regional stations and was a hit with viewers.
With their new pilot in hand, Jim and Mavis traveled to LA and started pitching STARCADE. An NBC network executive in Burbank called a meeting with the couple and suggested they should make another pilot starring a pre-Jeopardy Alex Trebek, who happened to be sitting in the hallway outside his office at the time. Jim and Mavis did indeed go on to make several STARCADE pilots with Mr. Trebek, but the network ultimately passed on the show.
Finally, in 1982, Jim and Mavis landed STARCADE with Ted Turner’s Turner Program Services; Mr. Turner had just signed a deal with Parker Brothers to make a new TV series featuring their lineup of video games such as Burger Time. A short time afterwards, Jim and Mavis were invited to join the Turner Program Services booth at NATPE, a syndication market for independent TV producers. Ted Turner himself walked up to the couple standing inside the booth. “This STARCADE show of yours, you think you can make a strip of it, five episodes a week?” he asked them. “We can make as many as you like,” was Jim’s reply. “Great!” Turner said. They all shook hands and made a deal.
STARCADE went on to air 123 episodes on TBS from 1982–1984, during the dawn of the video game era and, later, aired in reruns on G4, the original video game network, from 2002–2004.
Jim always credited his beloved ‘Maeve’ with being his true inspiration, his partner in life and business for five decades. Jim and Mavis made other TV shows under their JM Productions banner, but always considered STARCADE their greatest creative legacy together. For years, they have maintained a website showcasing episodes and merchandise from the show and interacting with ‘Starcaders’ and fans around the world. Former contestants, some of whom were teenagers when the show first aired, have written to Jim and Mavis with fond memories of their time on Starcade. Many now have kids of their own who play video games, who see them as heroes.
I first approached Jim and Mavis almost five years ago with an idea to reboot STARCADE for the new generation of gamers. I had discovered the show growing up in the 80s at the peak of arcade mania, at a time when any kid could escape to another world and become a mustachioed, coin-collecting plumber or an intergalactic space traveler for the cost of a quarter. Today, watching those original STARCADE episodes is like viewing the ultimate time capsule of retro gaming history.
In 2017, with Jim and Mavis’ blessing, I spearheaded a marathon of more than 100 of the original episodes of STARCADE on Twitch, the video game streaming platform. More than 3 million unique viewers watched the show during its limited run, experiencing the electric excitement of competitive gameplay on the original Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and Galaga arcade cabinets. The comments from fans on the stream were overwhelmingly positive, with many noting that if it weren’t for Jim and Mavis’ innovative concept for STARCADE, there might not be a Twitch. STARCADE, they commented, is where competitive game streaming began.
One of my favorite memories of that time was visiting Jim and Mavis at their home and being shown to an area they called ‘Starcade Central’, where they kept memorabilia from the show. In the center of shelves stocked with t-shirts, posters, and binders full of colorful one-sheets for hundreds of arcade games that I had never seen, was a framed black-and-white white photo of Jim and Mavis standing next to Ted Turner. The moment they shook his hand and made a deal for STARCADE. A moment from television and video game history.
“How did you get this photo?” I asked Jim.
“Are you kidding? He’s Ted Turner, he has a photographer who follows him everywhere,” he told me, smiling.
Recently, Jim and Mavis entrusted me to help produce a new version of the format for today’s generation of gamers. When I called the couple last week with an exciting update about the future of the show, Mavis told me Jim had been hospitalized. The next time I called to check-in, he was gone. But Mavis told me she was able to share the positive news with Jim in the hospital and it lifted his spirits.
Jim Caruso never sold himself short. He believed so strongly in his own vision and talent that he and Mavis hedged their own future on it. Their hard work and tenacity paid off. The show they created together will continue to inspire and entertain gamers for generations to come. The legacy of James R. Caruso and STARCADE will live on.
I will miss Jim dearly for his heart and humor, along with the wit and wisdom he freely shared with me from a lifetime of television producing. He was a one-of-a-kind class act.
If you would like to send Mavis a message with your memories or condolences, you can visit the STARCADE website she and Jim created at: http://www.starcade.tv
Please scroll to the bottom of the page and click ‘Feedback’.
If you would like to make a charitable contribution in Jim’s honor, his family and friends have set up a fundraising donation page at Extra Life, an organization that puts together video game fundraisers for Children’s Hospitals at: https://www.extra-life.org/participant/STARCADE4EVER
