B&W Overnight Down to ONE Night a Week...

[uncamark]

If Casey's going to say the same thing every month on another thread, I might as well say this again:  For most people, GSN is not "appointment television."  It's "what to watch when there's nothing else on."  Unless the exact same episode appears when someone switches to them twice in a row, their programming strategy is not detrimental to them and may well be beneficial.

[Ian Wallis]

Agreed. Who cares if it'll have the GSN bug? Collectors will treasure this episode.
Although the Google groups post isn't on hand, I do remember reading waaay back in '97 that GSN had a "sample episode" with "no rights to air it."

I don't think its that they didn't have the rights to air it, but from what I've heard the quality of the episode is not quite what GSN had hoped for.  Maybe they figure at 3 in the morning it won't matter if it has a few dropouts, or whatever.  I just hope they don't change their minds about airing it.

[cweaver]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'127336\' date=\'Aug 14 2006, 10:09 AM\']
That particular point is easily dismissed.  DVDs are different than a network airing things on television.  Heck, you can buy DVDs of nothing BUT cigarette commercials.[/quote]

...Only because the DVD full of cigarette ads is going to a target audience, and won't pop up out of the blue to some unsuspecting, easily offended soul. Otherwise there's really not that much difference in this unique case.  RJ Reynolds surely didn't pay GSN to leave those logos in, they just happen to be there.  On the other hand, DVD releases apparently run into occasional trouble putting cigarette ads on DVD.  Some of the ones on the "Ed Sullivan Show" DVDs (the ones with the Beatles) supposedly had to be replaced because of a different attorney's interpretation.   I'm sure if the Beatles appeared in any of those ads the production company would've fought to keep them in, and I think that's more or less the reason they got by with it on the Bilko DVD.

Look, this would be a bigger deal for GSN if there were signs for cigarettes on the set of Match Game, or Family Feud.  The black and white shows are virtually meaningless to them.  If it's going to cause ANY extra trouble or ANY extra effort for them to air the cigarette-sponsored shows, there's no reason for them to bother.

And I think that's what this is really about, it's not that they can't, it's that they won't.  I still think a disclaimer ("The cigarette references are presented strictly in their historic context, GSN does not advocate smoking" or something like that) would work here if they wanted it badly enough.

For the record, I'm a non-smoker if that matters.  I'm just irritated that this whiner got his way.

[cweaver]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Fiono Coyne\' post=\'127357\' date=\'Aug 14 2006, 11:32 AM\']

Super move. It's probably the episode with clips featured on VH-1 with Brett Somers and Jack Klugman, but that's just as guess.
If it's entirely different and it turns out that they have ANOTHER one we didn't know about, then I for one will just about forgive them for a lot of the 50 Greatest Game Shows debacle.
[/quote]

Beverly's column says it's the "only known surviving episode."  So this is likely the Klugmans, unless VH-1 got ahold of an 10 minute fragment that only exists in that partial form for whatever reason.

[Blanquepage]

Beverly's column says it's the "only known surviving episode." So this is likely the Klugmans, unless VH-1 got ahold of an 10 minute fragment that only exists in that partial form for whatever reason.

Although it's a shock I'm sure, Beverly's dead wrong on there being just one surviving broadcast / near broadcast quality episode. That's not counting the several shoddy quality UCLA copies, either.
The VH-1 clips with the Klugmans do indeed come from a full episode.


--Jamie

[cweaver]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Fiono Coyne\' post=\'127419\' date=\'Aug 14 2006, 06:45 PM\']


Although it's a shock I'm sure, Beverly's dead wrong on there being just one surviving broadcast / near broadcast quality episode. That's not counting the several shoddy quality UCLA copies, either.
The VH-1 clips with the Klugmans do indeed come from a full episode.


--Jamie
[/quote]

I think I speak for a lot of game show fans when I say...please tell me more.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'cweaver\' post=\'127467\' date=\'Aug 15 2006, 08:54 AM\']I think I speak for a lot of game show fans when I say...please tell me more.[/quote]
With any luck, this link will take you to the UCLA database information, where at the bottom of the page you'll find they have eight episodes from the seventies, mostly from 1973.  I'm never quite sure what is or is not viewable at UCLA, but usually, all you have to do is request a viewing, and then show up at the library.  I'd love to see Alan Alda playing Password.

Clearly, the Klugman episode exists in broadcast condition, and since that's the one that VH-1 was using, chances are that's what we'll see on GSN when it rolls around.  I'm aware of at least one other 70s show in the hands of some collectors (not me, so don't ask) which may very well be one of the UCLA episodes.

[Blanquepage]

I think I speak for a lot of game show fans when I say...please tell me more.

Matt pretty much summed it up. UCLA has 8 of them, but they are all black and white copies.
3 other ones from other sources exist in nice condition, including the series finale. GSN could theoretically air any of them if they successfully acquired them. Then there's the Password All-Stars episode along with the other February 1975 ABC episode floating around the trading circuit.

Total, we're looking at 13 currently known existing episodes of ABC Password, 3 of which are in condition good enough to be broadcasted.

Fin. Time to get back to work...

--Jamie

[Jay Temple]

It's sad that there will only be one night per week, but I will now be adding that one night as a weekly program on my VCR.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Fiono Coyne\' post=\'127508\' date=\'Aug 15 2006, 02:07 PM\']
3 other ones from other sources exist in nice condition, including the series finale. [/quote]
Sorry, I forgot about the 1975 episodes.  Jimmy's numbers and mine match, then.  Counting the All-Stars, there are three "blue set" episodes from 1975 and two "orange set" episodes from earlier that exist outside of UCLA.

[mmb5]

The James Shigeta/Betty White is a new one from the last time I checked.  And unlike the others, it's available.    

For those of you unfamiliar with the UCLA collection availability:

You have to register in advance to see anything.  They will usually require some academic purpose.  After that, there are three types of collections they have:

STUDY copies -- Very rare.  You can get those with one days notice.
RESEARCH copies -- More common.  You can get those with one weeks notice.
ARCHIVE copies -- You ain't seeing these.  I've tried.

For Password:
STUDY -- 11 of the 60's episodes are available this way.
RESEARCH -- 15 of the 60's episodes + the Shigeta/White 70's episode.
ARCHIVE -- All of the 70's except for Shigeta/White.


Note that all of the 70s that UCLA has are in B+W for whatever reason.  ABC recently made a big donation of material to UCLA, so maybe more stuff will show up.


--Mike

[TwoInchQuad]

My money is on the 10/23/73 Klugman/Somers episode... but they might also have a good copy of the 2/14/72 ep with Sheila MacRae & Martin Milner.  I will say that if they don't do any tweaking, viewers should probably expect that the color may be a **bit** washed out.  At least it was on the copy I've seen.

I'm not entirely convinced that GSN **has** a master-quality copy of the 6/27/75 finale, though a transfer does exist.  I think that tape may be outside of their archives... but I suppose anything is possible.

Good news, in any event!

-Kevin

[FeudDude]

This just in: According to a release from GSN that was posted on their board as well as on Buzzer, WML? will begin airing at 3 am on Monday mornings beginning October 2 (late October 1).   Although this means that it will take forever to get through all of the episodes (assuming they even run them in order), it's still good to know that the show isn't gone indefinitely.  

And for those of you that still have your doubts, this release also confirms that GSN will air an ABC Password episode.

[Chelsea Thrasher]

This one actually struck me as even more interesting

and a countdown of the Greatest Game Show Hosts of All Time.

Here we go again folks.   Thought/Specula-jecture: I'd imagine they won't do 50 this time - Unless they want to get more obscure, I doubt there's the material.  They could go the talk route, but this seems out of line with their other recent actions (the format of the 50 Greatest Shows and the upcoming Thanksgiving fan vote) - 25 Maybe?

[Blanquepage]

This one actually struck me as even more interesting
QUOTE
and a countdown of the Greatest Game Show Hosts of All Time.


Here we go again folks. Thought/Specula-jecture: I'd imagine they won't do 50 this time - 25 Maybe?

I'm pretty sure you've misread that. It sounds like that it's highlighting a currently scheduled item that is intended to cater to classics fans.

--Jamie