Author Topic: Blackout was 20 YEARS AGO?!? (Read 8062 times)

Don Howard · « **on:** January 04, 2008, 10:55:02 AM »

It was exactly one score ago when Johnny Gilbert told us who had Blackout buttons and Bob Goen began hosting his third and final game show with a moustache.

tpirfan28 · « **Reply #1 on:** January 04, 2008, 02:07:01 PM »

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' post=\'173801\' date=\'Jan 4 2008, 10:55 AM\']
It was exactly one score ago when Johnny Gilbert told us who had Blackout buttons and Bob Goen began hosting his third and final game show with a moustache.
[/quote]
...and that $25,000 Pyramid was gone from our television screens. For a while, anyway.

TimK2003 · « **Reply #2 on:** January 04, 2008, 08:43:30 PM »

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' post=\'173801\' date=\'Jan 4 2008, 11:55 AM\']
It was exactly one score ago when Johnny Gilbert told us who had Blackout buttons and Bob Goen began hosting his third and final game show with a moustache.
[/quote]

Good to know that the "state of the art" Blackout Buttons from the show were salvaged by the fine folks at WBNX-TV in Cleveland. :-p

davemackey · « **Reply #3 on:** January 06, 2008, 07:02:13 AM »

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' post=\'173801\' date=\'Jan 4 2008, 10:55 AM\']
It was exactly one score ago when Johnny Gilbert told us who had Blackout buttons and Bob Goen began hosting his third and final game show with a moustache.
[/quote]
And then, thirteen (?) weeks later, Jay Stewart was telling us the same thing, and it was over. Goen still had the mustache, I think.

Jimmy Owen · « **Reply #4 on:** January 06, 2008, 10:59:08 AM »

"Take three Bobs and live it up every morning" was how CBS promoted their daytime game show lineup in TV Guide ads.

With Charles Siebert, Markie Post, Teresa Ganzel and Soupy Sales among the first couple week guests, it was as if the talent bookers shared a rolodex with the Pyramid bookers.

Ian Wallis · « **Reply #5 on:** January 06, 2008, 04:32:39 PM »

Wasn't the "Top Secret" pilot done around this time? Maybe if that was given a shot "Blackout" wouldn't be the answer to a trivia question!

Don Howard · « **Reply #6 on:** January 06, 2008, 06:04:28 PM »

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' post=\'174030\' date=\'Jan 6 2008, 04:32 PM\']
Wasn't the "Top Secret" pilot done around this time? Maybe if that was given a shot "Blackout" wouldn't be the answer to a trivia question!

[/quote]
Was Top Secret supposed to be the replacement for The $25,000 Pyramid in January or for Blackout in April?
From what I've read in this forum, the project was a whisker away from making it onto CBS and the mission was aborted.
Heck, there was even a home game ready to go. Very mysterious indeed.

Allstar87 · « **Reply #7 on:** January 06, 2008, 06:06:45 PM »

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' post=\'174050\' date=\'Jan 6 2008, 06:04 PM\']
Was Top Secret supposed to be the replacement for The $25,000 Pyramid in January or for Blackout in April?
[/quote]

My guess is the latter; the pilot's tape date was March 4, 1988.

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #8 on:** January 06, 2008, 06:23:04 PM »

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' post=\'174050\' date=\'Jan 6 2008, 06:04 PM\']Was Top Secret supposed to be the replacement for The $25,000 Pyramid in January or for Blackout in April?
From what I've read in this forum, the project was a whisker away from making it onto CBS and the mission was aborted.
Heck, there was even a home game ready to go. Very mysterious indeed.[/quote]
Here's my comment about a brief conversation with Wink himself on the subject
And the home version wasn't just "ready to go", it went. On store shelves and everything. Hard to find today (believe it or not, I've never even gotten one myself) but it definitely was released.

William A. Padron · « **Reply #9 on:** January 07, 2008, 12:08:23 PM »

[quote name=\'Allstar87\' post=\'174052\' date=\'Jan 6 2008, 06:06 PM\']
[quote name=\'Don Howard\' post=\'174050\' date=\'Jan 6 2008, 06:04 PM\']
Was Top Secret supposed to be the replacement for The $25,000 Pyramid in January or for Blackout in April?
[/quote]

My guess is the latter; the pilot's tape date was March 4, 1988.
[/quote]

Meanwhile, there was some reported sort of an angry backlash towards CBS-TV in cancelling The $25,000 Pyramid, in terms of phone calls and viewer letters to the network. I recall reading in some New York City newspaper that certain celebrities, like Adrienne Barbeau and Ed Begley Jr., were to be included in having a public campaign in bringing Pyramid back on the daytime schedule.

Perhaps this was probably what the network wanted to avoid as a public relations nightmare in the first place, plus it did not help matters that a news item in the broadcast trade weekly Variety, that I recall reading, told of the severe ratings problem that Blackout had endured during its 13 weeks on-the-air. So, CBS-TV daytime programming V.P. Michael Brockman probably gave in and simply put Pyramid back to its 10:00am Eastern time slot.

I did watched that memorable return episode in its first-run broadcast on that Monday, April 4, 1988 (and later again in USA cable & GSN repeats), and the ratings did come climb back surely but slowly. During its ninth week back on the air, Pyramid was getting basically a 2.7 rating, which was the same rating as that of Card Sharks. But never mind, as it all was in vain, because Brockman chose the updated Family Feud, whose original pilot was done on November 18, 1987 (as seen on a ticket offered on eBay), to be the next replacement for Pyramid's time slot.

In my opinion, I am one of the few people who believes to this day that CBS-TV at the time was really trying to please Mark Goodson at the most by having to put the updated Family Feud on its daytime schedule, while keeping Card Sharks and The Price Is Right as they were. For about one year after the relaunch of Feud, there was a domination of solely Goodson-produced shows during the morning hours at least.

clemon79 · « **Reply #10 on:** January 07, 2008, 12:52:03 PM »

Hmm. Was "Michael Brandenburg" a pseudonym?

dzinkin · « **Reply #11 on:** January 07, 2008, 01:07:36 PM »

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'174111\' date=\'Jan 7 2008, 12:52 PM\']
Hmm. Was "Michael Brandenburg" a pseudonym?
[/quote]
Different cities, alas.

clemon79 · « **Reply #12 on:** January 07, 2008, 01:10:09 PM »

[quote name=\'dzinkin\' post=\'174112\' date=\'Jan 7 2008, 10:07 AM\']
[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'174111\' date=\'Jan 7 2008, 12:52 PM\']
Hmm. Was "Michael Brandenburg" a pseudonym?
[/quote]
Different cities, alas.
[/quote]
Yeah, that was more a rhetorical question than anything else.

Jimmy Owen · « **Reply #13 on:** January 07, 2008, 05:21:31 PM »

The fictional character Jack Bauer is based on Matt Ottinger....oops wrong thread.

Ian Wallis · « **Reply #14 on:** January 08, 2008, 06:00:01 PM »

Quote

In my opinion, I am one of the few people who believes to this day that CBS-TV at the time was really trying to please Mark Goodson at the most by having to put the updated Family Feud on its daytime schedule, while keeping Card Sharks and The Price Is Right as they were. For about one year after the relaunch of Feud, there was a domination of solely Goodson-produced shows during the morning hours at least.

It did seem that Goodson had more clout with the networks than any other game show producer. He got his way on a number of scheduling matters, including having The New Price is Right go on at 10:30 instead of 10 in 1972 due to station clearance problems at 10. There were also several of his series that lasted quite a while on the network despite lagging ratings. Any other producer likely would have had the show cancelled prior to when they were. Dawson even mentions on the last Family Feud that the ratings hadn't been good for over a year.