New PBS Special In January...

[Matt Ottinger]

Finally saw it tonight.  Gawd, the recreations were annoying, but apparently whatever budget these people had was not being used to secure clearances for clips.  Virtually all the moving video was provided by Shokus and presumably the photos were all Mr. Wostbrock's doing.  No Fremantle, no Sony as far as I could tell, with the occasional odd exception, including a brief and not particularly funny Newlywed clip and the closing moments from Password '75.

Interviews were nice, and any show that'll stop and give a nod to Bill automatically scores points, even if all the video they showed was TPIR and, of all things, the Quick as a Flash pilot.  My favorite was Dick Van Dyke and his story about being asked to host TPIR.  The mind boggles at how different television history might be today if that had panned out.

[rigsby]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'176177\' date=\'Jan 24 2008, 08:03 PM\']My favorite was Dick Van Dyke and his story about being asked to host TPIR.  The mind boggles at how different television history might be today if that had panned out.[/quote]Well, you'd probably need a different picture at the upper left...

[William A. Padron]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'176177\' date=\'Jan 24 2008, 09:03 PM\']
My favorite was Dick Van Dyke and his story about being asked to host TPIR.  The mind boggles at how different television history might be today if that had panned out.
[/quote]
The story of Dick Van Dyke as a possible host for Price may be been surprising to most of the viewers watching that PBS documentary, but I originally read that account in Jefferson Graham's 1987 book Come On Down!: The TV Game Show Book.  Van Dyke told the same story in the book as in the special, which had a photo from Wostbrock's collection a game show he did host called Laugh Line, but seen doctored with a Price logo taped over it.

[cmjb13]

I saw Pat Harrington listed in the credits, but didn't seem him anywhere in the special.

Did I miss something?

[Jay Temple]

Near as I can tell, they did a single set of credits covering all four installments and ran it at the end of every installment.

[Tim L]

I DVR'ed all four episodes and watched three thus far.  The Game Show segment was much better than the other 2 I've seen.  It was nice to see the Bill Cullen segment near the end.  I kind of looked past the recreations, bujt the interviews were quite interesting. As with all shows of this type, They leave you wanting more..Pretty good effort overall..

[davemackey]

[quote name=\'cmjb13\' post=\'176467\' date=\'Jan 28 2008, 01:43 PM\']
I saw Pat Harrington listed in the credits, but didn't seem him anywhere in the special.

Did I miss something?
[/quote]
Well, Pat did on that New Year's "Rhyme and Reason" show.

EUBANKS: "Pat, happy new year."
(No response from Harrington, Jr.)

EUBANKS: "Pat, happy new year."
(No response from Harrington, Jr.)

EUBANKS: "Pat, happy new year."
(No response from Harrington, Jr.)

Actually, unless they were doing a segment on The Inspector, I think Pat was in the talk shows segment, having appeared as part of the stock company on Steve Allen's show along with Bill Dana, Louis Nye, Tom Poston, Gabe Dell and the rest of those cats.

[TimK2003]

[quote name=\'cmjb13\' post=\'176467\' date=\'Jan 28 2008, 02:43 PM\']
I saw Pat Harrington listed in the credits, but didn't seem him anywhere in the special.

Did I miss something?
[/quote]


I only saw him interviewed on camera for the 2nd installment, when the topic was late-night talk shows.

[tvwxman]

http://www.shoppbs.org/product/index.jsp?productId=2965540

For those who missed...and have money to spend.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'tvwxman\' post=\'176557\' date=\'Jan 29 2008, 08:43 AM\']
http://www.shoppbs.org/product/index.jsp?productId=2965540
For those who missed...and have money to spend.[/quote]
It's actually available other places, almost all of which are going to be less expensive than the PBS site.  Though oddly, it was offered by Amazon, and now the listing is inexplicably gone.

Anyway, it's $30 with shipping from PBS.  There's a dealer selling copies on Ebay where you can get it for $24. (My regular 'bill cullen' search turned up three, all from the same dealer.)  If your neighborhood bookseller stocks PBS programs, I think the commercial retail is only $20.

[mmb5]

MSRP is $24.99.  The Bill Cullen portion is in its own chapter so it can be played on a loop if so desired.  It's also just on one disc, so it may not be all that crystal clear.


--Mike

[William A. Padron]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'176566\' date=\'Jan 29 2008, 10:32 AM\']
Anyway, it's $30 with shipping from PBS.  There's a dealer selling copies on Ebay where you can get it for $24. (My regular 'bill cullen' search turned up three, all from the same dealer.)  If your neighborhood bookseller stocks PBS programs, I think the commercial retail is only $20.
[/quote]

I just purchased my DVD copy of the PBS special today (Tuesday 1/29/2008) at a local retail outlet here in Manhattan, J&R Music World on Park Row, for their selling price of $21.99 plus tax.  The only extra special features on this DVD as listed on the package are "extended interviews with the 'Pioneers'", and it is presented in the "widescreen" format (just like on A&E's Biography: TV Game Shows as seen last year).

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'William A. Padron\' post=\'176587\' date=\'Jan 29 2008, 11:22 AM\']
and it is presented in the "widescreen" format (just like on A&E's Biography: TV Game Shows as seen last year).
[/quote]
That's not special to the DVD, necessarily. I enjoyed it in Glorious Hi-Def(tm) over the weekend.