[quote name='MTCesquire' date='Aug 31 2008, 02:28 PM' post='195625']
Completely off-topic to game shows, but I read in the article that "Tyler Perry's House of Payne" is the first first-run sitcom to hit syndication. Immediately springing to mind is "What's Happening Now!!" back in 1985, "Small Wonder" and the later years of "Charles in Charge", unless I've completely lost my mind. Confirm or deny, anyone?
I may be wrong on this, but I believe the B&C article should have said that "House of Payne" is the first first-run sitcom to air DAILY in syndication. IIRC, House of Payne is being offered as a five-a-week series in syndication (100 episodes have already been taped, and TBS ordered another 22 shows, as well as 10 episodes for a new Tyler Perry sitcom).
There were at least a dozen first-run sitcoms that aired exclusively in syndication in the 80s. Not sure what the last 30-minute first-run syndie sitcom was before "Payne" -- "The New WKRP", perhaps (think that ended in 93 or 94)?
JD