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Author Topic: Longest Streak Of Game Shows In One Day/One City, (NO Cable Networks)  (Read 4076 times)

TimK2003

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Most of us old folks can remember staying home from school being sick, but being treated to countless hours of non-stop game show action on TV -- in the days before GSN & Cable Networks.

Unless you got one helluva memory, you probably need some old TV guides to complete this puzzle.

What city &/or television market holds the title for the longest streak of game shows in a single day?

By this, I mean if you turned on the TV in the morning to watch a game show, how many hours in the day could you go flipping between channels to watch back-to-back-to-back.... game shows in a row without having a break in the programming genre?

Your answers should include:
When this streak occurred,
The City and/or TV market that this occurred in,
The listings of each show, it's time & channel.

Based on fuzzy recollections without any printed proof on hand to back me up, I would guesstimate that many cities in the 70s & early 80s could easily string at least 7 or 8 hours over their multiple local channels, but I'm curious to see if there were people in any one city who could literally watch 9, 10, or more hours of game shows in-a-row in one seating in the days when GSN, VCRs and TiVOs were not even an option.
« Last Edit: March 12, 2009, 10:17:48 PM by TimK2003 »

PYLdude

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Longest Streak Of Game Shows In One Day/One City, (NO Cable Networks)
« Reply #1 on: March 12, 2009, 11:02:04 PM »
Do other cable networks count?
I suppose you can still learn stuff on TLC, though it would be more in the Goofus & Gallant sense, that is (don't do what these parents did)"- Travis Eberle, 2012

“We’re game show fans. ‘Weird’ comes with the territory.” - Matt Ottinger, 2022

Don Howard

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Longest Streak Of Game Shows In One Day/One City, (NO Cable Networks)
« Reply #2 on: March 12, 2009, 11:25:53 PM »
The best I can do is 7 straight hours in the Baltimore/Washington DC area when I lived in Annapolis.
This is from Spring 1975 by memory:
9:30am TATTLETALES (delayed on ABC affiliate Channel 7 from DC)
10am CELEBRITY SWEEPSTAKES or THE JOKER'S WILD
10:30am WHEEL OF FORTUNE or GAMBIT or MONEY MAZE (delayed)
11am HIGH ROLLERS or NOW YOU SEE IT
11:30am THE HOLLYWOOD SQUARES or BLANKETY BLANKS
12noon JACKPOT or PASSWORD
12:30pm BLANK CHECK or SPLIT SECOND
1pm THE DIAMOND HEAD GAME on WRC-TV Channel 4
1:30pm LET'S MAKE A DEAL
2pm $10,000 PYRAMID
2:30pm BIG SHOWDOWN
3pm PRICE IS RIGHT
3:30pm MATCH GAME '75
4pm TATTLETALES (on Channel 16 only as both Baltimore channel 2 and DC channel 9 carried Dinah!)
[quote name=\'PYLdude\' post=\'210241\' date=\'Mar 12 2009, 11:02 PM\']
Do other cable networks count?
[/quote]
[quote name=\'TimK2003\' post=\'210238\' date=\'Mar 12 2009, 10:15 PM\']
in the days before GSN & Cable Networks.
[/quote]

EDITED AFTER IT WAS BROUGHT TO MY ATTENTION THAT 16:30 MINUS 9:30 EQUALS 7:00 AND NOT 8:00
« Last Edit: March 14, 2009, 08:18:08 AM by Don Howard »

trainman

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Longest Streak Of Game Shows In One Day/One City, (NO Cable Networks)
« Reply #3 on: March 13, 2009, 12:34:49 AM »
[quote name=\'Don Howard\' post=\'210242\' date=\'Mar 12 2009, 08:25 PM\']
The best I can do is 8 straight hours in the Baltimore/Washington DC area when I lived in Annapolis.
[/quote]

Yeah, I think that's gonna be tough to beat, since game shows were pretty much nonexistent between 4:30 and 7:00.  Maybe if you can find a city where there was a syndicated game show at 9:00, so you can get to 7-1/2 hours.
« Last Edit: March 14, 2009, 05:58:41 PM by trainman »
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Jamey Greek

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Longest Streak Of Game Shows In One Day/One City, (NO Cable Networks)
« Reply #4 on: March 13, 2009, 08:50:29 AM »
I know that WRCB in Chattanooga had a big game show block in 1985.  I wasn't born yet but I have some TV Guides to back it up

9:00 Headline Chasers
9:30 Let's Make a Deal '85
10:00 Your Number's Up
10:30 Sale of the Century
11:00 Wheel of Fortune
11:30 Scrabble
12:00 Super Password

Kniwt

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Longest Streak Of Game Shows In One Day/One City, (NO Cable Networks)
« Reply #5 on: March 13, 2009, 10:08:50 AM »
A market in the Mountain Time zone might offer the best chance for a long run of game shows.  Well into the '80s, station schedules were convoluted in all sorts of strange ways.

I have one TV Guide from Denver for April 2-8, 1983 ("Southern Colorado Edition"), and it has many schedule anomalies -- game shows starting at 8 a.m., CBS prime time starting at 6 p.m. (yes, 6 p.m.) on three stations, and even a few dual network affiliations to make life interesting.

Alas, there's no continuous all-day run of game shows in this particular edition, even with "this week's" premieres of Dream House and The New Battlestars.

8:00 (7,11) The New $25,000 Pyramid
8:30 (5,30) Sale of the Century; (7,11) Child's Play
9:00 (5,30) Wheel of Fortune; (5g,6,7,10,11) The Price Is Right
9:30 (5,30) Dream House
10:00 (5,30) Battlestars; (7) The Joker's Wild
10:30 (4) Sale of the Century; (7) Tic Tac Dough
11:00 (4) Dream House, (11) Tattletales
11:30 (4) Battlestars

Ian Wallis

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Longest Streak Of Game Shows In One Day/One City, (NO Cable Networks)
« Reply #6 on: March 13, 2009, 06:13:51 PM »
In early '75, we had the syndicated Dealer's Choice and ABC's Money Maze (on tape delay) at 9:30 AM; and Concentration at 1 PM, so I could go from 9:30-4:30 wall-to-wall game shows.

It's true that games between 4:30-7 seemed rare some years, but by the '80s, with Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy seen in most cities from 7-8 PM, and shows like Entertainment Tonight on competing stations, they started appearing at earlier hours.  By 1986 Hollywood Squares, Newlywed Game, Dating Game, Card Sharks and $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime were all seen between 4:30-6 in our area...but the networks had relegated games to the morning hours only by then, so there was still a big gap in the afternoons.
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https://gamesandclassictv.neocities.org/
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tpirfan28

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Longest Streak Of Game Shows In One Day/One City, (NO Cable Networks)
« Reply #7 on: March 13, 2009, 06:53:32 PM »
My area (South Bend/Elkhart) might take it for a more modern time, 2007-2008:

10AM Family Feud (WBND, 1hr)
11AM The Price is Right (CBS)
12PM Temptation (WBND, 1hr)
1PM Millionaire (WNDU, 1hr)
« Last Edit: March 13, 2009, 06:54:18 PM by tpirfan28 »
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SRIV94

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Longest Streak Of Game Shows In One Day/One City, (NO Cable Networks)
« Reply #8 on: March 13, 2009, 08:07:43 PM »
[quote name=\'Kniwt\' post=\'210255\' date=\'Mar 13 2009, 09:08 AM\']
10:30 (4) Sale of the Century; (7) Tic Tac Dough
11:00 (4) Dream House, (11) Tattletales
11:30 (4) Battlestars
[/quote]
KCNC didn't carry daytime WoF?

/Wow.  3700 posts.
Doug
----------------------------------------
"When you see the crawl at the end of the show you will see a group of talented people who will all be moving over to other shows...the cameramen aren't are on that list, but they're not talented people."  John Davidson, TIME MACHINE (4/26/85)

Kniwt

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Longest Streak Of Game Shows In One Day/One City, (NO Cable Networks)
« Reply #9 on: March 13, 2009, 09:23:25 PM »
[quote name=\'SRIV94\' post=\'210316\' date=\'Mar 13 2009, 05:07 PM\']
KCNC didn't carry daytime WoF?
[/quote]

Sorry ... I didn't continue the listing after the consecutive block ran out.

12:30 (4) Wheel of Fortune
2:00 (5g,6,10) Tattletales (and (NSH) Fandango!)
2:30 (5g,6,10) New $25,000 Pyramid
3:00 (5g,6,10) Child's Play
3:30 (5g,6,10) Wheel of Fortune
4:30 (13) Lie Detector
6:30 (11) Family Feud

(4) at the time was KOA, yes, NBC back then.
(5g,6,10) were KREX Grand Junction, KREZ Durango, and KREY Montrose, all listed as CBS/NBC.
(7) KMGH, CBS
(11) KKTV, CBS
(13) KRDO, ABC

SRIV94

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Longest Streak Of Game Shows In One Day/One City, (NO Cable Networks)
« Reply #10 on: March 13, 2009, 09:36:44 PM »
[quote name=\'Kniwt\' post=\'210324\' date=\'Mar 13 2009, 08:23 PM\']
[quote name=\'SRIV94\' post=\'210316\' date=\'Mar 13 2009, 05:07 PM\']
KCNC didn't carry daytime WoF?
[/quote]

Sorry ... I didn't continue the listing after the consecutive block ran out.

12:30 (4) Wheel of Fortune

(4) at the time was KOA, yes, NBC back then.
[/quote]
I stand corrected on the calls.

Even so, still strange that they chose to give WoF the larger delay compared to $otC, DH and BATTLESTARS, given that it was still NBC's highest-rated and longest-tenured game show of the time (granted $otC had been the only one of the 1/3/83 debuts to survive).
Doug
----------------------------------------
"When you see the crawl at the end of the show you will see a group of talented people who will all be moving over to other shows...the cameramen aren't are on that list, but they're not talented people."  John Davidson, TIME MACHINE (4/26/85)

Steve Gavazzi

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Longest Streak Of Game Shows In One Day/One City, (NO Cable Networks)
« Reply #11 on: March 13, 2009, 11:33:58 PM »
With regard to Don's post on the first page...isn't that seven hours?

Robert Hutchinson

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Longest Streak Of Game Shows In One Day/One City, (NO Cable Networks)
« Reply #12 on: March 14, 2009, 01:04:26 AM »
[quote name=\'Steve Gavazzi\' post=\'210332\' date=\'Mar 13 2009, 11:33 PM\']With regard to Don's post on the first page...isn't that seven hours?[/quote]
The Diamond Head Game just felt like it lasted 90 minutes.
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davidhammett

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Longest Streak Of Game Shows In One Day/One City, (NO Cable Networks)
« Reply #13 on: March 14, 2009, 01:41:17 AM »
We didn't get long game show blocks in Atlanta.  :-)

Kniwt

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Longest Streak Of Game Shows In One Day/One City, (NO Cable Networks)
« Reply #14 on: March 14, 2009, 01:51:22 AM »
January 27, 1964; Upstate New York edition of TV Guide

9:35 (3) Truth or Consequences
10:00 (2,3,6,8) Say When
10:30 (2,3,6,8) Word for Word (color); (13) People Are Funny
11:00 (2,3,6,8) Concentration; (7,9,13,13r) The Price Is Right
11:30 (2,3,6,8) Missing Links (color); (9,13,13r) Object Is
12:00 (2,3,6,8) Your First Impression (color); (9,13,13r) Seven Keys
12:30 (2,6,8) Truth or Consequences
1:00 (5) People Are Funny
1:30 (13r) Best of Groucho
2:00 (2) Let's Make A Deal; (5,7,10,10r,11,12,19) Password
2:30 (5,7,10,10r,12,19) House Party
3:00 (5,7,10,10r,12,19) To Tell The Truth
3:30 (2,3,6,8) You Don't Say; (9,13,13r) Queen for a Day
4:00 (3,8) Match Game