Have you seen...

[combsisthebest]

Has anyone here seen GSN from its early year 95, 96, or even during its first day or first week?

If you have what was the station like?

[HSquares2003]

This is "a can of worms", but I've read it was pretty good, and programming was 24/7 WITHOUT informercials. I'm not sure if it was on here or the ezboards, but somebody had the very first schedule of GSN, and it looked pretty sharp.

[daveromanjr]

Take a look at:
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=first+sc....aol.com&rnum=2

It has the first schedule as posted in June '01 on ATGS.  Looks like an interesting schedule to me!

[aaron sica]

When GSN came out, I was only a little over a year removed from HS and still had ties to the place. So, using those ties, I had one of my old teachers tape GSN for me when the satellite dish wasn't being used by the school.

I like what GSN has to offer now, but the station was infinitely better back then - more of a selection from the G-T library, and less repeats of shows. There were no speedups, no split-screen credits, and at first, no bug.

There was one thing in the early days, though - very little sponorship. What filled time between shows were commercials for (who else?) Sony, a lot of PSA's, and some GS personalities reflecting (i.e. Gene Rayburn talking about Match Game, Richard Dawson talking about Match Game, etc..) So you saw a lot of the same stuff inbetween the shows.

[combsisthebest]

Does anyone have screen grabs that they can post online from early GSN? From what I am hearing the old GSN had its pluses and negative as does the current GSN, correct?

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'combsisthebest\' date=\'Nov 16 2003, 04:05 PM\'] Does anyone have screen grabs that they can post online from early GSN? From what I am hearing the old GSN had its pluses and negative as does the current GSN, correct? [/quote]
 No. It was the perfect thing, brought down to us mere mortals by God himself.

_Everything_ has plusses and minuses.

[Blanquepage]

Does anyone have screen grabs that they can post online from early GSN?

Yes. Maybe I'll post clips of early GSN promos and such.

Eventually.

--Jamie

[Dbacksfan12]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Fiono Coyne\' date=\'Nov 16 2003, 11:50 PM\']

Does anyone have screen grabs that they can post online from early GSN?

Yes. Maybe I'll post clips of early GSN promos and such.

Eventually.

--Jamie [/quote]
 Don't bother, you'll just get bogged down with requests for more; although I appreciate it.

[J.R.]

The graphics were more primitive as well and the GSN symbol you see today didn't exist yet. Instead it was just a plain text with it's old mascot "Winnine" on the left. The main theme of the show was a roulette wheel with some curtains and words spining "CASH" and "PRIZES" it also had a very jazzy commercial theme.

Am I the only one who think those grahpics were much cooler than today's graphics ?

-Joe R.

[Ian Wallis]

I loved GSN in its first few years.  From 1994-98 it was great.  Yes Joe, I agree that the "winnie" graphic was better than what they have today!  GSN had more of a "warmer" feel to it back then, with "Club AM", "Prime Games" and "Wide World of Games" regularly seen on the schedule.  Although they had no sponsors in the beginning, I kind of liked the spots where stars talked about their old shows, or the "Mr Hostman" commercials - they were neat!

True, they did air more of GT, but they also weren't afraid to go into the vault.  The "Game of the Week" featured such shows as Art Fleming's 2000th "Jeopardy" and Bill Cullen's "Eye Guess".  Stuff like that you just wouldn't see on the network today.

I may be in the minority, but I personally felt they used too much GT product in the beginning.  Only three hours of the schedule were given to the other libraries they had - Barris, B&E, Griffin.  I would have liked to have seen more B&E right off the bat - that's why I really enjoyed what some people refer to as "The Dark Period" - at least it gave us a chance to see some of the "other stuff" for a while.

GSN was my most-watched channel for its first five years and  I really miss those days.  It's just not the same as it was then...

[BrandonFG]

[quote name=\'JRaygor\' date=\'Nov 17 2003, 01:39 AM\'] The graphics were more primitive as well and the GSN symbol you see today didn't exist yet. Instead it was just a plain text with it's old mascot "Winnine" on the left. The main theme of the show was a roulette wheel with some curtains and words spining "CASH" and "PRIZES" it also had a very jazzy commercial theme.
 [/quote]
 I could be wrong, but I think I saw a clip of that specific promo in "The Cable Guy." Not sure, but was the background a goldish-brown color?

[J.R.]

[quote name=\'fostergray82\' date=\'Nov 17 2003, 03:17 PM\'] I could be wrong, but I think I saw a clip of that specific promo in "The Cable Guy." Not sure, but was the background a goldish-brown color? [/quote]
 Yep, you're correct. GSN used to have that color seqence, there were some Blues and Greens thrown-in as well.

Also, GSN was a more "Live" channel. With the infamous phone-in games and live interactive events. Peter Tomarken, Ray Combs and Gene Wood were very involved with GSN's early days as well.

-Joe R.

[combsisthebest]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Nov 16 2003, 05:45 PM\'] [quote name=\'combsisthebest\' date=\'Nov 16 2003, 04:05 PM\'] Does anyone have screen grabs that they can post online from early GSN? From what I am hearing the old GSN had its pluses and negative as does the current GSN, correct? [/quote]
No. It was the perfect thing, brought down to us mere mortals by God himself.

_Everything_ has plusses and minuses. [/quote]
 Sry. Let me rephrase that. What were the plusses and minuses of the old GSN?

[cmjb13]

Ray Combs

Was he just doing promos?

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'cmjb13\' date=\'Nov 18 2003, 07:28 AM\']

Ray Combs

Was he just doing promos? [/quote]
 He and RIchard Dawson hosted a Family Feud salute on Thanksgiving 1995(repeated on Thanksgiving 1996 IIRC). Dawson's segments from that 1995 marathon were shown on THanksgiving 2000 as part of a Feud marathon.