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Author Topic: Most obscure game shows  (Read 72929 times)

TLEberle

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Most obscure game shows
« Reply #60 on: July 03, 2011, 02:15:39 PM »
starrcade,anyone/
Sorry, what? The original question was obscure. Starcade isn't exactly the darling of the genre, but I would venture the guess that most of us have heard of it, and most of the most have seen it at some point.
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WarioBarker

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« Reply #61 on: July 03, 2011, 06:03:49 PM »
starrcade,anyone/
Why would anybody want to watch WCW?

Now if you were referring to Starcade, that's different. It's got an official website with many episodes available for viewing, so it's not really obscure.

(EDIT: Didn't realize the username was in fact an indication of how these posts were made. I feel like a total jerk.)
« Last Edit: July 05, 2011, 01:12:23 AM by Dan88 »
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PYLdude

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« Reply #62 on: July 03, 2011, 07:02:19 PM »
And considering Starcade has aired in reruns fairly recently on G4, I think that disqualifies it even further.

One more time for the folks at home: just because you never saw it and it was short lived, it doesn't mean it's obscure. I didn't see Match Game 98, but I don't consider it obscure. Going back to toetyper's first post- wouldn't 10 Seconds be a better example? Disappeared in a year after following up two long running shows and not as widely remembered as the other two.
« Last Edit: July 04, 2011, 03:51:52 AM by PYLdude »
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clemon79

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« Reply #63 on: July 04, 2011, 04:37:12 AM »
Why would anybody want to watch WCW?

Now if you were referring to Starcade, that's different.
Way to make fun of the guy who's typing with his feet.
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PYLdude

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« Reply #64 on: July 04, 2011, 11:00:47 PM »
I always wondered why toetyper doesn't get one of those talk-to-type things. Would make things a whole lot easier for him.

(Not picking on ya, toetyper, or trying to sound like a prick, but I gotta imagine it ain't easy to type with your foot fingers. Maybe I over think it but I gotta imagine there's some contorting of the body involved. I do kinda admire you in a way- you don't let your situation get you down. Bless your heart for that. I mean it.)
« Last Edit: July 05, 2011, 04:20:43 AM by PYLdude »
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Tim L

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« Reply #65 on: July 05, 2011, 01:35:59 PM »
WEWS-TV 5 aired A Local Game Show, "Quick As A Wink" from September 14, 1964 to March 12, 1965..Hosted by Don Webster, who had been brought in from CHCH-TV 11 Hamilton, Ontario to host The Big 5/Upbeat music show from 1964-71.  Webster later hosted a TV Bingo Game, Dialing For Dollars, Bowling for Dollars, It's Academic/Academic Challenge and was the main weatherman for many years..No episodes of "Quick as a Wink" have surfaced, unfortunately

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« Last Edit: July 05, 2011, 01:38:22 PM by Tim L »

Matt Ottinger

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« Reply #66 on: July 05, 2011, 02:01:30 PM »
A friend who lurks here e-mailed me to suggest a different way of looking at this question.  Rather than local shows, which are by their very nature obscure to the rest of the country, or recent, short-lived shows that frankly, every single one of us remember, a truly obscure show would be one for which no video or audio evidence survives.  I'm thinking that list would be somewhat small, and probably not include anything from the mid-seventies to the present.
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Tim L

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« Reply #67 on: July 05, 2011, 02:13:17 PM »
A friend who lurks here e-mailed me to suggest a different way of looking at this question.  Rather than local shows, which are by their very nature obscure to the rest of the country, or recent, short-lived shows that frankly, every single one of us remember, a truly obscure show would be one for which no video or audio evidence survives.  I'm thinking that list would be somewhat small, and probably not include anything from the mid-seventies to the present.

True Matt: I was going by people referring to Baltimore and St. Louis shows..I would venture to say that there are none of the Game Show Forum folks in Cleveland would remember Quick As A Wink, especially since it lasted about 13 weeks..That said, your friend makes an excellent point

Ian Wallis

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« Reply #68 on: July 05, 2011, 05:38:16 PM »
Quote
a truly obscure show would be one for which no video or audio evidence survives. I'm thinking that list would be somewhat small, and probably not include anything from the mid-seventies to the present.

We've talked about what exists and what (likely) doesn't a few times in the past, but it's not something that's been brought up recently.  I'm not sure if there's a definitive list somewhere or not in one of those old threads, but if we're listing series with no known video or audio is available, I'll start with a few off the top of my mind:

Snap Judgement
Sale of the Century ('69-73 version)
It's Your Move (Jim Perry version)

We could also list shows which currently haven't turned up in the trade curcuit, which might mean nothing exists from them:

Baffle comes to mind

Feel free to add...
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Matt Ottinger

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« Reply #69 on: July 05, 2011, 06:29:54 PM »
Feel free to add...
The friend who suggested this line of discussion (and who would be in a pretty good position to know, BTW) mentioned two short-lived ABC daytimers: Make a Face and Window Shopping.  Interestingly, both have home versions, so at least there's that much tangibility.

Without going through the EOTVGS and making a list, I'm only coming up with two more from the seventies:  The Saturday morning show Runaround, and a syndicated version of It Pays to be Ignorant (actually a scripted spoof of game shows).  I watched Runaround every week.  I only saw It Pays to be Ignorant once.  Can't remember the details of how (must have been while traveling), but I remember it being very funny to a 13-year-old.  And yes, the original Sale of the Century would be very high on my wish list.  I have memory of the syndicated version with Joe Garagiola playing with married couples, but not of the daytime show.  Either would be awesome.

I've been fortunate between UCLA and the various Paley Centers and visits to the homes of collectors-who-must-not-be-named that I've had the chance to see some pretty rare stuff, so I can tell you with confidence but without details that there is a Baffle.  There is also a Wizard of Odds.

No one ever found a complete episode of Spin-Off, did they?  Just a few scenes in promos, and the vague awareness that the master tapes are still around?
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Twentington

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« Reply #70 on: July 05, 2011, 06:33:21 PM »
That Shoppers' Casino game would fit under the "no audiovisual proof that exists" rule, would it not? As I said elsewhere, Google's barely even heard of it.
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« Reply #71 on: July 05, 2011, 06:40:40 PM »

No one ever found a complete episode of Spin-Off, did they?  Just a few scenes in promos, and the vague awareness that the master tapes are still around?

Spin-off hasn't made it into the hands of collectors.

I was scouring for Showdown with Joe Pyne and Fractured Phrases with Art James for years...no trace of either of them.
Pretty sure Double Exposure isn't known to be around, and I believe that People Will Talk is gone too, although I want to say that I have a faint recollection of reading that an episode of the latter was around somewhere.

Dream Girl of '67 seems to be gone too...

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Fedya

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« Reply #72 on: July 05, 2011, 07:00:31 PM »
Quote
Dream Girl of '67 seems to be gone too...

The "Dream Girl of '67" would probably be about 67 now, and not much of a dream anymore....
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BrandonFG

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« Reply #73 on: July 05, 2011, 07:05:53 PM »
That Shoppers' Casino game would fit under the "no audiovisual proof that exists" rule, would it not? As I said elsewhere, Google's barely even heard of it.
Not quite. Jason mentioned at the top of the thread he's seen an episode, and I've seen the show listed on one or two tape trading lists. That's definitely A/V evidence.
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alfonzos

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« Reply #74 on: July 05, 2011, 07:25:05 PM »
Quote
WEWS-TV 5 aired A Local Game Show, "Quick As A Wink" from September 14, 1964 to March 12, 1965.
I was seven years old when this aired and I remember it vividly. Four contestants watched a blank screen. Whenever a picture would appear on the screen for a split second, the player who buzzed in first won $5 in the first round, $10 in the second round. The winners from Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday would face-off on Friday.
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