GSN Turns 18

[LetsGoYankees]

I'm off a day, but it was December 1, 1994 that the "Game Show Network" was born, and so were classic and modern game show reruns, including Match Game. MG was one of the first game shows to air on the Game Show Network, and still appears on the schedule every weekday now.

I ask this now: What was your first memory of the Game Show Network?

Check here for more information on which shows appeared first on GSN.

[Jimmy Owen]

I was at a K-Mart in the TV department circa 1998 and all the monitors were showing Perry "Card Sharks."  As soon as I got home, I called the cable co. to get the package with GSN.

[clemon79]

Well, my first *memory* was when it was being discussed on ATGS before it launched in '94, but my first experience seeing it was when someone (might have even been GSN itself) was streaming it as a Microsoft Netshow stream in '97 or so, and I could watch The Joker's Wild in a fuzzy 2" window over dialup.

[Johnissoevil]

First read about "The Game Show Channel" in TV Guide in the fall of 1993.  It took a bit over a year before what would become Game Show Network to go on the air.  First experience was in January 1995, when my cousin got C-band satellite.  We were spending the day watching those old game shows we grew up watching, as well as the B&W shows that were on before our parents reached their teen years.  Finally got GSN on a full time basis in 1997, first as a two week preview in February, then as a part of the regular lineup in May.

[Jay Temple]

In 1997 or '98, I saw a TV at Best Buy airing a promo for Tattle Tales, where they showed various couples and said what happened to each of them. A couple years later, at a Blockbuster Video, I saw part of the Password Plus where Debralee Scott's clue of "lovemaking" is initially disallowed. It was three years before I actually had the channel. Coincidentally, either P+ or SP was on when my wife noticed it.

[aaron sica]

If that broadcasting magazine archive went all the way to 1994 I could link to it...But my first memory of GSN is the ad that said "We came to play!" before launch..I remember first looking at their schedule in OnSat magazine after launch and just being mesmerized by all I saw ("Child's Play..I remember that show!"). Being out of HS for a year and a half at that point I used my A/V Club connections and my alma mater's satellite dish (purchased for Channel One) to tune to G7-T6 and record some GSN. I got the tail end of a WoF, and entire episodes of SP, MG90, BTC (with Gene Wood), and Child's Play. An additional tape a few weeks later netted me the end of a Combs Feud, my first look at an entire Rayburn MG episode in almost 15 years, among other shows. This was a truly magical time. I convinced my dad to get DISH Network when they added GSN in November 1996 and largely since then, I've had the channel.

[PYLdude]

So GSN is an adult now, I see?

[trainman]

Ahh, Game Show Network, you'll always be Channel 161 on the TCI digital lineup to me.

[Casey]

Ahh, Game Show Network, you'll always be Channel 161 on the TCI digital lineup to me.

Interesting that you mention this - it happens to be Channel 161 right now in Denver on Comcast for the SD version.  It's in the high 700's for HD.  I remember it being 161 years and years ago when I lived in Iowa (TCI there, too).

[Jamey Greek]

I remember seeing ads for GSN in Orbit magazine when I was in the supermarket with my mom.  I remember a schoolmate talking about it and I remember on the way to dropping my stepsister off to see her mother in Mobile, we stopped at her father's friend's house and they had GSN and I caught the tail end of Trivia Trap and I remember we left and I was so hooked since then. Christmas of 1995 my grandmother got me a primestar for two reasons.  1. She lived out in the country in Alabama so she didn't have cable and 2. I wanted GSN but we found out it wasn't available at the time.  In 1997, we finally recieved it prior to the "Dark period" I loved it.  I was so happy to get it.

[BrandonFG]

I remember in 1992-93, when news outlets reported on the idea of a 500 channel universe, and I could only think how cool it would be to have an all game show channel...USA's rerun block, except 24 hours a day. Sure enough, in one of the reports, there was a clip of a few lovely ladies wearing Game Show Network or Game Show Channel shirts. I don't know what got this 9/10-year-old's attention more: the ladies or the 24 hours of game shows. ;-)

Sometime in 1994, I remember reading an article in the supermarket line about upcoming cable channels. GSN was on that list, and I immediately hoped for TCI to pick it up. Funny how, 20 years ago, I loved the idea of 500 channels, while I now realize I don't need cable because I can't find anything on the 500 channels offered. Roku, Youtube, and DVDs are now my "cable outlets". :-P

[Matt Ottinger]

As a member of the Usenet group, I was following the development of the channel along with everybody else.  Conveniently, I work at a school district that had just purchased four big satellite dishes.  I basically took one of the four and locked it onto the GSN signal, so I can honestly say I was watching GSN from Day One.  I still have VHS tapes of the first 24 hours of their programming.

[BillCullen1]

First got GSN in 2003. The cable guy left my house at 6:30 pm EST. First show I saw was Match Game '75. A great time for GSN, when they had originals and classic oldies. 2007 - '10 were decent years also, IMO.

So GSN is 18 - in three more years it can go into any liquor store.

[JMFabiano]

My first encounters with GSN were from my first tape trade in 1996, when I got the premiere, finale, and a handful of the New Year's specials of Match Game, along with Password Plus and Super Password episodes (PW+ premiere, the "I was married to him for too long" ep. with Lucy and Dick Martin; two random SP's but including one where someone makes the exact same goof made on the PW+ premiere).  I got by  with tape trades to fulfill my game show fix for a while, but did think of how nice it would be to have this little network some of these old memories came from.  Well a year later, our cable company was previewing some potential new channels (Sci-Fi and the Golf Channel were among the other candidates, with the former I was reunited with MST3K unexpectedly one evening too!) and had a vote on them.  Sure enough, GSN was one of the choices too so I had my VCR working overtime capturing as much as I could from the couple of days they were showing it.  I forget who won the vote, but shortly after all the channels ended up on our system anyway.  Needless to say, I was in heaven...everything seemed just right at that time too (from the variety to little scheduling nuances like having Wheel at 11 am eastern, the slot the daytime version usually was in on NBC when I was growing up).

Little did I know that months later would come the so-called Dark Period...as we know now, it wasn't THAT bad but started some trends that would never leave the channel (repeating shows for instance).  GSN has since had ups and downs but never reached that time when I first got it, IMO.  And the scary thing is it was EVEN BETTER before 1997...the Club AM and etc. days.

Question...when did they first get TPIR?  I know they did have clips of it in promos from when they started, but that disappeared soon.  That is one advantage that came later.

[BrandonFG]

Question...when did they first get TPIR?  I know they did have clips of it in promos from when they started, but that disappeared soon.  That is one advantage that came later.

IIRC, 1996 or '97. I wanna say early-97.