GSN Turns 18

[TimK2003]

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.

But next year it can sneak into Canada and do it all

I don't remember the first time I *watched* GSN, but I remember getting a co-worker in 1999 to record 12-18 hours of GSN...and it happened to be during their 5th Anniversary when they counted down the top 20-25(?) Goodson-Todman shows in order.  (Probably the best anniversary celebration they ever did, with Marianne Curan and Peter Tomarken at the hosting helm).

I had also talked to my grandfather into choosing Primestar over Dish Network since GSN was in the basic tier for Primestar, IIRC.  It was still a few years off before I got GSN at home (via DirecTV).

[JMFabiano]

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.

I see.  I also seem to remember someone saying they didn't have Perry Card Sharks at the launch.  (They only showed Eubanks at first)  True?  If so, anyone know the story as to why they couldn't show the original series until later?

[aaron sica]

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.

The thing GSN did that I liked the least was when they aired a block of shows from 8am-noon, and then repeated SAME BLOCK from noon-4pm. IIRC, they did the same thing from 8-midnight and midnight-4am too.

TPiR started showing up on the channel not long after I got the channel in November 1996. It was really kind of cool, too - before it found a "permanent home" on the schedule, they would toss it in at random times. I remember watching it on a Saturday morning, expecting to see some "Joker's Wild" and some other shows, and instead, they put on a Cullen ep, the first permanent hour-long ep, and a Kennedy. Another time, I tuned into Prime Games at 7 expecting "Match Game" but instead got an hour-long TPiR. I believe when December rolled around (and GSN celebrated its *2nd* birthday), they slotted TPiR at 6pm every weeknight.

[clemon79]

By the by:

and so were classic and modern game show reruns,

USA and Family Channel say "wasaaaaap."

[Dbacksfan12]

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

My response is that we shouldn't answer any of your questions until you answer some of the direct questions that have been asked of you.

[BrandonFG]

In all fairness, he technically answered them. Doesn't necessarily change my thought process, but I'll give him benefit of the doubt.

[JMFabiano]

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.

The thing GSN did that I liked the least was when they aired a block of shows from 8am-noon, and then repeated SAME BLOCK from noon-4pm. IIRC, they did the same thing from 8-midnight and midnight-4am too.

Granted it was useful if you missed a taping opportunity in the first four hour block, but yeah, as I said, the Dark Period meant an end to variety for the most part.

[BillCullen1]

Actually, I just remember the first time I watched GSN was at a friend's house around '96 or so. It was Sunday and it was a B&W marathon. The WML ep had Ethel Merman as the MG, and they announced that in advance during the promos. I remember telling my friend that the gimmick of the original WML was that the MG was a surprise. These days, they tell us everything in advance. Maybe that's why WML hasn't been revived.

[Tim L]

The first time I saw GSN was at a friend's house in Massillon, Ohio sometime in 1998-He had Color original daytime "Password" on Massillon Cable TV.  I know one of the celebs was Barbara Eden..Not long after Time Warner Northeast Ohio picked up GSN...

[trainman]

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).

Welcome to the world of Headend in the Sky.

[jage]

My parents got PrimeStar in the fall of 1997 which was my senior year in high school. We only had one receiver so I pretty much spent that school year sleeping on the couch. So basically, I got one month of seeing Match Game, Password, etc. and then the dark period. It was all interesting to me though since I had never seen Match Game or any version of Password before GSN (our local NBC must have not shown Super Password in the 80s).
But I'm sure I hogged the TV quite a bit in those first few months. Even made the original 3's a Crowd appointment TV.

[aaron sica]

So basically, I got one month of seeing Match Game, Password, etc. and then the dark period.

That's a shame. I remember that so very well, The "Dark Period" literally started at the stroke of midnight on Saturday, October 11, 1997 (EST). with an episode of "The Gong Show" GSN started running teaser commercials for the G-T shows on April 1, 1998, and when people would post to a.t.g-s that they saw commercials that the G-T shows were coming back, they weren't believed at first. It was cause for celebration when "Child's Play" hit the airwaves on April 18 @ 8:00 a.m.

[tvmitch]

My mom had to go to Radio Shack for some reason or another, and knowing that GSN exists, I wandered off to switch the TVs in the store to GSN. Radio Shack was running Dish Network in-store at the time. The first thing I saw - and only for a couple minutes - was Password Plus, which I had not seen before.

Right when the Dark Period started, or shortly before, I remember standing at the TVs in Costco and watching one of the personalities talk about how they were excited "Pyramid" was coming to the lineup. I think there was an episode of Pyramid showing at the time. I was disappointed that this is what was on GSN when I was in Costco, because I had seen Pyramid hundreds of times.

Shortly after this, I started tape trading, and much of what I requested from other traders, early on, was stuff taped straight from GSN. I have 20-30 tapes of Dark Period shows as a result. I need to dig through some of those.

[BrandonFG]

The Dark Period was my first exposure to GSN. One Saturday night in 1997, my mom's boss threw a Christmas party at her house, and I managed to sneak a peek at the network. First thing I ever saw was It's Optional being played for two Mustangs on TPiR.

Other than the times I'd watch the TVs at (insert any department store), every so often, my mom would take me to her job, and I'd watch GSN in the break room. That's how I caught Treasure Hunt, Three's A Crowd, and so many others. It was also the first time I got to see TJW, the one show I'd wanted to see for years.

Some of GSN's programming choices were questionable, but that 1998-2000 time frame always holds a special spot in my heart, mainly b/c of some of the rare classics they'd bring out. I promise that's not as cheesy as it sounds. :-P

[WarioBarker]

My first memory of GSN was just before April 15, 2002, as I remember seeing debut promos for Whammy! I stayed home from school on that big day, and frequently watched the original Hollywood Squares plus Win, Lose, Or Draw and pretty much everything else on the lineup. Unfortunately, my cable provider decided that GSN and MTV2 should share a single station on their lineup, and switched to the latter at about 6:02 PM (shortly into The $100,000 Pyramid).

Unfortunately, I didn't tape much of anything from GSN -- the only thing I've been able to find among my tapes is about 25 minutes worth from March 20, 2003 (last segment of a 1986 New Newlywed Game, full episode of Whammy!, first segment of Wintuition).
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As for the Dark Period, I see it as a grand time in GSN's history because it meant they had to dig around for other stuff to air when they lost almost all of the Goodson-Todman library. And for six months, they aired a lot of stuff that I'd wager they wouldn't have otherwise.