The Day My Grandfather Groucho and I Saved ‘You Bet Your Life’

[BrandonFG]

The link is from the Eyes of a Generation Facebook page; it's an account of how a simple phone call led to You Bet Your Life enjoying a new life in reruns. Really great read.

http://boingboing.net/2013/03/12/the-day-my-grandfather-groucho.html

[brianhenke]

  It was mentioned on a thread here two years ago. In that thread, I said that I watched Groucho's YBYL in 1977, the year he died. At least it was saved for future generations to see, unlike most other NBC game shows.  (Can you imagine what might have happened if Heatter and Quigley got a phone call from NBC saying that they were going to destroy the Hollywood Squares tapes?(

  Brian

[jimlangefan]

  It was mentioned on a thread here two years ago. In that thread, I said that I watched Groucho's YBYL in 1977, the year he died. At least it was saved for future generations to see, unlike most other NBC game shows.  (Can you imagine what might have happened if Heatter and Quigley got a phone call from NBC saying that they were going to destroy the Hollywood Squares tapes?(

  Brian

But according to Peter Marshall in his Hollywood Squares book, wasn't over 3,000 of the shows found when they were looking for Dark Shadows?  Which some of them then shortly afterwards ended up being on GSN?

[PYLdude]

Why would the Dark Shadows masters be with the Hollywood Squares masters? Unless ABC and NBC used the same storage facility I can't imagine how they would ever be together.v

[parliboy]

Why would the Dark Shadows masters be with the Hollywood Squares masters? Unless ABC and NBC used the same storage facility I can't imagine how they would ever be together.

Wasn't it all basically Viacom as the parent company by then?

[BrandonFG]

IIRC, "Dark Shadows" reruns had been airing on the Sci-Fi Channel (now Syfy) since the mid-90s or so. I think a few also aired on NBC a few years prior, as part of a promotion for a DS revival.

The "Squares" episodes didn't turn up until 2002, right before Marshall's book came out.

[gamed121683]

IIRC, "Dark Shadows" reruns had been airing on the Sci-Fi Channel (now Syfy) since the mid-90s or so. I think a few also aired on NBC a few years prior, as part of a promotion for a DS revival.

The "Squares" episodes didn't turn up until 2002, right before Marshall's book came out.

Maybe this will clear the confusion up:

http://www.classicsquares.com/reruns.html

[PYLdude]

Why would the Dark Shadows masters be with the Hollywood Squares masters? Unless ABC and NBC used the same storage facility I can't imagine how they would ever be together.

Wasn't it all basically Viacom as the parent company by then?

Not necessarily. Some parts of the Filmways library did end up in the possession of Viacom (Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction), but IIRC only because CBS retained rights to the series after they were cancelled. Dark Shadows and a whole bunch of others ended up in the Viacom library awhile after that when Worldvision Enterprises merged with Aaron Spelling's company.

Although I'm suddenly curious as to whether or not The Addams Family was ever in the possession of Viacom (I don't believe so, because it's currently distributed by MGM with Green Acres and Mister Ed, all Filmways productions and Worldvision, as far as I knew, only had home video rights).

[PYLdude]

IIRC, "Dark Shadows" reruns had been airing on the Sci-Fi Channel (now Syfy) since the mid-90s or so. I think a few also aired on NBC a few years prior, as part of a promotion for a DS revival.

The "Squares" episodes didn't turn up until 2002, right before Marshall's book came out.

Maybe this will clear the confusion up:

http://www.classicsquares.com/reruns.html

Certainly does.