Paley Center NBC 90th Anniversary

[That Don Guy]

There was a portion of the Paley Center's NBC 90th Anniversary three-hour special dedicated to "game and reality shows."  While it was mainly the newer ones, they did have some mentions of older shows.  The ones I can think of off the top of my head:
A short clip from Make the Connection (probably because Betty White hosted the segment - although in that case, where was Just Men!?)
A short clip from Super Password (Bert Convy putting his hand over Betty White's mouth when her partner gives her the clue "bull" (for the password "whip"))
Really short clips from Concentration (somebody guessing a puzzle) and Jeopardy! (Art Fleming introducing everyone to what I am guessing is the pilot)
Somebody winning $1 million on Deal or No Deal
A brief clip from Hollywood Game Night
and Pat Sajak telling about how he was hired by Merv Griffin to host Wheel of Fortune (no mention of Chuck Woolery, however - Pat just said something like, "The show needed a new host")

I only bring this up because one show was conspicuous by its absence - The Hollywood Squares.  Don't NBC primetime episodes from the 1970s exist, so it wouldn't be a case of not having anything to show (even if it was just the mention of the title in the show's opening, which is what the special did with Twenty-One)?

[BrandonFG]

GSN aired NBC nighttime episodes about 15 years ago.

[jjman920]

They had a little time so they covered some of the biggies. Obviously, the game show fan was to be disappointed by some of the omissions. If I were NBC though, I'd also take pride in being the original home of two juggernaut classics, The Price is Right and The Match Game.

I agree that Hollywood Squares was also a pretty glaring omission. Who doesn't love going over Paul Lynde's Greatest Hits?

[WarioBarker]

Did it seem to anyone else like some of the clips were zoomed in?

If I were NBC though, I'd also take pride in being the original home of two juggernaut classics, The Price is Right and The Match Game.

I'd probably add Let's Make A Deal, Sale of the Century, and Tic-Tac-Dough to that list.

[BrandonFG]

Did it seem to anyone else like some of the clips were zoomed in?

I haven't seen the segment yet, but perhaps the clips were taken from Youtube and they wanted to crop out some portions, i.e. watermarks from uploaders? That or they wanted to make the clips 16x9 friendly and didn't have a lot of time to convert? Just speculation on my part.

If I were NBC though, I'd also take pride in being the original home of two juggernaut classics, The Price is Right and The Match Game.

I'd probably add Let's Make A Deal, Sale of the Century, and Tic-Tac-Dough to that list.

LMAD is about the only one I'd include, in terms of being truly familiar and not just a passing childhood memory.

[TLEberle]

To Dan's point: if we assume that each of the ninety minutes is given an equal amount of airtime in the three hour extravaganza, that means each year is given about a minute-twenty or so. There are going to be blind spots, shows that were missed, and shows that someone is going to say got too much of the spotlight.

Given that, yes, you start with the heavy hitters and work your way down from there. As much as I'd love to see every game show covered to the exclusion of Saturday Night Live and Friends just on a personal level, I understand that I'm zero votes and zero percent of the viewing public.

[BrandonFG]

I caught the segment on Youtube. Honestly, outside of the Squares omission, I thought they did a pretty decent job covering the history. They mentioned early B&W hits, covered the big 70s/80s classics (outside of Wheel and HS, you're prolly not gonna find too many mainstream favorites there), and of course got Betty White in on the action with Super Password. Wrap it up with their recent hits of the last decade or so. For the few minutes they had, I found myself impressed.

And to answer Dan's question, they definitely zoomed in on some clips to make them appear consistently 16:9 friendly.

[nowhammies10]

The zooming was most noticeable on the clip of the DOND million-dollar winner: the silver graphic flies in and when it "lands", it's immediately halfway off the screen.

I think what they should have done (as people have suggested elsewhere) is how the WWE does it when they use 4:3 footage, which is to present the footage in its original 4:3 aspect ratio, then stretch and blur the footage into the pillarboxes on a separate layer, preserving the original look while also filling the image out to 16:9.

[WarioBarker]

Honestly, outside of the Squares omission, I thought they did a pretty decent job covering the history. They mentioned early B&W hits,

But if that was their intent, then why was Make the Connection in there?

As for the zooming, my first thought was they were trying to hide GSN logos or the like, not just uploaders' watermarks. It just looked a bit sloppy as a result.

[BrandonFG]

Honestly, outside of the Squares omission, I thought they did a pretty decent job covering the history. They mentioned early B&W hits,

But if that was their intent, then why was Make the Connection in there?

I'm guessing the same reason they used Super Password: an opportunity to showcase Betty White's legendary career. They managed to find a B&W show they once aired to prove their point, and gave Ms. White a chance to talk about how much she loves doing game shows. I'm willing to bet that if she hadn't appeared on the show, they prolly don't use the clip.

Just Men! would've been a nice touch for her to talk about winning an Emmy, but I get it.

[chad1m]

As for the zooming, my first thought was they were trying to hide GSN logos or the like, not just uploaders' watermarks. It just looked a bit sloppy as a result.

Every single 4:3 show in this special was made to fit a 16:9 window. No one is trying to hide logos or watermarks - they're trying to keep everything in a 16:9 format.

[WarioBarker]

Every single 4:3 show in this special was made to fit a 16:9 window. No one is trying to hide logos or watermarks - they're trying to keep everything in a 16:9 format.

Which, like nowhammies10 pointed out, they could've done by presenting the 4:3 shows in their native format with some graphics filling out the rest of the 16:9 space.

[clemon79]

Which, like nowhammies10 pointed out, they could've done by presenting the 4:3 shows in their native format with some graphics filling out the rest of the 16:9 space.

Indeed, they could have.

They chose not to.

Why is this difficult for people to understand?

[BrandonFG]

Every single 4:3 show in this special was made to fit a 16:9 window. No one is trying to hide logos or watermarks - they're trying to keep everything in a 16:9 format.

Which, like nowhammies10 pointed out, they could've done by presenting the 4:3 shows in their native format with some graphics filling out the rest of the 16:9 space.

My guess is, zooming in on the clips was a lot easier than having to edit a special letterbox onto the original clips. When you're putting together a three-hour special, you don't need to create extra work that nobody's gonna notice anyway.

[Neumms]

They definitely zoomed in on some clips to make them appear consistently 16:9 friendly.

This might explain why they didn't bother with The Hollywood Squares, since they couldn't crop and get the whole board.