Goodson and reruns in the pre-GSN period

[Scrabbleship]

I recently purchased Adam Nedeff's "The Matchless Gene Rayburn" and in reading it found an anecdote about his drop of visibility: that while reruns of game shows were booming in the later 80s and early 90s, Match Game was nowhere to be seen during this period which curtailed Gene's visibility to the point of the AFTRA pension fund, which he helped create, needing him to prove who he was really was as their check issuer thought "Jean Rayburn" was a woman.

On a tangent, reading this reminded me of the fact that for nearly a decade - from 1986 when the MG/FF rerun packages plus Blockbusters on CBN ended until GSN launched - nothing Goodson produced was rerun anywhere on a national scale* less planned network reruns. Was this a case of Goodson not wanting to rerun his product or was it a case that USA and other potential networks couldn't come to the right price or terms to pick up Goodson shows? I know there was a bit of a 70s backlash in the later 80s and very early 90s but there had to have been some interest in the Goodson library during that period, yes?

* I know there were a few isolated cases where some shows were aired as a one-off - I remember seeing Ronald Reagan's IGAS guest stint taped off of Dallas' KDFI in the early 90s and I know WTAE in Pittsburgh aired a Blyden WML? for their 40th anniversary(?).

[tvmitch]

My guess is that there just wasn't the market for it, especially during that 1990 to 1994 period, when the number of syndicated game shows really began to dwindle.

Perhaps Goodson did shop reruns to USA and Family, but the games they ended up airing were available on the cheap?

[Scrabbleship]

My guess is that there just wasn't the market for it, especially during that 1990 to 1994 period, when the number of syndicated game shows really began to dwindle.

I can't disagree here, especially since OTA reruns of already dead shows were already a dying breed by the mid 80s outside of some isolated incidents (WPWR with Rafferty Card Sharks on a one year delay and the Viacom-owned stations using Split Second '87 to plug holes for a couple of years later).

Perhaps Goodson did shop reruns to USA and Family, but the games they ended up airing were available on the cheap?

Given how a lot of what they had fell into this category, I would not be shocked if this is the answer. Also, wasn't The Games on FAM an attempt to salvage the planned Game Channel that CBN/IFE was trying to launch but couldn't get off the ground before GSN stole all their thunder?

Also, trying to put myself in a mindset from ~25 years ago, a lot of what Goodson made just wouldn't have fit in with what USA/FAM had at that time. Anything from prior to the early 80s would've come off as looking VERY old (as 70s LMaD and Face the Music did on FAM and to a lesser degree the 1982-83 $25K Pyramids on USA) and a little out of place. Perhaps it was just holding out for the right venue and the right time which GSN was and now Buzzr is.

[aaron sica]

I wrote a letter to USA Network in 1990 or 1991, asking them to add reruns of MG to their game show block. I got a nice form letter back.

[snowpeck]

It's also worth noting that the Goodson reruns that did turn up in the early to mid 1980s were syndicated by other entities. For example, CBN's reruns of Blockbusters and Card Sharks were both syndicated by Firestone. The fact that Goodson didn't have a syndication arm during that time may have played a role.

[Allstar87]

The only other Goodson reruns I'm aware of is when Star Television Network aired reruns of Trivia Trap in 1990. I don't know how far in the run Star got, but since they folded after just 15 weeks it couldn't have been very far at all.

[Jamey Greek]

I wrote a letter to USA Network in 1990 or 1991, asking them to add reruns of MG to their game show block. I got a nice form letter back.

And what did they say?

[Jimmy Owen]

I wrote a letter to USA Network in 1990 or 1991, asking them to add reruns of MG to their game show block. I got a nice form letter back.

With Shafer's MG in production on ABC, there might have been something contractual getting in the way of making that happen.

[chris319]

The fact that Goodson didn't have a syndication arm during that time may have played a role.

When I was there, Jerry Chester handled all of that, relying on established syndicators such as Jim Victory. With the exception of Concentration, it is ironic because of what I call "one-stop shopping". All Jerry had to do was sell a show to one station group and it was a "go" in syndication. He had one sale to make to get Match Game on the ABC-owned stations and yes, an ABC S&P rep would attend all tapings of MG PM.

I was told Goodson fairly had to be dragged into syndicating his shows. All he knew was the networks, but He Said, She Said tided the company over in the late '60's. The current version of TPIR was intended for syndication to the NBC stations until Bud Grant at CBS got wind of it. And oh yes, there were syndicated color versions of WML? and Password in the late '60's.

Jerry Chester could have made the sale directly without involving an outside syndicator, keeping the money in the company. All Goodson would have to do is hire some people to make sure the tapes got duplicated and bicycled. Had he been clever he would have sold some barter spots in the shows which Bob Stewart did but AFAIK Goodson never did.

At some point Harris Katleman rejoined the company and may have branched out beyond broadcast, i.e. the networks and the traditional syndication route, seeing this library of rerunnable shows and the emergence of cable.

[aaron sica]

I wrote a letter to USA Network in 1990 or 1991, asking them to add reruns of MG to their game show block. I got a nice form letter back.

And what did they say?

I honestly don't remember....I think it was something to the extent of "thank you for your valued feedback".

[Scrabbleship]

The fact that Goodson didn't have a syndication arm during that time may have played a role.

When I was there, Jerry Chester handled all of that, relying on established syndicators such as Jim Victory. With the exception of Concentration, it is ironic because of what I call "one-stop shopping". All Jerry had to do was sell a show to one station group and it was a "go" in syndication. He had one sale to make to get Match Game on the ABC-owned stations and yes, an ABC S&P rep would attend all tapings of MG PM.

I know that Adam wrote of this in both "Matchless Gene Rayburn" and in "Game Shows FAQ" but didn't all three networks have a censor on hand for MG PM and that there were three different "edits" based on the standards of each network? Or was I reading that portion wrong?

I was told Goodson fairly had to be dragged into syndicating his shows. All he knew was the networks, but He Said, She Said tided the company over in the late '60's. The current version of TPIR was intended for syndication to the NBC stations until Bud Grant at CBS got wind of it. And oh yes, there were syndicated color versions of WML? and Password in the late '60's.

Didn't Goodson go down the syndication road as their 1967-68 status quo of only having three shows (Snap Judgment, TTTT, MG) that totaled 1:15 of runtime would not be sustainable long-term?

Had he been clever he would have sold some barter spots in the shows which Bob Stewart did but AFAIK Goodson never did.

Didn't Stewart, with Colgate-Palmolive, help pioneer barter syndication with $50K Pyramid? In that case, Goodson seemed to be a late adopter as I remember there being brushback with syndicated Combs Feud when LBS tried to put in barter spots that took away from the local inventory.

I wrote a letter to USA Network in 1990 or 1991, asking them to add reruns of MG to their game show block. I got a nice form letter back.

With Shafer's MG in production on ABC, there might have been something contractual getting in the way of making that happen.

IIRC USA reran CBS $25K Pyramid alongside Davidson $100K being first run and their Scrabble rerun package ran in concert with the first-run 1993 revival as well.