I will start this off by saying that I am really enjoying what Buzzr is doing as a "service" (yes, it is a business) for us hardcore fans, especially with the recent acquisitions. However, I am also not surprised that GSN has decided to largely abandon pre-2000 game shows (with one exception) and, to be honest, I am surprised it took this long to happen.
I, and I'm sure many others here, look back with fondness on the times when USA and CBN/Family Channel showed their game show blocks in the early afternoons each weekday, mixing reruns with new originals. But, it's worth noting that even the reruns were not really that "old" at the time; when I remember watching the USA block as a very young kid in 1989, the oldest show on the block was Face the Music, which was, even at that time, only 9 years old. In all of the years USA showed game show reruns after that, the oldest show they aired was $25,000 Pyramid, and many of their shows in reruns were only a few years old at the time. In fact, shows like Wipeout premiered on USA in reruns the week after it was out of first-run syndication!
The Family Channel wasn't much different; their oldest show was '70s reruns of Let's Make a Deal, but the majority of their reruns were 10-ish years old, combined with their originals.
If we translate this model to GSN, this would mean *all* of their reruns would come from the 21st Century, with a large number of them being in recent years, and a moderate mix of originals. And, Match Game aside, this is what they've done. Imagining USA still airing a game show block today, I would be extremely shocked if they were airing PYL, Scrabble, and Pyramid still. They likely would have moved on to Cash Cab, Temptation, or even Crosswords, for example.
What am I saying here? As much as we may lament the loss of our "classic" GSN, we need to also be thankful that we had a channel that continued to air classic game shows from the 1970s and 1980s for as long as they did! As a game show fan, I'm disappointed, but, as a realist that GSN is a business, this move is not surprising to me at all, and, frankly, I'm amazed it didn't happen sooner. Similarly, I don't think Buzzr is a sustainable business model as-is either, but, as a game show fan that loved Classic Concentration as a kid, I will enjoy it when it returns!
Anthony