New show coming to Buzzr on February 17...

[Dbacksfan12]

Responding to Anthony's post here...perhaps they feel the name value of Hollywood Squares is worth it.  As an aside, does anyone remember if it was one of the shows listed in that poll of interminable length they ran last year?  Perhaps it scored highly.

[chrisholland03]

I feel like there's wild overestimation of cost involved here.

[TLEberle]

I feel like there's wild overestimation of cost involved here.

The owner of the content is elated to be making money for their content. The lessee hopes to make a profit so if it maybe costs them in the thousands of dollars in rights per episode and they can make a profit on that, then it's a win for them. That's basically the profit motive.

[JMFabiano]

Apparently Mark Goodson wasn't the only one who thought no bluffs was a good thing...

https://mobile.twitter.com/JonBowzerBauman/status/1091547703731867648

[gamed121683]

Just curious, did Bauman ever do the classic version of Squares with Peter Marshall?

[aaron sica]

Responding to Anthony's post here...perhaps they feel the name value of Hollywood Squares is worth it.  As an aside, does anyone remember if it was one of the shows listed in that interminable poll they ran last year?  Perhaps it scored highly.

That was my thought about his post as well. The BUZZR facebook page is always littered with posts asking them to add shows (and the same fans explaining why adding said show is not possible), so maybe because it's Hollywood Squares, it was added. Granted, not the best example of the show, but HS nonetheless.

[Joe Mello]

At least there is a much better recognition with Classic Concentration to get some other people watching besides us game show geeks, and the show ran for six total years in daytime.  This show didn't even make it a year and, from my second hand recollection (it was on before I was born), wasn't very popular.

If they're able to get all 191 hour-long episodes, MGHS will have about 1.5x the total runtime of Celebrity Name Game (257 half-hours) and nearly 4 times that of Double Dare (96), both of which have also been on Buzzr.

Also if the "only get game shows that are popular" held that much weight, I don't think there would be as much grousing about Harvey Feud on GSN.

[JMFabiano]

Responding to Anthony's post here...perhaps they feel the name value of Hollywood Squares is worth it.  As an aside, does anyone remember if it was one of the shows listed in that interminable poll they ran last year?  Perhaps it scored highly.

That was my thought about his post as well. The BUZZR facebook page is always littered with posts asking them to add shows (and the same fans explaining why adding said show is not possible), so maybe because it's Hollywood Squares, it was added. Granted, not the best example of the show, but HS nonetheless.

That and it's yet another version of MG hosted by Gene Rayburn, and a rare one at that.  So for the Rayburn completist, there's that (coupled with them showing NBC's TMG from time to time as needed). 

[Mike Tennant]

This quote from the Vulture article seems to explain Buzzr's rationale pretty well:

But reviving MGHSH also lets Buzzr give its game show diehards more episodes of the very popular Match Game format (the ‘70s version runs multiple times each day, while ABC is now airing a revival in primetime) as well as some form of Hollywood Squares, reruns of which haven’t been seen regularly in years. While Deetjen would likely be very open to the idea of airing the original Peter Marshall-hosted Squares, Buzzr parent company Fremantle doesn’t own the rights to it (unlike most of the other games on the channel). “This is a way to slide in Hollywood Squares to our lineup,” he says. “If you were to do a Mt. Rushmore of game shows, it and Match Game would both be on it.”

[JMFabiano]

This quote from the Vulture article seems to explain Buzzr's rationale pretty well:

But reviving MGHSH also lets Buzzr give its game show diehards more episodes of the very popular Match Game format (the ‘70s version runs multiple times each day, while ABC is now airing a revival in primetime) as well as some form of Hollywood Squares, reruns of which haven’t been seen regularly in years. While Deetjen would likely be very open to the idea of airing the original Peter Marshall-hosted Squares, Buzzr parent company Fremantle doesn’t own the rights to it (unlike most of the other games on the channel). “This is a way to slide in Hollywood Squares to our lineup,” he says. “If you were to do a Mt. Rushmore of game shows, it and Match Game would both be on it.”

Quite possible, I mean they had to talk to MGM, didn't they?

Anyway...I will say that with all the complaints about elements of the show...I'm glad to see it again.  Nostalgia and all that.   It'll be surreal to have pristine copies on TV now, just like it is with Classic Concentration. 

On the topic, and in line with what I've asked around about...there's two related items I wonder whether or not they can be (re-)found.  One is a picture of the floor mural at the original location of the NBC Experience in NYC.  As this featured shots of their shows over the years, and included Squares...but not the Marshall version.  No, they not only chose a scene from the MG/HS version, but the PILOT set (host/contestant area is all grey, not red, yellow, and blue).  That one's on par with the 80s magazines that did reports on video games and used CRAZY OTTO screenshots to represent Pac-Man. 

Second thing is an interview I recall being posted online with Gene Rayburn.  Notable because they did touch upon MG/HS, and while he was savage against BTB '85, Gene was much milder talking about the earlier show...even saying his "hated co-host" Bauman was a nice guy but didn't have hosting chops. 

[Bryce L.]

Second thing is an interview I recall being posted online with Gene Rayburn.  Notable because they did touch upon MG/HS, and while he was savage against BTB '85, Gene was much milder talking about the earlier show...even saying his "hated co-host" Bauman was a nice guy but didn't have hosting chops.

And this reminds me, wasn't there an interview Gene Wood gave where he said Gene Rayburn was "dragged kicking and screaming" into MG/HS?

[Adam Nedeff]

And this reminds me, wasn't there an interview Gene Wood gave where he said Gene Rayburn was "dragged kicking and screaming" into MG/HS?

There was, but Robert Sherman sorta called BS on that when I interviewed him for my book about Gene. Gene had a local talk show in New York that he had tried to expand to a national show for syndication. There weren't enough biters, which meant that "local" was as far as it was going to go, and you're only going to get paid so much for a local talk show. Mark Goodson opened his checkbook and Gene signed a contract. If Gene didn't want to be there, he wouldn't have been.

[Sodboy13]

What was the reason for not bringing back Peter Marshall along with Rayburn for this, by the way? Was Peter not interested, or was Goodson/NBC not interested in Peter?

[snowpeck]

What was the reason for not bringing back Peter Marshall along with Rayburn for this, by the way? Was Peter not interested, or was Goodson/NBC not interested in Peter?

Peter said in his book he had hoped they would offer him the gig, but they didn't. Which then made him secretly happy when it got cancelled.

[SRIV94]

What was the reason for not bringing back Peter Marshall along with Rayburn for this, by the way? Was Peter not interested, or was Goodson/NBC not interested in Peter?

Peter said in his book he had hoped they would offer him the gig, but they didn't. Which then made him secretly happy when it got cancelled.

And if they had, it would've been one of the rare times a host had a show cancelled only to end up hosting (or co-hosting) the replacement.