Scrabble 1991 Revival?

[Jimmy Owen]

[quote name=\'Jamey Greek\' date=\'Feb 8 2004, 12:54 PM\'] Who was supposed to distribute this Scrabble Pilot for Syndication?  and was Charlie Tuna supposed to come back and announce? [/quote]
 I'm gonna have to delve into my old Broadcasting mags to confirm, but I think the distributor was Group W.  Don't know about the announcer.

[Ian Wallis]

TV Guide did mention that Scrabble was offered for syndication for Fall 1991 at the January 1991 NATPE convention, but apparently not enough stations were interested. Steve Edwards did indeed host a pilot around that time that would have brought it back.

They say that timing is everything...during the fall of 1990 we had all those failures of other shows they tried to bring back - "Joker", "Tic", "TTTT", etc.  That's probably why they didn't get enough stations.  I wonder if they tried to bring this back a year earlier if it would have flown.

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Feb 9 2004, 08:47 AM\']


They say that timing is everything...during the fall of 1990 we had all those failures of other shows they tried to bring back - "Joker", "Tic", "TTTT", etc.  That's probably why they didn't get enough stations.  I wonder if they tried to bring this back a year earlier if it would have flown. [/quote]
It'd have had a slightly better chance of selling in January 1990's NATPE convention than in the 1991 one, if only because the NBC Scrabble was still on the air in early 1990, and this would have been looked at as a syndicated counterpart(of course it got the boot shortly after). Whether the stations that bought the show would have reneged upon hearing of the NBC version's cancellation a couple of months later is another story. DIdn't WNBC show reruns of Scrabble for a few months after the show's cancellation?

[uncamark]

The problem "Scrabble" would have in 1990 is that with "J!" reaching a ratings height back then, everybody wanted Q&A shows.  "Scrabble" could've either stood out in a glutted Q&A field or been dismissed.

In 1991, "Scrabble" was seen as just another game show--and the stations decided they'd had enough of those for a while.

[Don Howard]

Wasn't Willard Scott being considered as a host of some game show that was being shopped around for a 1991 revival? Password maybe?

[bricon]

Wasn't Willard Scott being considered as a host of some game show that was being shopped around for a 1991 revival? Password maybe?

I wish I had a source I could find to back this up, but as I recall he was considered to host $100,000 Pyramid, before John Davidson was picked.

[Jimmy Owen]

[quote name=\'bricon\' date=\'Feb 9 2004, 01:27 PM\']

Wasn't Willard Scott being considered as a host of some game show that was being shopped around for a 1991 revival? Password maybe?

I wish I had a source I could find to back this up, but as I recall he was considered to host $100,000 Pyramid, before John Davidson was picked. [/quote]
 There was a small blurb in the Life section of USA Today around 89-90 that mentioned a proposed Willard Scott-hosted Pyramid.

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' date=\'Feb 9 2004, 12:55 PM\'] Wasn't Willard Scott being considered as a host of some game show that was being shopped around for a 1991 revival? [/quote]
 In 1992, Willard did end up hosting a short-lived revival on the Family Channel. Though not a game show, it was a revival of the Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour called "The Original Amateur Hour"