New Buzzr lineup effective 9/30

[cmjb13]

Was the reason they never asked Marshall to host was because Goodson didn’t want to have to pay (2) high priced talents?

They probably got Bowzer for scale and a couple of pizzas.

Adam Nedeff has explained this a couple of times.  I've picked up a relevant quote from a different thread:

Somebody at NBC was really high on Jon Bauman, and part of the deal for this show was that Goodson HAD to use Bauman for the Squares half.

Gee a production company being told they have to use a certain host

Where have we heard that before?

[JMFabiano]

Was the reason they never asked Marshall to host was because Goodson didn’t want to have to pay (2) high priced talents?

They probably got Bowzer for scale and a couple of pizzas.

Adam Nedeff has explained this a couple of times.  I've picked up a relevant quote from a different thread:

Somebody at NBC was really high on Jon Bauman, and part of the deal for this show was that Goodson HAD to use Bauman for the Squares half.

Gee a production company being told they have to use a certain host

Where have we heard that before?

I am trying to remember, but I Drew a blank.

[MSTieScott]

Seeing as it hasn't been seen in 35 years, I understand why MGHS has gotten all of the attention here lately, but I just want to take a moment to appreciate the episodes of Blockbusters that aired on Friday and Monday. Incredibly competitive, and Bill knew when to put away the jokes and build up the inherent suspense during Monday's game. I was left saying to my television, "How did this show only get two seasons?"

(Also fun right now: Hearing the audience cheer more loudly than the canned applause when the solo player wins a game. I suspect that most of the noise is coming from all of the family-pair contestants who are growing increasingly impatient as they wait for their chance to play.)

[TLEberle]

Who is the family pair that manages to stay as champions?

[Julius]

Who is the family pair that manages to stay as champions?

  Pat and Liz McCarthy.

[Strikerz04]

Seeing as it hasn't been seen in 35 years, I understand why MGHS has gotten all of the attention here lately, but I just want to take a moment to appreciate the episodes of Blockbusters that aired on Friday and Monday. Incredibly competitive, and Bill knew when to put away the jokes and build up the inherent suspense during Monday's game. I was left saying to my television, "How did this show only get two seasons?"

(Also fun right now: Hearing the audience cheer more loudly than the canned applause when the solo player wins a game. I suspect that most of the noise is coming from all of the family-pair contestants who are growing increasingly impatient as they wait for their chance to play.)

The McCarthy's are a fun team to play this game, that's for sure. Today's game was suspenseful.

[MikeK]

One thing I noticed from the last aired week of MG/HS Hour is that not one, but two celebrities played both halves of all five shows.  One was Willie Tyler (and Lester), which I can understand.  The other was Bill Rafferty, who wasn't a spectacular Match Game player to start the week.

[MSTieScott]

Bill Rafferty was in both halves for all five episodes, but there was one episode early in the week (I want to say the Tuesday episode?) in which Willie Tyler and Lester were present for only the Hollywood Squares portion. No one called on their square or selected them during any part of the Super Match.

One problem that's been cited is that this show had no regulars, so I've been thinking about who some good regulars would have been. Based on what Buzzr has aired, I think Fred Grandy has stayed on the correct side of the "silly without being annoying" line. And Marcia Wallace was great during this past week. Granted, she hadn't had any significant credits to her name for five years at that point, but she would have been a good regular for both halves of the show.

[Eric Paddon]

You'll notice over time that Leonard Frey keeps getting booked again and again even after "Mr. Smith" was sent to its well-deserved reward after 13 weeks.

[PYLdude]

Re: Scott asking why Blockbusters only got two years...

My theory was this. Is it a good solid format? Sure it is. Is it a good game? Yes. But to get from point A to point B was just such a slog. That's the one knock I can't ignore. Doesn't stop me from watching but I can see why a daytime audience might not be so patient.

[TLEberle]

What is getting from A to B though? Sure, it is 95/5 steak to sizzle but I appreciate that. At the same time it isn’t a daytime game show like TPIR or Feud or Sale, but is that so bad? You get lots of trivia and an interesting game—perhaps the knock is that it is the same thing over and over with zero variation.

[BrandonFG]

A couple of months before Rafferty's version premiered, Broadcasting magazine mentioned the return, and that the original got respectable ratings. But I guess it wasn't enough to beat whatever sitcom reruns CBS aired at 10:30 (Alice? The Jeffersons?). IIRC, ABC gave that time to the affiliates.

Never mind. I found the article. The cancellation was the result of NBC genius idea to move Texas to mornings.

NBC's new entry at 10:30 a.m., Blockbusters, ran on the NBC schedule from October 1980 to April 1982. [Brian Frons, VP of NBC daytime] said it was canceled originally not because of its performance, but because the network had no place to put it when it decided to try the soap, Texas (subsequently canceled), in the morning. That game show "was averaging a 17 or 18 share with a horrible lead-in," the old Regis Philbin Show, said Frons. Blockbusters is a question-and-answer game show
which the network hopes will prove compatible with Wheel of Fortune, which airs at 11 a.m. In hindsight, said Frons, Blockbusters "probably should have never been taken off.

Moot point nearly 38 years later, but why NBC didn't just replace Regis with Blockbusters, we'll never know.

I want to argue that you had to follow the visual action to see which contestant landed where on the board, thus making it a bit more complex for someone at home simply listening. But so many other games involve similar strategies and did just fine (Wheel, Hollywood Squares, TTD come to mind).

[tyshaun1]

Moot point nearly 38 years later, but why NBC didn't just replace Regis with Blockbusters, we'll never know.

NBC replaced Regis's talk show with Diff'rent Strokes reruns 2 weeks before Blockbusters was taken off. They seemed to be just throwing things at the wall that year.

[chrisholland03]

Can anyone make heads/tails out of the Combs FF episode numbers on the Buzzr site?  They were airing daytime episodes from early 1989 with episode numbers in the 100s, now they're airing episodes from 1989 with episode numbers in the 2300s.   

[calliaume]

Can anyone make heads/tails out of the Combs FF episode numbers on the Buzzr site?  They were airing daytime episodes from early 1989 with episode numbers in the 100s, now they're airing episodes from 1989 with episode numbers in the 2300s.

"You mean there are two thousand episodes we've never seen?  Where are the tapes???"