An AP article appearing in the Philadelphia Daily News on April 20, 1988 notes that on Feb. 2nd, the producers checked out of the Showboat and were detained by law enforcement, accused of stealing dice and other equipment from the set. (April 20, 1988, pg. 5). This leads to the legal action that shutters production. Keep that date. The April article is about the lawsuit.
The latest I can find any listings for the show appearing on Newspapers.com is for the week of April 18 in a handful of markets - the show’s market clearances start plummeting rapidly after the February ratings book and by the end of March the show is only airing on a relatively small number of stations whose listings are archived on Newspapers.com. The show definitely was not on the air by the May '88 book in any form.
The Asbury Park Press (1/31/1988) notes that the show had originally planned to tape for eight week at Trump’s Castle - 3 tape days per week, 5 shows per taping, but only taped for two (calendar) weeks there due to scheduling conflicts with “a long-running revue show, ‘City Lites’” that was committed for the space. A similarly dated article in the Courier-News of Bridgewater, NJ (1/28/1988, p16) notes that the taping schedule had been three days a week, so with two weeks of tapings, that means 30 shows filmed at the Trump property. The mid January eviction appears to have been sudden, and likely would have meant at least a short stop to find a new site, set up, work out production elements, etc
All hell broke loose with the production on check-out from the Showboat on February 2nd and never resumed, and given the articles a few days prior note the Trump departure as being recent, my assumption (I know you said no speculation, but I’m only doing this within the context of the info presented) is one batch of tapings - 3 days, 15 shows - at the Showboat. Which would put the show at 45 episodes total. 45 first run shows also would get us to the point (March 1988) when affiliates began rapidly jettisoning the show.
I can't say positively 45 is the number, but from spending a half hour in Newspapers.com and the Broadcasting archives, it'd be my best, most educated guess based on the articles immediately available. Apologies if the above isn't concrete enough.
