MGHS and Kim Hood

[MSTieScott]

I am bewildered by week 30 of the Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour, which Buzzr is currently in the midst of airing. On the panel, there's the expected collection of mostly supporting actors from current TV series along with a former '70s star who hadn't had a hit in a little while. Also on the panel this week, introduced as "From WTHR in Indianapolis," is Kim Hood.

Kim Hood was a newscaster on Indianapolis's NBC affiliate at the time. As best as I can tell, she wasn't breaking into national renown in 1984. I am fascinated and perplexed at why an anchor/reporter from a seemingly random affiliate is in Los Angeles taping a week of Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour. Gene and Jon are treating her courteously, but nobody seems to know why she's there, including Kim herself.

Was Indianapolis the market that was key to getting the show renewed for a second season? Did Kim Hood do something in 1984 that the internet doesn't remember? Does anybody know what led to this booking?

[Adam Nedeff]

This gets weirder: WTHR, the NBC affiliate in Indianapolis, didn't air The Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour at all. According to the TV listings I just dug up from May 1984, they filled the time slot with syndicated programming. Specifically...reruns of Match Game.

[colonial]

Thank you MSTieScott for asking the question. I did not see the Monday episode, so I was hesitant to ask in case an explanation was mentioned.

There's not much info out there on Hood online. She's listed today as a "documentary producer" and was the third wife of the late Congressman Andrew Jacobs (the two wed a few years after her game show appearance).

I'm curious if Hood's appearance was a combination of her being in Burbank to audition for an NBC series of some sort (*) and her being thrown on air to sub for a celeb who backed out last minute.


JD


(*) -- Forgot where I read this, but it was mentioned in one of Helen Reddy's obituaries that she was speaking to NBC about potential opportunities for a TV series in 1983-84, and that her week on MG/HS was an "audition" of sorts. If true, that at least sets a precedent of NBC using the show to audition talent.

[snowpeck]

This gets weirder: WTHR, the NBC affiliate in Indianapolis, didn't air The Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour at all. According to the TV listings I just dug up from May 1984, they filled the time slot with syndicated programming. Specifically...reruns of Match Game.

Not sure of your source, but all of the Indianapolis-area newspapers on Newspapers.com have MGHS listed for 2 p.m. Central on WTHR that month.

[Sodboy13]

I went to bed just after the opening last night, and was similarly baffled. My first thought was that this was a new high/low in appeasing an affiliate. My second thought was, given that this was a show that threw a visiting marching band onstage to fill a segment because of a large hole in the rules no one thought to address, that I was the first person to give this a second thought.

[Matt Ottinger]

This gets weirder: WTHR, the NBC affiliate in Indianapolis, didn't air The Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour at all. According to the TV listings I just dug up from May 1984, they filled the time slot with syndicated programming. Specifically...reruns of Match Game.

Not sure of your source, but all of the Indianapolis-area newspapers on Newspapers.com have MGHS listed for 2 p.m. Central on WTHR that month.

There's an October 30, 1983 article from The Star Press of Muncie that says that WTHR would NOT be carrying the show when it debuted on Monday. Best as I can tell, the station started carrying it on January 3, 1984.  I thought about a theory where they brought in a local Indianapolis personality to celebrate the fact that the affiliate had added the show (wouldn't be the weirdest thing they ever did), but even that doesn't make any sense five months after the fact.

[JMFabiano]

Besides this weirdness, this week of MG/HS stands out as I previously received the open and the mid-show deals (fee plugs, HS celeb announcements, switchoff to Bauman) as part of a tape trade way back when.  I don't believe any episodes from this week were out in the trading circuit otherwise, though.  So it was nice to see another bit of the series turn up even though not an episode.

Not sure if we've gotten to that episode yet (I missed the Monday airing).  All I remember is it's when Jon takes the mic and is shouting "It's mine, it's mine!" 

[Adam Nedeff]

Not sure of your source, but all of the Indianapolis-area newspapers on Newspapers.com have MGHS listed for 2 p.m. Central on WTHR that month.

That comes from me misreading a TV listings grid that looked like 30 minutes of Match Game followed by Star Trek. By May, they WERE airing it, you're right, but for a time, they weren't. Muncie Star-Press on October 30, 1983 prints a short blurb about the show's debut, wrapping up by noting that WTHR will not be airing the series. By March 7, I'm still not seeing the show at all in the grid--their afternoon schedule that day is News, Search, DOOL, Another World, You Asked for It, Gilligan's Island.

On April 25, the schedule reads News, DOOL, Another World, Gilligan's Island, Star Trek.

So going back to what Scott initially said, this actually looks more and more like it was a gesture of goodwill because WTHR finally agreed to start airing the show.

EDIT: Just saw that Matt suggested the same theory while I was typing it up. Hat tip.

[mmb5]

Missed in all of the Kim Hood hoopla - this is probably the only time anyone has ever been introduced as "from The Duck Factory."

[SuperMatch93]

Missed in all of the Kim Hood hoopla - this is probably the only time anyone has ever been introduced as "from The Duck Factory."

Is there any other show that attracted so many stars of failed series? Or is that just due to the state of NBC at that time?

[Matt Ottinger]

Missed in all of the Kim Hood hoopla - this is probably the only time anyone has ever been introduced as "from The Duck Factory."

Is there any other show that attracted so many stars of failed series? Or is that just due to the state of NBC at that time?

Mostly the latter.  NBC clearly pushed HARD to have its own "stars" represented on this show, and some shows were much less successful than others, especially on NBC around that time.  They were just beginning to turn a corner after the late-seventies early-eighties fiascos, but there was still plenty of dreck.

[snowpeck]

Missed in all of the Kim Hood hoopla - this is probably the only time anyone has ever been introduced as "from The Duck Factory."

Is there any other show that attracted so many stars of failed series? Or is that just due to the state of NBC at that time?

Mostly the latter.  NBC clearly pushed HARD to have its own "stars" represented on this show, and some shows were much less successful than others, especially on NBC around that time.  They were just beginning to turn a corner after the late-seventies early-eighties fiascos, but there was still plenty of dreck.

None of NBC's fall premieres from the 83-84 season made it to a second season, and there were only a couple of bright spots on the midseason slate.

[aaron sica]

I wonder at what point during the run did NBC finally announce that they were pulling the plug on the show?

[TLEberle]

From Matchless Gene Rayburn I think it was when Santa Barbara was ready to go.

[mmb5]

Mostly the latter.  NBC clearly pushed HARD to have its own "stars" represented on this show, and some shows were much less successful than others, especially on NBC around that time.  They were just beginning to turn a corner after the late-seventies early-eighties fiascos, but there was still plenty of dreck.

Did they ever have a Cheers or Family Ties-adjacent personality?