What could have been (shows to share)...

[carlisle96]

I spent a snowy day home from school in January, 1977 taping game shows on a cassette recorder: Double Dare, Shoot for the Stars, Name That Tune, Family Feud, and the $20,000 Pyramid. The tapes were tossed out in a general house cleaning when I packed off for college. Sorry, gang.

[TimK2003]

When we got our first VCR, I would tape PYL every day and watch it after school. I'd tape over viewed eps, unless it was a noteworthy ep. ($0 wins, ties, 11 whammy games,...ln the days BEFORE VCRs, our stereo somehow used to pick up our local Channel 8 (WJW) audio at the far left end of the dial, so I would record most of the game show themes off the FM onto cassettes during the latter half of the 70s....Most were taped over or lost over the years.

[mmb5]

In the mid-90s, my cable company in Michigan inexplicably carried TV5 for a short time, so I had a fair number of Pyramide and Des Chiffres episodes from the era.  Emphasis on had.

[Ian Wallis]

plus a Press Your Luck from '84 where they let a very bad edit get to air (this was corrected when USA and GSN ran the show)

I'd love to know the details of this....

It was in the second round when a male contestant seated on camera right was spinning.  He had completed a spin, then the camera cut to Peter who was looking at the board, then to the camera with a puzzled look on his face, then around to the producers.  The screen briefly went to black, the spin the contestant took was repeated, this time with the correct cut to Peter after he took it.  At the time I remember thinking that it was surprising to see this on a CBS network show.

I'd imagine the board had probably gone to black or something, which would explain Peter's puzzled look.

I recognized the contestant when it ran again years later, and I may even have either the USA or GSN version in my collection - but at one time I had the original with this error.

[Casey]

At one point, I had about 10-12 tapes that had most of the run of Face the Music from Family Channel.  I also had one tape of the USA run with the fee plugs.  Sure wish I had all of those now!

[catnap1972]

I had various stuff from NY that would show up overnights (and be erased soon after) but the one that sticks out were reruns of '70s Treasure Hunt in the early 80s.

[beatlefreak84]

While I've kept everything I recorded off of GSN since we first got it (back in 1997, right before the Dark Period), there are four tapes in particular that have long since been recorded over/disposed of that I'm disappointed I didn't keep:

-The first game show tape my grandmother ever made for me, as it featured most of the USA originals from the 80s and two episodes of Celebrity Bullseye.  One episode in particular is one I've as of yet not been able to find again:  it was Edwards Chain Reaction and featured a team of two ladies who end up winning the $6,000 jackpot after identifying the word "Nail" and screamed and jumped all over each other and Geoff.  My grandmother talked about that episode for over two decades after it aired and was disappointed I had lost the recording!  All I could remember was the above and it was from the first season.
-A 6-hour tape of all PYL episodes from near the end of the run (repeats from USA), which haven't been repeated since on either GSN nor Buzzr.  I recorded over them because I didn't like the "cheapness" of the board.
-A 1993 tape of a week's worth of Scrabble and Scattergories, accompanied by a second tape that also featured Classic Concentration.  I recorded over this tape because I liked the USA reruns of Scrabble better, and I thought Scattergories was "boring".
-I also used to make a tape each year called "199x Game Shows", where I'd record one episode each of the first-run game shows I could find, but would typically junk it as many of the shows got cancelled or were simply episodes of the "Big 4" game shows.

Once 1997 came along, and I had both the storage space and a private VCR I could use to record game shows that didn't tie up a family TV, I was able to hang on to the tapes for much longer and actually still have most of them.  But, man; I'd love to see my pre-1997 tapes again!

Anthony

[WilliamPorygon]

I had a tape with a dozen or so season 1 episodes of That's My Dog that young William loved watching back in the mid-90s that seems to have just disappeared, unfortunately.  I remember the first episode on the tape being a particularly low-scoring but amusing game between two dogs named Axel and Bear who were more interested in checking each other out then actually competing in the events.

[WarioBarker]

I vaguely remember taping Doug Davidson's TPIR because it aired at something like 3 AM on WDZL. I don't remember how much I taped, but after having looked through a ton of old VHS tapes it seems we never kept any of it.

[Jimmy Owen]

My first VCR was purchased in 1984 from Fretter Appliances in Saginaw, Mi.  A $700 top loading model by Fisher.  At the same time got 3 Fuji brand tapes at $14.98 each.  First night taped Gone with the Wind on CBS.  That took care of two tapes.  The third tape I used to record the 84 Pillsbury bake off, a half hour TPIR (which is up on you tube) and an episode of mother and daughter week on Tattletales (also on YouTube). Very expensive hobby back in the day.

[That Don Guy]

If radio counts, I recorded the 1980 and 1982 semi-finals and finals of the College Bowl National Championship tournament, which was a CBS Radio show at the time (with Art Fleming as host), but got rid of them long before YouTube was a thing. I also had the 1981 tournament, but sent that to someone who went to the champion school; it turned out that, while he didn't know anyone on his school's team, he did know someone on the team it beat in the semi-finals.

[SRIV94]

“Hit Man” and “The New Battlestars.”  That coincided with my first VCR.

I've heard that someone had recorded the entire series of both shows. Was that you?

No—but I have heard that as well (at least the “Hit Man” part of it).  While I did record every day, I usually (like Ian) ended up recording over them.  (And like Ian, regretted it.)

Wasn’t until I got GSN (four years into its existence) that it ever occurred to me to save these things.