Shopper's Casino: infomercial?

[JasonA1]

I know this is out of nowhere, but for those who may have done more digging into Shopper's Casino: it's just an infomercial, right? Between the callers that clearly weren't on the phone, and the fact only one episode is around with very little info on where and when it aired, all signs point towards it not being a proper series.

-Jason

[SuperMatch93]

I just checked the Tribune's listings from back then, and WGBO in Chicago had it listed weekdays at 11 in September of 1987. So I'm thinking that it was a series, just a remarkably short-lived one.

[BrandonFG]

The newspapers.com archives show a surprisingly decent number of clearances, but no real consistency. In some markets it aired daily, others twice a week, and some on weekends. So that leads me closer to infomercial territory.

[parliboy]

There were no outside advertisers; all of the commercials were from the same company that produced the show itself.  So it definitely feels like an infomercial.

[WarioBarker]

I don't doubt it's an infomercial for the reasons mentioned, but being an infomercial doesn't necessarily mean it didn't have more than just the one episode.

For one thing, the circulating episode has a contestant plug, with the announcer clarifying that it's also if viewers want to be an audience member or at-home player. I doubt they'd include any of that unless they planned on following through.

Secondly, the lifespan - Newspapers.com's archives have TV listings for the show between September 4 and October 1. While it's pretty slipshod from station to station, the airings are frequent enough that I think viewers would've caught on if it was just the one episode being shown repeatedly (though that could explain why the show was seemingly here and gone within a month without fanfare either way).

Thirdly (and this may not amount to much but hey), the May 2, 1989 Weekly World News (of all things) had a blurb on Cynthia Brooks (the show's prize model) that mentions "the TV game show Shopper's Casino" (along with "the recent flick She's Having a Baby" and "the series Rocky Road"; IMDB lists her for the former, but I've found no indication she was on the latter). Yes, Weekly World News is a satirical tabloid-type rag, but it's still an obscure grab even at the time given Casino's brevity.

[narzo]

I've no doubt it was an infomercial.  There's an in-show commercial for a company, whose mailing address is "Legacy", which happens to be the same name as "Legacy International" under the copyright.  If it wasn't a 30 minute paid spot, the financials for the station running it don't make sense.

Remember, in the earliest days of infomercials, you would on occasion see the show name listed in full, in tv listings.  I can't find the exact year (1992 I want to say), but it wasn't until later shows had to have the disclaimer "paid programming" on screen, and couldn't be listed like a regular TV show in tv listings.