BUZZR 2023 Q1 happenings

[Blanquepage]

Looks like another day of gimmickry on 1/27/23 (12N - 4PM ET).  A 1981 syndie MG (ep 252), two WML? (one from 1968, the other from 1971), the "Rip rips his toupee off" ep of SP, and a 1983 FF syndie ep (non-celebs), plus a TT from 1974, a BL from 1985 and a MG76 that I believe have all aired before.

Not sure what the common thread is (normally I'd say it's a "Let's Laugh Day" marathon, but that day isn't until March).

A cute stunt I think, 1/27 is National Wig Day.

[WhammyPower]

A 1981 syndie MG (ep 252) ... and a MG76 that I believe have all aired before.

A cute stunt I think, 1/27 is National Wig Day.

If this is true, the definitive episode to show is MGPM 215.

[Robair]

A cute stunt I think, 1/27 is National Wig Day.

Buzzr is indeed billing this as Big Wig Day, running from 12-4pm on 1/27.

[BillCullen1]

Friendly reminder Lost & Found is this week!

-Jason

I had never seen the eps of Choose Up Sides, Play Your Hunch or Winner Take All, the latter with Barry Gray. Play For Keeps was basically a big money version of Winner Take All.

[That Don Guy]

Friendly reminder Lost & Found is this week!

-Jason

I had never seen the eps of Choose Up Sides, Play Your Hunch or Winner Take All, the latter with Barry Gray. Play For Keeps was basically a big money version of Winner Take All.

According to one source, the Choose Up Sides episode was produced something like three years before the Gene Rayburn/Don Pardo series - and IIRC, while this episode was on CBS, the later one was on NBC, although it could have possibly been on just New York's WNBC.

[WhammyPower]

And here's a promo:

[That Don Guy]

One thing I noticed about the third Double Dare pilot (besides the fact that I remembered the bonus game clue "Sit On It" from the original CBS commercials): in the bonus round, one of the clues was, "His real name is Arthur Fonzarelli, Jr." - but if somebody would have answered "Arthur Fonzarelli," wouldn't they have accepted it? After all, they accepted "The Fonz" when the displayed answer was "Fonzie."

[JasonA1]

in the bonus round, one of the clues was, "His real name is Arthur Fonzarelli, Jr." - but if somebody would have answered "Arthur Fonzarelli," wouldn't they have accepted it? After all, they accepted "The Fonz" when the displayed answer was "Fonzie."

I think that's all broadly under "no" because "we don't think anybody would respond to a clue by repeating a clue back to us." If a Q&A show asks "Who was the first actor to play James Bond?" you can't respond with "The first actor to play James Bond." Even without an implicit rule, all shows allow for "producer discretion" and undoubtedly, all shows wouldn't take an answer like that.

-Jason

[Clay Zambo]

1/20
Premiere of Ward TTTT, Star Words pilots 2 & 3, On a Roll pilot 2

Would anyone have recorded these in a shareable fashion?
Much obliged for a chance to see.

[Blanquepage]

Justin Game Show Channel has been uploading everything

[MikeK]

1/20
Premiere of Ward TTTT, Star Words pilots 2 & 3, On a Roll pilot 2

Would anyone have recorded these in a shareable fashion?
Much obliged for a chance to see.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aY6LYn4z9-MamtieYXVu128mNbZoJ6qz/view?usp=sharing

[BrandonFG]

Some thoughts from an insomniac after watching Lost and Found tonight.

Could be because I’m watching it on Pluto, could be the NYC cameras, could be because it’s a 42.5-y/o game show, but the TTTT episode looked very…”fuzzy” for lack of a better word. Almost felt like I was watching through a filter. Didn’t ruin my enjoyment, just something I noticed.

I haven’t seen the Star Words or On a Roll pilots in years, but after watching them tonight my thoughts remain the same. Clever concepts, clunky execution, slow game.

And in typical GSF fashion, I’m guessing Star Words replaces Child’s Play at 10:30 ET? On a Roll, OTOH is tough to figure out. Perhaps PYL’s 4:00 ET slot, but I have a feeling most affiliates wouldn’t pick up the show. Mayyyyyybe CBS is looking at canceling Capitol a little early and doing some reshuffling there? Put it on at 12:30 and push Y&R to 1:00?

[Chelsea Thrasher]

On a Roll, OTOH is tough to figure out. Perhaps PYL’s 4:00 ET slot, but I have a feeling most affiliates wouldn’t pick up the show. Mayyyyyybe CBS is looking at canceling Capitol a little early and doing some reshuffling there? Put it on at 12:30 and push Y&R to 1:00?

Also probably worth noting that neither Card Sharks and Pyramid were exactly setting the books on fire at 10am. Pyramid had lost a few viewers in PYL's first freefall in the second half of 1985 and was, at times, losing to the Family Ties reruns on NBC (and with no competition on ABC). Card Sharks managed to recover most of the eyeballs PYL lost, but even then it was still losing more than it was winning against the not particularly massive numbers Sale was doing.  Both the CBS and NBC hours were trading off 18 vs. 20 shares at the time the pilot was filmed with NBC getting more wins than losses, and I'd wager CBS were at least keeping their options open (on top of what was going on with Capitol and PYL's disasterous numbers at 4p). (and compare their 18-20 to the 30 average Price was doing, Wheel's 27, and even Scrabble's 22)

Additionally, Michael Brockman was still running Daytime at the time, and was generally open to piloting shows (especially from known developers like Goodson) and loved games.

(Ultimately, the show wasn't that great, plus Pyramid got a few viewers back, Card Sharks kept trading off time period wins with Sale and the balance shifted a bit more towards CS' favor, they decided to cut loss with the 4P half, and stay with a soap in the afternoon with Capitol's replacement. But there were at least four different options for the show)

[tyshaun1]

I haven’t seen the Star Words or On a Roll pilots in years, but after watching them tonight my thoughts remain the same. Clever concepts, clunky execution, slow game.

I thought Star Words was decent with the Star Wars-like transitions and the game itself was solid but slow, especially the front end, but do you need another word game following a word game? And one that's not as fast paced? On A Roll was just simply too cumbersome and the 2nd pilot exposed the flaw of having the game go on too long and possibly won by a player who didn't actually play the main game.

And in typical GSF fashion, I’m guessing Star Words replaces Child’s Play at 10:30 ET? On a Roll, OTOH is tough to figure out. Perhaps PYL’s 4:00 ET slot, but I have a feeling most affiliates wouldn’t pick up the show. Mayyyyyybe CBS is looking at canceling Capitol a little early and doing some reshuffling there? Put it on at 12:30 and push Y&R to 1:00?

CBS did several game show pilots in 1986 (On A Roll, Keynotes, Blackout), possibly due to the relative weakness of Card Sharks, and Brockman mentioned it as a liability as early as June that year in a Broadcasting Magaizne article. I don't think there was any hope for the 4pm slot no matter what they put on because affiliates simply did not carry said show (Body Language and PYL did single share poorly) or put it in a different slot. In fact, the week after dropping programming for it, CBS became the #1 daytime network and hasn't lost it since. They were already in development on The Bold and the Beautiful by this point so I think the writing was on the wall for Capitol, too.

[Chief-O]

Could be because I’m watching it on Pluto, could be the NYC cameras, could be because it’s a 42.5-y/o game show, but the TTTT episode looked very…”fuzzy” for lack of a better word. Almost felt like I was watching through a filter. Didn’t ruin my enjoyment, just something I noticed.

I did catch bits of that, and I noticed some noise on the bright red neon sign.....sounds like it might've been more a tape issue. (I can't eliminate bad camera tube adjustments, though) But then again, it always seemed shows out of 30 Rock did look like that (even SNL of that time).....might've been some different methodology in camera setup.

There was at least one TTTT '80 ep I saw on GSN way back where it seemed the lenses, or perhaps the cameras' internals, were visibly dusty.