Alternate realities when it comes to game shows

[chris319]

On a Roll was WOF using dice instead of a wheel.

"On a Roll" was an amalgam of Number Please and High Rollers.

[Ian Wallis]

In an alternate reality:

Match Game and Tattletales remain at 3:30pm/4:00pm and run through 1982 when they're finally cancelled.  There is no Tattletales v2, and no syndicated Match Game.
Hollywood Squares remains at 11:30am and runs through 1982 when it's finally cancelled.  There is no syndicated Hollywood Squares

MG/HS hour still happens a few months later because NBC.

That's in interesting one.  From what I've read over the years, it's widely believed Match Game's ratings started to fall quite swiftly after its ill-fated move to 11AM and the quick move back to afternoons couldn't stop the decline.

I've posted on here before that Match Game looked a bit tired to me by '78, but if it had stayed in the 3:30 time slot (rather than 4, which a lot of affiliates wouldn't clear live) how much longer could it have run?  Most affiliates probably would have stayed with it which probably would have helped a great deal in the ratings.  Early '80s sounds about right...and maybe Gene wouldn't have been so bitter about it.

[chris319]

A glaring fault with On a Roll is the penalty for rolling a double. There is no knife edge to it. Sooner or later a double is going to come up. On a Roll offers the player no opportunity to make a strategic decision as to whether or not to roll.

Compare this to Card Sharks. The player makes a strategic decision when he calls higher/lower. This is amplified in the end game when the player makes his bet.

I came up with an idea a long time ago where a player would make a strategic decision which could result in a win or a loss. This gave it a "knife edge" as Frank Wayne used to call it.

[JasonA1]

A glaring fault with On a Roll is the penalty for rolling a double. There is no knife edge to it. Sooner or later a double is going to come up. On a Roll offers the player no opportunity to make a strategic decision as to whether or not to roll.

It may not have come up in the pilot you watched, but in at least one of them, David would bring up the option to pass the dice, but only after numbers became impossible to knock off. (If you rolled a 5 and a 6, and there was no 11 or 5 on the board, you got the 6, and the 5 was wasted.) It isn't the great tense decision offered by better game shows, but On a Roll wasn't one of the better game shows.

-Jason

[chris319]

Were On A Roll, TKO and Star Words all commissioned by CBS?

[Chief-O]

Were On A Roll, TKO and Star Words all commissioned by CBS?

Per Mike Burger, "TKO" was for ABC (but shot at TV City).

[chris319]

On a Roll wasn't one of the better game shows.

As I say, Goodson was running on fumes by then.

Number Please had a guy on vibraphone who liked to improvise, more interesting than the same old chime from the TV City sound-effects department, and a board which went "clunk". I was in kindergarten when Number Please was on ABC. It was my Sesame Street. Bud Collyer was always glad to see me.

I found this. It's nice:

[BrandonFG]

Oh, and since Wheel went off the air around '87 Pat Sajak gets a CBS gig, but in 1993. Letterman replaces Carson in '92 and Jay Leno gets something in syndication.

My curiousness lies in what Pat Sajak does for 5 years to end up with a late night gig! Also, if Jay Leno still has Helen Kushnick in your alternate reality, I don't see a way in which he doesn't end up with that job.

IIRC he did a primetime special for NBC with Jack Paar around 1987. I'm thinking a few primetime specials for CBS here and there, just to keep his name out there and show his talk show chops. A Tournament of Roses parade or two. Maybe even another game show in the interim.

[thomas_meighan]

Since we’re talking about other worlds here:

NBC expands “Another World” to an hour in 1975….but it flops, goes back to 30 minutes, and no other soap is willing to touch the 60-minute format.

Network daytime afternoons retain their flexibility, and new shows, including games, can become breakout hits at 2:00 or 3:30. The period from 1976 onward sees a greater number of daytime games (and better-rated ones) than we actually got, and networks keep faith in the genre for longer than was really the case.

TPIR can keep its hourlong format. (Oh, and come 1986, Goodson keeps Breslow over Barker. Tom Kennedy gets the daytime show, clicks with viewers, and there are no lawsuits involving the models.)

[Stackertosh]

A few of mines

Joe Namath hosts Family Feud . Ray Combs and Jay Leno end up taking turns guest hosting The Tonight Show. Jay Leno of-course gets the Tonight gig and David Letterman leaves for Cbs and Ray Combs take over Late Night and enjoy a 20 year run.

Dennis James host Daytime Price and Barker hosts the night time version. Dennis retires in the 80s and Bob Barker takes over the daytime show.

I remember reading Ellen Degeneres was being considered for the Syndicated version of Weakest Link. She hosts the syndicated version and would her talk show ever happen?

[Kevin Prather]

This is not my original thought. Somebody in our community suggested it either on Facebook or on this board somewhere. I'd credit them if I could find it. But I thought it was an interesting take.

If Woolery never leaves Wheel...

- Does the daytime version last long enough and remain popular enough for the syndicated nighttime version to come along?
- If syndicated Wheel never happens, does Kingworld expand like it did in the 80s?
- If Kingworld never expands, does The Oprah Winfrey Show ever make it out of Chicago?
- If Oprah Winfrey never becomes the huge name she did, does Barack Obama still win the presidency in 2008?

Several of these assumptions are probably stretches, but it's a delicious irony anyway.

[SuperMatch93]

This is not my original thought. Somebody in our community suggested it either on Facebook or on this board somewhere. I'd credit them if I could find it. But I thought it was an interesting take.

If Woolery never leaves Wheel...

- Does the daytime version last long enough and remain popular enough for the syndicated nighttime version to come along?
- If syndicated Wheel never happens, does Kingworld expand like it did in the 80s?
- If Kingworld never expands, does The Oprah Winfrey Show ever make it out of Chicago?
- If Oprah Winfrey never becomes the huge name she did, does Barack Obama still win the presidency in 2008?

Several of these assumptions are probably stretches, but it's a delicious irony anyway.

In other words, Woolery leaving Wheel could have indirectly caused Obama to become President?

I bet Chuck would love to hear that.

[BillCullen1]

Were On A Roll, TKO and Star Words all commissioned by CBS?

Per Mike Burger, "TKO" was for ABC (but shot at TV City).

I enjoyed TKO. What if ABC puts that on instead of MG '90? Would it have lasted longer?

[danderson]

Since we’re talking about other worlds here:

NBC expands “Another World” to an hour in 1975….but it flops, goes back to 30 minutes, and no other soap is willing to touch the 60-minute format.

Network daytime afternoons retain their flexibility, and new shows, including games, can become breakout hits at 2:00 or 3:30. The period from 1976 onward sees a greater number of daytime games (and better-rated ones) than we actually got, and networks keep faith in the genre for longer than was really the case.

TPIR can keep its hourlong format. (Oh, and come 1986, Goodson keeps Breslow over Barker. Tom Kennedy gets the daytime show, clicks with viewers, and there are no lawsuits involving the models.)

If AW flops as an hour, maybe NBC pairs it with another game like they did in the 60s.  LMAD switches back to NBC in 75 to pair up with AW and gives Guiding Light a run for its money in the 80s.

[Jamey Greek]

So, in all the years that we've been tape trading, have you noticed that a TON of unsold pilots were shot in 1990?

Michael Brockman was in charge of ABC at that point and he made it known that he wanted to dump Home and make 10:30 am-12:30 pm a two-hour block of game shows. A bunch of those 1990 pilots were shot for ABC's consideration. Brockman was shown the door right before he brought this to fruition. Considering that the network game shows were starting to die at this point, I'm curious to know what would have happened if ABC had unleashed four new game shows in the fall of 1990. No difference? Ratings dilution because of all the syndicated game shows along with the ABC block? A few hits are in there and the life of network games gets extended a little bit?

IMO, none of those pilots I've seen (TKO, Body Talk, Gambit, Match Game) were particularly strong so I believe none of them would've lasted very long even if they made air; Match Game did but it struggled the entire time it was on. But Brockman himself says that he encountered HEAVY pushback from ABC execs and affiliates from wanting to give game shows another go. They seemed to resign themselves to nothing working before the soaps and him expending so much energy toward investing money into the genre probably hastened his demise.

Also they used The Finish Line and [Suit Yourself