[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Mar 15 2004, 06:12 PM\']A good number of Public TV stations have a locally produced high school quiz, and some might even show Groucho now and then, but one of the oddest things I remember was when the PBS station in Grand Rapids, MI used to show "Take My Word For It" in the afternoon during the mid '80s. I suppose the show was somewhat educational. Any other withit PBS stations out there?[/quote]
Well, there was "We Interrupt This Week" in 1977-78, which was sort of like "Have I Got News for You!" and the BBC Radio 4 "News Quiz," in that it was a show where journalists answered questions about the week's news and made a lot of jokes about the news. Ned Sherrin, the Brit who was one of the creators of "That Was the Week That Was," was the host and creator--and his judgments were, as he proclaimed every week, "arbitrary, prejudiced and final!"
Also, in the related category, some public TV stations carried the first John Sessions-packed season of "Whose Line?"
Aside from those shows (and "Think Twice" and "Carmen Sandiego" and the game show segments of "Square One"), syndicated shows were either too expensive or not exactly the right fit for public TV, particularly in those good old days before doo wop and Suze Orman-packed pledge drives.