Local Level Game Shows

[Jimmy Owen]

Since game shows are not getting launched on the networks or in syndication, I wonder if there could be a possibility that a well known packager would ever allow a local station to mount their own version of one of their properties.  For example, a "Password" taped in Peoria with local players and celebs from the station.

[Matt Ottinger]

Fascinating idea, but there are at least two problems that I see.  One is that local stations, for the most part, just aren't interested in investing time and money into local entertainment programming.  Secondly, the ones that are interested would probably be more interested in coming up with their own ideas rather than buying a franchise agreement from Fremantle or something.  

Remember Brandon Tartikoff's Know It Alls was supposed to revolutionize local television by selling the *idea* of a game show market to market and having local talent fill in the details.  Did any station stick with their show more than a year or two?

[tommycharles]

Re: having to buy a franchise agreement -

Does that apply to college stations? If our CTV wanted to mount a "Password" and call it "Password", would Fremantle be breathing down our necks, or would they not see it as a big problem?

I know it would cause a problem if they ever wanted to revive Password, because then we'd have something similar to the Cram situation, but otherwise, I don't know. I still say GSN should have lost that whole Cram arguement, though. But maybe we don't know all the details.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'tommycharles\' date=\'Apr 14 2004, 12:28 PM\'] Re: having to buy a franchise agreement -

Does that apply to college stations? If our CTV wanted to mount a "Password" and call it "Password", would Fremantle be breathing down our necks, or would they not see it as a big problem?
 [/quote]
 It is absolutely, totally, 100% wrong for you to mount a Password TV show and call it Password without getting permission from the copyright holder.  The issue of whether Fremantle would care is something else entirely, but when you're thinking about violating the law, the question of whether the injured party would care or not really shouldn't be your overriding concern.

Besides, you could be in really bad trouble if you guess wrong!

[cmjb13]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Apr 14 2004, 12:35 PM\'] [quote name=\'tommycharles\' date=\'Apr 14 2004, 12:28 PM\'] Re: having to buy a franchise agreement -

Does that apply to college stations? If our CTV wanted to mount a "Password" and call it "Password", would Fremantle be breathing down our necks, or would they not see it as a big problem?
 [/quote]
It is absolutely, totally, 100% wrong for you to mount a Password TV show and call it Password without getting permission from the copyright holder.  The issue of whether Fremantle would care is something else entirely, but when you're thinking about violating the law, the question of whether the injured party would care or not really shouldn't be your overriding concern.

Besides, you could be in really bad trouble if you guess wrong! [/quote]
 How about naming the show "Wordpass"

[chris319]

Remember Brandon Tartikoff's Know It Alls was supposed to revolutionize local television by selling the *idea* of a game show market to market and having local talent fill in the details.

Revolutionize? Bert Claster was doing this before most of us were born with Romper Room, Dialing for Dollars, etc.

It's an interesting idea: on the local side you need little more than an emcee, a producer/director and a contestant coordinator, with the set, game material and even prize merchandising and barter spots provided by the syndicator (with Randy West providing pre-recorded announce tracks :-). You'd have to find stations where the local production facilities haven't all been turned over to local news and a morning talk show. KCBS-TV in L.A. used to do a local game show for kids on Saturday mornings which was emceed by their weatherman at the time. Whether or not it was worth their while from a business standpoint I have no idea, other than it is not on the air any more. Whether this concept has any benefit in terms of local exposure and station identity-building over a known-quantity syndicated game show with big-city production values is a determination each local station would have to make.

Password would be a good choice for this because it has such simple staging and material requirements and it can be played with all civilians.

[tommycharles]

All civvie Password? Hmm...

I've always wondered how that would work - you run the risk of a bunch of associations that are only known to the pair, which would make for uninteresting television

Example: "the password is Nazi"
Contestant: Hihat...
Contestants partner: Nazi
Host: Correct!

See...the players win, and the viewers go "huh?"

[DrBear]

[quote name=\'tommycharles\' date=\'Apr 14 2004, 01:07 PM\'] I've always wondered how that would work - you run the risk of a bunch of associations that are only known to the pair, which would make for uninteresting television [/quote]
 The cure for that is simple - have a batch o'players sitting on the side, and draw two to play as a team. Or if you want to stay with the theme of the show, have the host give a clue and the same batch o'players write down the answer. Those who match the password can keep playing until you have four (or however many you want to replace if you have continuing champs).

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Apr 14 2004, 01:47 PM\']
Revolutionize? Bert Claster was doing this before most of us were born with Romper Room, Dialing for Dollars, etc.

 [/quote]
After DFD and before Know-it-Alls, there was Jackpot Bingo, a franchise show that aired in several cities in the 80s, including LA and Pittsburgh. The sets for the LA and PIttsburgh shows were quite similar even, as per a pic of the LA set in TV Game SHow Magazine in the 9/86 issue(I remember the Pittsburgh version airing at 7:30PM on WPXI, while during that time, WTAE in Pittsburgh aired Bingo Mania at 10AM weekdays).

[The Ol' Guy]

Let me throw this out to our esteemed panel - somewhere in the late 60s or so, a local station had a daily game for a few months called Your Number's Up. It was tied in with a local supermarket chain. The idea was: viewers picked up cards from the store that contained a four-digit number (some cards may have has more than one set?). Four "contestants" (local housewives, etc.) sat at a panel desk, each of them having a set of "What's My Line"-type flip cards in front of them, numbers from 0 to 9. Let's say the show started with the numbers in front of the players being  3-6-5-9. The  MC would announce the grocery-type prize that could be won in a round (2-pound can of ground coffee, for example), then the host started reading questions, one at a time, to each player on the panel, going left to right. If the contestant got the answer right, they flipped their number cards to the next digit ahead. If wrong, they flipped them one back. If all the players in the above example got the answers right after their first questions, the numbers showing would be 4-7-6-0. Play went on with question after question for about 2 or 3 minutes. At the times up buzzer, any home contestants with a card displaying the four numbers in front of the panel could visit the market and redeem the card for the prize. The folks at the tv station say they made it up, which could be possible, but did any other station have the same game somewhere - could this have been a franchise?

[Tim L]

I vaguely remember a TV Bingo show on WEWS channel 5 in Cleveland in the late 60's early 70's.sponsored by Fisher-Fazio Costa Supermarkets of Cleveland and hosted by Don Webster, Longtime Weatherman.  He also hosted American Bandstand Clone Upbeat from 1964-71 (Syndicated) .  He also hosted It's Academic/Academic Challenge for many years, as has been mentioned previously..

Tim Lones

[Jay Temple]

[quote name=\'tommycharles\' date=\'Apr 14 2004, 01:07 PM\'] All civvie Password? Hmm...

I've always wondered how that would work - you run the risk of a bunch of associations that are only known to the pair, which would make for uninteresting television

Example: "the password is Nazi"
Contestant: Hihat...
Contestants partner: Nazi
Host: Correct!

See...the players win, and the viewers go "huh?" [/quote]
 It's worse than uninteresting.  I have an episode of Junior Pyramid, where kids played with an adult relative, and the annoyance in one kid's tone when his mom didn't get something made me uncomfortable.  I felt bad seeing him treat her disrespectfully on television and worse when I imagined him getting scolded for it afterward.

The other two basic possibilities have their own flaws:

local celebrities  If you think Pyramid had to set the bar low on who qualifies as a celebrity in order to get celebs who could play, imagine how hard it would be with local celebs.  Double the level of difficulty if you follow the tradition of having one male and one female.  (Though at least it would be interesting at times:  "Today's special guests are Dr. Marvin Monroe ... and Springfield's First Lady, Jackie Quimby!")

civilians drawn from a pool  This is just me, but I've never liked hearing a single prize total that's being split by two or more people who don't know each other.  Splitting them up afterward would solve this problem, but I don't know how interesting that would be.

That doesn't mean you couldn't do a good local game show that doesn't depend on team play.  "The Final Chicago Jeopardy category is ... Da Bears."

Finally, I want to point out the fine line on what game elements you can copy without infringing in a copyright.  I don't imagine there's a copyright on charades, but there probably is on Password, whether you call it by that name or not.

[Clay Zambo]

[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Apr 14 2004, 01:47 PM\'] You'd have to find stations where the local production facilities haven't all been turned over to local news and a morning talk show.

Password would be a good choice for this because it has such simple staging and material requirements and it can be played with all civilians. [/quote]
 Heck yeah.  In fact, I'd rather see Password played at the news desk of almost any station than some of the dreck that passes for local news.

[Craig Karlberg]

When I was in upstate New York in the late 1970's or early 80's, there was a local show called "Let's Go To The Races".  It involved home viewers using game cards that they get from their supermarket that sponsors it.  In this case, it was Acme.  Anyway, each week, viewers used the same card for all 6 or 7 horse races(not sure on the total).  These were scratch-off cards much like the instant lottery tickets.  Each had the race #, the name of the horse that viewer was given for that particular race & the dollar ammount if the horse won the race.  When the horse race winner matched that of the one given to the viewer, s/he can redeem that particular cash prize at their local Acme store after the show airs.  Also, each week, the cards were in diffrent colors & are valid ONLY for that particular week.  They may be blue one week, red another, even purple though I haven't seen any purple cards.  It was on WWNY-TV Channel 7 from Watertown NY that carried it at 7PM weeknights(not sure if WWNY is still around today).

[byrd62]

[quote name=\'Craig Karlberg\' date=\'Apr 15 2004, 04:15 AM\']When I was in upstate New York in the late 1970's or early 80's, there was a local show called "Let's Go To The Races".  It involved home viewers using game cards that they get from their supermarket that sponsors it.  In this case, it was Acme.  Anyway, each week, viewers used the same card for all 6 or 7 horse races(not sure on the total).  These were scratch-off cards much like the instant lottery tickets.  Each had the race #, the name of the horse that viewer was given for that particular race & the dollar ammount if the horse won the race.  When the horse race winner matched that of the one given to the viewer, s/he can redeem that particular cash prize at their local Acme store after the show airs.  Also, each week, the cards were in diffrent colors & are valid ONLY for that particular week.  They may be blue one week, red another, even purple though I haven't seen any purple cards.  It was on WWNY-TV Channel 7 from Watertown NY that carried it at 7PM weeknights(not sure if WWNY is still around today).[/quote]
Let's Go to the Races was, like Bowling for Dollars, a franchised show, but it aired weekly rather than daily, IIRC.

It was shown in various cities or regions throughout the country, with the sponsorship of local or regional supermarket chains, off and on from the '60s through the late '70s, and included races filmed, later taped, at tracks throughout Florida, like Sunshine Park [now Tampa Bay Downs] in Oldsmar and Gulfstream Park in Hallandale.

Various hosts have done the "in-studio" portions of Races, like Atlanta sportscaster Bob Neal [TBS Superstation], for the old Big Star chain out of Atlanta and other parts of the Southeast in the mid '70s, and commercial actor Bryan Clark, for the old Grand Union chain, which had some stores in Florida before it shut down in the late '70s.

The races themselves used various commentators as well, like veteran Chicago sportscaster Jack Drees during the '60s, and Chicago track announcer Phil Georgeff in the '70s.

Heavy Chicago influence, you ask?  That's because the show's packager, Walter Schwimmer, was based in Chicago.

The episodes I saw had five races each.