What if a show never got cancelled?

[aaron sica]

Alright, after the long threads discussing BigJon and The Professor, I want to start a thread on something I've been thinking about for awhile...

As we all know, The Price is Right has been on continually since 1972, and has slowly evolved - while it's not the same exact show in looks and graphics that premiered back then, it's mainly remained the same show.

So, with that, I ask - what if some of our other favorites had the same shelf life as TPiR, and were still on, today, having never went off the air?  I am providing two examples to start off with, but feel free to bring up any other show and harp on it.

How would Match Game have evolved? Who would have eventually replaced Gene and when?

What if \"Hollywood Squares\" was still on, never having been cancelled? How would it have progressed?

Let's get the ball rolling...

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'aaron sica\' date=\'Jul 23 2003, 06:19 PM\'] How would Match Game have evolved? Who would have eventually replaced Gene and when?
 [/quote]
 I don't think this can be answered without opening up the \"TPIR will go on when Barker kicks\" and the \"TPIR will be canned when Barker kicks\" cans of worms. We don't really have an example of a long-running show with such a strong personality for a host passing away during the show run to know if it would be possible for MG to go on post-Rayburn.

What if \"Hollywood Squares\" was still on, never having been cancelled? How would it have progressed?

Aside from set changes and payout increases due to inflation, I don't think we'd see much of a difference. This current version has done the best job of mimicking the original show, and as we have seen, Peter Marshall is just as capable today of presiding as The Master Of The Hollywood Squares as he was 35 years ago.

[Starkman]

I think youd see the same evloution you saw with the series getting cancelled, with the possible exception of the goofery in the davidson version.

then there is the question of shows that kept being reincarnated every 2 years after being cancelled, how would they evolve or not evolve if they didnt have those small interruptions aka pyramid

and of course the logical extension of this would have been what if an awful show would never get cancelled but shop til you drop's 10 year run (still dunno how the hell it happened dont ask) beat me to it

[GS Warehouse]

I speak for most when I say had Family Feud run continuously since 1976, we would have never dealt with Louie Anderson or the straight four-question format.  (Granted, FF has never been off the air more than four years at a time, but...)

[zachhoran]

We do have two long-running examples of hosts dying during the show's run: Jack Barry and TJW and Allen Ludden and P+(though Ludden left P+ due to health reasons eight months before his death). TJW pressed on two more years without him, and P+ went on 17 months without Ludden(and Super Password lasted 4.5 years without him)

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'zachhoran\' date=\'Jul 23 2003, 06:41 PM\'] We do have two long-running examples of hosts dying during the show's run: Jack Barry and TJW and Allen Ludden and P+(though Ludden left P+ due to health reasons eight months before his death). TJW pressed on two more years without him, and P+ went on 17 months without Ludden(and Super Password lasted 4.5 years without him) [/quote]
 I didn't really give Barry consideration because I didn't consider Barry's hosting the show for 10 years (less? About 10. Don't correct me if I'm wrong, I don't care.) to hold a candle to the 30 that Barker has, or the 30 that Rayburn would have (counting the original) if MG or HS (the shows mentioned by the OP) had run until today or until Rayburn's death.

Besides, are you going to seriously tell me that Joker's Wild was driven by Jack Barry's personality? Did he HAVE one?

Ludden, on the other had, you have a little more of a point, although I suggest that SP is to be considered a different animal because there WAS that time off the air to realize that Allen was no longer with us and that someone else would be hosting the new show. And I also think the fact that the show didn't last all that much longer under Kennedy is telling as well.

[zachhoran]

Jack's personality came out most on Joker Joker Joker I think, but no, he didn't have an iota of Rayburn's persona.

As for Allen's personality(at least in 1979 and 1980), ask our czar

[DrBear]

Oh, there would be tweaks, always tweaks. Pyramid is the same basic game it was on day one, with tweaks (6 instead of 7 items in the front game, different dollar amounts) but the only other difference is in staging, camera shots and host.

TPIR has managed to survive with no real changes, other than the color of Barker's hair. Still, there are tweaks going on - new pricing games over the years, changes in how prizes are shown. In fact, IMHO, one of the reasons for TPIR's longevity is the variety of the show; don't like one pricing game, another is coming in a few minutes.

Match Game? Well, from seeing Funny Money, I think Jimmy Pardo might have done a nice job with it. There, the game wasn't that strong - fun, but not strong - and blew up in the raunchy 90s.

Some games have staying power; some are part of their times. And every show gets cancelled, except for Meet The Press and Monday Night Football. And even those are far different from their early versions, or even from a few years ago.

Change is the only constant.

[trainman]

I submit that, had \"Jeopardy!\" never been canceled, it would be very much like it is today.  I think it's fairly obvious they'd change from printed cards to computer monitors at some point.  Now, if we presume \"never been canceled\" means that it's still be on the NBC daytime lineup, I assume the clue dollar values would not be as high as they are now, but there would have been some inflation at some point.

[GS Warehouse]

[quote name=\'DrBear\' date=\'Jul 23 2003, 09:21 PM\'] ... And every show gets cancelled, except for Meet The Press and Monday Night Football. ... [/quote]
 And 60 Minutes.  If you associate Barker with longevity, where does Mike Wallace belong?

ObGameShows: Twelve years the watch started ticking, Wallace hosted the TTTT pilot.

[Jimmy Owen]

\"Truth or Consequences\" would be exactly the same, except Bob's hair color would be different, and they would stop giving away Jungle Gardenia due to animal testing.

[EmiOfBrie]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Jul 23 2003, 08:31 PM\'] as we have seen, Peter Marshall is just as capable today of presiding as The Master Of The Hollywood Squares as he was 35 years ago. [/quote]
 True enough....shortly after I got the November Peter Marshall e-newsletter, I decided to e-mail him with a comment \"I'm sure it must have felt like you were home again, right?\"

He replied in the positive.    Apparently he still does an occasional (non-aired) travelling HS show from time to time.

[chris319]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Jul 23 2003, 10:42 PM\']\"Truth or Consequences\" would be exactly the same, except Bob's hair color would be different, and they would stop giving away Jungle Gardenia due to animal testing.[/quote]
I'll have to check if Tuvache is still in business.

The Hollywood Knickerbocker still stands, not far from Bob Barker's home and the original El Capitan theater, one-time home of This Is Your Life. The Knickerbocker is now an old folks home I think.

[EmiOfBrie]

[quote name=\'DrBear\' date=\'Jul 23 2003, 09:21 PM\'] Oh, there would be tweaks, always tweaks. Pyramid is the same basic game it was on day one, with tweaks (6 instead of 7 items in the front game, different dollar amounts) but the only other difference is in staging, camera shots and host. [/quote]
 True enough.  Pyramid had already shifted to video screens by the time it was pulled off the air in 1991.  Had it continued past that point, however, although I submit we'd have still seen the \"6 in 20\" change somewhere around 1996, The set would not be the current set.  Think the 1982-91 set with flat-panel displays and updated color scheme.

As for Press Your Luck, mentioned earlier, they would have shifted to a board much like the German board in the mid-1990s, albeit with the full 18 squares and graphics similar to the 1980s (with different fonts).  The biggest question however would probably be if they'd have switched to the flat-panel displays a-la \"Whammy!\".  We'd have seen the first CGI Whammy animations in the late 1990s, and I doubt we'd ever have seen the oval board.

[EmiOfBrie]

[quote name=\'GS Warehouse\' date=\'Jul 23 2003, 08:38 PM\'] I speak for most when I say had Family Feud run continuously since 1976, we would have never dealt with Louie Anderson or the straight four-question format.  (Granted, FF has never been off the air more than four years at a time, but...) [/quote]
 I dunno if Richard Dawson could have continued much longer past 1995, actually, so we may have gotten Anderson anyway.

However, we may not have seen the return of the \"Play/Pass\" format that was absent in the CBS run.