Author Topic: 30th Anniversary (Read 7632 times)

GSWitch · « **on:** January 06, 2005, 06:25:07 AM »

Today marks the 30th anniversary that NBC had good news & bad news for game show fans.

GOOD NEWS

Art James would host his first California show doing Blank Check, Barry-Enright's NBC entry since Tic Tac Dough back in 1956. Alan Thicke composed the Chump Change clone tune. And when somebody won big, dixieland jazz music fanfare played which was later used on The Joker's Wild in 1977.

Merv Griffin had Wheel of Fortune. This would go on to tie Concentration & Hollywood Squares as the longest running NBC daytime game. Chuck Woolery & Susan Stafford hosted. The top dollar; $500 (round 1)/$1,000 (Rounds 2-up). Contestants would go shopping & would put the remaining winnings on a gift certificate. Very few placed it ON ACCOUNT (just like giving the clues on Pyramid), though once I did witness one gentleman who won $200, didn't like the cheapest prize & quickly said On Account.

The show had a short lived hour long expansion. The Bonus Round came in 1981, Chuck exited & Pat entered, then Susan left & out came Vanna! Wheel made NBC appearances on Santa Barbara, The A-Team, 227 & Gimme A Break (LA Law was when the show was on CBS & Bob Goen hosted).

BAD NEWS

NBC decides to expand Another World to an hour. This would start the domino theory & would ruin afternoon game shows for good. Here's the order of how it fell (like 10 pins in a bowling alley)...

Days of Our Lives
As The World Turns
One Life To Live
General Hospital
All My Children
Guiding Light
Young & The Restless

The last afternoon games the networks had...

ABC: The $20,000 Pyramid (1978)
CBS: Press Your Luck (1986)
NBC: The Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour (1984)

Don Howard · « **Reply #1 on:** January 06, 2005, 08:35:23 AM »

[quote name=\'GSWitch\' date=\'Jan 6 2005, 06:25 AM\']The last afternoon games the networks had...
ABC: The $20,000 Pyramid (1978)

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That was odd scheduling ABC had during that show's final months at 2PM.
Ninety minutes of soap operas (Ryan's Hope and All My Children) from 12:30-2:00 and two hours of soap operas (One Live To Live, General Hospital and The Edge Of Night) from 2:30-4:30 with The $20,000 Pyramid in the middle of the big soap block from 2-2:30.

Jimmy Owen · « **Reply #2 on:** January 06, 2005, 08:54:40 AM »

Art had been west before. "Temptation" on ABC was also a California origination back in 67. As Zach might tell you, Art is probably the only host to have national game shows originating from Cleveland, Cincinnati and Atlanta as well as the usual Montreal, NYC and LA.

Ian Wallis · « **Reply #3 on:** January 06, 2005, 09:00:03 AM »

Quote

Contestants would go shopping & would put the remaining winnings on a gift certificate. Very few placed it ON ACCOUNT (just like giving the clues on Pyramid), though once I did witness one gentleman who won $200, didn't like the cheapest prize & quickly said On Account.

In the beginning, the remaining money automatically went On Account. They didn't add the gift certificate option until sometime well into their first year. I remember another contestant who won something like $700 in round one and elected to put the whole thing On Account because he was eying a bigger prize in round two. Chuck warned him he could lose it all with a bankrupt. He won the next round and was able to get the prize he wanted. I didn't see that happen very often though.

Also, on the same date, "Celebrity Sweepstakes" moved from 12:30 p.m. to 10 a.m., meaning I could no longer watch it at lunch!

Don Howard · « **Reply #4 on:** January 06, 2005, 09:31:09 AM »

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Jan 6 2005, 09:00 AM\']Also, on the same date, "Celebrity Sweepstakes" moved from 12:30 p.m. to 10 a.m., meaning I could no longer watch it at lunch!

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You could've watched it at brunch. That move to 10:00 was what drove the nail into the coffin of the CBS run of The Joker's Wild, wasn't it?

SRIV94 · « **Reply #5 on:** January 06, 2005, 09:44:19 AM »

[quote name=\'GSWitch\' date=\'Jan 6 2005, 05:25 AM\']The last afternoon games the networks had...

NBC: The Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour (1984)

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Didn't SCRABBLE/SCATTERGORIES air in many markets in SANTA BARBARA's 3PM ET slot?

At least if this September 2004 thread is any indication.

Doug

zachhoran · « **Reply #6 on:** January 06, 2005, 10:01:25 AM »

[quote name=\'SRIV94\' date=\'Jan 6 2005, 09:44 AM\'][quote name=\'GSWitch\' date=\'Jan 6 2005, 05:25 AM\']The last afternoon games the networks had...

NBC: The Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour (1984)

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Didn't SCRABBLE/SCATTERGORIES air in many markets in SANTA BARBARA's 3PM ET slot?

At least if this September 2004 thread is any indication.

Doug

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They did air from 3PM-4PM in a lot of areas, but the network's official time slot for Scrabble and Scattergories was 11AM for Scrabble and IIRC Noon for Scattergories. By 1993, a lot of NBC stations didn't air NBC shows at the network-sanctioned time slot. That is, if they aired the shows at all.

brianhenke · « **Reply #7 on:** January 06, 2005, 10:07:36 AM »

Just a few minutes ago, Christian music station K-Love mentioned that today is Wheel's 30th anniversary (and they even played Changing Keys!)

Brian

The Jehovah's Witnesses distribute Mad magazine?

SRIV94 · « **Reply #8 on:** January 06, 2005, 10:31:43 AM »

[quote name=\'zachhoran\' date=\'Jan 6 2005, 09:01 AM\']They did air from 3PM-4PM in a lot of areas, but the network's official time slot for Scrabble and Scattergories was 11AM for Scrabble and IIRC Noon for Scattergories. By 1993, a lot of NBC stations didn't air NBC shows at the network-sanctioned time slot. That is, if they aired the shows at all.

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I think I brought up this question once and don't recall if I ever got an answer (and the "Search" function here didn't help on this one). Did any affiliate show one of the two shows in the SCRABBLE93/SCATTERGORIES hour but not the other (and/or did any affiliate show both shows but not back-to-back)? I find it strange that the network-mandated time for the two shows had a half hour separation in there.

Doug

Don Howard · « **Reply #9 on:** January 06, 2005, 10:38:22 AM »

Interesting thing (to me) about the 1993 run of Scrabble and Scattergories is they ran seamlessly back-to-back. In my city, where the hour of games began at 11am, Scrabble ended at 11:30 (and I do mean 11:30--not 11:28) followed immediately--without even a station ID slide--into Scattergories. There was also no network announcer talking over the end credits.
Sure, they were done on the cheap, but they were still entertaining and was I sorry to see them go.

aaron sica · « **Reply #10 on:** January 06, 2005, 10:40:35 AM »

[quote name=\'GSWitch\' date=\'Jan 6 2005, 06:25 AM\']
The last afternoon games the networks had...

ABC: The $20,000 Pyramid (1978)

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I consider anything starting at 12:00pm to be an "Afternoon" game, so the show that would qualify for this on ABC would be MG90, at least on the Eastern Time Zone, as it aired at noon.

Jimmy Owen · « **Reply #11 on:** January 06, 2005, 10:57:22 AM »

[quote name=\'SRIV94\' date=\'Jan 6 2005, 10:31 AM\'][quote name=\'zachhoran\' date=\'Jan 6 2005, 09:01 AM\']They did air from 3PM-4PM in a lot of areas, but the network's official time slot for Scrabble and Scattergories was 11AM for Scrabble and IIRC Noon for Scattergories. By 1993, a lot of NBC stations didn't air NBC shows at the network-sanctioned time slot. That is, if they aired the shows at all.

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[/quote]
I think I brought up this question once and don't recall if I ever got an answer (and the "Search" function here didn't help on this one). Did any affiliate show one of the two shows in the SCRABBLE93/SCATTERGORIES hour but not the other (and/or did any affiliate show both shows but not back-to-back)? I find it strange that the network-mandated time for the two shows had a half hour separation in there.

Doug

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Channel 5 in Saginaw showed "Scrabble" at 12:30pm but didn't clear "Scattergories." The Lansing station showed the hour at 3pm.

Don Howard · « **Reply #12 on:** January 06, 2005, 10:59:38 AM »

[quote name=\'aaron sica\' date=\'Jan 6 2005, 10:40 AM\'][quote name=\'GSWitch\' date=\'Jan 6 2005, 06:25 AM\']
The last afternoon games the networks had...
ABC: The $20,000 Pyramid (1978)

[snapback]70186[/snapback]

[/quote]
I consider anything starting at 12:00pm to be an "Afternoon" game, so the show that would qualify for this on ABC would be MG90, at least on the Eastern Time Zone, as it aired at noon.

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Hmmmmm. Yes, but I can see letting this one slide since the Central, Mountain and Pacific time zones would've presented the show at eleven in the morning and our witch does reside in one of those time zones.

GSWitch · « **Reply #13 on:** January 06, 2005, 11:14:31 AM »

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' date=\'Jan 6 2005, 09:38 AM\']Interesting thing (to me) about the 1993 run of Scrabble and Scattergories is they ran seamlessly back-to-back. In my city, where the hour of games began at 11am, Scrabble ended at 11:30 (and I do mean 11:30--not 11:28) followed immediately--without even a station ID slide--into Scattergories. There was also no network announcer talking over the end credits.
Sure, they were done on the cheap, but they were still entertaining and was I sorry to see them go.

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KPRC in Houston also had those shows on @ the 11:00 am hour.

BrandonFG · « **Reply #14 on:** January 06, 2005, 01:08:25 PM »

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' date=\'Jan 6 2005, 10:38 AM\']Interesting thing (to me) about the 1993 run of Scrabble and Scattergories is they ran seamlessly back-to-back. In my city, where the hour of games began at 11am, Scrabble ended at 11:30 (and I do mean 11:30--not 11:28) followed immediately--without even a station ID slide--into Scattergories. There was also no network announcer talking over the end credits.
Sure, they were done on the cheap, but they were still entertaining and was I sorry to see them go.

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It surprised me when they went straight to Scattergories as well, without even so much as an NBC peacock. In Norfolk, the two aired from 10-11 am, so no flipping back and forth between that and TPiR. I really did enjoy both shows, even with the "Less Money Syndrome," and always looked forward to my days off from school. I too was sorry to see them both go, esp. since Norfolk never picked up another daytime game after those two (we never got Caesar's Challenge--at least not until the USA reruns in summer 94).

Has it really been 12 years? Zach, that was a rhetorical question, I know 1993+12=2005, and that it'll be 12 years on the 18th.