Author Topic: '90 - '93 (Read 6697 times)

The Pyramids · « **on:** January 02, 2006, 01:11:18 PM »

Here are three things that went wrong for the genre, all from 90 - 93, that changed everything

1 - The passing of Mark Goodson and the retirements (or whatever you want to call it) of Bob Stewart, Monty Hall etc.

2 - Networks giving back large parts of the day to affiliates

3 - The rise in talk and court shows and the failure of 'Match Game, 'To Tell the Truth', 'Let's Make A Deal', 'Tic Tac Dough','Joker's Wild,''The Challengers' and I'm suspect more all from the '90-'91 season

Anyone have any others?

Dbacksfan12 · « **Reply #1 on:** January 02, 2006, 01:24:40 PM »

[quote name=\'PaulD\' date=\'Jan 2 2006, 01:11 PM\']1 - The passing of Mark Goodson and the retirements (or whatever you want to call it) of Bob Stewart, Monty Hall etc. [/quote]
I'm fairly sure that Stewart is still with us today, and I know that Monty all is.

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3 - The rise in court shows

Don't think this happened until about '98, after the success of Judge Judy.

Try again.

The Pyramids · « **Reply #2 on:** January 02, 2006, 01:32:57 PM »

[quote name=\'Modor\' date=\'Jan 2 2006, 01:24 PM\'][quote name=\'PaulD\' date=\'Jan 2 2006, 01:11 PM\']1 - The passing of Mark Goodson and the retirements (or whatever you want to call it) of Bob Stewart, Monty Hall etc. [/quote]
I'm fairly sure that Stewart is still with us today, and I know that Monty all is.
[/quote]

They are. I meany they as far as I know began getting out of the business at that time.

Don Howard · « **Reply #3 on:** January 02, 2006, 02:13:14 PM »

Monty retired before 1990. He was lured out of retirement by Dick Clark and Ron Greenberg to be "special guest host" on Let's Make A Deal when Bob Hilton wasn't working out. After Split Second left us in 1987, he hosted a pilot for Queen For A Day for Barry & Enright Productions and for a show called Betcha where he debuted the grey hair.
I suspect Sande Stewart was considerably more involved than Bob Stewart when John Davidson came along to start tripping over The $100,000 Pyramid in 1991.
As for the court shows, 1990-93 was also when they did their disappearing acts. Superior Court was dismissed in 1990, Divorce Court was granted separation papers around the same time and even The People's Court recessed in 1993.
To the talk show point, ITA, baby. They came through the walls. The Jenny Jones Show was supposed to be a light chit-chat/comedy show until they went down the controversy road resulting in a guest being assassinated. Also, The Maury Povich Show was supposed to be a serious interview program and not the circus it would become shortly thereafter. Same with Jerry Spinger and many others. Even Faith Daniels' A Closer Look on NBC was initially a news update and interview program. The only reason that show went away in 1993 was because Faith was promoted to be part of a three-anchor team for a newsmagazine called Prime Story, which got yanked when a new News President took over and decided a Tom Brokaw/Katie Couric anchored telecast would bring in the viewers by the millions. It didn't. He should've brought in Lloyd Dobyns and Linda Ellerbee. That truly would've been informative, different and entertaining. Faith Daniels ultimately ended up reporting occasional pieces for Dateline NBC, left the network and was later seen doing commercials for Pepcid AC.
But that's how we got Family Secrets at 12:30pm and later Caesar's Challenge by default. Too bad Scrabble's return wasn't given that 12:30 spot when the other shows didn't work out. While a cheapened version of the original, it was still a fun show to watch and shout answers at the TV during.

tvwxman · « **Reply #4 on:** January 02, 2006, 02:13:28 PM »

[quote name=\'PaulD\' date=\'Jan 2 2006, 01:32 PM\']They are. I meany they as far as I know began getting out of the business at that time.

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From a television programming perspective, they didn't get out of the business, instead, the business got out of them.

90-91 was a disaster syndication wise...5 new games, 5 new failures (6, if you count 100K pyr with davidson in January)... Games not making a dent led to syndie programmers NOT counting on them for 2001-2002.

90-91 was the time NBC started giving up on games in the morning, letting local stations program them with hour long talk shows.... every couple of months, they'd give 30 mins back to local...then the locals claimed there weren't any good 30 min syndie shows to plug in, only hour long talk shows, so they'd give em another 30 mins....CBS followed when FFChallenge dissapeared...

by 1991, only talk shows were introduced at NATPE....which ultimately led to the dearth of game shows for the next few years....everyone, syndicators, local tv execs, even the networks thought they were giving the audience what they wanted...and it was all but unfortunately proven that, in daytime, what they wanted wasn't game shows.

calliaume · « **Reply #5 on:** January 02, 2006, 02:33:22 PM »

[quote name=\'tvwxman\' date=\'Jan 2 2006, 02:13 PM\']by 2001, only talk shows were introduced at NATPE....which ultimately led to the dearth of game shows for the next few years....everyone, syndicators, local tv execs, even the networks thought they were giving the audience what they wanted...and it was all but unfortunately proven that, in daytime, what they wanted wasn't game shows.

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I don't know about that. Pyramid was a moderate hit, until Sony decided to push two talk shows instead of its third season at NATPE '04; the resulting ratings were worse than Pyramid's.

The big problem is programming in one-hour blocks. No packager, except Sony with DG/NG Hour in 1996, is offering one-hour game show blocks, even though it's pretty obvious that's what most stations want. Surely Sony, Fremantle, and a couple of others could offer some options here if they cared to.

tvwxman · « **Reply #6 on:** January 02, 2006, 03:11:16 PM »

[quote name=\'calliaume\' date=\'Jan 2 2006, 02:33 PM\'][quote name=\'tvwxman\' date=\'Jan 2 2006, 02:13 PM\']by 2001, only talk shows were introduced at NATPE....which ultimately led to the dearth of game shows for the next few years....everyone, syndicators, local tv execs, even the networks thought they were giving the audience what they wanted...and it was all but unfortunately proven that, in daytime, what they wanted wasn't game shows.

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I don't know about that. Pyramid was a moderate hit, until Sony decided to push two talk shows instead of its third season at NATPE '04; the resulting ratings were worse than Pyramid's.

The big problem is programming in one-hour blocks. No packager, except Sony with DG/NG Hour in 1996, is offering one-hour game show blocks, even though it's pretty obvious that's what most stations want. Surely Sony, Fremantle, and a couple of others could offer some options here if they cared to.

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That's a mistake. It should have read 1991. It's been corrected above....

Pyramid 2000 was NOT a hit. If it were, it would have seen season 3. Sony would have still brought out its 2 talk shows. The reason they introduced 2 new talk show pilots was because it's local stations were demanding a better return on their Pyramid investment.

You are , however, correct about your one-hour game show block assessment.

urbanpreppie05 · « **Reply #7 on:** January 02, 2006, 03:35:56 PM »

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Pyramid 2000 was NOT a hit. If it were, it would have seen season 3. Sony would have still brought out its 2 talk shows. The reason they introduced 2 new talk show pilots was because it's local stations were demanding a better return on their Pyramid investment.

It was definatly NOT a hit, but it was a WAYYYY better performer than Life and Style and Pat Croce:Moving in, which combined didn't get the ratings Pyramid recieved.

Winkfan · « **Reply #8 on:** January 02, 2006, 03:59:09 PM »

Quote from: tvwxman on January 02, 2006, 02:13:28 PM

90-91 was a disaster syndication wise...5 new games, 5 new failures (6, if you count 100K pyr with davidson in January)... Games not making a dent led to syndie programmers NOT counting on them for 2001-2002.

it was all but unfortunately proven that, in daytime, what they wanted wasn't game shows.

Haven't you all forgotten? In '91-93, the viewers wanted "game shows," alright. DATING game shows, that is. Yes, all those 'trivia' games were ousted in favor of those that appealed not to the viewer's brain, but rather, his/her libido. Thus, we got shows like STUDS, Infatuation, etc.

On the other hand, Supermarket Sweep made a successful comeback during that same period (darn, I miss that show); and Shop Til You Drop managed to get in a long run as well.

Cordially,
Tammy Warner--the 'Robin Marella of the Big Board!'

tvwxman · « **Reply #9 on:** January 02, 2006, 04:31:26 PM »

[quote name=\'Winkfan\' date=\'Jan 2 2006, 03:59 PM\']Haven't you all forgotten? In '91-93, the viewers wanted "game shows," alright. DATING game shows, that is. Yes, all those 'trivia' games were ousted in favor of those that appealed not to the viewer's brain, but rather, his/her libido. Thus, we got shows like STUDS, Infatuation, etc.

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No they didn't. Studs and Infatuation were more of a "Fox-ified" way of finding "alternative" programming. Talk shows that were hardly game shows, but rather, talk shows with an occasional prize. I'll throw "That's Amore" in for another example.

[quote name=\'Winkfan\' date=\'Jan 2 2006, 03:59 PM\']
On the other hand, Supermarket Sweep made a successful comeback during that same period (darn, I miss that show); and Shop Til You Drop managed to get in a long run as well.

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Not applicable, again. Cable was a different beast altogether. For Cable, the 1990s were a defining era of cheaply done, 'niche' programming. Supermarker Sweep and STYD, both programmed for Lifetime : Television for Women.... and i'd speculate that the thinking behind slotting those two programs were because the formats both skewed towards women only.

Yes they were hits, but for Lifetime. If the syndicators thought the two could do well enough on the syndicated platform, they would have been trotted out. Wasn't STYD brought out in syndication, on a limited basis? And, wasn't it a limited dud? Or am i thinking about "Debt"?

JasonA1 · « **Reply #10 on:** January 02, 2006, 04:42:21 PM »

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Or am i thinking about "Debt"?

Yes. My market, Detroit, had it at Noon following TPIR. Not the best of timeslots.

-Jason

Jimmy Owen · « **Reply #11 on:** January 02, 2006, 04:50:45 PM »

The CBS affil in Detroit tried both STYD and Debt in the noon slot. FF is the current occupant.

zachhoran · « **Reply #12 on:** January 02, 2006, 07:28:50 PM »

[quote name=\'tvwxman\' date=\'Jan 2 2006, 04:31 PM\']

Wasn't STYD brought out in syndication, on a limited basis? And, wasn't it a limited dud? Or am i thinking about "Debt"?

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A few stations aired reruns of Lifetime Sweep and STYD around 1995-96, and the same applied to Debt in 1998. All were test runs to see if the shows would fly in first-run syndication, and all were duds ratingswise.

TimK2003 · « **Reply #13 on:** January 02, 2006, 08:10:08 PM »

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' date=\'Jan 2 2006, 02:13 PM\']I suspect Sande Stewart was considerably more involved than Bob Stewart when John Davidson came along to start tripping over The $100,000 Pyramid in 1991.

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I want to say that Sande was pretty much the primary "hands on" person and Bob was more a second fiddle in the Stewart shows since the mid 80's when the Basada Productions tag was added to the shows of the time (Pyramid, Go,...). Would that be a logical assumption?

J.R. · « **Reply #14 on:** January 03, 2006, 05:41:14 AM »

In fact, was there any network/syndie game shows (besides WOF, J! and TPIR) that were made/survived in 1992?

-Joe R.