Game Show Confidential by Boze Hadle

[Card Shark]

I bought this book recently and it is mixed with interesting facts and a lot of factual inaccuracies. The author stated that Art Fleming was considered for the 1984 reboot of Jeopardy, but Fleming turned he down because, "[he] felt the show had been dumbed down...; he disliked the new computerized board and disappproved that now only the day's champion got to keep their winnings", whereas I had read in other sources, that he was considered but deemed to be too old. So, for the those who have a good background in gamshow history, was he, in fact offered the job?

[Adam Nedeff]

The story as has been told to me was that Art was never in the running for the 1984 reboot. Per Fred Wostbrock, a lot of blame, whether deserved or not, was put on Art for the failure of the 1978 reboot.

[Winkfan]

...it is mixed with interesting facts and a lot of factual inaccuracies.

One of those "inaccuracies" was that What's This Song was on ABC, when it was really on NBC.

But then again, maybe that show should have been on ABC; considering that network's reputation at the time for attracting younger viewers. On the other hand, that is another rant for another time.

As for the book itself, I have my own copy; and to me, it reads like the first four years of The Young And The Restless. But that's just me.....

I do give Boze some credit, though.

Cordially,
Tammy

[Card Shark]

Tammy, I agree. I have learned a great deal of information from Boze and I'm not even done reading the entire book. However, there are several inaccuracies contained beyond what you pointed out. All in all, good read, though.

[steveleb]

As usual. Adam is spot on.  While it was still Merv’s show, the King brothers were steering the ship in 1983—turning a nearly cancelled daytime show into the number one prime access show in the country earned them that cred.  Art was considered by their clients to be an aging relic and would have been completely out of place with the look and feel that ultimately went to air—again, the brothers (particularly Michael) were resolute about the “wow” factor.

[Matt Ottinger]

The story as has been told to me was that Art was never in the running for the 1984 reboot. Per Fred Wostbrock, a lot of blame, whether deserved or not, was put on Art for the failure of the 1978 reboot.

Interestingly, Fleming (who was almost certainly bitter about how things were going down) mounted a bit of a campaign to salvage his reputation.  There are several newspaper articles from 1984 where he claims he was considered but took himself out of the running, pretty much for the reasons mentioned in the OP.  So it's not like this was a made up story told to you by your bowling buddy.  It appears to be a made up story that Fleming told to save face.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VjRS-3NxDGQBt2N7IL7CuHo_sFI8aZ11/view?usp=sharing

I guess what I'm saying is if you're "researching" a book about game shows but all you really want to find are the scandalous bits, once you find an article like that with your newspapers.com subscription, you're probably not going to dig too much deeper.

[Card Shark]

Correct, Matt. Corroborating sources might have been a good idea for the author. Not that I've published anything, but just saying...