If you could pick one show, and only one show

[Fedya]

They didn't know Paul Lynde, Rose Marie and Vincent Price but they know Brett Somers, Joyce Bulifant and Bill Daily from Match Game - yeah right.

Aside from their appearances on HS, I can tell you exactly one thing Vincent Price did:  Voice a character on The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo.  I have no clue what the others did outside of HS.

Face it--the ratings sucked and aside from an occasional one-liner, the show was slow and boring.  In comparison, Match Game moves much faster.

Really?

Vincent Price was a star for ten years before House of Wax, and all people remember is the schlocky horror.  :-(

[pacdude]

They didn't know Paul Lynde, Rose Marie and Vincent Price but they know Brett Somers, Joyce Bulifant and Bill Daily from Match Game - yeah right.

Aside from their appearances on HS, I can tell you exactly one thing Vincent Price did:  Voice a character on The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo.  I have no clue what the others did outside of HS.

Face it--the ratings sucked and aside from an occasional one-liner, the show was slow and boring.  In comparison, Match Game moves much faster.

Really?

Vincent Price was a star for ten years before House of Wax, and all people remember is the schlocky horror.  :-(

I think it's This TV (some weird DTV sub channel of MyNetwork TV here in Philadelphia) that was doing Thursday Night Price or something along those lines. With that (and the Internet) I took a shining to House on Haunted HIll, Laura and Wilson. I just picked a pop-culture lay-up, if you will.

[Vahan_Nisanian]

I don't get why so many people should be hugely turned off if the celebrity game show has celebrities that, to them, have little to no name recognition at all. I didn't know the majority of the celebrities on both 80s' Pyramid editions when I first started watching them, but that didn't keep me from enjoying them.

[Tony Peters]

I don't get why so many people should be hugely turned off if the celebrity game show has celebrities that, to them, have little to no name recognition at all. I didn't know the majority of the celebrities on both 80s' Pyramid editions when I first started watching them, but that didn't keep me from enjoying them.

This.

And besides, (rhetorically) how many of today's supposedly high-wattage celebrities are even bright enough in their mental capacities to be able to entertain/play the game as well as could most of the "no-names" of the past (or even present, should TBS's Pyramid go forward*)?

*About a month ago, after several weeks of problematic reception (most likely due to the warm humid weather and the leaves on the trees between our house and the TV towers in Huntsville, AL), my dad finally bit the bullet and subscribed to Dish Network so we could receive more reliable TV service (at least during non-stormy weather); thus I will now be able to watch Pyramid should it go to series (I still won't get GSN except if/when Dish offers a free preview of it sometime).

[Dbacksfan12]

I don't get why so many people should be hugely turned off if the celebrity game show has celebrities that, to them, have little to no name recognition at all. I didn't know the majority of the celebrities on both 80s' Pyramid editions when I first started watching them, but that didn't keep me from enjoying them.

This.

And besides, (rhetorically) how many of today's supposedly high-wattage celebrities are even bright enough in their mental capacities to be able to entertain/play the game as well as could most of the "no-names" of the past (or even present, should TBS's Pyramid go forward*)?

I find that fairly insulting.  There's a huge difference between high-wattage celebrities who have high mental capacities, and high-wattage celebrities who want to play the game.

[clemon79]

I find that fairly insulting.

Congratulations on achieving your high-wattage celebrity!

[Sonic Whammy]

In an effort to bring this topic back to what it was supposed to be, I know my choice of classic PYL is obvious, but after burning some early 80's Joker episodes for someone who happened to be a friend of the contestant on the shows, I got a big soft spot growing for it again.

Price, would be great, but forget it. I fear even after Bob leaving us, his estate will probably hand some edict down blocking it or something.

Classic Squares still surprised me that it didn't fly. Eh, what can you do. I wouldn't mind it, though.

The main key, I think, is that no matter which of these it was, it would have to be something different from the classics on the sked now. So while other variations of Feud, Card and Pyramid might be nice, it wouldn't have the same punch (especially in Feud's case).

[Jimmy Owen]

I can't imagine Bob's estate doing that.  Can animals hand down edicts?

[That Don Guy]

Price, would be great, but forget it. I fear even after Bob leaving us, his estate will probably hand some edict down blocking it or something.

Is the fact that TPIR isn't on GSN now Barker's call at all?  I thought it was strictly Fremantle that was blocking it ("as long as CBS is airing it," I seem to recall hearing).  Besides - I am under the impression that the ban applied to the Cullen episodes as well, and what say would Barker have in those?

Maybe Bob can have his estate prevent airing the episodes with furs?  (Can an estate put a general block on airing TV shows with someone in it, the way it (presumably) can block using the person's likeness in commercials (a certain Halloween episode of The Simpsons notwithstanding)?)

[That Don Guy]

I'd like to see Peter Marshall's Hollywood Squares back, even though GSN says the ratings were bad and viewers didn't know the celebs. They didn't know Paul Lynde, Rose Marie and Vincent Price but they know Brett Somers, Joyce Bulifant and Bill Daily from Match Game - yeah right.

Besides, some of those jokes on Squares were classics!

Maybe if they ran ads selling the point that "Charley Weaver" is Patricia, Rosanna, and David Arquette's grandfather?

Paul Lynde and Rose Marie aren't as popular now as some of us older GSNoids here might expect, as nobody airs weekday reruns of Bewitched or The Dick van Dyke Show like they did "in our day".  ("Who's that in the upper left square?"  "Wally Cox."  "Who's he?"  "Well, among other things, he was the voice of Underdog."  "You mean that stupid movie with the superhero dog?"  "No, the cartoon series."  "Underdog was a cartoon?")

Another possible reason: how dated are some of the HS questions?  (Then again, MG didn't exactly stay away from "current events" - I remember a question that involved Evel Knievel and ended something like "Evel hit him with a (blank)", and while the contestant said "motorcycle," pretty much every celebrity said "baseball bat" (a reference to him going after the author of a biography with one).)

[Mr. Armadillo]

Paul Lynde and Rose Marie aren't as popular now as some of us older GSNoids here might expect, as nobody airs weekday reruns of Bewitched or The Dick van Dyke Show like they did "in our day".

Who's Rose Marie?

[Vahan_Nisanian]

I don't care if the questions are dated or not. I just enjoy the show for what it is.

And what does a Halloween episode of The Simpsons have to do with a person's likeness being blocked? And which season was it?

[Ian Wallis]

I don't care if the questions are dated or not. I just enjoy the show for what it is.

I guess most people our age would get the reference in the dated questions, while younger viewers wouldn't necessarily know that they were talking about.  I wonder if that's one reason why '70s (and seemingly more) '80s sitcoms aren't repeated that much anymore.  Classics like All in the Family come to mind that are very dated because they discussed a lot of issues relavent to the mid-late '70s.  When TVLand first went on the air, their lineup was full of these type of shows.  Now, not so much - them, or Nick at Nite.

[Vahan_Nisanian]

I'm a younger viewer, and I don't care if it's dated or not.

Did the "dated material" keep me from enjoying the B&E trifecta? Of course not.

[mmb5]

I'm a younger viewer, and I don't care if it's dated or not.

Did the "dated material" keep me from enjoying the B&E trifecta? Of course not.

You are one viewer that likes a certain type of show.  However, years of empirical data show that viewers prefer to watch something else, as almost any network that has tried to work only off nostalgia (VH1 Classic, TVLand, Cartoon Network, etc.) realized that it is not a long-term winning strategy and either changed their focus (VH1 Classic), skewed to a smaller time frame (TV Land) or had enough clout to start another network (Boomerang).  GSN's job is to make money, and maximizing viewership is a key part of that equation.  GSN has tried #1 a bit (and for the most part failed), #2 more so (and has proven to be somewhat successful) and #3 would not be tenable since DirecTV doesn't own any other channels that would be thrown in as an afterthought inside a much larger contract.