Password Plus Mystery

[chris319]

We know that the on-line episode guide is off by one, having overlooked the four-show week spanning shows #351 - #354 due to the Iran hostage preemption. This correctly puts the final Bert Convy show at #499, but going by the slate for #514 it puts the White/Martin show numbers off by 5:

495-499 Dec 3-5, 8-9  Judy Norton-Taylor, Bert Convy
500-504 Dec 10-12, 15-16  Della Reese, Bill Anderson
505-509 Dec 17-19, 22-23  Betty White, Dick Martin  Wrong show #
        Dec 24-26, 29-30  David Doyle, Dick Gautier, Gina Hecht, Debralee Scott

This corrects the show numbers:

495-499 Dec 3-5, 8-9  Judy Norton-Taylor, Bert Convy
500-504                           ?????
505-509 Dec 10-12, 15-16  Della Reese, Bill Anderson
510-514 Dec 17-19, 22-23  Betty White, Dick Martin  Correct show #
        Dec 24-26, 29-30  David Doyle, Dick Gautier, Gina Hecht, Debralee Scott

[SRIV94]

all of NBC's morning shows except the first half hour of LETTERMAN were pre-empted on 7/14/80 because of the Republican Convention

Now you tell us.

Well, I would've volunteered this sooner had I known you needed it.

/Is my nose turning brown?

[snowpeck]

According to the GSN PDFs, the Doyle/Scott/Hecht/Gautier week was show #s 470-474.

Although I can't confirm it with a PDF, I believe the other all-star week was 475-479.  No idea on tape dates.

[chris319]

According to the GSN PDFs, the Doyle/Scott/Hecht/Gautier week was show #s 470-474 (which would make that Kennedy's first taped week and would partially explain why he so gushingly wishes Allen well on the first show of that week).

Although I can't confirm it with a PDF, I believe the other all-star week was 475-479.  No idea on tape dates.

That puts the Bert Convy show numbers off by five. My records have this right and the on-line guide is explainably off by one, so it's at least close. I don't have a vivid memory of taping shows with David Doyle, but after 30 years and 500 shows ...

Here is another plausible scenario:

495-499 VTR Sun 11/16/80   AIR 12/3-9/80    Judy Norton-Taylor  Bert Convy

500-504 VTR Sat 11/29/80   AIR 12/24-30/80  David Doyle, Dick Gautier, Gina Hecht, Debralee Scott
505-509 VTR Sun 11/30/80   AIR 12/10-16/80  Della Reese         Bill Anderson

510-514 VTR Sat 12/ 6/80   AIR 12/17-23/80  Betty White         Dick Martin
515-519 VTR Sun 12/ 7/80   AIR 12/24-30/80  Susan Richardson    Bill Cullen

It wouldn't make sense for them to have taped on only 11/29 or 11/30. They needed to tape Blockbusters episodes during that time and it costs more to load and strike the set to tape five shows than 10.

Don't ask me WHY they would have held on to 500 - 504 for two weeks.

[snowpeck]

Well, regardless of when the episodes were taped, the problem is one of the all-star weeks being taped out of order, with the plan of airing it during Christmas week.

[thomas_meighan]

Believe it or not, it looks like Password Plus *did* air on 11-22-79; the New York Times has the Macy's Parade running from 9 AM to noon, then Mindreaders, Password Plus and afternoon soaps; NFL coverage didn't begin until 3:30. That's consistent with the pattern for 11-27-80, which also had the parade airing until noon, then Card Sharks, The Doctors et al. before the late afternoon football game.

Besides, to make up for a pre-emption during the Somers-Martin week, you'd have to take New Year's Day pre-emptions into account and only tape three episodes.

[chris319]

It looks like we were preempted on Tuesday 1/1/80? That would explain the short week.

[SRIV94]

It looks like we were preempted on Tuesday 1/1/80? That would explain the short week.

Yep.  (You have it marked as a Thanksgiving preemption, but it's actually for New Year's.)

I'm pretty sure Greg's right--the Doyle/Gautier/Scott/Hecht celeb week was held for Xmas week (aired 12/24-26 and 12/29-30).  The first show with Cullen and Richardson Kennedy acknowledges it was New Year's Eve (airdate, not tapedate).

I will make a stop in my local library during lunch to look at microfilms of TV GUIDE to see if indeed that week aired when we think it did.

[SRIV94]

Believe it or not, it looks like Password Plus *did* air on 11-22-79; the New York Times has the Macy's Parade running from 9 AM to noon, then Mindreaders, Password Plus and afternoon soaps; NFL coverage didn't begin until 3:30. That's consistent with the pattern for 11-27-80, which also had the parade airing until noon, then Card Sharks, The Doctors et al. before the late afternoon football game.

Confirmed.  One of those rare sequences where NBC got the late Cowboys game two years in a row (usually CBS and NBC would alternate between getting the early game and getting the late game)--CBS did the early Lions game both in 1979 and 1980 (opponent both years was Chicago).

[chris319]

We're all in agreement on the air dates. It's the show numbers and tape dates we're trying to reconcile, given that we know the show number, tape date and air date for Betty & Dick's show #514. There had to have been 10 shows with consecutive show numbers taped between Convy's last show #499 and the Betty & Dick week starting with #510 for this all to mesh.

[SRIV94]

GSN's long-standing policy has been to run their classic shows in order of tape date, so if they aired Gautier/Scott/Hecht/Doyle before Perry/Norton-Taylor/Walker/Morris it had to have taped first).  That would lend credence to celeb week 1 being 470-474 and celeb week 2 being 475-479 (even though celeb week 2 aired on NBC first).

[SRIV94]

GSN's long-standing policy has been to run their classic shows in order of tape date, so if they aired Gautier/Scott/Hecht/Doyle before Perry/Norton-Taylor/Walker/Morris it had to have taped first).  That would lend credence to celeb week 1 being 470-474 and celeb week 2 being 475-479 (even though celeb week 2 aired on NBC first).

And it's also why back in the day we kept thinking that GSN "misidentified" Kennedy's first episode.

Let's go back to August 23, 2002, shall we?

[thomas_meighan]

If we could find out who the contestants were A) in the last game of Norton-Taylor/Convy episode #5 and in the first game of Reese/Anderson episode #1 and B) in the last game of Reese/Anderson episode #5 and the first game of White/Martin episode #1, that should tell us pretty certainly whether or not a week is missing. Wouldn't entirely solve the episode number conundrum, but we'd have the weeks accounted for.

[snowpeck]

Going back to those GSN PDFs, the Reese/Anderson week was 505-509, and the White/Martin week was 510-514.  (I have DVD-Rs of a good chunk of Kennedy's run, oddly beginning with the Convy/Norton-Taylor week that's been the subject of most of this thread.)

I may be taking a risk in doing so, but I'm going to stick by my guns that, at least the way the episodes were numbered, the Scott/Gautier/Hecht/Doyle shows were 470-474 (are also Kennedy's first taped, and were held until Christmas week) and the Walker/Norton-Taylor/Perry/Morris week was 475-479.  

That would indeed make the last show of the Convy/Norton-Taylor week the 499th to air, but the 504th taped.

[chris319]

Going back to those GSN PDFs, the Reese/Anderson week was 505-509, and the White/Martin week was 510-514.  (I have DVD-Rs of a good chunk of Kennedy's run, oddly beginning with the Convy/Norton-Taylor week that's been the subject of most of this thread.)

I may be taking a risk in doing so, but I'm going to stick by my guns that, at least the way the episodes were numbered, the Scott/Gautier/Hecht/Doyle shows were 470-474 (are also Kennedy's first taped, and were held until Christmas week) and the Walker/Norton-Taylor/Perry/Morris week was 475-479.  

That would indeed make the last show of the Convy/Norton-Taylor week the 499th to air, but the 504th taped.

The only way this theory works is if the slates on the David Doyle shows say 500 - 504. This may require a call to David Schwartz. Is he still at GSN?

If we could find out who the contestants were A) in the last game of Norton-Taylor/Convy episode #5 and in the first game of Reese/Anderson episode #1 and B) in the last game of Reese/Anderson episode #5 and the first game of White/Martin episode #1, that should tell us pretty certainly whether or not a week is missing. Wouldn't entirely solve the episode number conundrum, but we'd have the weeks accounted for.

That would be a big clue. It leaves open the question of whether they taped only one day over the weekend of 11/29-30, but with the Blockbusters factor it may have been the case.