Another "What if...."

[aaron sica]

As most of us know, MG'90 was originally supposed to be hosted by Bert Convy.

Had Bert lived, and gotten to host the show, do you think it would have been on longer? And before you say "No, the noon time slot is what killed the show", stop and think about this for a second.

Ross Shafer was little-known at this point by most people, except for his stints on "Love me, Love me Not" and the FOX Late Show.

If Bert Convy actually HAD hosted the show, do you think some of the ABC stations that aired noon news might have made an effort to try to air the show in another timeslot? Or passed it off to some independent to air (I know of one market where that DID happen..Channel 27 in Boston)?

[Jimmy Owen]

It's always better to have an experienced host at the helm.  Bert was a very well liked host and a known quantity and his cachet may have attracted folks to MG90 who wouldn't normally do TV games.  I also think Bert would have had the pull to have been able to get creative changes made to the show, unlike a fledgling host.  Whether stations would have made room for it in the Eastern time zone, probably not.  SP ran for four years at noon and my NBC affil never showed one day of it.  I think MG would have gotten full carriage in the other time zones, however, with Bert as host.

[gshowguy]

I'd have to agree, too, even though in my opinion Ross Shafer tried his hardest, but just wasn't Gene. Heck, if Bert were alive today, he'd have been a better host of TNN's (now Spike TV) game show "Taboo" than Chris Wylde (I thought he had a Patrick Wayne-esque personality myself).

[Neumms]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Aug 26 2004, 11:35 AM\'] It's always better to have an experienced host at the helm.  Bert was a very well liked host and a known quantity and his cachet may have attracted folks to MG90 who wouldn't normally do TV games. [/quote]
 His cachet didn't exactly get Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner on Super Password, did it?

[Jimmy Owen]

I'm thinking people like Bob Newhart, Burt Reynolds, etc.

[tvwxman]

[quote name=\'aaron sica\' date=\'Aug 26 2004, 11:23 AM\']
Had Bert lived, and gotten to host the show, do you think it would have been on longer? And before you say "No, the noon time slot is what killed the show", stop and think about this for a second.
 [/quote]
 A great question....

First, it wasn't the noon timeslot that killed the show, though it certainly didn't help. MG90 aired at a time when local affils were pouring lots of added newscasts down viewers throats... ABC at the time probably didn't have a high clearance rate for the show, which likely helped lead to it's cancellation...

But wait, you say.....didn't Shafer announce on the last show that another network had picked it up? Yep....they were in discussions with NBC for the 11am slot...discussions that for some reason or another (can one of the vets fill this in?) fell through, leading NBC to pick up reruns of "Full House"...an ABC sitcom no less!

Could MG91 have survived on NBC ? Sure...at least until NBC went to just talk shows and soaps...a year or two later...cancellng the last of their gameshows in favor of "John and Leeza" and "Sunset Beach" in 1993....

[Don Howard]

Early 90s Match Game was replaced by an extra half hour of the Home show. Question for you. How many stations that didn't run the 90-91 Match Game carried that third half hour of Home come the third Monday in July 1991? Any at all? This I wonder.
Bert might have been helpful in getting the program on NBC (replacing To Tell The Truth, I believe) after ABC canned it had he helmed the skein [today's bow to Variety-speak]. Unfortunately, he was taken from us too soon.

[aaron sica]

[quote name=\'tvwxman\' date=\'Aug 26 2004, 04:16 PM\'] But wait, you say.....didn't Shafer announce on the last show that another network had picked it up? Yep....they were in discussions with NBC for the 11am slot...discussions that for some reason or another (can one of the vets fill this in?) fell through, leading NBC to pick up reruns of "Full House"...an ABC sitcom no less!

Could MG91 have survived on NBC ? Sure...at least until NBC went to just talk shows and soaps...a year or two later...cancellng the last of their gameshows in favor of "John and Leeza" and "Sunset Beach" in 1993.... [/quote]
 I'm sitting here with jaw dropped to floor, Matt.

Wow. It was early June, 1991 when NBC got FH reruns (I still remember seeing the blurb about "Full House" reruns moving to the timeslot in TVG, and wondering HOW?). It still makes me wonder to  this day, how or why NBC would agree to fill the timeslot with reruns from another network..

Of course, it would be a moot point, as I would have been out of luck with NBC, too. KYW-3 from Philly and WBRE-28 from Scranton did not air the 11am NBC offering, all through summer either.

[aaron sica]

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' date=\'Aug 26 2004, 04:22 PM\'] Early 90s Match Game was replaced by an extra half hour of the Home show. Question for you. How many stations that didn't run the 90-91 Match Game carried that third half hour of Home come the third Monday in July 1991? Any at all? This I wonder.
 [/quote]
WHTM-27 from Harrisburg comes AWFULLY close (but no cigar). They aired MG from premiere date in 1990 up until whatever day "Trump Card" premiered. When TC tanked, reruns of "People's Court" filled the slot until mid-June 1991, when MG came back to 27. When MG was cancelled and "Home" expanded to 90 minutes, they carried the entire 90-minute program until the noon slot was given back to affiliates and "Home" was scaled back to 60 minutes again.

I can't imagine too terribly many stations carrying the last half hour of "Home" that didn't carry MG, as I would imagine almost all of them had noon news. But it is an interesting point to bring up.

As Matt alluded to NBC possibly picking it up, I think I read somewhere (maybe even here!), that ABC was considering shrinking back "Home" to 30 minutes to make room for MG, either before or during the show's run, I cannot remember.

And in yet *another* "What if".....

"Home" premiered in 1988. It actually *did* air for one complete hour, just for a week, in either September 1988 or early 1989 (paging Zach....). When it expanded to an hour PERMANENTLY in 1989, "Growing Pains" reruns, which aired at 11am, moved to noon to make room for the hour long "Home". This is also when "Ryan's Hope" was cancelled (the previous noon occupant).

So what if........Growing Pains had never moved to noon, Perfect Strangers replaced it at 11, and then "MG" premiered at 11am (EST) in June 1990? Would it have lasted longer THEN?

[Thad Dixon]

[quote name=\'aaron sica\' date=\'Aug 26 2004, 04:36 PM\']So what if........Growing Pains had never moved to noon, Perfect Strangers replaced it at 11, and then "MG" premiered at 11am (EST) in June 1990? Would it have lasted longer THEN?[/quote]
I think not -- in fact, I think it probably would've had an even shorter run in that case;  it would've been airing opposite the first half-hour of TPiR if it had premiered in that time slot.

[SRIV94]

[quote name=\'tvwxman\' date=\'Aug 26 2004, 03:16 PM\'] Could MG91 have survived on NBC ? Sure...at least until NBC went to just talk shows and soaps...a year or two later...cancellng the last of their gameshows in favor of "John and Leeza" and "Sunset Beach" in 1993.... [/quote]
 Point well taken, but just to nitpick a little--SUNSET BEACH didn't air on NBC for another couple of years.  It was Jane Whitney's gabfest that took the CLASSIC CONCENTRATION and CAESAR'S CHALLENGE slot (or, more technically, CAESAR'S hour for the first two weeks of 1994).

Doug

[aaron sica]

[quote name=\'SRIV94\' date=\'Aug 26 2004, 05:11 PM\'] Point well taken, but just to nitpick a little--SUNSET BEACH didn't air on NBC for another couple of years.  It was Jane Whitney's gabfest that took the CLASSIC CONCENTRATION and CAESAR'S CHALLENGE slot (or, more technically, CAESAR'S hour for the first two weeks of 1994).

Doug [/quote]
 SB (Sunset Beach, *NOT* Steve Beverly ) premiered on NBC in January 1997, IIRC.

[adamjk]

I think maybe the show might have lasted a bit longer with Bert. He probably could have gotten the producers to change the format, seeing as he was so well known and likely would have swing in that area of the show. The format is part of the reason the game didn't last I think. Timeslot stuff aside, with each game being self contained, and with how much gameplay they had to fit in to that half hour, Ross really had to keep things moving to get everything in, so a lot of the comedy was lost IMO. This was also probably the reason Charles and Brett were treated as any other star was, instead of "Match Game's Own".

I think if MG 90 would not have had the self contained format, Ross' comedy could have really shone through better then it did. It would have also allowed the stars to get a bit more chemistry like the 70's stars did.

[Jimmy Owen]

[quote name=\'aaron sica\' date=\'Aug 26 2004, 03:27 PM\']
Wow. It was early June, 1991 when NBC got FH reruns (I still remember seeing the blurb about "Full House" reruns moving to the timeslot in TVG, and wondering HOW?). It still makes me wonder to  this day, how or why NBC would agree to fill the timeslot with reruns from another network.. [/quote]
 An odd situation, but not without prececedent.  NBC stripped reruns of "Make Room for Daddy" while it was on CBS primetime, and CBS aired "Jack Benny" weekday afternoons the season it was on NBC in primetime, and the CBS Late Movie aired other networks shows frequently as well.  I remember Johnny Carson griping to Fred Dryer that he couldn't fathom why NBC would let CBS show "Hunter" reruns opposite the "Tonight Show."

[tvwxman]

[quote name=\'SRIV94\' date=\'Aug 26 2004, 04:11 PM\']
Point well taken, but just to nitpick a little--SUNSET BEACH didn't air on NBC for another couple of years.  It was Jane Whitney's gabfest that took the CLASSIC CONCENTRATION and CAESAR'S CHALLENGE slot (or, more technically, CAESAR'S hour for the first two weeks of 1994).
 [/quote]
 Nitpick taken and accepted...my brain was a little fuzzy about what came and went on NBC daytime in the early 90s...didn't Faith Daniels have a show too?

ms