The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: TimK2003 on April 17, 2020, 08:26:13 PM
-
I think years ago, we lightly touched on this topic, but now that Narz Concentration is more than just a fuzzy memory, I think we should revisit it:
When the syndicated Concentration first came out in the 70's, did your market air it as a daily or as a weekly program?
I remember seeing it air in Cleveland on NBC O&O WKYC/Channel 3, but I swear it only aired as a once-a-week show either at 7 or 7:30, and only for one season, if that.
Anyone else recall a less-than-daily run in their markets, or has any TV Guide collectors seen syndie Concentration air as a once or twice-a-week offering in a market?
-
Daily here as far as I knew.
-
It was daily in our area, both on a Buffalo and a Toronto station.
However, in my TVGuide collecting over the years, I noticed that there are some markets which aired it just once a week in the "checkerboard" time periods. Can't recall which ones off the top of my head.
-
In NYC, it aired at 1 pm on WNBC Channel 4 Mon - Fri. I think it stayed there for its entire five year run. WCBS Channel 2 was airing WML with Larry Blyden at that time.
-
I remember it twice a week in Pittsburgh, and even then I think it must not have gotten great ratings; I don’t believe I ever saw a Bonus Number, Free Look, or Call 3 game back then.
-
In NYC, it aired at 1 pm on WNBC Channel 4 Mon - Fri. I think it stayed there for its entire five year run. WCBS Channel 2 was airing WML with Larry Blyden at that time.
In New York, it moved to WOR/9 sometime along the way, 1976? I could also watch it daily from WTNH, New Haven, but they were always a full season behind. Last on the cycle.
-
In NYC, it aired at 1 pm on WNBC Channel 4 Mon - Fri. I think it stayed there for its entire five year run. WCBS Channel 2 was airing WML with Larry Blyden at that time.
In New York, it moved to WOR/9 sometime along the way, 1976? I could also watch it daily from WTNH, New Haven, but they were always a full season behind. Last on the cycle.
Channel 9, 6pm. Part of a game show block that included Joker's Wild and Bowling for Dollars. I remember it well! :)
-
In NYC, it aired at 1 pm on WNBC Channel 4 Mon - Fri. I think it stayed there for its entire five year run. WCBS Channel 2 was airing WML with Larry Blyden at that time.
In New York, it moved to WOR/9 sometime along the way, 1976? I could also watch it daily from WTNH, New Haven, but they were always a full season behind. Last on the cycle.
Channel 9, 6pm. Part of a game show block that included Joker's Wild and Bowling for Dollars. I remember it well! :)
From memory:
The WOR game show block started around January 1, 1977 with reruns of the latter-day CBS Joker's Wild and original episodes of the Larry Kenney-hosted Bowling for Dollars. (New York Mets broadcaster Bob Murphy had hosted a previous run of the show for a short time a few years before.) By the fall of 1977, the block was expanded to two hours, and included first-run syndicated episodes of The Joker's Wild, Bowling for Dollars, The Hollywood Connection, and Concentration.
Concentration had been in the 1 PM time slot on WNBC for several years (before that, It's Your Bet had run there, and I'm guessing before that it was PDQ). NBC and CBS didn't program anything in the 1 PM slot for a very long time. WNBC ran Somerset at 4 PM for several years, followed by a 90-minute movie and then local news. Sometime in 1974, WNBC expanded their local newscast to two hours, from 5 to 7 PM (which wasn't a bad idea; the competition was Mike Douglas on WCBS, another movie on WABC, and kid-oriented programming on the three independent stations). My memory is Somerset stayed put and WNBC programmed several different shows in the 4:30 time slot (Room 222 reruns for awhile, and then The Diamond Head Game). In the fall of 1975 WNBC switched to Marcus Welby, MD reruns (under the title Robert Young, Family Doctor, since it was still in first run on ABC) from 4 to 5--my guess is Somerset moved to 1 PM and Concentration probably got bumped back to 9:30 AM for the next year or more. (I don't remember when Phil Donahue took over the 9 to 10 AM time slot.) If somebody has a good New York metropolitan area TV Guide collection, they can adjust or verify this.
And yet I can't remember where I left my car keys just now.
-
Browsed through my library's newspaper database, and as far as I could tell, it never aired in DC or Baltimore at all.
(DC was a strange market- don't know if happened in other places, but the ABC station aired some of the CBS daytime programming back then as the CBS station did a local morning show)
-
In San Francisco, KPIX aired it weekly, as part of its "Five on 5" block (weeknights at 7:30 - Dealers Choice, TPIR, Concentration, New Treasure Hunt, and Name That Tune (although before it got NTT, it aired Garry Moore TTTT, which was also a daily - in fact, KBHK (now KBCW) had aired it daily before then)).
-
Browsed through my library's newspaper database, and as far as I could tell, it never aired in DC or Baltimore at all.
(DC was a strange market- don't know if happened in other places, but the ABC station aired some of the CBS daytime programming back then as the CBS station did a local morning show)
Same for Norfolk/Virginia Beach. Didn't see it as a daily or weekly show.
-
Detroit had the first three seasons on 9 AM on the NBC station. For the fourth season, they decided to go with That Girl reruns.
-
I'm 99% sure it never cleared Chicago. Only times I ever saw it were during visits to see family in NY.
-
I'm 99% sure it never cleared Chicago. Only times I ever saw it were during visits to see family in NY.
NO "Concentration" in Chicago??? The third-largest TV market in the U.S. and they didn't bother with a game that I thought sure would air on all the NBC-Owned stations! That puts them on a par with Des Moines as far as Narz "Concentration" AND "Live! With Regis and Kathie Lee" were concerned >:(
-
I moved from NYC to Miami in 78. Miami didn't air it Was crushed.
-
Browsed through my library's newspaper database, and as far as I could tell, it never aired in DC or Baltimore at all.
In poking around a bit, looks like (unless it was an error) in at least July 1976, WMAR-2 in Baltimore (then CBS) aired it at 1pm.
-
I'm 99% sure it never cleared Chicago. Only times I ever saw it were during visits to see family in NY.
I can't disprove this. I can pick up the Chicago Tribune through its database, but not so I can actually read the TV listings.
-
More fun.......Looks like for the majority of its run, WCAU-10 in Philadelphia (then CBS) aired it at that 1:00 p.m. local access time too. WHP-21 in Harrisburg bumped the 4:00 p.m. CBS offering to run it during the 1975-76 season, but later in the year began airing 4:00 in pattern and moved it to 1.
-
I used newspapers.com to look over the Ft. Worth listings. For the few years I checked, the DFW market didn’t air it.
-
I don't know why this didn't occur to me before. I did a little more Googling and I found this trade ad, which must have run sometime in 1973, probably in Broadcasting magazine. Note this doesn't specify for five-a-week strip or airing once or twice a week.
(https://www.ebluejay.com/img/account/v/i/vintageadsandbooks/1/5661879_teis9ndf.jpg)
Not sold in the Chicago market (or Los Angeles), but it was originally on WTOP in Washington, D.C. WNBC, WCAU, WWJ in Detroit (now WDIV), KPIX in San Francisco, WTAE in Pittsburgh all confirmed.
Some of these markets may only have had four or five commercial stations, and there wasn't necessarily room for every syndicated program. That wasn't the case in New York, where I grew up (we had six stations, and the only syndicated programs in the 1970s I don't remember ever seeing were the Garagiola Sale of the Century and the 1973 version of It Pays to Be Ignorant.)
-
I did a little research and found Concentration was on WBZ at 9am during the spring of 1978.
-
I'm 99% sure it never cleared Chicago. Only times I ever saw it were during visits to see family in NY.
I can't disprove this. I can pick up the Chicago Tribune through its database, but not so I can actually read the TV listings.
I can through my library--did some random checking of dates between 1974 and 1976, and no Concentration to be found.
You should see if your library's website offers it (I'm in a small suburb, so if mine has it, I would think yours would too).
-
I remember seeing it air in Cleveland on NBC O&O WKYC/Channel 3, but I swear it only aired as a once-a-week show either at 7 or 7:30, and only for one season, if that.
Nope. Tuesday nights at 7:30 on WEWS, the ABC affiliate, for one season.
-
I can through my library--did some random checking of dates between 1974 and 1976, and no Concentration to be found.
You should see if your library's website offers it (I'm in a small suburb, so if mine has it, I would think yours would too).
Yeah I checked via Proquest and it wasn't in their TV listings during its run. Chicago didn't clear nighttime Sale or Jeopardy during the 70s either, and I think they only had To Tell The Truth from 1976-78.
-
Yeah I checked via Proquest and it wasn't in their TV listings during its run. Chicago didn't clear nighttime Sale or Jeopardy during the 70s either, and I think they only had To Tell The Truth from 1976-78.
Chicago did get the first year of TTTT (WBBM had it at 4:30).
-
I remember seeing it air in Cleveland on NBC O&O WKYC/Channel 3, but I swear it only aired as a once-a-week show either at 7 or 7:30, and only for one season, if that.
Nope. Tuesday nights at 7:30 on WEWS, the ABC affiliate, for one season.
Again, fuzzy memory, off by 2 channels, but at least it is conformed that it was only a weekly , and just a blip at that.
-
Bumping this for a "discovery" i made in looking at some of my old TV Guides last night.....I could have sworn I remembered seeing WGAL air "Concentration", and a June 1975 issue confirms this....They gave it the once-a-week treatment.....Saturdays at 7:30pm, before moving to WHP in the fall and getting 5-days-a-week treatment.
-
In NYC, it aired at 1 pm on WNBC Channel 4 Mon - Fri. I think it stayed there for its entire five year run. WCBS Channel 2 was airing WML with Larry Blyden at that time.
In New York, it moved to WOR/9 sometime along the way, 1976? I could also watch it daily from WTNH, New Haven, but they were always a full season behind. Last on the cycle.
I finally pulled my old NY Fall Previews out:
WNBC (1pm. then 9:30am) - 1973-1977.
WOR (6pm) - 1977-1978
WTNH, New Haven (7pm) - 1974-1977 only.
The Monday September 10th listing for WNBC shows "Jack Narz serves as puzzle-game host for the new season." (I have a pic but having a hell of a time getting it to work with the img tag).
-
As for Cincinnati, it aired on WKRC-TV at 7:30 pm on Wednesday nights in the 1973-74 season only.
The competition it had (on November 7, 1973):
WLWT: Bobby Goldsboro Show
WCPO: Dusty's Trail
WXIX: Lucy Show
WKRC carried the NBC Concentration up until it ended on March 23, 1973. "Tall 12" also carried other NBC Daytime programs like Who, What or Where Game because WLWT still had Paul Dixon and Bob Braun's 50-50 Club then (the 1973-74 season was the season of Braun's game show, On The Money).
Brian
-
Wait wait wait wait.
Was the 1970s the decade where any schmuck or group of schmucks who had chart success immediately got a TV show?
Not saying Bobby Goldsboro is a schmuck, per se, but we did get a show from Starland Vocal Band after all.
-
Was the 1970s the decade where any schmuck or group of schmucks who had chart success immediately got a TV show?
Yes.
-
Also not a schmuck, and also in the '80s (two years in, 1982), but Gary Coleman comes to mind. Fresh off a TV movie he starred in with Robert Guillaume called "The Kid with the Broken Halo", they based a Saturday morning cartoon around that movie. "The Gary Coleman Show".
-
Also not a schmuck, and also in the '80s (two years in, 1982), but Gary Coleman comes to mind. Fresh off a TV movie he starred in with Robert Guillaume called "The Kid with the Broken Halo", they based a Saturday morning cartoon around that movie. "The Gary Coleman Show".
Note sure of your point, but by 1982 Gary Coleman was NBC'S biggest star and he was everywhere. A TV movie with 2 sitcoms stars was a daily occurance.
-
Note sure of your point, but by 1982 Gary Coleman was NBC'S biggest star and he was everywhere. A TV movie with 2 sitcoms stars was a daily occurance.
Oh no argument about his star status.........I just thought giving him his own cartoon was reaching a bit.