The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => Game Show Channels & Networks => Topic started by: edholland83 on July 04, 2003, 02:15:55 AM
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I wanted to find out when you first had found about GSN and what your first impression of it was. I remembered the first time I
had heard about Game Show Network was sometime in '92 or '93 when Entertainment Tonight did a brief story on the plans to start the network, I thinnl the video clip had Wink Martindale in it, anyway, That was just my story of how I first found out about it, I finally got the channel when my family got primestar in 1997 and didn't start watching it often until 2000.
I guess some people have more interestng stories about how they found out about it.
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I saw a description for GSN in the brochure for digital cable around 1999 and was intrigued. I had a slight interest for game shows since I grew up watching The Price Is Right, Combs' Family Feud, Wheel of Fortune, Bumper Stumpers and some others. I decided to look GSN up on the internet and was excited to see there was actually such thing as a 24-hour network that played my favourite kind of show and saw that they even aired older episodes of my favourites! (I'm really missing the classic TPIR) Anyways, I was also hooked on to some of the originals when I first watched, but as my interest in game shows grew I learned the network has aired much, much better quality stuff in the past and now I've turned into the semi-hardcore fan I am today... lol
And that's my boring story. :-p
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I first knew about GSN through those plugs they had during the end of J! and WOF.
Then my aunt started raving about it. Soon after, digital cable came to the house, I enjoyed GSN for five years.
Clarence
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[quote name=\'edholland83\' date=\'Jul 4 2003, 01:15 AM\'] I wanted to find out when you first had found about GSN and what your first impression of it was. I remembered the first time I
had heard about Game Show Network was sometime in '92 or '93 when Entertainment Tonight did a brief story on the plans to start the network, I thinnl the video clip had Wink Martindale in it, anyway, That was just my story of how I first found out about it, I finally got the channel when my family got primestar in 1997 and didn't start watching it often until 2000.
I guess some people have more interestng stories about how they found out about it. [/quote]
I had first found out about GSN via the \"Broadcasting and Cable\" magazine....They were running ads for it as launch time neared, with pictures of playing cards with some pictures of the hosts on them....... The ad said something like \"With 50,000 episodes....we came to play!\" Naturally, I was excited...I remember going into a bookstore and looking at \"OnSat\" so I could check out the schedule to see what all kind of shows they had, and naturally, I WANTED IT. :)
I was about 1 1/2 years removed from HS at that point, so I still had some ties to it...As past president of the A/V Club, I got one of my old teachers to tune the school's satellite dish to tape GSN for me, and so I have a couple tapes of GSN's early days to go on...
As for getting GSN permanently, that finally happened on 11/5/96 when we got DISH Network, and aside from moving a few times and not puting up the dish right away, it's been smooth sailing ever since.
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I first heard about it in a TVGuide Fall Preview edition. A couple of editions from the early '90s mentioned it as a new network, but it didn't hit the air until a couple of years later.
A few weeks before the premiere, OnSat magazine mentioned the startup of 7 p.m. on Dec. 1, 1994. I couldn't wait. In its early days it was not scrambled, so I was there from the startup. My only regret is that I didn't tape the startup. I know there is a 6-minute opening clip in the trading circuit, but I hadn't yet gotten into game show trading at that time and didn't figure there was a need to save it (if only I'd known!)
In the early years my dish was on it almost 24/7. These days I might watch only two or three hours a week at most.
It's just too bad they couldn't have gone through there entire stash of 50,000 episodes before they started to go in the direction they have. I'd be willing to bet there's close to 20,000 they've never aired. Oh well...
Even with the state of GSN now, I'm glad it's been around for the last 9 years. At least it's given us video collectors a lot of stuff we probalby wouldn't have had otherwise, and for that I'm grateful.
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Certainly those of us who were the earliest Usenet users were keeping up with plans for the launch of TGSC (That's right, \"The Game Show Channel\") about a year before it debuted. Anyone who's interested could go back through the Google Group archives for late 1993 all the way through the December, 1994 launch and see many of us (including the Mackeys and Chris Lambert) quoting every trade magazine article and press release we could get our hands on. There are also many (and quite lengthy) posts where we gave our first impressions of what was then pretty much an all-classic lineup.
Remember the time as well. Before GSN, and in the very earleist days of the internet, nobody had the huge tape libraries that so many of you have today. Personally, I was lucky to have hooked up with David Hammett, who had five grainy tapes with about 20 different episodes of shows from the 70s I thought I would never see again. Today, of course, not only do we have the riches of the GSN archive but what used to be \"rare\" tapes pass through collectors' hands much more quickly via internet trades.
Younger fans (or those late to the game) who are clammoring for a \"GSN2\" might be interested in knowning that originally, there were two rival companies jockeying for position. The interactive shows Wink Martindale hosted on the old Family Channel were going to be the flagship originals for the rival effort, which was trying to be much heavier on original programming right out of the box (they didn't have nearly the archive that GSN could boast).
Also, pre-Fremantle and pre-Pearson, Mark Goodson Productions was originally going to be a partner in what became GSN, but they pulled out more or less at the last minute and instead leased their archive to the network. The end of that original lease is what led to The Dark Period, and the fact that GSN doesn't own those episodes outright is one of many reasons that you seem them concentrating on developing their own programming.
OK, history lesson is over. Take a fifteen minute recess.
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The first time I heard about the network was when my mom brought it up one morning over breakfast (that was when they did an article in the Sun-Times on Wink's Game Show Channel). Obviously, since nothing materialized from that, I thought that that was it for game show channels.
Then, one day while my dad was on vacation (we got a satellite dish up at our cottage), he was scrolling through the channels to see what was being offered, and one of the channels was indeed \"Game Show Network.\" Naturally excited, I clamored with my parents to get it, and they eventually caved.
So, that was mainly my vacation: watching GSN in the good ol' days full of classics (1997-2001). In 2001, though, we got digital cable, which included GSN, so the vacation-time for GSN was no longer necessary.
In terms of my viewing times, oh, boy, have they decreased! Initially, I watched the network for about eight to ten hours a day; one day, I watched it for eight straight hours and actually complained when my parents changed the channel! Nowadays, I watch maybe a couple hours of it (mainly Card Sharks and PYL). I haven't changed how much I watch TV, but I've just found different shows and channels to replace what used to be completely filled by GSN.
Maybe I'm just a fan of the classics, but I really liked to watch GSN better in the '90s: no speed-ups, much less reruns, more variety, and much rarer shows. I didn't mind when the focus shifted to originals, but I hated how they gave the classics the heave-ho, for the most part.
All I can say is this: If they brought back the 1997 schedule, I'd probably still watch it for eight hours a day and say that wasn't enough!
Anthony
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[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Jul 4 2003, 07:52 AM\'] I first heard about it in a TVGuide Fall Preview edition. A couple of editions from the early '90s mentioned it as a new network, but it didn't hit the air until a couple of years later.
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You read about it in the 1993 Fall Preview Edition, when it, as Matt O. pointed out, was known as \"The Game Show Channel\"...
At the risk of sliding a bit off topic, it's always interesting to look back at the Fall Preview Editions when they're touting future cable channels to see which ones made it to launch and which ones didn't....
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[quote name=\'edholland83\' date=\'Jul 4 2003, 01:15 AM\']I wanted to find out when you first had found about GSN and what your first impression of it was. I remembered the first time I
had heard about Game Show Network was sometime in '92 or '93 when Entertainment Tonight did a brief story on the plans to start the network, I thinnl the video clip had Wink Martindale in it, anyway, That was just my story of how I first found out about it, I finally got the channel when my family got primestar in 1997 and didn't start watching it often until 2000.
I guess some people have more interestng stories about how they found out about it.[/quote]
Interesting subject. My answer--probably nowhere near as interesting.
I recall the Family Channel block and heard somewhere around that time about the potential plans for what became GSN. I'm not exactly sure when I heard about the official launch but do recall visting GSN's old website to take a looksee at the schedule, at which point I immediately called my cable system and lobbied for them for them to add the channel. After they stopped laughing. . .
At any rate, my service was upgraded to the digital tier in June 1998 and that was my official first exposure to GSN. Among the things happening at GSN around the first few weeks:
Crazy contestant Eva (older lady who invoked religion but wasn't afraid to flirt with Jim Perry) on CS
Bill Cullen and Mary Tyler Moore were guests on P+
A pretty good Jimmy Durante impressionist as the opening act on GONG
My reexposure to \"the Banana section\" on TT (took me back about 25 years), not to mention watching MG7x for the first time in ages
An episode of FF which featured NBA referee Hue Hollins (soon to be a thorn in the side of Chicago Bulls fans everywhere)
The few originals were really hokey (TRIVIA TRACK wasn't worth any of the effort, and obviously there wasn't much effort put into it to begin with)
Maybe I'm just a fan of the classics, but I really liked to watch GSN better in the '90s: no speed-ups, much less reruns, more variety, and much rarer shows. I didn't mind when the focus shifted to originals, but I hated how they gave the classics the heave-ho, for the most part.
Well said. That first year and change was probably the ultimate for me--and although I didn't realize it at the time, looking back on it I really wish my cable system had acted quicker in adding the channel (seems like there were great things that I missed over the first 3½ years of GSN's existence that have not been reaired since and most likely never will again).
Doug
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[quote name=\'edholland83\' date=\'Jul 3 2003, 11:15 PM\'] I wanted to find out when you first had found about GSN and what your first impression of it was. [/quote]
Mine's not at all interesting...as Matt said, those of us who were longtime ATGS-ers knew about the network when it was merely a rumor.
I can tell you the first day I actually SAW it, though: Sunday morning, September 20th, 1998. Somewhere in the 10:00am hour. My first apartment here in the Seattle area, I knew I'd be getting it, since it was available on the digital cable. Guy hooked us up, and was testing it, and I immediately told him to try Channel 161. And there was Jim Perry and Card Sharks, in all its glory. It was followed by a Jack Barry Joker's Wild. Just wonderful. :)
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I'm trying to remember when the WoF/J! ads started (96?)....
I know, the earliest I can think of, is when I just happened to be flipping channels at my Aunt's house during a visit up there in 1995 [I was 9 then] (They had primestar, before it was absorbed by DTV), and I just happened to stumble onto GSN (They were airing an ep of Jeopardy at that point)
I spent 6 years wanting that channel, finally got it in 2001 w/ digital cable, and kept it when we switched to dish network back in Jan
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[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Jul 4 2003, 11:20 AM\']Guy hooked us up, and was testing it, and I immediately told him to try Channel 161.[/quote]
Yikes, Portland and Seattle seem to have the same digital cable channel lineup; GSN is also on Channel 161 here!
Anyways, I seem to remember hearing about GSN while I was looking at a satellite TV brochure (that shows all the channels it has).
My parents briefly had digital cable from January to May of 2000 with GSN, before getting rid of it, because it was too expensive (I still remember watching the old eps of TPiR that GSN used to show, and I also remember the day when Newlywed Game replaced TPiR; boy was I mad!).
Finally, my parents got digital cable again just two weeks ago (my family has since moved into an apartment with expanded basic cable already included, so they only pay an extra 10 bucks a month!), and I've been enjoying every minute of it.
Until two weeks ago, I was probably the only person on this board to have not seen an episode of PYL at all! The only show I watched on USA in the mid-90s was Knight Rider, of all things! If only I would have turned on USA a few hours earlier...
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My story is from 1997, when I was young and bored. I was flipping through the channels, and thought \"What would happen if I go past the 'last' channel?\"
So I hit up. 37A, nothing. 38A, nothing. 39A, nothing. 40A, nothing. 41A, The Price is Right.
How times have changed... that was back when the Playboy Channel was scrambled on 14B... we scrapped the A/B system in 1998, I think, at the same time that the cable operator decided to scrap the Playboy Channel, too. (Hey, I was 14, this was relevant to me back then).
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[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Jul 4 2003, 01:20 PM\']
I can tell you the first day I actually SAW it, though: Sunday morning, September 20th, 1998. Somewhere in the 10:00am hour. My first apartment here in the Seattle area, I knew I'd be getting it, since it was available on the digital cable. Guy hooked us up, and was testing it, and I immediately told him to try Channel 161. And there was Jim Perry and Card Sharks, in all its glory. It was followed by a Jack Barry Joker's Wild. Just wonderful. :) [/quote]
To expand upon when I got GSN, like Chris did...
As I'd stated earlier, I got DISH Network on Monday, November 5, 1996. As soon as we'd called and ordered our programming, right off to 1-1-6 my fingers went, and showing on GSN was \"Now You See It\" (it was around 6:40 p.m.). It was awesome seeing GSN in real-time in my own home. Equally exciting at the time, was that this was the time GSN was randomly placing TPiR in the schedule. So, some nights I'd tune in expecting to see MG '77 and see either an hour-long or Kennedy TPiR.
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I don't remember the exact time I first got exposed to GSN, but I do remember that I was on a family vacation. It was probably some time around 1999-2000. I remember that every time we were in our hotel room and the TV was free, I'd turn it to GSN to watch Family Feud and Match Game. I finally got GSN here at my house when Comcast added it to the cable service in February 2001.
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I was working in cable at the time, so I had an ear pretty close to the development and eventual launch of this network, as well as a parallel channel that IFE (International Family Entertainment) had called The Game Channel that never got off the ground.
IIRC, GSN was originally a three-way partnership between Sony, Liberty Media and Mark Goodson Productions (or whoever owned them at the time, I believe it was All-American by then); hence the early emphasis on the Goodson library.
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It was during those promos durning Wheel and Jeopardy! credits around 1997. Man, I nearly jumped out of my pants. I remember allmost everyday asking my Mom to buy a satelight dish so I could watch GSN. She looked at me like there were snails crawling out of my ears. I also remember calling my cable operator allmost everyday, asking for GSN, I usually ended up getting cussed out by the operator, or hung up on. It was like that allmost everyday until March of 2002, when GSN was added to the new-fangled digital cable program. And I have enjoyed allmost every minute of it.
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I read about the two possible channels in trade magazines and TV Guide before they launched. Thought FAM's entry would win because they had the on air tryout. I thought FAM had secured the Bob Stewart library initially and would have shown those if they had gotten off the ground with \"The Game Channel.\" First time I saw GSN was in 1998. I was shopping at a department store, heard the \"Card Sharks\" theme and headed to the TV department and there on about twenty screens was Jim Perry and the Money Cards. I then got motivated to upgrade to digital cable and have had GSN since the summer of 1998, so I missed the early days and the dark period.
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I remember reading a rumor about it c. 1992, then I was watching one of those network morning shows (\"Today,\" GMA), and they were talking about the \"possibilities\" of a 500 channel universe. From that point, I thought about how I desperately wanted to see this \"GSN,\" and I think I caught my first glimpse in December 1997; it was one of those \"game recap\" shows, patterned like Talk Soup. I then caught a 70s TPiR, featuring \"It's Optional.\" From that point to spring 2002, anywhere I went, if they had a satellite or digital cable, I \"casually\" turned to GSN, esp. if I was in a store at the mall. We finally got digital cable on May 15, 2002, and while it was fun seeing some of the shows, what we have now is still just not the same. I used to go out of my way to try to see TJW/TTD, shopping-era Wheel, etc. Now, I just watch Match Game, Dawson Feud, Lingo, and RR, with a few other originals scattered in.
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I first heard of GSN from lurking in ATGS back in 1996. I was so intrigued with the idea of calling up to be a contestant on Super Decades that I purchased the digital tier.
Tim :-)
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Wow, what fond memories I had.
I didn't come onto ATGS until 2000, and I was lurking around, using tvgameshows.net and tv-gameshows.com as my main resources of game show info. Well, through these sites I heard about GSN. A game show channel for a game show freak. Wow! So I had to wait until digital cable to come around to the Memphis area, and that was around September of 1999. To appease me, my mom got it in December. I even stayed home from school that day to watch it (My mommy loved me :-)). The first show I saw was Larry Blyden and the red and yellow WML? I'd never seen it before, and I was captivated. Then it was one of my favorite shows of all time (and still is): The $100,000 Pyramid with Dick Clark! And later on... Classic Barker Price Is Right, infused with WinTV!!! Man, what heaven that was.
Other great early memories was the GOTW (weird, and obsucre shows, and my introduction to my least favorite show, Camoflauge), Cullen TPIR (my favorite B&W game), and Y2Play (with my first sightings of Narz NYSI, Eubanks CS, and the most bass ackwards version of Jeopardy I've ever seen).
Man, those were the days.
Brandon Brooks
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I first saw GSN at a buddy's house in Massillon, Ohio in late 98 early 99.(knew of it before then).It had a 3:30 Color Password airing (Peter Lawford, Barbara Eden)..Thought it was neat to \"play along\" with contestants from over 30 years ago..In late summer 1999 GSN was added to the Digital Cable of Time Warner of Canton Ohio..Also got it on Dish Network for a while..Love the classics Would watch more originals if I had time..
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I actually heard of GSN whilst doing a search on the web and found their discussion forums back in July 2001. At that time I didn't get GSN, as I had no television, but I got a television last February and have had GSN ever since. I really love gameshows, I just more people in my area of Montreal, Canada, shared my joy.
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A promo via satellite in the Summer of 1995 and became a GSN viewer a year later in September,1996.
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I think I heard of GSN around 1997-98 or so. saw the WOF/J! promos, and went to their website. I was disappointed when they didn't have one of my favorite shows (Pyramid).
after taping 2-10 hour tapes from around 1999-2000 at my dad's work which had a satellite dish, I finally got Digital Cable which had GSN on September 5, 2001. Basically I got it 4 days after LMAD and PYL came to the network.
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First time I saw GSN was at GSC-2 in the winter of 1995, thanks to David Hammett and the aforementioned tapes he made of the debut weekend using his school's satellite equipment.
I saw GSN for the first time \"live\" when I became one of the first digital cable customers in the South Hills of Pittsburgh in April 1998...I had it installed on the Monday of the last week of the Dark Period. I don't remember what I watched first, but I do remember managing to catch \"Go\" every night that week.
Then I moved to Burbank, California, and it turned out that the apartment complex I moved into had its own private cable system that set new standards for incompetence and didn't have GSN, so I was without it from March 1999 until my lease was up in March 2000 and I moved.
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i saw match game on and i throught it was some werid looking hollywood squares and then i changed it and went back to gsn and i herd rod roddy on pyl and after that i start watching gsn
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Holy smokes... Just reading all this brings back many memories of when I had GSN...
I first saw GSN when I went with family to go see relatives in Missouri. My aunt whom we were staying with had sattelite, and when they were flipping channels I saw a classic To Tell the Truth. I asked them to flip it back and I was in awe. I didn't know there were black & white game shows (hey, I was about 11 at the time; gimme a break!). When I went back home I forgot about it all.
Then about in 1997-98 I was talking to my pastor's wife. They had cable (or was it sattelite?) and she was talking to me about GSN and, more specifically, an original on it called Inquizition. Now, this woman is a game show fanatic, so she explained it even better than I could imagine. It was then that I wanted digital cable.
Finally, after months of complaining, begging, and explaning, my parents got digital cable and I got to watch GSN. I don't even remember much, but since someone else brought it up, I do actually remember old TPIR episodes (WinTV was the light switch for me). I now remember many shows on there that I miss.
Sadly, bills were piling and digital cable went away in early 2002 (I remember this because I was watching TechTV and Leo Laporte doing his best to be a reporter when 9/11 happened) and I was stuck with nuthin' again.
But hey, this Thursday we get Dish Network and the return of GSN to my family's home!!! YAY!!!!!
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I first heard about GSN during the Wheel and J! episodes. I got my first glimpse of GSN in 1999 and that was just a promo. In 2001 my cable company finally got with the digital program, and I had GSN on free preview, and I wish I had thought to record then. I kept getting it on Free Preview and started recording, every time they had the station on free preview. Finally about a week ago, I was able to expand to digital and I now have GSN.
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I had heard of it when Gene Rayburn appeared on the Maury show in 1996. My cable company finally went digital in 2001, and I started getting GSN then
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Oh man, I remember seeing those ads during J!... but not WoF (not a big fan of it at the time). But what really got me hyped was the mention of GSN during the FOX Game Show special. I finally got it in 1999 (I think), when our house switched to Time Warner Digital Cable (but only in one room!), so I was a little disappointed when somebody else wanted to use that TV.
We switched over to DTV in 2001, when there was a rebate offer for Total Choice + HBO (7 channels) + Cinemax (3 channels) + Local Channels for only $40/month + receiver fees. Today, we're still with DTV (somehow), and the package price has increased, but we're still on that rebate (somehow). BTW, don't get that HBO/Cinemax DTV package, there's not much interesting on there (although they did air Quiz Show about a year ago).
'Nuff said.
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Well, those of you wanting to get digital cable just to get GSN, save your $$$$. At this point in time, it is really not worth it!