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Game Show 'Death Day'

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Ian Wallis:

--- Quote ---In 1980, the fact that no new games replaced the old games made that harder to take.
--- End quote ---


Network game shows were hard to come by from about 1980-82.  In January 1983, NBC debuted three game shows - \"Hit Man\", \"Sale of the Century\" and \"Just Men\", and that really started the genre on its comeback.  By the mid-80s, games were just about as hot as they were a decade earlier.  

Too bad it didn't last a bit longer, because by the early '90s the pendulum swung the other way again.

zachhoran:
[quote name=\'SRIV94\' date=\'Sep 26 2003, 02:13 PM\']
Of course, technically FAMILY SECRETS taped in Florida and SCATTERGORIES taped off the NBC lot
 [/quote]
 Scattergories taped at Glendale studios I believe, but the Scrabble revival did tape at NBC.

zachhoran:
[quote name=\'Winkfan\' date=\'Sep 26 2003, 11:49 AM\'] Many of us game show fans recall June 20, 1980 as 'Game Show Death Day.' That was when NBC threw out three game shows--Chain Reaction, High Rollers, and the ORIGINAL Hollywood Squares--from their daytime lineup. However, there were TWO 'Game Show Death Days' prior to that day in 1980, and both of them also came from NBC.

SEPTEMBER 24, 1965--SLAUGHTER ON ALAMEDA AVENUE
The first so-called 'death day' occured on September 24, 1965; when in one fell swoop, NBC gave eviction notices to FOUR game shows: What's This Song, Call My Bluff, I'll Bet, and even Truth or Consequences.

SEPTEMBER 26, 1969--THE 30 ROCK MASSACRE.
Then four years later, on September 26, 1969, the Peacock Network dropped the curtains down on the ORIGINAL versions of The Match Game and You Don't Say; as well as two Bob Stewart creations: Eye Guess and Personality.

Cordially,
Tammy Warner--the 'Carolyn White of the Big Board! [/quote]
 How quickly we forget that today is the 17th anniversary of the last CBS airing of PYL as well.

SRIV94:
[quote name=\'zachhoran\' date=\'Sep 26 2003, 06:15 PM\'][quote name=\'SRIV94\' date=\'Sep 26 2003, 02:13 PM\']
Of course, technically FAMILY SECRETS taped in Florida and SCATTERGORIES taped off the NBC lot
 [/quote]
Scattergories taped at Glendale studios I believe, but the Scrabble revival did tape at NBC.[/quote]
I never said SCRABBLE93 didn't tape at beautiful downtown Burbank (I know, technically wrong, but I still like the LAUGH-IN reference--besides Woolery once introduced himself on SCATTERGORIES [obviously via videotape] as saying \"from beautiful downtown Burbank at the NBC Commissary, I'm Chuck Woolery.\").  I merely brought up the fact that FAMILY SECRETS and SCATTERGORIES taped away from the NBC Burbank complex.  So having only one of the three cancelled shows taping within NBC's Burbank lot doesn't merit the term \"Burbank Mercy Killings\" (unless the decision to jettison the three shows came from Burbank's HQ [headquarters, not Heatter-Quigley] rather than NY's).

Got it?  :)

Doug

SRIV94:
[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Sep 26 2003, 03:54 PM\']Network game shows were hard to come by from about 1980-82.  In January 1983, NBC debuted three game shows - \"Hit Man\", \"Sale of the Century\" and \"Just Men\", and that really started the genre on its comeback.  By the mid-80s, games were just about as hot as they were a decade earlier. 

Too bad it didn't last a bit longer, because by the early '90s the pendulum swung the other way again.[/quote]
You raise a pretty good point.  Of course, NBC did replace David Letterman's morning gig with two games (LVG and BLOCKBUSTERS) and CBS trotted out some games during that time as well (I believe $25KP and CHILD'S PLAY debuted in late 1982--and TATTLETALES was also revived somewhere around that time as well [a few months earlier]).  But it was nowhere near the fruitfulness that preceeded or followed that era.

The four-week period in the spring of 1982 in which BLOCKBUSTERS, P+ and BATTLESTARS (which I really liked, in spite of the fact that it, for all intents and purposes, replaced CS on NBC's schedule) were all jettisoned primarily for soaps and sitcom reruns (well, one, anyway) probably was as much a \"death day\" as anything else discussed here.

Let me also add--Happy 5764 to those so inclined!  :)

Doug

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