The Game Show Forum > The Big Board
Most obscure game shows
Tim L:
WEWS-TV 5 aired A Local Game Show, "Quick As A Wink" from September 14, 1964 to March 12, 1965..Hosted by Don Webster, who had been brought in from CHCH-TV 11 Hamilton, Ontario to host The Big 5/Upbeat music show from 1964-71. Webster later hosted a TV Bingo Game, Dialing For Dollars, Bowling for Dollars, It's Academic/Academic Challenge and was the main weatherman for many years..No episodes of "Quick as a Wink" have surfaced, unfortunately
Those of you from Ohio, If you can find a way to get a Cleveland Public Library Card, It offers free home access to the Cleveland Plain Dealer Archives in PDF files from 1845-1991, with all stories, pictures and ads..Great research tool..
Matt Ottinger:
A friend who lurks here e-mailed me to suggest a different way of looking at this question. Rather than local shows, which are by their very nature obscure to the rest of the country, or recent, short-lived shows that frankly, every single one of us remember, a truly obscure show would be one for which no video or audio evidence survives. I'm thinking that list would be somewhat small, and probably not include anything from the mid-seventies to the present.
Tim L:
--- Quote from: Matt Ottinger on July 05, 2011, 02:01:30 PM ---A friend who lurks here e-mailed me to suggest a different way of looking at this question. Rather than local shows, which are by their very nature obscure to the rest of the country, or recent, short-lived shows that frankly, every single one of us remember, a truly obscure show would be one for which no video or audio evidence survives. I'm thinking that list would be somewhat small, and probably not include anything from the mid-seventies to the present.
--- End quote ---
True Matt: I was going by people referring to Baltimore and St. Louis shows..I would venture to say that there are none of the Game Show Forum folks in Cleveland would remember Quick As A Wink, especially since it lasted about 13 weeks..That said, your friend makes an excellent point
Ian Wallis:
--- Quote ---a truly obscure show would be one for which no video or audio evidence survives. I'm thinking that list would be somewhat small, and probably not include anything from the mid-seventies to the present.
--- End quote ---
We've talked about what exists and what (likely) doesn't a few times in the past, but it's not something that's been brought up recently. I'm not sure if there's a definitive list somewhere or not in one of those old threads, but if we're listing series with no known video or audio is available, I'll start with a few off the top of my mind:
Snap Judgement
Sale of the Century ('69-73 version)
It's Your Move (Jim Perry version)
We could also list shows which currently haven't turned up in the trade curcuit, which might mean nothing exists from them:
Baffle comes to mind
Feel free to add...
Matt Ottinger:
--- Quote from: Ian Wallis on July 05, 2011, 05:38:16 PM ---Feel free to add...
--- End quote ---
The friend who suggested this line of discussion (and who would be in a pretty good position to know, BTW) mentioned two short-lived ABC daytimers: Make a Face and Window Shopping. Interestingly, both have home versions, so at least there's that much tangibility.
Without going through the EOTVGS and making a list, I'm only coming up with two more from the seventies: The Saturday morning show Runaround, and a syndicated version of It Pays to be Ignorant (actually a scripted spoof of game shows). I watched Runaround every week. I only saw It Pays to be Ignorant once. Can't remember the details of how (must have been while traveling), but I remember it being very funny to a 13-year-old. And yes, the original Sale of the Century would be very high on my wish list. I have memory of the syndicated version with Joe Garagiola playing with married couples, but not of the daytime show. Either would be awesome.
I've been fortunate between UCLA and the various Paley Centers and visits to the homes of collectors-who-must-not-be-named that I've had the chance to see some pretty rare stuff, so I can tell you with confidence but without details that there is a Baffle. There is also a Wizard of Odds.
No one ever found a complete episode of Spin-Off, did they? Just a few scenes in promos, and the vague awareness that the master tapes are still around?
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