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Author Topic: Best Way to Save Pyramid!  (Read 4754 times)

gameshowguy2000

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Best Way to Save Pyramid!
« Reply #15 on: January 18, 2004, 11:57:53 PM »
[quote name=\'Brandon Brooks\' date=\'Jan 18 2004, 10:02 PM\'] [quote name=\'Pyramid80\' date=\'Jan 18 2004, 11:00 PM\'] I know this is a stupid question but I have to ask.  I am assuming that Sony now owns the full rights to the Pyramid game whether it be the 100k, 10k, 25k version or whatever.  Could Bob or Sande Stewart come back and take the show over and run it their way since Bob was the creator?  Would he have to get the rights back that were possibly sold off to Sony?  How would this work? [/quote]
Just a point of clarification: Sony owns the rights, but they don't own all the incarnations.

Brandon Brooks [/quote]
 Yep. Here are the 3 incarnations they don't have yet:

1. $25,000 Pyramid (Cullen)
2. $50,000 Pyramid
3. $100,000 Pyramid (Davidson)

tommycharles

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Best Way to Save Pyramid!
« Reply #16 on: January 19, 2004, 12:02:06 AM »
Not to nitpick here, but Sony doesn't outright *own* any incarnation, does it? I thought it had to split the Stewart library with Liberty Media when they bought a chunk of GSN.

David Lawrence

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Best Way to Save Pyramid!
« Reply #17 on: January 19, 2004, 09:55:50 AM »
As much as I enjoy this version and would like it to continue, I'll pass on writing a letter. While they're not as useless as internet petitions, I don't think write-in campaigns are too effective. I'm sure my local station would be just as happy airing another infomercial as Pyramid.

Pyramid80

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Best Way to Save Pyramid!
« Reply #18 on: January 19, 2004, 09:57:20 AM »
We'll here is my lame response that I got from my CBS affiliate:

Sony Pictures announced last week that they were canceling the program.  
Thank you for your interest in CBS 42.

Matt Ottinger

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Best Way to Save Pyramid!
« Reply #19 on: January 19, 2004, 11:22:44 AM »
[quote name=\'tommycharles\' date=\'Jan 19 2004, 01:02 AM\'] Not to nitpick here, but Sony doesn't outright *own* any incarnation, does it? I thought it had to split the Stewart library with Liberty Media when they bought a chunk of GSN. [/quote]
 It depends on what was or was not part of the agreement.  Sony's ownership of the libraries (Barris, B-E and Stewart most notably) could easily be a completely different thing than control of GSN itself.  In fact, I thought the speculation was that one reason we're seeing the same season of reruns over and over on some shows was that Sony didn't want to bother letting GSN have any more.

I'm SO not in a position to know for sure, but my instinct would be that Sony would have retained the rights to the libraries and merely sold off a half-interest in the operation of GSN.
This has been another installment of Matt Ottinger's Masters of the Obvious.
Stay tuned for all the obsessive-compulsive fun of Words Have Meanings.

uncamark

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Best Way to Save Pyramid!
« Reply #20 on: January 19, 2004, 11:33:24 AM »
[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Jan 19 2004, 11:22 AM\'][quote name=\'tommycharles\' date=\'Jan 19 2004, 01:02 AM\'] Not to nitpick here, but Sony doesn't outright *own* any incarnation, does it? I thought it had to split the Stewart library with Liberty Media when they bought a chunk of GSN. [/quote]
It depends on what was or was not part of the agreement.  Sony's ownership of the libraries (Barris, B-E and Stewart most notably) could easily be a completely different thing than control of GSN itself.  In fact, I thought the speculation was that one reason we're seeing the same season of reruns over and over on some shows was that Sony didn't want to bother letting GSN have any more.

I'm SO not in a position to know for sure, but my instinct would be that Sony would have retained the rights to the libraries and merely sold off a half-interest in the operation of GSN.[/quote]
I'm pretty sure that your hunch is correct, Matt--in fact, Sony owned the Barris library for a few years before GSN was conceived.  They acquired it as part of the deal that brought Jon Peters and Peter Guber in to run the studio in 1991.  Guber and Peters had acquired Barris from Burt Sugarman and Jeff Wald in 1990.  In fact, it was the ownership of the Barris properties, along with Merv's properties, that inspired Sony to come up with the idea of GSN.

And as for the other suggestion brought up--I think I can say without fear of contradiction that Bob Stewart is retired permanently from television.  Period.  And considering that formats are still potentially profitable overseas, if Sande Stewart wanted to take "Pyramid" off of Sony's hands, they would probably ask for more money than he could afford.

What Sony should've done all along was hire Sande Stewart to supervise the new version, but that's water over the bridge now--and since he might've gone for the post-industrial set and techno music, as well, even if he kept everything else like the original, some of you would've still complained.