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What was Lin Bolen's influence on the game show business?

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BrandonFG:

--- Quote from: calliaume on September 11, 2019, 09:14:34 AM ---Opinions vary.  Jim MacKrell sings her praises.  Geoff Edwards wasn't fond of her.  Chuck Barris couldn't stand her.

Maxine Fabe's book, TV Game Shows!, started much of the controversy.  I hadn't heard of her before that (in fairness, I was 16 when the book came out). 

My opinion:  some (although not all) of the negative opinion about her has an element of sexism.  As far as I know, she was the first female executive at NBC, at a time when women were expected to get the coffee and shut the hell up.

--- End quote ---
The first time I saw “Anchorman”, I said there was no way men acted like Ron Burgundy in the 70s. Then I read about Harry Reasoner and Barbara Walters...

With all the talk about whether women should receive equal pay, it kinda feels like we never left 1974.

Matt Ottinger:

--- Quote from: calliaume on September 11, 2019, 09:14:34 AM ---Maxine Fabe's book, TV Game Shows!, started much of the controversy. 
--- End quote ---

I don't think our younger members here can truly appreciate how accurate this is.  Back then, the average fan, even the above-average fan, didn't know anything about the executives who made the decisions.  Shows were cancelled by "the network", and that's really all that mattered.  Fabe gave us a name.  More specifically, she gave us the name of the woman who took Jeopardy away from us!

Today, a million years later, maybe she ought to be given a little more credit for giving us Wheel of Fortune and advancing the careers of Trebek, Woolery and Edwards.  But to the passionate fans of the original Jeopardy, she was a convenient scapegoat.  And since most of those fans were male, they didn't care about her "young studs" approach to hosts, so that became a topic of derision.

TimK2003:
Lin was also one of the few, who got her own show (Stumpers) on a network she currently had some control of.  Chuck Barris also had that honor at ABC with Dating/Newlywed while he was running ABC daytime.  The only other person that I can think of that might have had a program on a network that he was concurrently working at was Fred Silverman.

BillCullen1:

--- Quote from: TimK2003 on September 11, 2019, 12:15:58 PM ---Lin was also one of the few, who got her own show (Stumpers) on a network she currently had some control of. 
--- End quote ---

And despite her liking of younger hosts, she got veteran Allen Ludden to host.

calliaume:

--- Quote from: TimK2003 on September 11, 2019, 12:15:58 PM ---Lin was also one of the few, who got her own show (Stumpers) on a network she currently had some control of.  Chuck Barris also had that honor at ABC with Dating/Newlywed while he was running ABC daytime.  The only other person that I can think of that might have had a program on a network that he was concurrently working at was Fred Silverman.

--- End quote ---
I believe Bolen had already left NBC by the time Stumpers aired - in fact, I think that was given to Bolen when she was replaced in her position by Madeline David.

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