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Canadian Game Shows
zachhoran:
Talkabout was indeed a Canadian-taped show, which was syndicated in the US in 1989-90.
James Allen:
--- Quote ---Talkabout was indeed a Canadian-taped show, which was syndicated in the US in 1989-90.
--- End quote ---
Thanks. I liked \"Talkabout,\" a nice simple little concept that was fun to watch. It would be nice if someone took the idea and did something with it today, after all, they do it in reverse these days. (You know, you have to describe stuff without using certain words).
It was done on a show whose name esapes me, as well as having been done on ESPN (as a quicky filler game on SportsCenter).
zachhoran:
The board game Taboo had a brief run as a game show on TNN earlier this year, that may be where you remember it from.
Michael Brandenburg:
I was attending my church's fall festival in Niagara Falls, New York in 1975 and got to see one Canadian game show whose title escapes me at this time. It was similar to Wheel of Fortune except that it was played by two players and the players got to call two letters in each turn after spinning the wheel -- the first one of which he believed was not in the puzzle and the second one of whice he believed it was.
In later years I did get to see the following Canadian-produced shows:
Let's Make a Deal (produced in Vancouver B.C.; Monty Hall hosting): Aired on a \"Christian\" station in my area around 1980. Not a lot to give away on this one in comparison with the previous ABC network version (Big Deals of the Day only ran around $5,000), but it was fun to see Monty pay off his winning contestants with his own \"Let's Make a Deal\" currency that they would exchange for their appropriate home-country currency after the show.
Jackpot (produced in Toronto, Ontario; Mike Darrow hosting): Caught this one in my motel room in Niagara Falls when I was there for my church's fall festival again in 1985 and loved it! Of course, these were the episodes that later aired in the U.S. on the USA cable network.
Talkabout (already covered in this thread) and Lingo; both of which aired on WIII-TV (now WSTR-TV) in Cincinnati in 1989: Wasn't really keen on Talkabout, but I did get a big kick out of one episode on which Geoff Edwards appeared as a celebrity player and at the end of the episode, when the host showed the Talkabout home game to the home audience, Geoff immediately shoves a Jackpot home game in front of it, thereby \"plugging\" the game show he was hosting at that time! (Jackpot was also airing on WIII-TV at that time, BTW -- too bad it didn't last!)
Of course, Lingo is now back on Game Show Network, and though the game play of the current version is a little different from the earlier version and the prizes are smaller, I still found it a lot of fun when I caught it in my motel room in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, last year during my church's fall festival.
Michael Brandenburg
(and I wonder if the Super 8 motel in Kerrville, Texas, has GSN on their motel-room TVs??)
Ian Wallis:
Quote:
Part of the retransmission agreement Canadian stations have with the American distributors is that the standard quality (Grade A) over-the-air signal of an American show cannot reach American audiences.
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Although I've heard that before, I wonder if it applies to the Toronto stations. All 9 of them broadcast from the top of the CNTower, and most pentrate far into New York State, especially the Buffalo area. Even though Buffalo is 55 miles away from Toronto (as the crow flies), the signals must still be pretty strong.
Maybe it doesn't matter so much now because most Canadian networks simulcast US shows, but in the '60s and '70s, the Canadian stations actually broadcast them a few days in advance. There must have been some American viewers that could have seen these shows on strong Canadian signals.
Back to game shows---Channel 11 Hamilton broadcasts \"Price is Right\" every day at 11 a.m., simulcasting the CBS feed. In the '70s, Channel 57 in Toronto ran it every day at 5 p.m., one day ahead of CBS. Channel 9 in Toronto ran it for a while during the '80s, but they decided to simulcast CBS.
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