The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => Game Show Channels & Networks => Topic started by: Bryce L. on September 16, 2019, 03:59:22 PM
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Weekdays
6:00am to 8:00am - Paid Programming
8:00am - To Tell The Truth 73
8:30am - What's My Line? 72 (new episodes, beginning 9/19)
9:00am - Sale of the Century 85
9:30am - Temptation 07
10:00am - Split Second 86 (new series)
10:30am - Blockbusters 81 (new episodes)
11:00am - Match Game 77
11:30am - Match Game 77
12:00pm - Match Game 76
12:30pm - Match Game 76
1:00pm - Classic Concentration 88 (new episodes)
1:30pm - Classic Concentration 88
2:00pm - Password 66
2:30pm - Password Plus 79
3:00pm - Super Password 85
3:30pm - Tattletales 74
4:00pm - Card Sharks 80
4:30pm - Card Sharks 86 (Eubanks)
5:00pm - Match Game 78
5:30pm - Match Game 78
6:00pm - Match Game 76 (new episodes)
6:30pm - Match Game 76
7:00pm - Press Your Luck 84
7:30pm - Let's Make a Deal 85 (new episodes)
8:00pm - Password Plus 79
8:30pm - Supermarket Sweep 93 (continuing new episodes)
9:00pm - Sale of the Century 85
9:30pm - Card Sharks 86 (Eubanks) (new episodes)
10:00pm - Match Game Hollywood Squares Hour 83 (new series)
11:00pm to 2:00am - repeat of 8:00pm to 11:00am
2:00am - Family Feud 81
2:30am - Family Feud 81
3:00am - Family Feud 88
3:30am - Family Feud 88
4:00am - Match Game 78
4:30am - Match Game 78
5:00am - Match Game 76
5:30am - Match Game 76
Saturdays
6:00am to 10:00am - Paid Programming
10:00am to 11:30am - (required E/I programming)
11:30am - Match Game 77
12:00pm - Match Game 77
12:30pm - Match Game 78
1:00pm - Match Game 76
1:30pm - Match Game 76
2:00pm - Match Game 76
2:30pm - Match Game 76
3:00pm - Let's Make a Deal 85
3:30pm - Let's Make a Deal 85
4:00pm - Classic Concentration 88
4:30pm - Classic Concentration 88
5:00pm - Classic Concentration 88
5:30pm - Classic Concentration 88
6:00pm - Classic Concentration 88
6:30pm - Classic Concentration 88
7:00pm - Card Sharks 86 (Eubanks)
7:30pm - Card Sharks 86 (Eubanks)
8:00pm - Match Game Hollywood Squares Hour 83
9:00pm - Super Password 85
9:30pm - Super Password 85
10:00pm - Tattletales 74
10:30pm - Tattletales 74
11:00pm to 2:00 am - repeat of 8:00pm to 11:00pm
2:00am - To Tell The Truth 73
2:30am - To Tell The Truth 73
3:00am - Password 66
3:30am - Password 66
4:00am - Now You See It 74
4:30am - Now You See It 74
5:00am - Card Sharks 80
5:30am - Card Sharks 80
Sundays
6:00am to 10:00am - Paid Programming
10:00am to 11:30am - (required E/I programming)
11:30am - Match Game 78
12:00pm - Match Game 78
12:30pm - Match Game 78
1:00pm - Match Game 76
1:30pm - Match Game 76
2:00pm - Match Game 76
2:30pm - Match Game 76
3:00pm - Match Game Hollywood Squares Hour 83
4:00pm - The Price is Right 59 (new series)
4:40pm - The Price is Right 59
5:20pm - The Price is Right 59
6:00pm - Supermarket Sweep 93
6:30pm - Supermarket Sweep 93
7:00pm - Supermarket Sweep 93
7:30pm - Supermarket Sweep 93
8:00pm - Password Plus 79
8:30pm - Password Plus 79
9:00pm - Match Game PM 80
9:30pm - Match Game PM 80
10:00pm - Split Second 86
10:30pm - Split Second 86
11:00pm to 2:00am - repeat of 8:00pm to 11:00pm
2:00am - Temptation 07
2:30am - Temptation 07
3:00am - What's My Line? 72
3:30am - What's My Line? 72
4:00am - Blockbusters 81
4:30am - Blockbusters 81
5:00am - Press Your Luck 84
5:30am - Press Your Luck 84
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Does anyone know how far they got with LMaD '84 previously? Curious to see if they'll reach the second season.
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Does anyone know how far they got with LMaD '84 previously? Curious to see if they'll reach the second season.
They aired 80 episodes, 88-167, with no skips. I don't know if the episodes they'll be airing are the same ones they had before, though.
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Note to self: if the Sunday Night Football game is a dud, turn to Buzzr at 10 pm. :P
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Does anyone know how far they got with LMaD '84 previously? Curious to see if they'll reach the second season.
They aired 80 episodes, 88-167, with no skips. I don't know if the episodes they'll be airing are the same ones they had before, though.
These are new, starting at 168.
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Does the schedule mention if MGHS Hour is starting back at the beginning of the season or if it's continuing onto week 2?
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Does the schedule mention if MGHS Hour is starting back at the beginning of the season or if it's continuing onto week 2?
On to week 2.
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Hooray for more Blockbusters and a weekday appearance again!
Also of note: This schedule allows the network to continue to use its "Buzzr Daytime Tango" promo.
(What? I like it. It's catchy.)
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Gotta admit that this is a rather sweet schedule...
JakeT
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My only real qualm is that morning Sale starts far too early for me. Otherwise, AMAZING!!! LMaD, CC, $otC Split Second and Sweep all on the same schedule?? Awesome!
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Looking at the schedules, Split Second '86 is starting from the beginning of the run. Always nice to see. :)
Does anyone know how far they got with LMaD '84 previously? Curious to see if they'll reach the second season.
They aired 80 episodes, 88-167, with no skips. I don't know if the episodes they'll be airing are the same ones they had before, though.
These are new, starting at 168.
Given that, October 3 is gonna be interesting since that airing's listed as #171 and GSN seems to have gone no further than #170. Either Season 1 lasted longer than was thought, or Season 2 will finally see unbutchered airtime after more than 30 years.
(Though it's odd that the Big Deal value listed for #170, $9,434, is repeated for 171-172.)
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Even those the channel is in its fifth year, I look at that schedule and marvel, "Wow, this basically would've been everyone's dream schedule for GSN ten years ago."
Fun to think that classic game shows are in vogue.
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Looking at the schedules, Split Second '86 is starting from the beginning of the run. Always nice to see. :)
Does anyone know how far they got with LMaD '84 previously? Curious to see if they'll reach the second season.
They aired 80 episodes, 88-167, with no skips. I don't know if the episodes they'll be airing are the same ones they had before, though.
These are new, starting at 168.
Given that, October 3 is gonna be interesting since that airing's listed as #171 and GSN seems to have gone no further than #170. Either Season 1 lasted longer than was thought, or Season 2 will finally see unbutchered airtime after more than 30 years.
(Though it's odd that the Big Deal value listed for #170, $9,434, is repeated for 171-172.)
Well, if we hear Dean Goss, we can break out the fireworks, eh?
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pardon my ignorance, but I gave up on Buzzr about 2 years ago and haven't watched it since, unless you count Amazon prime episodes.
This says "Super Password" 1985. When the network launched 4 years ago, they started with episode one. Have they really not gone past 1985 in all this time? For that matter, "Tattletales" is still in the second year?
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pardon my ignorance, but I gave up on Buzzr about 2 years ago and haven't watched it since, unless you count Amazon prime episodes.
This says "Super Password" 1985. When the network launched 4 years ago, they started with episode one. Have they really not gone past 1985 in all this time? For that matter, "Tattletales" is still in the second year?
Yes, they only add new episodes of anything in spurts and inbetween are tons of reruns. I've long gotten over that though and they've gotten better about spreading out the new batches of episodes over all the shows they're running, so there's almost always at least one series with "new" episodes on the lineup.
Also, both Super Password and Tattletales spent long periods of being either completely off the lineup or only being shown on weekends.
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pardon my ignorance, but I gave up on Buzzr about 2 years ago and haven't watched it since, unless you count Amazon prime episodes.
This says "Super Password" 1985. When the network launched 4 years ago, they started with episode one. Have they really not gone past 1985 in all this time? For that matter, "Tattletales" is still in the second year?
Almost everything Buzzr/Fremantle has needs to be converted into a modern era format, likely into a digital archive. Even in cases where they clearly got their copies from GSN (A couple of late 90s GSN plugs even turned up in Cullen Price), that's still a DigiBeta to true digital conversion. (Why not just broadcast the digibetas? Number one, in an era of automated network control you don't want tape on air if you can help it; Number two, Sony discontinued the production of players and recorders for the format in 2016 so getting anything off of the format that might still be on it is a process that needs to happen anyway).
Plus beyond the conversions, the episodes are almost assuredly having to be screened for music issues, celebrity issues, contract-related problems, video and audio defects, and just about anything else you can think of. And all of that costs money (labor costs, time costs, equipment purchases, storage costs (professional storage plus backups is $$$), resolving any legal that can be resolved). All for a network whose carriage amounts to digital subchannels, Pluto, and Dish Network, plus limited VOD on Amazon.
GSN had the benefit of being a relatively early cable network in an era where that was still a big deal, backed by a company with even deeper pockets than Fremantle (Sony), all while being in a race to get on the air before Family Channel's planned competitor - talked about heavily in Broadcasting - could get on the air full time and claim the space.
Shriners seems more than willing to pony up for Supermarket Sweep, so it almost never cycles back - over half of the Lifetime version has run, and at least the first 40 PAX episodes have definitely been digitized and are on Amazon.
Largely though? They get to what they get to, as they get to it.
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This explains a lot, and thank you for posting it.
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How far into the Concentration run have they gotten? The last ones I think I saw just had the green take.
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How far into the Concentration run have they gotten? The last ones I think I saw just had the green take.
Correct. The first few days of January 1988 is as far as they got before. They're picking up with the 1/7/88 episode later this month.
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Count me in on the positivity for this new schedule. While there are a few nitpicky things that I wish were slightly different, there’s a lot of good variety, and it looks like they really made an effort to not blatantly give any show the shaft (except maybe Temptation, but I’m not sure how many rabid fans it really has). And huge props for bringing on shows & episodes that haven’t been broadcast in 25+ years.
GSN had the benefit of being a relatively early cable network in an era where that was still a big deal, backed by a company with even deeper pockets than Fremantle (Sony), all while being in a race to get on the air before Family Channel's planned competitor - talked about heavily in Broadcasting - could get on the air full time and claim the space.
A bit off-topic, but regarding the Family Channel’s planned competitor... I remember watching a few of the Wink-hosted FAM originals, branded as Game Net, on TCI Cable’s tv! Network; and I remember reading in TV Guide about the new Game Net channel that was set to launch about the same time as GSN.
What ultimately caused it to fall through? And is there any recommended further reading on the topic?
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It seems that the new Buzzr schedule has something for everybody. So we get to see Uncle Bill host two shows, TPIR on Sundays and Blockbusters during the week. I'm also looking forward to the new eps of WML.
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If anybody told me even 18 months ago, "You're going to be able to watch Classic Concentration and Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour daily, and you'll be able to stream it on your computer," I'd be doing a jig around the world. (There's an image.)
I have no complaints. I haven't seen GSN in years (our cable system dumped it a few years back), so I don't really have a basis for comparison anyway.
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I have no complaints. I haven't seen GSN in years (our cable system dumped it a few years back), so I don't really have a basis for comparison anyway.
There really isn't one....The only show left from GSN's launch that still airs is Match Game, and that's for 3 hours a day, between 8am-10am and 1pm-2pm.
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As much as I loved the Press Your Luck reboot this summer, I'm still kinda glad they are giving the Tomarken PYL a
rest scaling back for now. It always seemed that whenever I first got BUZZR thru PlutoTV, it was either PYL or MG that was on.
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If anybody told me even 18 months ago, "You're going to be able to watch Classic Concentration and Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour daily, and you'll be able to stream it on your computer," I'd be doing a jig around the world. (There's an image.)
I have no complaints. I haven't seen GSN in years (our cable system dumped it a few years back), so I don't really have a basis for comparison anyway.
Similar situation for me. I had GSN at my old house, but moved in spring of last year and switched cable providers. The new provider had it in a higher tier that I didn’t want to pay for. Of course, BUZZR started streaming soon afterward.
My new cable provider moved GSN back down into my tier in January, so I have it again. I don’t think I’ve watched 10 minutes of it since.
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As much as I loved the Press Your Luck reboot this summer, I'm still kinda glad they are giving the Tomarken PYL a rest for now. It always seemed that whenever I first got BUZZR thru PlutoTV, it was either PYL or MG that was on.
PYL isn't being given a complete rest. It's still on at 7 p.m. Eastern time.
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As much as I loved the Press Your Luck reboot this summer, I'm still kinda glad they are giving the Tomarken PYL a rest for now. It always seemed that whenever I first got BUZZR thru PlutoTV, it was either PYL or MG that was on.
PYL isn't being given a complete rest. It's still on at 7 p.m. Eastern time.
Fixed. Also saw an hour at 5am Sunday Night/Monday Morning.
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A bit off-topic, but regarding the Family Channel’s planned competitor... I remember watching a few of the Wink-hosted FAM originals, branded as Game Net, on TCI Cable’s tv! Network; and I remember reading in TV Guide about the new Game Net channel that was set to launch about the same time as GSN.
What ultimately caused it to fall through? And is there any recommended further reading on the topic?
The story as it's been explained to me was that everything hinged on the Goodson-Todman library, which was considered absolutely the most crucial archive for a 24-hour game show channel. When Sony closed that deal, any other plan from any other cable programmer got called off.
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The story as it's been explained to me was that everything hinged on the Goodson-Todman library, which was considered absolutely the most crucial archive for a 24-hour game show channel. When Sony closed that deal, any other plan from any other cable programmer got called off.
Thanks for the info. With GSN having nearly unfettered access to the Goodson-Todman and Sony libraries at the time, I can see where it would have been difficult for any competitor to gain a foothold. Especially if all FAM had was their originals and Hatos-Hall.
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We've seen examples in the past (Match Game PM, Supermarket Sweep seasons 2 and 4 but not 3), but it looks like standard operating procedure at Buzzr is now to edit out unintegrated fee and consolation plugs. Today's "new" episode of Blockbusters had all of its fees edited out, and each "new" Classic Concentration had its sole ten-second consolation plug cut off after the second bonus round.
I feel like I saw similar unfamiliar edits during some of this weekend's Lost and Found episodes, but I wasn't keeping track.
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We've seen examples in the past (Match Game PM, Supermarket Sweep seasons 2 and 4 but not 3), but it looks like standard operating procedure at Buzzr is now to edit out unintegrated fee and consolation plugs. Today's "new" episode of Blockbusters had all of its fees edited out, and each "new" Classic Concentration had its sole ten-second consolation plug cut off after the second bonus round.
I feel like I saw similar unfamiliar edits during some of this weekend's Lost and Found episodes, but I wasn't keeping track.
Mildly related, but I did notice with this morning's "Split Second" airing that the "back from commercial" bumper questions got cut.
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Mildly related, but I did notice with this morning's "Split Second" airing that the "back from commercial" bumper questions got cut.
Which sucks, because I'd love a clean copy of the theme...
/Yes, there's TVPMM, but have you heard the quality of this one there?
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MG/HS Hour - ANsenio Hall? Did I mishear Gene Wood? ;D
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You surely didn't.
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I take it we started with Episode 2 on Split Second today? Or are we somewhere further down the road? Buzzr's clock is off in the morning, so my DVR missed about the first two minutes of the episode.
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Buzzr's clock is off in the morning, so my DVR missed about the first two minutes of the episode.
I noticed that too. Their timing seemed to start to drift a bit before summer began. I added 5 minutes to the start and end of "Classic Concentration" just so this won't happen. I'm in DVD library mode now LOL.
I also padded the start/end of MGHS hour. For DVD library reasons and the light show at the beginning :)
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I take it we started with Episode 2 on Split Second today? Or are we somewhere further down the road? Buzzr's clock is off in the morning, so my DVR missed about the first two minutes of the episode.
A bit further in the run, though what aired today is numbered as #0001. The first handful of episodes had a slightly different set and bonus round and were either not aired in the States or were buried somewhere else in the run. This was the first episode with this set and format.
GameTV aired them at the beginning of their cycle though.
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Out of curiosity, what aired for Deal? My cable guide had strangely specific information that it was "Taped in Orlando at the Disney/MGM Studios", first aired 7/1/90.
Typically, the airdates provided are of when a program first aired on BUZZR. Thanks for the information.
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A bit further in the run, though what aired today is numbered as #0001. The first handful of episodes had a slightly different set and bonus round and were either not aired in the States or were buried somewhere else in the run. This was the first episode with this set and format.
GameTV aired them at the beginning of their cycle though.
Ah, that explains this, and the differences contained therein.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg5WTXXiUTI
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Contestants continually botching celebrities' names in the Hollywood Squares portion of the game is as good an indicator of the star power on display here as any.
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Out of curiosity, what aired for Deal? My cable guide had strangely specific information that it was "Taped in Orlando at the Disney/MGM Studios", first aired 7/1/90.
Typically, the airdates provided are of when a program first aired on BUZZR. Thanks for the information.
They started with an episode near the end of the 1984-1985 season.
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First time ever watching MGHSH, here's my take:
-Best set of the 80s as far as I'm concerned. You could put almost the exact set on TV today and it would look as good.
-Gene, to my eyes, was slowing down a bit. Maybe it was jitters from being in a new format with mostly new talent, but I expected him to do a bit better.
-Jon was good. If he had had more time to get comfortable in the role, maybe he'd be remembered more fondly.
-I prefer Marshall Squares (never seen a full ep of Davidson) but the more trivia-based take here is an interesting way to do it. To be honest, I actually like the win by default rule because it makes for a more exciting end to a game. However, I'd've doubled the dollars per square to $50 in the second game to help the opponent close the gap more.
Might watch again, haven't decided.
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On last night's episode, at least, Gene's best work was as a square, and I don't mean that to put down his performance as MG host. I noticed that he was the only celeb who got "standard-issue" Squares questions instead of multiple-choice once, and he made some excellent bluffs out of them.
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Odd bit of trivia, and I think I'm right about this. There appears to be only one week of MGHS shows in which all eight guest celebrities are still alive. That would be the special St Elsewhere week that aired in March of 1984. It featured seven of the younger cast members (including Ed Begley Jr and Howie Mandel)...and 70-year-old Norman Lloyd. Lloyd turns 105 next month. Probably.
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Well, now you've gone and jinxed it.
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The...Hollywood Squares....Match Game....Comedy Hour or whatever they call it.
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Odd bit of trivia, and I think I'm right about this. There appears to be only one week of MGHS shows in which all eight guest celebrities are still alive. That would be the special St Elsewhere week that aired in March of 1984. It featured seven of the younger cast members (including Ed Begley Jr and Howie Mandel)...and 70-year-old Norman Lloyd. Lloyd turns 105 next month. Probably.
I had thought of that too but I think the second-to-last week has all of the non-Rayburns still with us: Marty Cohen, Alex Cord, Didi Conn, Audrey Landers, Judy Landers, Michael Lembeck, Anne-Marie Martin, Jimmie Walker - https://web.archive.org/web/20041207145746/http://www.matchgame.org/episodeguides/matchgame/mghs84.html
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The...Hollywood Squares....Match Game....Comedy Hour or whatever they call it.
I heard him say that last night and it was painfully easy to read between the lines. :P
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Odd bit of trivia, and I think I'm right about this. There appears to be only one week of MGHS shows in which all eight guest celebrities are still alive. That would be the special St Elsewhere week that aired in March of 1984. It featured seven of the younger cast members (including Ed Begley Jr and Howie Mandel)...and 70-year-old Norman Lloyd. Lloyd turns 105 next month. Probably.
Way off topic, but given the size of the cast and how long it's been since the show aired, the cast members have an astonishing longevity history. I count only three cast members of the 25 from the first two seasons of St. Elsewhere that have died.
I wasn't able to watch last night, but my impression when MG-HS aired (and I do recall watching the St. Elsewhere episodes) was that the theme weeks were nice promos for the shows in question, but they sure didn't help with game play.
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What's honestly surprised me most in watching MGHSH is how much I'm enjoying the Hollywood Squares portion of the game. Awarding cash for every square captured? Love it, and feel it gives each question true meaning - and turning the game into a straight Q&A is a fun change as someone who generally loves quizzes. I'm also finding Bauman super enjoyable; he clearly wants to be there orders of magnitude more than Gene, with honestly his biggest sin as a host appearing to be "he isn't Peter Marshall"
As a separate thought: Squares got brought back twice in the 80s, and it's interesting to see just how fundamentally different the two versions really are. The HS portion of Hour is easily the most pure Q&A the format has seen (to the point of paying out per question), while Davidson's run later in the decade would go full variety show with demonstrations, musical numbers, Richard Simmons workout routines, monologues, and then, oh yeah, a quiz somewhere in there with a couple games per show if they find time.
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The...Hollywood Squares....Match Game....Comedy Hour or whatever they call it.
I heard him say that last night and it was painfully easy to read between the lines. :P
In fairness, it appeared he couldn't read the cue cards and ad libbed it. But yes.
What's honestly surprised me most in watching MGHSH is how much I'm enjoying the Hollywood Squares portion of the game. Awarding cash for every square captured? Love it, and feel it gives each question true meaning - and turning the game into a straight Q&A is a fun change as someone who generally loves quizzes. I'm also finding Bauman super enjoyable; he clearly wants to be there orders of magnitude more than Gene, with honestly his biggest sin as a host appearing to be "he isn't Peter Marshall"
I feel the same way. Although I do think giving the celebrities some material would have improved it.
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Turning the game into a straight Q&A is a fun change as someone who generally loves quizzes.
My hunch is that they made it Q&A because of the success of Tic Tac Dough; perhaps they wanted to replicate that a bit?
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Regarding the complaint about "How stupid it is to award the square to your opponent on a crucial (game winning) question if you get the question wrong", IDK I have my own "get the hell off my lawn response": "SEEMS SIMPLE ENOUGH--DON'T GET IT WRONG THEN!"
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Regarding the complaint about "How stupid it is to award the square to your opponent on a crucial (game winning) question if you get the question wrong", IDK I have my own "get the hell off my lawn response": "SEEMS SIMPLE ENOUGH--DON'T GET IT WRONG THEN!"
Exactly. People may think it's unfair, but it's really just an extra wrinkle.
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Last night's MG/HS rerun....their version of the YOU FOOL! episode. As only the winning questions for each round were answered correctly.
Charles is more or less himself during MG, more subdued during HS....hmmmm....
I wasn't able to watch last night, but my impression when MG-HS aired (and I do recall watching the St. Elsewhere episodes) was that the theme weeks were nice promos for the shows in question, but they sure didn't help with game play.
Wait'll they get to the NBC soaps week. The one episode that was previously on the trading circuit was brutal.
Love Ed Begley Jr. continually saying "I won't give a gag answer." HDTV allows one to see the strings attached to him, and Mark Goodson lurking in the background ;-)
Nitpicky question: when do they switch from the MG/HS logo commercial bumper to the one with the silhouettes of Gene and Jon?
What's honestly surprised me most in watching MGHSH is how much I'm enjoying the Hollywood Squares portion of the game. Awarding cash for every square captured? Love it, and feel it gives each question true meaning - and turning the game into a straight Q&A is a fun change as someone who generally loves quizzes. I'm also finding Bauman super enjoyable; he clearly wants to be there orders of magnitude more than Gene, with honestly his biggest sin as a host appearing to be "he isn't Peter Marshall"
You're not the only one. Watching the HS portion to me isn't the chore other people find it. Only thing is it's MG in HS's body as you got people talking and joking over one another during questions. Also some of the stars, mostly the comedians, spend a LOT of time telling jokes and doing schtick.
I guess since we've seen worse hosts since, I am not turned off by Jon's hosting. He's friendly, enthusiastic, and sometimes he even made me chuckle a bit!! Could he have gotten better if the show got more seasons? Maybe.
Besides the perks you liked, I'll commend the producers of the show for making the miniature version of the Squares grid look as sizeable as the original. And I said this before...the symbol filling the entire square should have been used by one of the other legit HS revivals. I know, Hip Hop does it now....I'll leave it to you to decide how legit that is...
I feel the same way. Although I do think giving the celebrities some material would have improved it.
But then it wouldn't be "the only completely honest version of Squares"...yes, Bauman really said this (on Twitter, when the marathon in February happened)…
Regarding the complaint about "How stupid it is to award the square to your opponent on a crucial (game winning) question if you get the question wrong", IDK I have my own "get the hell off my lawn response": "SEEMS SIMPLE ENOUGH--DON'T GET IT WRONG THEN!"
Exactly. People may think it's unfair, but it's really just an extra wrinkle.
Yes, kind of vaguely like the neverending debate over Push Rule or No Push Rule on Card Sharks. Want to see the chances of contestants bringing home more money? Sure, it's not fair. Want higher stakes and suspense even when an Ace or Deuce comes up? (or save budget when you're the current CS, giving away potentially hundreds of thousands?) It is, again, that extra wrinkle.
Sidenotes :
I met Alison Arngrim at a movie/horror convention last Saturday. For an autograph, I had a homemade 8x10 of a screengrab of the HS grid from premiere week. She not only remembered the show, but very much fondly did so. Even forwarded a picture of the photo to Phil Proctor on Facebook. Nice lady too, by the way.
I'd say something about the chopped fee plugs (here and elsewhere), but if we get those instead of credit crunching, what the hey.
It's a shame that Lost and Found wasn't the usual pilot episode marathon, as I'd be down to see the MG/HS pilot if they indeed have it with all the other episodes. Someone posted an NBC commercial for the premiere which used scenes from said pilot. Someone on YouTube claimed to know how the "X/O" tabs seen there worked. Apparently it was a change to the Head-to-Head....as they describe it...
1) You start with the Audience Match money.
2) Select a star, they choose between the X or O tab. One has their name, the other a dollar amount.
3) Pick the dollar amount, it's added to the bank for head-to-head then you keep picking stars. Until you pick the name, then that's who you play with for the bank you accumulated to that point.
4) Clearing the board = $100,000 Head to Head Match with the last of the nine celebrities you pick.
5) And yeah, that sounds real time consuming; moreso on a show where you want to fit in one decently-sized MG and HS game each.
Can anyone in the know confirm/deny?
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What's killing me about the Match Game portion of Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour is this: The last season of the syndicated Match Game had only been off the air for a year. How are so many of the new celebrities so bad at it? It seems like if a celeb hadn't been on the '70s/'80s run, they had to start round one by giving an awful, awful answer that shows no comprehension of the game. Did nobody give them an example question to play?
Yes, the Hollywood Squares half is a straightforward trivia game, but that's the problem. The show is going from the lighthearted, semi-wacky antics of Match Game into a deadly dull, laugh-free trivia contest. Many of the trivia questions have only two choices and the celebrities often don't even attempt to be funny... so why are the celebrities even there?
(Or they book Fred Travalena, who tries to inject enough concentrated shtick to make up for the six or seven squares who aren't getting laughs, and it's overwhelming.)
This is only the second week, and just look at Gene in his square when it isn't his turn...
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-Gene, to my eyes, was slowing down a bit. Maybe it was jitters from being in a new format with mostly new talent, but I expected him to do a bit better.
-Jon was good. If he had had more time to get comfortable in the role, maybe he'd be remembered more fondly.
You bring up a good point about Gene. While most of the criticism I see about MGHSH pertains to Goodson/NBC’s failures to completely grasp what made both shows work, or to Bauman’s shortcomings, Gene’s hosting here definitely had some issues too. He seemed easily frustrated. While it probably wasn’t the only issue, I’m sure the lack of chemistry & consistency with the panel was a big factor. And for him, it seemed that those frustrations came out as him seeming disconnected or even grumpy. I don’t have the psychology training to determine what all was going on in Gene’s mind, but that’s the way some people seem to be wired.
As for Jon’s hosting, there were definitely some positives there. I think he had a lot of things working against him that even Marshall would have had a hard time dealing with—Goodson’s failure to grasp all that made Squares work; some of NBC’s booking; even Jon himself still trying to get out of his comfort zone. Then there’s the Gene factor. It’s been said that Gene didn’t particularly care for Jon. If he could have befriended Jon & mentored him as a host, rather than taking a disliking to him, that might have helped him a lot. I don’t know if Jon would have even been open to that kind of relationship, but from my view as an outsider, it seems like it might have benefited all parties involved. (And I wonder if that’s what Goodson was hoping for.)
Lest I seem unduly hard on Gene, I don’t mean to be. I imagine that even though Match Game was “Goodson’s show,” Gene felt a sense of ownership of it—and rightly so, given that he’d spent so much of his working life with the franchise. I’m sure the way some things played out had to be frustrating to him. And for most of us, if we’d spent 2+ decades building something, only to see it dismantled due to manmade causes outside our control, we’d be highly frustrated too.
Anyway, when I’ve watched the show, I felt it was more ok-to-mediocre, rather than out and out bad. It will be interesting to see if they can keep viewers for it. (I imagine the fact that no version of Hollywood Squares proper has aired in quite some time may help.)
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What's killing me about the Match Game portion of Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour is this: The last season of the syndicated Match Game had only been off the air for a year. How are so many of the new celebrities so bad at it? It seems like if a celeb hadn't been on the '70s/'80s run, they had to start round one by giving an awful, awful answer that shows no comprehension of the game. Did nobody give them an example question to play?
Yes, the Hollywood Squares half is a straightforward trivia game, but that's the problem. The show is going from the lighthearted, semi-wacky antics of Match Game into a deadly dull, laugh-free trivia contest. Many of the trivia questions have only two choices and the celebrities often don't even attempt to be funny... so why are the celebrities even there?
(Or they book Fred Travalena, who tries to inject enough concentrated shtick to make up for the six or seven squares who aren't getting laughs, and it's overwhelming.)
This pretty much sums up my thoughts after two episodes. My head hit the couch last night when Round 1 gave a nice, direct question in "Dumb Dora was so dumb, she bought a BLANK for her roach motel," and two of the panelists responded by writing down the names of motel chains.
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One thing that bothered me about MGHSH originally was how straight-laced Gene was when he was on the Squares side of the stage. Since that was pre-GSN era, and only knowing of Gene's wilder persona on MG'7x, I was a bit disappointed in how different he was when not a Match Game host. Now after seeing him on older panel shows and on the Original Match Game, it makes more sense now.
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Nitpicky question: when do they switch from the MG/HS logo commercial bumper to the one with the silhouettes of Gene and Jon?
Slightly complicated answer, mainly because it wasn't a direct change: sometime between March 26 (the episode from Lost & Found) and April 23, 1984, the logo bumper was replaced by a 20-square grid with 11 silhouettes. By about May 10, the grid was shrunk down to 12 squares and six silhouettes with Gene and Jon's heads put onto two of them.
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Has anyone been having trouble watching Let's Make a Deal on PlutoTV or Stirr? I have them on all day and when LMAD starts at 7:30 on Stirr, it immediately goes to commercial and never comes back from them. At 8, P+ starts on time. Switch over to Pluto and they are also in an endless loop of commercials until P+. Not sure what the deal is, I watch everything else. Is it just a fluke technical issue with the streaming services or are they blocking the show from streaming for some reason?
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The Buzzr stream has been on the fritz for me most of the day. WML this morning was a black screen with the Buzzr bug in the corner, picked back up with $ale. It died again at some point in the Password 66 episode, was intermittent up until about 30 minutes ago. I haven't pulled the modem log, but some of the behavior appears to be on their end.
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I watched Super Password and Tattletales today on Pluto without incident, but I’m also not getting LMAD.
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The Buzzr stream has been on the fritz for me most of the day. WML this morning was a black screen with the Buzzr bug in the corner, picked back up with $ale. It died again at some point in the Password 66 episode, was intermittent up until about 30 minutes ago. I haven't pulled the modem log, but some of the behavior appears to be on their end.
I switched it on to watch 80s LMaD tonight. The show kicked on for a frame or two, then went to a commercial break that literally didn't end for the duration of the show, almost as though Pluto was choosing to black out the program for some reason. The actual commercial fill was Pluto's usual rotation, as thought it had just been switched on automatically, so a few options:
*Someone at Pluto decided to blackout the show. The commercial feed being the computerized mix feels like a minimum of human intervention.
*Someone at Pluto was asleep at the switch (which would be weird to be exactly at program start)
*Buzzr transmitted a commercial start tone/signal accidentally that they forgot to revoke/stop
*Buzzr transmitted a start tone/signal to allow affiliate broadcasters (incl. Pluto) to opt out of LMAD (either as an availability or possibly some contractual issue with LMaD? This literally didn't happen in this slot last week)
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I saw it on Pluto this evening as well. However, LMAD was running on the website and KlowdTV feeds. (As far as I can tell, KlowdTV uses the same straight feed that the website uses. No idea about the Fitzy TV feed, since Fitzy isn’t yet available on iOS or Roku—the platforms I mostly use.)
*Buzzr transmitted a commercial start tone/signal accidentally that they forgot to revoke/stop
*Buzzr transmitted a start tone/signal to allow affiliate broadcasters (incl. Pluto) to opt out of LMAD (either as an availability or possibly some contractual issue with LMaD? This literally didn't happen in this slot last week)
The tone is my guess, since it‘s affecting both Pluto and STIRR but not the web or Klowd feeds.
Now, whether it’s a technical glitch or intentional to black out the show, I’m not sure. (I wouldn’t think they’d intentionally schedule a show that would have to be blacked out as their lead in to prime time, considering how they’ve plunged headlong into streaming, but who knows?)
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Comparing the episodes of MGHSH we saw from week 1 and the ones we’re seeing now from week 2 to the one we saw this past weekend from later in the run, the differences are stark to me. Obviously, the game hasn’t changed much, but there are several things I noticed. First, Gene seemed less at ease later in the run. He just wasn’t his normal self. Obviously, I’ve only seen the one episode from later in the run, but if that was the norm later in the run, I can see how that would’ve been off-putting. Additionally, the chemistry seemed weaker amongst the panel in the later episode *despite the fact that most of them all worked together.* This obviously would change week to week, but combining a more aloof Gene with a weak panel, the show was PAINFUL.
I did find Jon to be better than others on this board felt, I believe. He was still getting used to things (Gene had to prompt him to ask Shannon about her movies), but he had a good attitude, played both the role of host and panelist well, and was personable. Would Peter Marshall have been better? Yes, maybe. But, I didn’t find Jon offensive by any stretch.
If you’re GOING to combine two shows, I get why you’d combine these two. And if you’re going to combine these two, I like the format they used. But, I don’t see any advantage to combining the shows from an audience standpoint — these shows are better alone. (I understand that it’s gonna be cheaper to produce one 1-hour game show than two 30-minute game shows like this, so there’s an obvious economic advantage. But clearly, that advantage didn’t seem to work out.)
For Match Game, I’ve always preferred just two question rounds because you just get more of the comedy from the contestants. I can tell they still edit out some of the time the celebrities are writing, much like syndicated Match Game would. Similarly with Hollywood Squares, I understand Mark Goodson’s obsession with not wanting to provide zingers, but moving to mostly multiple choice questions really removed most of the fun because then the celebrity couldn’t even really think up a funny one-liner on the spot. At the end of the day, I think, it seems like the production team wanted more GAME. But, I personally never watched either show for the game. The games are ultimately “fill in the blank” and “tic-tac-toe” — those aren’t ultimately super exciting games. I watch for the celebrities and the jokes and the back and forth. This game really took away a lot of that and I think it suffered for it.
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I'm watching the Hollywood Squares portion now.
Removing the zingers doesn't hurt the show necessarily, but it doesn't speed up the pace either. I'm actually okay with your opponent being able to win the round if you (dis)agree incorrectly. Requires you to use your own discretion, and prevents a "You fool!"-type round that goes on forever. That said, if you're the producer watching the budget, you might breeze through quite a few games. Tonight had four or so matches, and I kept looking at the clock to see whether they were done.
Jon wasn't a bad host, but he was out of his element here, esp. next to Gene. He also seemed to let the panelists take over and talk too much at times. All moot 36 years later, but with this replacing Fantasy, I imagine Peter Marshall would've had a hard time taping one show along with its replacement, unless he left the former early.
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The "watching the budget" part seems to be well in hand here. It's an hour show that tops out at awarding roughly $1,500 in the front game, and a flashy jackpot that only has a 1/9 chance of being won, assuming the contestant nails the first half of the bonus round. You don't manage the budget on this one squeezing $500 out of the Squares, you do it by making the Head-To-Head Match question a little more open-ended.
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LMAD advanced to 85-86 today w/Dean Goss announcing
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This evening, LMAD was still blocked on Pluto. They were playing an ep of Classic Concentration in its place. However, as far as I could tell, LMAD was playing on all other feeds, including STIRR this time.
So apparently they’re aware there’s an issue. (And CC isn’t a bad substitution.) But be it contractual or technical, it’s odd that the issue would be exclusive to Pluto.
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This evening, LMAD was still blocked on Pluto. They were playing an ep of Classic Concentration in its place. However, as far as I could tell, LMAD was playing on all other feeds, including STIRR this time.
So apparently they’re aware there’s an issue. (And CC isn’t a bad substitution.) But be it contractual or technical, it’s odd that the issue would be exclusive to Pluto.
Perhaps something to do with CBS, Viacom, and the current LMAD. Just thinking of possible dots to connect.
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I was successfully watching LMaD on Stirr tonight and I heard that Pluto was showing CC, as some have said above. I switched over to Pluto around 7:50 to see, and it was also showing LMaD. Not sure what happened there and why CC was showing for some. Also not sure how they could even manage to show a totally different show since they all appear to use the same master feed.
Now there is a funky aspect ratio issue going on with both feeds and everything is smaller than normal. Zooming in on TV loses some quality. Hopefully they address that next.
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I was successfully watching LMaD on Stirr tonight and I heard that Pluto was showing CC, as some have said above. I switched over to Pluto around 7:50 to see, and it was also showing LMaD. Not sure what happened there and why CC was showing for some. Also not sure how they could even manage to show a totally different show since they all appear to use the same master feed.
Now there is a funky aspect ratio issue going on with both feeds and everything is smaller than normal. Zooming in on TV loses some quality. Hopefully they address that next.
And speaking of STIRR, their Family Feud Huddle spot is quickly getting long in the tooth.
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I was successfully watching LMaD on Stirr tonight and I heard that Pluto was showing CC, as some have said above. I switched over to Pluto around 7:50 to see, and it was also showing LMaD. Not sure what happened there and why CC was showing for some. Also not sure how they could even manage to show a totally different show since they all appear to use the same master feed.
Interesting. Hopefully this means that, whatever the issue is, they’re on their way to getting it fixed on all platforms.
If you don’t mind me asking, what streaming device were you using (Roku, Fire, etc)? And in your Pluto program guide, did it say LMAD was supposed to be airing? FWIW, I was checking it on my iPhone (couldn’t conveniently use my Roku at the time); my Pluto guide said Classic Concentration, though STIRR said LMAD.
I know there are some differences between devices even within the same service provider—remember when BUZZR was on Pluto for every platform except Roku for a few weeks? Also, I’m not sure how this works for BUZZR, but I know for some channels, the feeds are slightly different, even before taking into account the Pluto/STIRR/etc. ads. For example, I’ve noticed with WeatherNation, if it comes back from Pluto’s ads a little early, it cuts to WeatherNation’s own ads (playing along with the weather ticker); however, that ad load isn’t exactly the same as the ads on WN’s native stream. And WN on Roku Channel appears to be fed by a different source; if it comes back from the Roku Channel’s ads a little early, it just plays music with the weather ticker & a “WN will return shortly” graphic. Not sure why they have all these different feeds running, but whatever works for them, I guess.
I’m seeing the aspect ratio issue too, on nearly every BUZZR stream except KlowdTV.
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So I sat through my first MGHS episode on Buzzr and here's what I found:
Match Game is Match Game. Nothing really different but I never really enjoyed watching Fred Travalena on any episode he was on.
My main criticism with the show has always been with the Hollywood Squares portion. I never liked the idea of a win by default but here, considering the pacing, you really have to have the rule in place. So I grew to accept it. With that settled, why couldn't they just do a simple 2 out of 3 match, or 3 out of 5?
And I still find Jon's style incredibly annoying. It's like he was trying to make "you were right to agree" a catchphrase against its will.
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And I still find Jon's style incredibly annoying. It's like he was trying to make "you were right to agree" a catchphrase against its will.
Six words: "Good night, and grease for peace".
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What's honestly surprised me most in watching MGHSH is how much I'm enjoying the Hollywood Squares portion of the game. Awarding cash for every square captured? Love it, and feel it gives each question true meaning - and turning the game into a straight Q&A is a fun change as someone who generally loves quizzes. I'm also finding Bauman super enjoyable; he clearly wants to be there orders of magnitude more than Gene, with honestly his biggest sin as a host appearing to be "he isn't Peter Marshall"
I like Jon Bauman and isn't as bad as some think, but he had a goofy charisma, acted like one of the guys instead of an ersatz "Master of the Squares," and could've used more succinct verbiage (I remember watching one of the last MGHSH eps on YT where Gene was commending him on keeping the game moving). I don't think audiences in 1983-4 were ready for his hosting style.
My fave part is watch the mic handoff between Gene and Jon and how Jon throws to a commercial. Match Game w/Gene is almost always MG; Goodsonized HS is a fascinating thing.
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I'd like to take a moment to appreciate the set construction for the Hollywood Squares portion. In order for the nine little squares to form a straight-lined big square in the shot of the full grid, the squares in the back row have to be larger than the squares in the front row (and the squares in the middle row a size that's in between). It's something you don't realize they did until you think to look for the subtle differences.
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Do they realize they're transmitting postage-stamp sized?
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This evening, LMAD was still blocked on Pluto. They were playing an ep of Classic Concentration in its place. However, as far as I could tell, LMAD was playing on all other feeds, including STIRR this time.
So apparently they’re aware there’s an issue. (And CC isn’t a bad substitution.) But be it contractual or technical, it’s odd that the issue would be exclusive to Pluto.
Perhaps something to do with CBS, Viacom, and the current LMAD. Just thinking of possible dots to connect.
It's definitely intentional, but not implemented perfectly. Just out of curiosity I had the Pluto Buzzr stream playing tonight. I started it during Press Your Luck and it continued into Let's Make a Deal. I stopped and restarted the stream and Classic Concentration came up already in progress.
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To answer the question buried above, I am using a Fire TV Stick 4K in one room and a newer Roku Player in another.
For the last 2 nights, LMaD has aired on both devices, on both apps. The guide has it listed correctly. For those seeing CC, I am extremely intrigued. I have not once seen CC in place of LMaD on either service. I went from all commercials to the correct programming albeit the size of a postage stamp at this time.
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Do they realize they're transmitting postage-stamp sized?
So it's not just me?
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According to Buzzr Facebook (after weeding through the rambling), they are aware of the aspect ratio issues. It is coming from the stream provider that they use to send out the master feed. They are supposedly addressing.
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This thing is never going to reach the heights, but the Friday MGHSH is a marked improvement over the Monday one. The comfort level of the panelists is clearly much higher, and we've got some good jokes out of it!
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Having watched the "new old" shows on Buzzr this week, and seeing multiple episodes of MGHS, I can say that both Split Second and MGHS are perfectly fine ways to spend some game show time, but I can see MGHS getting old fast.
I naturally like trivia games, so it's fun to see Split Second back. I know the show was originally created by Monty Hall, but he really seems out of place on a straight trivia show. He's certainly competent and can throw a good quip or two, but the fact that he's at his best with the bonus round and with contestant interviews says a lot. But, that theme song...after hearing it again, I really think it may be one of the best original game show themes out there.
As for MGHS, while I know I was critical of it before, I've kind of mellowed a bit having watched it. But, man, did they mess up what made HS a great show in making it more of a straight trivia game. I think what's more disappointing to me is that Goodson knew that the MG part should not have been played as a straightforward "match the answer" show, and it's the humor in the answers that makes the show. I'm just so surprised he didn't get that with HS.
One other point: Bauman wasn't terrible, but that was the wrong show for him. He tried to be charming and entertaining, but I think he just had trouble reining in the celebs and trying to balance whether it was a comedy game or a trivia game show played for big money (even Goodson didn't really seem to figure it out). He was much better suited for his other show, The Pop n Rocker Game, since it revolved around music. Maybe someone here knows the answer to this, but why not just have Rayburn host both parts? Did there actually need to be another host for the HS part?
That said, I actually don't mind the consolation bucks for winning squares, especially since each game was being played for low stakes. It virtually guarantees each contestant takes home some cash. And, as we've discussed before, the "you can win by default" rule here actually doesn't bother me too much, since (1) game theory doesn't really suggest you do anything differently than with the classic rules, and (2) the simple way to avoid losing is to just get the question right.
All that rambling to say, while MGHS absolutely shouldn't have lasted more than one season, it's interesting to watch, and I'll be interested to see the evolution of Bauman's hosting. But, I'd much rather watch Split Second.
Oh, and the less Fred Travalena, the better...
Anthony
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Oh, and the less Fred Travalena, the better...
This was one thing that didn't change in the 16 years since I first watched. The impressions got old quick.
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As for MGHS, while I know I was critical of it before, I've kind of mellowed a bit having watched it. But, man, did they mess up what made HS a great show in making it more of a straight trivia game. I think what's more disappointing to me is that Goodson knew that the MG part should not have been played as a straightforward "match the answer" show, and it's the humor in the answers that makes the show. I'm just so surprised he didn't get that with HS.
One other point: Bauman wasn't terrible, but that was the wrong show for him. He tried to be charming and entertaining, but I think he just had trouble reining in the celebs and trying to balance whether it was a comedy game or a trivia game show played for big money (even Goodson didn't really seem to figure it out). He was much better suited for his other show, The Pop n Rocker Game, since it revolved around music. Maybe someone here knows the answer to this, but why not just have Rayburn host both parts? Did there actually need to be another host for the HS part?
Another question is and given the format of the ABC version now, maybe a Match Game Challenge type one-hour program?
Amongst his other tweets about the show and it being the "only honest Squares," Bauman defended Goodson's approach as "live-to-tape joke construction." Claiming that most questions were meant to coax jokes out of the celebrities, and it was up to them to figure it out rather than "have the punch lines right in front of them."
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As for MGHS, while I know I was critical of it before, I've kind of mellowed a bit having watched it. But, man, did they mess up what made HS a great show in making it more of a straight trivia game. I think what's more disappointing to me is that Goodson knew that the MG part should not have been played as a straightforward "match the answer" show, and it's the humor in the answers that makes the show. I'm just so surprised he didn't get that with HS.
One other point: Bauman wasn't terrible, but that was the wrong show for him. He tried to be charming and entertaining, but I think he just had trouble reining in the celebs and trying to balance whether it was a comedy game or a trivia game show played for big money (even Goodson didn't really seem to figure it out). He was much better suited for his other show, The Pop n Rocker Game, since it revolved around music. Maybe someone here knows the answer to this, but why not just have Rayburn host both parts? Did there actually need to be another host for the HS part?
All that rambling to say, while MGHS absolutely shouldn't have lasted more than one season, it's interesting to watch, and I'll be interested to see the evolution of Bauman's hosting. But, I'd much rather watch Split Second.
Oh, and the less Fred Travalena, the better...
Anthony
From what I've read on the interwebs, NBC insisted on having a 2nd host for the format AND that host being Jon Bauman. Apparently Peter Marshall did something with the rights to Squares that pissed the suits off, which is why he wasn't considered. And as I recall, didn't Goodson always have issues with how Match Game 7x evolved into a comedy game? Perhaps he was trying to over-correct this with HS...... I think that too many of the pre-production hands in the pot is what helped to ruin the potential of MGHSH working.
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And I still find Jon's style incredibly annoying. It's like he was trying to make "you were right to agree" a catchphrase against its will.
I lol'd a lot harder at this than I probably should have. You couldn't be more right! 9 year old me enjoyed this show immensely....44 year old me found three rounds of MG too long and the HS segment falling flat on its face with not being played for laughs.
It's on too late for me to see it in the evening, and football wins out on the weekends, at least during football season...Did catch, thanks to Imad Khuri, the "Lost and Found" episode with Howie Mandel. To say Howie's shtick with the first few (I turned it off after) HS questions was too long would be an understatement.
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And I still find Jon's style incredibly annoying. It's like he was trying to make "you were right to agree" a catchphrase against its will.
I lol'd a lot harder at this than I probably should have. You couldn't be more right! 9 year old me enjoyed this show immensely....44 year old me found three rounds of MG too long and the HS segment falling flat on its face with not being played for laughs.
It's on too late for me to see it in the evening, and football wins out on the weekends, at least during football season...Did catch, thanks to Imad Khuri, the "Lost and Found" episode with Howie Mandel. To say Howie's shtick with the first few (I turned it off after) HS questions was too long would be an understatement.
Time to build a nightmare MG/HS panel:
I'll start with a row 1 of : Howie Mandel, Fred Travalena, Jimmie Walker.
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One other point: Bauman wasn't terrible, but that was the wrong show for him. He tried to be charming and entertaining, but I think he just had trouble reining in the celebs and trying to balance whether it was a comedy game or a trivia game show played for big money (even Goodson didn't really seem to figure it out). He was much better suited for his other show, The Pop n Rocker Game, since it revolved around music. Maybe someone here knows the answer to this, but why not just have Rayburn host both parts? Did there actually need to be another host for the HS part?
Oh, and the less Fred Travalena, the better...
Anthony
I agree (X gets the square :D). Fred was OK during MG but on HS, he was like that kid in class who just wanted attention. I had read that NBC insisted on two hosts, but Rayburn could have probably handled hosting HS with no problem. On Friday's show we got to see how they handle a tie on HS (tie-breaker question) and what happens when the contestant doesn't match any of the Super Match answers (give them $100 and try to multiply that in the head-to-head). As for Bauman, I feel he did the best he could with the situation he was given. Peter Marshall would have probably objected to the changes Goodson made to HS.
During the MG portion, three celebs sit backstage and come out for the HS portion. I noticed they had Nedra Volz play both portions for all five shows and CNR sat out for just one MG all week. All in all, it's a harmless hour of entertainment. I've seen better. I've also seen worse.
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And I still find Jon's style incredibly annoying. It's like he was trying to make "you were right to agree" a catchphrase against its will.
I lol'd a lot harder at this than I probably should have. You couldn't be more right! 9 year old me enjoyed this show immensely....44 year old me found three rounds of MG too long and the HS segment falling flat on its face with not being played for laughs.
It's on too late for me to see it in the evening, and football wins out on the weekends, at least during football season...Did catch, thanks to Imad Khuri, the "Lost and Found" episode with Howie Mandel. To say Howie's shtick with the first few (I turned it off after) HS questions was too long would be an understatement.
Time to build a nightmare MG/HS panel:
I'll start with a row 1 of : Howie Mandel, Fred Travalena, Jimmie Walker.
Somewhere in the Middle Tier: Skip Stephenson.
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And McLean Stevenson.
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Grumpy End-of-Run Richard Dawson
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And I still find Jon's style incredibly annoying. It's like he was trying to make "you were right to agree" a catchphrase against its will.
I lol'd a lot harder at this than I probably should have. You couldn't be more right! 9 year old me enjoyed this show immensely....44 year old me found three rounds of MG too long and the HS segment falling flat on its face with not being played for laughs.
It's on too late for me to see it in the evening, and football wins out on the weekends, at least during football season...Did catch, thanks to Imad Khuri, the "Lost and Found" episode with Howie Mandel. To say Howie's shtick with the first few (I turned it off after) HS questions was too long would be an understatement.
Time to build a nightmare MG/HS panel:
I'll start with a row 1 of : Howie Mandel, Fred Travalena, Jimmie Walker.
Somewhere in the Middle Tier: Skip Stephenson.
Somewhere up top being totally under the radar: Arlene Francis.
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Somewhere in the Middle Tier: Skip Stephenson.
And McLean Stevenson.
Just to confuse people.
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Skip and McLean were both on the final week in 1982 (and younger me thought they WERE related).
Match suffered from virtually no banter between a mishmash of celebrities. Easy fix: they used the hacked-up PM format. Squares suffered from no written jokes and it makes it slightly dull. Their fix: Fred Travelena.
/I'll add Alex Karras to the bad panel
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I noticed they had Nedra Volz play both portions for all five shows...
I had a theory about this. Nedra Volz was 75 at the time, and the powers that be felt it may have been too difficult to scale the stairs to the top tier. Watch how slow she is crossing the stage during the open.
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Oh, and the less Fred Travalena, the better...
This was one thing that didn't change in the 16 years since I first watched. The impressions got old quick.
And Travelena, in addition to his rather lame impressions, constantly commits my biggest comedic pet peeve: laughs at his own performance...he clearly thinks he's funnier than any of the rest of us do...
JakeT
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My main criticism with the show has always been with the Hollywood Squares portion. I never liked the idea of a win by default but here, considering the pacing
Considering what, though? I can see the point of wanting to award money to people as quickly as possible, and as much as I like the comedians being funny where the game dropped its leg of the couch, something has to move the game along and making sure that a game won't go more than nine questions helps.
With that settled, why couldn't they just do a simple 2 out of 3 match, or 3 out of 5?
If they had it where Match Game was two rounds and Hollywood Squares was best of three you have the issue where three games happen every two shows. [/quote]Whether that's a terrible thing is up for debate (it certainly wouldn't feel as draining) they probably have to go back to the old 500-250-100 payoffs for Audience Match and a top payoff of $15,000 which isn't as eye-watering as thirty grand in daytime.
And I still find Jon's style incredibly annoying. It's like he was trying to make "you were right to agree" a catchphrase against its will.
I find it similar to watching one's kids at a recital or play. Awkwardness that you hope everyone gets out of with a minimum of hurt tears and feelings. Given Jon's other verbiage of "You're playing X" and the like I think that was more the insistence of Mark Goodson to give JB a net. Also, was Tom Kennedy too busy hosting nothing I can recall? Would Bert Convy not pick up the phone? I realize that Peter Marshall was PNG at that point but my GORD there had to be someone else in the stable to handle that portion.
I forgot but wanted to touch upon it: the cash isn't enough for me to care. In that tie game both players won $475 before sudden death. In another episode the loser took away fifty bucks. What's the point? Better to award the Match Game winner a prize package and then have the prize for winning HS the chance at the thirty grand.
It is an interesting experiment/slow-motion car crash that I'm glad was attempted once but I'm also glad hasn't been retried.
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It is an interesting experiment/slow-motion car crash that I'm glad was attempted once but I'm also glad hasn't been retried.
Spin-off question: Are there two shows that you believe would meld better? Or is MG-HSH the "peak" of a hybrid format?
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Not really--I think that a good game show can stand under its own weight and doing a pairing like "Pyramid/Jeopardy" or "Hot Streak/Go!" does a disservice to both of them. Decades ago I found someone's webpage and they had fleshed out an idea where the couple that had been paired together in a game of Singled Out would then play a game of Treasure Hunt to find out where they were going/what they would win. I had put forward the idea that the central subjects of Figure it Out should have spun a prize wheel to determine what they won rather than hinging upon the ineptitude of the panelists, but I wouldn't call it a melding with The Big Spin.
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I had put forward the idea that the central subjects of Figure it Out should have spun a prize wheel to determine what they won rather than hinging upon the ineptitude of the panelists, but I wouldn't call it a melding with The Big Spin.
"The secret slime action is... landing on DECISION."
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The audience must not be very amused, because Mother Mackenzie is going crazy with "YEE HOO!" all the time. I swear, between that, the "YEAH! OO! ALL RIGHT!" track, and the "WOOO! OW!" track, they're like the Wilhelm Scream of game shows.
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Time to build a nightmare MG/HS panel:
Marty Cohen and Leonard Frey
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The audience must not be very amused, because Mother Mackenzie is going crazy with "YEE HOO!" all the time. I swear, between that, the "YEAH! OO! ALL RIGHT!" track, and the "WOOO! OW!" track, they're like the Wilhelm Scream of game shows.
Haha, love it!
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It is an interesting experiment/slow-motion car crash that I'm glad was attempted once but I'm also glad hasn't been retried.
Spin-off question: Are there two shows that you believe would meld better? Or is MG-HSH the "peak" of a hybrid format?
Although not melded together in reality, the Card Sharks and Classic Concentration computer games (at least for the Commodore 64) had the same avatars for the players, so I turned it into an "hour show" and had the winner of one play the "returning champion" on the other.
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Spin-off question: Are there two shows that you believe would meld better?
Kidding, and it would never happen, but how about the SPLIT SECOND/JEOPARDY! hour. The orange set splits at the end of the first half and the winner walks upstage to face two new challengers in JEOPARDY.
Or, hey, give the first player to count down to zero a bonus prize (a la the Singleton) and then keep playing until a second player reaches zero, then BOTH of them go upstage to face yesterday's returning champion. Or Ken Jennings hosts SPLIT, hands the mic to Alex (or his successor), and becomes a lowly contestant for J!.
I know, I know, it would never happen, but it would be an epic set reveal.
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1983. The only year that answering "Mr. Smith" would be recognized.
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Spin-off question: Are there two shows that you believe would meld better?
Perhaps not better, but two that come to mind are Wheel and Scrabble's second format. Two Scrabble qualifiers in a row, replace the two sprint rounds with a three-round game of Wheel, and the winner goes on to the Bonus Sprint.
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Wordplay and Tic Tac Dough just because The Joker's Wild with definitions didn't work.
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LMAD played on Pluto this evening (on iOS for me, at least). I couldn’t watch the whole thing due to another commitment, but I dipped in during a commercial break, & the show came back from break as normal. Not sure what the deal was last week, but (hopefully) it’s been resolved.
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LMAD played on Pluto this evening (on iOS for me, at least). I couldn’t watch the whole thing due to another commitment, but I dipped in during a commercial break, & the show came back from break as normal. Not sure what the deal was last week, but (hopefully) it’s been resolved.
Pluto's is back to normal, though Monday Night's $ale (2nd broadcast) was odd: The show looked blurry throughout the show -- Card Sharks, right after $ale, looked okay. And after the win, there were TWO different Jay Stewart audio descriptions of the jewelry playing at the same time (tack that one up to the actual program itself, and not Pluto)
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I noticed they had Nedra Volz play both portions for all five shows...
I had a theory about this. Nedra Volz was 75 at the time, and the powers that be felt it may have been too difficult to scale the stairs to the top tier. Watch how slow she is crossing the stage during the open.
Yeah think David L. Lander was on the MG panel for all of his week, for the same reasons. Correct me if I'm wrong. Actually, Nedra was on that panel too...can't recall if they kept her on MG the whole time though....2 eps of that week were on the trading circuit...
(The taping of his MG/HS episode was when David discovered symptoms of MS showing up...)
I'd wager Bill Cullen will be on the MG panel all five shows if and when his appearances come up.
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Odd bit of trivia, and I think I'm right about this. There appears to be only one week of MGHS shows in which all eight guest celebrities are still alive. That would be the special St Elsewhere week that aired in March of 1984. It featured seven of the younger cast members (including Ed Begley Jr and Howie Mandel)...and 70-year-old Norman Lloyd. Lloyd turns 105 next month. Probably.
I had thought of that too but I think the second-to-last week has all of the non-Rayburns still with us: Marty Cohen, Alex Cord, Didi Conn, Audrey Landers, Judy Landers, Michael Lembeck, Anne-Marie Martin, Jimmie Walker - https://web.archive.org/web/20041207145746/http://www.matchgame.org/episodeguides/matchgame/mghs84.html
I think week 3, the week that Buzzr is currently on, also qualifies: Lydia Cornell, Richard Kline, Edie McClurg, Gloria Loring, Marty Cohen, Brian [Stokes] Mitchell, Paul Provenza, and James [Jamie] Widdowes are IIRC still with us.
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I'd wager Bill Cullen will be on the MG panel all five shows if and when his appearances come up.
WHEN, dammit! WHEN his episodes show up!
(Please, Buzzr, please.)
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Did fee plugs slip by Buzzr's editing of LMaD before last night or was that a first for those?
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I'd wager Bill Cullen will be on the MG panel all five shows if and when his appearances come up.
WHEN, dammit! WHEN his episodes show up!
(Please, Buzzr, please.)
The celeb list (episode guide) for the MGHSH has Cullen on during week 12. Let's hope Buzzr goes that far into the show's run.
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I'd wager Bill Cullen will be on the MG panel all five shows if and when his appearances come up.
I remember that week and can confirm that is the case. He also did not do the crossing, he was the first introduced and standing at his chair with the spotlight on him, I want to say.
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And McLean Stevenson.
Now I haven't seen a syndie MG for awhile, but don't remember McLean being awful or anything. I remember him usually doing a good job as a panelist. Better than being a star on the sitcoms that weren't M*A*S*H at least.
I'd wager Bill Cullen will be on the MG panel all five shows if and when his appearances come up.
I remember that week and can confirm that is the case. He also did not do the crossing, he was the first introduced and standing at his chair with the spotlight on him, I want to say.
Yep. Just like they did for Lander.
And now I am wondering...did David start feeling weak during the series of his tapings or at the beginning? Meaning, he may have done a regular intro at first, then later got the accommodating version? I forget the account from People Magazine, was it?
(of course, he may have noticed on the first episode and they reshot his intro)
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Here's the article in question. The first paragraph is about the MG-HS appearance, and it's chock full of errors (in fairness, Lander was trying to recall what had happened 15 years prior):
https://people.com/archive/out-of-hiding-vol-51-no-22/ (https://people.com/archive/out-of-hiding-vol-51-no-22/)
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Pluto's is back to normal, though Monday Night's $ale (2nd broadcast) was odd: The show looked blurry throughout the show -- Card Sharks, right after $ale, looked okay.
That's a Buzzr problem, not a Pluto problem. There was a time a year or two ago when Buzzr was converting episodes at a notably diminished video quality. Some Sale of the Century episodes were among them, and that's where Buzzr is in that show's run right now.
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Did fee plugs slip by Buzzr's editing of LMaD before last night or was that a first for those?
I've been watching since the episodes came back. I think it was a slip-up; they didn't show the mid-commercial bumper.
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Did fee plugs slip by Buzzr's editing of LMaD before last night or was that a first for those?
I've been watching since the episodes came back. I think it was a slip-up; they didn't show the mid-commercial bumper.
Yeah I'd say something about this, but I'll live with it. Moreso since it was apparently this or credit crunching (Buzzr asked on FB what viewers would think of that...you can imagine the reactions...)
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They showed the fee plugs again, but they were in a segue with a contestant this time.
Another BUZZR observation- I've started to see a small handful of commercials that aren't direct response ads. Surely that's a positive sign and perhaps a reason why fresh material is coming down the pipe.
ETA: Do they ever publish Neilsen figures for these subchannels?
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ETA: Do they ever publish Neilsen figures for these subchannels?
Only if the network subscribes to it. A few of the top-tier subs (i.e. MeTV, COZI, etc.) do, but I’m pretty sure BUZZR does not.
However, they likely have some kind of ratings metric that they can show potential advertisers, maybe Comscore (https://www.comscore.com/Products/Ratings-and-Planning/Media-Ratings) or something along those lines. Plus they probably have real-time (or close to it) data from streaming.
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From what i've seen...Edie McClurg may qualify for our MG/HS panel from hell.
She's no Fred, but goes off on funny voiced tangents too often. And today her schtick may have cost the champion a chance at a last minute comeback (if she had time to be asked a question, she could have gotten a tic-tac-toe that would put her in the lead). But those are the breaks, I guess.
Also...(yes it's a 36+ year old rerun, but what the hey...)
First $30,000 win. I kind of knew where it was going as I remembered an old ATGS post that said it happened with Marty Cohen.
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Edie was good in the MG '90 I've seen her in, but the way she's absolutely clawing for screen time here is insufferable. Great bit by Gene at the end of tonight's episode.
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Edie was good in the MG '90 I've seen her in, but the way she's absolutely clawing for screen time here is insufferable. Great bit by Gene at the end of tonight's episode.
ISTR that Edie was on at the tail-end of syndie MG, and wasn't all that bad on there. She was dreadful here. Too many stopdowns in HS for the celebrities to "perform."
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Edie was good in the MG '90 I've seen her in, but the way she's absolutely clawing for screen time here is insufferable. Great bit by Gene at the end of tonight's episode.
ISTR that Edie was on at the tail-end of syndie MG, and wasn't all that bad on there. She was dreadful here. Too many stopdowns in HS for the celebrities to "perform."
Another thing I've noticed during HS is that the audience (the real one, not Mother Mackenzie) will applaud a celeb's answer as if they're still thinking it's the Match Game and they gave a good answer (until it's one of those random trivia questions and they're wrong). Obviously the audience wasn't this hyper on Marshall but I don't think they clapped for any answers on at least Bergeron's.
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And here is the post that mentioned yesterday's SM result...
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/alt.tv.game-shows/$2430$2C000$20mg$2Fhs%7Csort:date/alt.tv.game-shows/xinbBP3XC7c/PBZhF-eG8xYJ
(copy and paste the whole thing)
And according to the thread, get ready tonight for another $30K win.
MG/HS general observation...I'm stunned that, even as shortlived as the show was, Betty White never appeared on the show.
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Spoiler because whatever....
On tonight's MG/HS what was muted in the 2nd round MG question (Mike _ )? And why?
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Interesting on tonight's MGHS - the word "midget" got muted in a Match Game question. I know the freshness date on that term for little people has long since passed, and it's now considered derogatory, but I was still surprised to hear it get dumped.
EDIT: So there's your blank filled in.
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Did NBC still have a winnings cap in 1983 or was a champion retired after some number of wins? There is some serious witchcraft happening in the Super Match end game.
Also they are awarding the Audience Match prize on a Super Match win—I wasn’t expecting them to do that.
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Blockbusters let people win up to $120,000, so either the cap is pretty high or nonexistent.
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NBC shows typically had appearance limits.
-Jason
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Did NBC still have a winnings cap in 1983 or was a champion retired after some number of wins? There is some serious witchcraft happening in the Super Match end game.
According to Jon's comments at about 37:20 on this episode, five days was the limit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkUYjbOl_WA
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Blockbusters let people win up to $120,000, so either the cap is pretty high or nonexistent.
By '83 I'm pretty sure it was a cap on appearances, since Barbara Phillips' lot win on Sale that August was just over $150,000.
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Interesting on tonight's MGHS - the word "midget" got muted in a Match Game question. I know the freshness date on that term for little people has long since passed, and it's now considered derogatory, but I was still surprised to hear it get dumped.
EDIT: So there's your blank filled in.
There's a precedent for this of course, as it happened on an MGPM episode not too long ago too.
The first round of HS this episode was a pretty good game too.
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Interesting on tonight's MGHS - the word "midget" got muted in a Match Game question. I know the freshness date on that term for little people has long since passed, and it's now considered derogatory, but I was still surprised to hear it get dumped.
EDIT: So there's your blank filled in.
It's not exclusive to MG/HS by any means - lots of this behavior from the era - but wow, have there been some cringeworthy moments like this so far in the run.
That poor woman contestant last week who had a high-pitched voice. Yes, we get it Fred T, she sounds like a Munchkin from Oz.
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Interesting on tonight's MGHS - the word "midget" got muted in a Match Game question. I know the freshness date on that term for little people has long since passed, and it's now considered derogatory, but I was still surprised to hear it get dumped.
EDIT: So there's your blank filled in.
It's not exclusive to MG/HS by any means - lots of this behavior from the era - but wow, have there been some cringeworthy moments like this so far in the run.
That poor woman contestant last week who had a high-pitched voice. Yes, we get it Fred T, she sounds like a Munchkin from Oz.
And don't get me started on the Liz Taylor questions.
Although many groups get lots more consideration these days, bodyshaming unfortunately is one area that still needs a heap of change.
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Forgive me if this has been asked before, but did they tape all 5 Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour shows on one day, or was it spread over two? It must have been one very long day if they did them all at once.
Anyone know?
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Yes - most often 3 on Saturday, 2 on Sunday. Based on one schedule I've seen, the relative times they were in studio were 3 to 9 PM on Saturday and 1 to 5:00 PM on Sunday.
-Jason
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Interesting on tonight's MGHS - the word "midget" got muted in a Match Game question.
Oh, that's what it was! I was wondering whether Mike Tyson was exceptionally litigious or something.
That also explains why I was so baffled by how everybody thought to give the answer "knees."
That poor woman contestant last week who had a high-pitched voice. Yes, we get it Fred T, she sounds like a Munchkin from Oz.
And immediately after Gene tried to prevent it by saying that those jokes would be too hacky.
This show really is an excellent representation of how '80s stand-up comedians typically performed, isn't it?
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Twice in tonight's episode, Edie McClurg took the long way around Robin Hood's barn to get to her answer, to the point of where the other celebrities made fun of her long-winded explanations. Jon also implied that she needed to speed it up to allow the returning champion to have a chance at a comeback.
I love her as an actress, but she was a much better panelist when she played Match Game about seven years later.
This show really is an excellent representation of how '80s stand-up comedians typically performed, isn't it?
This has the feel of 90% of Bob Stewart's 1970s pilots, where the guests were comedians who normally appeared at whatever comedy club. One of these days, I'll look up the episode guide to see just how many of these comedians went on to do a sitcom in the 80s.
1. Paul Provenza (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pursuit_of_Happiness_(TV_series)).
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One of these days, I'll look up the episode guide to see just how many of these comedians went on to do a sitcom in the 80s.
1. Paul Provenza (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pursuit_of_Happiness_(TV_series)).
Am I the only one who thinks "Kids' Court" when he sees Paul's name???
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Am I the only one who thinks "Kids' Court" when he sees Paul's name???
/the "Judge-O-Meter" was my first exposure to VU meters
You are not. The theme played in my head earlier today.
/Ditto on the VU meter
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I shall be three.
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Make it four. Wasn’t he also on Empty Nest?
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Make it four. Wasn’t he also on Empty Nest?
Yep. He played Dinah Manoff’s character’s artist boyfriend for a season, IIRC.
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Make it four. Wasn’t he also on Empty Nest?
Yep. He played Dinah Manoff’s character’s artist boyfriend for a season, IIRC.
He did everything. Half-season sitcom with Brian Keith (The Pursuit of Happiness), and also combined with Teri Polo to replace Rob Morrow in the last season of Northern Exposure.
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My main criticism with the show has always been with the Hollywood Squares portion. I never liked the idea of a win by default but here, considering the pacing
Considering what, though? I can see the point of wanting to award money to people as quickly as possible, and as much as I like the comedians being funny where the game dropped its leg of the couch, something has to move the game along and making sure that a game won't go more than nine questions helps.
Correct. Which is why I conceded it as a necessary evil. (Sorry I didn't respond right away, somehow I missed this.)
With that settled, why couldn't they just do a simple 2 out of 3 match, or 3 out of 5?
If they had it where Match Game was two rounds and Hollywood Squares was best of three you have the issue where three games happen every two shows. Whether that's a terrible thing is up for debate (it certainly wouldn't feel as draining) they probably have to go back to the old 500-250-100 payoffs for Audience Match and a top payoff of $15,000 which isn't as eye-watering as thirty grand in daytime.
I don't know... you raise a good point; maybe there just wasn't a solid way to do HS at that juncture.
Speaking of, one thing I seem to notice more and more...is it just me or does that HS setup look incredibly cramped?
was Tom Kennedy too busy hosting nothing I can recall? Would Bert Convy not pick up the phone? I realize that Peter Marshall was PNG at that point but my GORD there had to be someone else in the stable to handle that portion.
Bert was doing Tattletales when the show launched. Tom wasn't but if I had to venture a guess, maybe he felt burned out a bit.
So who did that leave? Could that have been an excuse to try a young John Davidson?
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Could that have been an excuse to try a young John Davidson?
FWIW, John Davidson is about 6 years older than Jon Bauman. At the time MGHSH launched, he already had his syndicated talk show behind him and "That's Incredible" still on the air.
-Jason
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In addition, Bert was ineligible to appear on this show anyhow since his daytime series was on another network. Tom Kennedy was still semi-retired when the MG/HS Hour premiered. Now for Bill Cullen, when he appeared, he was billed as "From Hot Potato", considering it was previewed to debut the following week. A question for Matt Ottinger, when Bill was introduced for the Hollywood Squares portion, do you recall if he and 2 other celebrities already seen seated when the Hollywood Squares setting was unveiled?
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was Tom Kennedy too busy hosting nothing I can recall? Would Bert Convy not pick up the phone? I realize that Peter Marshall was PNG at that point but my GORD there had to be someone else in the stable to handle that portion.
Bert was doing Tattletales when the show launched. Tom wasn't but if I had to venture a guess, maybe he felt burned out a bit.
So who did that leave? Could that have been an excuse to try a young John Davidson?
It wasn't really a matter of who was available and who wasn't. Somebody at NBC was really high on Jon Bauman, and part of the deal for this show was that Goodson HAD to use Bauman for the Squares half.
Speaking of, one thing I seem to notice more and more...is it just me or does that HS setup look incredibly cramped?
A friend attended a taping as a child. He vividly remembers Gene Rayburn visibly sucking in his gut just to sit down. So yes, cramped.
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Speaking of, one thing I seem to notice more and more...is it just me or does that HS setup look incredibly cramped?
That's something I've noticed about quite a few older shows that were shot/filmed in 4:3, and weren't converted to 16:9 or widescreen. Having seen a few studios in person, I was always blown away by how small they were in person. Watching older shows in 4:3, I no longer get that optical illusion.
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In addition, Bert was ineligible to appear on this show anyhow since his daytime series was on another network. Tom Kennedy was still semi-retired when the MG/HS Hour premiered. Now for Bill Cullen, when he appeared, he was billed as "From Hot Potato", considering it was previewed to debut the following week.
As an aside, can everyone just take a moment to imagine Bill hosting the HS portion of this show?
It would have been magnificent. 15 questions per show? Ha ha!
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Say what you will about the fee plug cuts, but they look a lot better when Buzzr does them, usually. Not as abrupt/sloppy as GSN's back in the day.
/There's also not getting credit crunches as a result, allegedly, but another story for another day....
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It wasn't really a matter of who was available and who wasn't. Somebody at NBC was really high on Jon Bauman, and part of the deal for this show was that Goodson HAD to use Bauman for the Squares half.
For some reason I imagined the conversation consisting of NBC going to Goodson and saying "okay, we'll let you tinker with a format that worked well for us for fourteen years, but we get to pick who hosts it."
Speaking of, one thing I seem to notice more and more...is it just me or does that HS setup look incredibly cramped?
A friend attended a taping as a child. He vividly remembers Gene Rayburn visibly sucking in his gut just to sit down. So yes, cramped.
I wasn't even thinking about the panel side of the stage. Yikes.
And everything looks so big on TV.
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Speaking of, one thing I seem to notice more and more...is it just me or does that HS setup look incredibly cramped?
You would know better than I about the magic of TV sets looking big on TV but in fact being small. When the HS winner gets up to go meet Gene for the Super Match it looks like they are wedged between the chair and desk because the set is so low to the ground.
So who did that leave? Could that have been an excuse to try a young John Davidson?
Trying to think of some off-the-board names that had been proven at that point, maybe Geoff Edwards. I guess.
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So who did that leave? Could that have been an excuse to try a young John Davidson?
Trying to think of some off-the-board names that had been proven at that point, maybe Geoff Edwards. I guess.
Personally, I could see Geoff having done a good job with any form of HS. He was busy with "Starcade" at that time, though.
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A question for Matt Ottinger, when Bill was introduced for the Hollywood Squares portion, do you recall if he and 2 other celebrities already seen seated when the Hollywood Squares setting was unveiled?
We've talked about this elsewhere, but as long as my name was invoked, I'll see if I have it right. I've never seen Bill's shows, and I'm on record as being terribly excited for them to come up. I believe the conventional wisdom (and the distant memories of at least one member here) is that Bill played the Match Game portion all week so that they wouldn't have to face that Hollywood Squares issue in the middle of the show, and he was introduced already standing beside the panel so that he (naturally) wouldn't have to make the long trip across the stage. Hopefully we'll see for ourselves in just a few weeks!
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I did see some episodes of Bill Cullen on MG-HS Hour, where he was introduced just like Matt had assumed. I would imagine he played the first half each day, and if not, somebody on the bottom row may have let Bill take his/her seat, and moved up to the top row. There were two other celebrities who were introduced but did not walk onto the stage setting. One was George Gobel (maybe vision problems, I don't know for sure), and David L. Lander, who was in the early stages of Multiple Sclerosis (according to a People magazine article years later).
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I did see some episodes of Bill Cullen on MG-HS Hour, where he was introduced just like Matt had assumed. I would imagine he played the first half each day, and if not, somebody on the bottom row may have let Bill take his/her seat, and moved up to the top row. There were two other celebrities who were introduced but did not walk onto the stage setting. One was George Gobel (maybe vision problems, I don't know for sure), and David L. Lander, who was in the early stages of Multiple Sclerosis (according to a People magazine article years later).
Did you? Remembering from the NBC airings, or is someone out there holding out on us?
Elsewhere it's theorized that Nedra Volz was on Match Game every day of her week so she wouldn't have to climb a lot of steps. So I'd imagine Bill got to play MG all week too.
Anyone know/remember if Lander and Gobel also stayed on the MG panel for the duration of their weeks? Volz for her other weeks even?
Speaking of, one thing I seem to notice more and more...is it just me or does that HS setup look incredibly cramped?
See, I thought they did a good job making it look like the grid we all know and love. All camera work of course. Still, Gene walking between the upper MG tier and the lower one made me clausterphobic.
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I did see some episodes of Bill Cullen on MG-HS Hour, where he was introduced just like Matt had assumed. I would imagine he played the first half each day, and if not, somebody on the bottom row may have let Bill take his/her seat, and moved up to the top row. There were two other celebrities who were introduced but did not walk onto the stage setting. One was George Gobel (maybe vision problems, I don't know for sure), and David L. Lander, who was in the early stages of Multiple Sclerosis (according to a People magazine article years later).
Did you? Remembering from the NBC airings, or is someone out there holding out on us?
Elsewhere it's theorized that Nedra Volz was on Match Game every day of her week so she wouldn't have to climb a lot of steps. So I'd imagine Bill got to play MG all week too.
Anyone know/remember if Lander and Gobel also stayed on the MG panel for the duration of their weeks? Volz for her other weeks even?
I remember from the NBC airings themselves. However, I was just looking at an episode on YouTube. The still image of Rayburn on the telephone caught my attention. But when playing it, George Gobel DID walk on stage to the middle level, apparently with a cane.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppR-UHONKKw
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Watching that intro kinda makes me wonder if anyone had any issues navigating to the tiers, considering it was dark and the only lighting came from the spotlight. It looks like George had a little trouble finding his spot at center stage.
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Well, audibly, by Bill's week of episodes, they began using the time's up schoolbell that sounded similar to Child's Play, another former Goodson/Todman culture hit that Bill himself calls it. Now, MG-HS Hour wasn't the first NBC show to establish a 5-episode limit, Hitman had a 10-episode limit, Just Men had women players shown the exit after winning 5 episodes if the car didn't start or if her key selection started the car. Looking over with the episode guide, surprised that Martha Smith appeared on this show but not her older sister Shelley, who starred on her own series "For Love and Honor".
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And now, you know the rest of the something.
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Did we all fall into the nexus of the universe?
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I'm going to throw in my two cents of "Why Not This?":
At the end of each program, the credits run against a static shot of the marquee board. I'll admit this was pretty cool for 1983 (and I'm sure nobody was thinking about how it would look 36 years later), but it seems a shame that it never occurred to anyone, "Why don't we have a mill around like we did on What's My Line? and To Tell the Truth?" Of the 11 people who were on camera during a good portion of the program, you only get to see five or six during the closing credits. Maybe that wasn't the case when there was a long crawl (I haven't seen one of those yet), or maybe it was changed later in the run, but it seems like they missed an opportunity.
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They changed to a mill around later in the run. (Skip to 44:20 in the video below)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LN64Mk0Ky_4
-Jason
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At the end of each program, the credits run against a static shot of the marquee board.
That seems to be somewhat standard for Goodson-Todman shows of that period. On Perry Card Sharks, Cullen Blockbusters, and Password Plus, all of the disclaimers would run over a wide shot of the set. Only if there was a long crawl (or maybe a few extra seconds after the copyright card) would the director then start taking closeups of the host and contestants talking.
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Tonight on MG-HS:
Fudge!
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Watching that intro kinda makes me wonder if anyone had any issues navigating to the tiers, considering it was dark and the only lighting came from the spotlight. It looks like George had a little trouble finding his spot at center stage.
So wait...the marquee board doesn't give off any light? Kinda surprising.
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They changed to a mill around later in the run. (Skip to 44:20 in the video below)
I like this better than the early episodes they're airing now, but I hope somebody said something to Gene and Jon after this. Ted Knight says something to the contestant at the start of the mill around - and then walks away, leaving her alone (she's on the left of the screen; virtually everybody else is on the right). Fortunately, Arsenio Hall noticed this and ran down to hug her and talk.
It's tough enough being a contestant on television; the hosts are supposed to be there for them.
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Classic Concentration: the episode immediately following the Home Rebus Game (Judi/Peter) has an stark edit at the top cutting out Alex's comments. I have seen this in a couple other episodes that got repeated in 1993 - could this be the start of those episodes?
Also...lavender Take! was an interesting color choice.
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Watching that intro kinda makes me wonder if anyone had any issues navigating to the tiers, considering it was dark and the only lighting came from the spotlight. It looks like George had a little trouble finding his spot at center stage.
So wait...the marquee board doesn't give off any light? Kinda surprising.
It's possible, but looking at the intro, it looks pretty dim.
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What generates the blocks then? It would be wasteful to dedicate several hundred slide projectors to something that has only three settings or four if black/off counts.
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Could it be that each block contains several bulbs, each of which is relatively low on wattage/lumens, but is able to diffuse its light in a way that fills the whole box? I don't know that any kind of slide projector rigging would be able to change so quickly and so reliably - look at the opening animations, mimicking chase lights at times, and consider that Press Your Luck only had 18 projectors running with three slides apiece, and still had its fair share of noticeable conk-outs.
Also, in the initial "starburst" animations, is there a layer of purple in there, or is that just a trick my eyes/the tape are playing as the lights switch rapidly between yellowish-white and blue?
The wall really is an amazing technical feat for 1983. Wish they had put as much into building the show it was on.
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Could it be that each block contains several bulbs, each of which is relatively low on wattage/lumens, but is able to diffuse its light in a way that fills the whole box? I don't know that any kind of slide projector rigging would be able to change so quickly and so reliably - look at the opening animations, mimicking chase lights at times, and consider that Press Your Luck only had 18 projectors running with three slides apiece, and still had its fair share of noticeable conk-outs.
Also, in the initial "starburst" animations, is there a layer of purple in there, or is that just a trick my eyes/the tape are playing as the lights switch rapidly between yellowish-white and blue?
The wall really is an amazing technical feat for 1983. Wish they had put as much into building the show it was on.
Yes, I see the shade of purple too, only think it's in the opening.
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Seems like we're skipping the Monday MG-HS for this week.
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Seems like we're skipping the Monday MG-HS for this week.
The Monday episode from this week aired on Friday since the previous week was off for Thanksgiving.
P.S., the Maury from Perry and Rafferty CS is a contestant on today's episode.
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Ah, I didn't watch last Thursday or Friday, thanks. I thought I had seen Maury on CS on Buzzr, but I didn't realize he had made appearances day and night.
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Haven't been watching, has Volz been on every MG segment this week so far?
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Also, in the initial "starburst" animations, is there a layer of purple in there, or is that just a trick my eyes/the tape are playing as the lights switch rapidly between yellowish-white and blue?
I assumed it was a trick of the eyes, but I slowly went through yesterday's opening frame by frame. And I'll be danged -- as the pattern contracts, there are roughly six frames where the center looks purple and stays purple (if it had been an optical illusion from the rapid changing, it wouldn't have stayed that color consistently for so long). And the shade of purple in the center never matches the mid-change shades created by the outer edges of the squares as those lights turn on and off.
So either the squares had the ability to display purple (which I wouldn't think is likely, but then again, they could turn green for exactly one pattern), or possibly those squares' yellow lights were dimmed to just the right level where the yellow light mixed with the blue spotlights being shined on the marquee to make the light appear purple (even though science dictates that the squares would need to be emitting red light for that to work)? I'm baffled.
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Buzzr is now using the original promos from '80s LMAD to promote their airings of the show. Cute touch!
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Watching MG-HSH tonight...
The "Blake" guy looks and sounds like the guy who owned the hardware store on Home Improvement. Is it? If so, what did had he done of note that merited an appearance?
Also, Aresnio related a story about appearing on another game show on another network. What did he appear on?
Thirdly, I'm on my third beer.
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Blake Clark was in the last episode of MASH, After MASH and Greatest American Hero.
/source IMDB, I don’t just walk around knowing that.
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Arsenio was still pretty new to the scene in 1983, and off the top of my head, the only network shows featuring celebrities in the late-70s/early-80s were Match Game, Pyramid, or Marshall's Hollywood Squares. Maybe celebrity Feud? But I don't recall seeing his name on any of those, nor do I think he was quite as prominent pre-MGHS. Anything Goes on Playboy?
Not network, but I wouldn't be surprised if he appeared on Make Me Laugh, and simply got confused.
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Wikipedia states that he was an announcer/sidekick for Thicke of the Night, which came and went from 1983-1984. That may explain where he came from at that time.
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Watching MG-HSH tonight...
The "Blake" guy looks and sounds like the guy who owned the hardware store on Home Improvement. Is it? If so, what did had he done of note that merited an appearance?
Sure was! TGIF fans probably know him better as Shawn's dad, Chet Hunter, on Boy Meets World. What might've netted him an appearance on the show was the fact that...I believe he was also on Remington Steele .
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What might've netted him an appearance on the show was the fact that...I believe he was also on Remington Steele .
Given the time period and the obsessive lengths to which NBC went to use MG/HS as a promotional tool for its various series, that makes the most sense. But man, "Fred the driver" barely registered on the show. Blake must have had a really good agent.
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Blake Clark also played the warden in the short-lived FOX sitcom "Women In Prison"...
I seem to recall him possibly doing some standup comedy in his early career as well...he may well have appeared on "The Tonight Show" with Carson...
EDIT: I think I have discovered our answer...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buvIXaviqXs
JakeT
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Wikipedia states that he was an announcer/sidekick for Thicke of the Night, which came and went from 1983-1984. That may explain where he came from at that time.
Arsenio did mention his work on "The Alan Thicke Show" during some of the pre-game chatter...
JakeT
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EDIT: I think I have discovered our answer...
(clip snipped)
Wiki mentions (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Tonight_Show_Starring_Johnny_Carson_episodes_(1982)) he appeared quite a few times between 1982 and '84. Given MGHSH liked to include up-and-coming comedians (Arsenio, Paul Provenza, and Marty Cohen come to mind) alongside NBC stars, I'll lean towards this theory as well.
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Figures Blake Clark was doing standup. I thought 1983 was a little early for him to be in the public eye for anything.
I remember him as Harry the hardware store guy more so than as Chet Hunter, but his more memorable spot to me is in the latter role because of how he went out (dying of a heart attack in front of Shawn).
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EDIT: I think I have discovered our answer...
Thanks for sharing that. Not a terrible set for a guy I considered as a second fiddle.
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Buzzr went back to Season 3 of Supermarket Sweep on Tuesday 10/22 starting with episode 338.
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Michael Winslow AND Edie McClurg? Schtick overload forthcoming...
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Michael Winslow AND Edie McClurg? Schtick overload forthcoming...
We're used to you by now. We can handle a Winslow-McClurg tag-team.
/ooh, wrestling reference.
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Another day, another MG-HS Liz Taylor fat joke. They've definitely aged just as well as the assorted Asian and Native American lines from the '70s. Also, bit an unexpected interlude, with Gene spending about three minutes in the audience with a gaggle of beauty pageant contestants.
I find myself coming back to this show, not because it's good, but it is interesting.
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Aside from it being a low-hanging fruit, I found a clip of Liz from 1983 (https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/the-scene/events/Elizabeth_Taylor_Richard_Burton_Philadelphia_1983_Private_Lives_Philadelphia-118523344.html). Maybe it's because society finally decided to embrace women who wear anything above a size 4, but aside from them being rude, I don't see how these questions are even accurate. Did Liz have a controversial weight gain or something? And could they not have simply stuck to the "Fat Frieda" riddles and keep the same context?
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Liz went through a big weight gain in the late 70s and that was when Joan Rivers in particular would start making "Fat Liz" jokes part of her stand-up and her appearances on Carson. But by the mid-80s she took all the weight off and looked spectacular again. Late 83 she may not have hit her peak weight loss but she was finally going in the other direction (look at pictures of her from 79-80 and that's where the reputation started. John Belushi even did an SNL sketch dressed as a fat Liz gorging on chicken).
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Aside from it being a low-hanging fruit, I found a clip of Liz from 1983 (https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/the-scene/events/Elizabeth_Taylor_Richard_Burton_Philadelphia_1983_Private_Lives_Philadelphia-118523344.html). Maybe it's because society finally decided to embrace women who wear anything above a size 4, but aside from them being rude, I don't see how these questions are even accurate. Did Liz have a controversial weight gain or something? And could they not have simply stuck to the "Fat Frieda" riddles and keep the same context?
Besides what has been said about Liz and her looks before '83, "Hollywood fat" has always been a trope in the business. Still is. As a character-only example, on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, despite her jokes about herself, Valerie Harper playing Rhoda didn't look overweight either.
Unfortunately, bodyshaming is one issue that hasn't been relegated to unacceptable. Fat jokes and bullying therein about people, famous or otherwise, are still plentiful. Still lots of work to do in the entertainment industry too.
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Woot! One of the weeks of MGHS announced by Johnny O!
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Bruce Baum is on the panel...he mentions something about showing pictures of his childhood, which is actually a drawing of three sperm. I'm actually pretty shocked that joke passed in 1983.
Trauma Center (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trauma_Center_(TV_series)) seems to have replaced Mr. Smith as the short-lived TV show that's become a running joke, at least in this episode.
And because I'm sure you were wondering what this looked like, youtube.com/watch?v=MeztHwi04Xo&t=2m20s
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Trauma Center (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trauma_Center_(TV_series)) seems to have replaced Mr. Smith as the short-lived TV show that's become a running joke, at least in this episode.
Assuming that "W" site is correct, Trauma Center had already flatlined by the time this week aired.
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Looking at Trauma Center's IMDB and Wiki pages, I was surprised that Burt Reynolds had nothing to do with it. Alfie Wise was "that guy who always showed up in Burt movies" in the 70s and 80s. As a kid I just presumed Alfie was Burt's driver or personal chef :)
Stan Freberg is a surprising get for this show. I dont recall him doing many game shows -- IMDB says he did Everybodys Talking in the 60s -- so I'm curious how this booking came about.
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Stan Freberg is a surprising get for this show. I dont recall him doing many game shows -- IMDB says he did Everybodys Talking in the 60s -- so I'm curious how this booking came about.
You're not the only one. Mark Evanier, who was quite chummy with Freberg, says he didn't even know about his pal's appearance on MGHS. He also has more to say about the show in this blog post, which includes some interesting anecdotes and his opinion of the show in general:
https://www.newsfromme.com/2019/11/02/twice-two-4/ (https://www.newsfromme.com/2019/11/02/twice-two-4/)
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Stan Freberg is a surprising get for this show. I dont recall him doing many game shows -- IMDB says he did Everybodys Talking in the 60s -- so I'm curious how this booking came about.
You're not the only one. Mark Evanier, who was quite chummy with Freberg, says he didn't even know about his pal's appearance on MGHS. He also has more to say about the show in this blog post, which includes some interesting anecdotes and his opinion of the show in general:
https://www.newsfromme.com/2019/11/02/twice-two-4/ (https://www.newsfromme.com/2019/11/02/twice-two-4/)
Interesting little tidbit about the "dishonest" part. I'm shocked that person ever got invited back.
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Golly--if the celebrity is that hard-up for screen time just put down an answer that's on the fringe of relatability. It's round one, no one would notice.
/unable to form a syndication deal? That would certainly strain the bounds of credulity, at least for this reader.
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Starting from 195: preemptions for the three holidays the run spanned takes three off; why is a potential total of 191 episodes so off? Even if you take into account that the number still might be off it could just be one or two off.
Interesting read anyway.
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The pre-emptions were Thanksgiving, January 2 (College Bowl games; NFL playoff games had to air on Sunday January 1st) and July 4 and July 6 for NBC coverage of Wimbledon.
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Interesting little tidbit about the "dishonest" part. I'm shocked that person ever got invited back.
Definitely curious who it might be. Any hunches?
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Golly--if the celebrity is that hard-up for screen time just put down an answer that's on the fringe of relatability.
I was disappointed to read that - doesn't this fall under standards & practices, and making sure everything's on the up-and-up? It could potentially cost a contestant the game.
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The pre-emptions were Thanksgiving, January 2 (College Bowl games; NFL playoff games had to air on Sunday January 1st) and July 4 and July 6 for NBC coverage of Wimbledon.
So no Christmas preemption?
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The pre-emptions were Thanksgiving, January 2 (College Bowl games; NFL playoff games had to air on Sunday January 1st) and July 4 and July 6 for NBC coverage of Wimbledon.
So no Christmas preemption?
Christmas was on a Sunday in 1983.
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Christmas was on a Sunday in 1983. I think CBS, not NBC, had a playoff game the next day.
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The pre-emptions were Thanksgiving, January 2 (College Bowl games; NFL playoff games had to air on Sunday January 1st) and July 4 and July 6 for NBC coverage of Wimbledon.
So no Christmas preemption?
Christmas was on a Sunday in 1983.
Derp. Sorry. No coffee yet.
I think CBS, not NBC, had a playoff game the next day.
You think correctly; Rams-Cowboys.
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Was the reason they never asked Marshall to host was because Goodson didn’t want to have to pay (2) high priced talents?
They probably got Bowzer for scale and a couple of pizzas.
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IIRC Bowzer was foisted on them.
He really is growing on me, I have to say.
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All speculation, but work with me here.
MGHS replaced Fantasy, a Merrill Heatter Production. Peter leaves that show/it gets canceled, then hosts 1/2 of its direct replacement, also a Merrill Heatter Production at one point, but now isn't. I wouldn't be surprised if NBC simply thought that was too much of a headache, even if Peter was ready. I suppose Peter could've left Leslie Uggams to host the final few weeks solo?
Bowzer was not a bad host, but I don't think too many hosts would've been able to fill such big shoes, considering HS was only off the air for two years, after running for 15. He was entering the fire wearing a kerosene suit regardless.
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I understand that one of the conditions of getting MGHSH on the air was having Bowzer host the second half, but I wonder if it would have lasted longer with Gene and Peter hosting with Bowzer as the center square.
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The hosting would have been better, but I'm not sure what JB brings as center square. Why not get an MG or HS regular for that?
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Was the reason they never asked Marshall to host was because Goodson didn’t want to have to pay (2) high priced talents?
They probably got Bowzer for scale and a couple of pizzas.
Adam Nedeff has explained this a couple of times. I've picked up a relevant quote from a different thread:
Somebody at NBC was really high on Jon Bauman, and part of the deal for this show was that Goodson HAD to use Bauman for the Squares half.
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Was the reason they never asked Marshall to host was because Goodson didn’t want to have to pay (2) high priced talents?
They probably got Bowzer for scale and a couple of pizzas.
Adam Nedeff has explained this a couple of times. I've picked up a relevant quote from a different thread:
Somebody at NBC was really high on Jon Bauman, and part of the deal for this show was that Goodson HAD to use Bauman for the Squares half.
Gee a production company being told they have to use a certain host
Where have we heard that before?
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Was the reason they never asked Marshall to host was because Goodson didn’t want to have to pay (2) high priced talents?
They probably got Bowzer for scale and a couple of pizzas.
Adam Nedeff has explained this a couple of times. I've picked up a relevant quote from a different thread:
Somebody at NBC was really high on Jon Bauman, and part of the deal for this show was that Goodson HAD to use Bauman for the Squares half.
Gee a production company being told they have to use a certain host
Where have we heard that before?
I am trying to remember, but I Drew a blank.
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Seeing as it hasn't been seen in 35 years, I understand why MGHS has gotten all of the attention here lately, but I just want to take a moment to appreciate the episodes of Blockbusters that aired on Friday and Monday. Incredibly competitive, and Bill knew when to put away the jokes and build up the inherent suspense during Monday's game. I was left saying to my television, "How did this show only get two seasons?"
(Also fun right now: Hearing the audience cheer more loudly than the canned applause when the solo player wins a game. I suspect that most of the noise is coming from all of the family-pair contestants who are growing increasingly impatient as they wait for their chance to play.)
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Who is the family pair that manages to stay as champions?
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Who is the family pair that manages to stay as champions?
Pat and Liz McCarthy.
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Seeing as it hasn't been seen in 35 years, I understand why MGHS has gotten all of the attention here lately, but I just want to take a moment to appreciate the episodes of Blockbusters that aired on Friday and Monday. Incredibly competitive, and Bill knew when to put away the jokes and build up the inherent suspense during Monday's game. I was left saying to my television, "How did this show only get two seasons?"
(Also fun right now: Hearing the audience cheer more loudly than the canned applause when the solo player wins a game. I suspect that most of the noise is coming from all of the family-pair contestants who are growing increasingly impatient as they wait for their chance to play.)
The McCarthy's are a fun team to play this game, that's for sure. Today's game was suspenseful.
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One thing I noticed from the last aired week of MG/HS Hour is that not one, but two celebrities played both halves of all five shows. One was Willie Tyler (and Lester), which I can understand. The other was Bill Rafferty, who wasn't a spectacular Match Game player to start the week.
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Bill Rafferty was in both halves for all five episodes, but there was one episode early in the week (I want to say the Tuesday episode?) in which Willie Tyler and Lester were present for only the Hollywood Squares portion. No one called on their square or selected them during any part of the Super Match.
One problem that's been cited is that this show had no regulars, so I've been thinking about who some good regulars would have been. Based on what Buzzr has aired, I think Fred Grandy has stayed on the correct side of the "silly without being annoying" line. And Marcia Wallace was great during this past week. Granted, she hadn't had any significant credits to her name for five years at that point, but she would have been a good regular for both halves of the show.
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You'll notice over time that Leonard Frey keeps getting booked again and again even after "Mr. Smith" was sent to its well-deserved reward after 13 weeks.
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Re: Scott asking why Blockbusters only got two years...
My theory was this. Is it a good solid format? Sure it is. Is it a good game? Yes. But to get from point A to point B was just such a slog. That's the one knock I can't ignore. Doesn't stop me from watching but I can see why a daytime audience might not be so patient.
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What is getting from A to B though? Sure, it is 95/5 steak to sizzle but I appreciate that. At the same time it isn’t a daytime game show like TPIR or Feud or Sale, but is that so bad? You get lots of trivia and an interesting game—perhaps the knock is that it is the same thing over and over with zero variation.
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A couple of months before Rafferty's version premiered, Broadcasting magazine mentioned the return, and that the original got respectable ratings. But I guess it wasn't enough to beat whatever sitcom reruns CBS aired at 10:30 (Alice? The Jeffersons?). IIRC, ABC gave that time to the affiliates.
Never mind. I found the article (https://americanradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Magazines/Archive-BC-IDX/86-OCR/BC-1986-11-10-OCR-Page-0076.pdf#search=%22blockbusters%22). The cancellation was the result of NBC genius idea to move Texas to mornings.
NBC's new entry at 10:30 a.m., Blockbusters, ran on the NBC schedule from October 1980 to April 1982. [Brian Frons, VP of NBC daytime] said it was canceled originally not because of its performance, but because the network had no place to put it when it decided to try the soap, Texas (subsequently canceled), in the morning. That game show "was averaging a 17 or 18 share with a horrible lead-in," the old Regis Philbin Show, said Frons. Blockbusters is a question-and-answer game show
which the network hopes will prove compatible with Wheel of Fortune, which airs at 11 a.m. In hindsight, said Frons, Blockbusters "probably should have never been taken off.
Moot point nearly 38 years later, but why NBC didn't just replace Regis with Blockbusters, we'll never know.
I want to argue that you had to follow the visual action to see which contestant landed where on the board, thus making it a bit more complex for someone at home simply listening. But so many other games involve similar strategies and did just fine (Wheel, Hollywood Squares, TTD come to mind).
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Moot point nearly 38 years later, but why NBC didn't just replace Regis with Blockbusters, we'll never know.
NBC replaced Regis's talk show with Diff'rent Strokes reruns 2 weeks before Blockbusters was taken off. They seemed to be just throwing things at the wall that year.
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Can anyone make heads/tails out of the Combs FF episode numbers on the Buzzr site? They were airing daytime episodes from early 1989 with episode numbers in the 100s, now they're airing episodes from 1989 with episode numbers in the 2300s.
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Can anyone make heads/tails out of the Combs FF episode numbers on the Buzzr site? They were airing daytime episodes from early 1989 with episode numbers in the 100s, now they're airing episodes from 1989 with episode numbers in the 2300s.
"You mean there are two thousand episodes we've never seen? Where are the tapes???"
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The taping schedule was brutal. 2150 episodes in just a few months.
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Can anyone make heads/tails out of the Combs FF episode numbers on the Buzzr site? They were airing daytime episodes from early 1989 with episode numbers in the 100s, now they're airing episodes from 1989 with episode numbers in the 2300s.
Maybe I've missed something, possibly even something obvious, but where on Buzzr's site are you seeing episode numbers for anything? All I see are broadcast years (or for some shows, season #), and about half the time an airdate.
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Maybe I've missed something, possibly even something obvious, but where on Buzzr's site are you seeing episode numbers for anything? All I see are broadcast years (or for some shows, season #), and about half the time an airdate.
It's not obvious. If you go to Buzzr's schedule page and use "View Page Source" mode on your browser (I use Chrome--it may or may not work with other browsers), the episode numbers will appear. Can't remember whoever turned me on to that little trick, but whoever you are thank you.
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Looks like the episodes in question are from the syndicated run, the Bengals vs. 49ers celebrity week.
The episode numbers (126-130) without the prefix also match the numbering from when they aired on GSN (PDFs to the rescue), and the two is probably just a prefix Buzzr tacked on to differentiate for the nighttime run shows.
The nighttime shows on the masters are slated as, for example from another episode, 89FF106S. Whether they slated the NFL week differently (not reflected in anything from the GSN days or indicated on the few nighttime masters i have) or whether Buzzr just, as mentioned, numbered the PM shows different for their own purposes (I tend to believe this - you should see my employers system sometime, holy hell) I can't say but I'd strongly guess the latter.
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The nighttime shows on the masters are slated as, for example from another episode, 89FF106S. Whether they slated the NFL week differently (not reflected in anything from the GSN days or indicated on the few nighttime masters i have) or whether Buzzr just, as mentioned, numbered the PM shows different for their own purposes (I tend to believe this - you should see my employers system sometime, holy hell) I can't say but I'd strongly guess the latter.
What were the numbers on the nighttime masters you have? I've seen a couple of daytime slates (four-digit sequential number followed by "D" [e.g. 0001D for the CBS premiere]), and that one nighttime one that Buzzr posted. Are the ones you have in that same "YYFFNNNS" format?
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From what you're looking at when you see the GSN PDFs, GSN put in the 3-digit episode #s for the daytime counterpart, but for the nighttime counterpart, they put in the 4-digit episode #s, as far as I can remember. So the Bengals vs. 49ers Super Bowl rematch week was 0126-0130 and the Singing Sisters vs. Musical Misters was 0146-0150.
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Buzzr announced a "Black Friday Frenzy" marathon of Supermarket Sweep, $ale, and Temptation. It looks like we may be getting PAX-era Sweep, based on the promo.
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So last night on MG/HS....was the third $30K win.
Also mentioned in the old ATGS post outlining all of said wins.
Tonight should be the official Christmas episode, with the electronic wall displaying tree designs.
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Not confirmed on Buzzr's website yet, but Zap2It has MG-HS going back to episode #2 on 11/22.
https://tvlistings.zap2it.com/overview.html?programSeriesId=SH03156869&tmsId=EP031568690037&aid=gapzap
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Not confirmed on Buzzr's website yet, but Zap2It has MG-HS going back to episode #2 on 11/22.
https://tvlistings.zap2it.com/overview.html?programSeriesId=SH03156869&tmsId=EP031568690037&aid=gapzap
Aha, so they'll cut off with the Leave it to Beaver reunion.
And we're not getting the premiere episode ever, huh?
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Wasn’t the tape of ep 1 damaged? Seem to recall it airing on NBC blemished.
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So not only do we not get the Bill Cullen week, they’re missing a self-promotion opportunity by jumping back right before a week with David Ruprecht!
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So not only do we not get the Bill Cullen week, they’re missing a self-promotion opportunity by jumping back right before a week with David Ruprecht!
We should get in an episode or two of the Ruprecht week.
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So not only do we not get the Bill Cullen week, they’re missing a self-promotion opportunity by jumping back right before a week with David Ruprecht!
WHAT?!?! No Bill Cullen week? I feel like someone should check in on Matt to see how he's doing.
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So not only do we not get the Bill Cullen week, they’re missing a self-promotion opportunity by jumping back right before a week with David Ruprecht!
WHAT?!?! No Bill Cullen week? I feel like someone should check in on Matt to see how he's doing.
I got the news this morning, and I'm not taking it well. Still, the prevailing wisdom from my friend who told me the news is that Buzzr will cycle through all these episodes a second time, and then continue to move forward with new ones. The theory being they're too invested in the series to have only copied forty episodes. In the traditional network model, it would make sense to have reruns playing during the less-viewed holiday season, so maybe there's some logic to that theory.
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Tonight should be the official Christmas episode, with the electronic wall displaying tree designs.
Proving that in addition to yellow and green, each of those squares could display red. I'll be darned -- that explains the different color during the opening.
Gene says that the wall contains 2,304 bulbs. Given that the wall is made up of 768 squares, if each square contains one yellow bulb, one green bulb, and one red bulb, he's right.
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Tonight should be the official Christmas episode, with the electronic wall displaying tree designs.
Yes, but the funniest thing last night was Tom Poston zoning out and not realizing he had to write an answer for the Head-to-Head match. I can only imagine what they were saying in the control room. "What's taking him so long? What the BLEEP is he doing?" Also, Marty Cohen with a picture of a menorah with only seven candles instead of eight.
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Tonight should be the official Christmas episode, with the electronic wall displaying tree designs.
Yes, but the funniest thing last night was Tom Poston zoning out and not realizing he had to write an answer for the Head-to-Head match. I can only imagine what they were saying in the control room. "What's taking him so long? What the BLEEP is he doing?" Also, Marty Cohen with a picture of a menorah with only seven candles instead of eight.
Now I haven't watched every episode. But this is the first I saw where they only finished one game of HS. It was a five square win in favor of the champion. Don't think even the other few eps. with 5SWs were one-game matches.
Proving that in addition to yellow and green, each of those squares could display red. I'll be darned -- that explains the different color during the opening.
I had to look carefully to see if it was red or the lighter purple seen in the opening. (Or is it a shade of red indeed?)
Now, You Make The Call time....
Contestant bombed out on the Audience Match, even though she said "hot" for "_____ Lover" and the $1,000 answer was "RED hot" lover. Would you find her answer close enough, or not?
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So not only do we not get the Bill Cullen week, they’re missing a self-promotion opportunity by jumping back right before a week with David Ruprecht!
WHAT?!?! No Bill Cullen week? I feel like someone should check in on Matt to see how he's doing.
I got the news this morning, and I'm not taking it well. Still, the prevailing wisdom from my friend who told me the news is that Buzzr will cycle through all these episodes a second time, and then continue to move forward with new ones. The theory being they're too invested in the series to have only copied forty episodes. In the traditional network model, it would make sense to have reruns playing during the less-viewed holiday season, so maybe there's some logic to that theory.
Using Classic Concentration last year as evidence, they showed six weeks of new episodes in Oct/Nov, then reran them for a while, and restarted them for a further hundred in mid-January.
/I just wish they would finish off Beat the Clock 79. They stopped with 30 eps to go, including the Christmas week.
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I just wish they would finish off Beat the Clock 79. They stopped with 30 eps to go, including the Christmas week.
Has Buzzr even showed BtC '79 since the period when it was pressed into primetime duty after the Wordplay debacle? I wonder if they would have finished it off had Supermarket Sweep not come into their possession.
I got the news this morning, and I'm not taking it well. Still, the prevailing wisdom from my friend who told me the news is that Buzzr will cycle through all these episodes a second time, and then continue to move forward with new ones. The theory being they're too invested in the series to have only copied forty episodes. In the traditional network model, it would make sense to have reruns playing during the less-viewed holiday season, so maybe there's some logic to that theory.
Unless they pick and choose episodes, I would like to think that everything up to at least the St. Elsewhere week (Week 22, March 26-30) has been converted. And looking at the episode guide, maybe some of those weeks might be the worth the wait even if two of them may be skipped for clearance reasons (Fern Fitzgerald in Week 14, James B. Sikking in Week 21).
I buy the "it's going to be the holidays, might as well wait a little" reasoning. This would get us to mid-January with the return of the trees and Santa Bowzer coming to signal the end of Epiphany.
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Unless they pick and choose episodes, I would like to think that everything up to at least the St. Elsewhere week (Week 22, March 26-30) has been converted.
Buzzr does pick and choose sometimes when it comes to their special marathons. The Jenny Jones episodes of Press Your Luck are outside of what the network has aired of that series so far (see also, from marathons past, the Press Your Luck Independence Day episode and the Match Game PM episode with Brian Billick as a contestant). So it's possible that Buzzr wanted a Howie Mandel MGHS episode for their recent marathon and only converted the one.
Proving that in addition to yellow and green, each of those squares could display red. I'll be darned -- that explains the different color during the opening.
I had to look carefully to see if it was red or the lighter purple seen in the opening. (Or is it a shade of red indeed?)
My hunch is that the lighter purple in the opening is the result of the bright blue lights shining on the wall mixing with red squares that aren't exceptionally bright. (Especially after Gene gave that very specific number of bulbs that works out mathematically.)
Now, You Make The Call time....
Contestant bombed out on the Audience Match, even though she said "hot" for "_____ Lover" and the $1,000 answer was "RED hot" lover. Would you find her answer close enough, or not?
Without knowing how the producers grouped the audience answers to get their results, I don't know. But Marty Cohen looked like he was ready to object; however, Gene was too focused on getting the show to come in on time to let him speak.
When Gene said "Johnny ______," I will proudly admit that my first response was Olson (and then I figured out what the "correct" answer was).
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How many cells on the wall?
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How many cells on the wall?
768.
Breaking the wall down into its four identical sections (the center two rotate when Gene and Jon enter), each section is 12 cells across by 16 cells high.
(Or putting it another way: Each section appears to be made of twelve 4×4 grids, 3 grids across by 4 grids high.)
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Buzzr's website has updated through Friday.
Show #045 on Friday, not #002.
Edit: Further, the site Greg linked to apparently defaults to ep #2 as the listing for no data available, as their site now also shows "Episode 2" listed for the following Monday AND Tuesday - and while Buzzr might recycle runs, that's just a little much.
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Buzzr's website has updated through Friday.
Show #045 on Friday, not #002.
Edit: Further, the site Greg linked to apparently defaults to ep #2 as the listing for no data available, as their site now also shows "Episode 2" listed for the following Monday AND Tuesday - and while Buzzr might recycle runs, that's just a little much.
You people are conspiring to do this just to mess with my head, aren't you? Uncle Matt can't take much more of this.
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Mea culpa. Wonder how far they are going to go.
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Okay, so I was right about them going back, but wrong about the exact date. The rest of next week isn't up on Buzzr's site yet, but the first few days of December are. The 12/2 schedule has episode 5 listed, which I assume means they cycle back sometime during the previous week. Click view source on the below link.
http://buzzrtv.com/schedule/schedule_by_date/2019-12-2/America/New_York
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The 12/2 schedule has episode 5 listed, which I assume means they cycle back sometime during the previous week.
They cycle back to episode 2 on 11/25.
http://buzzrtv.com/schedule/schedule_by_date/2019-11-25/America/New_York
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One of the contestants on today's episode of Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour was an aspiring animator named Butch Hartman, who would eventually go on to create the Nickelodeon cartoon The Fairly OddParents (among others). Based on the quick internet search I just performed, it looks like even his fans didn't know about this appearance until tonight.
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Speaking of, one thing I seem to notice more and more...is it just me or does that HS setup look incredibly cramped?
A friend attended a taping as a child. He vividly remembers Gene Rayburn visibly sucking in his gut just to sit down. So yes, cramped.
After watching some of this past week's shows, it's tempting to ask how Richard Deacon (who had clearly gained a lot of weight over the years) managed to fit in the seats at all. (It may not have been quite as cramped as I originally thought.)
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Speaking of, one thing I seem to notice more and more...is it just me or does that HS setup look incredibly cramped?
A friend attended a taping as a child. He vividly remembers Gene Rayburn visibly sucking in his gut just to sit down. So yes, cramped.
After watching some of this past week's shows, it's tempting to ask how Richard Deacon (who had clearly gained a lot of weight over the years) managed to fit in the seats at all. (It may not have been quite as cramped as I originally thought.)
Was Deacon in poor health by this time? I know that he looked a bit better earlier that year when 5/7ths of the Beaver stars played one of the classic TV weeks of daytime Feud, but IIRC this was one of his last TV appearances before he passed away shortly after MG/HS ended.
That whole week was either a disaster foisted on them by NBC, a cost-cutting measure (especially after seven straight wins of $10K or more in the Super Match leading into it), or both. Crunching some stats, Deacon was the only person of the eight that week with any experience with either game.
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Speaking of, one thing I seem to notice more and more...is it just me or does that HS setup look incredibly cramped?
A friend attended a taping as a child. He vividly remembers Gene Rayburn visibly sucking in his gut just to sit down. So yes, cramped.
After watching some of this past week's shows, it's tempting to ask how Richard Deacon (who had clearly gained a lot of weight over the years) managed to fit in the seats at all. (It may not have been quite as cramped as I originally thought.)
Was Deacon in poor health by this time? I know that he looked a bit better earlier that year when 5/7ths of the Beaver stars played one of the classic TV weeks of daytime Feud, but IIRC this was one of his last TV appearances before he passed away shortly after MG/HS ended.
That whole week was either a disaster foisted on them by NBC, a cost-cutting measure (especially after seven straight wins of $10K or more in the Super Match leading into it), or both. Crunching some stats, Deacon was the only person of the eight that week with any experience with either game.
I feel this is why he got to play Match Game all week. Because of his physical condition, as it were, he couldn't climb to the top HS tier/would be easier for him not to. Kind of like the treatment of Nedra Volz thus far.
Remained in good humor though, right down to being snippy when the crowd booed his answers. On the Monday episode, him and Gene looked to be having fun, between MG and being on the same Squares tier. And I know it's still the first few months of the show, but I don't see the grumpy Gene trope, at least as much as people remembered out of MG/HS. Seemed to be a bit confused briefly at times, but still lots of "classic Gene" moments and humor.
And this would be the first time MG/HS made an effort to have one center square (Jerry/Beaver).
BTW...Last night's episode wasn't much better.....first $30,000 loss.
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Will any of the Beaver episodes be repeated tonight and/or tomorrow?
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One of the contestants on today's episode of Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour was an aspiring animator named Butch Hartman, who would eventually go on to create the Nickelodeon cartoon The Fairly OddParents (among others). Based on the quick internet search I just performed, it looks like even his fans didn't know about this appearance until tonight.
I sure didn't. Nor did I notice how much he looks like Dr. Rip Studwell from his biggest hit. (Of which he also voiced...and he still looks like that, so many years later.)
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Will any of the Beaver episodes be repeated tonight and/or tomorrow?
The Tuesday show is rerunning now, plus at 11 PM Eastern. The Wednesday show reruns at 3 PM Eastern tomorrow.
Richard Deacon wasn't the only guest to play exclusively Match Game this week. Jerry Mathers was the center square for the week, for obvious reasons. Gallagher did, presumably because each show had Gallagher introduced first, then the whole shebang about Leave It to Beaver's cast. Ken Osmond as well, to Beaver's left. Barbara Billingsley, Rich Cordell, Jeri Well, and Frank Bank rotated taking the leftover Match Game spot.
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So, the Gallagher thing. Was that because Tony Dow bailed last-minute or something?
Also, MG-HS really helps show the importance of the rhythm of the panel the original had. Six men on the panel for MG feels like it really throws something off.
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How many women joined for HS?
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So, the Gallagher thing. Was that because Tony Dow bailed last-minute or something?
I think it's just their formula at work. They routinely booked one bonafide comic, likely to bolster the comedy in a joke-less Squares, and/or to help inject humor where an NBC soap opera star may not be able to provide on Match Game. The MGHSH "Salute to the Fifties" had a bunch of stars of yesteryear and Jay Leno.
-Jason
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How many women joined for HS?
Two.
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Will any of the Beaver episodes be repeated tonight and/or tomorrow?
The Tuesday show is rerunning now, plus at 11 PM Eastern. The Wednesday show reruns at 3 PM Eastern tomorrow.
Richard Deacon wasn't the only guest to play exclusively Match Game this week. Jerry Mathers was the center square for the week, for obvious reasons. Gallagher did, presumably because each show had Gallagher introduced first, then the whole shebang about Leave It to Beaver's cast. Ken Osmond as well, to Beaver's left. Barbara Billingsley, Rich Cordell, Jeri Well, and Frank Bank rotated taking the leftover Match Game spot.
Also notable--the MG segment had the cast members' actual names in their podia, while the HSq and Super Match segments used their character names. (Gallagher got to play the Gallagher character all show long--he earned that right after his last watermelon explosion.)
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The 12/2 schedule has episode 5 listed, which I assume means they cycle back sometime during the previous week.
They cycle back to episode 2 on 11/25.
They're making a complete mess of tonight's episode (#2). Their system doesn't know where to stick the commercial breaks.
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The 12/2 schedule has episode 5 listed, which I assume means they cycle back sometime during the previous week.
They cycle back to episode 2 on 11/25.
They're making a complete mess of tonight's episode (#2). Their system doesn't know where to stick the commercial breaks.
Which may be because they used the same print they did on the February marathon...as in, before they started cutting out the fee plugs.
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Dunno if I missed this, but watching Pluto, BUZZR just aired a commercial for its 5th Annual "Betty White Christmas", which starts December 16. The TV is basically on in the background and on mute, but I noticed the usual games like Match Game and at least one of the Passwords. I imagine Tattletales might make the marathon as well.
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This year's Betty binge is supposed to be all new-to-Buzzr episodes. It runs the 16th through the 20th, with a repeat on Christmas Day.
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I can also imagine if the Super Password episodes from January 13-17, 1986 opposed with Richard Simmons can make the marathon as well or even the July 21-25, 1986 week with Howard Morton opposing her, one episode from that week was featured as a full episode encore in the form of As Seen On Theatre, maybe Mr. Locklin(aka blanquepage) can remember that.
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I cannot parse that sentence.
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I cannot parse that sentence.
Believe it or not, they used to be much, much worse.
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I cannot parse that sentence.
Believe it or not, they used to be much, much worse.
That's improvement?
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Probably would be better in its own thread but has anyone ever kept the $5000 savings bond on TANLMAD? I remember it having been passed up/traded away at least 3 times but don't remember anyone ever keeping it.
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Stan Freberg is a surprising get for this show. I dont recall him doing many game shows -- IMDB says he did Everybodys Talking in the 60s -- so I'm curious how this booking came about.
You're not the only one. Mark Evanier, who was quite chummy with Freberg, says he didn't even know about his pal's appearance on MGHS. He also has more to say about the show in this blog post, which includes some interesting anecdotes and his opinion of the show in general:
https://www.newsfromme.com/2019/11/02/twice-two-4/ (https://www.newsfromme.com/2019/11/02/twice-two-4/)
So, after watching tonight's episode, funny story about Jon Bauman's little anecdote...
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So, after watching tonight's episode, funny story about Jon Bauman's little anecdote...
For those of us that didn’t watch it, may you elaborate?
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Jon played the Super Match, and very openly declared he had written down two answers for it. (He only put one in the slot, and that's the one that counted.)
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Jon played the Super Match, and very openly declared he had written down two answers for it. (He only put one in the slot, and that's the one that counted.)
Actually, that's not that unusual. Even in the 70s MG, you'd see panelists write more than one answer and silently show them to the celebs around them as if to get a quick consensus. (Brett, especially, was notorious for that.)
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Jon played the Super Match, and very openly declared he had written down two answers for it. (He only put one in the slot, and that's the one that counted.)
Actually, that's not that unusual. Even in the 70s MG, you'd see panelists write more than one answer and silently show them to the celebs around them as if to get a quick consensus. (Brett, especially, was notorious for that.)
In the Super Match? I think that MGP was still hurting from the seven straight $10K+ wins they had leading into Christmas, eight straight wins counting Tom Poston's narcoleptic fit on the Christmas Eve Eve show.
/ I would've said Struthers.
// Problem is that I also would have taken Dick Martin's choice of "Airlines" in the H2H.
/// Knowing that Butch Hartman eventually made it bigger than most of the panel mitigates some of the pain of finding the 30 and losing on back to back days.
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Jon played the Super Match, and very openly declared he had written down two answers for it. (He only put one in the slot, and that's the one that counted.)
Actually, that's not that unusual. Even in the 70s MG, you'd see panelists write more than one answer and silently show them to the celebs around them as if to get a quick consensus. (Brett, especially, was notorious for that.)
Yeah, it's happened before. With MG/HS, another instance with Bauman doing this again is to come, if we are to believe TV Tropes' section on the show.
Evanier's description applied to it happening on the main game.
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I must be broken, but I really am enjoying MG/HS hour. It's definitely gotten better 10 weeks in.
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The show does feel like it's found a gear this week. I'm not certain whether Gene is looser or grouchier or both, but his presence has more energy to it. Bringing a loud and hacky prop comic like Vic Dunlop front-and-center to illustrate the difference between pulling something out of one's pants and pulling something out of one's shorts was the kind of weird I am here for. Bauman is getting more comfortable in his role, though his attempts to go off-script still fall flat quite often for me. The HS questions seem to be getting a bit more suggestive and sillier, and are giving the panelists more to work with, even in the confines of the multiple-choice format with no advance prep.
Also, this should probably come as no surprise, but Arsenio Hall is really good at this. If this show had found a footing and they tried to build a fresh crop of regulars, he's a standout. Also, way to lead off the week with some low-key shots at Fred Travalena, and the knowing groans that followed from some others on the stage.
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It's going to be interesting to see how Buzzr handles the 1/30-2/3/84 week when that comes up towards the end of this month. I would think editing out the rambling plugs for the home viewer match on top of nuking most fee plugs would leave them a little short versus normal running time.
That is, if they can even rerun it in the first place because of Fern Fitzgerald. On that tangent, is there anyone we know of who has vetoed Buzzr reruns of their appearances as a guest?
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On that tangent, is there anyone we know of who has vetoed Buzzr reruns of their appearances as a guest?
I don't think we even know for sure that Buzzr is following the same policy GSN did regarding celebrity clearances.
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I don't think we even know for sure that Buzzr is following the same policy GSN did regarding celebrity clearances.
I guess we'll know if we ever see Bob and Ginny Newhart on Tattletales - that seemed to be the one couple GSN never showed.
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I don't think we even know for sure that Buzzr is following the same policy GSN did regarding celebrity clearances.
I guess we'll know if we ever see Bob and Ginny Newhart on Tattletales - that seemed to be the one couple GSN never showed.
The whole thing with the Newharts was odd. One or both of them vetoed their appearances on Tattletales and Super Password but they later changed course, namely after GSN really cared about the former. While GSN never reran their first appearance on SP, they did run the second.
Oddly, Bob's appearances on Marshall syndicated Squares and his appearance as a What's My Line? Mystery Guest in the wake of "Button Down Mind" didn't fall into this.
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Nor did Bob's one appearance on nighttime Password in the 60s.
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I don't think we even know for sure that Buzzr is following the same policy GSN did regarding celebrity clearances.
Matt (or others), could you go into some detail about celebrity clearances with GSN? Would GSN seek the clearance from the celebrity...and would the celeb then get residuals? Just curious about that whole process works.
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I don't think we even know for sure that Buzzr is following the same policy GSN did regarding celebrity clearances.
Matt (or others), could you go into some detail about celebrity clearances with GSN? Would GSN seek the clearance from the celebrity...and would the celeb then get residuals? Just curious about that whole process works.
There are people who know the specifics better than I do, but the very short version is that GSN/Sony decided to try and get permission from every celebrity that appeared, and if a celebrity said no, then that celebrity's shows wouldn't be shown. Luckily, very few said no. Residuals didn't come into play because of the age of the episodes, but I think GSN did offer token payments. Soupy Sales tells of expecting a windfall for his WML shows, but ending up with some laughably small amount.
I am told that Tattletales was particularly problematic. My friend at GSN says that Newhart's people specifically said no to Tattletales, but yes to other appearances. No idea why. While this wouldn't be the problem in Newhart's case, you can imagine that some celebrities would veto their appearances because of who their partner was at the time.
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On the residuals note, I remember Dick Debartolo posting a picture of two checks for his Match Game work and they came to a total of approximately 30 cents.
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I don't think we even know for sure that Buzzr is following the same policy GSN did regarding celebrity clearances.
Matt (or others), could you go into some detail about celebrity clearances with GSN? Would GSN seek the clearance from the celebrity...and would the celeb then get residuals? Just curious about that whole process works.
There are people who know the specifics better than I do, but the very short version is that GSN/Sony decided to try and get permission from every celebrity that appeared, and if a celebrity said no, then that celebrity's shows wouldn't be shown. Luckily, very few said no. Residuals didn't come into play because of the age of the episodes, but I think GSN did offer token payments. Soupy Sales tells of expecting a windfall for his WML shows, but ending up with some laughably small amount.
I am told that Tattletales was particularly problematic. My friend at GSN says that Newhart's people specifically said no to Tattletales, but yes to other appearances. No idea why. While this wouldn't be the problem in Newhart's case, you can imagine that some celebrities would veto their appearances because of who their partner was at the time.
I can also imagine celebrities being embarrassed in hindsight by some of the personal details that would come out on a show like Tattletales as opposed to something as innocuous as Password.
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Another M-word banishment tonight on MG/HS.
And now we wonder what Sybil thought no one wanted to lick.
EDIT: Another $30,000 win. Didn't see that coming. As the old Usenet posts that compiled the $30K wins they knew of didn't mention it.
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And now we wonder what Sybil thought no one wanted to lick.
According to Jason Cranmer, if you watch as she writes her answer, she spells out ASS.
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Adding "JACK" as a prefix makes it suitable for broadcast.
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Another M-word banishment tonight on MG/HS.
And now we wonder what Sybil thought no one wanted to lick.
EDIT: Another $30,000 win. Didn't see that coming.
How many times has Jon had the 30 card now, twice?
Did Leonard Frey ever do any other game show? I never remember seeing him on anything else (sure as heck didn't know who he was until MGHS).
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Another M-word banishment tonight on MG/HS.
And now we wonder what Sybil thought no one wanted to lick.
EDIT: Another $30,000 win. Didn't see that coming.
How many times has Jon had the 30 card now, twice?
Did Leonard Frey ever do any other game show? I never remember seeing him on anything else (sure as heck didn't know who he was until MGHS).
This was Jon's third time with the 30. The third time in as many weeks - 12/26/83 & 1/4/84 the first two.
What's funnier is that between the last $30K win and this one there were ZERO wins over $1K - two burnouts at the H2H sandwiched by NINE losses.
A quick scan of iMDB and the Goodson Wikia, as inaccurate as they may be, have Leonard Frey down as having done the following.
The "Heroes vs. Villians" All-Star Family Feud Special (2/5/82; coincidentally playing against one "Bowzer")
One week of Body Language (11/4-8/85, with Abby Dalton)
Three weeks of Super Password (12/16-20/85 with Martha Smith, 5/5-9/86 with Emma Samms, 1/26-30/87 with Nancy Stafford)
What I find funnier is that he's still being billed this week as being from Mr. Smith nearly a good month after that show ended. This wasn't the first time that MGHS billed someone from a dead show (Alfie Wise and Trauma Center) and it wouldn't be the last (Chuck Wagner and Automan). How far in advance did they record these things?
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I am told that Tattletales was particularly problematic. My friend at GSN says that Newhart's people specifically said no to Tattletales, but yes to other appearances. No idea why. While this wouldn't be the problem in Newhart's case, you can imagine that some celebrities would veto their appearances because of who their partner was at the time.
I've seen a complete listing of the celebrities who appeared on the nighttime show, and the Newharts did more than half of them. I guess that likely means most of the syndie episodes will probably never be seen again.
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I've seen a complete listing of the celebrities who appeared on the nighttime show, and the Newharts did more than half of them.
How many episodes were produced?
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30
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Another M-word banishment tonight on MG/HS.
They missed one tonight.
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Why do I have the overwhelming urge to sing "One Day More" right now?
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Your excitement is making me excited for this.
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Why do I have the overwhelming urge to sing "One Day More" right now?
Because you never saw Annie?
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Why do I have the overwhelming urge to sing "One Day More" right now?
Because you never saw Annie?
Brilliant!
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I wasn't paying close enough attention--what caused the question to be thrown out (MGHS)?
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I wasn't paying close enough attention--what caused the question to be thrown out (MGHS)?
The question was something along the lines of "Well endowned Winds played the accordion" at which point someone (Pat McCormick or Mark Russell) blurted out "The Rain in Pain" but the rest of the question was "instead of playing 'The Rain in Spain' she played 'The Rain in _________.'"
(anyone else think the guy Gene brought out in the first question was Gene Gene the Dancing Machine until he said his name which wasn't that?)
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Author and blogger Dave Holmes recently wrote an article for Decider about his fascination with MG/HS Hour, and encouraged readers to "hit him up" to talk about the series …
https://decider.com/2020/02/05/match-game-hollywood-squares-hour-buzzr/
Jon Bauman took up Dave's request and posted several Tweets about the show …
https://twitter.com/jonbowzerbauman/status/1225622751949410304?fbclid=IwAR3j_gHWSKViqopC6r43mP3LXuMy7BnvXOoWztOqkgYYFGL3zCdGZvz-nQM
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Anxiously awaiting the results of MO's Cullengasm last night.
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Anxiously awaiting the results of MO's Cullengasm last night.
I was present—it was spectacula.
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The whole opening looked like it was unrehearsed for the changes to accommodate Bill.
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The whole opening looked like it was unrehearsed for the changes to accommodate Bill.
Poor Phyllis Diller got lost it seemed.
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I hope they repeat that show this weekend.
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I hope they repeat that show this weekend.
Sorry, looks like they won't. They're repeating #50 today and #51 tomorrow, next week is #55 and #56.
It probably won't be long before #54 cycles back, and all can be delighted to hear about the relationship between Bill and Twinkies ;D
-Jamie
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Bill's Twinkie joke and the contestant's answer to the next question were a couple of "wait, did they just say that?" moments.
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Here it is on YouTube (not my video, though I've saved it, in case it goes down):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-fC5w1ZBys (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-fC5w1ZBys)
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After weeks upon weeks of it being burned out, they finally replaced the bulb in the lower right corner of the tens digit of the O player's score.
Now the bulb in the upper right corner is out.
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Sorry, gang, I needed a bit to recover.
Tell you what, for all the silliness about my over-eagerness to see this, I was afraid it would be a bit of a letdown. Happy to say, I was thrilled. What a kick to see Bill's name on that giant wall, and to see him, sharp as ever, cracking Phyllis Diller up with his jokes! ("I was close to pasties...for the first time in thirty years.") And the rest of the line-up! Jay Leno, Brian Mitchell, Lyle Waggoner (Who seemed totally at ease. Why didn't he do more games?), and of course Diller. Richard Kline always struck me as someone who tried a little too hard, but I liked him here. I think I'm really going to enjoy the rest of these too.
Thanks to the good Samaritan who's uploading them to YouTube. These need to be preserved in the Archive that Adam and I maintain.
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Poor Phyllis Diller got lost it seemed.
I don't know if she got lost, so much as a cue was given. Industry-type people, here's a quick question: is there someone from the staff giving the stars their cue to walk on in situations like these, or were they on their own? My completely amateur read of the situation, based on when she started walking out, was that whoever gave cues forgot to not give one for the first introduction and sent Phyllis out to die a death.
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My completely amateur read of the situation, based on when she started walking out, was that whoever gave cues forgot to not give one for the first introduction and sent Phyllis out to die a death.
That's how I saw it, too. A mistake by the stage manager made Phyllis look bad.
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On the topic of MG/HS....any idea when the episode where the board malfunctions is coming?
(someone on YouTube said it's actually coming later THIS week, but I'll take that with a grain of salt.)
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Not so much the board malfunctioning, but is the sound/music off key tonight (MGHS) along with other issues with the tape or is it just my imagination?
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Not so much the board malfunctioning, but is the sound/music off key tonight (along with other issues with the tape) or is it just my imagination?
The opening theme definitely sounded weird upon first hearing. The video is also not your imagination, I was initally wondering if it was connection weakness with my internet that was leading to blurry quality until I saw the commercials in usual nice quality.
EDIT: well how bout that, the board did indeed malfunction. Bill's X wouldn't light up and Jon immediately threw it to commercial.
DOUBLE EDIT: back from commercial, and omg this episode is pure gold ;D
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Not so much the board malfunctioning, but is the sound/music off key tonight (along with other issues with the tape) or is it just my imagination?
The opening theme definitely sounded weird upon first hearing. The video is also not your imagination, I was initally wondering if it was connection weakness with my internet that was leading to blurry quality until I saw the commercials in usual nice quality.
The sound has had a lower pitch. You notice it with the music, and with Gene's voice. If you look carefully, the picture seems to be "blinking"
And whaddya know? This is the malfunctioning/"flashers" episode!
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Please tell me someone will post tonight's MG/HS to the video section since my Pluto is acting up and my register/monitor was too busy to go back and forth to the BUZZR live feed...
JakeT
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And whaddya know? This is the malfunctioning/"flashers" episode!
Can you please elaborate? I don't think any of these references you keep making are that well-known.
Never mind. The lights in front of the celebrities didn't work.
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Please tell me someone will post tonight's MG/HS to the video section since my Pluto is acting up and my register/monitor was too busy to go back and forth to the BUZZR live feed...
JakeT
Sure, I'll upload it to Google Drive and on Game Show Vault FB...will follow up with a link in a bit.
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And whaddya know? This is the malfunctioning/"flashers" episode!
Can you please elaborate? I don't think any of these references you keep making are that well-known.
Well, if you watched the episode just now, all should be obvious, but....
Back in the Usenet days, someone remembered an MG/HS episode where, during the Squares game, the symbols on the board started flashing on and off. Bauman goes to commercial, quipping, "We don't allow flashers on this show." When they come back, the panel has to improvise by holding their arms in the shape of X's and O's.
This is indeed the episode that aired tonight on Buzzr.
EDIT: And I see you caught on.
EDIT x 2 : Yeesh, the warbling bells in the Super Match segment. Not a good transfer, Buzzr.
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Surprised they didn't do like the Davidson run of HS would do, and have printed cards with an X on one side and an O on the other, to hold up in cases like this.
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And whaddya know? This is the malfunctioning/"flashers" episode!
Can you please elaborate? I don't think any of these references you keep making are that well-known.
Well, if you watched the episode just now, all should be obvious, but....
Back in the Usenet days, someone remembered an MG/HS episode where, during the Squares game, the symbols on the board started flashing on and off. Bauman goes to commercial, quipping, "We don't allow flashers on this show." When they come back, the panel has to improvise by holding their arms in the shape of X's and O's.
This is indeed the episode that aired tonight on Buzzr.
EDIT: And I see you caught on.
EDIT x 2 : Yeesh, the warbling bells in the Super Match segment. Not a good transfer, Buzzr.
Yeah, Brandon, how could you forget that thing that was posted to ATGS 20 years ago?
I am completely dumbstruck that on a stage full of large index cards and magic markers, this was the most elegant solution that anybody could think of.
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Surprised they didn't do like the Davidson run of HS would do, and have printed cards with an X on one side and an O on the other, to hold up in cases like this.
Wasn't that just for the Florida episodes, or did they have one for the main studio eps. too?
I imagine they could've simply used the marquee for a makeshift tic-tac-toe grid, considering they already used a grid pattern for the MG portion.
ETA: Never mind. It was at least possible (taken from a different episode).
(https://i.ibb.co/Kb1rFdW/Screen-Shot-2020-02-13-at-11-31-40-PM.png)
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Please tell me someone will post tonight's MG/HS to the video section since my Pluto is acting up and my register/monitor was too busy to go back and forth to the BUZZR live feed...
JakeT
Sure, I'll upload it to Google Drive and on Game Show Vault FB...will follow up with a link in a bit.
Thanks mondo mucho, my friend!!
JakeT
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Still don't have access to BUZZR or your channel not cooperating?
Watch on TV Game Show Vault FB: https://www.facebook.com/TvGameShowVault/posts/1880953165373196 (https://www.facebook.com/TvGameShowVault/posts/1880953165373196)
or
Download and watch later https://drive.google.com/open?id=1S0C_v0VgzArUCgikIAc_Jt8_XUXIs-Q0 (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1S0C_v0VgzArUCgikIAc_Jt8_XUXIs-Q0)
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I don't know that using the marquee to show the game progress would be feasible, especially going live to tape. My impression of the big light wall is that it was programmed pixel-by-pixel, rather than with anset of characters.
I always thought they should have built lights into the base of Jon's podium to show the game progress on that nine-square grid.
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Having the celebrities make shapes with their arms was a good solution from a "silly fun" standpoint, but during that entire act, all I could think was, "I really hope they have a cue card off to the side with a tic-tac-toe grid drawn onto it for the contestants to look at."
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Still don't have access to BUZZR or your channel not cooperating?
Watch on TV Game Show Vault FB: https://www.facebook.com/TvGameShowVault/posts/1880953165373196 (https://www.facebook.com/TvGameShowVault/posts/1880953165373196)
or
Download and watch later https://drive.google.com/open?id=1S0C_v0VgzArUCgikIAc_Jt8_XUXIs-Q0 (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1S0C_v0VgzArUCgikIAc_Jt8_XUXIs-Q0)
Thanks kindly! Looking forward to watching it.
Ryan.
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Having the celebrities make shapes with their arms was a good solution from a "silly fun" standpoint, but during that entire act, all I could think was, "I really hope they have a cue card off to the side with a tic-tac-toe grid drawn onto it for the contestants to look at."
I wonder how long that stopdown actually was.
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I was surprised to see the big Viacom 'V' instead of the Fremantle script at the end of the Split Second eps this weekend.
edit: and it pronounced 'Vee-a-com' instead of 'Vy-a-com'
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edit: and it pronounced 'Vee-a-com' instead of 'Vy-a-com'
Interesting. This same mistake was made in the "I Predict" pilot that was posted here previously.
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"Vee-a-com" is by all accounts how they originally wanted the name pronounced. Per Wikipedia's "Notes" on the original company:
The pronunciation /ˈviːəkɒm/ VEE-ə-kom was used by inaugural chairman Ralph Baruch. The pronunciation /ˈvaɪ.əkɒm/ VY-ə-kom was favored by Sumner Redstone and included in its audible identification marks following its purchase by National Amusements in 1986.
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Sale goes back to Fall 1985 with episode 118.
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First mention of Mr. Smith being a "former" NBC show (after Gary Burghoff says "Who's Mr. Smith?"--much like most of America apparently)
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And apparently Nedra Volz can traverse the stairs up to the third tier as she's only playing HS on tonight's rerun.
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I was hoping she would ride it in
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GARY BURGHOFF (getting booed): "Hey listen folks, you should try it up here some time! Not everyone's Richard Dawson, you know."
GENE: "Thank God for that."
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GARY BURGHOFF (getting booed): "Hey listen folks, you should try it up here some time! Not everyone's Richard Dawson, you know."
GENE: "Thank God for that."
Also Gary (every other HS question this week, it seems): "That's the dumbest question I ever heard!"
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This week on MGHS, NBC showed a little generosity: While there are plenty of celebrities on this week's panel from We Got It Made and Another World, meaning many plugs for those shows, Gary Burghoff got to plug the CBS program he made a couple of guest appearances on. One of the Audience Match questions was AFTER ______, and the most popular answer was "M*A*S*H."
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IDK, is it my imagination or is the board (MGHS) *still* acting up? Stuff keeps turning on and off.
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The top two rows did get all blinky again tonight. It felt like once that second game, they just went ahead and rang the bell because the board was so unstable. Seemed like there would have been another minute or two of play normally, although maybe that was just Buzzr pushing the breaks around slightly.
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GARY BURGHOFF (getting booed): "Hey listen folks, you should try it up here some time! Not everyone's Richard Dawson, you know."
GENE: "Thank God for that."
Also Gary (every other HS question this week, it seems): "That's the dumbest question I ever heard!"
Which may explain why this was his one MG/HS appearance.
It looks like his AfterMASH appearances aired January 16 and 23, so these episodes (airing January 23-27) may have been a little late to stir up interest.
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I see Orson Welles has replaced Elizabeth Taylor as the brunt of the fat joke prompts. I'm pretty sure I've noticed at least four mentions of him in the last three weeks.
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I admit I'm not a regular MGHSHr watcher, and apologies if I missed this in the thread, but for the HS portion, I'm noticing that for the "either-or" questions, when one option sounds a little more outrageous or out of left field, you should go probably with that answer.
One question tonight asked whether you should use Vaseline or lard to get grass stains out of your clothes. The celebrity said Vaseline; it was lard.
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Did fee plugs slip by Buzzr's editing of LMaD before last night or was that a first for those?
I’ve been watching the last couple nights, and both nights they included midshow plugs, which shocked the hell outta me. But...I remember watching Family Channel reruns, where they simply returned from commercial with no music, but Monty walking through the audience as it applauded. Seeing the plugs gives this more context.
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Did fee plugs slip by Buzzr's editing of LMaD before last night or was that a first for those?
I’ve been watching the last couple nights, and both nights they included midshow plugs, which shocked the hell outta me. But...I remember watching Family Channel reruns, where they simply returned from commercial with no music, but Monty walking through the audience as it applauded. Seeing the plugs gives this more context.
As far as I know, Buzzr has run those plugs for as long as they've been running the 1985-86 season.
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Did fee plugs slip by Buzzr's editing of LMaD before last night or was that a first for those?
I’ve been watching the last couple nights, and both nights they included midshow plugs, which shocked the hell outta me. But...I remember watching Family Channel reruns, where they simply returned from commercial with no music, but Monty walking through the audience as it applauded. Seeing the plugs gives this more context.
As far as I know, Buzzr has run those plugs for as long as they've been running the 1985-86 season.
Watching tonight, Dean mentions some traders will receive the prizes (a KFC gift certificate, World Book Encyclopedia, etc.). I'm guessing this is what Zonk "winners" received instead.
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By comparison, are the sponsor billboards less ubiquitous than they were in prior years?