The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: pyrawoman on January 17, 2004, 04:42:37 PM
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Ok people. For those of you that want to keep Pyramid on the air, the best way is to contact your local TV station that airs Pyramid - either by phone, email, or snail mail. The below letter has been sent to a number of fans who have written in. It's from John Weiser, Exec. Vice-President of Sony Pictures Television. CONTACT YOUR LOCAL STATION NOW. NAPTE is TOMORROW!!!
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"First and foremost, thank you for being such a great fan of the show. We too, want Pyramid to remain on local broadcasts, and are doing what we can on our end to support the show.
The decision unfortunately, is in the hands of the local television stations. In order to help us, we are asking viewers to make calls to their local TV station(s) and request that Pyramid be renewed. There's always hope if enough calls/letters come through to the individual stations.
Thank you so much Robin, for your support of Donny and Pyramid. It is truly appreciated.
Sincerely,
John Weiser "
Exec. Vice President of Sony Pictures Television.
email: john_weiser@spe.sony.com
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GREAT ADVICE:
This whole "Pyramid" issue is confusing... a show that experts call a "shoo-in" for renewal gets "cancelled" via a secret notice BUT a SONY exec says that we should call our stations... BUT if they were informed of what was said they were told they would look elsewhere! SONY should take the lead and give the show a show of confidence aqnd renew it early like last year. That said SONY needs to stll be written to as well as LOCAL STATIONS.
Most are on line. It's easy! Type in the call letters in a search.
LOCALLY FOR ANYONE HERE IN NY: It's CHANNEL 5 (WNYW)
e mail: www.fox5ny.com
SNAIL MAIL:
205 East 67th Street
New York, NY 10021-6099
NY's FOX-5 IS THE EAST COAST FOX STATION FOR MANY SATTELITE OUTLETS SO EVEN IF YOU DON"T LIVE IN NYC AREA YOU CAN WRITE TO WNYW AS IT'S ON DISH!
If you would like to call : (212) 452-5555
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No, unless they plan to review all of the issues the show had, I do not want them to renew it. To beg them to leave the show on is am impicit vote for poor judging, support of briefing celebrities, and the general bastardization of a great show.
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[quote name=\'TheGameShowGuy\' date=\'Jan 17 2004, 11:16 PM\'] GREAT ADVICE:
This whole "Pyramid" issue is confusing... a show that experts call a "shoo-in" for renewal gets "cancelled" via a secret notice BUT a SONY exec says that we should call our stations... BUT if they were informed of what was said they were told they would look elsewhere! SONY should take the lead and give the show a show of confidence aqnd renew it early like last year. That said SONY needs to stll be written to as well as LOCAL STATIONS.
Most are on line. It's easy! Type in the call letters in a search.
LOCALLY FOR ANYONE HERE IN NY: It's CHANNEL 5 (WNYW)
e mail: www.fox5ny.com
SNAIL MAIL:
205 East 67th Street
New York, NY 10021-6099
NY's FOX-5 IS THE EAST COAST FOX STATION FOR MANY SATTELITE OUTLETS SO EVEN IF YOU DON"T LIVE IN NYC AREA YOU CAN WRITE TO WNYW AS IT'S ON DISH!
If you would like to call : (212) 452-5555 [/quote]
Would you quite posting this in every "Pyramid" thread on the internet? Thank you.
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[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Jan 17 2004, 11:30 PM\'] No, unless they plan to review all of the issues the show had, I do not want them to renew it. To beg them to leave the show on is am impicit vote for poor judging, support of briefing celebrities, and the general bastardization of a great show. [/quote]
Must say that I agree with you. The mourning over Pyramid strikes me as being more "one less game show" than over a show that was necessarily at its peak. As it is, I even put Davidson $100K and $50K over it on the PPO (Pyramid Pecking Order). Even the freaking Junior Pyramid that GSN used to show the four episodes of for weeks on end during Dark Period '97! Neither of those, from my admittedly limited experience with them, seemed quite as watered down. Or had...
- The judging monkeys
- The set/theme that seemed to be run through whatever machine Junior Badseed used to suck the soul out of FF's in 1994
- Contestants being treated as people as much as the cameraman (could they say LESS to them?!!?)
- Yes, said celeb briefing. Are today's stars so afraid of showing ass (NO, not the literal version), that they have to have more protection that a football player?
- A no-climatic tournament due to retarded rules ("It's less than $100,000...it's the, erm, $64,000 Pyramid?" Insert "rrrrrrrrrrrrigging" joke here)
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Ok-I may not speak for everyone when I say this but....
These "save Pyramid" posts are getting quite annoying. Trying to make us all do something that some of us don't want to do (or care), and then posting a million places on where to write/email/call/fax is cluttering up the board. I mean, we don't even agree on the best game show of all time, so how could we come to a consensus on something smaller, like which shows should be kept/saved? I do think that Pyramid should be saved, but if it isn't, well it isn't- and telling me I need to rally and send massive responses to sony won't do anything but make me mad.
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Yep, that's exactly what the article at tvgameshows.net says. Check it out.
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I want to hear that if we help save the show, that they will fix the problems the show had as a reward to us.
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[quote name=\'whoserman\' date=\'Jan 18 2004, 04:40 PM\'] I want to hear that if we help save the show, that they will fix the problems the show had as a reward to us. [/quote]
Well, they will TELL you whatever they think you WANT to hear. What I want to see is followthru, and based on what I've seen from this show since it's started, the producers have exactly ZERO concept of the vision we have for it. So I'm content to let it die.
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[quote name=\'whoserman\' date=\'Jan 18 2004, 06:40 PM\'] I want to hear that if we help save the show, that they will fix the problems the show had as a reward to us. [/quote]
And I want to hear that Quizbusters, Hit Man, and the ABC episodes of Password have been added to GSN's schedule. But those events are about as likely as what you suggest.
- David
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Agreed.
Goodbye, Sony Pyramid.
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[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Jan 18 2004, 08:58 PM\'] [quote name=\'whoserman\' date=\'Jan 18 2004, 04:40 PM\'] I want to hear that if we help save the show, that they will fix the problems the show had as a reward to us. [/quote]
Well, they will TELL you whatever they think you WANT to hear. What I want to see is followthru, and based on what I've seen from this show since it's started, the producers have exactly ZERO concept of the vision we have for it. So I'm content to let it die. [/quote]
It seems to me that the producers of Pyramid simply don't know what our "vision" of the show is. See their instituting the give/recieve option in the winners circle...the rule came back, which is something a lot of people were wanting (I see why it's a good idea but it doesn't ruin my watching the show if it ain't there), but it doesn't seem to work like it used to.
To me, protesting to keep this game on the air is like begging GSN not to let Whammy! die. It will be back in one form or another, folks.
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Well, they will TELL you whatever they think you WANT to hear. What I want to see is followthru, and based on what I've seen from this show since it's started, the producers have exactly ZERO concept of the vision we have for it. So I'm content to let it die.
This is what I was trying to say...not all of have the same vision for Pyramid. Some of us were very unhappy with the new version. Some of us liked it. some didn't care either way. So as a whole, we don't share the same vision. I wish Pyramid wouldn't die, but if it does, oh well.
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[quote name=\'urbanpreppie05\' date=\'Jan 18 2004, 08:04 PM\'] This is what I was trying to say...not all of have the same vision for Pyramid. Some of us were very unhappy with the new version. Some of us liked it. some didn't care either way. So as a whole, we don't share the same vision. I wish Pyramid wouldn't die, but if it does, oh well. [/quote]
Sure! And those of you who enjoyed the show as it was, please write your cards and letters and emails, and I wish you the very best of luck.
I simply don't want people to be compelled to ask this show be continued with the hopes that they turn it into what they want it to be, because I don't believe that will happen. Make your decision based on what it _is_.
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I know this is a stupid question but I have to ask. I am assuming that Sony now owns the full rights to the Pyramid game whether it be the 100k, 10k, 25k version or whatever. Could Bob or Sande Stewart come back and take the show over and run it their way since Bob was the creator? Would he have to get the rights back that were possibly sold off to Sony? How would this work?
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[quote name=\'Brandon Brooks\' date=\'Jan 18 2004, 10:02 PM\'] [quote name=\'Pyramid80\' date=\'Jan 18 2004, 11:00 PM\'] I know this is a stupid question but I have to ask. I am assuming that Sony now owns the full rights to the Pyramid game whether it be the 100k, 10k, 25k version or whatever. Could Bob or Sande Stewart come back and take the show over and run it their way since Bob was the creator? Would he have to get the rights back that were possibly sold off to Sony? How would this work? [/quote]
Just a point of clarification: Sony owns the rights, but they don't own all the incarnations.
Brandon Brooks [/quote]
Yep. Here are the 3 incarnations they don't have yet:
1. $25,000 Pyramid (Cullen)
2. $50,000 Pyramid
3. $100,000 Pyramid (Davidson)
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Not to nitpick here, but Sony doesn't outright *own* any incarnation, does it? I thought it had to split the Stewart library with Liberty Media when they bought a chunk of GSN.
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As much as I enjoy this version and would like it to continue, I'll pass on writing a letter. While they're not as useless as internet petitions, I don't think write-in campaigns are too effective. I'm sure my local station would be just as happy airing another infomercial as Pyramid.
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We'll here is my lame response that I got from my CBS affiliate:
Sony Pictures announced last week that they were canceling the program.
Thank you for your interest in CBS 42.
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[quote name=\'tommycharles\' date=\'Jan 19 2004, 01:02 AM\'] Not to nitpick here, but Sony doesn't outright *own* any incarnation, does it? I thought it had to split the Stewart library with Liberty Media when they bought a chunk of GSN. [/quote]
It depends on what was or was not part of the agreement. Sony's ownership of the libraries (Barris, B-E and Stewart most notably) could easily be a completely different thing than control of GSN itself. In fact, I thought the speculation was that one reason we're seeing the same season of reruns over and over on some shows was that Sony didn't want to bother letting GSN have any more.
I'm SO not in a position to know for sure, but my instinct would be that Sony would have retained the rights to the libraries and merely sold off a half-interest in the operation of GSN.
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[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Jan 19 2004, 11:22 AM\'][quote name=\'tommycharles\' date=\'Jan 19 2004, 01:02 AM\'] Not to nitpick here, but Sony doesn't outright *own* any incarnation, does it? I thought it had to split the Stewart library with Liberty Media when they bought a chunk of GSN. [/quote]
It depends on what was or was not part of the agreement. Sony's ownership of the libraries (Barris, B-E and Stewart most notably) could easily be a completely different thing than control of GSN itself. In fact, I thought the speculation was that one reason we're seeing the same season of reruns over and over on some shows was that Sony didn't want to bother letting GSN have any more.
I'm SO not in a position to know for sure, but my instinct would be that Sony would have retained the rights to the libraries and merely sold off a half-interest in the operation of GSN.[/quote]
I'm pretty sure that your hunch is correct, Matt--in fact, Sony owned the Barris library for a few years before GSN was conceived. They acquired it as part of the deal that brought Jon Peters and Peter Guber in to run the studio in 1991. Guber and Peters had acquired Barris from Burt Sugarman and Jeff Wald in 1990. In fact, it was the ownership of the Barris properties, along with Merv's properties, that inspired Sony to come up with the idea of GSN.
And as for the other suggestion brought up--I think I can say without fear of contradiction that Bob Stewart is retired permanently from television. Period. And considering that formats are still potentially profitable overseas, if Sande Stewart wanted to take "Pyramid" off of Sony's hands, they would probably ask for more money than he could afford.
What Sony should've done all along was hire Sande Stewart to supervise the new version, but that's water over the bridge now--and since he might've gone for the post-industrial set and techno music, as well, even if he kept everything else like the original, some of you would've still complained.