The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: daveromanjr on December 01, 2021, 10:05:44 AM
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I was looking around Television City's website and noticed something odd. In January 1983 there is record of Card Sharks taping in studio 33.
Was there a pilot? Maybe a clerical error? Googling didn't come up with anything so I figured I'd ask here.
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I'm guessing it was a clerical error, but the more I think about it, you could make the case that it may not have been.
Password and Blockbusters were cancelled in '82, so in 1983, G-T had Price, Feud, Child's Play, MGHS Hour, and Tattletales on air. Outside of Price, each of those shows was on fairly shaky ground that year, so it wouldn't have been a surprise to see G-T dust off the hits to see if they still played. After all, Password was only off the air for two years when it came back in 84.
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I know reruns aired on CBN and local stations right around that time, and IIRC G-T wanted to do a nighttime version at some point during the Perry run. I'm guessing pilot to test the waters.
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Must be a typo. Card Sharks taped there in January 86
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Must be a typo. Card Sharks taped there in January 86
Probably.
It does remind me of a syndicated TV reference book that tried to pass off the rerun package as a "new" version of the NBC series, and one that just added the survey questions to the game.
Does anyone remember what time period the rerun package covered? I do remember seeing the Money Cards podium with and without the "$" from watching them.
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Does anyone remember what time period the rerun package covered? I do remember seeing the Money Cards podium with and without the "$" from watching them.
In that case, late 1979/early 1980 at the very least, since the $ was added in January 1980.
EDIT: Do you remember G2T2 having the question cards along the front? Since they switched from that to the lights in front in October 1979.
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Does anyone remember what time period the rerun package covered? I do remember seeing the Money Cards podium with and without the "$" from watching them.
In that case, late 1979/early 1980 at the very least, since the $ was added in January 1980.
EDIT: Do you remember G2T2 having the question cards along the front? Since they switched from that to the lights in front in October 1979.
I'm not sure. That was one thing that escaped my memories until I saw the Perry version again through mid-90s tape trades. I got earlier episodes first with the cards, then when I got the series finale, I was like, "Wow they got Eubanks-style light-up displays..." (I had watched Eubanks eps. again before getting Perry ones too)
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Does anyone remember what time period the rerun package covered? I do remember seeing the Money Cards podium with and without the "$" from watching them.
A few June 1983 repeats do circulate. The first few originally aired in October 1981, up to and including the finale. They jumped back to 1978 episodes immediately after...the episodes were from September, if I recall correctly. The contestant plugs were completely intact.
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The pilot taped in May of 1985, I believe. Beyond that, this is the first I've heard of such a thing.
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A few June 1983 repeats do circulate. The first few originally aired in October 1981, up to and including the finale. They jumped back to 1978 episodes immediately after...the episodes were from September, if I recall correctly. The contestant plugs were completely intact.
Firestone syndicated these reruns, no? Not to go all closing logo geek on the Forum, but did they put a logo on the reruns?
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It does remind me of a syndicated TV reference book that tried to pass off the rerun package as a "new" version of the NBC series, and one that just added the survey questions to the game.
That would be Hal Erickson's Syndicated Television: The First Forty Years, 1947-1987, although Erickson put the addition of the survey questions with the 1986 Rafferty version. (It seems to me, though, that Alex McNeil's Total Television may have put those two "facts" together; I got rid of that book when I moved, so I can't confirm it.) Erickson's book, though it contains other such errors (The New Price Is Right is said to have run in syndication only from 1972-74), is still a great read because Erickson's descriptions of the various series are colorful and opinionated. I got it for my birthday recently and read it cover-to-cover.
Those opinions, though, sometimes make for amusing reading in retrospect. My favorite one comes from Erickson's review of the early Fox series The Tracey Ullman Show. (Erickson treated the early Fox shows as syndies because Fox wasn't yet a full-fledged network.) Although he had nothing but praise for most of the show, he did have one complaint: "The only detraction was the dreadfully unfunny animated sequences used as buffers between the sketches." Those "dreadfully unfunny" cartoons, of course, spawned the longest-running scripted prime-time series on American television, which is still going some 31 years after its parent series left the air.
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That would be Hal Erickson's Syndicated Television: The First Forty Years, 1947-1987, although Erickson put the addition of the survey questions with the 1986 Rafferty version. (It seems to me, though, that Alex McNeil's Total Television may have put those two "facts" together; I got rid of that book when I moved, so I can't confirm it.) Erickson's book, though it contains other such errors (The New Price Is Right is said to have run in syndication only from 1972-74), is still a great read because Erickson's descriptions of the various series are colorful and opinionated. I got it for my birthday recently and read it cover-to-cover.
Looks like it's available for "borrowing" at the Internet Archive:
https://archive.org/details/syndicatedtelevi0000eric
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That would be Hal Erickson's Syndicated Television: The First Forty Years, 1947-1987, although Erickson put the addition of the survey questions with the 1986 Rafferty version. (It seems to me, though, that Alex McNeil's Total Television may have put those two "facts" together; I got rid of that book when I moved, so I can't confirm it.) Erickson's book, though it contains other such errors (The New Price Is Right is said to have run in syndication only from 1972-74), is still a great read because Erickson's descriptions of the various series are colorful and opinionated. I got it for my birthday recently and read it cover-to-cover.
Looks like it's available for "borrowing" at the Internet Archive:
https://archive.org/details/syndicatedtelevi0000eric
Nice.
Is his animated series book out there? I wonder what he DID think of The Simpsons when the series began.
This is also infamous for his commentary about The Raccoons and how Cyril Sneer was a "pink wolf".
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That would be Hal Erickson's Syndicated Television: The First Forty Years, 1947-1987, although Erickson put the addition of the survey questions with the 1986 Rafferty version. (It seems to me, though, that Alex McNeil's Total Television may have put those two "facts" together; I got rid of that book when I moved, so I can't confirm it.) Erickson's book, though it contains other such errors (The New Price Is Right is said to have run in syndication only from 1972-74), is still a great read because Erickson's descriptions of the various series are colorful and opinionated. I got it for my birthday recently and read it cover-to-cover.
Looks like it's available for "borrowing" at the Internet Archive:
https://archive.org/details/syndicatedtelevi0000eric
Nice.
Is his animated series book out there? I wonder what he DID think of The Simpsons when the series began.
This is also infamous for his commentary about The Raccoons and how Cyril Sneer was a "pink wolf".
https://archive.org/details/televisioncartoo0000eric
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Is his animated series book out there? I wonder what he DID think of The Simpsons when the series began.
In that book, Erickson said the "at first unfunny and intrusive" cartoons "improved" when they began concentrating on the yet-to-be named Simpsons. "Gradually, the cartoon sketches grew to be a benefit rather than a detriment to Tracey Ullman's variety weekly."
Although he found the first season of The Simpsons to be of "off-and-on quality," Erickson wrote, "By season three ... Simpsons was one the best sitcoms of any kind, live or cartoon." He did, however, sense that "the writing had slackened a bit by 1993, leaning towards recycling what had worked in past episodes and pursuing too many gags beyond their worth." In other words, he was a typical early Simpsons fan.
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Looks like it's available for "borrowing" at the Internet Archive:
https://archive.org/details/syndicatedtelevi0000eric
I remember reading a copy in my college's library around 2004. Reading it again, it's cool being able to see so many of these shows on Youtube, even if it's just short clips. Same goes for the archived Broadcasting issues.
Although he found the first season of The Simpsons to be of "off-and-on quality," Erickson wrote, "By season three ... Simpsons was one the best sitcoms of any kind, live or cartoon." He did, however, sense that "the writing had slackened a bit by 1993, leaning towards recycling what had worked in past episodes and pursuing too many gags beyond their worth." In other words, he was a typical early Simpsons fan.
I do agree with the show finding its stride around season three. Would love to know what he thinks of the post-2000 episodes.
/I do think it fell off around S9 or 10
//The movie was pretty good
///As are the Treehouse of Horror eps.
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During the late 70s and early 80s the proliferation of affiliates pre empting 12 noon and 4 pm shows grew. Slightly later the pre-noon slots save for Price were also often pre empted or shifted to independent stations with smaller audiences. So these episodes had never aired in many cities and ad syndication they offered stations the chance to sell more local spots than they’d have by carrying the network.
It seems poignant that station executives at the time cared enough about the chance to sell time that this mattered. Todays local station managers are largely indifferent and now deal with ratings so s SL that any program’s impact is deemed inconsequential. One reason you see very little new content being offered. Consider this: in LA today two hours of midday on KCOP are being filled by 50 year old reruns of Mary Tyler Moore and 70 year old reruns of I Love Lucy.
Call me a sentimental old fart but I kind of miss the opportunistic types like Sandy Frank and they Firestone family who would and could exploit the marketplace to sell pre existing shows as new to you and make everybody including themselves a few bucks.
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The boutiques (I'll include Jim Victory, Jack Rhodes and the King Brothers) may have only one or two properties, but they made enough to stay in the game, so to speak. Now you have to be a biggie or become a biggie (Debmar) to compete.
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During the late 70s and early 80s the proliferation of affiliates pre empting 12 noon and 4 pm shows grew. Slightly later the pre-noon slots save for Price were also often pre empted or shifted to independent stations with smaller audiences. So these episodes had never aired in many cities and ad syndication they offered stations the chance to sell more local spots than they’d have by carrying
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Goodson was a master salesman who split the market to his advantage whenever possible. He spread many of his properties across different distributors both to leverage them Against each other as well as to have inside knowledge of who did what how and how he could use that knowledge to his benefit. Unlike for example Barry-Enright who effectively owned Dick Colbert —and Colbert essentially was in business because of Jack—the MG divide and conquer strategy was exemplary of how smart he was.
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During the late 70s and early 80s the proliferation of affiliates pre empting 12 noon and 4 pm shows grew. Slightly later the pre-noon slots save for Price were also often pre empted or shifted to independent stations with smaller audiences. So these episodes had never aired in many cities and ad syndication they offered stations the chance to sell more local spots than they’d have by carrying
That would be the case with Card Sharks
In Detroit, channel 4 stopped airing CS when NBC moved the show to noon, so there was more than a years worth that weren't cleared initially. When Firestone offered the off-network run in fall 82, Channel 2 picked it up and installed it at 9:30 until at least fall 84, much of that was first run in Detroit. Visiting NYC in summer 83, WABC had Card Sharks at 10:30, opposite Jim Perry's $ale on Channel 4.
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Goodson was a master salesman who split the market to his advantage whenever possible. He spread many of his properties across different distributors both to leverage them Against each other as well as to have inside knowledge of who did what how and how he could use that knowledge to his benefit.
Mark Goodson wasn't that business savvy. It was all Jerry Chester who was also instrumental in enacting the prime-access rule. Goodson had to be fairly dragged into syndication.
Before Jerry Chester it was Bud Austin and Bill Todman before him.