From the other thread of DonD, Multiple of 10 and Fifth Grader going to possible syndication, plus watching one depressing pilot after another, I'm beginning to wonder if there will ever be a long-term hit that got its start in syndication. Crosswords can be considered an original enough show, and its struggling. Am I right in thinking:

1. Until Crosswords, there has not been an original (meaning not from cable, not from network daytime, not from network primetime) 5-a-week syndicated offering at all since Street Smarts.

2. Since Street Smarts can't be considered a true "hit" (since it's ratings never really crossed that high), has there ever been a true original syndie hit? Bullseye and Face the Music only lasted two years. Is Freaking Studs the best original syndie game show ever?


--Mike

But is it struggling based solely on its syndication, or is it struggling because the game sucks? When I talk to people who are not nearly as die-hard of game-show fans as we are, and THEY point out the glaring sniper flaw in the game, and the utter lack of meaning to the Extra and the Getaway, that can't be a good sign.

I'd hesitate to be so dismissive of Street Smarts, especially when the comparable programs are Bullseye and Face the Music, two shows that certainly didn't set the ratings world on fire. It stayed on the air, and in syndication, that's success enough.

Among daily shows, you'd have to consider Liar's Club* and Cross-Wits to be just about the most successful syndie-only game shows, excluding relationship shows like Love Connection and Freakin' Studs. And again, depending on where you draw the line, weekly shows like Sports Challenge (the brief CBS run notwithstanding) and American Gladiators had healthy runs.

Considering the entire recorded history of television game shows, I think the fact that there have been so few syndie-only successes is pretty telling, regardless of the quality of the show.

*EDIT: Wait, no, Liar's Club wasn't always (ever?) daily, was it?

If we consider revivals to be separate iterations from the original versions, I think J! and the current run of Feud could be put in this group, too, especially J!

Er, if they were on a network originally, they didn't "get their start in syndication" and they're not "true originals," are they?

I think that it's possible. Temptation, and to a lesser degree, Crosswords, are both heaping piles of crap that need multiple fixes, and the general public senses that.

Better clearances would help, but I think that it's going to have to be quite a well-produced, well-thought out show that doesn't look cheaper than 95% of the other shows on television (T$) or be slightly less cheap but have glaring flaws (MGC) to really catch people's eyes nowadays.

I was trying to avoid weekly syndies in this, just thinking about dailies, the environment Crosswords is trying to live in.

Liar's Club was daily. Forgot about Cross-Wits. PDQ also had a multi-year run, albeit helped by being in color when most syndie product was still B&W.


--Mike

In this case, they should be counted, as there were no network versions of the current J! or Feud (not counting ABC's "Super J!" in 1990).

But the thread implies shows that specifically started as syndicated entities, without any prior versions. That's why Cross-Wits, Street Smarts, and MG's Crosswords count, as opposed to Jeopardy! or Feud.

I really didn't think this would be such a difficult concept to grasp. We're talking about shows that are unique to syndication. Jeopardy and Feud (and about a zillion others) may have been on the air in syndication without a network counterpart, but they are still shows that debuted on a network first, where they had the opportunity to find an audience, work out their kinks and become solid games and established properties that are easier sells in the competitive world of syndication.

As for the frequency of Liar's Club, why am I hearing in my head the announcer saying "Welcome to our weekly meeting of the Liar's Club"?

*Regular* meeting of the "Liars' Club."

Like almost all strip syndies of that era, they were designed so that they could play once a week along with or in place of a strip.

DING!

Thanks.

If I'm not mistaken, in the '76-77 season it was just a weekly show. That was when they had those funny rules where everyone had different odds for each question. It moved to daily in '77-78 and somewhere along the line dropped from four contestants to three.

I agree that you'd have to consider Street Smarts a hit; Family Feud too, for that matter. Anything that can hang on for all those years has to be somewhat of a hit.

According to several 1976-77 listings I've looked at, Liar's was definitely a five-a-week, unless stations were running them quick.


--Mike

Didn't The Movie Game last as long as the longest run of The Liar's Club?