Per Buzzerblog, March 30th marks the return of both the $25,000 and $100,000 versions of Pyramid as well as Hollywood Squares (no mention which incarnation), and the departure of Card Sharks, Blockbusters, and PYL from the lineup entirely. Weekend schedule gets some major modification, while weekdays get some tweaks.

PYL deserves a rest. Not that I hate the show (I don't) but it was the same episodes over and over again, with no point ever in moving on to the 1983 and 1986 episodes.

And don't even get me started on the way they handled the final Home Player Spin. They only showed the first 4 weeks, and never bothered to show the last week from that contest.

Do you think any newer fan of the show who saw those first 4 weeks of the 3rd HPS on GSN would not want to care about seeing the 5th and last week to see the final outcome? No.

Press Your Luck is being dropped across the board?!
Would this be the first time since it made its GSN debut in September 2001 that it's off the schedule?
Great news about 1980s Pyramid coming back.
I also noticed that What's My Line? is getting the heavy-ho along with Bud TTTT.

Several people have noted that it appears much of the G/T stable is gone, short of the various incarnations of MG, FF, and Password. New smaller contract with Fremantle, perhaps?

A seven day schedule contains 133 hours of programming. On the current schedule, 69 hours are from shows produced from 2000 forward. (9 of those hours is poker.) With the new schedule, at least 67 hours will be from 2000 forward. 9 of those, again, is poker while an extra 5 or 6 hours could be added depending on which Hollywood Squares is shown.

My money's on Bergeron.

Same here...last I heard, Marshall's version pulled horrible ratings.

I think it's gonna be Bergeron, but the question remains if GSN will air the 1998-99 shows or the later ones. :)

And the Davidson version is still in Legal Limbo, so I can't see what else it could be.

I'm disappointed we couldn't get to the end of the Perry Run, surely they could've dropped a Karn Feud for this...

...but otherwise, I'm alright with the schedule.

You can jump down my throat all you want, but I feel that WML deserves a rest. However, I give it about three months before it comes back. (That was about the same amount of time it was off in 2002.....)

Also, the ORIGINAL Password is returning; but I've a hunch it will be the COLOR episodes.....

Cordially,
Tammy

Yes, this is the first time since Sept '01 that PYL will be totally off the schedule. I guess they really feel they have to go with more recent shows in order to attract enough eyeballs. The older ones - even some Goodson-Todman ones it now appears - seemingly don't do the trick anymore.

While my first instinct is to be disappointed, truth be told I haven't been watching the "Black & White Overnight" hour (which, apparently, we can't call it anymore). The original What's My Lines have been on the schedule somewhere pretty much as long as the network has been around. Considering they were decades-old reruns to begin with, I think we've had ample time to have our fill of them.

This is the first I've heard of this; isn't Marshall & Bergeron HS both owned by MGM?

According to Wikipedia, The Davidson version and the Marshall version are both currently owned by MGM Television. The Bergeron version is co-owned by Sony Pictures Television & CBS Television Distribution. CBS holds the full format rights, as well as the rest of the Merrill Heatter/Bob Quigley library.

This is true. And at least they got to the Clifton Fadiman episodes before dropping the series.
As for the G-T B&Ws, I was more of a Beat The Clock fan anyway.

I knew that; I was wondering what "legal limbo" the Davidson HS is in?

Wow... I am simply stunned about the loss of classic PYL. I know I'll still have Whammy, but without its parent around, just having the kid there just isn't the same.

So... 7 years and 7 months... about as good a run as the original PYL deserved to have all along.

And if having $25K back results in only that last year being looped over and over like last time, then all bets are off, especially with anyone that complains about PYL's loop.

I agree here...great to see the Pyramids back on the schedule, but man, if they run those gods-be-darned last-13-weeks, I will be very disappointed.

All we ask, as a community, is to start in 1985 or 1986 with $25K. Right?

And the $100K eps should start in season 2, maybe.

Just scanned the Buzzer article but I believe it will be the first time in six years that Blockbusters is not on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

Truth be told though, it was on consecutively about as long as its USA run, with about 2/3 as many episodes aired in order, as opposed to jumping around its run. My guess is that TPTB decided it was time to give the show a break, since going by the ratings I saw at PIFeedback, it was still holding its own, especially on weekends.

I'm actually more surprised that they're yanking all episodes of Card Sharks from the lineup.....

Tyshaun

I am excited that the 25k and 100k Pyramid is coming back to GSN. I personally hope that on the 25k that they start at the beginning. The last few times it has been on the schedule, the started with late 87. I don't think that the 82-83 episodes have been in regular rotation since around 2000 or 2001.

As disappointed as I am in some of the shows we're losing, getting 25KP, 100KP and prime-time Password definitely makes up for it, especially if I get a second chance to tape Kelly Grogan's shows.

Kelly was a great player, and a very nice woman!

Honestly, I'd love to see some blue-box Winner's Circle episodes, but I'll gladly take the middle part of the run, c. 1984.

/Don't really care on the year
//80s Pyramid should be one of the prime examples shown in a game show production class
///Completely flawless IMO

I saw (taped) 'WML' last night and saw 'Blockbusters' this am. Both times I thought how there is a possibility that soon they are going to be gone for good this spring.

If so I wonder if the recent pulling of 'Trivia Trap','Now You See it' et al from late nights was done to gradually remove the G/T stables from the schedule.

A trip back to the Dark Period of '97 again for sure. But then according to that train of thought, why is PYL going with it? Fremantle, yes, but G/T, no. Matter of fact, almost makes you wonder if PYL should be considered the most successful "independent" game show ever made. But that's for another time.

Also on that same train, wouldn't said Dark Period also call for a place for things like Treasure Hunt and (especially) Tic Tac & Joker? Man... I miss 80s Joker...

At least put classic Newlywed Game on again to tie in with the new version. Or would that send the wrong signals? (Hey, the PYL/Whammy! combo always worked, even if it's in reverse order now.)

I never thought this so-called "dark period" was really that dark. At least for a few months it gave us a chance to see some of the lesser-known shows GSN had the rights to. I could never figure out why, when the GT shows came back, they couldn't have kept a few of those lesser-known shows on the weekend schedule :(

Agreed, and who knows? If the all-inclusive deal with Fremantle is really over, they might need to go back to that oddball well to fill in holes. Surely at some point they'll realize they're not doing themselves any favors running Family Feud seven times a day.

Still, this is hardly a "dark period". Maybe light grey. They're keeping their most popular G-T shows (including the myraid versions of Password). For fans, it may be hard at first to get used to a GSN where all the G-T shows aren't just up on a shelf ready to get plopped in whenever they want, but that sure appears to be the case.

And here's hoping that's right. The one show I watch on a regular basis and they're yanking it for *more* Feud?

Oh well, at least I won't have to watch the annoying new "hey look at us polishing our logo" bug any more...that thing gets real annoying real fast.

QFT.

They could afford to tone down the Feud and throw out some surprises, maybe some of the lesser-known Stewart catalogue like Go and Pass the Buck in the late-night slots where Trivia Trap, Now You See It, Double Dare '76 and Beat The Clock '79 were.

Those are good choices. I'd actually like to see something from the rarely used Barry-Enright library too - Break the Bank and CBS Joker's Wild would be nice additions!

I'd like to see two very late-night half-hours a night where short-run series could be aired in their entirety and then put back into mothballs. You could get six to eight shows run in a year. Maybe call it "For Fans Only" to entice the non-fans :) Failing that, maybe have a GSN On Demand service that would be recordable.

Holy crap, if there was a GSN OD and it was semi-decent, I'd never get anything done.

I realize when you say "they could afford..." you're not strictly talking in a financial sense, but there are a couple people on GSN's board who are making proclamations about what GSN ought to be able to "afford" to do based on no knowledge whatsoever about their finances. Yes, for fans, it would be swell to see forgotten gems from the Stewart library, but let's not lose sight of the fact that any show they get costs them money, and buying something only to show it in the wee hours does not make a lot of sense.

If the rumors and suppositions are true, we are at the end of the era where the entire kit and non-TPIR kaboodle of G-T stuff was all covered under one big agreement. And convential wisdom has been that since Sony's now only a partner in GSN with Liberty, even the Sony product isn't as free for the taking as it once was. I think the practical upshoot of all of that is the end (for now, maybe) of less mainstream-popular older shows popping up on the network.

Good points. You're right that I was just using "they could afford" in a figure-of-speech sense, though you aren't going to see me go on some GSN-esque rant about how they could show Joker and the entire Stewart library 26 times a day (there is a reason I haven't visited GSN's forums in about six months after all)

Honestly, it had slipped my mind about the Sony/Liberty partnership. I wonder, though, if indeed the Fremantle library is going to fracture up into many mini-contracts instead of one for Price and Feud '94 and another for everything else, what will end up filling the voids. I'd imagine we will begin seeing more Stewart (March 30th's schedule already begins this) and probably some of the more well-known Barris programs like Newlywed and Dating, with more of their typical low-budget originals filling the rest. I'd not be surprised to see them resort to expanding poker again as a short-term fix.

Me either, frankly. Best as I can tell, poker is the only thing they've got that moves the needle when it comes to anything resembling a young demographic. A new season of High Stakes Poker is starting up soon, and I'm sure they'll be promoting the beejeebers out of that for the next little while.

Believe it or not, considering that the new HSP is starting quite soon (2 weeks, I think?) I've barely seen any promotion for it. I can't help but wonder about how much faith they actually have in it... I also have a feeling World Series of Blackjack or a similar other gambling show may end up on the air. I just can't imagine that the small handful of GSN-original World Poker Tour shows will last much longer.

/but then again, Dylan Lane Chain Reaction has survived brutal rerun abuse...

Same here. I just started watching it last year starting with the 1955 episodes. (I believe they're up to 1959 now.)

It was mentioned in this thread that GSN has been airing WML for several years. Has the entire Daly run of 1950-1967 been shown?

Yes - at least all the episodes they have access to anyway. There are a handful from the earlier years which seemingly don’t exist anymore.

Here’s a listing of everything GSN has aired:

http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/St...n/2357/gsn.html

Even though I haven’t actually had GSN in a few years I’ve tried to keep up with this list! If anyone notices anything missing please advise. I try to do updates every couple of months or so :)

I wonder if Clark Pyramid starts to move the needle a little, we could see '70s Pyramid.

i roo am goign to miss CS, if anyone cares to do trades with me who has CS episodes, you can

I didn't know your mom was Kanga. ;)

That would be wonderful. $20,000 is my favorite out of all the versions. I know it makes the game come to a quicker conclusion, but I love the '70s tiebreaker method. You'd never get a 43-42 score after 1st generation Pyramid.

There was one *big* thing that always rubbed me the wrong way about the 70s versions of Pyramid. If you, by luck of the draw, got saddled with a dud of a celebrity - and it did happen - you had two strikes against you out of the gate which forced a player to work twice as hard for half the score.

43-42 ties were something to behold, surely, but at least on the post-70s episodes the better player usually won, barring a winner's circle blowout.

Looking back on it now, they really should have had both contestants on for the entire show, just like they did for the '80s version and '70s nighttime version. At least that way if a contestant (or celebrity) blew a round, they'd still have another chance. One round and out was too much pressure. There were a few special weeks here and there where they used this format.

I distinctly recall this train wreck happening: a week where Valerie Bertinelli went against, apparently, Robert Mandan (I'm using the Pyramid Celebrity Archives to refresh my memory). I remember watching all five episodes (it was July 2-July 6, 1979, so I must have had time on my hands); I believe she only won one game the entire week.

I feel like this is why the '80s version played better -- because they never booked celebrities whose skill levels were different -- but also led to the same ten or twelve celebs appearing over and over, even if their claim to fame got progressively sketchier.

I am concerned that "The $25,000 Pyramid" will start with the 87-88 season and "The $100,000 Pyramid" will be only the 86-87 season.

I prefer those to the 2002-03 season of The Osmond Pyramid and the 2003-04 season of D.O. Has B.O. Pyramid.

While the Cullen 25 did have the second chance, it still didn't fix the celebrity dud problem, because they didn't change partners.