GSN's Thanksgiving Week Marathons

Marathons for this year:

Thursday, 11/25: Deal or No Deal (syndie 2008-2010, 9:00 AM-6:00 PM)
Friday, 11/26: Wheel of Fortune (episodes from seasons 23 and 24, 9:00 AM-3:00 PM)
Saturday, 11/27: Deal or No Deal (NBC 2005-2009, 9:00 AM-9:00 PM)



Well. Um.

Meh.

I can't say I'm overly thrilled about a Deal or No Deal marathon (oh, who the hell am I kidding? I'm not thrilled for that one bit). Or these particular episodes of Wheel of Fortune airing. But the really good thing that comes out of Friday is that, for once in quite a long while, something's being marathoned that hasn't been run to death yet. Even though it comes from an era of the show that is really not a particular favorite. I wish I could say the same thing about Deal or No Deal.

A Little GSN Schedule Rant

So I see GSN has decided to slip on more Family Feud with Richard Karn. Taking over the Dawson Monday and Friday daytime slots, at 9:30 am and 12:30 pm eastern. Combine that with the other airings, and basically the show will continue to be run into the ground.

In all honesty, I've really grown tired of all of this constant repetition. And I'm referring to all types of shows when I'm talking about this. Especially in the case of a show like Karn Feud. I don't have any actual hate for his version of the series. Or Richard Karn. That being said, no version of any show needs to air 5 times a day. Period. I don't care what year it's from. I don't care who the host is. I don't care how popular the run is (or seems to be). Especially if it's the same version of a series that has upwards of at least 4 different eras. As much as I was happy to see it return to the schedule, there's no need to air Card Sharks 4 times a day, especially if they only leased a limited portion of both shows. No need to air Deal or No Deal as much as they do. It's a hot property now, but it's going to get stale eventually, and drop off. Just like Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. And it'll probably happen sooner if they continue to air it as frequently as they do.

I'm tired of cable networks airing the same limited numbers of shows multiple times a day. I love a lot of shows, but some of them on other channels I barely watch in reruns and just decide to watch DVD's or old tapes instead at my convenience because I don't want to get sick of them because they air so much. It's lazy programming. Especially for a network like GSN, which has many shows from multiple eras at its hands. Hundreds of thousands of episodes at their disposal. It doesn't have to be all classic either. I miss the variety.

Upcoming GSN Schedule Changes... and a Gripe

GSN will be modifying their schedule in the afternoons, starting August 16th.

Here are the changes:

4:00 PM Family Feud (Richard Karn, SYN 2002-06)
4:30 PM Deal or No Deal
5:30 PM Catch 21 (new episodes)

While it’s no big loss to trim a version of Karn Feud as it airs a lot anyway, to me it would make more sense to just move Deal to 4 PM and just have Karn Feud and Catch 21 in the 5 PM hour. The 4:30 Deal slot just looks awkward. Oh well, I guess it could be a lot worse. At least it’s not like the early days on NBC when Deal would end literally at 9:02. Such a pain for people that wanted to change the channel at 9:00 and watch something else by that point.

Not really a schedule change, but in looking at the specifics for the other shows, I see that it’s also a pretty big disappointment that we’ll be seeing both versions of Card Sharks rewind back to episode one. If they only leased about 200 episodes per run, then it really made no sense to air the show four times a day. I expected cycle backs from Sony shows, like Pyramid, but when even the Goodson shows do this then it just goes to show how sad things have gotten. If they have to only do 200 shows for each show at a time, why not just lease 200, air those, then when that’s done, lease the next 200 and show these, and continue on down the line?

DoND: Syndicated Version Canceled

According to Broadcasting & Cable. Not surprised to hear this one at all. The ratings apparently weren’t great this year; and it’s REALLY not a surprise to hear that, especially after reading how in some places the show was moved to bad time slots, some including the overnight hours. I know here in the Atlanta metro, one of the two daily time slots was cut and the show was moved to 9 am with no promotion whatsoever.

I am a little disappointed though, as I liked this version much more than the nighttime version. The theme weeks could get somewhat excessive, but other than that, it focused on mostly the contestants and the game; the way the show should be. And as a result, I found it to be a much more sane and pleasurable experience. It looks like pretty soon all we’ll have left of the show is the ridiculous amount of airings of the nighttime version on GSN, and by then my interest in the American version of the show will have dwindled down to pretty much zero.

GSN: Upcoming Marathons

We'll be seeing some more marathons come Christmastime from GSN. Here’s the rundown (all times 9am-3pm except for the Combs and Dawson marathons, which run through 6pm):

December 24th: Combs Family Feud Marathon
December 25th: Dawson Family Feud Marathon
December 28th: Rayburn Match Game Marathon
December 29th: Deal or No Deal Marathon
December 30th: Karn Family Feud Marathon
December 31st: 1 vs. 100 Marathon
January 1st: O’Hurley Family Feud Marathon

In all honesty, this all week marathon situation is more like the Sci-Fi (or "SyFy", ugh) Channel. Deal or No Deal? Feh. Almost two whole days of the Thankgiving 4-day weekend was filled with that show. Something else should air in its place that day. I’ll be looking forward most to the Match Game, and Dawson & Combs Feud marathons, though there could have been a little less Feud too. A couple of the Match Game episodes featured are the “boobs” answer panel walkout episode from ‘74 and School Riot from ‘77. So if you do not have the DVD set and don’t have those episodes then this would be a good time to get them. As much as I find 1 vs. 100 to be an underrated show and think that it deserves a marathon, I’d rather not see it on New Year’s Eve. Dick Clark’s Pyramid should be the show for that; I mean, come on, the man is synonymous with the ringing in the new year. A Pyramid marathon would be nice even if there wasn’t as much variety with the episodes like last year.

GSN: Weekend Schedule Change

Weekends, effective November 28th, changes listed only:

9:00 am Hollywood Squares (Bergeron, SYN 1998-2004; replaces Match Game (SYN 1979-82))
9:30 am Whammy! (GSN 2002-03; replaces Password Plus (NBC 1979-82))
10:00 AM: Chain Reaction (GSN 2006; replaces Super Password (NBC 1984-89))
10:30 AM: Family Feud (O'Hurley, 2006-present; replaces Dawson Feud)
11:00 AM: Newlywed Game (with Carnie Wilson, replaces Whammy!)
11:30 AM: Catch 21 (replaces Chain Reaction)
12:00 PM: 1 vs. 100 (replaces Meredith‘s Millionaire & Bergeron’s Squares)
1:00 PM: Deal or No Deal (replaces 1 vs. 100)
3:00 AM: Catch 21 (replaces Dawson Feud (SYN 1977-85))
3:30 AM: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (Vieira, 2002-present, replaces Password (CBS 1962-67))

Blech. So much blech. What an awful schedule. Seriously. I love Hollywood Squares and Meredith’s Millionaire, but there’s no redeemable qualities with these changes at all. None whatsoever. They couldn’t get a couple shows out of the vault?

Whammy! continues to be run into the ground. Deal or No Deal will be seen *FIVE* times on Saturday. And knowing now much it airs on the weekdays… this is just way too much of one show. And I thought the Thanksgiving marathon was overkill. You know, I remember there was a time period from about 4 years ago to now, there’d be a few schedule changes where there’d be something that would happen that I wouldn’t like, but in spite of the negative feelings, there much more of the schedule’s changes would be positive and I’d find myself enjoying more of the channel. This is not the case anymore. Right now there’s 3, if not 4 shows that I can sit down and enjoy on a daily basis. No variety is really to be had at all now. We have the same shows with limited runs seen over and over again. The only Goodson-Todman classics left now are Match Game, Family Feud, and the original Password. It makes me dread the possibilities of future weekday schedules.

Hell, even with the reality garbage that came along, there were more classics than this in 2004.

GSN: Thanksgiving Deal or No Deal Marathon

Looks like GSN will be filling Thanksgiving and Black Friday this year with plenty of trimmings of Deal or No Deal. Yep, that's right, two days. 9 am-6pm.

Yeah, this is really ridiculous. And my negativity does not simply stem from my dislike of the nighttime version… although that is a part of it. But no show period, classic or modern, should ever have this much exposure. This is almost up there with the TVLand 48-hour type marathons. And let’s not forget the fact that a) this is not the first time the show has been featured with a lengthy marathon since its acquiring several months ago and b) the show now comes on at least 3 hours daily and I’m sure the show has cycled around more than twice by now. One other thing to consider… this is also not a show with thousands of episodes to spare either.

This is nothing but overkill.

Deal or No Deal: Season Premiere

Despite moving to Connecticut, nothing much has changed with daytime Deal. Not that I really expected it to, though.

There’s still a good quality about the syndicated version. I thought that the theme weeks got a little heavy last season, but in spite of that, it didn’t really interfere with the game play that much unlike the nighttime version.

Just like last season, the show focuses on the contestants and the game, and less on the gimmicks, which makes this the only version of Deal running right now that I would even bother to go out of my way to watch. Also Howie does an excellent job hosting as usual.

GSN's June Schedule

New GSN schedule change, starting June 1st:

Changes listed only:
WEEKDAYS:
11:00 AM Whammy! (GSN 2002-03, replaces Let's Make a Deal, (1971-77 syndie))
4:00 PM Pyramid (2002-04 syndie, replaces Weakest Link (2002-03, syndie))
7:00 pm Deal or No Deal (NBC, replaces Lingo (GSN 2002-07) and Pyramid (2002-04 syndie))

WEEKENDS:
2:00 AM 1 vs. 100 (replaces Dog Eat Dog)
Saturdays:
8:00 PM 20 Questions
9:30 PM The Money List
Sundays:
3:00 PM 20 Questions (replaces Family Feud (Karn))
5:00 PM The Money List (replaces Who Wants to be a Millionaire? (ABC 1999-2002))

I’m really not surprised that Deal or No Deal is coming to GSN. If you’ve read a couple previous entries about the nighttime show… you'll see that I’m not too excited about this news. However, t might be interesting to see repeats of the very early episodes… I loved it so much before it became a circus. I love that 1 vs. 100 is coming though. It was one of my favorite recent prime time game shows and I wish that NBC never canceled it.

Whammy replacing Let’s Make A Deal… sorry, but that just blows. How many more times are they going to run that into the ground? Couldn’t they have picked another Sony show from the vault? And I was really hoping they’d air the 1984 version at least one more time. And I love Pyramid to death, but there is no need for me to watch the show in the morning if it’ll just be on again in the overnight. Congratulations, GSN, you’ve really made it easy for this viewer to choose between you and The Price is Right on CBS at 11 am.

I’m looking forward to The Money List. I hope it’s not as over dramatic as its original format, The Rich List was. But then again, GSN is not Fox, so I think we’ll be alright. Curious about 20 Questions too… hopefully there’ll be positive news about that sometime.

The Best and Worst Game Shows of 2008

Time to look back at some of the best and the worst, game show style in 2008.

Million Dollar Password I’ve really wound up liking overtime. I realize that it takes me some time to get used to the changes from previous versions that we know and love; and even if I still think the set’s a bit too busy and I think that there are unnecessary sound effects, I’ve found it to be really enjoyable. It’s been too long since this show has made first-run episodes. As much as I’ve grown to hate the nighttime version, I really love daytime syndie Deal Or No Deal. Howie does a great job as usual as a host. The show still has its themed and sponsored weeks every once in a while, but the show doesn’t veer off course and become a melodramatic zoo. The show during the day is about the contestant and the game; the way it should be. I think Trivial Pursuit: America Plays is definitely one of the better shows to debut this year. I really like the America Plays aspect and the questions are a lot of fun. If only the show would get better ratings. I certainly think it could have a better host, but I do like Catch 21.

The Moment of Truth had to be the absolute worst. It’s like a more nasty, vilified game show version of Maury. The questions do nothing but embarrass the contestants and their families. There’s no enjoyment factor in that. Amnesia was no big treat either but at least that was a show that tried to have fun with the contestants and their lives. Moment of Truth just makes me wish Mark L. Walberg was hosting something better. How Much Is Enough was a big disappointment. It was the same thing all show. I also think one of the least desirable shows to debut this year was Celebrity Family Feud. I don’t think it’s as terrible as some people do (but then again, I missed episode one) but it could have been much better. I was really not impressed by Al Roker’s hosting, and again I ask, what’s the point of bringing back retro music if it’s just going to be used terribly? In the end I wanted to see it only for Margaret Cho and Ed McMahon. And Hole In The Wall... that's just better left as a segment on Ellen.

DoND: Syndie Premiere

Monday marked the debut of a new daytime first-run syndicated version of the NBC primetime hit, Deal or No Deal. This version is also hosted by Howie Mandel, just like at night.

A while back I mentioned about how incredibly tired I had grown of the NBC version. Just way too much craziness and I couldn’t take it anymore… well, I decided to give the syndicated version a shot to see if I would feel the same way.

And I must say I am rather impressed with it. I liked seeing the other contestants holding the cases; that reminded me of the British version. Though I'm sure some fans of the models might not like that during the day there are only two of them. I had heard of other versions using a wheel on the show and I wondered how that would work. I do like the thrill of it, as it picks potential players. The friends/family element of the contestant asking loved ones on how far they should go is gone on the daytime version. I must say I am glad to see it go. It didn’t bother me much at first, but eventually on the nighttime version, I just found this as another factor that helped make the show more and more irritating for me as the contestants’ loved ones could get really rather obnoxious at times. Howie did a great job as usual.

Today I watched the show and it felt about as fun as it did when I first saw the show back in 2005. This version focuses far more on the contestant and the game and I just love that. All I ask now is please, PLEASE keep this the way it is. Special episodes and so forth are good every once in a while, but please don’t overdo it.

Deal or No Deal: How the Mighty Have Fallen

I’ve just been going through a few old game show tapes, and on a couple of them they contain a few episodes of a current prime time game show I once loved, Deal or No Deal. Ugh, where do I begin?

First of all, NBC chose to make the mistake of airing this show 2 and 3 times a week, starting around the time the show premiered. And if they know from ABC’s experience with the first American version of Millionaire, choosing to air a first-run show in prime time more than once a week usually doesn’t work out too well. People got sick of it. I know I did. For me, first it was like “ooh, Deal or No Deal, gotta watch. Can’t forget to tape Monday, Wednesday and Friday!” Then it just became harder to keep up with the episodes, since other stuff comes on prime time too that I’d like to watch, and it started to become more of a chore to handle instead of appointment television that’s supposed to be fun.

And then there's the biggest reason of all for me to become tired of the show. How it’s become a caricature of itself by having every episode go above and beyond by having something special on it. And you know, it’s funny. I am someone who almost never gets annoyed and has the attitude of "forget all this mess and special episode crap" or "stop talking and just get to the game already!" I have a very high patience level when it comes to stuff like this. I’m often known to defend, say, Bert Convy, who a number of people seemed to have thought he treated Super Password much too relaxed, or when things happen on that version of the show that may eat up the game time a little. I love the concept of special weeks. Say for example, “teachers week” or “Christmas Week.” I love the concept when said weeks aren’t misused and done frequently. But on Deal they've heavily abused the idea of the special concept episode. I can understand having a special theme or holiday show every now and then, but Deal or No Deal can just go way too far. Nine times out of ten on this show when something “special” or “memorable” take place, it just winds up being cheesy and melodramatic and the show will wind up looking like something Ringling Bros. produced. They’ve done just about everything under the sun. They’ve even played the game on someone’s front lawn. Now I just cringe slightly when I see a promo, because if NBC’s not spoiling the outcome of the episode, eight times out of ten we’ll see what kooky theme they’ll have cooked up for the next show. When the show becomes more about “What bizarre theme are we gonna do next?” instead of playing and watching the game, you know you’ve got a problem.

Also let's not forget that you’ve got contestants who for the most part fit every stereotype imaginable. It’s like they pick them for that reason alone. Screaming at the top of their lungs over every little thing. Them, and their family members and/or best friends, or whoever. I mean, for half of season two I was just waiting for normal acting people to be on, not folks who acted like they had about eighteen cups of coffee before the taping of their episode. I was begging for good ol’ Joe Schmoe from Boise, Idaho, just to be DULL. That’s how bad it had gotten for me. You know it's not good if you're wanting a contestant to be boring. Eventually I just gave up watching the show entirely.

I can just imagine it now. If I were ever a contestant on this show, they’d probably find out I am a soap opera fan. So when the going gets tough, instead of being normal and offering me cash, instead they’ll offer me $100,000 worth of body wash personally delivered to me by All My Children veteran actress Susan Lucci. Not that I’m trying to trash Ms. Lucci, but please NBC, enough is enough! Just give me the game already! It’s why I prefer the British version miles over ours. For them, the emotion and the tension can stay in the game without them being over-the-top and out of control. And it’s perfect for me, because I love emotion and tension-filled moments on game shows, and their version is a perfect example of them showing how both elements can be brought out in a game show for us to see, and in a normal fashion.

Yeah, there's a reason I haven't watched a full episode in over a year. When DVD conversion time comes, I’ve got nearly 30 episodes on tape that I’ll just give away because I won’t care to look at them ever again. The Power of 10 and 1 vs. 100 have been the appointment game shows I’ve been watching in prime time.