End of an Era

How about a non game show post for the first time in awhile. One of my favorite bands, The Church will soon be coming out with a new album. Unfortunately, Marty Willson Piper will not be present. This article announces that Marty has been replaced with Ian Haug of Powderfinger. As Steve Kilbey has said "If you can't dig it, I'm sorry. This is my f*#king band after all and has existed at times without Peter, and in the beginning without Marty, and for times in between when he went AWOL."

Marty was not available, and has been doing some of his own work.

I had the opportunity to meet Marty in February 2011 in Seattle when they performed their tour there. He seemed like a nice fellow. But time moves on and things change. I personally will miss Marty. He's contributed a lot to this band, and is a great musician. But the band will move on. I for one also welcome Ian Haug. Never heard of him or his work, but it will be interesting to see how he does with the band. It's a new addition that I find welcome. I have no disrespect to Marty and wish him well in the future. Kinda sucks that they'll probably never perform together again. Well, let's see how they do with this new album.

Returns and Acquisitions - What's Happening to GSN next

Well, GSN used to be very predictable, when a show would lose a spot for Harvey Feud. The next set of changes at GSN, well, are very unexpected, but are very...well, if you like older shows, you're in heaven, or something like that. These changes start December 2nd.

First, Blockbusters with Bill Cullen returns to the network after nearly 5 years of being nowhere on the network. The episode start is #312, so it looks like the last 60 episodes of the run. This replaces the 9:00am episode of Super Password. Convy and crew still have the 11:00am slot for now.

Second, it's not a show change, but a switch of episodes. The 1985-1986 episodes of $ale of the Century will air at 10:00am continuing from the Black Friday marathon. The 1988-1989 episodes disappear. So this means different music package, endgame, and Jay Stewart are around now.

Then, the most interesting change is at 4:00pm. Shop Til you Drop with Pat Finn (don't know which run, I'm assuming it's the 2000 PAX run, I mean GSN did air one of those shows a few years ago). The episodes will repeat the next weekday at 12:00pm. (so what airs Tuesday at 4:00pm will air Wednesday at 12:00pm). The shows get the full hour.

Well, this is very interesting. I do prefer Shop Til You Drop over Supermarket Sweep by far, so I can live with that. I'll watch (or record). I hope it lasts awhile.

Very glad to see Blockbusters with Bill Cullen return to the network. This is one of my favorite Game Shows. I would always watch it on weekend mornings. Also good to see a Bill Cullen show on the network. I will definetley be watching (or recording) this for sure. Hope it fares well in the ratings.

As for Syndicated $ale gaining a spot on the regular schedule. Yes I'm happy.

These changes start Monday Shop Til You Drop, that starts on December 3rd)
December 2nd (except for the Noon

Thanksgiving Weekend - Some Different, and Several Same

I should return to more blogging. I've given a few posts, but I'll give some more. So here's Thanksgiving on GSN this year.

On Thanksgiving, it's all Family Feud. Steve Harvey? Yes from 2:00pm and onward. Before, it's everyone else. And I mean EVERYONE. Dawson gets the 8:00am hour with 2 shows (1 with Sammy Davis Jr. Hosting, and then the Game Show Hosts episodes). Combs gets 9:00am, Anderson 10:00am, Karn 11:00am, O'Hurley 12:00pm, and Roker 1:00pm. Yes they're all celebrity shows.

Well, this is interesting. Dawson gets his first exposure since his removal last spring. He'll be good to see again. He was my favorite. Like that GSN's usuals are present, wouldn't be a normal day without them (some sarcasm there) As for everyone else, it must be turkey day.

Al Roker was not a bad host, it was the celebrities that turned me away, like the Kardashian's or Hugh Hefner's girlfriends. Considering I don't like those who are popular, that turned me away from the show. I've grown to dislike Combs more and more, so I probably won't watch. There is an Opryland show though, so I might (Bill Anderson is there). Louie.........Yeah I hope this is a one time deal. His voice sucked, his hosting sucked, and yeah. He didn't want to be there and eventually grew really bored (worse than Dawson did). Probably a one time deal like Match Game 98 (I Hope). Card Sharks 2001 is probably due to pop up sometime soon.

As for Black Friday, Steve gets everything from Noon eastern onward. Before that, 1985-1986 Syndicated episodes of $ale of the Century. That works for Black Friday with shopping. They're airing the First 8 episodes of that version, with the Shopping era. Some speculate that version will air soon. I think so, but not for awhile. Well, I'll be tuning in (or DVRing and saving). The earlier episodes were much better. The music package was better, more energy, better endgames. We'll see what happens. If the Syndicated version makes its way to the network, I'll be watching. If not and they stick with the 1988-1989 NBC shows, OK. I thought the show would never come to the network. Sometimes it's good to be wrong.

As for the overabundance of Harvey. No problem. I just won't watch :)

Remembering a Legend - Marcia Wallace

I hate coming across death notices, especially if it's a name I recognize. I went browsing at the Game Show Paradise boards, and saw a notice that Marcia Wallace had died at the age of 70.

I've been watching The Simpsons for several years. Krabapel was always one of my favorite characters. Her signature laugh, and her character, very enjoyable. Marcia was the perfect voice for that character. I'll miss that character.

I knew Marcia better on Game Shows. I first saw Marcia on Match Game with Ross Shaffer on a 2004 rerun. I later saw her on the Syndicated version with Gene Rayburn, then, yeah, the episodes got earlier. She was one good panelist, always giving the most interesting answers. Yeah she didn't match anyone until 1975. Needless to say, everyone made a huge deal of it. She was always fun to watch.

Marcia also did Password Plus, Super Password, The $100,000 Pyramid, and Card Sharks with Jim Perry. One of my favorite moments was on Card Sharks when Bill Daily made a dumb move in the game and still managed to win. Her reaction was priceless, and of course Bill was happy. Very funny moment.

R.I.P Marcia Wallace
1942-2013

She will be missed and her contributions to television will be remembered.

30 Years and Premieres

I'll take a moment to do 2 posts in one for 2 shows that debuted 30 years ago. First we start with one of my favorite Game Shows, Press Your Luck. Press Your Luck debuted 30 years ago today on CBS, replacing Child's Play. Peter Tomarken was the host of this game. Players answered questions to win spins, and then pressed a button which landed them on a random spot. Yeah sounds bland, but watching it is fun to see if they keep their winnings and how far they can go. If you hit the Whammy, that's it, you lose your money and are one step closer to being out of the game. I've always enjoyed this show. It ran for 3 more years. I loved the Whammy animations, and of course if you're a kid, they're like the coolest things in the world. My favorite episodes were when a contestant passed spins to whammy someone out, and all 3 finished with zero. It was all Joe's fault. Who could forget Michael Larsen when he won (or cheated, depending on your view) $110,000+ on the show. It was a good show. GSN aired the 1983 episodes from October 2012-March 2013. GSN currently airs the show in reruns. It ran until September 1986, and GSN revived it in 2002. That can be seen on Weekends.

The other show that debuted was the Nighttime Syndicated version of Wheel of Fortune with Pat Sajak and Vannw White. The popular show was originally in daytime with Chuck Woolery and Susan Stafford. Chuck left and was replaced by Pat Sajak. Susan left and was replaced by a then "unknown" Vanna White. Needless to say, she is not unknown today. The show still goes strong, and is still pretty good. The first few seasons had shopping then they switched to all cash. The show just started its 31st season.

Happy 30th to these 2 wonderful shows.

Feud Funnies

Well, I love watching funny Family Feud moments. Anytime (on any version, even Louie and Combs) just makes you wanna laugh. One of my favorites is from This Episode. The girl responds to the Question "Something You Squeeze" with the answer Peanut Butter. Everyone laughs, but I guess when I was young (after this aired, years of course) I had a squeezable peanut butter thing. Oh well, guess that was after the time.

However some are just plain stupid. Just like This episode. Name an animal with 3 letters in its name. It goes from dumb, to dumber. Frog. Wow, that's just stupid. Alligator, wow. I remember first seeing this and banging my head against the wall. Yeah, but I also laughed.

Heck some answers, well made Richard laugh. Like the September episode. Overplayed yes, but the fact that Richard just won't stop laughing, I think it's priceless.

Funny moments. Several others like A Vegtable you Marinate "Grape" or a Yellow Fruit "Orange". Sometimes you crack under pressure though, and it provides hilarious results.

Just One of Those Moments

Well, went YouTube hunting today, and came across a rather funny moment from the show Scrabble. If you wish to view this, here. If you prefer complete squeaky clean stuff, then turn away. It's not really all that bad, just a little bit risque.

Sometimes on game shows, you just get those moments that are just, well, you know, wow. Some things can line up just perfectly, and some things line up to make.. well something like this.

The clue is "Consuming Desire." And of course the letters happen to come up in an order that.. well, just a little risque. And of course, the letters they drew were stoppers, so the word just came up there. Chuck himself was eager for that word to get solved. Of course, the audience was laughing throughout this, and I chuckled a little bit.