The It Was a Thing on TV Podcast Network

The Valentine's Day week tribute continues with a fun little game that didn't have the run it deserved, the late-90s Annie Wood speed dating game Bzzz!

When is a right answer not a right answer?  When it's a trap!  That was the original premise of Trivia Trap.  Once that format was viewed as flawed, most of the game changed.  It didn't help; the show was gone in 6 months.

Everybody knows about the current version of Jeopardy! and some remember the original version.  We're not talking about those shows.  We talk about the nighttime version from 1974-5 and, to a great extent, the 1978-9 NBC version.

Also in this episode...

*  The 1977 CBS Jeopardy! pilot

*  Password Plus' frequently changing time slot

*  Arte Johnson meets Bobby Riggs

The last NBC daytime game show was a good one, a true challenge.  Caesar's Challenge had Ahmad Rashad, gladiators, and a rotating cage of letters.  Also in this episode, the guys rattle off the name of everyone in Arizona in 1993 they can think of.

Nick at Nite was a staple of our childhood's back in the 1980's and 1990's. One popular show on the early Nick at Nite lineup was Alfred Hitchcock Presents. It was so popular that the powers that be at Nick at Nite decided to run a marathon on Halloween Week 1990 along with a contest for the viewer to guess how many people kick the bucket during said marathon to win a murder mystery cruise. Also, you're probably wondering why Wink Martindale is involved in this based on the image right?

Accompanying Nick at Nite 35th Anniversary article with some details about this contest via The Retro Network.

https://theretronetwork.com/35-years-of-nick-at-nite/

It Was a Thing on TV proudly celebrates it's 100th episode! In honor of this occasion we're going back to where it all started as we revisit The Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour. We know more about this topic from the reruns on BUZZR than we did around this time a year ago when we started. We look at the different celebrities that appeared on the show, the contestants and many memorable moments over the show's nine months on the air. Also, we've sprinkled many fun audio easter eggs over the course of the 100th show. Thanks to everyone for your support over the last year of this podcast.

From the era of Deal or No Deal, we get a game of luck, truth telling, psychology, some memory, and lots of balls.  2/3 of us didn't like it.  If you like it, you likely will really enjoy Golden Balls.  It was popular for a brief period of time, but quickly faded away to obscurity.

Link to weirdest Split or Steal round ever:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0qjK3TWZE8

As we mentioned in episode 80, while we were recording that episode, word broke that Regis Philbin passed away.  We felt we should honor the television legend both by looking back at one of his more forgettable shows, The Neighbors, but also by offering up our memories and favorite Regis moments, including Regis on Password Plus with someone from a previous entry.

The CW will start airing reruns of the amazing UK version of Taskmaster, starting on Sunday, August 2.  It isn't the first appearance of the creative competition show.  Comedy Central had a series of 8 episodes in 2018 which quickly disappeared.  If it's so good, what happened?

From a listener request, we look at the very short-lived CBS entry from summer 1992, The Hollywood Game, where your knowledge of movies past and present could pay off handsomely.