Your Thoughts on Blockbusters

[Guint]

In the morning? They really must not have wanted people to see it. 

[trytobecharming]

Scrabble aired in late nights in LA in 1989-90, contributing a bit to the show's cancellation in March 1990.

[pricefan18]

Scrabble aired in late nights in LA in 1989-90, contributing a bit to the show's cancellation in March 1990.

Interesting, wonder why they'd do that, especially out there.

[RJSchex]

Blockbusters is, in my description, a reworking of the question format from Bill's 1974 flop, Winning Streak.

"I'm gonna stick this one into my shirt pocket, and take it home to Ann."

[GuyWithFace]

The show had to succeed right for the start or else it was going to be cancelled. Sounds like Give N Take in 1975, which was axed for an extra half hour of Price.

Not really. Give-n-Take debuted at 10 AM on the same day Price began testing the hour-long format, then got shoved to 4 PM when the change became permanent.

In my personal opinion, the game was just not all that great and 4 PM was an iffy slot at best; as such, it failed despite having Tattletales as its lead-in. It certainly did not help matters that it was slotted against Celebrity Sweepstakes in September/October, followed by Somerset and You Don't Say! in November.

[WooWho]

Your comments make me wonder how the UK version lasted 11 years...

[GuyWithFace]

^If you were referring to my post, I was discussing Give-n-Take because a previous poster had said it was a placeholder until Price expanded.

...Unless the UK had a version of Give-n-Take I am not aware about.

[trytobecharming]

Not really. Give-n-Take debuted at 10 AM on the same day Price began testing the hour-long format, then got shoved to 4 PM when the change became permanent.

In my personal opinion, the game was just not all that great and 4 PM was an iffy slot at best; as such, it failed despite having Tattletales as its lead-in. It certainly did not help matters that it was slotted against Celebrity Sweepstakes in September/October, followed by Somerset and You Don't Say! in November.

That version of You DON't Say ended in late November 1975 as well.

[someguy23475]

Our NBC affiliate for years was known for preempting or not even airing several daytime shows. They even didn't air Letterman at one point.

[trytobecharming]

Our NBC affiliate for years was known for preempting or not even airing several daytime shows. They even didn't air Letterman at one point.

Late Night Letterman you mean? A lot of NBC stations didn't clear some programming, notably non-soap daytime programming, in the 70s-90s. But to not air Late Night with Dave is a surprise?

[RJSchex]

Late Night Letterman you mean? A lot of NBC stations didn't clear some programming, notably non-soap daytime programming, in the 70s-90s. But to not air Late Night with Dave is a surprise?

I think he was referring to Letterman's 1980 daytime flop—the one which replaced three game shows on June 23, 1980.

[JerseyBob]

The Bill Cullen-hosted Blockbusters is one of my all-time favorites.  Bill was in top-form on this show.  His interaction with the contestants made for some great moments.  Bill was also very funny in-between questions.  The returning champion aspect also boosted the excitement of the show (Leland, the identical twins, several others).

The Rafferty version was a lot of fun, too.  I think Bill did a great job on this show, as well as Card Sharks.  I can't comment on the foreign version, as I have never seen it.

[someguy23475]

No, it was his late night show, at least early on. They also didn't air Saturday Night Live during the first two seasons. Both were picked up on the then top rated independent (later FOX affiliate in the case of Letterman) in the market.