Author Topic: TPIR on Buzzr?  (Read 8860 times)

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Offline Spmahn

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TPIR on Buzzr?
« on: May 21, 2020, 09:17:33 AM »
Has it ever been definitively said as to the exact reason why Freemantle has never aired Barker era TPIR on Buzzr? I know in the GSN days it was said that the only objection Bob had was no episodes with fur prizes could re-air, which ruled out a lot of the earliest shows, but is there a reason we haven’t seen those reruns in 20 years? Is it Freemantle’s reluctance to want anything competing with the first run shows on CBS? Further objections from Bob? I feel like if Freemantle was able to move mountains in order to sort out the messy rights issues which famously plagued the Match Game Hollywood Squares Hour for decades, figuring out a way to air TPIR should be easy, no?

Online tpir04

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Re: TPIR on Buzzr?
« Reply #1 on: May 21, 2020, 09:53:09 AM »
I don't believe the question has ever been answered directly but you mentioned the two of a few likely reasons:

Is it Freemantle’s reluctance to want anything competing with the first run shows on CBS? Further objections from Bob?

There was also a lot of licensed music used back in those days so I'd imagine any legalities along those lines would have to be ironed out.

Those points aside, since we won't be seeing new episodes for a while, I wonder if Fremantle might open up the vault and dust off some Barker eps for Buzzr just until production resumes.
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Offline Thatgameshowguy

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Re: TPIR on Buzzr?
« Reply #2 on: May 21, 2020, 11:52:08 AM »
BUZZR has answered this question specifically in the past, here's what they said.
Quote from: BUZZR's FAQ Page
The Price is Right is owned by Fremantle, so why isn’t it on air? True! Fremantle does own The Price Is Right, but it currently remains exclusive to Fremantle's broadcast partner and because BUZZR supports all of Fremantle's existing relationships, The Price Is Right does not currently air on BUZZR.
So either it's because CBS doesn't want the reruns competing against the new show or CBS just has an exclusivity contract with Fremantle and it's not worth the hassle to make a new one. The wording is vague enough that it could just be them covering for something else such as Bob's alleged "model ban" but it's most likely CBS.
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Offline Spmahn

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Re: TPIR on Buzzr?
« Reply #3 on: May 21, 2020, 12:07:14 PM »
BUZZR has answered this question specifically in the past, here's what they said.So either it's because CBS doesn't want the reruns competing against the new show or CBS just has an exclusivity contract with Fremantle and it's not worth the hassle to make a new one. The wording is vague enough that it could just be them covering for something else such as Bob's alleged "model ban" but it's most likely CBS.

So CBS was fine with GSN airing reruns 20 years ago, but not now? Or maybe at some point since that time CBS has gained additional leverage to veto additional reruns? Either way, that’s disappointing, hopefully at some point, even if it takes something like Bob passing away, they can come to some sort of mutual agreement on the reruns. Even if it aired at some weird late night or early morning hour, I’m not sure how you could reasonably argue that reruns on an obscure cable network would in any way hurt the first run episodes.

Online tpir04

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Re: TPIR on Buzzr?
« Reply #4 on: May 21, 2020, 12:09:37 PM »
I can only speculate, but I would wager that the reason reruns were allowed then was because Bob was still host. Now that we have Drew in the picture there may be room for undesirable competition.
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Offline pricefan18

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Re: TPIR on Buzzr?
« Reply #5 on: May 21, 2020, 12:12:59 PM »
I can only speculate, but I would wager that the reason reruns were allowed then was because Bob was still host. Now that we have Drew in the picture there may be room for undesirable competition.

Thing about that is....the reruns stopped in 2000. Bob hosted a full 7 more years after that. So that wouldn't hold water entirely in that way. If it was just about that, the reruns woulda kept going till he retired. But they didn't.

Offline Spmahn

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Re: TPIR on Buzzr?
« Reply #6 on: May 21, 2020, 12:16:05 PM »
But then that still wouldn’t explain why they don’t just rerun Drew episodes from the past 13 years. Hopefully Freemantle realizes the value of the old episodes and makes that a point the next time there’s a contract negotiation with CBS.

As far as the GSN repeats goes, if I remember correctly at the time, the reason they stopped airing TPIR in 2000 was because their contract for the rights expires and Freemantle or Goodson Todman whatever it was at the time wanted an increase in rights fees to renew and they couldn’t come to an agreement.

Offline Mr. Weatherman

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Re: TPIR on Buzzr?
« Reply #7 on: May 21, 2020, 02:07:25 PM »
I truly don’t believe this has anything to do with Bob, at least at this point — maybe it did in the past.

The Price is Right airs on a network.  By and large, the shows Buzzr and Game Show Network have on their respective schedules — at least those that are still on the air with new episodes — are in syndication.

Sony isn’t going to have huge pushback from local affiliates just because GSN might air 30-year-old Jeopardy! reruns in the morning.  There is no direct competition to first-run episodes, and let’s be real: no one is jumping out of their seat to watch old J! reruns because they find them better than the show now.

The Price is Right?  That’s a bit different.  It’s one of the highest-rated shows in all of network daytime, and reruns probably hold considerable value.  It’s probably next to impossible to find solid ratings data for how well the show did when reruns were allowed to air on Game Show Network, but just taking a wild guess here, I’d say it did exceptionally well and was the highest-rated show on the channel.

Whenever it came time to renegotiate any sort of deal between CBS, (insert precursor production company to Fremantle here) and Game Show Network, they probably couldn’t arrive at a deal because CBS saw how well the show was doing on GSN and put their foot down.  And maybe it was Bob and his wishes to not be seen with departed Barker’s Beauties, but I really don’t buy into that.  That would have been an issue as soon as the first rerun aired on GSN, yet the show lasted, what, six years there?  I don’t think that’s it.

CBS held a lot of the chips at the time.  They owned the studio Price was taped at.  Bob Barker probably had a great relationship with the network, too.  It’s not tough to imagine them getting their way pretty easily without much fight, and that’s probably why to this day, no one here can seem to give a straight answer as to why reruns were pulled from GSN — it truly was a non-issue to everyone involved except Game Show Network itself.

Why reruns still aren’t airing today?  That much baffles me.  CBS doesn’t own the studio anymore, so at least in theory, Fremantle could keep the show there no matter what network it’s being aired on.  They have no proof reruns would impact the value of first-run episodes — I mean, if GSN/Buzzr only aired Bob Barker-hosted shows, there is no direct competition.  It’s two completely different eras and ways of doing things.  The show would probably do incredibly well in reruns, but I highly doubt it would be to the detriment to the product currently airing on CBS.

I don’t buy into the music rights conundrum, either.  I work in IT, and my department is subject to audits.  For that reason, we keep everything.  If at any point the show elected to use music outside of their own library, they would have (obviously) obtained the rights to it, and there should be a paper trail somewhere for audit purposes.  Those things don’t just magically disappear, or at least they shouldn’t.  It might take some extra digging to find everything, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to, at minimum, locate which episodes featured copyrighted music and either pull them or get the proper rights — all without having to re-watch every episode and know what you’re listening for to make a judgement call.  And I could be totally wrong about that, but certainly anything from the past 20 years in the age of computers and the internet should be easily searchable.

Whatever the issue is, I’d have to think it’s probably based on whatever happened in the past with previous reruns, and it wouldn’t surprise me if reruns are finally allowed to air at some point in the future — hopefully this decade.
« Last Edit: May 21, 2020, 03:44:29 PM by PayingTheRent »
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Offline Spmahn

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Re: TPIR on Buzzr?
« Reply #8 on: May 21, 2020, 02:39:43 PM »
Music Rights is the absolute easiest problem to get around, especially for a show like TPIR. Anytime you hear a song where the ownership might be in question, just dub over some generic elevator music, or compose a suspiciously similar substitute to use. It sounds awkward, but if it means the difference between seeing old shows and letting them be lost forever, then do it.

I do agree with your skepticism that the music is the issue though, a lot of the music cues used in 70’s and 80’s era TPIR shows were recycled on other G/T shows that have aired on GSN / Buzzr over the years without an issue.

Offline pricefan18

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Re: TPIR on Buzzr?
« Reply #9 on: May 21, 2020, 03:30:37 PM »
Music Rights is the absolute easiest problem to get around, especially for a show like TPIR. Anytime you hear a song where the ownership might be in question, just dub over some generic elevator music, or compose a suspiciously similar substitute to use. It sounds awkward, but if it means the difference between seeing old shows and letting them be lost forever, then do it.

I do agree with your skepticism that the music is the issue though, a lot of the music cues used in 70’s and 80’s era TPIR shows were recycled on other G/T shows that have aired on GSN / Buzzr over the years without an issue.

It's not as if Price has issues WWE woulda had dubbing their library in that way when they brought in the WWE Network I suspect. And even in their case, they have edited a ton of music and themes to make older content workable. Can't see why similar couldn't be done here if absolutely necessary.

Offline gamesurf

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Re: TPIR on Buzzr?
« Reply #10 on: May 21, 2020, 03:42:53 PM »
Music Rights is the absolute easiest problem to get around, especially for a show like TPIR. Anytime you hear a song where the ownership might be in question, just dub over some generic elevator music, or compose a suspiciously similar substitute to use. It sounds awkward, but if it means the difference between seeing old shows and letting them be lost forever, then do it.

“It sounds awkward” is a huge understatement IMO. You’re not only dubbing over the cue, you’re dubbing over ALL the audio, announcer included.

It’s extremely unlikely that they have the audio channels separated cleanly on those tapes. So you’d have to pay somebody specifically to try to separate those audio mixes, and there’s still no guarantee you’re not going to get the old cue bleeding through.

Licensing is rarely as easy as it seems to be on paper. Sometimes it’s downright ridiculous. It is almost never as simple as you imagine it. (That being said, I don’t think it’s the main roadblock here, either—they could just rerun recent Drew shows with far fewer concerns. I think it’s CBS putting their foot down.)
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Offline LarryC

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Re: TPIR on Buzzr?
« Reply #11 on: May 21, 2020, 05:46:14 PM »
This is just a wild, wild guess -- and I'm not even sure I think it's plausible -- but it's just an idea:

Assuming it's CBS that's holding up the reruns -- Is it possible (I said "possible" not "probable") that CBS realizes TPiR was, indeed, a higher-quality show once upon a time ... and airing the reruns of it would only validate that, and prove how the current show does pale in comparison to the show of yesteryear?

By "higher quality" I mean:

* Bob hosting, not Drew
* Longer running time per episode by five or more minutes
* A much more spontaneous "live" feel, without all the editing
* Very popular models, three of whom were with the show for years & years
* Beloved music cues, showcase skits, Johnny Olson, Rod Roddy, less spectacle, more genuine interaction with the contestants (again, the longer running time allowed for that), etc.

Just a thought.  Don't shoot me.

Offline tpiradam

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Re: TPIR on Buzzr?
« Reply #12 on: May 21, 2020, 06:39:32 PM »
This is how I see things now: You have the Bob Barker purists who feel he's the only host and should still be hosting and spew Drew hate at any chance, the fans of the show in it's current state who don't know much about the Barker era or weren't old enough to watch/remember, then there's people like most of us here who continue to watch the show and were there during the transition from Bob to Drew and from Drew/Mike's early years to what has progressed into now. That somewhat gives the show three iterations: The Price is Right with Bob Barker, The Price is Right with Drew Carey, and simply put The Price is Right. I wonder if there were a way to market older Barker era episodes as 'The Price is Right with Bob Barker' perhaps that might be able to differentiate old reruns from what the show is today?

Offline Torgo

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Re: TPIR on Buzzr?
« Reply #13 on: May 21, 2020, 06:51:43 PM »
Assuming it's CBS that's holding up the reruns -- Is it possible (I said "possible" not "probable") that CBS realizes TPiR was, indeed, a higher-quality show once upon a time ... and airing the reruns of it would only validate that, and prove how the current show does pale in comparison to the show of yesteryear?
No, this is a really dumb conspiracy and is a strawman argument to "prove" the Bob era was superior.

I really don't think the demand is there. Only the most diehard of game show fans dislike that Family Feud episodes only feature Steve Harvey. I don't see many people clamoring for the old days.

Besides, when you have the option to show a modern show, to the average person, it's more relatable than watching shows with prizes and prices of yesteryear.
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Offline pricefan18

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Re: TPIR on Buzzr?
« Reply #14 on: May 21, 2020, 07:17:05 PM »
No, this is a really dumb conspiracy and is a strawman argument to "prove" the Bob era was superior.

I really don't think the demand is there. Only the most diehard of game show fans dislike that Family Feud episodes only feature Steve Harvey. I don't see many people clamoring for the old days.

Besides, when you have the option to show a modern show, to the average person, it's more relatable than watching shows with prizes and prices of yesteryear.

Price is also a little harder to play along with as well relative to other shows, because of the Pricing aspect being the main focus. Not that other shows aren't dated in material either, but.....portions of it at least can be played along with as easily now as then. How much that factors in I don't know though, but maybe it could a bit? They've ran Cullen era Price before that said, but that's a much smaller sample size relative to 1972 on up.

Also funny about Feud, some recently were stunned to see Dawson's kissing antics I had seen on Twitter. So people could perhaps look at Bob a similar way (the $100 pocket for example, or certain ways of treating female contestants or even models). Could have some role too in the Me Too era.