Just saw part of an episode of Match Game this morning on GSN. Betty White was on. It was a good episode . Wish I could have seen the entire one.
A lot of times, but not always, though there can still be obstacles. F'rinstance, MeTV shows the old Serling series Night Gallery on a regular basis. I've never had a chance to see it past the pilot episode and I've always wanted to... ..but I still can't cause they show it in the wee hours of Sunday night and I gotta get up at four on Monday mornings.
All three seasons of NIGHT GALLERY are readily available on DVD in quality, affordable editions. There also is this thing called tivo. Of course, I don't have it, so it's possible you don't either.
A rough clocking of a 90-minute Tonight Show on Antenna TV came out to between 20 and 21 minutes of commercials. I actually thought it would be more. I forgot to mention: Johnny smokes at the desk a lot in the early '70s. In the '80s, I never saw that; once in a while you would catch him getting a last puff just out of camera shot after a commercial, or you would see a little smoke curling up from his ashtray at the edge of the picture. I do, thanks!
^I caught an episode of that in a late-night slot on one of the channels a couple months back...I think it was Cozi, but it doesn't seem to be in their current schedule. (The retro stations seem to tweak their line-ups quarterly, one of the occasions being around New Year's.) [And I should add that when I Wiki'd "Run for Your Life", the default entry was the song from Rubber Soul. ]
I didn't know if the series was on DVD or not. So many shows I want to be on disc aren't. And no, I don't have TiVo.
It's on Hulu. This episode has my favorite story on it: "Green Fingers". http://www.hulu.com/watch/58805
I loved the game shows I grew up with in the 80s and 90s: Concentration, Combs family feud, Price is Right, Monopoly, Scrabble, and the kids game shows on Nick (Double Dare, Guts, Legends of the Hidden Temple). Yeah the reality shows have taken over for that, but they aren't nearly as fun.
Ooh, love those Nickelodeon game shows. Hell, even the Square One game shows were fun. Although, American Ninja Warrior is kinda Guts. There was a Scrabble game show?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrabble_(game_show) Early 90s show hosted by Chuck Woolery. I can see the ANW/Guts comparison, but it's not really as fun. Still I got into the finals of ANW the last few summers. Hated that the guy who made it up first didn't get anything for being the first in the show history to accomplish it.
I like ANW because I've been training for obstacle races the last two and a half years, but I don't like the direction they went last season. I have no idea why they made the city finals harder while making stage 1 easier. Shouldn't it be the other way around, every next round harder than the last? They made it so there are more spots in the final than finishers so nobody cared about their time and everyone just took a minute to recover in between obstacles. But, they're about to start a head to head version of the show, so that might fix that issue. Guts was basically meant to be 'American Gladiators for kids' but as a kid it was just so much fun to watch. When I was really young I also remember a Nickelodeon game show 'Finders Keepers' which was fun.
Great episode. "Green Fingers" and "Lindemann's Catch" are my favorites. And then there was that really brief snippet about the amputated feet that really creeped me out as a kid.
Holy crap! Heroes and Icons carries The Pretender! I love that show! Oh hell yes! Double Dare. I wanted to be on that so bad back in the day . Wanted to go through the obstacle course. Anyone remember Hey Dude!, All That, Are you afraid of the Dark? and Salute your shorts? Loved those shows as I was growing up.
My exile from MeTV continuing, I've got Cozi on. I didn't realize that Here's Lucy was in first run when I was a little kid. I had to do a bit of Wiki'ing to figure out the difference between this one and The Lucy Show, which I used to see in syndication as a kid. It's a bit confusing with Gale Gordon co-starring in both shows as different characters. "So that's not Mr. Mooney...?" ETA: MeTv is reportedly getting The Incredible Hulk, evidently in a weekday timeslot. (The one mention I was able to find online said that it starts Feb. 8.) ETA: Just caught some of the show that airs before It's About Time on Antenna Sunday mornings. This one-season wonder I'd never seen, but had heard of, whispered in legend: My Mother the Car. (Hey, look, it's Dick Van Dyke's brother.)
I think I've seen an episode or two of My Mother, The Car, but I don't remember. I'm in the process of downloading episodes of It's About Time and burning them to DVD. I'm so happy. The quality of the videos is poor, but what the hell: I originally watched them on a black-and-white TV with reception through a pair of tinfoil-augmented rabbit ears that would fail every time a plane took off from Logan. As for game shows, I've never really been into them, but I did enjoy Beat The Clock back in the day.