This thread really takes me back. I can remember when NBC had game shows on almost all morning after nine, and yes, one of them was "You Don't Say!" hosted by Tom Kennedy. Another was "Concentration" hosted by Hugh Downs, also an NBC show in the '60s, a third was the original "Jeopardy!" with Art Fleming...and the list goes on.
Another of my favorites in the 70s, which is now in reruns on the Game Show Network (GSN), which I watch every afternoon, was "Card Sharks" hosted by Jim Perry. I like hearing his acknowledgement of the author of the show's opening poem, where the person is from and on what station he or she is watching the program.
Why NBC decided to drop these wonderful game shows is beyond me, especially since ABC and CBS are still running the new "Price is Right" and others, and the shows are holding up well in the ratings.
"The Hollywood Squares" with Peter Marshall was another of my favorite game shows of the seventies. I'll never forget the time, on one of the programs (don't recall what year), the lights burned out behind one of the X and O indicators in front of the desks the stars were sitting at (for want of a better phrase), or else something went wrong with the control circuits and the bulbs wouldn't illuminate. They had whomever was sitting at that desk write the letters "X" and "O" on a sheet of paper and attach it to the front of the indicator. Another time I remember watching the original "Price is Right" with Bill Cullen and the price indicator in front of one of the stars' positions either went crazy, showing random numbers, or burned out during the program--
while the show was on the air! I haven't seen anything like that since.
Ah, memories. Television will never be the same again, even with the prime-time and syndicated game shows now on the networks. The golden age of televised game shows was and will always be, to me, anyway, the years all three networks ran these programs, years (decades) before syndication. I think NBC dropped all their game shows not long after the network was sold to GE from RCA. The prime-time and syndicated game shows now seen on NBC stations cannot match that great lineup of such programs on the network from the 1950s through the '80s.
