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Buzzr Debuts, A Subchannel Airing Classic Game Shows

G

Gregg.

On June 1, the subchannel "Buzzr" debuted on about 20 stations around the U.S. It is on mostly Fox O&O stations, including WWOR Channel 9.3 in NYC, Channel 13.2 KCOP in Los Angeles, and WPWR, Channel 50.4 in Chicago.

The subchannel airs classic game shows, sort of how Game Show Network started. By day, there are multiple runs of The Match Game, Family Feud (but nothing later than shows hosted by John O'Hurley), Tattletales and Password Plus. These shows are all in color.

But between 2 and 4am, repeated from 4 to 6am, Buzzr airs black and white episodes of What's My Line?, To Tell The Truth and I've Got A Secret. Because many of the original commercials are left in, along with present day commercials and promos, these three half-hour shows take two hours to run. Last night, a woman mime danced a commercial for Stopette's Deodorant. What a hoot!

I'm lucky that I get a good over-the-air signal from WWOR. Time Warner Cable and Verizon Fios have not yet put Buzzr on their NYC-area channel line-ups. I noticed "Laff," a new classic sitcom subchannel, which last month debuted on most ABC O&O stations, now has a spot on Fios but not yet on Time Warner.
 
5.3 (WAGA) in our area (Atlanta DMA). But their transmitter is too far away (about 35 miles) and the terrain here is so I can't adequately receive it.
 
2.3 (WJBK) in Detroit. Only noted it because I did a rescan for other purposes on Sunday. Very pleased with the shows and the fact that they aren't (yet) editing out the embedded advertisments at the end of the shows. What GSN once was and still should be.
 
I'd love to see this, but I have doubts if it will be on any stations in Memphis or Jackson, TN for a long time to come if ever. If Fox still owned WHBQ in Memphis it might have ended up there, but even with that Charter in Jackson doesn't carry Movies, which is on 13.2, so they probably wouldn't have Buzzr either. :(
 
I'm just hoping Tribune Media Services will get the schedule loaded in their database soon so my TiVo will recognize the channel's existence. Right now, just to watch it I have to tell the TiVo to switch to a different subchannel then use my little digital converter box (Insignia/Zenith)'s remote to switch it to 13.2 ...

Not only are they running full closing credits, they also air the "all contestants receive" product list in the middle of Match Game, which GSN has also edited out.

And on premiere night, they aired the very first episode of Let's Make A Deal with Monty Hall. So strange to see the contestant area populated by men in business suits and women in their nicest dresses. Buzzr also has a neat feature going into commercial breaks on LMAD ... Wayne Brady interviewing Monty Hall, one question per feature. It's fun to watch Monty -- still as sharp as a tack -- asking Wayne during an answer if whatever he just described ever happens on the current incarnation.
 
Have your Tivo do an OTA channel scan. It will recognize the channel but won't have listings (everything is "To Be Announced" until Tribune adds the listings). However, in the meantime, you can schedule Tivo recordings manually.

PS: While Zap2It.com (Tribune Media) does not show this channel currently, TitanTV.com does. Where does Titan get their listings? I thought Tribune had a monopoly on listings.
 
Last edited:
Oscar Madison said:
Have your Tivo do an OTA channel scan. It will recognize the channel but won't have listings (everything is "To Be Announced" until Tribune adds the listings). However, in the meantime, you can schedule Tivo recordings manually.
Click to expand...

Actually, channel 13.2 has been sitting idle ever since Bounce moved to 34.2, and has been showing "SIGN OFF" every eight hours since. What I meant to say above -- and obviously used a poor choice of words -- is that Tribune Media Services needs to get the schedule itself into the database for the TiVo to download.

PS: While Zap2It.com (Tribune Media) does not show this channel currently, TitanTV.com does. Where does Titan get their listings? I thought Tribune had a monopoly on listings.
Click to expand...

Based on a conversation I had with the owner of one of the LPTVs in the market, Titan apparently compiles its own listings.
 
Tivo'ed "Buzz 'Til Dawn" (formerly "Black and White Overnight" on GSN) last night. "To Tell The Truth," "What's My Line" and "I've Got A Secret," uncut and with original commercials (plus new ones) in three 40 minute segments.

"I've Got A Secret" had Johnny Carson, then host of "Who(m) Do You Trust?," as guest panelist. Celebrity guest was Lucille Ball, then on Broadway in "Wildcat." Somehow, the combination of TV lighting, Image Orthicon cameras and kinescope really made her look her age (in contrast to her filmed sitcoms). Maybe older than her age (she was 39 and seven months). Johnny showed his stuff. Lucy, pretending to flirt, asked "Are you married?" Johnny quickly replied, "My story's the same as your's." (Both were recently divorced; Lucy from Desi.)

Both Randolph and Mortimer Duke were regular panelists on "To Tell The Truth." Last night it was Mortimer. And, of course, the host was the first actor to play Superman.
 
Good question. I remember from watching some episodes of "I've Got A Secret" that Winston cigarettes was a one-time sponsor, although GSN never ran the commercials incorporated in the show. We just knew from the Winston sign on the host's desk. Host Garry Moore, who died of emphysema in 1993, after also suffering throat cancer, was seen throughout the show with a cigarette. In the episode with Lucy and Johnny Carson, neither of them are smoking during the show but Moore is.

So we'll have to see if Buzzr includes cigarette commercials. In the Lucy episode, Buzzr left in a live commercial Moore did for Bufferin tablets. So let's see if a Winston ad airs in a future episode. Or does the ban on tobacco advertising even extend to classic TV spots on a subchannel?
 
Garry Moore seems hooked on cancer sticks. He frequently smoked on camera in the episodes shown the last two nights, although the show did not a tobacco company sponsor at this point.

I've Got A Secret is the only panel that actually plays the game. The To Tell The Truth panel is either not trying or incredibly stupid (possibly both). None of them asks decent questions and they have the dumbest reasons for their votes. Moore was first diagnosed with throat cancer in 1976 and succumbed about 17 years later. However his greatest contribution to television is probably Carol Burnett.
 
Emphysema was the official COD. He spent almost two decades afflicted with, treated for and suffering from smoking related diseases and conditions.
Other classic TV personalities who sold cigarettes and were killed by the product they sold (and consumed themselves) were...
Jack Webb (Chesterfields, Fatima)
Edward R. Murrow (Pall Mall)
Four of five Marlboro Men
Arthur Godfrey (Chesterfield)
George Fenneman (Chesterfield, L&M)
James Daly (Camel)
 
Currently, "Buzz 'til Dawn" is showing episodes of "What's My Line" from late 1954. The format varies from later years. At the end John Daly invites viewers to tune in again next Sunday at 10:30, in other locations see your newspaper for the time of "What's My Line." I assume "other locations" means stations not yet connected to the network which receive the show on kinescope and show it a week or two later. Often these smaller market stations were affiliated with more than one network, sometimes all four. They cherry-picked shows and set their own schedules. Still it seems strange that people watching a show in one of these markets would not know to tune in at the same time (whatever that is) the following week without checking the newspaper. How dumb did they think people were?

PS: Fans of classic TV, check out https://www.facebook.com/pages/Eyes-Of-A-Generationcom/189359747768249
 
A couple of things I've noticed after a week of Buzzr. They run 24/7 with no infomercials. But on weekends they have some E/I shows, as I guess all subchannels and regular TV channels must have. And on Sunday afternoon and evening they were running recent reality shows, something like Monster House and Monster Car Makeover, or something that I thought was totally not game shows.

I would go to the website and look at the schedule to verify the name of the Sunday reality shows, except the website is almost totally undeveloped.

http://www.buzzrplay.com/

There's only a main page with the Buzzr logo, with the words "A new network for game shows from Fremantle." There's a box to click so you can see if Buzzr is available in your city. And there's a box to click to sign up for Buzzr's e-mail newsletter. There's no description of the shows, no contact info, no appeal to ask your local TV station to carry Buzzr if you're not in one of the 17 markets. And there's no hour-by-hour schedule.

Fremantle knew in January it was launching this network in June. But nobody's bothered to develop much of a website, not even post a daily schedule. I can use the EPG feature on my TV's digital converter to check the next six hours of programming. But I know of no other source for schedule info. As I mentioned in a previous post, my cable system isn't carrying it yet. So I can't check Time Warner's cable program schedule.
 
It's not showing up on OTA schedules either - thank you, Tribune Media. But the schedule is on their website.

As I mentioned, TitanTV does have their schedule.
 
I saw an ad. It's on 55.2 where I live. That's a channel we were warned we wouldn't be able to pick up. 55.1 I can watch with cable. But I'd need the expensive package for 55.2. As much as I'd like to I just can't. I don't have the time for this, even if I had the ability to watch.
 
Two nights ago: Buzzr ran an episode of "To Tell The Truth" featuring the captain of whaling vessel.
Last night: The Air Force veterinarian responsible for training "Ham," the chimp sent into space. Tom Wolfe described in "The Right Stuff" how this chimp was abused, brutalized and tortured with electric shocks in the name of "training."
Maybe people didn't know better then. We do know. Freemantle should not be allowing this glorification of cruelty to sentient animals shown to have highly developed intelligence to be seen again. I hope there is a special place in hell for Mengele veterinarians and whalers.
 
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