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Post by vahan on Oct 9, 2017 13:05:39 GMT -5
Wink Martindale is reporting on Facebook that Merrill Heatter, co-creator of The Hollywood Squares and many other shows, has died.
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Post by Chameleonwhammy on Oct 9, 2017 13:09:02 GMT -5
To be honest, I thought he passed away awhile ago. I loved Hollywood Squares and especially High Rollers. Both of those have been favorites of mine. He'll be missed.
R.I.P.
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Post by vahan on Oct 9, 2017 13:10:25 GMT -5
Well, now he is in Heaven with his partner Bob Quigley, and Elaine Stewart, his wife, and hostess on Gambit and High Rollers (70's Syndicated version). I don't think GSN will do a Hollywood Squares marathon. When they played the Peter Marshall version, it bombed in the ratings, and GSN said it was due to the lack of name recognition of the celebrities. But Pyramid has celebrities who have even less name recognition than those on Squares. I blame them running the same 150 episodes over and over again, like there was no tomorrow. They didn't even run the 1980-1981 season, which was recorded in Las Vegas, and they were reported to possess.
Though they did show Marshall Squares for the 50 Greatest countdown a couple of times, and it was recently on Hulu a few years ago.
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Post by vahan on Oct 9, 2017 13:19:45 GMT -5
Also, no one can forget Heatter-Quigley's trademark: The larger than life set pieces. Examples include the big squares on The Hollywood Squares, the big triangles on Battlestars, the big board game on Video Village (their first production as well as the first show hosted by the late Monty Hall), the big lie detector on Hot Seat, the big numbers on High Rollers, and the big pinball machine on The Magnificent Marble Machine.
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Post by jhshifris11 on Oct 9, 2017 13:21:34 GMT -5
So, we lost another one. I don't believe that GSN got rid of Peter's Hollywood Squares because nobody heard of the celebrities that were on the show when it was on the air, LIKE I BELIEVE THAT! Actually, GSN probably wanted to show something else instead. And, nobody still knows who the ones(that were on Match Game)were but that's beside the issue.
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Post by Chameleonwhammy on Oct 9, 2017 13:46:07 GMT -5
Well, now he is in Heaven with his partner Bob Quigley, and Elaine Stewart, his wife, and hostess on Gambit and High Rollers (70's Syndicated version). I don't think GSN will do a Hollywood Squares marathon. When they played the Peter Marshall version, it bombed in the ratings, and GSN said it was due to the lack of name recognition of the celebrities. But Pyramid has celebrities who have even less name recognition than those on Squares. I blame them running the same 150 episodes over and over again, like there was no tomorrow. They didn't even run the 1980-1981 season, which was recorded in Las Vegas, and they were reported to possess. Though they did show Marshall Squares for the 50 Greatest countdown a couple of times, and it was recently on Hulu a few years ago. Yeah, I don't think they'll do any sort of tribute (and to be honest, I'm very surprised they even did a tribute for Monty). I did enjoy the Marshall version of the squares greatly. I'm very sad that both Trebek runs of High Rollers no longer exist.
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Post by aaaa on Oct 9, 2017 13:47:02 GMT -5
Monty and Merrill were I believe the last two game show packagers from the 1960s still alive, and they died a week part. Reminds me from late Feb and early March 2014 when JIm Lange and Geoff Edwards died a week apart.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2017 18:52:35 GMT -5
I wouldn't be surprised if there will be a marathon of Catch-21 in memory of Merrill Heatter, if anything.
How many game show producers from the 70s and 80s are still alive today, and if any, who?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2017 18:56:30 GMT -5
So, we lost another one. I don't believe that GSN got rid of Peter's Hollywood Squares because nobody heard of the celebrities that were on the show when it was on the air, LIKE I BELIEVE THAT! Actually, GSN probably wanted to show something else instead. And, nobody still knows who the ones(that were on Match Game)were but that's beside the issue. Personally, I think, considering the lease of classic Hollywood Squares was such a small number of episodes, I bet the lease was only for one year, just like with episodes from the first season of CBS The Joker's Wild. The show was taken off the GSN schedule likely because the lease expired, and ratings were awful.
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Post by Chameleonwhammy on Oct 9, 2017 20:16:09 GMT -5
Personally, I think, considering the lease of classic Hollywood Squares was such a small number of episodes, I bet the lease was only for one year, just like with episodes from the first season of CBS The Joker's Wild. The show was taken off the GSN schedule likely because the lease expired, and ratings were awful. I believe the show was on the network from April 2002-October 2003. If I remember right, when the show was on in 2002, it was on everywhere. Daytime, Afternoons, Primetimes, and Latenights. By January 2003 it was on everyday at 10:30am until June when it was just a weekend only offering. By that point, Bergeron was airing on Friday in those morning vertivision blocks. By October (I believe) when they got rid of the vertivision blocks, they decided to put Bergeron on weekday mornings. With that, they also put Bergeron on wekends, replacing the original. And low ratings was a reason given back then, so yes, that would be the case. Which is too bad because I liked the original.
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Post by vahan on Oct 9, 2017 20:20:37 GMT -5
The John Davidson version remains my favorite, even though Heatter reportedly hated it, calling it "a circus".
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Post by Chameleonwhammy on Oct 9, 2017 20:56:21 GMT -5
The John Davidson version remains my favorite, even though Heatter reportedly hated it, calling it "a circus". I'm in the same boat as Heatter on that one. I absolutely hated it (along with anything hosted by Davidson). To each their own though. Oh, another couple of favorites I forgot to mention I liked. Baffle and To Say the Least. Why did all of their shows have to go to NBC?
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Post by SpeedAndStrategy on Oct 9, 2017 22:17:03 GMT -5
Comparing the celebrities on Marshall HS to those on Pyramid is a case of apples and oranges. Pyramid is a lot more gameplay-oriented, while Squares (especially the original) is highly centered around the celebrities' individual personalities. I would say that even Match Game isn't as dependent on prior familiarity with the celebrities, as you can enjoy it more for the humor of the questions, and for the show feeling like one big party.
The later incarnations of HS aimed for the "party" approach a little more, but I feel like the appeal of the original rests primarily on how much the stars appeal to you individually. Consequently, I could never get that into what I've seen of it, and I'm not surprised the ratings for the reruns weren't so good. It feels like a "you had to be there" type of show.
That said, Heatter still deserves lots of credit for creating a show that was massively popular back in its heyday, and a format that proved to have legs (even recently with the Hip Hop incarnations). I've also enjoyed what I've seen of High Rollers and Gambit. R.I.P.
As for a tribute, I guess we'll see what happens. Monty was a special case as he was both the creator AND host of a very popular show, whereas average GSN viewers aren't too likely to know who Merrill Heatter is. But it's not inconceivable that they could put something together, as they already show Catch 21 regularly, and I'd guess that the Marshall HS episodes are still in their library if they want to go that route (they'd just need to do a one-day lease from MGM).
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Post by Frank on Oct 10, 2017 14:59:46 GMT -5
If GSN didn't do anything for Gene Wood, they might not do anything for Heatter.
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Post by WarioSajak on Oct 10, 2017 19:53:23 GMT -5
Heatter reportedly hated [the John Davidson version], calling it "a circus". I'm not surprised - it was pretty much wall-to-wall gimmicks and other assorted ways of farting around, which I wouldn't have had much issue with if they hadn't used the self-contained gameplay format.
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