Sale of the Century Discussion

[vahan]

Jul 13, 2023 16:20:08 GMT -5 wise4554 said:

Game Show Forum yesterday posted 2 newspaper links to Sale 2 early $95,000 lot winners Cathy Powers and Helen Darvall. Asp link to 1st lot winner Michael Todaro. In the opening of the TOC in order...Helen Darvall unknown male Maureen McGovern Row 2 is Michsel Todaro Barbara Phillips Richard Heft and bottom row is Fran Wolfe Mort Kamins and Cathy Powers. Ray Winston was after TOC

I have since mentioned this information in the 1983 section of the guide.

The newspaper archives are awesome. Loads and loads of valuable information that you won't find anywhere else.

[feudfan55]

What's the logic behind pre-empting the show for two weeks and then coming back for one more week? Why not just cancel the show on March 10th and then air "At Rona?" 

Jul 20, 2022 11:18:18 GMT -5 johnnyo said:

I have discussed certain elements of the end of SOTC's NBC run on the BUZZR schedule thread, but now that BUZZR has aired the final 7 weeks in sequence, there are some items worth noting.

On January 2, 1989, the NY Times reported that SOTC was being canceled. This was not mentioned on the show until the episode 1573. with an air date of Friday, March 3, 1989. When introducing the second "Instant Bargain" of the episode, host Jim Perry indicated the following;

- The show was ending its NBC run;
- The show would not air at all during the next two weeks (March 6-10 and March 13-17). It would be pre-empted for "Special Programming", (which turned out to be 10 episodes of Rona Barett's "At Rona") and would return after that for a final week;
- Special things were planned during the remaining 5 and half episodes;

Getting back to the game, Perry revealed the current instant bargain was a "Garage Sale" of leftover prizes (a TV, VCR, and video camera).

Looking back, it is interesting to me that only two weeks prior (the first of the final four weeks), SOTC had featured a "Brides Week". I would be curious to know of the final taping dates in relation to the cancellation announcement, and not only what was known from a production standpoint regarding the two week pre-emption, but also how that impacted issues like the decision to acknowledge the cancellation over the final 5.5 episodes.

[johnnyo]

I have finally gotten around to watching the entire "Pep Rally Week" that BUZZR aired in its entirety back in April of 2023. A couple of observations;

- Each show began with a group of cheerleaders chanting out the show's name, and then cheering, jumping, etc. As the week went on, it became clear that these cheerleaders were the actual contestants. Those contestants played their games in their cheerleader uniforms, and four of them ran out with Jim Perry as he was introduced at that beginning of each show.

- Behind the players during the main game, there were several pennants hanging, presumably college related. But a close examination reveals that there are at least three MLB pennants for the Seattle Mariners, Toronto Blue Jays, and Pittsburgh Pirates!

[vahan]

I think now would be a good time to take a look at each batch of fresh episodes, how many there were, which episodes were skipped, when they were shown, and which version were they from. If an episode has an X by it, that means it was skipped in this batch, and was never shown.

29 (#S-001-#S-031) #S-008X (Aired on GSN)/#S-022X (Syndication) 2015-2016

50 (#S-032-#S-081) (Syndication) 2016-2017

20 (#S-082-#S-101) (Syndication) 2017

25 (#S-102-#S-126) (Syndication) 2018

40 (#S-127-#S-167) #S-153X (Syndication) 2018

44 (#1410-#1449/#1521-#1522/#S-176-#S-177) (#1410-#1449/#1521-#1522 for NBC, #S-176-#S-177 for Syndication) #1409X 2019

30 (#1450-#1472/#1478-#1479/#1493-#1496/#S-197) (#1450-#1472/#1478-#1479/#1493-#1496 for NBC, #S-197 for Syndication) 2020

40 (#S-168-#S-211) #S-176-#S-177/#S-197/#S-199X (Syndication) 2020

39 (#1473-#1474/#1503-#1520/#1523-#1535/1570-#1576) #1493-#1496/#1521-#1522/#1534X (NBC) 2021

37 (#1500/#1502/#1536-#1569/#1577-#1578) #1556X/#1570-#1576 (NBC) 2022

28 (#1475-#1477/#1483-#1488/#S-212-#S-220/#1480-#1482/#1489-#1491/#1497-#1499/#1501) #1493-#1496/#1500 (#S-212-#S-220 for Syndication, #1475-#1477/#1480-#1491/#1497-#1499/#1501 for NBC) #1492X 2023-2024

[vahan]

Apparently, Sandi's return to the program was a lot earlier than previously thought. Day 2 of her return has been previously available from USA Network from 1994.

[rewindium]

The correct date for that episode is now March 20, 1986. It was previously claimed to be the one of the last episodes

Sandi was given a fresh winners board due to having played before on the show when it was still the shopping round

[CardSharksFan8689]

I think the reason for the previous claim about being one of the last episodes in the series was probably because that person thought it had aired later in a month that starts with M.  I make that same blunder sometimes, but more so with first names that start with the same letter.

[snowpeck]

I have a suspicion that S-220 which airs on Buzzr this weekend is the final episode of the syndicated version. It adds up with someone thinking that other episode was from the last week and from the fact that trade magazines from 1992 reported that USA licensed 390 episodes of the series. There were 170 daytime shows from the start of Varsity Week to the end of the series. Add 220 to that and you get 390. It's the only logical reason I can think of for Buzzr to start filling in gaps in the daytime version after S-220 airs.

The big question though is if it is the finale, will Jim at least mention it's the end of the season?

[vahan]

Dec 27, 2023 15:23:08 GMT -5 snowpeck said:

I have a suspicion that S-220 which airs on Buzzr this weekend is the final episode of the syndicated version. It adds up with someone thinking that other episode was from the last week and from the fact that trade magazines from 1992 reported that USA licensed 390 episodes of the series. There were 170 daytime shows from the start of Varsity Week to the end of the series. Add 220 to that and you get 390. It's the only logical reason I can think of for Buzzr to start filling in gaps in the daytime version after S-220 airs.

The big question though is if it is the finale, will Jim at least mention it's the end of the season?

The Syndicated version was doomed from the very beginning. It didn't air in Los Angeles at all (meaning anyone who was living in L.A. at the time never got to see the Syndicated episodes until USA Network began showing them on May 3, 1993), and it only began clearing New York City on February 4, 1985, five weeks in. It began on 24 stations on January 7, including WXYZ in Detroit.

Every marketing executive or expert knows that you need L.A. and NYC to survive.

[CardSharksFan8689]

I like snowpeck's theory on the syndicated series having just 220 episodes. No wonder the show airs on weekends only.

Wrapping up a syndicated game show in March seems to be abnormal, as most syndicated seasons usually finish up in May, just before Memorial Day weekend. This means, in terms of first-run episodes, the entire syndicated run ran for a total of only one year - assuming that June, July and August are excluded due to reruns.

Sale of the Century was better off on NBC, in my opinion.  No syndicated game show during that period stood a chance if they had Pat, Vanna, and Alex as competition.

[splinkynip]

I agree that there may have been just 220 episodes, as I recall watching the original run in 1986 on WABC when it went into reruns in March or April through the rest of the run in early September.

[vahan]

Where's the Miami trip that salephreak claimed to have seen Sandi spend money on? Did salephreak make up this claim? He claimed to have taped every single episode on USA. S-220 shows Sandi winning again.

Salephreak never posted again after his first and only post, so we can't reach him. Sorry if I'm a little confused here.

And as stated previously in this thread, there were nothing but reruns from March to September 1986.

I did notice something, though: There were originally contestant and ticket plugs in the end credits to every Syndicated episode. In reruns, they were replaced with parting gift commercials. All 24 Season 2 weeks that I've seen didn't have those ticket and contestant plugs. Only the first three weeks of the Syndicated run kept them in current reruns.

[snowpeck]

Jim also seemed very careful not to mention the next show or that Sandi would be back, instead focusing on her "grand total." So I'm still leaning toward it being the finale, but it's hard to know for sure.

[aaaa]

Dec 30, 2023 15:25:28 GMT -5 snowpeck said:

Jim also seemed very careful not to mention the next show or that Sandi would be back, instead focusing on her "grand total." So I'm still leaning toward it being the finale, but it's hard to know for sure.

It is possible she was invited on the daytime version to continue her run. They brought Alice and Tim on the 1987 International tournament.

[aaaa]

Dec 30, 2023 14:13:08 GMT -5 vahan said:

Where's the Miami trip that salephreak claimed to have seen Sandi spend money on? Did salephreak make up this claim? He claimed to have taped every single episode on USA. S-220 shows Sandi winning again.

Salephreak never posted again after his first and only post, so we can't reach him. Sorry if I'm a little confused here.

And as stated previously in this thread, there were nothing but reruns from March to September 1986.

I did notice something, though: There were originally contestant and ticket plugs in the end credits to every Syndicated episode. In reruns, they were replaced with parting gift commercials. All 24 Season 2 weeks that I've seen didn't have those ticket and contestant plugs. Only the first three weeks of the Syndicated run kept them in current reruns.

The first four weeks of Sale didn't have fee plugs or fee plug references when they aired on GSN or Buzzr. They also didn't rerun in Summer 1985 IIRC.