Late Nite Classic Gameshows!!!

[KortKnee420]

I just had to comment how excited I am to have the classic gameshows back on GSN! I fell in love with gameshows and GSN when I would watch the classic gameshows, like "what's my line?" Etc... Tonight I turned on my favorite channel (GSN) and was DELIGHTED to see the ols "what's my line?" and then "I've got a secret" too!!! Thank you GSN for airing these wonderful classics again! Please bring more of these back and take away the boring newer shows! I really miss the 70s and 80s game shows too. "Love Connection" and "Threes a Crowd" were awesome too!

Thanks for being the best channel on TV!

[CardSharks8689]

I hate to break it to you, but I believe What's My Line? and I've Got A Secret are likely airing for a limited time only. I'd be shocked if they remained on the air in January.

Trust me, after Christmas is done and over with, Card Sharks will be back.

[starwheel]

They should bring B&W back, and I hope the ratings justify doing that. I love Card Sharks too, but I like it better in daytime, and we already know it would pull fantastic ratings. GSN is being Scrooge.

[billycw]

I hate to break it to you, but I believe What's My Line? and I've Got A Secret are likely airing for a limited time only. I'd be shocked if they remained on the air in January.

Trust me, after Christmas is done and over with, Card Sharks will be back.

Think question will be what happens come Feb or March. Hope CS stays on. If they are pulling 25 K which had the best ratings of all the Classics, whose to say CS is coming back? Would hope there is a place for both CS and B&W.

I wonder how many people who used to watch B&W shows at 3 actually watch the network anymore. GSN gives a very nice gift at Christmas, but they probably have driven off most of the classic fans since 2009.Especially that group of loyal fans.

As far as ratings, without any fanfare whatsoever( commercials promoting the B&W last year), WML? did pretty well those 2 weeks. IGAS did slightly less in the ratings, but they were decent enough to allow GSN to consider putting B&W back on. Honestly, when GSN returned B&W in 2008, there were comments from a few people ( Mr Davis, I believe was one), that it was for a short term run only. The intention wasn't to bring it back DAILY, but the ratings must have been decent enough for GSN to reconsider. I don't know if the 2 week ratings really matter unless they are very good or horrible. Otherwise, GSN may already have a mindset about returning/not returning the 2 shows to the schedule. I would hope they would at least consider it for weekends.

[pzimm7778]

Think question will be what happens come Feb or March. Hope CS stays on. If they are pulling 25 K which had the best ratings of all the Classics, whose to say CS is coming back?

Because no ones been told they are getting rid of it and until proven otherwise, recent history dictates it will be back.

[billycw]

Because no ones been told they are getting rid of it and until proven otherwise, recent history dictates it will be back.

Thing is, the cycle will be three years of the same episodes for CS. Even GSN has stopped at 3 years in the past with rerun abuse of the same series. Maybe they will get more ep's. there are plenty "newer" ones available. Hate to see CS fans lose out.

[Schmegster]

Thanks for the heads up! Love the old What's My Line and I've Got a Secret. DVR ready!

[DustyOldCat]

I got lucky! My Tivo still had the search for WML from way back, otherwise I would have never known it was back on. What a treat! The only time I watch GSN is for the cool old B&W shows - What's My Line, I've Got a Secret and Beat the Clock. And if they keep the B&W show's then I'll keep watching!

[Mystic]

I certainly enjoyed this little gift that GSN brought us, and I just hope it sticks around after the holidays. And hopefully many new classics return in the new year. I need some reason to justify the $20 hike in my Satellite TV bill. One good thing though, with GSN I receive Games TV, which airs all of the Canadian Classic Game Shows, so it does make for an interesting change. I haven't seen Supermarket Sweep in years!

[smartangie8]

I found whats my line and I've got a secret one night late when my husband was on the one of our computer or reading a book and i couldn't sleep and i was flipping through the channels on our satatlite dish 6 or 7 years ago. nothing was on and i seen whats my line and decided to leave it on gsn since nothing else was on and i had never seen this show i so enjoyed it!! next was i've go i secret and i really enjoyed that to! those are my two favorites. i have also watched the names the same and the black and white tttt when it was on. they were also enjoyable. i'am only 29 but that doesn't mean i don't like older programing that is black and white! gsn needs to get off their butts quit running all this newer stuff and over playing certain shows 50 million times a day and quits premireing stupid orginals all the time and bring back the classics especially the black and whites and whats my line and i've got a secret! oh and does gsn ever read this stuff? i don't think so because nothing ever changes!

[Chameleonwhammy]

Watching some DVRed I've Got a Secret. I miss this show.

[CaseyAbell]

The B&W shows were only on for a two-week run. It's gotten to be a Christmastime tradition around GSN. Card Sharks returns in the 3:00AM slot the week of December 26, according to Zap2it.

Really, though, there's a lot of both What's My Line and I've Got a Secret on YouTube. IGAS used to be sort of underrepresented compared to WML. But over the past several months Richard Carson, who runs the excellent IGAS episode guide, has uploaded many clips from the show to YouTube, including a number of complete eps. I wrote a blog post about one of the funniest IGAS clips on YouTube...

Secret garden of delights

Richard Carson is a game show fan after my own heart. His I've Got a Secret episode guide is an invaluable source for my favorite black-and-white game show ever.

The guide provides detailed production and content information for hundreds of IGAS episodes throughout the show's 1952-67 run. Even more handy are the links to dozens of clips from the show on YouTube, many of them uploaded by Richard himself. I spent hours yesterday watching some of the very best clips from one of the funniest shows ever to grace American TV.

One of the most hilarious bits came from the November 12, 1958 episode. With the panel not in on the secret, host Garry Moore and guest Peter Lind Hayes read incredibly bad jokes that had been written years before by...none other than panelist Bill Cullen.

At first befuddled by what was going on, the panel soon started ripping the jokes as downright awful (which they were). This naturally led to gales of laughter from the audience. Bill Cullen in particular dumped on the jokes as material he wouldn't be caught dead using. Bill said the jokes must have been stolen from jokebooks authored by men long since dead.

By now the audience was helpless with laughter. Bill suddenly realized that they were laughing at him, and that he must have written the horrible jokes himself. As always, the self-deprecating Cullen then joined in the hilarity. To give Bill some respect, Garry and Peter finished the bit by reading a pretty funny routine that Bill had also written years before.

It's times like these that I really, really wish GSN would bring back the black-and-white IGAS. Maybe we'll get some episodes around Christmas, as the network has done in recent years [turns out that was true].

[Chameleonwhammy]

Tonight, we see the first of two episodes from Steve Allen's era of the show. The one that airs on Friday was on during the IGAS run in 2009. (That 2-week special did not feature What's My Line?, but the original Password was on the regular schedule.)

Steve was really a good host, and is often overlooked.

[billycw]

Steve was really a good host, and is often overlooked.

Honest, I really like Steve Allen. But the last 2 years or so of IGAS , he just seemed bored and going through the motions. I don't think he ever 'got" the new British Wave that started to become popular around 64. Think the time sort of passed him by. His humor was a bit outmoded during that time.But he truly is one of my favorite people . Anytime you can watch something old from the 50's or his early IGAS, you get something that makes you laugh and remember.

I am partial, however, to G Moore. Think he was the very best ever of all the old hosts. Bill Cullen a close second.

[starwheel]

I am partial, however, to G Moore. Think he was the very best ever of all the old hosts. Bill Cullen a close second.

I absolutely love Garry...he always seemed to connect well, and seemed like a really genuine guy. And the same goes for Bill. How lucky we are that we have the hours of shows in which these two men shared the stage.

As for Steve...I have always been a fan of his, and think he did an outstanding job of filling Garry's shoes on IGAS. And for the record, he was most definitely not a fan of rock and roll, and the mod/hippie movements that followed. (In contrast, it's fairly well documented that Dolly Mae was quite an avid Beatles fan!)