Another New Retro Channel -- Buzzr

I would love to see the old To Tell the Truth and What's My Line? shows. I hope my cable system picks up this channel eventually.

My nephew loved Press Your Luck. I think his first words were, "No whammies."

Thanks for the link OP!

They don't actually appear to have a website, but here's a Wikipedia article that lists the stations they're currently on. In the NYC Metro area, it's a subchannel of MyNetworkTV, channel 9.3.

Not everyone is from the New York, New York market, R4! And thank goodness for that!

I've been glued to the tube all week, watching really old "To Tell The Truth" and "What's My Line" when I come home from work. I love the glamorous ladies, perfectly coiffed and wearing gloves. This afternoon an extremely young Carol Burnett was a panelist on "What's My Line." She couldn't stop cracking up. I've seen a few episodes of "Match Game" and still enjoy it.

I've been watching other game shows I've never heard of (and now I know why). To me the channel is a perfect tonic after a long hot day at work. I had been enjoying the daily binges on Decades until it launched and is now deadly boring.

Earlier thread on BUZZR

I've been LIVING for Match Game.

Watching Brett and Charles has made my week.

I love the channel name! Once, in high school ('73) was with a bunch of friends at one of their houses and found they had all the "home editions " of game shows (Password. Concentration, Jeopardy, Price is Right). We decided to play Match Game and arranged the dining room up to be the show set and all made entrances and played the parts of celebrities. My best female friend decided to be Kitty Carlisle even though she wasn't a Match Game star. I think I was Orson Bean. We all obviously preferred To Tell the Truth, but there was no home edition. We started trying to give the most absurd answers we could with the best reply coming in response to "Name an electrical appliance found in the home". "Kitty Carlisle?" "A rock tumbler!"

Of course, now I would insist on being Kitty Carlisle!

[quote]They don't actually appear to have a website, but here's a Wikipedia article that lists the stations they're currently on. In the NYC Metro area, it's a subchannel of MyNetworkTV, channel 9.3.

There's a link to its website from the Wikipedia page you provided.

Are you blind?

[quote]Are you blind?

Possibly, but that's really not much of a website.

What I find astonishing about the 50s panel shows is how damned long the women panelists lived. Betsy Palmer and Bess Myerson only died in the past year. Arlene Francis made it into her 90s.

Of course, Dorothy Kilgallen kicked off early, but she overdosed and seemed like kind of a bitch anyway.

[quote]We decided to play Match Game and arranged the dining room up to be the show set and all made entrances and played the parts of celebrities. My best female friend decided to be Kitty Carlisle even though she wasn't a Match Game star. I think I was Orson Bean.

That could go, verbatim, into the classic "Dialing the Phone With a Pencil" thread.

The Game Show Network used to show the old 50s/60s panel shows. I miss that

I thought Dorothy Kilgallen was killed because she was onto the truth about the Kennedy assassination?

There are dedicated YouTube channels where the original "What's My Line?" and "To Tell the Truth" shows are meticulously cataloged in their entirety.

Look up the name of the show with (CBS) in parentheses and you'll find them.

If you have Roku or Chromecast they look as good as they do over the air.

Is it on FIOS yet because I can't find it...?

I love the music when they walk out on To Tell the Truth

Susan Richardson was on tonight!

R17 It is not a cable channel, it's a local broadcast channel service, like MeTV, Antenna, Decades, Movies!, et. al. It's broadcast (over the air) on one of your local digital sub-channels (assuming it's available in your area.) It's up to Verizon to decide whether or not they carry it on FIOS. The same applies to Dish, DirecTV, your cable provider, etc. For example, my cable provider carries pretty much all of them but NOT (for some reason) the local channel (in LA) that has MeTV, so I have to watch it over the air with rabbit ears.

r16, thanks for the heads up!

On an episode of "I've Got A Secret" that aired this week, Garry Moore led off by saying that people had thought he'd married Lucille Ball, when in fact, she'd married Gary Morton.

The odd thing, she WAS actually going to marry Garry Moore, but Gary Morton talked her out of it.

I've been watching Buzzr for a almost 2 months now and seriously, I think they have about 4 weeks of each show that they keep playing over and over again, at least with Tattletales and Match Game. What a disappointment.

Do you deal in services, R23?

Kirstie Allie was a contestant on an old Match Game and I must say, she's never been better!

r24, no, but I do stand every time a lady passes my desk.

tttt

Do you sell your product to men and women?

Bump

A new prime time block seems to be starting September 7th: From VARIETY-- Buzzr is giving failed gameshow pilots a second chance with six-day “Lost & Found” programming block beginning Sept. 7. The block will debut unsuccessful pilots, with the schedule to include “Body Talk,” “On a Roll,” “TKO,” “Star Words” and the 1992 format of “Family Feud.”

What a time capsule these black & white episode are. From a '61 episode of To Tell the Truth that recently aired on Buzzr, "liberal" Ralph Bellamy, questioning an African-American contestant, asked him about a "colored boy"!

Do you work in the legitimate theater?

[quote]And because all of the shows are from the library of Fremantle Media, The Price is Right is almost certain to show up eventually.

Remind me whether CBS or Barker got the reruns pulled from GSN back in the day.

Anyone know if this is available on FIOS in NYC? Love those old game shows.

R34 It's a broadcast station, not cable, so it's up to FIOS to decide if they want to carry your local station that carries it. If you're in NYC, you should be able to get it over the air (rabbit ears.)

What a disappointment this channel has proven to be. I watch only for the black & white episodes, and it's apparent that they only have a small number of episodes that they repeat continuously.

Do you wear some sort of costume when you perform your service, R36?

R35, that wasn't very helpful. Rabbit ears? No true,anyway, since over the air is now in digital and you need a converter box.

At long last it's on FIOS channel 487.

[quote]that wasn't very helpful. Rabbit ears? No true,anyway, since over the air is now in digital and you need a converter box.

You sound technologically challenged. Only older analog TVs need a converter box to get signals over the air. How old is your TV?

Yay, "new" b & w episodes.

I have been loving the To Tell The Truth episodes, they still seem so fresh., and I almost never guess the actual truthful person!

Next favorite is What's My Line -- the sophistication, elegance and drollness of the panelists and hosts is smart and funny, and the mystery celebrity guests are a treat.

I've Got a Secret is OK, sort of What's My Line light, but there are only so many hours in the day so I've got to cut back somewhere...

See, I would put I've Got a Secret and What's My Line as neck and neck. I like most of the What's My Line panel, but Dorothy Kilgallen strikes me as an incredible bitch, and it's only because Arlene Francis is a goddess and John Daly is such a great host that I can overlook that. I've Got a Secret has a great panel (none of the ladies on these shows are as glamorous as Bess Myerson--the second-greatest Miss America).

If you're tired of the same very ,omitted black & white programming this channel endlessly recycles, be aware that starting overnight Tuesday GSN will be airing both What's My Line & I've Got a Secret. Don't get used to it, though, since, if recent past history suggests, they'll only be airing these shows for a couple of weeks. It must be in GSN's contract with the distributor that to retain their rights they have to show some of their inventory during the year.

[quote] would love to see the old To Tell the Truth

Oh, God..I was on that. I hope they don't re-run my show.

[quote]Oh, God..I was on that. I hope they don't re-run my show.

WHAT? Spill!

Yes, R44, when were you on the show? And in what capacity? I befriended an elderly woman once who was a contestant on the network What's My Line. It was great to be in the presence of someone who experienced that history.

WOKKA WOKKA MUSIC!

r46, was she in the legitimate theatre?

[quote]Yes, [R44], when were you on the show? And in what capacity?

I was on To Tell the Truth as a youngster in the '70s, as a liar...much like DL fave/obsession, Anderson Cooper.

It seems like they're just running much earlier episodes, so I'm not worried about a re-run.

Here's Anderson talking about HIS TTTT experience.

I always wondered where TTTT found the impostors, who had to be familiarized and rehearsed to appear believable.

[quote]I always wondered where TTTT found the impostors, who had to be familiarized and rehearsed to appear believable.

My father met someone who worked on the show & it was arranged through her.

We had a couple of days rehearsal, I seem to remember and spent time with the real guy getting to know his story.

I think we were paid $100 PLUS $50 for each person you fooled....PLUS lots of free Turtle Wax products.

Peter Tomarken, the host of Press Your Luck, was quite the hunk. Both he and his wife were killed in a private plane crash in 2006.

What are the chances that on GSN's limited run of overnight shows it would air some of the same I've Got a Secret episodes that are on Buzzr's endless loop?! And how could GSN devote its abbreviated showing to syndicated versions of What's My Line?!

The Rs 23 and 36 nail it, unfortunately. I have seen the same tiny, white woman with black, curly become a Match Game '78 champion three times now in almost as many months.

Yeah, disappointed that they apparently only have rights to about 8 weeks of Match Game.

They moved it from 8 pm so they are playing it less often.

I get a kick out of checking out the celebrities on Tattletales. So many are either now deceased, or they're with spouses they've long since dumped.

Cheryl Ladd was on the other day, pre-Charlie's Angels, with husband David Ladd noted as the celebrity and she was introduced as "recording star Cheryl Ladd".

I am surprised to see how often Johnny Carson was a panelist on To Tell The Truth in the early 1960s.

The vintage B&W shows must be kinescopes, since they include the original commercials.

For the person in NYC who asked (are you still around?), you can watch Buzzr on channel 9's digital tiers (9 also has "Heroes" where every Sunday I watch classic Westerns that I've only heard of and never seen). But you have to watch on a regular antenna if your cable carrier doesn't provide it.

Are the Fred Allen episodes considered the high-water mark for WML? They don't show anything from before he joined the panel nor after he died.

Neither one of them would ever be described as beauties, but both Dorothy Kilgallen and Arlene Francis got much better looking as they aged into the 1960's.

Yesterday's TTTT episode featured Jay Sebring as a contestant, guessed correctly by three out of four.

The panel was aghast that he was then charging $25.00 for a first haircut, $15.00 for each additional cut, back in 1963.

I've been away from the channel of some time since it seemed to have a very limited inventory of the black and white game shows I treasure, but I see that they're now running episodes of To Tell the Truth, at least, that they had not previously aired on a constant, continuous cycle.

I grew up watching those shows and can't imagine wasting any part of my life watching them in reruns.

I think they're an invaluable time capsule of a world long, long ago.

I dvr'd and watched TTTT but they seemed to only have a limited number and I can't watch the same episodes more than once. But if they have a new batch I'll try again.

Meanwhile, What's My Line has been showing episodes from 1955 in chronological order, and I am enjoy the hell out if it. JohnDaly is a dream host, so clever and precise, and the panel seems to have a lot of fun.

My only complaint is that I can't find Stoppette at my local Rexall Drugs, nor can I order a Remington Rand typewriter... But I think Remington shavers are still sold, so maybe I'll check one out.

The channel had been promoting that new batches of shows would be debuting in late August.

It's fun to be watching TTTT and a reference is made to the Kennedy's in the White House . . . they're like time capsules.

r9/35 Buzzr is 1265 on Time Warner in Metro New York.

DECADES owned by CBS and originating in New York is on every cable system here except Time Warner.

DECADES is an excellent cable channel. Very well organized and unique in the way they spotlight shows from the past. Watching Jane Fonda on a 1972 Dick Cavett Show yesterday, Jane just back from Vietnam and it was just weeks before the 1972 Nixon-McGovern election, was most interesting to view in hindsight.

R67 Decades is not owned by CBS. It's a joint venture between CBS television stations and Weigel Broadcasting (which owns/runs MeTV.)

NONE of these networks (Buzzr, Antenna, Decades, et. al.) is a CABLE CHANNEL. They are programming services that local broadcast channels use. So your cable company cannot carry any of them -- it has to carry the local station that is using said service.

REELZ is another very good channel. Their celebrity documentaries are well done. They advertise that they're family owned.

We may be getting this.

The early morning old thread bumper is back, I see. I guess if I was an unemployable mental case I'd spend my mornings ruining forums for attention, too.

Buzzr has added a season or two of a bunch of their shows to Amazon Prime.

I watched a great What's My Line where Mr. Cerf, recently returned from a vacation, nailed a contestant's occupation during the free guess.

They had really shiting parting gifts back in the day.

Here is a direct link to all the Buzzr shows added to Amazon Prime...

People, To Tell the Truth etc are shown in KINESCOPES. This is not the way real B&W television looked way back when, they were preserved in an inferior way.

I just found out the other day that I have The Cowboy Channel, it was news to me. Still haven't watched it yet.

I love this channel and can't get enough of it. I just wish they would show a little less of Family Feud and Match Game.

BUZZr aired the TTTT episode with Jay Sebring again yesterday, he got three votes. The panel was aghast that he charged $25.00 for his celebrity haircuts.

Do they only have the rights to certain seasons of Family Feud? That show ran for years yet they seem to show the same episodes over and over.

They have the entire Goodson-Todman library that's owned by Freemantle Media. I have no idea why they show so few episodes.

They seem to show the same TTTT and what's my line over and over

I noticed that they have just moved beyond showing the Fred Allen days on WML & are now showing episodes from 1957. I've also noticed that for several years now GSN is showing some of the b & w catalog of Goodson Todman the last couple weeks of the year, leading to the belief that this is contractual & keeping the catalog of Buzzr limited.

Yesterday, they aired the first WML? after Fred Allen dropped dead on a NYC sidewalk. Ann Landers was one of the contestants, signing in as Mrs. Jules Lederer, she was not guessed. Cyd Charisse was the MG, guessed almost right away. Cyd felt uncomfortable appearing on the show under the circumstances. The panel members each gave heartfelt condolences at the end of the broadcast. Fred was never replaced, a guest panelist filled his seat until the show went off the air in 1967.