Somewhat Dumb Daytime Moves--NBC's game shows from 1991 to 1994

As I mentioned back in my "Wheel of Fortune (Post-Sajak)" entry, on September 20, 1991, NBC cleared the last of its game shows ("Wheel of Fortune" and "Classic Concentration") from its schedule.  However, one month later, on October 28, "Classic Concentration" returned...in rerun form, that is.  In my honest opinion, if NBC really wanted to have the show on the air, they should have made new episodes instead or rerunning shows from 1987.

For over a year, this was the only game show on NBC, but that changed on January 18, 1993, with the debut of two new game shows on the schedule--"Scrabble", a revival of the 1984-1990 series hosted by Chuck Woolery, and "Scattergories," based on the board game of the same name, hosted by Dick Clark.  Both of these shows were okay, however they had a number of problems, which I will mention for each show individually.

Scrabble

• The show's new set was smaller, as well as cheaper.  Instead of the octagonal stoppers displays from the original series, we now had three horizontal lights stacked on top of each other.  Also, the "Scrabble Cube" didn't rotate as the previous version did, with all of the gameplay action (both main game and Sprint rounds) being played on the central monitor.
• The Pink and Blue Bonus Squares were back, but instead of directly winning the money after guessing the word, the money which represented that particular square ($500--Blue, $1000--Pink) was added to the Bonus Sprint Jackpot, which started at $1,000.  This, by the way, was the only way money was added to the jackpot.
• Despite this, this version of "Scrabble" had the highest Bonus Sprint jackpot in the show's history--$20,500 (which wasn't bad money for 1993).

Scattergories 

• The five guest celebrities only appeared on prerecorded video from either various locations (mainly either Los Angeles or New York).  They never appeared live in the studio.
• The jackpot for the bonus round was $4,000.  Yes, you read that right.  FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS.  Now, for those of you that fell asleep during economics class, $4,000 in 1993 buys a lot less than it did in 1973.  However, the show did add $1,000 for each day it was not won, but still!!

As you've noticed by both of those shows, the main problem was that they were CHEAP.  Then again, I've heard that they were mainly placeholders until Leeza Gibbons' talk show would debut on the network, so NBC probably didn't really give a damn.

Two more game shows debuted in 1993 on NBC, but not at the same time.  The first was "Family Secrets," hosted by Bob Eubanks, which debuted on March 22, 1993.  The show, which was taped at the then-Disney-MGM Studios at Walt Disney World, was a show that I have to admit, I never actually watched when it first came on, and there was also a controversial moment coming from the show.  According to the "Television Game Show Hosts: Biographies on 32 Stars" book written by David Baber, one team competing on the show turned out to not be a real family.  It was actually a father, his daughter, and his girlfriend posing as the girl's mother.  The team won $6,000 in prizes, but when the real girl's mother discovered the deception, the show was pulled from the airways and replaced with a rerun.  In a major irony, the father and his girlfriend married on June 11, 1993, the same day "Family Secrets" went off the air.  June 11th was also the day that "Scrabble" and "Scattergories" were canceled as well.

The other new 1993 game was "Caesars Challenge," emanating from Caesars Palace in fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada.  Debuting on June 14, 1993, the show was hosted by then-NBC sportscaster Ahmad Rashad (also then-husband of Phylicia Rashad), and featured a male model dressed in Roman attire (regularly Dan Doherty) serving as assistant.  "Caesars Challenge" was known for its giant slot machine which displayed up to nine letters for the scrambled-up words, plus the incredible rapport between Rashad and Doherty.  "Challenge" lasted until January 14, 1994, when it became the last daytime game show (besides "The Price is Right") to air for 15 years.  During that time, "Classic Concentration" went off the air on New Years Eve, 1993.

Although I enjoyed "Caesars Challenge", the one problem I had with it was in its early episodes, contestants bought merchandise with their cash earnings, like the older episodes of "Wheel of Fortune".  However, unlike "Wheel," in which the prizes were of a decent amount, the prizes on "Caesars Challenge" consisted of more high-end prizes (close to the $10,000 range), which means that they could only get one prize.  This later changed to a more suitable prize package that valued the amount of money that they earned during the game.  Also, of the two bonus games the show had, I kinda liked the first one a little better.

I also have to say this.  For some stupid, stubborn reason, NBC has refused to air or relinquish the rights to "Classic Concentration" since 1993.  They also hold the rights of the Jack Narz syndicated version of "Concentration" (they leased the format to Goodson-Todman Productions, and later Mark Goodson Productions, during that time).  And you wonder why NBC's daytime schedule has been under rock bottom for so long...