Game Show Network

Game Show Network (GSN for short) is a cable niche channel which debuted on December 1, 1994. The network was originally 100% dedicated to classic game shows with some original programming to supplement that (including original games Decades and Trivia Track, the "good morning"-esque Club AM, the clip-filled As Seen On, and Faux Pause), but began removing most of the classics in favor of more original programming and more recent games.

On March 15, 2004, the network changed its name from "Game Show Network" to "GSN" and branded itself "The Network for Games", opting to break away from its traditional game show format and bring in reality programming (such as The Amazing Race) and casino-related programming (Celebrity Blackjack, The World Series of Poker). Since then, it has mostly gone back to its roots as being devoted to game shows, even going so far as to state that "GSN" does in fact stand for "Game Show Network"; this said, they have continually attempted to branch out into original reality programming despite negative critical and ratings feedback each time.

Wheel Reruns
Wheel of Fortune was among the shows presented on Game Show Network's first day, which began with the 1983 syndicated premiere. The episode was prefaced by an intro by one of the network's on-air personalities, Peter Tomarken (himself no stranger to the genre), which consisted of a brief-but-thorough essay on the show's history while clips of the nighttime premiere played next to him; this included a statement that the daytime series ran for a grand total of 4,215 episodes.

Nighttime
GSN has aired many nighttime episodes, barring Seasons 3-4 (1985-87), 8-9 (1990-92), and 11 (1993-94) for reasons unknown. The network began by airing Season 1, adding Season 5 in early 1996 and Season 10 in October 1997. While GSN continued on a rotation of these seasons, they favored Season 10.

On October 5, 1998, all three were replaced by a near-complete cycle of Season 2, which was replaced by Season 13 on July 5, 1999 and Season 14 on April 3, 2000 (with Season 13 running on weekends).

Season 7 was featured on the lineup beginning in November, but jumped back to Season 6 in November 2001 and aired several "cycles" (returning to the season premiere following the season finale) through August 22, 2004. Interestingly, some owners of the 1988 Mattel game reported that the "invisible signals" were still present in the Season 6 reruns.

Beginning March 15, 2004 (when "Game Show Network" became "GSN: The Network For Games"), repeats of Wheel generally omit any sweepstakes rules, consolation prize plugs, and contestant/audience plugs; further, they "crunch" the credits to air promos and typically end the show prematurely. These tactics are generally frowned upon by game show fans, who prefer "complete" airings. This is further compounded by the fact the omitted portions may have a joke, gag, or other notable incident which ends up being referenced later – references which make no sense without context (such as the 1976 episode that GSN reran in 2007).

Probably the most recognizable season for recent viewers is Season 12 (1994-95), which GSN infamously aired in its entirety for three consecutive "cycles" and a partial fourth from January 7, 2008 to January 21, 2010 (the last episode aired was #S-2280 from March 24, 1995). For the last decade or so, GSN has had similar limited leases of other shows from the Sony library such as Jeopardy! and The $100,000 Pyramid.

Reruns of Season 6 were often time-compressed per the network's standards (usually to egregious degrees), and some closing segments of early episodes had noticeable audio problems that caused everything to sound muted. Although the actual show had begun using closed captioning at that point, Season 6 reruns were not captioned, and Season 12 reruns had their closed captioning re-done entirely in-house by GSN.

King World Logo
Initially on nighttime repeats (as well as those for sister show Jeopardy!), the King World logo, music, and spiel were replaced by the Columbia-TriStar Television logo, music, and spiel by Charlie O'Donnell. The spiel began with "Distributed by..." (said by either Johnny Gilbert for Jeopardy! or Jack Clark/M. G. Kelly/Charlie/Johnny for Wheel), followed by Charlie's "Columbia-TriStar Television!". The spiel also occurred on other Sony-owned games including Pyramid, The Joker's Wild, and Tic-Tac-Dough.

In November 2000, GSN began leaving the King World logo and spiel intact on Wheel with the Columbia-TriStar logo (minus Charlie's spiel) following it. This was dropped when the network opted to cut shows off early.

Daytime
The daytime version has remained largely untouched, minus three episodes (see below). A Total Living interview with Chuck Woolery included clips of the March 15, 1978 show with a 2004 GSN logo, suggesting that the network has it as well. They have all daytime episodes from about mid-1985 onward, as confirmed by at least three posts on alt.tv.game-shows in 1996-97.

Wheel 2000
The entire series, which primarily ran on CBS, was also aired by GSN and continued in repeats afterward. While originally having a prominent place among the "Kids' Zone" block, along with network exclusive Jep! and classic child-oriented games (including Joker! Joker! Joker! and the 1970s-80s revivals of Juvenile Jury), it moved around the schedule several times over the ensuing three years.

By mid-2001, the show was put on Fridays at 4:30 AM as part of the "Cable in the Classroom" hour, with Jep! airing at 4:00. The reruns ceased in October 2001.

12 Games of Christmas
The December 25, 1992 show led off one of the network's Christmas-themed marathons of game show episodes. Hosted by Betty White (who appeared on the daytime show in June 1988 and later appeared on nighttime in December 2008), each episode had a play-along question for the home audience, the Wheel one being "What is the Christmas gift Vanna gives to Pat?" (the answer was "A book by Jack Paar").

Oddly, the episode had a TV-PG rating despite nothing in-show warranting it.

Merv Griffin Tribute
On August 18-19, 2007, following the death of series creator Merv Griffin, GSN aired several Wheel and Jeopardy! episodes in tribute along with the nighttime premiere of Play Your Hunch (April 15, 1960) and a To Tell The Truth episode he guest-hosted (April 17 or 24, 1961). While the Jeopardy! marathon only consisted of the Million-Dollar Masters tournament at Radio City Music Hall (May 1-14, 2002) and its 4,000th episode (aired on May 15 and taped at the same venue), Wheel fans got considerably more variety:

Daytime


 * June 7, 1976 (#368: only Woolery episode reran)
 * December 13, 1982 (#2,016: Vanna White's first permanent show)
 * January 9, 1989 (#3,564: Pat Sajak's last daytime show {listed by GSN as #NTD1-3686})

Nighttime


 * September 19, 1983 (#S-001/Premiere: Jeff/Leslie/Linda {listed by GSN as #S-0001})
 * October 5, 1987 (#S-796: Big Month of Cash, Day 1 {listed by GSN as #S-0796})
 * November 14, 1988 (#S-1026: Radio City Music Hall, Day 1)
 * September 24, 1992 (#S-1769: includes clips of the 10th-Anniversary gala)
 * February 24, 1997 (#S-2656: debut of the electronic puzzle board and green/gold W-H-E-E-L envelope holder)
 * April 1, 1997 (#S-2677: Alex Trebek and Lesly Sajak guest-host while Pat and Vanna play for charity)
 * November 10, 2003 (#S-3946: ceremonial 4,000th episode/clip show)

According to this post, the airing order was 368, 2016, S-0001, S-0796, S-1026, S-2656, S-3946, S-2677, NTD1-3686, S-1769.

Black Friday Marathon
In an unexpected move, GSN aired five hours of Wheel on November 26, 2010. Strangely, while all ten episodes were new-to-GSN, the marathon consisted of two shows from Season 23 and eight from Season 24.

Season 23


 * February 27, 2006 (#S-4411: Soap Stars Week, Day 1)
 * February 28, 2006 (#S-4412: Soap Stars Week, Day 2)

Season 24


 * November 13, 2006 (#S-4531: Family Week, Day 1)
 * November 14, 2006 (#S-4532: Family Week, Day 2)
 * November 15, 2006 (#S-4533: Family Week, Day 3)
 * November 16, 2006 (#S-4534: Family Week, Day 4)
 * November 17, 2006 (#S-4535: Family Week, Finale)
 * May 14, 2007 (#S-4661: Armed Forces Week, Day 1)
 * May 15, 2007 (#S-4662: Armed Forces Week, Day 2)
 * May 16, 2007 (#S-4663: Armed Forces Week, Day 3)
 * May 17, 2007 (#S-4664: Armed Forces Week, Day 4)
 * May 18, 2007 (#S-4665: Armed Forces Week, Finale)

GSN's schedule PDFs indicate the Season 24 shows were aired in their proper order, followed by the Season 23 ones. As with the Season 12 reruns, closed captioning was re-done in-house. Oddly, the SPIN IDs were not edited out of these episodes.

Promos
GSN has done several promos for Wheel, including a commercial parodying the wrestling company then known as WWF with Pat "Powerhouse" Sajak. Conversely, both Wheel and Jeopardy! promoted the network in short ads during the credits in the late 1990s, and also used part of the Radio City Music Hall intro footage from the 1988 shows as part of a promo for Press Your Luck when acquired by GSN in 2001.

Another Wheel-esque promo was part of the network's semi-generic 2007 "Get in the Drama" promotion. As seen here, the faux Wheel included $0, $10,000, Bankrupt, a Jackpot wedge somewhat resembling its 1986-88 daytime version, and other wedges not seen in regular gameplay; the wedges all had a white border on the sides, which resulted in Bankrupt looking much like it did from 1974-75. Other promos in the "Get in the Game" campaign are Action, Challenge, Fun (featuring Chuck Woolery and Bob Goen), and Thrills.