https://web.archive.org/web/20071009060838/http://www.curtalliaume.com/gameshow.html

No longer active and something that I haven't accessed since I was in college almost 15 years ago was Curt Alliaume's website describing most game shows that were on the air at somepoint during 1975. Of course, Curt never had the opportunity to profile every game show when he let his site expire, but of the 34 out of 44 shows on the air, he's provided a nice summary of each of them, complete with its development, background, rules, why it was cancelled, and also some photos and even a few tickets from those shows. Its pretty amazing that back when many people could count the number of channels on one hand that there would be so many game shows on the air, and especially since most aired in the daytime when homemakers and retirees were the primary audience, yet some had quite a "hip" factor to them like the comedy of Match Game '75, the groove of Musical Chairs with the first African-American to host a game show, or even the carnival-like atmosphere of The Money Maze or the Magnificant Marble Machine.

Recently, the number of new/returning game shows per year is approaching the 1975 record thanks to GSN's growth of originals, seasonal special series (especially in summer), and of course, online play like HQ Trivia, why did they fade away? First off, this glut was first hemmed away by the expansion of many soap operas, which also took up a lot of airtime, to one hour, and many did so in 1975-76, with ABC in particular being affected with All My Children, One Life To Live, and General Hospital all expanding by 1977 along with the addition of a new soap, Ryan's Hope. Next, the once lucrative noon hour was starting to be increasingly filled by local midday news, and thus was part of why Art Fleming's Jeopardy! was cancelled at the beginning of 1975, along with ABC versions of Password and Split Second mid-year. Finally, the percentage of working women as opposed to "housewives" was starting to increase, turning away the audience that was once used to buy many products that were useful for the home. Daytime game shows remained fairly prominent though until around 1991, especially on NBC and a lesser degree CBS.

The surviving rate of the shows from this era varies. Most, if not all CBS game shows from that year do survive mostly or fully, along with the syndicated shows like Truth or Consequences, Jack Narz's Concentration, and To Tell The Truth. Then a show like the syndicated run of Name That Tune is believed to survive, but hasn't been rerun since due to the musical rights issue. But if that show aired on ABC or NBC, most of the episodes of that show from that particular year have been wiped away, due to network practices that allow for reusing the tapes for budgetary issues, and this practice generally lasted until around 1978, give or take a year or two. This includes the first year of Wheel of Fortune, The $10,000 Pyramid, Password, and Split Second, among others. Still, the mid-1970s era still contains most of the stereotypes of what most feel that a "game show" is all about, from the chasing lights to the mechanical bells and buzzers to the funky theme songs and background cues.

That said, I miss when web pages were relatively simple in design, with a bunch of cool links on that page that are worth Internet Archiving for.

I remember most of them. I remember when the Neighbors began. I think I saw the very first ep and that was enough for me. It was AWFUL. Hosted by Regis Philbin and it was basically 5 women who were neighbors and basically gossiping. It was so awful that it disappeared pretty quickly.


Cat

I have seen several of them and mi$$ them all like crazy!! :(

In Canada, we had Headline Hunters (1972-1983) and Definition (1974-1989), both hosted by Jim Perry.  Definition was basically Wheel of Fortune without the wheel.  I wasn't around in 1975, but I watched both these shows when they aired in the 80s.