Q:  Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is now on at 2 in the morning in my town. Why does that happen? Is there not another station that can put it on at a time we can see it?

A:  I hate to say this is where TiVo and the traditional VCR or a DVD recorder have to suffice. We have the same problem in Memphis. Millionaire is now on at 3:05 a.m. and is all but forgotten in the mid-South. Where we are, most people don't even know the show is still being produced. You have one of two problems (or possibly both) in your market. Sometimes, the distributor (Buena Vista Television) is willing to place the show on a top-grade network affiliate even in a post-midnight slot, rather than on a weak UHF CW or independent station in a morning or afternoon time period. The problem with that is the show receives almost no promotion from the station on which it airs. The other possibility is a poorer one: that the station carrying WWTBAM in your market is the only one which was willing to take the show and the only slot available was at 2 in the morning. If it is a Top 50 market, BVT (or a distributor for any other show) is willing to take what it can get for national advertisers, just to keep the program in a significant city. I know it's frustrating. It is for us, too, because with a couple of 8 a.m. classes to teach each week, we're not sitting up until 3 a.m.

Q:  With the popularity of Deal or No Deal and the other networks bringing on quiz shows, what are the chances ABC will finally do another Super Millionaire?

A: Not to be flippant but the chances of that appear to be slim and none and slim just left the room. ABC has signed for a couple of new Endemol games. The first one you'll see is Show Me the Money with William Shatner as host, which begins taping this weekend. Endemol is the hot game show company at the moment and the networks are anxious for the next Deal to light up their ratings. Unfortunately, for all of the many Millionaire enthusiasts who are still out there, the show as a prime time option appears to be yesterday's news. You always have a chance of a return but don't hold your breath on it.

Q:  I have an odd question but this has always confused me. It came to me again last week when I saw Number Please and you said it was an ABC show. But Bud Collyer was doing To Tell the Truth on CBS at the same time. How did emcees do shows on two different networks? I thought networks wouldn't allow you to do shows for other networks.

A:  That would be much more difficult today than yesterday. In that era, up until the mid-1960s, advertising agencies largely controlled the time slots on the networks. They bought the time outright and then developed shows to promote their products. So, if an ad agency and a producer wanted Bud Collyer, they usually got him, even if he was doing a show on another network. Here's what would not happen: a host would not have done two separate daytime shows, period, but particularly two different daytime shows on opposing networks. The restriction would have been one daytime show and one nighttime.

 When Dotto, a CBS daytime show, went nighttime, Colgate-Palmolive opted to place it on NBC because it received a better time slot than the one CBS was offering. But since the ad agency controlled the show, it wanted Jack Narz for both versions, so Jack appeared on opposite networks. At the end of the show, announcer Ralph Paul would say, "Be sure to tune in tomorrow for daytime Dotto on another network."

 You may remember a past FAQ when we answered that Bud almost did not host the daytime To Tell the Truth because at the time CBS began considering an afternoon version, Bud was still doing Number Please on ABC. In fact, Gene Rayburn, Merv Griffin, and even Tom Poston from the nighttime panel were mulled as possibilities. CBS even seriously considered Arthur Godfrey, who was still under contract to the network and had just left Candid Camera after a falling out with Allen Funt. However, ABC canceled Number Please after a year's run and Bud was freed to do daytime Truth when it premiered in the spring of 1962.

Q:  When GSN ran daytime To Tell the Truth, I saved most of the episodes. I noticed that on some of the early ones, Tom Poston, Peggy Cass, Orson Bean and Kitty Carlisle were not on it. Why not?

A:  The theory initially was for the daytime show to have a different look and feel from the nighttime show by introducing fresh personalities on the panel. Phyllis Newman, whose primary fame came from Broadway, was the only recurring panelist. However, among those who appeared several times were: Joan Fontaine, Sally Ann Howes (who often frequently populated the nighttime show), June Lockhart, Sam Levenson, Barry Nelson (who almost became a daytime regular), Dick Shawn, Joan Benny (Jack's daughter, who never could shed the "Jack Benny's daughter Joan" in TV Guide details), Pat Carroll, Chester Morris, Ann Sheridan, Lee Meriwether, Jack Carter and singer Joanie Sommers.

 When Fred Silverman took over as daytime programming chief in the mid-1960s at CBS, he felt the identity of the nighttime panel was too synonymous with the show and proceeded to sign them to do both versions. However, a brief transition period was required because Newman still had an extended contract for the daytime show. So, for about a month, Phyllis continued in the Peggy Cass seat. Finally, she was paid off for the remainder of her contract and Peggy joined the daytime panel.

Q:  Why did Bob Stewart leave Goodson-Todman after creating such great shows? Does he still get royalties for his shows?

A:  An old story which Mr. Stewart says is true is that when he sat down with Mark Goodson to tell him he was considering leaving to start his own game show company, Goodson said: "Bob, why do you want to leave? We've made you a prince." Mr. Stewart replied: "That's true, but I want to be a king."

 For readers who do not remember or know: Bob Stewart created The Price Is Right, Password and To Tell the Truth for Goodson-Todman, arguably three of the company's five biggest hits prior to the Family Feud and CBS Match Game era. Yet, in the Goodson-Todman company, the title of "producer" was not easily dispensed. In its early years, a number of the key people who actually produced shows were only listed as "associate producer." You never saw the title "created by" in the credits.

 For Mr. Stewart to jump to an income level of permanent security, he had to take the risk of forming his own company and putting together his own team of creative people. His first sale was Eye Guess, which had a three-year run on NBC. Over the years, he created nearly 20 formats, but his one megahit was Pyramid----which, ironically, was dropped by CBS after a year and without that perceptive pickup in 1974 by ABC for a late afternoon slot almost immediately, we may never have known of that show as a classic.

 In 1996, Mr. Stewart sold his entire library and formats to Sony Pictures Television with the rerun rights going to GSN. Separate prices were negotiated for both the reruns and for the rights to the formats.

Q:  Back in the '70s and early '80s when game shows aired once a week in syndication, why did Wheel of Fortune never have a weekly nighttime edition?

A:  That is actually one of the most FAQs we receive from people over 40 who remember the original prime time access era. Usually, we're asked how in the world Wheel could have slipped through the cracks, considering the legend it is with 21 straight seasons as the number one syndicated show.

 Actually two attempts were made to distribute a weekly Wheel at night with Chuck Woolery. Len Firestone, who syndicated To Tell the Truth and the 1972-73 I've Got a Secret, attempted a nighttime version in 1977. Sales covered only 48 percent of the U.S. (you needed at least 70 percent for a firm "go"), so the project died. In 1980, Rhodes Productions---which also distributed nighttime Hollywood Squares---pitched a nighttime Wheel. It, too, failed to sell---in no small part because the market was dying for weekly evening shows in favor of five-a-week strips (Family Feud expanded from weekly to nightly that season).

 As to why stations did not jump at Wheel, some of it has to lie in the fact that the show was never a major hit on NBC in daytime, even though it had a long, long run. When Lin Bolen first scheduled it, Wheel did win its time slot and skewed younger than Gambit, CBS's 10:30 a.m. show. So, in August 1975, CBS promptly moved The Price Is Right opposite and that was like a smack in the teeth to Wheel. An attempt to compete head-to-head with Price when it expanded to an hour was a disaster and only lasted a few weeks. With, at best, a mediocre daytime performance, station managers did not see Wheel as a significant nighttime threat.

 We can tell you when Wheel was finally sold in 1983 as a nightly strip to local stations, some NBC stations were not even carrying the daytime version, opting for syndicated talk shows instead. Many program managers took it in a state of desperation because nothing they threw up against Family Feud in the evening had worked. Wheel was even considered to be a suicide move in some cities. By February 1984, Wheel began its slow rise and by May, the trade publications were calling it a Feud-killer.

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Once in a while, the fun for any historian of an entertainment genre is to travel into a fantasy world and ponder an ideal. For years, I've kicked around how, if given the chance, I would program for one week an entity such as Game Show Network (GSN) with classic shows in prime time slots where they had the most impact.
   You go with the premise that someone's favorite will probably be omitted. You also have to consider how game shows which had a long life in the 1950s and '60s were often moved to a variety of time slots, some of which they performed in better than others. Then, you deal with the multiweek success, of which Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in its first two years was the king.
   So, if I was a young Freddy Silverman and programming a prime time lineup with nothing but game and contest shows where they performed best, here would be my blueprint:

SUNDAY: 7:00 People Are Funny  7:30 Ted Mack and the Original Amateur Hour  8:30 Let's Make a Deal  9:00 Who Wants to Be a Millionaire  10:00 The $64,000 Challenge  10:30 What's My Line?

MONDAY: 7:30 To Tell the Truth  8:00 Deal or No Deal  9:00 Twenty One  9:30 It's News to Me  10:00 Password  10:30 Jackpot Bowling with Milton Berle

TUESDAY: 7:30 Name That Tune  8:00 Who Wants to Be a Millionaire  9:00 Dotto  9:30 Yours for a Song  10:00 The $64,000 Question  10:30 Break the Bank

WEDNESDAY: 7:30 The Name's the Same  8:00 Keep Talking  8:30 The Price Is Right  9:00 Masquerade Party  9:30 I've Got a Secret  10:00 Down You Go  10:30  (No choice)

THURSDAY: 7:30 Tic Tac Dough  8:00 You Bet Your Life  8:30 The Dating Game  9:00 Greed  10:00 Truth or Consequences  10:30 Place the Face

FRIDAY: 8:00 Who Wants to Be a Millionaire  9:00 Dollar a Second  9:30 Hollywood Squares  10:00 Chance of a Lifetime  10:30 Mike Stokey's Pantomime Quiz

SATURDAY: 7:30 Beat the Clock  8:00 The Newlywed Game  8:30 Top Dollar  9:00 Two for the Money  9:30 The Face Is Familiar  10:00 Songs for Sale