Q:  Why are the ABC Password shows never shown on Game Show Network?

A:  This is one of our most perpetually asked questions and it is frustrating that those shows are apparently gone.  The ABC version is one of the few shows of any kind in which Mark Goodson did not insist on archived copies.  The cost would still have been expensive to save them all because television was still using bulky, two-inch videotape in those years and kinescopes were virtually dead.

Yet, Goodson managed to save the color editions of the CBS daytime version of Password and nearly all of the nighttime shows.

ABC, largely a bare-bones network until it became number one in prime time in 1976, archived almost nothing because of those costly $300-a-tape spindles.

Sadly, so many of television's top names of that era played on that version before the level of celebrity players declined.  Elizabeth Montgomery, Bill Bixby, Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Martin Milner, Greg Morris, Kate Jackson, Tony Randall, Robert Young and Mary Tyler Moore all appeared on the ABC version of Password.  Betty White became the first female substitute game show host in more than a dozen years on a week when Allen played the game.  Monty Hall hosted for a week when Allen and Betty challenged the other ABC game show hosts.

The only thing we're glad they don't have:  Password All-Stars, one of the worst mistakes in daytime history.

Q:  I seem to remember Video Village as a child but some people I work with think I'm crazy.  What was the game like?

A:  After seeing Merrill Heatter, its co-creator, at Game Show Congress, I will tell you he is pleased you aren't crazy.  Video Village made his company.  

The show, which aired from 1960-62, was a living board game as contestants traveled down three "city streets" in the "village."  They advanced via the roll of a dice in a chuck-a-luck cage.  The object was to amass money and prizes as one traveled along the village in a race to reach the finish line first.

One of the most inspired moves of jeopardy in the game was Exchange Place, the last square before the finish.  Hit that and you were forced to trade places with an opponent who may be way behind and often blow the game.  You did keep all of your loot, even if you lost.

Only two kinescopes and one clean copy of a videotape appear to have survived, one with Jack Narz, one with substitute host Red Rowe and one with Monty Hall.

Q:  The recent A&E Biography on game shows did not mention a word about Bill Cullen.  Why?

A:  Nor did it mention a thing about Allen Ludden.  You had a couple of stills of Allen but no discussion of him.  

We're pleased they used Tom Kennedy, Monty Hall, Wink Martindale, Peter Marshall, Alex Trebek, Bob Eubanks, Betty White----so many of the great classic hosts.  

Yet, at Game Show Congress, Peter himself called it "a travesty" that Bill, arguably the greatest emcee ever, was ignored.

Our guess is that this special was produced by a documentary company run by young producers who don't have a clue who Bill was.  Often, the surmisal is:  "If we don't know who he is, the audience surely won't."  

That was an embarrassing oversight and A&E should be ashamed.  However, that mistake will likely not be repeated on one of the upcoming GSN documentaries on game shows.  We were told by two of the producers the unanimous consensus was of Bill as the best of all time and we're virtually assured a generous focus on Cullen will be on one of those specials.

Q:  When is the change going to happen with Richard Karn on Family Feud?

A:  In mid-September, when the show returns for an eighth season.  That's when John O'Hurley will replace Karn.

Q:  Do you think with its renewed emphasis on game shows that GSN will ever run Groucho's You Bet Your Life as you have suggested?

A:  Sadly, no.  We still think it would be a solid alternative for weekend late night and it would not be terribly expensive.  Paul Brownstein Productions holds the syndication rights.

Yet, our surmisal is GSN would not buy anything in black-and-white (and probably wouldn't air the late night monochrome shows it has now, were it not for their celebrity nostalgia value).  Seeing Groucho again, in our view, would be an outstanding exception but I'm not optimistic Rich Cronin would even look in that direction.

Q:  Was that the Rich Cronin of GSN we saw last week on Password Plus?

A:  It absolutely was.  Rich was a college student at the time, hoping to earn a little extra money.  He had no idea at the time his future would include originating TV Land and guiding the fortunes of Fox Family Channel and Game Show Network.

Q:  Do you think GSN will ever go back to calling itself Game Show Network?

A:  Probably not and it's a shame.  The decision on a name change was made when GSN appeared to be headed diametrically opposite from the game show business and was commissioning everything from casino shows to game operas and buying recent network offerings from The Mole to The Next Action Star to Star Search to the dreadfully juvenile Kenny vs. Spenny.  

Our question, and we have shared this with some of GSN's marketing personnel:  do you know of 10 people who really and truly go around calling that channel GSN---The Network for Games?  To most people, it's still Game Show Network and it always will be, no matter how they try to market it.

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Ken Jennings is not an ungrateful wretch. Nor is he the next coming of a civilian who gained a bit of notoriety and turned villain.

The impact of Jennings on game shows and his lasting influence, two years after he began that long journey of wiping out most of the Jeopardy! record books, is no more evident than the hoopla of the past 36 hours or so. For those of you not informed, Ken has a regularly-updated blog at his ken-jennings.com website.

Earlier this week, he offered what has been described on The Associated Press wire and Yahoo as a blog entry in which "Ken Jennings Trashes Jeopardy!. The thing has hit Fox News Channel, CNN, you name the news source, it's there. When I awoke this morning, three newspaper writers in large cities had e-mailed me, asking for a comment. I have passed on them all.

If you read Ken's entry at face value, you probably would think this guy has gone nuts. You'd say he's biting the hand that fed him more than $3 million. He's attacking Alex Trebek, the man who read him all of those questions that made him a rich software engineer, brief advertising performer and soon-to-be author. What a dreadful human being who let the money and the stars ruin his head. A few entertainment writers have already drawn that conclusion in print.

Wrong surmisal. I've known enough about Ken through our correspondence and three interviews I've done with him that I know he has a great love for satire, for the tongue-in-cheek. Before the AP story broke, some of my readers e-mailed me to go to Ken's site. I read the piece and saw his crafty use of language and certain key adjectives and I was fairly certain none of it was on the level.

Does Ken Jennings really have any malicious emotions toward Alex, toward Harry Friedman, toward Jeopardy! or its entire staff? Does he hate the classic think music? Does he really think the show needs pyrotechnics coming out of the game board? No. Not at all. Every last comment he made was of the Mad Magazine, satirical variety. Read it closely. His suggestions were so outlandish and outrageous that virtually none of it could be taken seriously. Yet, in a number of quarters and in many of the nation's newsrooms, it has been.

Was it a miscalculation? Probably. I haven't a single doubt that Ken had no idea this was going to erupt in national headlines. Nor do I believe for one moment that he was doing this as a publicity stunt to drum up interest in his forthcoming book, "Braniac." To the latter: no one is going to jeopardize (not to coin a pun) book sales by deliberately alienating some of the core audience members of Jeopardy!. They are going to be your book-buying audience. Ken's publisher has experienced, well-qualified p.r. people handling the push of his book. National TV appearances are already booked, a book-signing tour is already scheduled. Ken's blog entry generated headlines but not necessarily the kind that are going to drive people toward a cerebral book by a game show icon.

Here's the risk any time you write satire of any kind. For the bulk of the audience to buy into it, you almost have to have an identity as one who writes regularly in that style. The late Lewis Grizzard could have written that same blog entry and people would have found it hilarious. Saturday Night Live could have portrayed it as a sketch and drawn huge laughs.

Ken, to most of America, is that Utah boy with the photographic memory (of which no such animal exists) who has the quickest trigger finger in the history of quiz shows. The bulk of the nation does not know his sense of humor because Jeopardy! provides precious little time for that to surface.

I'll never forget my first time attempting tongue-in-cheek in a sports column for my local paper in Waycross, Ga., 33 years ago. The gist of the column was to suggest old, decaying Memorial Stadium either needed a total facelift or should be gutted. I used every exaggeration, every pop culture satirical reference known to man at the time. My closest friends in my age bracket knew it was typical me and roared. However, I received my first serious hate mail from people who thought I was denigrating a monument to war veterans.

In 1985 on WWAY in Wilmington, N.C., I did an on-air commentary which used irony and satire to lampoon the bimonthly circus of the Brunswick County Board of Education meetings. A lot of people didn't get the point and felt I was insulting the entire population of Brunswick County.

My closest friend in journalism, Richard Hyatt of the Columbus (Ga.) Ledger-Enquirer, once told me: "For satire to work in print, you almost have to have an identity for it in the minds of the public. They have to see that side of your personality before it begins to register."

On the other hand, the amazing thing to me is that well after his celebrity should have waned in the public eye, one missive on Ken's personal website makes international headlines. In a sense, it's a backhanded compliment because it demonstrates game shows and their icons do have an impact that can be lasting. I want to e-mail every local station manager in America and ask, "Are you listening?"

Our Game Show Congress 2006 Contestant Legend Thom McKee tells the story of an interview he gave People magazine shortly after his 1980 Tic Tac Dough run was over. Asked if he felt the producers or staff of the show were happy he was finally off after his 46-day stint, Thom offered a similar tongue-in-cheek, offhanded remark. When the story appeared in print, the quote appeared McKee was far more serious. Some readers may have even interpreted Thom's defeat was orchestrated. Shades of the past echoed through producer Dan Enright's mind. "He called me almost immediately," McKee says. "And he was not happy!"

I'll venture if Brad Rutter or Jerome Vered or any of the other top 10 finishers in the Ultimate Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions had written the same thing online, you would have heard hardly a peep. Their celebrity just did not go as far as someone who went on the longest winning streak in American television history.

Have I communicated with Ken? Yes. I'll let him handle his own statements and responses. He wasn't born yesterday. He knows in every city he signs a book, he'll be asked about this blog entry by journalists. When something like this occurs, you just have to accept it, answer politely, swallow it and go on.

Unfortunately, people who are only casual news viewers or online users will probably only hear part of the story. With some in that category, Ken will probably now be regarded as the guy who turned on Jeopardy!.

I'll make you this wager and it isn't even a Daily Double: a few more copies of "Brainiac" will be sold just out of curiosity and a few more of Jeopardy!'s drop-in, drop-out viewers will be tuning in to Alex.