Tag Archives: Peter Marshall

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The Bootleg Files: West Virginia Squares

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BOOTLEG FILES 911: “West Virginia Squares” (2014 public television special offering a Mountain State version of “Hollywood Squares”).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Obscure one-shot riff on the classic game show.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Nope.

Have you seen the new CBS reboot of “Hollywood Squares,” with Nate Burleson as the host and Drew Barrymore as the center square? If you haven’t, consider yourself lucky – nary a crumb of entertainment value can be located in that tacky, over-caffeinated, significantly unfunny attempt to update the classic game show. But for sheer strangeness, that new version pales in comparison to the 2014 version of “Hollywood Squares” that was made for West Virginia Public Television.
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The Bootleg Files: Storybook Squares

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BOOTLEG FILES 689: “Storybook Squares” (TV game show that aired in the 1969 and 1976-77 seasons).

LAST SEEN: Three episodes are on YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: A mostly-lost series.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Unlikely unless the lost shows are recovered.

One of the most popular game shows in U.S. television history was “Hollywood Squares,” which placed nine celebrities in an oversized tic-tac-toe set for a game that mixed trivia questions with laughs. The series ran from 1966 to 1981 and appeared in a daytime show that aired on weekdays and a syndicated nighttime version that initially aired once a week and was later made into a twice-a-week offering.
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