Adding to the depths of trivia that interests me enough to post, I have this from Ken Tucker…
I've been a fan of your blog for a while now. I know you're a fan of the old game shows on GSN, though you're not that fond of Password. (I've got to admit I'd rather have What's My Line? back instead of Password myself!)
Anyway, there's an interesting phenomenon with these old Password shows that I don't know if you're ever noticed or commented on. In some episodes there's apparently some "print-through" on the audio track, so you can hear a faint "ding-ding-ding" just slightly before someone guesses the right word. It's more apparent in some episodes that others, but has been particularly noticeably in the Barbara Rush-John Forsythe episodes shown this past week. It's especially funny to see in cases where someone suddenly realizes what the word must be — first you hear the ghostly ding-ding-ding, and then you see the person's face light up and they say the word, and then you hear the real ding-ding-ding.
I'm sure you know that this happens when audio tape is wound on a reel and stored for a while, and some of the magnetic information from one layer of the tape gets transferred to the next layer. I assume these early color videotapes had the video information stored in diagonal tracks from a spinning head, just like in a modern (if you can still call it that) VCR, but the audio information must have been in a linear track on the edge of the tape.
Anyway, just a curiosity I though you might find worthy of mention in your blog.
I hadn't noticed this…but then I've only watched Password on occasion lately. I remember enjoying the show when it first aired but I find it slow-paced and repetitive these days. In fact, it made me realize that what I liked about the reruns of What's My Line?, I've Got a Secret and To Tell the Truth was not so much the game as the history. On any of those shows in their recent GSN rebroadcasts, you were transported to a different era with performers and newsmakers of the day. Password doesn't do that for me…though if what you say is so, it may make for more surreal viewing. I'll have to give it another look.