A couple months ago I posted a link about Michelle’s grandparents, who appeared on IGaS. Well, she took it upon herself to track down the episode, and sent me this email explaining how she did it! We get tons of emails asking for episodes, or where to buy an episode, so this could help out a lot of people in a similar situation:
It occurred to me that Wikipedia would have who owned the show. Indeed I saw that episodes from 2006 on were owned by the Game Show Network, but the episodes from 1976 and earlier were owned by CBS.
I hunted around on the CBS website until I found a staff listing that gave a person described as photo archivist. I knew this wouldn’t be the right person, but I wrote to them anyway on the assumption that one archivist knows the other archivists. My hunch paid off, and he put me in touch with a person named Fred Wostbrock with Kazarian/Spencer/Ruskin & Associates. Fred helped me realize I had misspelled the guest host’s name as Eddie Cannon instead of Eddie Cantor, and that I had the date of the episode off by 1 day. Fred put me touch with a David Schwartz at the Game Show Network, who would have the master list. We learned that his company did not have the episode I needed, and he put me in touch with a new company.
I phoned a Jon with FremantleMedia with the date of the episode and the correct spelling of the guest star’s name. His assistant Jessica Pringle called me back, and told me that she would search their archives for my episode. She cautioned me that their records were very poorly labelled and stored from back then, so it could be some time, and she could make me no promises on locating it. About a month went by before I heard from her again.
Finally on May 11, she wrote me to say she was pretty sure she had found it! She was able to confirm it was indeed the right episode. Then she put me in touch with Heather Iles with Point 360. It was Heather who processed my order for the DVD, a total of $65. I received it just a few days after completing the order with Heather. I’m so happy to be able to share seeing my grandparents with all of my family very soon!
Go Michelle! Incredible work. I emailed her back asking for any contact info that might help out other episode seekers, and she provided these:
Fred Wostbrock with Kazarian/Spencer/Ruskin & Associates
(help with more recent episodes)
fred@ksrtalent.com
www.KSRtalent.comDavid Schwartz at the Game Show Network
(help with finding your episode’s exact date and guest star)
Possibly: help@gsn.com or dschwartz@gsn.comFremantleMedia
(help with locating/ordering very old episodes)
My contact was Jessica Pringle:
jessica.pringle@fremantlemedia.com
If you write to her to inquire how to begin a search, she could likely direct you.
http://www.fremantlearchivesales.com/
Obviously you should not go through all this trouble if you’re just a fan, but if a relative appeared on the show it’s worth it. The first thing you should do is check our episode guide to find the date, if possible, before contacting any of these people. If anyone else has any luck, or has any additional tips/links to add, please post them in the comments! (And thank Michelle!)
I am looking for episode #474, July 12, 1961. My brother was on the show, and I would really like to get it on DVD. He was a junior high school basketball player — and his secret was that in one of his bball games, he was the high scorer for both teams. I sent an email to Jessica Pringle, but would appreciate any other information you can give. Thanks, Lynn O
Hi – You cannot believe how grateful I am to see this! I have been trying to figure out for YEARS how to get a copy of the episode my dad appeared on! It was May 10, 1961 and I hope to surprise him with this for his birthday in September – this year was the 50th anniversary of his retrieval of Alan Shepard (Dad was the command pilot, USMC). Thank you so much!!!!
October 16, 1961
IGaS–Champion Accordion Player.
Can I get or download the episode.
Lynn, see Tommy’s October 6, 2011 post. The high scorer for both games is in the ioffer.com dvd’s.
Martin, also the champion accordion player’s episode is in the ioffer dvd’s. I liked that episode so much I googles him to see what happened to him.
looking for episode 429 Aug 31 1960
I am the Ice cream eating champion