JK
1993-1998 was a really strange period for gameshows on ITV across the board because you had stuff that had been on the air for ages and was then fiddled with (Krypton Factor), attempted to be fiddled with (Bullseye), rehash of a previous format (Strike It Lucky to Strike It Rich). Blockbusters finished and went to Sky (but was for the most part shown on ITV anyway) and then there was the CITV programmes - Finders Keepers had its format changed as well (though by that point it was Fun House in different packaging), the appearance of Crazy Cottage in which nobody had a clue what was going on (though it says here it lasted 3 series for some reason) and Steve Johnson's vehicles, even if he is only ever going to be remembered for Motormouth.
UK companies were starved of cheap, proven formats from the US during this period, as the entire industry there as good as died during the late 80s/early 90s.
It took a while for the UK companies to realign themselves to start developing their own formats.
In the US now only CBS produce their own daily quiz shows, Price is Right with Drew Carey and Let's Make a Deal with Wayne Brady.
NBC, ABC, Fox have abandoned the daytime quiz shows, and it is now largely left to syndication for quiz shows.
One thing with ITV gameshows of the 90s and 00s though was how they made episodes then kept them on the shelves for months, sometimes years before showing them. Catchphrase was no exception, the episodes they showed in 1993-4 had been made by TVS in 1992 and there were even some 1991 episodes in that run, the later Roy Walker episodes sat on the shelves for ages (according to Wikipedia and UKGameshows, series 11 wasn't shown until after series 12! And there were long breaks between episodes in the other series too), and I think even some Nick Weir episodes weren't shown until 2004, some time after the Mark Curry ones were.
1993-1998 was a really strange period for gameshows on ITV across the board because you had stuff that had been on the air for ages and was then fiddled with (Krypton Factor), attempted to be fiddled with (Bullseye), rehash of a previous format (Strike It Lucky to Strike It Rich). Blockbusters finished and went to Sky (but was for the most part shown on ITV anyway) and then there was the CITV programmes - Finders Keepers had its format changed as well (though by that point it was Fun House in different packaging), the appearance of Crazy Cottage in which nobody had a clue what was going on (though it says here it lasted 3 series for some reason) and Steve Johnson's vehicles, even if he is only ever going to be remembered for Motormouth.
UK companies were starved of cheap, proven formats from the US during this period, as the entire industry there as good as died during the late 80s/early 90s.
It took a while for the UK companies to realign themselves to start developing their own formats.
In the US now only CBS produce their own daily quiz shows, Price is Right with Drew Carey and Let's Make a Deal with Wayne Brady.
NBC, ABC, Fox have abandoned the daytime quiz shows, and it is now largely left to syndication for quiz shows.
