Pop Monkey Productions Picks Up International Rights to “Catch 21″ and “Hollywood Teasers”
Fans of the hit GSN game show Catch 21 who don’t live in America may get a chance to get their own version. Back from MIPTV this past week, Pop Monkey Productions has picked up the international rights to GSN’s Catch 21, which is currently in a brief hiatus during its extended fourth season. The deal was made by the company and the show’s creator, four time Emmy winning game show producer Merrill Heatter.
Merrill said, “Pop Monkey impressed me with a vision to not only bring this superb format to TV audiences around the world but to also create multi-platform elements. It’s very exciting to be in business with them” Hugh Wright of Pop Monkey Productions added, “It’s tremendous to be working with a game show pioneer like Merrill on Catch 21. As GSN has proven over four seasons, the show rapidly finds a high rating audience.”
Pop Monkey Productions also scored the rights to Merrill’s new show Hollywood Teasers, an update to the classic Hollywood Squares format.
I’m pretty known for being on the record with my enjoyment of Catch 21. It’s a fun game that updates a classic format, Gambit (hosted by Wink Martindale) nicely for today’s audience. It wouldn’t have lasted on GSN so long if it didn’t work. It’s getting a raw deal by GSN currently so maybe they’ll get some vindication.
Hollywood Teasers plays more like All-Star Blitz. THe US pilot was done in the early 90s hosted by Robb Weller.
I hope it is tried again real soon up here!
I was just reminded of this — considering “Catch 21″, why didn’t Wink show up there to promote “Instant Recall” during its run? They could have given him the driver’s seat for a day or two and officially “passed the torch”.
Eh.
Still, it’s good to see that Heatter hasn’t stopped. :)
Heatter did retire in the 90s sometime and then returned to produce Catch 21. He sold to the rights to the shows he did in the 80s-early 90s(post-Quigley) to Sony/King World circa 2000. His company was hired by Orion to produce the 1987-88 High Rollers and the 1990 Gambit unsold pilot.