The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: TheInquisitiveOne on October 26, 2022, 12:24:38 AM
-
Good evening.
When you look back in game show history, what year seems to be important, in your opinion? Whether it’s your favorite, or one you see as high in importance?
What spurred me to write this topic was what happened in 1985. While TPIR cemented it’s place at the top of daytime game shows, there seemed to be a big shift - one that I feel started the decline of daytime game shows in general:
The cancellation of Richard Dawson’s version of Family Feud; to this day, it would be the last daytime game show on ABC that would run five years or more. While ABC did dabble in daytime game shows for a few years more, nothing else would gain traction after one season.
The rise of syndicated Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! For one, their successes helped push out the original 1-2 combination of Tic Tac Dough and The Joker’s Wild, though I also think Jack Barry’s unexpected passing in 1984 may have played a role too. (It may have also helped to push out nighttime Family Feud, though it may have already been on borrowed time.) In any case, both Merv Griffin shows began to explode in popularity, and I think (in hindsight) that could’ve started the eventual phasing out of network daytime game shows.
That leads into another year: 1989. By the end of March of that year, three game shows across two networks would be gone in two weeks: Super Password, Sale of the Century, and Card Sharks. Just a few months later, daytime Wheel of Fortune would leave its 14-year home of NBC and move to CBS, leaving Scrabble as the remaining long-runner until 1990 (EDIT: forgot about Classic Concentration, which went from 1987-1991…1993 if accounting for reruns…oops). This year would serve as a strong indicator that daytime television was really starting to shift away from game shows in favor of talk shows and/or local programming.
What other years do you think rank up there in historical importance? Discuss here. As always, thank you in advance for your responses. Be well.
The Inquisitive One
-
1994: NBC cancels Caesar’s Challenge, leaving TPiR as the sole daytime network game show for the next 15 years.
1999: Millionaire premieres on ABC. While we can argue whether it’s a good or bad thing that nearly every show since imitates the dark set, mood lighting, and drama, we can’t argue Millionaire pumped life into a genre that wasn’t quite dead, but was hit or miss at times.
-
Thank you, BFG for taking my first answer in 1999. 2005 brought on a stack of dispensable and not great game shows with Deal or No Deal at the vanguard.
2016 proved that game shows can so run successfully in prime time, at least in summer replacement.
-
Let's talk about 2002:
Network Millionaire dies, ending the primetime quiz fad, but kicks off the syndicated version - which lasts a decade and a half AND once and for all finally sells networks, affiliates, distributors, and production companies on women emcees as a factor that audiences will accept (Vicki Lawrence's two years on the daytime Win, Lose, or Draw 15 years prior having been the previous high-water-mark).
It's not completely sour on the network front, as Price is Right proves that it CAN work in network primetime, kicking off a series of primetime specials that would last into the first couple of years with Drew, then return starting a few years ago.
2002 was one of the last times the genre experienced a rush of interest in syndication in general. Squares got a massive reboot. Feud got Richard Karn, and proved that it could survive a reboot and host change - this would make them a TON of money eight years later). New, if flawed, attempt at Pyramid (noting here that Donny Osmond as host is criminally underrated, IMO). The syndicated Weakest Link was fun and redeemed George Gray's career - all while Wheel and Jeopardy were in the midst of some changes (2001-03) that refreshed both shows, and it's the year the latter did it's first "let's bring back old contestants" tournament, Million Dollar Masters, a concept that the show has returned to several times since, always to a ratings pop, and was the first proof of concept that J! viewers really were interested in seeing so-called superchamps, something the show has taken to the bank over the last 20 years.
It's also the year GSN largely got itself together as far as the production of originals. Its' only genuinely good original in the first eight years of the channel had been Hollywood Showdown, a PAX co-production. In one calendar year, GSN greenlit two series that were still rerunning on the channel up to 20 years later (Whammy!, Lingo), resurrected a 3rd show from a failed syndication attempt (Russian Roulette), Friend or Foe actually holds up surprisingly well (reruns are streaming on Pluto, BTW), and Wintuition was a decent little quiz. At the same time, it was the last era where they went out of their way to acquire older shows. They turned up two different versions of Squares with Peter Marshall. Win Lose or Draw was airing. Greed became a fixture of the schedule for the next several years. Primetime was a mix and match of versions of franchise series for a while - 70s $20K Pyramid in primetime (Thursday, even) of a top 50 cable network in 2002 is wild. There's a decent argument 2002 might be the channel's best year.
Outside GSN (and Nick GAS), you also had at LEAST a half dozen other games in production. Until ABC got heavy into primetime games a decade and a half later, it truly feels like the last time that game shows felt like a commodity that execs were interested in.
-
1975–40+ shows aired at some point during the year. Some clunkers, yes. But WoF made its maiden appearance. TPiR and Match Game were both hitting their strides as well.
-
1980 has always seemed like a watermark to me.
Meeting their demise in network daytime (although some would be revived) - High Rollers, $20K Pyramid, Hollywood Squares, Chain Reaction.
This was also the year, that, by and large, the "checkerboard" format and weekly game show offererings (MG PM an exception) were gone. Family Feud and Hollywood Squares, both previously 2 nights a week options, went the full 5. Weekly offerings NTT and TPiR were cancelled.
-
My turn:
1967 - the year CBS cancelled the big three G-T panel shows, WML, IGAS and TTTT. The latter would last another year in daytime,
1972 - CBS gets back in the game show biz and puts on TJW, TPIR and Gambit.
1974 - G-T has a total of nine shows on the air, the most they ever had. Five network, four in syndication. Newest shows were Tattletales and Now You See It.
1980 - FF gets a daily syndie version in addition to ABC daytime, having Dawson hosting 10 shows a week. If he hadn't already left MG, he would have by then.
1984 - Jeopardy returns. That and WOF become the new syndie "one two" punch.
1994 - Dawson returns to FF, TPIR tries a revised format with host Doug Davidson. Both prove to be unsuccessful.
2007 - Barker rides off into the sunset as host of TPIR.
-
why is everybody forgetting 1958: the year the quiz scandals broke and changed the genre forever
-
1983.
The barrage of short lived shows (Hit Man, New Battlestars, MG/HS), one of which won an Emmy for its host (Just Men!).
Then you got a few bonafide hits...Sale, Press Your Luck, and syndie Wheel of course.
-
why is everybody forgetting 1958: the year the quiz scandals broke and changed the genre forever
I personally was thinking of things more on the positive side. But you're right, 1958 was definitely a big year in game show history for that. It was also the year Johnny Olson started announcing his first G-T show, Play Your Hunch.
One other year. 1956, the year G-T first put on TPIR and TTTT, both created by Bob Stewart.
-
More examples:
1955: The $64,000 Question ignites the Big-Money Quiz craze.
1961: The original Password launches the "Celeb-Civilian Game"; plus, Say When!! gives Art James his first regular hosting gig.
1964: The original Jeopardy puts quizzes back on TV; while Wink Martindale begins his long hosting career (What's This Song?).
1965: The original Dating Game puts Chuck Barris on the TV map.
1966: The original versions of The Newlywed Game and The Hollywood Squares are unveiled; also Bob Stewart goes on his own. Speaking of Mr. Stewart.....
1973: The $10,000 Pyramid premieres, Match Game returns with a vengeance, and America meets Alex Trebek (The Wizard Of Odds).
Cordially,
Tammy
-
Let's talk about 2002:
And boy how, you did. Excellent argument. I remember that era feeling like the genre was about to be on the upswing again.
-
Let's talk about 2002:
And boy how, you did. Excellent argument. I remember that era feeling like the genre was about to be on the upswing again.
Agreed. 2002 was a great year for games and often overlooked in terms of "renaissance" years.
I'd also make an argument for 1996. After it seemed like daytime talk shows were replacing the classics, we got a few new entries in syndication with Dating Game and Newlywed Game reboots, Bzzz!, and in some markets Majority Rules.
On cable, The Family Channel rolled out a new afternoon block with Shop Til You Drop, Shopping Spree, Small Talk, Wait Til You Have Kids and Family Challenge, while Lifetime had Debt airing after Supermarket Sweep reruns.
This 13/14-year-old openly welcomed the new shows, after it felt like the genre was done for good.
-
Let's talk about 2002:
And boy how, you did. Excellent argument. I remember that era feeling like the genre was about to be on the upswing again.
Echoing that sentiment. That year really felt like a game show renaissance of sorts, with everything hitting the right notes, ABC Millionaire be damned. With everything that happened at the end of the previous year, these shows provided us with the right amount of levity we needed.
The Inquisitive One
-
My first instinct was 1994 for the following reasons:
-Cancelation of Caesars Challenge, leaving Price as the sole daytime network game show
-USA Network transitioning from the go-to for game show reruns to treating game shows as an afterthought
-The debut of Game Show Network in December, a niche cable network that is still going strong after almost 30 years, even though it is no longer the treasure trove of classics
-The end of the Ray Combs era of Feud (my personal favorite era)
-Lastly, the debut of Illinois Instant Riches, a local lottery game show seen nationally and spawning multiple copycat versions in other states
I had also thought of 2002 and 2016 for the reasons already mentioned, but personally have always felt a strong shift in so many things in the game show world in 1994 that I had to pick that one.
Anthony
-
More examples:
1955: The $64,000 Question ignites the Big-Money Quiz craze.
1961: The original Password launches the "Celeb-Civilian Game"; plus, Say When!! gives Art James his first regular hosting gig.
1964: The original Jeopardy puts quizzes back on TV; while Wink Martindale begins his long hosting career (What's This Song?).
1965: The original Dating Game puts Chuck Barris on the TV map.
1966: The original versions of The Newlywed Game and The Hollywood Squares are unveiled; also Bob Stewart goes on his own. Speaking of Mr. Stewart.....
1973: The $10,000 Pyramid premieres, Match Game returns with a vengeance, and America meets Alex Trebek (The Wizard Of Odds).
Cordially,
Tammy
Or 1950: when What's My Line basically invented the panel show
-
Or 1950: when What's My Line basically invented the panel show
“Information, Please” ran on NBC Blue, NBC Red, CBS and Mutual from May 1938 to June 1948. Later shows were repeats. (Source: On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old Time Radio by John Dunning, page 341)
I would vote for 1965 as a year of several notable changes, some of them structural that would reverberate for a number of years:
*Bob Stewart and Chuck Barris made their first sales as independent producers (“Eye Guess”, “The Dating Game”).
*The debuts of “Supermarket Sweep” and “The Dating Game” in December 1965 marked a change in tone from ABC’s previous daytime games. Most of the ones they aired from 1957-65 were relatively conventional, and several were picked up from the other networks. The two new programs seemed more youth-oriented, and the sight of contestants running through a supermarket was certainly a change of pace.
*”PDQ”, which started this year, was the first Heatter-Quigley game to last more than two years, and the first syndicated game to last more than a few months.
*”The Price is Right” was among the last (if not the last?) daytime games to air live most days of the week. Bill Cullen’s next project, “Eye Guess”, seems to have been entirely pre-recorded.
The only B&W game to transition to color was “The Match Game” in April, but the I think the balance in favor of color game shows tipped during 1963 or 1964. (It helped, of course, that NBC tended to air more games than CBS or ABC.)
-
1948 strikes me as a year of some importance, looking at game shows in two regards:
1) It is the year when network television, albeit still with limits to its full geographic spread, starts to emerge- and it becomes quickly apparent that game shows will be among the programs on offer, including both original game shows and ones adapting radio programs;
2) On radio, the rise of Stop The Music, which at its peak plays a key (though not the sole) role in the end of Fred Allen's career as a radio headliner- and which, more to the point, through its introduction of the "giveaway" craze plays a major role in the emergence of the "big money" approach to game shows, which (in various waves) has had influence on the genre ever since.
-
Or 1950: when What's My Line basically invented the panel show
“Information, Please” ran on NBC Blue, NBC Red, CBS and Mutual from May 1938 to June 1948. Later shows were repeats. (Source: On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old Time Radio by John Dunning, page 341)
I would vote for 1965 as a year of several notable changes, some of them structural that would reverberate for a number of years:
*Bob Stewart and Chuck Barris made their first sales as independent producers (“Eye Guess”, “The Dating Game”).
*The debuts of “Supermarket Sweep” and “The Dating Game” in December 1965 marked a change in tone from ABC’s previous daytime games. Most of the ones they aired from 1957-65 were relatively conventional, and several were picked up from the other networks. The two new programs seemed more youth-oriented, and the sight of contestants running through a supermarket was certainly a change of pace.
*”PDQ”, which started this year, was the first Heatter-Quigley game to last more than two years, and the first syndicated game to last more than a few months.
*”The Price is Right” was among the last (if not the last?) daytime games to air live most days of the week. Bill Cullen’s next project, “Eye Guess”, seems to have been entirely pre-recorded.
The only B&W game to transition to color was “The Match Game” in April, but the I think the balance in favor of color game shows tipped during 1963 or 1964. (It helped, of course, that NBC tended to air more games than CBS or ABC.)
"Information, Please" wasn't a conventional panel show...it was more of a showcase for literary figures like F.P. Adams, John Kieran, and Oscar Levant. It left room for a lot of ad-libbing, joking around, and one-upsmanship among the group. "What's My Line" set up the template for panel games as we know them today.
-
It seems as though every year was important. I'll vote for 1974. Every body was employed.
-
Showoffs
-
Gosh, if only there was a comprehensive four-volume book that covered this, and sheesh, wouldn't it just be something if it was written by a GSF member? :P ;D
https://www.amazon.com/This-Game-History-Commemorations-Celebrations/dp/1593935692/ref=pd_bxgy_img_sccl_1/139-0367550-4016268
-
It seems as though every year was important. I'll vote for 1974. Every body was employed.
I think the only classic host who didn't have a show was Bert Parks, unless you count his one day of employment in Atlantic City
-
1980: Beat the Clock (Hall), Whew!, $20,000 Pyramid, Chain Reaction (Cullen), Hollywood Squares (Marshall NBC Daytime), and High Rollers (Trebek) end their runs that year.
-
Showoffs
1975.
-
I think the year that was most crucial for the genre was 1968. Here is Mark Goodson, who in the previous year saw four of his creations cancelled, and a few years earlier lost "The Price Is Right". He believed the old formats had some worth, and in the next four years brought those four cancelled series back as well as "Beat the Clock" while still trotting out new games. His belief that any of his shows could come back bigger and better led to a 50-year run for "Price" as well as a syndicated "Family Feud" which is approaching a 25th anniversary season. And all the other packagers followed in his wake, and the genre was incredibly refreshed.
-
1969 was a watershed year. Concentration changed hosts. Match Game, YDS and Eye Guess went off. Syndication had lots of new shows available.
-
1969 was a watershed year. Concentration changed hosts. Match Game, YDS and Eye Guess went off. Syndication had lots of new shows available.
It was also the year there were no Goodson-Todman shows on a network since the late 1940s