The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: gamed121683 on May 24, 2023, 05:33:08 PM
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Recently, I read a Facebook post about how with its "rotation of games giving it a perfect blend of consistency and variety" that The Price Is Right is a very "bingeable" show. This got me to thinking, besides Price, what other game shows would make for a great all-day binge?
I'll get the ball rolling and say Family Feud. There's something about the format of guessing survey results that's so darn fascinating. Especially if you're watching the old Dawson or Combs episodes just for the "time capsule" effect of what was on people's minds back in the '70s and '80s (might explain why Fremantle now has an around the clock channel of it). Maybe it's the simplicity of it all or watching the contestants occasionally giving off the wall answers (and the host's reaction to them), it's one game show I could watch episode after episode and not get tired of it.
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I agree with Dawson Feud, especially with long-running champs that Richard develops running jokes with.
In a similar vein, runs of champions on Sale of the Century are fun to binge as the stakes gradually increase. One Australian champ's full run from 1984 is on YouTube.
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Definitely agree on "Feud". It's a reason GSN shows it wall-to-wall during the evenings.
A few years ago, I found a few Kennedy episodes of Split Second and felt I could watch those over and over for a reason similar to William's. Watching a champion's run is very thrilling to watch.
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I've found thanks to the GSN reruns that Regis Millionaire is pretty bingable. Easy to watch a few hours on in the background or whatever - easy to determine the level by glancing. I think the older GSN Lingo was also very easy to binge as well. Back before YouTube pulled the episodes, was easy to watch for a few hours. Ditto for Sale, Feud. As for Price, I think the showdowns take up a lot of episode time, and you get lots of wheel spinning as part of a long binge. The varied showcases of the 70s and 80s do make it more interesting.
I have found the daily 1.5 hours of Jeopardy and Masters to test my limits on daily Jeopardy! consumption. I find it harder to binge because I want to pay attention too much.
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Most of the UK game shows of recent, including Pointless, Tenable, and The 1% Club.
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I have wound up with an absolutely ludicrous amount of Wheel of Fortune from the 90s into the 2000s in my own personal library, and I have been blown away with how insanely bingeable this show is, and how well it fits any level of engagement to which I want to commit. Ambient background noise? It's fantastic. Actively paying attention? It's a fun time. Works on any level in between too. With just enough funny, interesting, or weird moments to hook. Especially with long streaks of consecutive episodes. (I'm missing like twenty total between 1994 and 2003).
(Related yet tangent: This show absolutely should never have gotten rid of returning champions. It's most engaging contestants rival or outpace anything Jeopardy has ever cooked up while the enhanced luck factor means it's never as much of a lock as Jeopardy superchamps often are, so you wind up more interested in following them)
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I'll add 2 more:
● (The New) Treasure Hunt... The only consistant, redundant aspect of that show was Ameile saying "Yes I Did". Otherwise, you couldn't really predict how they were going to award a prize or a Klunk to a contestant.
Also from the Barris files:
● The Newlywed Game (pre 90's eras in particular). From either/or questions, multiple choice questions (whose order was always changed once the couples were together again), defining words within questions ("What do you dip your cruller in??), whoopee questions,..etc.
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My most recent binges from both digitizing VHS holdings of series' and catching up on digital content:
- Starcade: as a child of the 80s and a fan of Geoff's, binging the series was highly amusing yet comforting nostalgia
- The New Liar's Club: getting past the cheap prizes, it was a solid format with an entertaining regular panel that I'm glad bonusround.ca posted
- Cullen TPiR: really missing it on BUZZR Saturday mornings, I got as much joy from that block of 3 episodes as an adult as I did watching Saturday morning cartoons as a kid
- Go: Underappreciated series, each episode goes by so quickly. Not a perfect game, but KO was a solid emcee and it moved along at a good pace
- The New Treasure Hunt and Treasure Hunt '81: if I could acquire the whole series of the original, I would. Geoff was an ace in both versions and it's definitely my favorite Barris product
Nowadays: Recording Break the Bank from GameTV and watching the episodes back-to-back on Saturday or Sunday.
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I'll add 2 more:
● (The New) Treasure Hunt... The only consistant, redundant aspect of that show was Ameile saying "Yes I Did". Otherwise, you couldn't really predict how they were going to award a prize or a Klunk to a contestant.
Good one. I’d add the original Gong Show.
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Thanks to the kindness of uploaders on this board, I have had to force myself to bed rather than fire up another episode of Temptation. American $OTC can scratch the same itch for me. A champion's run can suck you in, and the rapid fire questions get you engaged while the shopping segments offer enough moments for my brain to kind of reset before getting after it again.
In contrast, an hour of Jeopardy in a night is probably my cutoff.
Monty's LMAD is probably another binger for me. I love watching him work, and it's fascinating to me how the show so often works the same beats but manages to play them a little differently every time.
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Sodboy took two of my responses—and almost verbatim to how I would have responded.
I find $ale engaging with the various segments (Fame Game, etc.) creating a nice change of pace.
LMaD, especially the 80s runs are most interesting. More specifically, the ‘84-‘86 run. It’s exciting to see someone win a car, because it’s far less commonplace than TPiR.
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- The New Treasure Hunt and Treasure Hunt '81: if I could acquire the whole series of the original, I would. Geoff was an ace in both versions and it's definitely my favorite Barris product
Nowadays: Recording Break the Bank from GameTV and watching the episodes back-to-back on Saturday or Sunday.
I'm with you on that one. I think late '70s Dating Game might just be my favorite Barris show (at least it was when I was a kid), but I have a special fondness for The New Treasure Hunt. It was aired Saturday nights at 7:30 in my area for most of its run. The '80s version was never seen in my area, but when I saw episodes on GSN, I thought it just wasn't up to par with the 73-77 version. Too bad GSN couldn't have run more of that version.
For me, I might add in Break the Bank and even Whew!, but part of that could be because they were rare shows until recently. Maybe it's the excitement of the unearthing of a rare gem that would skew our "bingeable" lists.
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Definitely agree on "Feud". It's a reason GSN shows it wall-to-wall during the evenings.
For me, I just can't get into Harvey's Feud enough to watch it for that long, but sometimes my wife turns on GSN and watches it for a couple of hours at a time. I agree that GSN wouldn't be doing this if they weren't getting the ratings.
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Buzzr showed me that there's at least 2 shows I can enjoy this way: Dawson Feud, on one-after-the-other late at night, is hard to put down. When Classic Concentration had a spot on weekends for hours at a time, we similarly couldn't change the channel. I think both shows succeeded in a space we're all talking about: there's a game, but there's enough natural extra-curricular conversation and jokes to keep you guessing at what will happen next. Classic Concentration has the added bonus of hoping to see somebody finally beat the car round with each additional 5 seconds added to the clock. I continue to be pleasantly surprised at how the puzzles and matching engage people who wouldn't normally hang in there for a game show.
-Jason
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Definitely agree on "Feud". It's a reason GSN shows it wall-to-wall during the evenings.
For me, I just can't get into Harvey's Feud enough to watch it for that long, but sometimes my wife turns on GSN and watches it for a couple of hours at a time. I agree that GSN wouldn't be doing this if they weren't getting the ratings.
I was in the doctors office yesterday and they have the best of Harvey Feud on a loop and they just play all the funny moments and biggest wins between Celebrity and Regular families. I never knew that was such a thing it was on one of those app channels. I can't get into Harvey feud also the sexual answers and Steve usual routine stopped being funny after the first season.
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Buzzr showed me that there's at least 2 shows I can enjoy this way: Dawson Feud, on one-after-the-other late at night, is hard to put down.
Since the introduction of the Feud Classics channel, I'll often sit down with a different TV watching plan, but the splash on my screen will tempt me and I'll instead choose to knock back two or three or five of those.
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I’m very much enjoying Break the Bank. The game itself is so good, the celebrities are just a bonus. Or in the case of some, a detractor.
I binged on Trebek Double Dare when it was on Amazon. Lots of games carried over, some champions were funny characters, and it was a hoot to see Spoilers a few times in a row. Man, a reboot could be great.
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Jim Perry with Card Sharks and $ale.
And thinking outside the box a bit, no pun intended, Bill Cullen's "Three on a Match". There was (any maybe still is) about 5 to 7 episodes, most involving one champion Fred Abrahams. I adored the show as a youth back in the early 70s and was so tickled to have found a few full episodes of this lost NBC gem.
Blockbusters with Cullen is another I could binge on. I love the trivia aspect of the game. The strategy part isn't too bad either. My only gripe was the Gold Rush (later Gold Run) end game seemed a tad too easy to win. The Rafferty version was okay, but prefer Cullen's.
Rayburn Match Game '73 through some of '78 is another I could binge watch. '74 to '76 or '77 was the peak of the show for me. I never cared for the syndicated Match Game episodes at all.
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Back around the Christmas holidays, I guess I did some weekend binging of The Liars Club ‐‐ mostly the 70s version on YT.
With all the different items they used, works of art, and yet another show where Betty White can really be a bit naughty while still flying under the radar -- even better if hubby Allen was hosting.!
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Watching GSN right now and America Says is on. It’s really come into its own as a fun show to watch on a weekend afternoon. I’d add most of GSN’s current originals.
Not exactly a game show, but Shark Tank too.
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I lean more toward the English side. I try to watch as much of the current iteration of Catch Phrase whenever I’m able to, and I also like to watch older episodes of Countdown in bunches.
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I could binge watch Hollywood Squares just to see the different celebs on it. Given my username, I could also binge on IGAS, Blockbusters and Child's Play.
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The Price is Right (70s versions and 80s James,Barker,Kennedy)
Rayburn Match Game I love the early episodes all the way though 1978.
Perry/Rafferty Card Sharks
Beat the Clock (Bud Collyer)
Sale of the Century i forgot how good that show is.
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I'll also mention Sale of the Century - I've been watching a lot of it lately.
I'll be in the minority on this one, but I could binge Face the Music any day, any time.
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Definitely Cullen Chain Reaction and Blockbusters. Possibly Password Plus, too. There's a lot of great games I like, but if they have a lot of flash and dazzle, it's likely to wear this old guy out. These shows have a nice pace and good at-home playability.
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The Feud Pluto channel is a great addition. I’m partial to the Combs era because that’s what I grew up watching, but it really is a fun little binge.
/Not a fan of the remixed theme tho
//The drum kit really throws it off
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It might come up when binging Blockbusters that, as cool as the concept and Bill are, the same thing happens over and over and over, especially when Cullen's Gold Run was won so often. That's the fundamental problem with the show.
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It might come up when binging Blockbusters that, as cool as the concept and Bill are, the same thing happens over and over and over, especially when Cullen's Gold Run was won so often. That's the fundamental problem with the show.
Have to disagree. It felt like nobody lost the Chuck Woolery Lingo bonus round, and that show had no problem keeping viewers and coming back year after year. While I think very few game shows are bingable, FWIW, Blockbusters with Bill Cullen was one of the few my dad watched regularly when it had a spot on GSN. I attribute that to the question material and Bill's sense of humor.
-Jason
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If I could have any game show at my disposal, I'd go with The Price Is Right (Barker/James/Kennedy),The Hollywood Squares (Marshall), and The $25,000 Pyramid (Cullen). Maybe Dawson Family Feud.
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I don’t tend to watch one show at a huge clip (though there was a time I would put on a season of Krypton Factor and drift off to sleepy time) .I’m more apt to watch a few different shows in one sitting.
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Have to disagree. It felt like nobody lost the Chuck Woolery Lingo bonus round, and that show had no problem keeping viewers and coming back year after year.
Interesting, valid comparison. Not that I’d sit for a half-dozen episodes of Lingo, either, but it doesn’t feel as repetitive to me.
I wonder why. Lingo doesn’t have written material, so that in theory should hurt it. Maybe the bingo portion helps; RuPaul’s and the British run feel monotonous without it, and if the odds weren’t so favorable, it would give some suspense to the bonus round.
Maybe it’s that Blockbusters has more games in each episode so the lather-rinse-repeat is more present. I just felt it needed something, and IIRC their audience research said that, too. Don’t get me wrong, though. I like it a lot, and watching with your dad I bet was wonderful.