Home game writing

[MikeK]

Is home game material written by a show\'s contributors or by the game manufacturer?  I know some shows lifted material straight from the show; Wipeout DOS game in the late 80\'s comes to mind immediately.  Thanks.

[DoorNumberFour]

I remember reading in Harry Eisenberg\'s Jeopardy book that some of the game material was separately licensed for home versions.

 

Also, I\'m pretty sure the first edition of MB Concentration featured puzzles written by the MB people.

[Matt Ottinger]

There\'s no right answer.  Some did it themselves, some used show material.  I know when I interviewed for a job with Milton Bradley in the eighties, they told me that the game material was all written in-house by MB employees.  However, as you say, some material is clearly taken directly from actual game play.  The one surviving episode of The Who What or Where Game features some questions that appear in the home game, and that was MB.

 

Long answer way of saying \"It depends.\"

[Dbacksfan12]

Is home game material written by a show\'s contributors or by the game manufacturer?  I know some shows lifted material straight from the show; Wipeout DOS game in the late 80\'s comes to mind immediately.  Thanks.

The Family Feud DOS game (made by the same people that did Wipeout) also lifted material directly from the first few weeks of shows.

[Jimmy Owen]

Wouldn\'t there be writer\'s guild stipulations if Q&As were lifted from the show? 

[MikeK]

There\'s no right answer.  Some did it themselves, some used show material.  I know when I interviewed for a job with Milton Bradley in the eighties, they told me that the game material was all written in-house by MB employees.  However, as you say, some material is clearly taken directly from actual game play.  The one surviving episode of The Who What or Where Game features some questions that appear in the home game, and that was MB.

 

Long answer way of saying \"It depends.\"

I figured the answer would be that, especially for games which were made when the show was not on the air at the time, like the 14th edition of Jeopardy from 1982.  I was curious if the contributors to shows (Chris C., others who may be lurking) would share their experiences.

[Bob Zager]

I\'ve often found that the  home versions will mention somewhere in the instruction/question booklets that the material is taken from the actual TV show, whenever that\'s the case.

[Adam Nedeff]

Wouldn\'t there be writer\'s guild stipulations if Q&As were lifted from the show? 

If the writers were unionized, yes. I know Goodson didn\'t have union writers; I\'m curious, did any game show packagers have union writers?

[clemon79]

If the writers were unionized, yes. I know Goodson didn\'t have union writers; I\'m curious, did any game show packagers have union writers?

 

ISTR a situation where Aaron Solomon had to walk off of the set of whatever show (Donnymid, maybe?) he was working on when the last big writer\'s strike happened, so possibly.

[GSNFAN3000]

I\'ve often found that the  home versions will mention somewhere in the instruction/question booklets that the material is taken from the actual TV show, whenever that\'s the case.

 

Yes, the 70s versions of the \"Match Game\" board games used questions and answers from the show.

[Steve Gavazzi]

ISTR a situation where Aaron Solomon had to walk off of the set of whatever show (Donnymid, maybe?) he was working on when the last big writer\'s strike happened, so possibly.

Wasn\'t Donnymid -- that was cancelled years before the strike happened. I wanna say it was Temptation.

[TLEberle]

That sounds right.

[clemon79]

You know what, I think it was Temptation. I kept thinking Donnymid but then I also kept thinking, as Steve said, \"dammit, but the timing doesn\'t work out there...\"

[Matt Ottinger]

It was definitely Temptation, though the specific situation wasn\'t exactly what you\'re describing. 

 

I think Adam\'s original question, though, was more with regard to the \"classic\" era of game show producers, the Goodsons, Barrises, Stewarts, Enrights and the like.