The Game Show Forum > The Big Board
Have Game Shows Jumped the Shark?
chris319:
Audiences that hoot and whoop like a flock of drunken hoot owls.
Music that sounds like it came from a Radio Shack synthesizer.
Grossly overpaid emcees/panelists who get the boot after just a few seasons.
Motorized spotlights, horror-movie music and other gimmickry disguising the absence of an actual game.
Production companies that botch remakes of the simplest formats.
Butt-ugly Jimmy Cuomo sets.
These are just some of the maladies afflicting the current generation of game shows. The question being posed here is: When and in what ways have modern game shows "jumped the shark"? If you need a definition of jumping the shark, see here:
http://www.jumptheshark.com/
Or do you think game shows haven't "jumped the shark"? If you think Card Sharks 2001 was better than the originals, you are free to make your case here (but I think you will be in a very small minority).
BrandonFG:
[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Oct 21 2003, 04:15 PM\'] Audiences that hoot and whoop like a flock of drunken hoot owls.
Music that sounds like it came from a Radio Shack synthesizer.
Grossly overpaid emcees/panelists who get the boot after just a few seasons.
Motorized spotlights, horror-movie music and other gimmickry disguising the absence of an actual game.
Production companies that botch remakes of the simplest formats.
Butt-ugly Jimmy Cuomo sets.
These are just some of the maladies afflicting the current generation of game shows. The question being posed here is: When and in what ways have modern game shows "jumped the shark"? If you need a definition of jumping the shark, see here:
http://www.jumptheshark.com/
Or do you think game shows haven't "jumped the shark"? If you think Card Sharks 2001 was better than the originals, you are free to make your case here (but I think you will be in a very small minority). [/quote]
The one thing that irritates me the most about the current shows are the camera shots. I've talked about this in another post, but in just about all the shows, the cameras do these wild and crazy moves about the set, tilts, etc. It looks like the cameraman is having an epileptic seizure or something. I mentioned that we have shows like "Cribs" to thank for this, and I stand by that statement. The worst offender I think is Feud, if you ever notice during the credits, right as the theme comes to an end, they always show the set at an tilted angle, then have it move towards a level angle. To be honest, I nearly cringe every time I see it, being it's so annoying.
I'd like to think game shows are one form of programming that don't have to cater to 18-34 year-olds, but that would be too close to normal. But, then again, it's possible to cater to the younger viewers without being so gimmicky. Feud looks like it's trying too hard.
Another Feud peeve: give the audience some sedatives please. We don't need rhythm clapping every single time the theme song plays, and we don't need hootin' and hollerin' every time the #1 answer is given.
MCArroyo1:
--- Quote ---Another Feud peeve: give the audience some sedatives please. We don't need rhythm clapping every single time the theme song plays, and we don't need hootin' and hollerin' every time the #1 answer is given.
--- End quote ---
These are pet peeves of mine, too. But they're just that: pet peeves. The Feud certainly has a good game behind it (at least this season). I hope that the smaller things aren't getting in the way of the game, because for me, they aren't.
And I still think that Millionaire, Lingo, The Price is Right, Wheel of Fortune, and Jeopardy! are among the best programs on television. Holywood Squares, too, though that show also has overly crazy audiences. Hopefully, Pyramid and the rest of the GSN Originals lineup aren't spoiling it for the rest of the genre. In my opinion, it's far from jumping the shark.
SplitSecond:
I think the move away from taping game shows live-to-tape, while not a specific shark-jumping moment, is a symptom of definite jumpage.
A big part of the charm of game shows in general is that the games themselves can be a launching pad for spontaneous human interaction with real people. Why do you think NBC has been able to make a very successful series of specials out of these sorts of moments, and nobody has tried a "Greatest Game Show Wins" special?
The contestant and host responses you see on these modern shows, even if they are spontaneous, look fake and pre-produced because of heavy editing and retakes. Some modern hosts are fed lines through the screens on their podiums or through earpieces because their producers either don't trust them to be funny (or remember the rules of the game) on their own or they don't take the time to work with these hosts to bring them to a level where they can fly on their own and make TV magic. The result is that even the most sound, compelling game formats look flat and fake and lack personality.
Dan Sadro:
[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Oct 21 2003, 04:15 PM\'] Music that sounds like it came from a Radio Shack synthesizer. [/quote]
Make the Russian Roulette theme come out of a Radio Shack synthesizer and we'll talk.
I'll agree that there's a lot of crappy game show music out there right now, as well as monotonous sets. But, if we had the exact same conversation thirty years ago, we'd be complaining about the crappy synthesized theme to Concentration, the ugly set to Password, the annoying audience of The Price is Right, the gimmickry of The $10,000 Pyramid, and the format slaughtering of Match Game 73.
History repeats itself, doesn't it?
P.S. (Yes, I know that CS2k1 was terrible, with its single redeeming value of the pyramid of cards endgame -- in theory, it looked better than the old setup.)
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