The Game Show Forum > The Big Board

Have Game Shows Jumped the Shark?

<< < (12/12)

Skynet74:
Game Shows jumped the shark in 1990 when NBC's morning lineup started to fall apart. Probably one reason why I disliked that decade so much. Ever since then things have never been the same. The 90's will forever be known as the decade that Game Shows were cursed!



John

JMFabiano:
Indeed, I always call the '90s the decade when pop culture as a whole died.  Nothing fun or remotely good for the most part, just annoying and dumb.  Which is why I scoffed on the VH1.com boards about someone suggesting an I Love the '90s.  Sure, the early '90s were pretty good, but after that?  Ooooh, I SO want to see specials about the genius of the Spice Girls, and the debuts of those two new beacons of TV entertainment, UPN and the WB!  And the rise of Britina Spaguilera.....oh, give me more of that!!!!!!!

Anyway, I think the moment game shows JTS'ed for me was the Jonathan Goodson Two in 1994.  TPIR94 was actually the lesser of two evils for me...I never liked what they did to Family Feud, even then.  I can't fault Richard Dawson for getting to go out on a high note, but I missed Ray Combs, and HATED what they did to the set, format, etc.  And of course Goodson properties have never been the same since, from the rumors of Charlene Tilton "blanking" her way to the part of MG97 pilot host, all the way to the onslaught of Pearson/Fremantle disappointments.  Only now do they seem to have "got it" with their one remaining syndicated show, yet 100 Mexicanos Dijeron is still better ;-)  

The other things you named do not help by any means either...more commercial time, which has affected both classic and new shows; a tendency to appeal to the lowest common denominator (yeah, sometimes I worry too about when the Running Man will become a reality); and syndication not having the budget that networks did (Whammy! is decent, but will never be PYL: TOS due to, among other things, scaled back prizes and money).  Some of these things are ruining the rest of television too.

Matt Ottinger:

--- Quote ---Ooooh, I SO want to see specials about the genius of the Spice Girls, and the debuts of those two new beacons of TV entertainment, UPN and the WB! And the rise of Britina Spaguilera.....oh, give me more of that!
--- End quote ---
In ten years, people will be saying precisely that, and not in a sarcastic way.  Such is the nature of nostalgia.  Part of the fun of it -- as those of us who lived through the seventies and eighties already know -- is making fun of ourselves for the stupid things that we made popular at the time.  The nineties will be no different, there just hasn't been enough time passed yet.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page