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Most obscure game shows
WilliamPorygon:
--- Quote from: PYLdude on June 30, 2011, 09:03:37 PM ---To answer your question...hmm...the best I can really think of is NY Wired, which was the New York Lottery's attempt at a game show. Don't know if that's the kind of stuff you're looking for.
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Ah yes, I remember that show, being excited for what I thought would be more or less a local version of Illinois Instant Riches... and being disappointed at how incredibly lame it was. Instead of contestants playing for themselves, you had lottery retailers playing for money to be split between three "cheering sections" in the audience — and only half the money went to them; the other half went to various educational charities and schools across New York. Plus way too much of the show's time was devoted to constant segments showcasing how lottery money helps schools instead of actually playing the games.
One somewhat recent, national show I think fits into the realm of obscurity is "Zig & Zag: Alpha Dog Challenge" which ran on Animal Planet in the late 90s. From what I remember, it was kind of like That's My Dog with teams of dogs that had specialized skills (police dogs, swimming dogs, etc.) participating in events that involved their particular skills, and then their scores translated into the leading team having a head start in an obstacle course relay race at the end. I think many if not all of the dogs on the show appeared regularly. I wish I'd had the foresight to record some episodes because there's surprisingly little about it on the Internet — there's no video or pictures of it anywhere as far as I've found.
Fedya:
When I was on vacation with the family in Quebec one summer in the mid-1980s, we saw a French-language game show called Le Québec à la carte which, as best I could tell, was a Q&A show about Quebec culture and history. If I remember correctly, instead of having normal numeric scores, the contestants' scores were shown as advancing down the St. Lawrence River. The "scoreboard" showed the entire province, though, which made for a lot of empty space.
Haven't been able to find anything about it on the Internet.
Jay Temple:
--- Quote from: William A. Padron on July 01, 2011, 03:10:15 PM ---I had seen one episode of The Greater Baltimore Baffle, airing on WJZ-TV, Baltimore, during the fall of 1979. It was a trivia-based show asking three contestants to answer questions and identify locations relating to the city.
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Sounds similar to So You Think You Know St. Louis? Local celebs tried gave their answers, and two contestants tried to chose the correct one, if it was even offered. I still laugh at the prize structure: The winner got $100; the loser, $75.
Blanquepage:
The Battle of the Video Games was definitely an obscure 1980s entry...
RMF:
--- Quote from: Matt Ottinger on July 01, 2011, 01:04:29 AM ---Without having seen it, some of the things you mention (1951 date, no viewer submissions) would strongly suggest it was a pilot or some other sort of test, though no mention of such a thing appears in the book.
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To end the hijack, and to bring in two points not mentioned in my 2007 posting:
Hint that it might have been a pilot/test: IIRC, you can see crew setting up under the opening title card.
Hint that there might be more to it: The program ends with a title card plugging John Mason Brown as next week's host and Cornelia Otis Skinner as next week's third panelist. This feels awfully precise for a pilot.
On that note, two unaired pilots to add (though it may be cheating):
I Predict, or, when Monty met Ron: http://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=I+Predict&p=1&item=B:59500
The Great Showdown, for those who like Robert Q. Lewis and/or mahjong: http://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=Robert+Q+Lewis&p=1&item=B:52323
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