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Best Game Show Finales – Your Picks?
aaron sica:
--- Quote from: Adam Nedeff on January 01, 2025, 09:12:12 PM ---It lasted only 13 weeks, but Allen Ludden's farewell speech on that final episode is shockingly touching. He mentions the incoming mail from teachers saying they were using it as a learning tool in vocabulary class and how much that meant to them. This show failed, but in the final moments, Allen calls attention to the fact that they did something that had value to at least a small number of people, and for that, they were grateful. I loved Allen leading the round of applause for the closing credits, too.
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Very much this. It's worth noting that the first time I saw this, it was from the "Those Wonderful TV Game Shows" special on NBC when it originally aired in 1984. I was 9 at the time - probably about 5 years into watching game shows at this point, but with no history learned aside from the fact that I remembered Chuck Woolery hosted Wheel before Pat Sajak. That speech sounded like it came from a show that had been on the air for a long time. Watching the clip of the farewell, I remember thinking that HAD been on the air for a long time.
aaron sica:
Sticking to the OP's rule of three:
1) $20,000 Pyramid - Playing the WC "if they wanted to save the money" was great. Also enjoyed the fun jab at NBC who was having a time of it then.
2) Password 75 - from the "For the last time on ABC.......the name of your game is 'Password'!" to the very end with him sitting with Betty.....You could just tell Allen knew this wasn't the end for Password in some form.
3) Family Feud (1985) - great speech by Richard.
Mr. Matté:
I don't have a specific ranking, but I do like the finales where not only is the staff acknowledged, a lot of them are brought on camera to have the emcee publicly thank them. A lot of shows that did that are already here (Split Second, Password '75 & Super, $20K Pyramid, Dream House, Squares 1980, NYSI 1989) and it helped that most of these also happened to have the final end game prize given away, either by pure coincidence or by making the last round super easy.
--- Quote from: Chelsea Thrasher on January 01, 2025, 07:18:30 PM ---Although there were a few entries left in the medium, the end of Super Password doesn't just feel like the end of the series, it feels like a broader finale for the glory days of daytime games as a whole.
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Spinning off this, one of the worst finales (excluding those shows where they didn't know it would be their last) IMHO is Concentration 1973 because of how rushed off the air it got despite the length of time it was on NBC. But it also felt like the ending of this show was the end of the early style of game shows from the 40s through 70s with the cramped New York studio, bare bones set, on-the-spot decisions (e.g. Norm coming on and saying the last two contestants split $700), and live organ music.
Eric Paddon:
I give low marks to final episodes with interrupted games that aren't even resolved with a split the money deal or whoever is in the lead wins. That happened on "Pass The Buck" (video is not out but there is an audio only recording out there) and also I think on the "Battlestars" revival.
I also was not impressed with the NBC HSQ finale. Not only did you have Wayland and Madame constantly waste time, you also had a very pathetic attempt to try and give away the five wins in a row jackpot by bringing back a recently defeated champ who had won three games I think, then they automatically awarded her the money for a fourth game and hoped she could win a final game (she didn't but they let her make a bonus pick anyway after the winning contestant got a lame prize with his bonus pick and she ended up winning the $5000 prize!) Peter's closing remarks were rushed and while he mentioned Wally Cox and Charley Weaver, not mentioned was Paul Lynde (was he not supposed to?). All in all not a good final episode for a show that when it went off was just one year short of the daytime game show record.
Blanquepage:
--- Quote from: Eric Paddon on January 02, 2025, 05:01:46 PM ---I give low marks to final episodes with interrupted games that aren't even resolved with a split the money deal or whoever is in the lead wins. That happened on "Pass The Buck" (video is not out but there is an audio only recording out there)
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Wouldn't be surprised if the video did pop up sooner or later, given all of the rarities flooding onto Winc's channel.
What's My Line '67, $20K Pyramid, and ABC Password would be my top 3. Another that I also enjoyed and haven't seen mentioned was CBS Joker's Wild. Part of it is sentimental, as it was the first game show finale I'd ever watched thanks to video swapping. I thought Jack's heartfelt farewell was classy, and the gradual darkening of the set at the end of the credits was a nice little touch.
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