Ultimate game show cult favorite

[gamed121683]

Have we ever discussed this before? If not, I'll start!

Your mileage may vary, of course, but what do you think is the ultimate game show cult favorite? We're talking a game show that probably wasn't on long (giving it niche status), yet it has a loyal fanbase in game show fandom. We're talking Price Is Right fanbase obsession here. I'll make two nominations:

Trivia Trap: It’s a quirky format (find the WRONG answers, not the right ones?) yet it's a show that has it's share of fans. I remember watching this show with my mom one time and even she was asking herself, "What's the point of choosing the wrong answers?"

Whew!: Some say this show is like a game show fever dream. Its title is that of onomatopoeia, it takes about ten minutes just to explain the rules, a format that's so frantic and yet...it has a dedicated following for a show that ran a little over a year. Oh, and who doesn't love running past 10 plywood cutouts for 25K, huh?

Honorable mention: Split Second: Great format, but I don't know if three years in it's original run is consider short-lived (didn't hurt Press Your Luck). However, you hardly heard about it anymore after it went the off air, even with Monty Hall's revival in the '80s. Yes, GSN has brought the format back with success recently, so it may no longer be as much of a rare gem as it was...say, a decade ago.

There's my choices, what's yours?

[BillCullen1]

Here are my favorites

Now You See It - when I first saw that giant set and all that neon, my jaw dropped. 15-year-old me was hooked. The theme song and Johnny O's intro were tops. Jack Narz was perfect as a host. Loved the game even though the scoring was flawed. Getting double points on Line 4, position 12 just seemed so unfair to the other player, IMO. The Chuck Henry version improved the format and scoring. I think this could work today.

Jackpot! - 16 players on all week. I liked the original format that had riddles. I don't care what the damned focus groups think. I thought this was Bob Stewart's second best show, after Pyramid. Geoff Edwards made this fun to watch. As he would say after a correct answer, "Right you are." I saw tapings of this in NYC during '74 and '75. This could work on GSN today.

Double Dare (Trebek) - I've always been a trivia nerd so I always played along when I watched. The game was challenging and the play-along factor was an 11, on a 1 to 10 scale. With the popularity of trivia shows today, I hope that somehow, this show makes a comeback.

So there you go.

[TimK2003]

• Press Your Luck has to be on the list. 
Much thanks to the Whammy, but it was a game that could be played at home, using the pause feature on your VCR to stop the board.

• Outside of Whew!, my other pick would be The Big Showdown. 
Challenging questions, lightning-fast Q&As, strategy and somewhat of a handicap if you are in the lead with the "block" rule.  And just seeing how manic the Final Showdown can be.  This is one show that needs to come back.
 

[wdm1219inpenna]

I vote for Hit-Man, just a 3 month long NBC daytime game show which gave us Tomarken & Roddy.

It was educational, fun and tested players' comprehension skills, and it's too bad the show didn't last longer.

[Winkfan]

Talkabout; for obvious reasons.
Bumper Stumpers; likewise.
Gambit; the dearly-departed Winkster's first real hit show.

And if you'd like to go way back:
Camoflauge (the "find-the-object" one.)
Video Village; the show that put Heatter-Quigley on the TV map

Cordially,
Tammy

[chris319]

It doesn't tick all of the boxes, but I've always felt the B&E version of Break the Bank deserved a longer run.

[jage]

Perhaps  I misunderstood the question, but I took it as which show do you feel has obtained cult status amongst the game show fandom, as opposed to which show do we love that we feel should have received a longer run.
Based on this board alone, Whew! has to be at or near the top, as it's a show I had never even heard of until it being discussed here, and there are definitely plenty of people who would put it at the top of their list.
Some of the short-lived Nick games may also fit, depending on the crowd, or Remote Control.

But maybe I mistook the question, in which case, never mind all that.

[BrandonFG]

Like Jage, I think Whew! fits the original question best. I’d second The Big Showdown and by extension, The Money Maze. The latter two deserved a longer run IMO.

[TLEberle]

NBC Scrabble.

[TimK2003]

It doesn't tick all of the boxes, but I've always felt the B&E version of Break the Bank deserved a longer run.

How did the weekly syndicated Break The Bank do in the ratings?  Was it ever considered as a nightly 5-a-week strip that could have been paired with syndicated Joker?

[Neumms]

I’ve always thought Whew! was the one. I loved Trivia Trap, but it’s kind of a guilty pleasure and has always seemed unpopular around here.

Another great choice is Three on a Match. It’s mostly forgotten, and its scarcity is a plus for cult status. Its rules were idiosyncratic and changed over the run. The set and music were cool at the time and cool now because they’re dated. Its host was the finest ever and hosted more games than anyone, but only one huge hit.

[Neumms]

Double Dare (Trebek) - I've always been a trivia nerd so I always played along when I watched. The game was challenging and the play-along factor was an 11, on a 1 to 10 scale. With the popularity of trivia shows today, I hope that somehow, this show makes a comeback.

I hold out hope that since Amazon offered the reruns, it’s on their radar. Great writing, the sight of dual, garishly decorated isolation booths, the daffiness of the Spoilers…if they’re mounting game shows, this one is unique enough to try.

[Ian Wallis]

I think another definition of a cult favorite is that there aren't that many episodes around.  Whew! fit the bill until BUZZR repeated it.  Break the Bank kind of fit the bill until GameTV completed the Kennedy run (I'd love to see the Barry episodes on there...).

I'd probably vote for those two.

How did the weekly syndicated Break The Bank do in the ratings?  Was it ever considered as a nightly 5-a-week strip that could have been paired with syndicated Joker?

I remember reading a ratings report posted on this forum about a decade and a half ago which (IIRC) showed it at something like 11.  It was around the top 10 of the weekly checkerboard shows but not at the top.  While I agree that it deserved a longer run, it seems that once Jack realized Joker's Wild could do well again he didn't seem very interested in pursuing Break the Bank.  It probably could have had a second syndicated season if those ratings held for the whole year.

[MSTieScott]

It's tough because, as we're learning in this thread, "cult favorite" doesn't have a solid definition. The Wikipedia page, citing the Merriam-Webster definition of cult, says it refers to a property that has a group of fans that show great devotion. It then goes on to list Star Trek and Doctor Who as examples, acknowledging that although those shows definitely have devoted fan bases, some people might not consider them cult favorites because of wide mainstream recognition -- I guess the game show equivalent would be The Price Is Right and Wheel of Fortune.

Game show fandom itself is already an extremely niche subculture, so it's difficult to find a niche within a niche. That said, if you asked me to name a cult favorite within the game show community (without defining "cult favorite"), my first and only thought would be Whew!