The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: gamed121683 on December 31, 2024, 05:01:08 PM
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As I type this, it's New Year's Eve (Happy New Year, by the way!), and the end of the year has me reflecting on some memorable last episodes. So, here's a fun question as we bid farewell to 2024: If you had to rank the three best game show finales of all time, which ones would make your list? I'll go first...
1. What's My Line (1967)
2. Family Feud (1985)
3. Super Password (1989)
There's mine! What's yours?
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#1.) CBS Card Sharks (3-31-1989); Worth it to see Bob weep.....
#2.) NBC Card Sharks (10-23-1981)
#3.) Child's Play (9-16-1983); Having practically all the kids present was a nice touch.
Cordially,
Tammy
P.S. "Honorable Mention" goes to the If you want to be a contestant on Hit Man..... FORGET IT! finale. (Little did anyone know that come the following September.....)
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I rather liked the last show of Double Dare starring Ralph Doty with the more provocative clues--"what are they going to do, cancel us again?"
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I rsthe4 liked the last show of a double Dare starring Ralph Doty with the more provocative clues.
Seconded.
Add Dream House in 1984 and Your Number's Up (they just couldn't give away that car).
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In no particular order....
Super Password (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixIVtoC0HZY) (love the standing ovation and Bert's heartfelt time for Betty and his tribute to Gene)
Split Second (https://youtu.be/fpReqTbwQmc?si=cQdm36FAT623KN2r&t=1450) (Kennedy--"You wanted the station wagon. It didn't turn out to be the right one, but why don't you take the station wagon, anyway!" And Monty Hall, Jay Stewart, and a great comment about Jack Clark being a wonderful announcer)
Card Sharks (https://youtu.be/NJhW-m494rQ?si=OzihYzpOysI_rWY8&t=1653) (Eubanks--clearly the folks he worked with mean a lot to him)
What's My Line? (https://youtu.be/LqPW591Xfaw?si=9wtuEeQgwEO3anhH) (best panel game ending)
Blockbusters (https://youtu.be/TIBZUCTsSWk?si=6oIAwc_WopUNgK5o&t=1095) (Cullen--"Don't hold your breath...we'll be back. So long!")
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I would also nominate the finales for Perry sale and $20k pyramid which both allowed full staffs to take an on-camera bow. Pyramid gets extra kudos for the heartfelt tribute to Dick from Bill, which clearly meant a lot to him. Plus the “leftover pyramid” topped by Fanous Italian Directors was inspired
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Split Second for the car giveaway and crew appearing on screen.
20K Pyramid for the reason Steve mentioned.
Dawson Feud for his heartfelt message...despite him wanting it removed after the fact.
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Split Second
-Goes out on a classy up tempo note and there is also the fascinating element of seeing Markie Post among the production people at the end, plus the fact that two of the three contestants had famous stories of their own with future ABC reporter Judd Rose and last champ and station wagon winner Steve Robinson being none other than Henry Morgan's son.
What's My Line?
-An excellent finish to the series that in many respects was the show that put Goodson-Todman on the map and was the flagship of their entire output.
$20,000 Pyramid
Password (ABC)
-A chance to hear Allen speak from the heart about how much Password meant to him (and a reminder that the show is how he met Betty).
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Here's my three:
1 What's My Line?
2 The $20,000 Pyramid
3 Super Password
Happy New Year everybody
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Here's my three:
1 What's My Line?
2 The $20,000 Pyramid
3 Super Password
Happy New Year everybody
Honorable mentions:
Cullen Chain Reaction -- The crazy final end game was a keeper, despite that it wasn't supposed to finish that way.
Eubanks ABC Newlywed Game -- Bob's first game show, and how he chokes up at the end of the Christmas show. It looked like his last day on TV really meant a lot to him, probably more than his last day on radio. But it didn't take long for him to get back on TV doing game shows.
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Here's my three:
1 What's My Line?
2 The $20,000 Pyramid
3 Super Password
Happy New Year everybody
Honorable mentions:
Cullen Chain Reaction -- The crazy final end game was a keeper, despite that it wasn't supposed to finish that way.
Eubanks ABC Newlywed Game -- Bob's first game show, and how he chokes up at the end of the Christmas show. It looked like his last day on TV really meant a lot to him, probably more than his last day on radio. But it didn't take long for him to get back on TV doing game shows.
I heard or read Eubanks saying that he had offers right and left after Newlywed Game, but he was thinking about the staff he had worked with who are losing their jobs.
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"Best" in what way?
Anyway, here are my three:
1. Daly What's My Line? (the one where he is the final mystery guest...and I think I know the story of "the one mystery guest who arrived with a minute to spare"; I remember reading a story about a celebrity who was sitting down to watch TV, heard the announcer say, "Stay tuned for WML?", and suddenly remember that he was the mystery guest that night)
2. NBC Chain Reaction
3. NBC Hollywood Squares - they brought a contestant back and credited her with $1800 so she only needed to win one game to get the 5-match "jackpot," but she then lost her next two games
Honorable Mentions:
The Better Sex - IIRC, rather than start a game they knew wouldn't end in time, they just had Bill Anderson break out his guitar for a song.
The Gong Show
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"Best" in what way?
Anyway, here are my three:
1. Daly What's My Line? (the one where he is the final mystery guest...and I think I know the story of "the one mystery guest who arrived with a minute to spare"; I remember reading a story about a celebrity who was sitting down to watch TV, heard the announcer say, "Stay tuned for WML?", and suddenly remember that he was the mystery guest that night)
2. NBC Chain Reaction
3. NBC Hollywood Squares - they brought a contestant back and credited her with $1800 so she only needed to win one game to get the 5-match "jackpot," but she then lost her next two games
Honorable Mentions:
The Better Sex - IIRC, rather than start a game they knew wouldn't end in time, they just had Bill Anderson break out his guitar for a song.
The Gong Show
That WML guest was Arthur Godfrey
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1. Mystery Guest John Daly, no better ending possible
2. Blockbusters, because Bill finally answered the question of whether two heads were better than one
3. Maybe Rhyme and Reason—wrecking the set sounds fun but I’ve never seen it
4. The sentimental ones, original Newlywed Game and ABC Password
5. Dream House with the couple winning
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That WML guest was Arthur Godfrey
Thank you. The story was lame without that.
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I would say for my three:
-Scrabble, for the fact that it had a satisfying ending and also served as a tribute to its six year run
-Jeopardy 1975, for the classy send off Art Fleming gave the show
-1985 ABC Feud, because you can see that even if Dawson was exhausted after giving so much time to the show over the previous nine plus years, and that he knew the writing was on the wall, it was still a significant part of his life that he wasn’t ready to let go of yet and the emotions, however genuine they may have been, were still powerful.
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-Super Password
-SOTC
-Eubanks Dream House
-Kennedy Split Second
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FYI I reposted the GSN Y2Play finales marathon from December 31st, 1999. Eight hours of final episodes, covering quite a few of the series mentioned in this
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. NBC daytime would never feature more than two hours of daytime games again after that day. It's an episode that revels in it's own emotion. The hilarity of turning the contestant plug into a Help Wanted ad for the staff. Reserving part of the closing remarks for Betty. Bert's clear sadness at not being paired up with Gene Wood anymore, at least here (or with all the other staff-turned-recurring characters). The joy of giving the $10K bonus away on the last attempt. It does every other gameplay and emotional beat the others does well, at the same time. And in many ways with hindsight, it feels like a swan song for daytime games in general, who outside of Price now have less than a half decade left at that point and many of the remaining series are short-lived shows largely left on the shelf historically.
CBS What's My Line is almost assuredly my silver medalist. Much like Super Password above, it's something of a swan song. The show had been on the air for basically the entire meaningful history of network broadcast television. It represented the shift away from live or as-live programming in favor of pre-taped scripted series. It was the end of panel shows in prime time, and the end of game shows as a credible vehicle for A-list celebrity appearances. The Daly Mystery Guest segment is delightful, and while Goodson was known for making appearances on shows, Bill Todman most assuredly wasn't - so Line's network exit being meaningful enough to get him out of the office? Is a statement. And it's just a great half hour of TV.
Somewhere in between the two is ABC Split Second. The show itself and for most of the core game is no-nonsense, only to turn on it's side near the end. Just giving the contestant the car. The sincerity in both Tom and Monty (and Jack Clark and Jay Stewart). Monty has always struck me as having a certain reluctance to ever acknowledge on-air the degree to which he's "the man behind the curtain" on his shows (there's a difference between saying a show is a "Hatos-Hall Production" and outright going "Yes, Monty is the actual boss of everything around here.") but here he does it. Here too, the world was changing. The finale comes in the midst of a two year period of massive changes at ABC and in daytime as a whole. It's a damn shame that this show is almost completely lost outside of a handful of home recordings (and at least one master)
Honorable mentions: Dawson Feud (ABC '85), Newlywed Game (ABC '74), Sale of the Century (NBC '89), Now You See It (CBS '89).
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Here's an odd candidate--Stumpers!
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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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.
From time to time on 60s Password and Password Plus (and almost assuredly the 70s run as well), often if a new contestant was a teacher or they had a school group in audience, Allen would take a moment to mention how gratified he (and show staff) were to receive letters or comments from teachers talking about using Password in classrooms, etc.
Although you could obviously speak to it more having literally written a book on the man, I would hazard a guess watching his shows as a viewer that if pressed, Allen would cite the use of his shows in education as one of his prouder career legacies.
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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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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.
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.
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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.
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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)
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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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?).
Wally and Charley had shuffled off this mortal coil, whereas Paul was still alive and his leaving the show (at the time - he didn't return until they moved the syndicated show to Vegas, right?) was somewhat acrimonious, so it wouldn't surprise me if Paul was "edited" out of the remarks.
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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.
She looked genuinely pissed by Wayland Flowers' screwing around when time ran out. I think Rose Marie once said the stars could joke around all they want, but don't dare do it during a Secret Square or when something else big was at stake
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Hit-Man if only due to Rod Roddy's ticket plug:
Classic!
Bob Barker's final Price is Right episode to be sure.
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I think Rose Marie once said the stars could joke around all they want, but don't dare do it during a Secret Square or when something else big was at stake
Save Jonathan Winters--he ate up camera time (even during the SS) like it was cake. Even Paul Lynde (on the rare occasion when he was a SS) knew to play it straight.
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I think Rose Marie once said the stars could joke around all they want, but don't dare do it during a Secret Square or when something else big was at stake
Save Jonathan Winters--he ate up camera time (even during the SS) like it was cake. Even Paul Lynde (on the rare occasion when he was a SS) knew to play it straight.
Which may have been why Winters was only booked on the daytime version once. Someone else with more experience can determine whether he was made the Secret Square frequently (or not) on the syndicated run.
Dawson told Maxine Fabe "Some of the worst celebrities on game shows are the stand-up comics. They're getting big bucks with an ad lib and the contestant's ten thousand bucks is going down the drain. All someone has to do on Match Game is to try that once and they're never invited back."
From memory, Art James on the finale of The Who, What or Where Game: "Since this is our last show, and today's is Ron Greenberg's birthday, here is your $10,000 stake in the game."
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Of the episodes that announced "you'll be seeing some choice shows", Play the Percentages at least got Judge Von Eric on camera and Geoff had a chance to riff on some of the staff members on camera as only he could do.
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I wholeheartedly agree with Chelsea that Super Password was not just a finale for the show itself but also for the era of three networks airing two hours of game shows five days a week. The closing theme song, which was already among the best in the genre, got to play for an extended time thanks to the extra-long credit roll.
I'm surprised to not see the 1975 finale of The Joker's Wild in more people's lists. That one was especially unique in the way they turned off all the stage lights towards the end of the broadcast, ending with the slot machine slides being turned off one by one. Would've been nice if they'd "accidentally" left off the Devil slides in the final playing of the bonus round, but that's something that B&E would've never gotten away with doing at the time.
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I wholeheartedly agree with Chelsea that Super Password was not just a finale for the show itself but also for the era of three networks airing two hours of game shows five days a week.
I think what bums me out more was we lost three shows in one week. I have fond memories of watching game shows in 1989, but the cancellations of $ale, Card Sharks, and Super Password were the beginning of the end. The daytime genre basically coasted on fumes for the next five years, although I'd take daytime TV of 1989 over what we have now.
Which reminds me, I'd also like to add $ale to my list. Jim gave a similar heartfelt thank you to the viewers on the Christmas '88 episode which makes me think they knew it was only a matter of time. IIRC they got an unexpected 13-week renewal in January '89.
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Which reminds me, I'd also like to add $ale to my list. Jim gave a similar heartfelt thank you to the viewers on the Christmas '88 episode which makes me think they knew it was only a matter of time. IIRC they got an unexpected 13-week renewal in January '89.
Agreed on this finale, and uniquely, this is one of the rare shows that acknowledged it aesthetically too, with the stripped down shopping area giving "Going out of Business" vibes that whole week.
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Which may have been why Winters was only booked on the daytime version once. Someone else with more experience can determine whether he was made the Secret Square frequently (or not) on the syndicated run.
Dawson told Maxine Fabe "Some of the worst celebrities on game shows are the stand-up comics. They're getting big bucks with an ad lib and the contestant's ten thousand bucks is going down the drain. All someone has to do on Match Game is to try that once and they're never invited back."
If anything, Winters' antics would have been slightly less annoying on the daytime version because at least on the daytime version the contestants don't get screwed if time runs out whereas on nighttime his antics were costing contestants their one shot. More than once I've heard Peter remind the stars to move quick because on nighttime the contestants don't come back.
Dawson may not have had her in mind, but his sentiments explain why I always found Patti Deutsch the most insufferable of the semi-regulars because she was always trying to come up with a punchline.
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Back in March 1989 I worked full time but my hours were from noon until 830pm. This afforded me the chance to be able to watch much of the NBC Daytime lineup.
Sadly, the finale of NBC'S Sale was interrupted by a news bulletin, some sort of speech by President George H.W. Bush which irritated me to no end, so I did not get to see the end of that episode originally.
The Joker's Wild finale in 1975 was one that had crossed my mind, but I figured I'd see if anybody else came up with it here and by golly, somebody did!
Also the Art Fleming NBC Jeopardy! from January 3rd 1975 ranks up there as well. Watching that finale and hearing the theme song "Smile" playing at the end gets me so very wistful for my childhood, for in 1975, I still was so young (only 8) and all of my loved ones were still alive and in my life, I feel tremendous angst each and every time I watch that Jeopardy! finale.
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Research indicates the speech pertained to the Exxon Valdez split.
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Dawson may not have had her in mind, but his sentiments explain why I always found Patti Deutsch the most insufferable of the semi-regulars because she was always trying to come up with a punchline.
Patti only did that in round one. In round two she made the attempt to match. There is a video out there when she was picked for the head-to-head match and won the contestant $5,000.
/When Patti's face appeared during the "next time we get together" collage, I said the exact same words each time: "The Weirdo Lady"
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Oddly enough I did a stream of final episodes on my Twitch channel last Monday. Fitting for my last stream of 2024.
Here is what I picked to be among my favorites:
Super Password #1151 (3/24/89 OC)
Jeopardy (1/3/75 - 50th anniversary of it the following Friday)
Password (6/27/75 OC)
Split Second #115-SPS-75 (6/27/75 OC)
The Gong Show #D500 (7/21/78 OC)
The $20,000 Pyramid (6/27/80)
Match Game #81-35-5 (Final Syndicated ep - airing from 12/31/99 Y2Play GSN marathon)
Lots of these shows already noted in previous posts, so I am very much on the same wavelengths.
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Patti only did that in round one. In round two she made the attempt to match. There is a video out there when she was picked for the head-to-head match and won the contestant $5,000.
This. Patti’s weird answers were funny, often witty. Joyce Bullifant, on the other hand, gave stupid answers that weren’t funny and was annoying while she gave them.
I have to think Jonathan Winters did both versions of Squares. Daytime games could straddle, so his leisurely pace wouldn’t have impacted the contestants’ winnings.
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Among international shows, the Portuguese Wheel finale is hard to beat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejZAo9l4-PM 8)
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I think what bums me out more was we lost three shows in one week. I have fond memories of watching game shows in 1989, but the cancellations of $ale, Card Sharks, and Super Password were the beginning of the end. The daytime genre basically coasted on fumes for the next five years, although I'd take daytime TV of 1989 over what we have now.
I also think of May-June 1980 when we lost five shows all in a short time - Whew!, Hollywood Squares, High Rollers, Chain Reaction and $20,000 Pyramid. I remember the summer of 1980 as being kind of a down time for game shows. That summer break from school wasn't as enjoyable as some years past!
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I'll go along with what others have already stated. It was neat seeing some of these finales in tape-trading that I'd never seen before, such as Joker's Wild; or re-connecting with shows that I did originally see, like Split Second (I'll never forget the "It's a Brand New Day on ABC" promos), but I'll add another here which hasn't been mentioned: Definition.
I haven't seen it since it originally ran but I remember Jim thanking the viewers for 15 wonderful years and they even had a 15th-anniversary cake. Nice ending to a long-running show. Probably only members in northern states with access to a CTV station would have had a chance to see it.
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Patti only did that in round one. In round two she made the attempt to match. There is a video out there when she was picked for the head-to-head match and won the contestant $5,000.
This. Patti’s weird answers were funny, often witty. Joyce Bullifant, on the other hand, gave stupid answers that weren’t funny and was annoying while she gave them.
The best description of Patti Deutsch I've ever read came from the book Sweet Jesus, I Hate Bill O'Reilly. This came from the section "Patti Deutsch Syndrome by Proxy"
Back in the game show industry's golden age, when Patti Deutsch regularly occupied the lower-right hand seat of the Match Game celebrity panel, she was renowned for giving answers that betrayed a tenuous grasp not only of the game, but of English, logic, and the boundaries of space-time. ....
Indeed, it often appeared as though Deutsch was off in some parallel universe playing some other game with entirely different questions.......which we have dubbed the Patti Deutsch Syndrome by Proxy. Now, we should note that we have nothing but love and respect for Deutsch, and our appropriation of her good name to describe what ails O'Reilly should be considered an homage. Plus it sounded way better than Avery Schreiber Disease.
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I also had issues with Deutsch constantly making "jokes" about Nixon's family members with some of her stupid round 1 answers. Nixon himself was a legit target, but going after family members comes off as being mean in the extreme especially given the personal pain his family went through (even Richard, Nixon hater that he was, once took a moment on Feud to wish Pat Nixon a healthy recovery after she suffered a stroke).
The one that IMO that was the worst answer that proved her unfitness to be on the show was the "I couldn't think of a George so I said Monty Hall" answer to "instead of a picture of George Washington this dollar bill has a picture of George BLANK" question. If a contestant had given an answer like that, Richard and company would have hounded them off the show before the next round, but when a panelist gives an answer dumber than "Cuckoo Friend and Ollie" they don't suffer for it.
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Bad answers from panelists were frequently and roundly mocked by Gene and the other panelists and they certainly got booed. Geez, how often did Brett win the “most pathetic answer” award? How often did Rayburn after a string of matches get to Patti or Joyce and tell the player something like, “your luck may be over?”
Once Mr. Nixon dragged the Mrs. in to sit there for the Checkers speech, I’d say she became in bounds, and their kids, at least Julie Nixon Eisenhower, were adult socialites. I doubt the jokes were all that personal.
I heartily agree with the title of the O’Reilly book, but not that he and Patti had anything in common. Wasn’t the Monty Hall answer part of a running or inside joke? I thought that came up here.
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The finale for paranoia got me. Peter was trying was trying to hold it, but you can tell he was trying to beg for feedback. Which felt like the opposite on the Hit Man and PYL finales, which also got me as well.
Eubanks' Card Sharks cracked me.
"Joker's Jive" always crack me emotionally. Using it in the 1975 TJW finale takes it all the way.
Dawson's Feud speech gets me.
Bert and Betty get me on Super Password.
There's more, and I would still play Nedeff's Game Show Finales video if it was still on YouTube.
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I'll say the end of the original LMaD, as there wasn't a single Zonk to be seen
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Another one that comes to mind, wasn't the finale for the show but for the long time host.
During the first episode I believe of the 1977-78 syndicated season, Garry Moore came back as a guest host to announce his retirement due to health issues that he was going through. Joe Garagiola was named the new host. If it was due to this change or due to other reasons, this would prove to be the final season of this classic series on American television until 1990.
Bill Cullen served as host during the previous season during certain episodes when Garry Moore was ill. The show decided that the panel's cast was lacking without having Bill as one of the panel, so the powers that be decided to name Joe permanent host.
I am grateful that Mr. Moore went on to live until almost the end of 1993, so he had 16 years of retirement to enjoy. It was a cozy set and a cozy show to me, one of the very first game shows I remember my parents watching when I was so very young, circa 1970/71...I also remember What's My Line? and Pay Cards! Those were my first memories of game shows and my obsession with playing cards began back then. When Gambit came out I about melted into my socks seeing those giant cards, and did so again with the Perry, Eubanks & Rafferty versions of Card Sharks.
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During the first episode I believe of the 1977-78 syndicated season, Garry Moore came back as a guest host to announce his retirement due to health issues that he was going through. Joe Garagiola was named the new host. If it was due to this change or due to other reasons, this would prove to be the final season of this classic series on American television until 1990.
Actually, you forgot about the 1980-81 version of To Tell The Truth.
I remember, on the finale of the original Now You See It, that Jack joked that the show aired its first episode on an April Fool's Day and is airing its last episode on a Friday The 13th.
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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.
I agree about the Super Password finale, it doesn't just feel like the end of the series, it feels like a broader finale for the glory days of game shows as a whole, i love the way Bert reserved part of the closing for Betty, and his sadness about not working with Gene, just makes it very much a swan song for the genre on network daytime (outside of Price). Although Gene would continue on Classic Concentration and Family Feud, it felt like he was near the end of his career to be honest. However, i saw Jim Perry's goodbye on his last SOTC (can't remember how many years ago) and it was as classy as they get. I miss him, Jay Stewart, Don Morrow as well as Bert and Betty, they were part of what i call the "last golden age" of network daytime games in the 80s, not to mention Chuck Woolery, Alex Trebek and Vicki Lawrence ( i wouldn't consider her part of the legendary hosts line, but I'll include her here.)
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Which reminds me, I'd also like to add $ale to my list. Jim gave a similar heartfelt thank you to the viewers on the Christmas '88 episode which makes me think they knew it was only a matter of time. IIRC they got an unexpected 13-week renewal in January '89.
One of my previous signatures referred to a late January 1989 episode where Don Morrow does a contestant plug, and Jim responds with "We'd love to have you come down here. Call quick."
That would seem to corroborate the unexpected part of the renewal, although the 13 weeks ended up being 10-11 weeks (two weeks for At Rona's, and I'm not sure if we're counting New Year's week as one of the weeks of the renewal).