The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: Jimmy Owen on May 20, 2004, 11:34:13 AM
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Only one kid's game show host comes to mind as a successful career host, and that is Gene Rayburn. Would you host a kid's show, or wait for an adult show.
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I'd consider Jack Barry a successful career host and he hosted at least two "kids" shows: Joker! Joker! Joker! and Juvenile Jury. (Does "Winky Dink and You" count?)
Are you talking about hosts who started on kids' shows? Or hosts who hosted one at any time?
Curt
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[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'May 20 2004, 11:34 AM\'] Only one kid's game show host comes to mind as a successful career host, and that is Gene Rayburn. Would you host a kid's show, or wait for an adult show. [/quote]
I think if you're aiming to get into the business and you think you're anywhere near any good or you think you could be, then you have to take what job you're offered.
I mean, let's face it, there aren't that many adult game shows on the air now and those that are on are hosted by many of the same people. Why is that? Because they have the chops, they don't really need to train on-the-job.
So, the best thing to do is to take a job, any job, which will prove to game show producers that you know what you're doing.
Take JD Roth (please). He cut his teeth on "Fun House" and then went on the the enjoyable (if short lived) "Sex Wars". Along the way he's racked up a few more kids game shows like Masters of the Maze, Endurance and Moolah Beach, which he also produced. Now, he's exec producer on "For Love Or Money", a halfway successful network reality show. I'd say he's had a successful career.
Or Marc Summers...he starts on Double Dare on Nickelodeon and also hosts their "What Would You Do?" show, then takes on Couch Potatoes (which, as a kid, was a show I always wanted to be on). Today, nobody would shy away from offering him an adult show because he hosted Double Dare. He's shown over his long career that he knows how everything works and he's a likeable personality.
Of course, history is full of people who have hosted kids game shows who shouldn't have had any business hosting any show kid or otherwise. (Randall Cunningham? Wesley Eure?) That might be where you're drawing a faulty cause and effect relationship.
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Ryan Seacrest hosted a kid's show or two, and he is doing well (although he isn't a career host yet, I would bet he will be).
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Greg Kinnear hosted College Mad House (college version of Fun House of course) and it's interesting to see how far along he's come. Now he's doing movies.
Greg Lee hosted the forgettable Nickelodeon's Total Panic before having a nice run on Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego.... unfortunately I don't think he'd done that much since, and he is a fine talent.
Of course, there are those that have started off on kiddie game shows and pretty much stopped after that... anyone know what Laurie Faso is up to these days?
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He is already. He does 7 live TV shows a week plus a morning radio show. Actually, I think he's more busy than being a career host right now. But that will change.
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I don't know if I'd call it a "successful" kid's host, but Peter Marshall did do Storybook Squares...
And wasn't there a Video Village Jr.? Did Monty Hall handle that one too?
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Mike O' Malley was the host of Nick Guts before he got Yes, Dear (which just got a bit of reprieve getting a second string seat for next year instead of cancelation)
-Joe Kavanagh
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Didn't O'Maley do "Get The Picture" before he did "Guts"? I think he did.
As for Marc Summers, he also did "History IQ" as well as "Trivia Unwrapped" on cable.
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[quote name=\'Craig Karlberg\' date=\'May 21 2004, 05:35 AM\'] Didn't O'Maley do "Get The Picture" before he did "Guts"? I think he did.
As for Marc Summers, he also did "History IQ" as well as "Trivia Unwrapped" on cable. [/quote]
Yes, O'Malley did.
Not that it matters, but it's one of those things that I remember and for some reason don't know why, but most of the GTP set was used during a Nick/NASA "Cable in the Classroom" series called Launchbox. It only ever aired in the early mornings (as almost all CITC shows do) and was usually shown after Mr. Wizard's World.
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Don't know if this has anything to do with this thread, but the Dawson and Combs versions of Feud would often have families with kids as young as ten on their teams. I can also think of a few hosts who did game shows with kids as participants.
Bob Barker (The Family Game)
Wayne Cox (Second Honeymoon)
Bob Eubanks (Family Secrets)
Ray Combs and Michael Burger (Family Challenge)
Wil Shriner (Small Talk)
Fred Travelena (Baby Races)
Joe Kelley and Clifton Fadiman (Quiz Kids)
Paul Winchell (Runaround)
Jimmy Weldon (Funny Boners)
Stubby Kaye (Shenanigans)
Soupy Sales (Junior Almost Anything Goes)
And let's not forget the G-T panel shows, which would often have kids as guests.
Cordially,
Tammy Warner--the 'Elaine Joyce of the Big Board!'
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[quote name=\'Winkfan\' date=\'May 21 2004, 01:43 PM\'] Joe Kelley and Clifton Fadiman (Quiz Kids) [/quote]
Didn't Norman Lear have an incarnation of this, as well, on I-think-it-was CBS Cable? (I'm remembering from a book, I never saw it...)
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Good memory, Chris. I don't believe CBS Cable ever came to Carrollton (hey, we had a 35 channel system then, but then again we're near Dallas), but I remember the show being listed there during prime time.
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[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'May 21 2004, 04:16 PM\'][quote name=\'Winkfan\' date=\'May 21 2004, 01:43 PM\'] Joe Kelley and Clifton Fadiman (Quiz Kids) [/quote]
Didn't Norman Lear have an incarnation of this, as well, on I-think-it-was CBS Cable? (I'm remembering from a book, I never saw it...)[/quote]
And Jim McKrell did a 1977 syndicated rendition of this format.
And we cannot forget "The Quiz Kids Challenge" during the 1990-91 glut of syndie Q&As, hosted woodenly by Jonathan Prince.
Since Sony owns both the 1977 and 1981 versions, we can assume that GSN has access to them (as if it really matters nowadays). GSN aired "QKC" back in the days of Kid's Zone on Saturday mornings.
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[quote name=\'uncamark\' date=\'May 21 2004, 04:32 PM\'] Since Sony owns both the 1977 and 1981 versions, we can assume that GSN has access to them (as if it really matters nowadays). GSN aired "QKC" back in the days of Kid's Zone on Saturday mornings. [/quote]
I recall the 1981 version being listed as a choice on the last "Feast of Favorites" ballot.
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[quote name=\'Dsmith\' date=\'May 22 2004, 01:15 AM\'] [quote name=\'uncamark\' date=\'May 21 2004, 04:32 PM\'] Since Sony owns both the 1977 and 1981 versions, we can assume that GSN has access to them (as if it really matters nowadays). GSN aired "QKC" back in the days of Kid's Zone on Saturday mornings. [/quote]
I recall the 1981 version being listed as a choice on the last "Feast of Favorites" ballot. [/quote]
Are you sure it was the 1981 version? It was simply listed as "New Quiz Kids" IIRC--meaning it could've been the McKrell version, the Lear version, or maybe even a combination of both.
Or did something change and I missed it?
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Let's not forget Marc Summers also hosted a couple daytime chat shows, and seems to have his name thrown around when the good hosting jobs show up. I believe he was one of the late runners for the job on the last incarnation of Squares.
Also, Make the Grade's Lew Schneider is now head writer for the very successful Everybody Loves raymond.
....and Wesley Eure was awesome compared to Larry Toffler.
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[quote name=\'nWo_Whammy\' date=\'May 25 2004, 12:21 AM\'] ....and Wesley Eure was awesome compared to Larry Toffler. [/quote]
I think that line is the best example of damning someone with faint praise I've heard in a long time.