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Ingenious, being described as 'marked by originality and cleverness in conception and execution', what do you think are some of the most ingenious game shows created? I say 'Lets Make A Deal' and 'Family Feud' to name two.
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TPiR comes to mind.
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"Concentration" is my idea of ingenious--putting the two ideas together into a totally original game was amazingly clever, much moreso than anything else B&E did.
"Password" was ingenious, too. I read once that the idea of two partners working in tandem against another pair was something they thought of along the way. To think it's such a basic idea now.
I guess "Lingo" is ingenious, too. If a network ever said, "make a game like that one," it seems impossible to me.
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"Password", I agree. Lingo, not so much....essentially, all it is is "Let's make a game show out of Jotto". At least Concentration has the rebus gimmick going for it.
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Even though it's based on Hex, I'd still say Blockbusters is still pretty damn clever, esp. since it's pretty much impossible for a game to end in a tie.
Cram...the premise was interesting, and I liked the idea of testing the contestants while they did ridiculous things...it's seems like there's some kind of psycho(logical) element, and not just slapstick.
As much as I hated the show, I still nominate Friend or Foe, just for incorporating the Prisoner Dilemma into a game show. I would've loved to use that show as an example in sociology or poli sci classes.
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I always thought Win Ben Stein's Money was an ingenious show.
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TPiR and Whew! are my chioces. TPiR because of all the many games; you never get the same show twice. Whew! because, well, it made you say Whew! It was very exciting.
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I'd also add such "gambling game shows" as The Joker's Wild, Gambit and Card Sharks to the "ingenious" list. Combining Q&A with casino games was a pretty hot idea during the '70s.
Cordially,
Tammy Warner--the 'Robin Riker-Halsey of the Big Board!'
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Jeopardy! for creating the question-response. During the period when there were a number of other quizzers on the air, many people would respond with a question on those programs--most noteable being on $ale of the Century.
Plus, how many of you people who run College Bowl or Quiz Bowl tournaments have had players reply in that form? The big J! is entirely responsible for that.
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Since we're about a week away from Valentine's Day, I thought I put The Newkywed Game in this category. Where else can you have 4 newlywed couples being asked personal & sometimes intiment questions while hearing the word "whoopie" every once in awhile? And yes, even the 25 point bonus question was rather clever in its own right.
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[quote name=\'Don Howard\' date=\'Feb 8 2006, 02:30 AM\']Jeopardy! for creating the question-response. During the period when there were a number of other quizzers on the air, many people would respond with a question on those programs--most noteable being on $ale of the Century.
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How did I forget $ale?
Speaking of Reg Grundy, add Scrabble to the list, mainly the idea of taking a common board game, and successfully altering the format. This honestly could've worked with another title, but I guess anything with "Cross" in the title would've caused confusion with "Cross-Wits".
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Put me down for "Wheel of Fortune". A simple game that's been executed in a good enough way to last for over 30 years. I think it proves that sometimes ideas are right in front of our face, but only a few of us can actually see them!
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[quote name=\'Craig Karlberg\' date=\'Feb 8 2006, 03:14 AM\']And yes, even the 25 point bonus question was rather clever in its own right.
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Why, cause it was worth 25 points?
I know you won't repsond, so i'll just roll my eyes at your posts. Again.
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[quote name=\'Craig Karlberg\' date=\'Feb 8 2006, 03:14 AM\']
And yes, even the 25 point bonus question was rather clever in its own right.
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The question was not only unclever, it would be worthless if one couple had a more than 25 point lead going into the final question. Granted that rarely if ever happened, but still.
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I always thought Hit Man was a pretty cool idea. Especially the Triple Crown bonus.
$ale and Scrabble (which I think is more fun than the actual board game) also get my vote.
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I make a distinction between a good idea and a clever or original one. Pyramid has, IMHO, the best end game ever, but when you think about it, it's as much a variation on Steve Allen's A&Q as J! is. My nominees would be Password and TTTT.
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[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Feb 8 2006, 05:53 AM\']Put me down for "Wheel of Fortune". A simple game that's been executed in a good enough way to last for over 30 years. I think it proves that sometimes ideas are right in front of our face, but only a few of us can actually see them!
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I think it proves that the average television viewer is a complete dumbass, personally.
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Have we forgotten about Match Game everyone? You fill in the blank! How simple it is, yet how so much fun it can be to watch and play. The most clever game show ideas, I believe, very often come from the most basic ideas that a person can think of...
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[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Feb 8 2006, 02:04 PM\']I think it proves that the average television viewer is a complete dumbass, personally.[/quote]
If Wheel had *that* many viewers, Sajak would be constructing a personal monorail from the east coast to the Wheel studio.
I think Concentration merits a mention, in the "more than the sum of its parts" category.
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"Ingenious" can mean almost anything to almost anybody, so it's not surprising that this thread has degenerated into people just naming their favorite shows. It's hard to say Wheel of Fortune was ingenious when Down You Go came before it. It's hard to say the fill-in-the-blank Match Game was ingenious if...well...the 60s Match Game came before it.
Still, some of my choices:
Groundbreaking: Winner Take All
Yes, somebody would have come up with the idea of beating your opponent to the buzzer and the concept of the defending champion eventually, but for one show to have introduced both game show staples is nothing short of remarkable.
Scoring: Tattletales
Once they got rid of the "quickies", the simple elegance of the scoring system for Tattletales always impressed me, and the idea that the celebrities were playing for the studio audience was a masterstroke.
Game Play: Go
OK, technically, the Chain Reaction bonus round. Or as I like to think of it, Bob Stewart's last really good idea. Just when you thought he'd squeezed every last drop out of the communication games, he comes up with this. Twenty-five years later, I show old episodes to my jaded high school students and they're hooked. (And yes, I realize the structure of the show was flawed, but the idea behind the game was solid.)
Again, everybody's mileage will differ. If someone in this thread can say that a final 25-point bonus question was "rather clever", then just about anything's fair game.
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[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Feb 8 2006, 08:04 PM\']
Scoring: Tattletales
Once they got rid of the "quickies", the simple elegance of the scoring system for Tattletales always impressed me, and the idea that the celebrities were playing for the studio audience was a masterstroke.
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There is one tiny flaw in the most familiar TT scoring syste. This didn't happen very often if it ever did($675 is the highest pre-bonus maingame score I can recall seeing, with David Doyle and spouse, Bert commented it was a record at the time c. 1982), but if a couple had a more than $300 lead going into the last question of the day, the $300 question would be meaningless in deciding which section of the audience won the $1000 bonus.
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[quote name=\'zachhoran\' date=\'Feb 8 2006, 09:14 PM\']There is one tiny flaw in the most familiar TT scoring syste. This didn't happen very often if it ever did($675 is the highest pre-bonus maingame score I can recall seeing, with David Doyle and spouse, Bert commented it was a record at the time c. 1982), but if a couple had a more than $300 lead going into the last question of the day, the $300 question would be meaningless in deciding which section of the audience won the $1000 bonus.[/quote]
While I grant you that, the fact is that you could say that about just about any game show that doesn't have a preposterously unbalanced final round. For a final round that wasn't wildly unbalanced, it was wonderful how many times the game turned on the final answer, right or wrong.
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For the record (and I'm pretty sure Matt wasn't talking to me), Concentration is not in my list of favorite game shows. This is mainly because, while I like to consider myself pretty bright when it comes to various kinds of puzzle-solving, I suck at partially-visible rebuses. SUCK. I only got enjoyment out of Classic Concentration from the matching part of the game, really.
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[quote name=\'Robert Hutchinson\' date=\'Feb 8 2006, 08:49 PM\']For the record (and I'm pretty sure Matt wasn't talking to me), Concentration is not in my list of favorite game shows. This is mainly because, while I like to consider myself pretty bright when it comes to various kinds of puzzle-solving, I suck at partially-visible rebuses. SUCK. I only got enjoyment out of Classic Concentration from the matching part of the game, really.
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I suspect watching the show a lot makes one better at solving the rebuses partially revealed, as certain symbols were often used(Ewe, Awl, Oar, Inn, etc.). Or, you can study the Russ Mason Concentration rebuses of the week for the past several years, as one would notice several frequently used symbols on the rebuses at his site.
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Scoring: Tattletales
Once they got rid of the "quickies", the simple elegance of the scoring system for Tattletales always impressed me, and the idea that the celebrities were playing for the studio audience was a masterstroke.
I guess that's why they later did that on Beat the Clock too!
I was thinking about this the other day - the budget for Tattletales really couldn't have been too much. On most shows, they gave away $1750 to the audience - not much considering how much some other shows were giving away at the time. I guess the real cost was for payment to the celebrities for appearing - but when you compare it to Hollywood Squares or Celebrity Sweepstakes that were on at the time, they also had payments for large groups of celebrities and still gave away thousands of dollars per show.
I always thought the scoring on Tattletales was kind of on the cheap side...but I guess if you're in the studio audience and end up with $10 in your pocket at the end of it, that's pretty decent.