The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => Game Show Channels & Networks => Topic started by: PeterMarshallFan on November 30, 2003, 02:38:10 PM
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By Linda Moss -- Multichannel News, 12/1/2003 12:02:00 AM
Game Show Network and National Lampoon are teaming up to produce a competition featuring fraternities and sororities vying in absurd sports, like the "pita-bread discus toss" and "Greek olive-oil wrestling."
Taking a cue from the real Olympic Games, taking place in Athens, Greece, GSN and National Lampoon will debut the preliminary televised competition for National Lampoon’s Greek Games in May on National Lampoon Network.
That college cable network is carried on cable and direct-broadcast satellite in more than 600 schools and university communities, reaching 4.6 million students.
National Lampoon’s Greek Games
will culminate with a two-hour special on GSN in early July. That special will feature two fraternities and two sororities -- chosen from submitted videotapes demonstrating their "National Lampoon style of sportsmanship" -- competing for the title of "Greek Game Champion."
"Greece really is the word in this case," GSN president Rich Cronin said in a prepared statement. "We’re calling on Greek organizations at colleges and universities to take this seriously, even if we don’t, because we’re looking at the Greek Games to become an annual event."
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Seems GSN really HAS given up on new traditional game shows...
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ill be the sacrificial lamb here and say this doesnt sound HORRIBLE. it sounds better than Blackjack IMO, but nonetheless i probibly wont watch. the only thing i watch on GSN anymore is the 3:30PM airing of RR, and thats it. oh well.
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[quote name=\'ilb4ever2000\' date=\'Nov 30 2003, 04:04 PM\'] Seems GSN really HAS given up on new traditional game shows... [/quote]
Then you must not be very familiar with game show traditions. From Almost Anything Goes to It's A Knockout to Battle of the Network Stars to Takeshi's Castle to about a hundred others, "junk sports" competitions have a place in game show history, and this little special doesn't seem to be very different from any of them.
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Personally, what kinda worries me is the "Olive Oil Wrestling."
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[quote name=\'PeterMarshallFan\' date=\'Nov 30 2003, 04:42 PM\'] Personally, what kinda worries me is the "Olive Oil Wrestling." [/quote]
I for one hope they use virgin
olive oil
Wow that really is bad... nevermind.
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[quote name=\'ilb4ever2000\' date=\'Nov 30 2003, 03:04 PM\'] Seems GSN really HAS given up on new traditional game shows... [/quote]
I don't think that's fair at all. GSN has shown that they are interested in first run game shows. It's just so hard, I think, to catch lightning in a bottle. Lingo is a far cry from Super Decades or Inquizition or Throut and Neck or Burt Luddin's Love Buffet (or DJ Games or Extreme Gong...).
GSN is still a young network looking to expand carriage. The best way they feel they can do that is to not look like a rerun channel and to make a commitment to original programming of all sorts however unusual it may be.
I don't think GSN's rejection of Scrabble Challenge has anything to do with anything other than the game itself. I'm sure GSN doesn't want to be stuck with another Funny Money- making all these episodes that no one really wants to watch and then having to burn them off quickly.
A new show is a big commitment for the channel and I'm sure there are a few in development that haven't been announced. Maybe one will be the next Lingo for GSN. (Me, I'm hoping GSN goes for a quizzer that is what WinTuition should have been)
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This sounds downright classless and nauseating. At least the entire series isn't airing on GSN. Thankfully, It only sounds like we'll have to put up with this once every year. (Not counting re-broadcasts.)
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[quote name=\'whampyl03\' date=\'Nov 30 2003, 04:09 PM\'] This sounds downright classless and nauseating. [/quote]
Because, you know, people dressing up as cucumbers to win a living room set is the epitome of cerebral television.
Or people being coated in grass shavings because their little light wound up on the wrong spot.
Get the hell OFF the high horse, people, these are game shows.
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[quote name=\'PeterMarshallFan\' date=\'Nov 30 2003, 04:42 PM\'] Personally, what kinda worries me is the "Olive Oil Wrestling." [/quote]
They'll probably wrestle an inflatable Olive Oyl.
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Because, you know, people dressing up as cucumbers to win a living room set is the epitome of cerebral television.
Or people being coated in grass shavings because their little light wound up on the wrong spot.
Get the hell OFF the high horse, people, these are game shows.
I'll concede and say you have a point. Still sounds like somthing that I'd never watch though.
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[quote name=\'whampyl03\' date=\'Nov 30 2003, 06:56 PM\'] I'll concede and say you have a point.
[/quote]
Thanks so. I'll treasure that concession always.
Still sounds like somthing that I'd never watch though.
To paraphrase the great philosopher George Carlin, this is why the television has two knobs on it....
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Besides, it could be worse. We could have two equally dumb rich girls prove exactly how stupid they really are by being country for a week or so.
The Inquisitive One
(Sorry, I had to throw that out somehow. This was the perfect segue.)
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[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Nov 30 2003, 09:07 PM\'] To paraphrase the great philosopher George Carlin, this is why the television has two knobs on it.... [/quote]
Mine's has six buttons, and I use none of them.
:-)
Brandon Brooks
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[quote name=\'TheInquisitiveOne\' date=\'Nov 30 2003, 10:51 PM\']Besides, it could be worse. We could have two equally dumb rich girls prove exactly how stupid they really are by being country for a week or so.[/quote]
Thirty days, to be exact.
As for "Greek Games" itself, I have the feeling that Sony and/or Liberty (more likely Sony) are coming down real hard on Rich and Bob to get some demo action going and are demanding a lot of things if they want to get the bread to do the more traditional things. After all, nine years and only one quarter in the black is a lonnnnnnnnnng time. It also looks like Rich and Bob are believing that short-term events might be a more feasible way of doing originals than a lot of series, if the corporate cash flow is getting reduced.
So they do this silly little one-off stunt with (seemingly) other peoples' money instead of using Sony and Liberty's money for a series that implodes 33 episodes into production. Not wild about it--and it's amazing that a company that earns much of its profit from two traditional game shows is so clueless about the genre--but it's Rich and Bob's job to take the lemons and make lemonade out of them, if they can.
ObGameShow: Thank Jah that the Hilton "sisters" missed the "H2" Dynamic Duos Week taping--Martin and Peggy are such a lovely couple. :)