The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: TLEberle on May 03, 2022, 09:12:46 PM
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Jason A's resurrection of Clash in the A/V thread brought a discussion between the two of us and I wanted to throw it to the assemblage. This is NOT a poll-just list what you rank as the three greatest game shows that either originated from or had its greatest success on cable television. Sorry, The Chase. If you want to include a competitive reality show or culinary showdown on your list that's fine by me, but it needs to have a bona fide game element. If you cannot bear to condense your list to three I will roll a d7 to curate your list for you. You may use whatever criteria you see fit as greatest—they can be personal favorites or ones you think were groundbreaking, or long lasting; they’re your choices.
EDIT: feel free to explain your choices as you see fit.
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1. Win Ben Stein's Money (Comedy Central)
2. Supermarket Sweep (Lifetime)
3. GUTS (Nickelodeon)
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1. Win Ben Stein’s Money
2. Remote Control
3. Double Dare
WBSM was just a damn good game show that I’m surprised hasn’t been rebooted. It doesn’t have to have Ben Stein, as The Chase and Master Minds have shown us there’s plenty of trivia whizzes out there. RC and DD were the first games for their respective networks but also spawned a bunch of imitators. Esp. Double Dare.
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I'm taking a combo of your two lists:
- Win Ben Stein's Money
- Supermarket Sweep
- Double Dare
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1. Double Dare
2. Idiot Savants
3. Win Ben Stein's Money
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Win Ben Stein's Money
Remote Control
2-Minute Drill
JD
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Personal faves:
1) "Supermarket Sweep"
2) "Shop Til You Drop"
3) "Double Dare"
I'd have to think both DD and "Remote Control" should be lock-ins just for being (if I remember) the first major hit game shows on cable.
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1. Supermarket Sweep
2. Debt
3. Win Ben Stein's Money
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1. Supermarket Sweep
2. Win Ben Stein's Money
3. Lingo
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WBSM was just a damn good game show that I’m surprised hasn’t been rebooted. It doesn’t have to have Ben Stein, as The Chase and Master Minds have shown us there’s plenty of trivia whizzes out there.
But that's not the only reason why WBSM was so damn good. You can have a hard quiz, but to also have Ben Stein as a perfect foil and perfectly pair him with the smart-alecky Jimmy Kimmel would elevate it to one of the best. But one of the big reasons it was so damn good was the comedy was amazing, and I'm not just talking about the categories (see my signature below). This is the only hard quiz I can think of that lets the comedy breathe. How many hard quizzes do you know of that lets contestants who were eliminated stay around after they're eliminated just because they were great comic fodder. How many shows can you think of in which the hosts and contestant dropped the pants after a win. And not only that, but this was a show that had freedom in doing the comedy so far that one show was filmed in the style of THE BLAIR F***IN WITCH PROJECT. That's why WBSM had an air of unpredictability that made the show so great to watch. With all those reasons, that's why I put WBSM at #2 on my list. #1 for me is Double Dare because not only does Nickelodeon owe a debt to it, but cable as well. #3 is Remote Control and #4 is Supermarket Sweep although those can be interchangeable.
\Just to show how popular the show was at the time, in the Summer of 1998 (age 13 at the time) my mom and I took my great aunt to a rehabilitation center near Charleston, WV. Both my mom and great aunt left me in a waiting room for SEVEN HOURS. I didn't see either of them in that span of time, but what kept me occupied was the one TV in the corner that was turned to Comedy Central. They showed WBSM at least four time in that span, and I enjoyed every single one of them (along with the daytime offerings of Comedy Central).
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Double Dare, Supermarket Sweep, Win Ben Stein's Money.
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1)Double Dare
2)Remote Control
3)Supermarket Sweep
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1. Double Dare
2. Supermarket Sweep
3. Chain Reaction
For #3, I know that the show started on NBC, but it had its greatest success on cable (USA for 5 years, GSN for what feels like forever in new eps and reruns). Still an addicting, fun word game that I've noticed even those who aren't really into game shows really like.
Anthony
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1. Double Dare
2. Remote Control
3. Win Ben Stein's Money
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1) Double Dare
2) Supermarket Sweep
3) Debt
Double Dare is one of the absolute pitch perfect blends of trivia, strategy, stunts, and competition games ever put to tape, and one of the best balances of humor/seriousness/sincerity.
Supermarket Sweep is phenomenal and losing my huge gigantic pile of eps from the Buzzr reruns in a cloud storage issue was a crushing disappointment
I wholly and sincerely think Debt is Wink Martindale's best show and plays to every single one of his strengths as an emcee. The trivia is solid (and moving away from the J! style board in season 2 was, IMO, actually a good change), and I think the double or nothingish (they still got a savings bond) stage 2 of the bonus game is the single best implementation of that mechanic in the genre canon, while the preceding trivia countdown has all the suspense of Alphabetics or the Winner's Circle bonuses. If Lifetime hadn't lost interest in doing game shows, this show absolutely should have gotten a longer run.
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1. Double Dare
2. Debt
3. Russian Roulette
(Honorable Mention: Top Card)
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1. Remote Control
2. Double Dare
3. Debt
What a shame that I knew most of the answers on Remote Control but was only 13 and years away from college and being eligible. Double Dare was just plain fun to watch. Debt was so well put together as Chelsea said, and I loved the intro with the screen sliding up to reveal Wink.
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1. Win Ben Stein’s Money
2. Remote Control
3. Double Dare
Brandon did the work so I wouldn't have to.
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1 Russian Roulette
2 Debt
3 Catch 21
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My selections:
1. Win Ben Stein's Money
2. Supermarket Sweep
3. Fandango
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1. How Do You Like Your Eggs?
2. Finders Keepers
3. Shop til You Drop.
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1. Win Ben Stein's Money
2. Idiotest
3. Lingo
I've been watching a little Idiotest lately and am reminded how well done it was. Fun idea well mounted with a great host. I'd love to see more of Ben.
I was too old for Double Dare and didn't care for the talent's snotty attitude on Remote Control.
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Here's mine, read 'em and weep:
1.) Paranoia
2.) Second Honeymoon
3.) Jackpot! (USA version)
4.) Bumper Stumpers
5.) Supermarket Sweep
Honorable Mention: Chain Reaction (GSN version), Shopping Spree
Cordially,
Tammy
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You know what? Paranoia was really good and picking three is a much harder exercise than I thought at the outset. Same for 2-Minute Drill.
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1.Supermarket Sweep
2. Whammy
3.Russian Roulette
4. Lingo
5. The Pyramid they did a pretty good job rebooting the show.
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1. Ultimate Fan League
2. Legends of the Hidden Temple
3. Sports on Tap
(Dare to be different.) I'm surprised no one has mentioned Legends yet, since it seems to have set a new standard for kids' games. UFL was such a great idea (league play followed by playoffs) and had a Remote Control vibe to it, and Sports on Tap, for 9-year-old me, was appointment television, probably because I loved the overall tournament structure and the final round that goes up the steps. I wish there were more sports game episodes available on the internet.
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Two of my three I base because of what they more or less spawned. One because of personal fave.
In no particular order:
1) Double Dare (Nick version) -- This show pretty much introduced messy in-studio stunts that also spawned other similar in-studio games, like Legends of the Hidden Temple, (College) Fun House, etc...
2) Remote Control (MTV) ‐‐ One of the first, if not the first, modern day genre-specific quizzer that dared to go beyond sports or movie subjects. Remote Control spawned Couch Potatoes, and may have inspired TV Land's Ultimate Fan search, which was also all about television.
3) Rodeo Drive -- Jay Wolpert's first game show foray into cable TV. Like many of Jay's ideas, the show was a bit convoluted and had some glaring faults, it took elements from Canada's Talk About, Sale of the Century's Fame Game, and a touch of the Whew! Gauntlet. The show also was the first for Burton Richardson in the announcer role.
It was nice to see Jay rebound for a modest run of cable shows after the demise of Blackout. And Rodeo was not a bad show to watch and play along with despite it's flaws.
Also, Rodeo Drive was one of the only cable game shows with returning contestants!
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In no particular order:
1-Nick Game shows of the 80's and 90's in general
2-Remote Control
3-Supermarket Sweep
4-Win Ben Stein's Money
5-Lingo
and an honorable mention to the TNN Trifecta of Fandango/Top Card/10 Seconds- it was for a very specific type of knowledge, but especially the first two were good (except for the "Aces are worth 1" rule on Top Card)- 10 seconds was OK for the Bid-A-Note variant it was.
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My selections:
1. Win Ben Stein's Money
2. Supermarket Sweep
3. Fandango
and an honorable mention to the TNN Trifecta of Fandango/Top Card/10 Seconds
(facepalms self)
.....and here I am calling "Double Dare" and "Remote Control" the first cable game show hits! Can't argue with a 5-year run on a channel otherwise known for country music...and the snot-load of episodes on YouTube must say something about it as well!
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You know what? Paranoia was really good and picking three is a much harder exercise than I thought at the outset. Same for 2-Minute Drill.
I'm glad to hear you say that and that you have put so much thought into the exercise. The thing of it is that it is easy to pick your fifty favorite shows out of a thousand, or your twenty favorite hosts out of a pool of a hundred or so. I wanted to have people making those value judgments--I adore History IQ and Cash Cab, but do I rate them as higher than Ben's Money? Is Legends of the Hidden Temple better than the show that basically invented the game show for kids? By limiting the number of choices to three (not that everyone has stuck to that) it forces us to make those hard choices and if they want to do so explain why. I thought Paranoia was an interesting idea that I watched and was sorry to see go, but there were too many nicks in the armor to displace another show for me.
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Sweep, Stein, Remote.
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Debt
Win Ben Stein's Money
Top Card
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Fun question. I'm latching on to the term greatest here, which for me would be different than my 3 favorite cable game shows, which might include Idiot Savants and Lingo.
1. WBSM. This wasn't the first comedy game show, but the one who best included lots of humor without sacrificing content. One of the harder quizzers on cable.
2. Double Dare. Kids shows today still use elements of DD, which combined slime and substance into a show that was fun to watch by kids and parents.
3. Remote Control. Yes a predictable list, but this was another trailblazing show which paved the way for snark and a less serious tone on game shows.
Honorable mention: Smush. I think this is a format that could be brought back, perhaps to GSN.
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1. Double Dare (86-93)
2. Remote Control
3. Debt