Game shows with a cold open

[davidhammett]

Should we count any instance of clips of past winning moments to start the show (e.g., Pyramid, Money Maze) as cold opens?

[Matt Ottinger]

I just realized, not that this would be on anybody's radar, that for the last few seasons of QuizBusters, WE had a cold open! We would play our first set of ten questions with me standing in the audience section, then I'd throw to a recorded open before taking my usual place.  In a cursory check, I couldn't find an example of it on YouTube.  Most of the episodes that have been posted go back a lot further than that.

[BrandonFG]

How about Win, Lose, or Draw? It started with someone drawing and everyone guessing. Bob Hilton announces the title, and Bert reveals the caricatures of the celebrities.

[SuperMatch93]

History IQ started with a question before the intro ("...and that's how we play History IQ!"), and some early episodes of GE College Bowl started with a tossup leading into the opening sequence.

Also, GSN Split Second.

[JasonA1]

A lot of this is going to be futile, to me, since a lot of the suggestions are not nearly as "cold" as the cold opens of scripted shows. It's hard to categorize game shows as neatly because so many of these examples start with the show's theme music and are part of the show's proper introduction. Not to mention very few game shows have an actual title sequence that takes over the screen in the sense scripted shows have them. So the lines are blurry to begin with. (e.g. I don't think anyone would consider Hollywood Squares in the '70s, or Match Game especially, to have a cold open.)

GSN Split Second ends up in that TTTT-ish category, because an announcer says the show name with no title card, and the host is introduced...THEN we play a question, and THEN we get the title card (but no announcer, no host introduction. Woof.).

-Jason

[chris319]

Here is a cold open from Play Your Hunch.

I never knew Mimi O'Brien worked on PYH.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVDVlGvneuE&t=3s

[That Don Guy]

The Buddy Hackett version of You Bet Your Life always started with him doing either a joke or an anecdote.

[PYLdude]

Didn’t Betty White do a lot of cold opens on Just Men?

And do Tic Tac Dough special intros count?

[jmangin]

Reg Grundy with $ale and Scrabble. The drum roll and "This is our champion..." Dunno if others agree but loved the tension it set for a fun time and possibility big decision to play on or a big bonus win in either case.

[tvwxman]

On a similar note, I can't help but notice that "Knockout"'s open is VERY similar to "Password All Stars" from a few months prior, down to the walk back to the set.  Intentional, given Arte being a somewhat familiar face in an unfamiliar role?

[alfonzos]

The first game show I can remember to have a cold open was "Let's Play Post Office." A few weeks into the series the niceties were dispensed and the show would open with the game board on camera as Don Morrow, the host, would declare, "Let's Play Post Office!" The postmark (which revealed the location of the subject of the puzzle) and opening value would be revealed. The solution was revealed to the home audience and gameplay would commence.

FTR, I consider LPPO an undiscovered gem.

[SuperMatch93]

While this doesn't happen in any of the audio-only episodes that have surfaced thus far, I've read before that some later episodes of the original Sale of the Century opened with Bill Wendell offering an Instant Bargain before the contestants/Joe were introduced.

[nowhammies10]

The closest thing that'd count that I can think of is Wheel's "Preview Puzzle", the proto-Toss Up just for the home audience c. 1999-2000. A partially-filled in puzzle is displayed with Vanna doing some V/O, intro, crowd chant, Charlie introduces Pat & Vanna, the puzzle's answer is revealed, and then Pat rolls into the contestant intros.

[rstrata]

I just realized, not that this would be on anybody's radar, that for the last few seasons of QuizBusters, WE had a cold open! We would play our first set of ten questions with me standing in the audience section, then I'd throw to a recorded open before taking my usual place.  In a cursory check, I couldn't find an example of it on YouTube.  Most of the episodes that have been posted go back a lot further than that.

For the time being you can find the last few seasons at:

https://www.pbs.org/show/quizbusters/?page=2

(now bookmarked for a rewatch this weekend)