GSF 50 Greatest List - RESULTS THREAD

[Matt Ottinger]

[color=\"#009900\"]45 Treasure Hunt (1956-59, 73-77, 81-82)[/color][/size]
(675 44/80)(GSN: 49)

From College Bowl to this?  The first show to be on more than half the ballots, it didn't rank very highly on many of them.  Still, Chuck Barris' second show on our list (and Geoff Edwards' first) proves it has its guilty-pleasure fans.  And we actually put it higher than GSN did!

[color=\"#009900\"]44 Deal or No Deal (2005-present)[/color][/size]
(696 34/80)(GSN: 26)

A spiritual cousin to Treasure Hunt in many ways (lots of boxes and random chance), there's no doubt that the show is a modern sensation, but our collective jury is still out about its historical greatness.  

[color=\"#009900\"]43 Now You See It (1974-75, 1989)[/color][/size]
(737 39/80)

Perhaps the first example of how we know more about game shows than the average viewer (or even GSN, which coulda shown this).  Originally only the most modest of a success (little more than a year) but a fun game with great play-at-home value.  Because, you know, ever answer to every question is right there before your eyes.  First of three Jack Narz shows.

[color=\"#009900\"]42 Break the Bank (1976-77)[/color][/size]
(757 37/80 including one first place vote)

For a lot of fans, the one that got away.  At least now, we never have to wonder how Barry-Enright would have done a Heatter-Quigley show.  BTW, this is not the shortest-lived show on our list!

[color=\"#009900\"]41 Twenty One (1956-58, 2000)[/color]
(769 39/80)(GSN: 40)(TVG: 15)

The original destroyed careers and, for a decade or so, a genre.  Critics say it wouldn't work unrigged, which was more or less proven in 2000, but not before making one of our members rich.  Whether deliberately being clever or not, two members had this at #21 on their list.

More tomorrow, including the shortest-lived show on our list, as well as the oldest.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'Sonic Whammy\' post=\'129700\' date=\'Aug 29 2006, 11:08 PM\']
I think you left a piece out, Matt. Wasn't BET's Campus All-Star Challenge (1990-95) considered a spinoff of College Bowl? At least that's how the EOTVGS describes it.[/quote]
Yep, my bad.

[Sonic Whammy]

And I'll tell you what, I made a mistake, too, Matt. When I e-mailed you, I said that 21 would have been #51. I take that back. I forgot that Break the Bank was under consideration for me, too. I think that would've beat it for me. (Yes, I'm tipping my hand a little to everyone. For now, no fault.)

[DrBear]

Let's see...of the bottom 10, I had 5 on my list (missing Dating Game, NYSI, Treasure Hunt, Deal/No Deal and Break the Bank). Maybe because I skewded a bit older on some of them. (Or that I'm angry about Chuck Barris joining the CIA.)

Break the Bank didn't make my list; it was a nice enough ripoff of HS but not as interesting, and didn't last long enough to establish itself. IMHO, o'course.

I had Twenty One at No. 44; It was so big you just can't ignore it, even with its crookedness.

[Clay Zambo]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'129661\' date=\'Aug 29 2006, 09:06 PM\']
[color=\"#009900\"]46 College Bowl (1959-70, 1987)[/color][/size]
Arguably the most imitated and influential game show ever.
[/quote]

Okay, let's argue that.  No, seriously.  Beyond the local-tv-high-school-quiz thing, what influence did College Bowl have on our genre of choice?

(I'm not saying there isn't any, only that it's early, I have a long day ahead, a sad cat, am undercaffeinated, and I can't sort out what you might mean.)

[Ian Wallis]

Some surprises for me so far:  I'm surprised that Gambit and Break the Bank finished as low as they did.  Break the Bank was No. 2 for me (yes, I liked it that much); and with Gambit's original 4-year run, I thought more people would have placed it higher.  

I didn't have Deal or No Deal on my list at all (and frankly, considering some of the things we've said about it, I'm surprised it's there at all); but I'm happy with the placements of several of the others.  I did have Twenty-One in the lower part of my list - I really enjoyed the 2000 version (and so did my wife, for that matter), and the '50s episodes I've seen were actually quite interesting......I guess that must have been because they were rigged!

[cweaver]

I'm already starting to find titles I regret not putting on my own list.  I could've sworn, for instance, I included Gambit but when I rechecked my list it was nowhere to be seen.  Perhaps I left it off because Card Sharks was more exciting.  

Point well taken about College Bowl, Matt.  I was in the "not Hollywood Squares" club in my own schools.  However, believe it or not, there are a few high schools in the country that still put on Hollywood Squares demos during assembly, as I'm often hearing from teachers looking for theme music.

[SteveRep]

* Gambit is one I should have had, if I hadn't decided to use the bottom 6 of my list for some fringe shows that struck my fancy.
* I wouldn't have come up with Bank in a million years, although once I Googled it and some some pictures, I DO remember it.
* College Bowl was on my list, then I dropped it once I realized I didn't have LMaD.

I'm liking the composition of the list so far. Having 80 votes makes for a strong cross-section of opinion.

Of the 7 shows on both the GSF list and mine, the difference in rank is less than 10 on 6 of them. Smalllest difference=0 (NYSI at 43); largest=22 (Link, GSF=49, me=27).

[SRIV94]

[quote name=\'SteveRep\' post=\'129742\' date=\'Aug 30 2006, 08:48 AM\']
* Gambit is one I should have had, if I hadn't decided to use the bottom 6 of my list for some fringe shows that struck my fancy.
[/quote]
Ditto for me.  GAMBIT was one I should've included but did not.  And shamefully, COLLEGE BOWL never occured to me (although I was approaching a mere five by the time of its 1970 cancellation, I still should've had enough sense to put it somewhere).

Not that everything I did put in was dreck, mind you.    And it seems I was among a couple primarily responsible for NYSI getting in--I had it 19th in my list, yet it only placed 43rd overall.

Doug -- and the countdown to 2200 continues

[TheFlea]

[color=\"#009900\"]41 Twenty One (1956-58, 2000)[/color]
(769 39/80)(GSN: 40)(TVG: 15)

The original destroyed careers and, for a decade or so, a genre.  Critics say it wouldn't work unrigged, which was more or less proven in 2000, but not before making one of our members rich.  Whether deliberately being clever or not, two members had this at #21 on their list.
[/quote]

You said it didn't work unrigged here; I tend to disagree.  I think it got off to a rocky and hastily-thrown-together start, partly because the format wasn't nailed down yet, and partly because Maury Povich wasn't quite comfortable hosting it at first.  After it had been on the air a few months though I think it hit its stride and should have been renewed for another season.  Its ratings, after all, were solid even though it was in a very tough timeslot.  

-Flea

[TheFlea]

[quote name='Ian Wallis' date='Aug 30 2006, 08:53 AM' post='129734']
Some surprises for me so far:  I'm surprised that Gambit and Break the Bank finished as low as they did.  Break the Bank was No. 2 for me (yes, I liked it that much); and with Gambit's original 4-year run, I thought more people would have placed it higher.  


>I think one reason Gambit didn't rank higher is because a lot of people who voted are either too young to remember it or haven't seen it since they were very young.  I've been trading for 8 years now and, as was the case when I first started trading, there is only a single episode of the 1972-76 version circulating.  The 1980-81 version has, over the past year or so anyway, become much better represented (we went from 2 episodes to 7) on the trading circuit, but many of us here have only seen a single episode of the original.  It's thus more difficult for us to rank a show that we've barely seen.

-Flea

[Ian Wallis]

I've been trading for 8 years now and, as was the case when I first started trading, there is only a single episode of the 1972-76 version circulating. The 1980-81 version has, over the past year or so anyway, become much better represented (we went from 2 episodes to 7) on the trading circuit, but many of us here have only seen a single episode of the original. It's thus more difficult for us to rank a show that we've barely seen.

Point taken.  Parts of my list were done from memory...for example, I had Wizard of Odds at 48, but I haven't seen an episode since '74 because none of them seem to exist anymore; but from my memories of watching it as a kid, plus the descriptions I've read in the EOTVGS, I remember it as being an interesting show.

One reason about being surprised about Gambit is because it seems like whenever it's talked about, it's remembered fondly.  There were some stations in the late '70s that aired repeats of this for a while...maybe some of it's around somewhere.

[Neumms]

I watched both Gambit and Break the Bank, Gambit on its premiere day along with those other shows, and I put neither on my list.

The game play on Gambit just wasn't that interesting. Wink was good and the graphic design was terrific, but the awful set and Elayne what's-her-name offset that. Hardly a trailblazer, unless it pioneered the use of giant playing cards.  

Break the Bank was just a poor man's Hollywood Squares. Watchable, yes, fun for a
summer, but hardly great.

[Don Howard]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'129701\' date=\'Aug 29 2006, 11:29 PM\']
[color=\"#009900\"]42 Break the Bank (1976-77)[/color][/size]
(757 37/80 including one first place vote)
[/quote]
Gee, who could that 1st place vote have come from?
I'm happily surprised to see this in the Fab Fifty.
Pretty good for a series that only ran 99 episodes (75 on ABC and 24 for syndication, correct?)

[Adam Nedeff]

[quote name=\'Clay Zambo\' post=\'129733\' date=\'Aug 30 2006, 08:09 AM\']
[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'129661\' date=\'Aug 29 2006, 09:06 PM\']
[color=\"#009900\"]46 College Bowl (1959-70, 1987)[/color][/size]
Arguably the most imitated and influential game show ever.
[/quote]

Okay, let's argue that.  No, seriously.  Beyond the local-tv-high-school-quiz thing, what influence did College Bowl have on our genre of choice?
[/quote]

I don't know that Matt's talking about an influence on game shows here. As Matt said, there are no "Hollywood Squares" clubs in high school. I don't have a pile of Match Game ribbons and trophies in my bedroom. The thought that a game show actually influenced schools across the nation and introduced new extra-curricular activities to kids who otherwise would have had blank spaces next to their names in the senior yearbook, I would think, is pretty impressive.