When I made my list, I knew that my top three were going to be Price, Pyramid, and Jeopardy! (the shows I placed below those three did not even compete, in my mind). But I had a dickens of a time trying to rank them as 1, 2, and 3 -- the subject matter of each is so completely different that even though they're definitely all game shows, it's like (to play with an old cliché) trying to compare an apple, an orange, and a banana. I wound up with Price first, Pyramid second, and Jeopardy! third, but I could easily see any of them landing anywhere in the top -- glad that they did make the top three.
Also glad to see that To Tell the Truth ranked above its cousins What's My Line and I've Got a Secret -- I think the increased play-along ability makes it a better game.
I tried to consider shows that I knew were great in their day, but I had never seen episodes or clips of -- turns out it's really hard to rank a show that you know nothing about other than the game structure (as a result, they tended to land in the 40's on my list). I didn't even think to consider Three on a Match because I know absolutely nothing of it.
Which resulted in some generational bias in my list, though I tried to keep personal bias out of it -- I love Press Your Luck, but I only ranked it at number 22, even though I would rather watch it over some of the shows that I ranked above it.
I'm pretty happy with how my list compares to the group list, though I wish Carmen Sandiego had cracked the top 50 -- I know it's a generational thing, but I have great respect for a show that made me much more interested in geography as a kid (moreso than I'm interested in it today).
[quote name=\'WilliamPorygon\' post=\'130791\' date=\'Sep 8 2006, 09:18 PM\']So was I the only one to list Idiot Savants?[/quote]
Nope, I had it at 49 on my list, in a "I know this won't impact the voting and I can't think of any more shows" kind of way. I liked that they had fun while remaining a real game show and also was amazed that they were willing to make the material way too challenging for an MTV audience.
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Scott Robinson