Author Topic: What Got You Hooked? (Read 10071 times)

gwarman2005 · « **Reply #30 on:** May 16, 2007, 01:01:12 PM »

Another thing that got me hooked was watching Whew. I hadn't the faintest idea what was going on, but I vividly remember The Gauntlet Of Villians with their screens in their guts. I thought it was like life size comic book characters come to life.

One other thing I'll admit. Sometimes, if I needed a true game show fix in my grade school days, I'd fake being sick just to see all the shows I was missing. I got introduced to Mindreaders, TTTT (Robin Ward), NTT, Treasure Hunt (CBN reruns), plus I got to watch The Great Space Coaster (who remembers that?).

Adam Nedeff · « **Reply #31 on:** May 16, 2007, 02:50:10 PM »

[quote name=\'gwarman2005\' post=\'152441\' date=\'May 16 2007, 01:01 PM\']
I got to watch The Great Space Coaster (who remembers that?).
[/quote]
Peter Griffin, for one.

jdhernandez · « **Reply #32 on:** May 16, 2007, 03:33:42 PM »

Cartoons.

Yep, that's what got ME hooked on game shows.

The first time I saw an animated Whammy dancing around and making me laugh, I knew I had to watch more of these little guys and see what else he had in store, whether it was crashing into a tree, or exploding in a car, or being eaten by a shark, or getting a chandelier to the head... I just had to keep watching. As a kid, I actually wanted to see games with a plethora of whammies....

...of course, now I realize that's a bad thing for the contestants who are trying to win some money. :-p

Then I got hooked on the lights of the board, and the sound effects, and now I've been hooked, ever since. I'm hooked, I tell ya! *runs to find a PYL DVD to play later....*

clemon79 · « **Reply #33 on:** May 16, 2007, 03:49:45 PM »

[quote name=\'jdhernandez\' post=\'152461\' date=\'May 16 2007, 12:33 PM\']
As a kid, I actually wanted to see games with a plethora of whammies....
[/quote]
Funny. Watching the Todd Newton version, I wanted the same thing.

wheelloon · « **Reply #34 on:** May 16, 2007, 04:14:48 PM »

A huge flashing $25,000 sign, an even bigger flashing puzzle board (which when taking away from the show made a 10-11 year old me cry), a shimmery $5000 space that brought much happiness to contestants, and that flash on the gown of the gorgeous girl turning the letters (Vanna was my first crush)...

Outside of that, big winners who used to cry on the shows and jump in excitement after they win (think of a $100k Pyramid tourney win or a whole family running up on stage after a WOF win or a Combs fast money win) had me jumping in excitement with them. Being able to know at about 2 years old how much 25k or 50k actually was (I knew how to do elementary school math then), and seeing somebody win it was both exciting and joyful, as well. I clapped along whenever going to commercial and whenever the wheel spun, so game shows taught me how to clap too.

It didn't hurt that all the sound effects were intriguing to a little child also, especially the tension-building "beep, boop" on both Wheel and Pyramid. I used to imitate the clocks after watching each show and my parents had no clue, until years later, what the heck I was doing making all those repetitive annoying sounds for hours on end...

clemon79 · « **Reply #35 on:** May 16, 2007, 04:25:47 PM »

[quote name=\'wheelloon\' post=\'152467\' date=\'May 16 2007, 01:14 PM\']
my parents had no clue, until years later, what the heck I was doing making all those repetitive annoying sounds for hours on end...
[/quote]
Man, you guys just CAN'T make it this easy for me.

TheInquisitiveOne · « **Reply #36 on:** May 16, 2007, 04:59:13 PM »

Lights.

Watching chasing and flashing lights during the game, and watching the set darken as the bonus round begins or the game show ends. Watching the background color change along with the game. The color and presentation got me hooked.

Sounds.

From the standard dings, and beeps, to the buzzer sounds and "buzz in" sounds that sound like ringing phones...I still catch myself imitating the buzzer sound from $ale of the Century.

The Games.

The shows themselves were fun to play. Quizzers were my favorite, mainly because of the fact I can determine the answers before the contestants do.

All in all, I think today's game show audience missed out on the days when everything was done by man and when everything wasn't sterilized (by that, I mean that if a mistake happens, they edit it out instead of rolling with the punches).

The Inquisitive One

tvwxman · « **Reply #37 on:** May 16, 2007, 05:18:12 PM »

Big ass numbers ( High Rollers , 1974 )

Seriously. It's how I learned to count. Once I mastered one through nine, I was on to Concentration.

Ian Wallis · « **Reply #38 on:** May 16, 2007, 05:56:55 PM »

For me, just about everything about them. The sets, the music, the game play, the hosts, the scoreboards (I've always loved numbers!)

I'm sure we all have these stories...but back in the '70s, if I saw in TVGuide that a new game show was premiering the following Monday, sometimes I'd cook up a plan to pretend I was sick so I could stay home from school to watch it...sometimes my mother bought it; sometimes she didn't!

TheInquisitiveOne · « **Reply #39 on:** May 16, 2007, 07:23:07 PM »

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' post=\'152483\' date=\'May 16 2007, 04:56 PM\']
For me, just about everything about them. The sets, the music, the game play, the hosts, the scoreboards (I've always loved numbers!)

I'm sure we all have these stories...but back in the '70s, if I saw in TVGuide that a new game show was premiering the following Monday, sometimes I'd cook up a plan to pretend I was sick so I could stay home from school to watch it...sometimes my mother bought it; sometimes she didn't!
[/quote]

Ian, thanks for briging up another fun part of my game show life!

I would always be excited when I see an ad for either (a) a new game show, or (b) information about an existing game show. Such had always been the case in the 1980s.

I see them doing it again a little bit now, but nowhere near the explosion 20 years previous.

The Inquisitive One, giving props to TV Guide for plugging the two Barker Specials

Jay Temple · « **Reply #40 on:** May 16, 2007, 08:13:07 PM »

[quote name=\'aaron sica\' post=\'152329\' date=\'May 15 2007, 02:26 PM\']When I was 4, I wasn't watching $20K Pyramid for the gameplay, but for the solari's - watching those numbers flip on the timer, and on their score was so fascinating to me, along with wheels...[/quote]

[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'152355\' date=\'May 15 2007, 06:08 PM\']Trilons that swivelled as if by magic, with a clunk and a thud but with no apparent human intervention.[/quote]
Even though game play was the main thing, the two have you have just mentioned the two things I miss from modern shows. One thing I loved when GSN aired The $10,000 Pyramid in 2002 was, as they were heading to commercial between the main game and the Winner's Circle, watching the scoreboard reset itself. Heck, I get nostalgic when I see a real board where they manually reveal answers on Family Feud.

davidhammett · « **Reply #41 on:** May 18, 2007, 02:00:51 AM »

Flashiness and flippy scores certainly were a part of my early fascination, but my mind for numbers was naturally attracted to any show with a lot of significant score changes. You Don't Say going from 1 to 2 to 3 points didn't count, but Jeopardy! had lots of scoring, and I was fascinated by the arithmetic mechanics of Who, What or Where. And then there was Jackpot, whose Target and Super Jackpot calculations made me all giddy.