"Silver Age" of game shows

[chris319]

I am the guy who said innovation is almost completely absent from television today, and  Debt is a prime example.

[tpirfan28]

[quote name=\'TLEberle\' post=\'196890\' date=\'Sep 11 2008, 01:20 AM\']
[quote name=\'GameShowGuru\' post=\'196776\' date=\'Sep 9 2008, 09:53 PM\']Considering the game show choices you had (Caesar's Challenge, Born Lucky, Quicksilver, Free 4 All, Debt, Shop Til You Drop, FF '94 with Richard Dawson), the 1990s were pretty much The Dark Period of game show history. [/quote]Hey, don't lump Debt in with the rest of that dreck. That show was decent, and could have made it.
[/quote]
Amen.  It and Supermarket Sweep were two games I grew up on.  And give them credit for a gimmick...going home with your bills paid off.  Or as they said, "go home with NOTHING!"

And I seem to remember the content wasn't Jeopardy! extreme, either...more like second-tier J! material.

[JackSpader]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'196893\' date=\'Sep 11 2008, 01:44 AM\']
[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'196892\' date=\'Sep 10 2008, 10:38 PM\']
You mean Sideways Jeopardy!?[/quote]
I'm sorry, you didn't follow the "I am...You are" format, and so we're going to have to add $50 to your Debt...
[/quote]

Debt was not anywhere close to creative, it was just a knock off of other game shows such as Jeopardy and Name That Tune, and the bonus round was just your average "Get X number of questions right before time's up" followed by a betting question.  Nothing original except for the contestants trying to get out of debt, but that in itself is subject to how much in taxes a contestant has to pay back on winnings. As far as I'm concerned, Debt only contributed to Wink's career going out with a wimper.

While I do consider 1991-1999 as the genre's low point, I would go as far to say that at least Caesar's Challenge was a bright spot as I liked the concept of combining trivia with a word game.  Though it obviously had no chance to survive given the time period, it was great while it lasted.  The worst shows from this time were Free 4 All (snore), Supermarket Sweep (I always thought this show was lame), and all the Interactive Games on the Family Channel (not counting the legitimate Trivial Pursuit show that followed the interactive qualifying round).

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'JackSpader\' post=\'196919\' date=\'Sep 11 2008, 03:37 PM\']Debt was not anywhere close to creative, it was just a knock off of other game shows such as Jeopardy and Name That Tune, and the bonus round was just your average "Get X number of questions right before time's up" followed by a betting question.  Nothing original except for the contestants trying to get out of debt, but that in itself is subject to how much in taxes a contestant has to pay back on winnings. As far as I'm concerned, Debt only contributed to Wink's career going out with a wimper.[/quote]
Debt was hopelessly derivative and certainly doesn't deserve consideration for having "revived" anything.  Still, the reason we remember it fondly at all was because at the time, it was a new, traditional show, and those were very hard to come by.

[ChrisLambert!]

Just my 2 cents:

Golden Age: 1956 (TPIR and TTTT debut) - 9/26/1969 (panel shows are gone and so is NBC daytime)
Silver Age: 9/4/72 (you know) - 3/1989 (you know)

Since 1989, it's been intermittently feast or famine (or feast of crap, which may be worse than famine).

[PYLdude]

[quote name=\'ChrisLambert!\' post=\'196925\' date=\'Sep 11 2008, 03:03 PM\']
(or feast of crap, which may be worse than famine).
[/quote]

The song says "bring in your poo-poo, bring in your doo-doo, I say yoo-hoo, the shorteez say thank you..."

(sorry...)

[TLEberle]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'196923\' date=\'Sep 11 2008, 12:56 PM\']Debt was hopelessly derivative and certainly doesn't deserve consideration for having "revived" anything.  Still, the reason we remember it fondly at all was because at the time, it was a new, traditional show, and those were very hard to come by.[/quote]But I thought they were going for parody anyway. After all, you have the "phrasing" issue, as well as the "big money" question in round one, the security guard toting the jackpot at the end. And Wink Martindale, perhaps the most apt caricature in the business. As a parody of the genre, it works. (If that's what they were indeed going for in the first place)

But back to the derivative note. What else can you do with questions and answers? You're bound to hit a retread here and there. It's not as if Jeopardy! owns the categories and difficulty levels mechanic, do they? Or the auction bit.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'TLEberle\' post=\'196950\' date=\'Sep 11 2008, 10:21 PM\']
But I thought they were going for parody anyway. After all, you have the "phrasing" issue, as well as the "big money" question in round one, the security guard toting the jackpot at the end. And Wink Martindale, perhaps the most apt caricature in the business. As a parody of the genre, it works. (If that's what they were indeed going for in the first place)[/quote]
The Gong Show and The Cheap Show were parody.  It Pays to be Ignorant and $1.98 Beauty Show are even better examples of parody, because they were completely fictional.

Much like Win Ben Stein's Money did (better), Debt was trying to have their cake and eat it too.  Serious Q&A competition with deliberately comic elements is a tricky thing to pull off.  Debt had a tendency to drift a little too far to the corny and, yeah OK, parody end of things, but the victory still went to the best player, and the payoff for winning was not insubstantial, especially by 90s cable standards.

[quote name=\'TLEberle\' post=\'196950\' date=\'Sep 11 2008, 10:21 PM\'] It's not as if Jeopardy! owns the categories and difficulty levels mechanic, do they? [/quote]
Legally?  No, or else Debt would never have seen the light of day.  But hearts and minds?  Absolutely, Jeopardy owns that mechanic.  It's possible to have a three-person Q&A game that doesn't reek of being a ripoff of Jeopardy. $ale, WWW, Big Showdown, Split Second just to name a few.  Debt does not belong in that class.

[GameShowGuru]

I am only reviving this thread in light of the fact that since the last post, it appears that we are in a new age of game shows, thanks in a large part to ABC.

So....
 - If 1956-'69 was the Golden Age:
 - And 1972-91 was the Silver Age:
 - And 1999-200? was the Bronze Age:

What age would we be in now and when would it have started (and the Bronze Age ended)?
Or would this simply be a Golden/Silver Age renaissance of sorts?

[BrandonFG]

Platinum?

Although I’d make the Bronze Age continuous from 1999-present. The first decade was Millionaire, Weakest Link, Deal or No Deal, and a bunch of derivatives. Then the current crop. Like the other two eras, you had some lulls for a few years. That said, off the top of my head, we have about two dozen shows in daytime, prime time, and cable/streaming. Then a few apps.

[Clay Zambo]

I'll throw in a different date -- April 5, 1971, when Password came back to ABC, replacing Dark Shadows. 

That makes sense, since although ABC Password was essentially the same game it had always been this version's production values began the lean-in toward the WOW we'd get not much later with TPiR et al.

[tyshaun1]

Platinum?

Although I’d make the Bronze Age continuous from 1999-present. The first decade was Millionaire, Weakest Link, Deal or No Deal, and a bunch of derivatives. Then the current crop. Like the other two eras, you had some lulls for a few years. That said, off the top of my head, we have about two dozen shows in daytime, prime time, and cable/streaming. Then a few apps.

I know it's not an actual metal but, The Chrome Age?

[Mr. Armadillo]

I like it, but I think there's a break in the middle here - the Bronze Age being defined as the "Every Show Must Give Away A Million Bucks" era between Millionaire and Deal or No Deal, and the Chrome Age picking up with the slate of ABC revivals.

[BrandonFG]

I like it, but I think there's a break in the middle here - the Bronze Age being defined as the "Every Show Must Give Away A Million Bucks" era between Millionaire and Deal or No Deal, and the Chrome Age picking up with the slate of ABC revivals.

Okay, that's fair.

Gold: 50s/60s
Silver: 1972-1991 (give or take)
Bronze: 1999-2010
Chrome/Platinum: 2015-Present?

Each era had about a four or five year gap where we still had a few games, but definitely not as many as in years past. For example, things dried up around 1993 or '94, but we saw a few here and there on cable or in syndication. Then came Millionaire...

With daytime Millionaire canceled, and the ABC shows offering lower stakes*, I wonder how many more new game shows we'll see offering such inflated amounts?

*Not that I'd turn down the $25K on Match Game

[Fedya]

Shouldn't the "Bronze Age" be better called the "[Brushed] Aluminum Age"?

/ducking