There were a lot of things about the early tv days that made them so much fun. Among them, there actually were censors, which forced writers and producers to build shows on character development and wit. So much of early tv was little better
than filmed radio, and even though so many people our age love to gush about "The Golden Age of.."radio, tv, movies, whatever, it was just like it is today. For every great show, there were two dozen bland, forgettable programs that only excite hard-core fans (admittedly, I'm one of them). One of the key things in early TV was that sponsors back then ruled the roost - network time was purchased by sponsors and their advertising agencies, and they had a lot of say as to what got on. Obviously, everybody wanted a bargain - so one of the reasons so many prime time game and quiz shows appeared is that they were economical to produce. A lot of them were live. Build a set, rent a host, and you have a show. Many were cheap summer replacements - a few of them hitting paydirt, like The $64,000 Question. But a good- or even fair- tv game show could get your sponsor message to millions (especially in pre-cable days) for so much less than a live or filmed drama or comedy. If a daytime show did well, bring it to night time. I think it was CBS in the 60s that started the trend of claiming back it's air time and selling it's commercial positions to as many sponsors as wanted on board.
Speaking of one of the thoughts above, perhaps we could build a thread on it by itself - many of the great game shows could have been around even without television ever being devised - Mark Goodson, Dan Enright, Ralph Edwards, Ed Wolf and several others started in radio - I have a feeling that the core of most good solid game shows is "could you just listen to it and play along?" I'd say about 80% of G-T's biggest tv hits would have worked on radio. Now let's not debate the obvious, like Concentration, Wheel, Squares, and Video Village - those were and remain the perfect TV games. In one case, What's My Line started on tv, then a radio version followed later. I'm curious as to your thoughts on the idea as to what makes a good game format successful.