Have Game Shows Jumped the Shark?

[chris319]

Audiences that hoot and whoop like a flock of drunken hoot owls.

Music that sounds like it came from a Radio Shack synthesizer.

Grossly overpaid emcees/panelists who get the boot after just a few seasons.

Motorized spotlights, horror-movie music and other gimmickry disguising the absence of an actual game.

Production companies that botch remakes of the simplest formats.

Butt-ugly Jimmy Cuomo sets.

These are just some of the maladies afflicting the current generation of game shows. The question being posed here is: When and in what ways have modern game shows "jumped the shark"? If you need a definition of jumping the shark, see here:

http://www.jumptheshark.com/

Or do you think game shows haven't "jumped the shark"? If you think Card Sharks 2001 was better than the originals, you are free to make your case here (but I think you will be in a very small minority).

[BrandonFG]

[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Oct 21 2003, 04:15 PM\'] Audiences that hoot and whoop like a flock of drunken hoot owls.

Music that sounds like it came from a Radio Shack synthesizer.

Grossly overpaid emcees/panelists who get the boot after just a few seasons.

Motorized spotlights, horror-movie music and other gimmickry disguising the absence of an actual game.

Production companies that botch remakes of the simplest formats.

Butt-ugly Jimmy Cuomo sets.

These are just some of the maladies afflicting the current generation of game shows. The question being posed here is: When and in what ways have modern game shows "jumped the shark"? If you need a definition of jumping the shark, see here:

http://www.jumptheshark.com/

Or do you think game shows haven't "jumped the shark"? If you think Card Sharks 2001 was better than the originals, you are free to make your case here (but I think you will be in a very small minority). [/quote]
 The one thing that irritates me the most about the current shows are the camera shots. I've talked about this in another post, but in just about all the shows, the cameras do these wild and crazy moves about the set, tilts, etc.  It looks like the cameraman is having an epileptic seizure or something.  I mentioned that we have shows like "Cribs" to thank for this, and I stand by that statement. The worst offender I think is Feud, if you ever notice during the credits, right as the theme comes to an end, they always show the set at an tilted angle, then have it move towards a level angle. To be honest, I nearly cringe every time I see it, being it's so annoying.

I'd like to think game shows are one form of programming that don't have to cater to 18-34 year-olds, but that would be too close to normal. But, then again, it's possible to cater to the younger viewers without being so gimmicky. Feud looks like it's trying too hard.

Another Feud peeve: give the audience some sedatives please. We don't need rhythm clapping every single time the theme song plays, and we don't need hootin' and hollerin' every time the #1 answer is given.

[MCArroyo1]

Another Feud peeve: give the audience some sedatives please. We don't need rhythm clapping every single time the theme song plays, and we don't need hootin' and hollerin' every time the #1 answer is given.

These are pet peeves of mine, too.  But they're just that: pet peeves.  The Feud certainly has a good game behind it (at least this season).  I hope that the smaller things aren't getting in the way of the game, because for me, they aren't.

And I still think that Millionaire, Lingo, The Price is Right, Wheel of Fortune, and Jeopardy! are among the best programs on television.  Holywood Squares, too, though that show also has overly crazy audiences.  Hopefully, Pyramid and the rest of the GSN Originals lineup aren't spoiling it for the rest of the genre.  In my opinion, it's far from jumping the shark.

[SplitSecond]

I think the move away from taping game shows live-to-tape, while not a specific shark-jumping moment, is a symptom of definite jumpage.

A big part of the charm of game shows in general is that the games themselves can be a launching pad for spontaneous human interaction with real people.  Why do you think NBC has been able to make a very successful series of specials out of these sorts of moments, and nobody has tried a "Greatest Game Show Wins" special?

The contestant and host responses you see on these modern shows, even if they are spontaneous, look fake and pre-produced because of heavy editing and retakes.  Some modern hosts are fed lines through the screens on their podiums or through earpieces because their producers either don't trust them to be funny (or remember the rules of the game) on their own or they don't take the time to work with these hosts to bring them to a level where they can fly on their own and make TV magic.  The result is that even the most sound, compelling game formats look flat and fake and lack personality.

[Dan Sadro]

[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Oct 21 2003, 04:15 PM\'] Music that sounds like it came from a Radio Shack synthesizer. [/quote]
Make the Russian Roulette theme come out of a Radio Shack synthesizer and we'll talk.

I'll agree that there's a lot of crappy game show music out there right now, as well as monotonous sets.  But, if we had the exact same conversation thirty years ago, we'd be complaining about the crappy synthesized theme to Concentration, the ugly set to Password, the annoying audience of The Price is Right, the gimmickry of The $10,000 Pyramid, and the format slaughtering of Match Game 73.

History repeats itself, doesn't it?

P.S.  (Yes, I know that CS2k1 was terrible, with its single redeeming value of the pyramid of cards endgame -- in theory, it looked better than the old setup.)

[Dbacksfan12]

[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Oct 21 2003, 04:15 PM\'] . The question being posed here is: When and in what ways have modern game shows "jumped the shark"? If you need a definition of jumping the shark, see here:

http://www.jumptheshark.com/

 [/quote]
 I think gameshows "jumped the shark" after NBC cancelled their last daytime effort; I believe Caesar's Challenge.  Then we went through a dead period of gameshows, and when they resurfaced in about 1998; we were left with what we have now.

[Jimmy Owen]

"The Chamber" and "The Chair."

[clemon79]

We haven't begun to see "bad" yet, folks.

Remember, Chuck Barris said "The ultimate game show would be one in which the losing contestant were killed." I haven't seen a thing about our society to indicate to me that we're not still slowly but surely heading to that point.

(At the same time, I'm getting myself caught up in the easy mistake of what the rest of the world does, which is totally misinterpreting the ACTUAL meaning of the "jumping the shark" concept. If I had to pick the ultimate apex, the point where I knew it could only go downhill, I'd say it would be the Millionaire / Twenty-One / Greed / Winning Lines era, when they tossed out 250 and 500 large like it was a handful of Tootsie Rolls. I like Don's idea of the death of Ceasar's Challenge, and certainly game shows haven't gotten BETTER, but I think the breaking of the million-dollar barrier (discounting $1MCOAL as a freak of nature) was the real apex.)

[chris319]

Any game show can give away a million dollars but that doesn't make a bad game good. I have an idea for "Million-Dollar Mindreaders". Any takers?

My reference to Radio Shack synthesizer music involved a show with a music package so bad, they eventually went back to the original musical "score".

[chris319]

if we had the exact same conversation thirty years ago, we'd be complaining about the crappy synthesized theme to Concentration, the ugly set to Password, the annoying audience of The Price is Right, the gimmickry of The $10,000 Pyramid, and the format slaughtering of Match Game 73.

I was around 30 years ago and never heard any such complaints, other than from people who don't like anything about game shows to begin with.

[BrandonFG]

[quote name=\'Dan Sadro\' date=\'Oct 21 2003, 07:40 PM\'] I'll agree that there's a lot of crappy game show music out there right now, as well as monotonous sets.  But, if we had the exact same conversation thirty years ago, we'd be complaining about the crappy synthesized theme to Concentration, the ugly set to Password, the annoying audience of The Price is Right, the gimmickry of The $10,000 Pyramid, and the format slaughtering of Match Game 73.

History repeats itself, doesn't it?

P.S.  (Yes, I know that CS2k1 was terrible, with its single redeeming value of the pyramid of cards endgame -- in theory, it looked better than the old setup.) [/quote]
 Interesting points, although I saw a "Bullseye I" clip from the first months of TPiR. When the doors opened to reveal a car, the audience ooh'd and gasped, but didn't half as crazy like they do now.

I also agree with the history repeating itself, as far as themes. But I had a thought...I'm sure Jeopardy! got complaints 20 years ago when they trotted out the synthesized theme, and how it didn't fit with a conventional quiz show.

[Dan Sadro]

[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Oct 21 2003, 10:20 PM\']

if we had the exact same conversation thirty years ago, we'd be complaining about the crappy synthesized theme to Concentration, the ugly set to Password, the annoying audience of The Price is Right, the gimmickry of The $10,000 Pyramid, and the format slaughtering of Match Game 73.

I was around 30 years ago and never heard any such complaints, other than from people who don't like anything about game shows to begin with. [/quote]
 I maybe should have been more clear.  Let's go back 30 years in time, just the people heavily involved in ATGS through today, at our current relative ages, experiences, and opinions.

Game shows have changed significantly yet our minor nitpicks about shows wouldn't.  If we, as a group, had discussed The Match Game from day one of ATGS (which would have been founded in 1963), and then tuned in on the premiere of Match Game 73, there'd probably be a large number of people complaining that the show is thirteen weeks and gone.  We'd be discussing the crappy new-fangled theme to Concentration -- why change the theme when the old one was a classic?  And why does every game show have to have an orange-and-red set like Password?

Point is -- we'd just be complaining about the same things about different shows.

(What show were you referring to about the Radio Shack synthesizer bit?)

[FeudDude]

I think game shows jumped the shark sometime between 1995 and 2000.   One thing that bugs me is the music.  Some might say that's just a minor thing, but modern game show music bugs me.  Instead of catchy, hummable melodies, most game shows today have music that sounds like it belongs in either a horror movie or a rave.  Also, the way music plays practically throughout the entire game rather than just for a few specific cues, is really annoying and it distracts the gameplay.  I don't like the sets nowadays either...they're all dark and busy, with lights that could cause seizures, and just rely too much on technology.  The graphics are also ridiculously overdone.   I just can't help but think that such things make the game shows less fun to watch.

I blame all this on two things.  First I blame it on "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?".  I don't think that WWTBAM in and of itself is terrible, but once every other game show tried to be like it, that was just it.  Even "Wheel of Fortune" has become a noisy mess.  The only game shows that haven't fallen into this trap are "Jeopardy!" and "The Price Is Right," and even those have gone downhill.

The other thing I blame it on is the fact that all these game shows are owned by big media conglomates like Sony and FremantleMedia.  You just can't except this big studios to run shows the way Goodson-Todman, Merv Griffin, Reg Grundy, Barry & Enright, etc. did when they were independent.

And for the record, I'm 18.  That's right, I'm in the 18-to-34 crowd and I'm sick of the way these producers try to make the shows appeal to us.  That and the fact that "The Price Is Right" has changed very little since the current incarnation debuted in the '70s and is nevertheless viewed heavily by college students, ought to say something.

[Speedy G]

Never Jumped.

I think we're just in a real bad lull between good ideas.  What was the last really good new game show idea (at least on this side of the Atlantic Ocean)?  Millionaire?  Russian Roulette?  Has there been any good idea since that isn't just reviving an older show?  Even Survivor's settled down to its core audience as of late.  (No, I'm not interested in opening up THAT can of worms here.)

For every 1 good idea, there are 10 decent ideas that are just missing something, and 50 that just couldn't see the forest for the money trees.  One good ideas don't come along every other day.

It's just the way TV is, I think, and this is true for all genres.  MG98 and others warmed people up a bit, IMO, for a megahit like Millionaire.  We're seeing it again, I think, since most of the syndies are up in ratings, and the perennial megahit TPiR is on the upswing.  I don't think it will be long before there will be another game show that really clicks, especially with reality TV cooling off and several marquee sitcoms and dramas going away in the near future.

Sure, practically every show in a studio has the Armageddon lighting these days, but that's not the fault of Millionaire.  It's just producers who want to cash in on the mania it caused, without realizing that it's not just the dark lights and the big bucks, it's also the tension and everyman qualities that made Millionaire a hit.  Atmosphere means everything to a game show, and Armageddon sets sap the atmosphere right out of most of the shows that try it.  Like Pyramid, for starters.

It's not time to lock up, I don't think we're leaving anytime soon.  We, just like TV, aren't patient.  Do I even need to bring up the TPiR 30th anniversary special from two years ago to remind us how fickle that television, and as a result, its fans are?  We all just need to calm down, enjoy what we have right now, and see what happens in the next year or two, when a bunch of marquee shows leave the television landscape.

[TheInquisitiveOne]

This is a very good argument that I would like to give my two cents.

Chris the Moderator has made a good list of Jump the Shark candidates for the overall genre of game shows. However, there is one candidate that sorely needs to be stated: commercial time.

I believe that many formats of today's game shows (revived or otherwise) are altered to satisfy the fact that the shows themselves have been choked out due to excessive commercial ads. I have been frequenting jumptheshark.com for the last year and a half, and one post comes to mind whenever I read The Price is Right's thread. It said that of the hour that TPiR is on, only 32 minutes of that hour is devoted to game time. Think about it: Pyramid has the 6 in :20 rule. Before this season, Family Feud had only FOUR ROUNDS, with the last being tripled and no 300-point rule. The $5,000 round on Wheel of Fortune has been, more times than not, the Speed Round. Once, Hollywood Squares had only ONE ROUND of game play. If today's commercial standards were the same as 30 years ago, would any of these instances happen? Would any of these format changes take place?

The FCC should seriously consider this because the quality and charm of today's game shows have been severely compromised. Yes, we are ad driven. At the same time, however, I deserve some decent television!

I do agree with Speedy G's assessment, as well. Television can be fickle as well as cyclical. The (so-called) best sitcoms of the last decade are siging their swan songs, and I believe that it will be difficult to find another heavy hitter that can run as long as (gag) Friends or Frasier. The latest syndie numbers show that the game shows are on the up-and-up while the reality drudge is on the decline. Also, game shows in prime time is not an abnormality. With the success of The Price is Right's 30th Anniversary Special, 12 more primetime specials have cropped up within the last two years, with THREE more to follow. In time, the market will be right for more game shows (original or otherwise) to surface.

While I say that the game show genre has not jumped the shark yet (in fact, I think that it jumped back after the dead period of 1995-1998), the major part of the problem is the ownership of the properties. What was G-T, B&E, H-H, and the golden letters of RG, has become Sony and Fremantle, and the shows themselves suffer.

The Inquisitive One