The Game Show Stereotype

[JasonA1]

I forgot the product, but I recently saw another commercial where the actors were on a game show. Despite recent shows replacing bells and buzzers with heartbeat-laden music and making the color black as prevalent as shag carpet in the 70s, the old stereotypes remain. Game shows in fiction often have a lot of light bulbs, a lovely model, cheesy prizes, a huge-grinned host, "what have they won Johnny!?!?", etc.

What show do you think contributed to this the most? What era, what host, etc?

-Jason

[BrandonFG]

I'd say a little of the 50s and 60s for the dull sets* and prizes, and 70s for the loud over-the-top hosts who wear plaid jackets ripped from a Volkswagen.  

*For some reason, 9-out-of-10 sitcom game shows always has a curtain in the background. This was well into the late-90s. Dull, monotone sets with curtains. I know it's fiction and that a sitcom is not going to stage an elaborate recreation for one episode, but I also wondered did any of these sitcom art directors ever watch a game show made after 1965.

[Twentington]

I think that most of this came to be by mere conflation and mutation among several different promiment shows. Monty Hall and Wink Martindale were really the only hosts who had that "cheesy" vibe to them (good kind of cheesy, of course); Gene Rayburn was the most prominent when it came to loud suits; The Price Is Right was known for its flashy-border intro (ditto Match Game and its cousin, the flippy box); LMaD and HSq were the most prominent in the "lovely model" department in an era when no one had heard of Vanna White yet; et cetera. Basically, they just picked and chose a few different traits that screamed "game show," mutated them a little and somehow came up with the "what have they won, Johnny?" — maybe because there have been no fewer than three announcers named Johnny?

It's kind of the same way that dogs and trucks are usually considered common topics of country music songs. People just make the connection that country music is a Southern and/or rural thing that often speaks to other middle-class tropes such as patriotism, blue-collar workers, etc., and since dogs and trucks sort of fall under that umbrella, then they must be topics of country music songs too. (In reality, I've said several times that you can count all the dog songs in country music on your fingers and still have enough fingers left to count the truck songs.)

[Neumms]

[quote name=\'Twentington\' post=\'243394\' date=\'Jun 30 2010, 05:01 PM\']Monty Hall and Wink Martindale were really the only hosts who had that "cheesy" vibe to them (good kind of cheesy, of course); Gene Rayburn was the most prominent when it came to loud suits. . . Basically, they just picked and chose a few different traits that screamed "game show," mutated them a little and somehow came up with the "what have they won, Johnny?" — maybe because there have been no fewer than three announcers named Johnny?[/quote]

Where DID "what have they won, Johnny?" come from? I wonder if it's from Barker, who was a lot sellsier when TPIR first started, when the show was such a revelation.

Earlier, Bert Parks was a terrible huckster. Maybe the stereotype started with him and never changed. I wrote a game show scenario for a radio commercial a year ago and was pretty specific on the script about it being very dramatic like WWTBAM. I didn't get to produce it, though, and when I heard it on the air it was that annoying Bert Parks tone. Bleech. Sorry listening audience.

[JasonA1]

If I had to narrow it down to just one show to take the title, it would be Tic Tac Dough with Wink Martindale. Orange everywhere, stereotypically peppy theme and audience, wood paneling & carpeting, light bulbs galore, cheesy prizes, melodrama, Wink taking readings from Jack Barry, etc.

TJW with Jack and Let's Make a Deal with Monty Hall would be the runners up.

-Jason

[Jimmy Owen]

Bert Parks is where it all started.

[TLEberle]

[quote name=\'fostergray82\' post=\'243383\' date=\'Jun 30 2010, 12:02 PM\']*For some reason, 9-out-of-10 sitcom game shows always has a curtain in the background.[/quote]If I have a limited budget for a commercial, I'd like to have a little bit left over for hookers and/or blow. If you can make the point with a curtain and Guy Smiley, why go farther than that? People aren't going to buy the product more because the set had flashy lights and working scoreboards.

"Nuance" and "commercial" don't go together. You have a few seconds to beat the viewer over the head with the point and hopefully have the message "BUY ME DAMMIT!" somewhere in there.

[TimK2003]

What show(s) started the "stereotypical game show theme music"? (A Hybrid of Bert Kaempfert/Herb Alpert/TJB)?  

I want to say the Chuck Barris's dynamic duo of TDG/TNG, but then he pulled out of that musical "groove", so to speak.  

Other shows, off the top of my head, which also qualify for the "traditional game show music" were "Celebrity Bowling" and the Chuck Henry piloted "Beat The Odds".

/Happy Half-New-Years to you all!!!

[mmb5]

Organs were a soap opera parody device well beyond their use in actual soap operas.

And my favorite in honor of Canada Day, the sounding of a buzzer (not a horn) whenever a goal is scored in a hockey movie or TV show.  I have seen probably 800+ hockey games in person, I have never heard a buzzer when a goal is scored.


--Mike

[Twentington]

[quote name=\'TimK2003\' post=\'243429\' date=\'Jul 1 2010, 03:09 AM\']What show(s) started the "stereotypical game show theme music"? (A Hybrid of Bert Kaempfert/Herb Alpert/TJB)?  

I want to say the Chuck Barris's dynamic duo of TDG/TNG, but then he pulled out of that musical "groove", so to speak.  

Other shows, off the top of my head, which also qualify for the "traditional game show music" were "Celebrity Bowling" and the Chuck Henry piloted "Beat The Odds".[/quote]

"Mindreaders" is the first thing I think of when I think of stereotypical game show music, myself. Something about Dorian mode, I guess.

[GameShowGuru]

[quote name=\'Twentington\' post=\'243456\' date=\'Jul 1 2010, 04:15 PM\'][quote name=\'TimK2003\' post=\'243429\' date=\'Jul 1 2010, 03:09 AM\']What show(s) started the "stereotypical game show theme music"? (A Hybrid of Bert Kaempfert/Herb Alpert/TJB)?  

I want to say the Chuck Barris's dynamic duo of TDG/TNG, but then he pulled out of that musical "groove", so to speak.  

Other shows, off the top of my head, which also qualify for the "traditional game show music" were "Celebrity Bowling" and the Chuck Henry piloted "Beat The Odds".[/quote]

"Mindreaders" is the first thing I think of when I think of stereotypical game show music, myself. Something about Dorian mode, I guess.
[/quote]

My first thought when it comes to stereotypical game show music is any non-Pyramid Bob Stewart game show (Jackpot, Winning Streak, Get Rich Quick, etc.).  Heck, even the sets and game formats scream "stereotypical game show" to the point where between the music, the sets, and even sometimes the participants, including the host, make it look like a sketch comedy skit.  

IMO, I think Bob Stewart's many short-lived or failed pilot game shows (sans Pyramid, of course) was a game show stereotype in itself, theme music and all.  Let's not forget his son Sande with the short-lived Your Number's Up, of course.