Author Topic: Most obscure game shows (Read 72927 times)

vexer6 · « **on:** June 30, 2011, 05:23:45 PM »

What are the most obscure game shows you've seen? (by "obscure" I mean shows that haven't been seen in reruns since the original airing). Two examples for me were "It's Your Chance Of A Lifetime"(not to be confused with the 100,000$ Chance Of A Lifetime) which I saw when I was only 10 years old, I had already gotten hooked on game shows after watching Millionare with my mother and grandmother every week. "Lifetime" was a very short-lived clone of WWTBAM that aired in June 2000 on Fox, it was hosted by Gordon Elliott and only lasted for 5 episodes aired over the course of one week, it had only a few differences from Millionare. The first question-which if answered correctly would allow you to pay off a credit debt of up to 10,000$(the credit card bill was shredded onstage) There were only nine questions rather then fifteen, and they ertr all divided into categories like Popular Music and In The Animal Kingdom, the questions were not multiple-choice, though one lifeline gave three possible answers to a question, another lifeline let you change the question to a category of your choice, and at the very end, you got a "last chance" which allowed you to re-use either lifeline. Most people thought that show was boring, personally I thought it was enjoyable enough(it certainly beats the hell out of "Deal or No Deal" that's for sure!, how is that show still on anyways?) Gordon was a fun host and added some "color" to the show, the questions were of reasonable difficulty, and it had a rather impressive set design(that was the one area where the show beat Millionare IMO)It's a real shame that show is almost forgotten today, it showed up on Youtube back in 2008 but then got removed for whatever reason, no other images or videos of that show seem to exist anymore.

The other example was "Dirty Rotten Cheater" which aired on PAX TV back in 2003, the show was somewhat similar to Weakest Link, one player was designated as "the cheater" which allowed to them to see all the correct answers for the questions. The first question was a survey question, wih certain answers being worth more then others, the players were given opportunities to accuse each other of being the cheater by giving votes(the studio audience also gave out votes near the end), if the wrong person was outed, then the total money earned up to that point was halved, and the player(s) that got removed from the game get a chance to win money at the end of the show, if the cheater was succcesfully outed, a new one was designated. If no contestant received three votes, the cheater could eliminate an "honest" player from the game. It was a pretty fun show with enough uniqueness(is that a word?), and it could've fared better if it wasn't on PAX.

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #1 on:** June 30, 2011, 07:52:55 PM »

A friendly welcome to our newcomer, plus a word to the [hopefully] wise. It won't be necessary for you to explain to THIS group how games were played, especially games from the last ten years or so. If you want to ask questions about them, cool. But you can pretty much assume that we're going to be familiar with most anything you come up with, we won't need the rules spelled out for us.

vexer6 · « **Reply #2 on:** June 30, 2011, 08:10:59 PM »

Yeah I kinda figured that, I just wanted to make sure(mostly for "Chance Of A Lifetime" since barely anyone remembers that show).

The Pyramids · « **Reply #3 on:** June 30, 2011, 08:39:33 PM »

A copy of "The Encyclopedia of TV Game Shows" remains your best source for finding obscure shows. For example, there is "Lets Celebrate", a one-time series that aired on NBC on December 15, 1946.

vexer6 · « **Reply #4 on:** June 30, 2011, 08:56:10 PM »

Thanks, i'll be sure to pick up a copy. So anyways, what are the most obscure game shows you guys have seen?

PYLdude · « **Reply #5 on:** June 30, 2011, 09:00:15 PM »

vexer, I think if you're looking for obscurity it'd probably be easier to go back quite a bit further as a start- local stuff, I think, would fit even better. Short-lived and obscure don't necessarily have the same meaning. Especially things that have aired in the last ten years. You'd be surprised at the trove of knowledge possessed by the membership.

PYLdude · « **Reply #6 on:** June 30, 2011, 09:03:37 PM »

To answer your question...hmm...the best I can really think of is NY Wired, which was the New York Lottery's attempt at a game show. Don't know if that's the kind of stuff you're looking for.

Twentington · « **Reply #7 on:** June 30, 2011, 09:34:20 PM »

I've seen the Knowledge Bowl hosted by WBKB-TV 11 in Alpena, the third-smallest Nielsen market in the US. Heck, I was even at a taping! (I was called in as an alternate but never got to play.) You can't even hear what the contestants are saying most of the time, and the host can't be bothered to figure out the correct pronunciation of anything. It's a really dismal watch, and yet it's been on forever.

(It's not the most obscure thing in the world, but how many of us here watched the first two episodes of On the Cover before it got yanked and put back on the schedule in retooled form?)

RMF · « **Reply #8 on:** June 30, 2011, 09:37:06 PM »

I was a member of the Paley Center, and viewed most of their game show collection.

Some of what I've seen:

An episode of "Pantomime Quiz" that might predate all network runs: http://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=Pantomime+Quiz&p=1&item=T82:0115

An episode of Information Please from a run that I've found no sources for: http://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=information+please&p=2&item=B:27161

An episode of On The Spot, a local Portland game show from the 1980s: http://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=Portland+Game&p=1&item=T87:0264

An episode of the short-lived 1952 program Ask Me Another, which focused on sports personalities: http://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=Ask+Me+Another&p=1&item=B:53863

Finally, every episode in their collection from the 1950s "museum curators guess the object" program, What In The World": http://www.paleycenter.org/collection?advanced=1&q=What+In+The+World&c=tv&f=title&x=0&y=0

vexer6 · « **Reply #9 on:** June 30, 2011, 09:40:18 PM »

Yeah, that's along the lines of what I was looking for.

alfonzos · « **Reply #10 on:** June 30, 2011, 09:42:12 PM »

Pro-fan (it's mentioned in Maxine Fabe's book). I saw it one summer when my parent's antenna could catch signals from Akron and London, Ontario. Picture This is another show I have seen since it original airing.

vexer6 · « **Reply #11 on:** June 30, 2011, 09:44:12 PM »

Also, there was a Lingo game before GSN that aired back in 1987-1988, it was never reran and barely advertised, it also apparently had a problem paying the winners, one women won over 100,000$ but never got paid.

chrisholland03 · « **Reply #12 on:** June 30, 2011, 10:03:11 PM »

There was a movie that came out around 1984 that had the first Jeopardy! revival pilot in it. That was the most obscure game show to me for a long time. So much so that I can't remember what the movie was.

vexer6 · « **Reply #13 on:** June 30, 2011, 10:14:15 PM »

I think the film you're thinking of was "Spies Like Us"

BrandonFG · « **Reply #14 on:** June 30, 2011, 10:29:52 PM »

When Millionaire first came out, there was (I believe) a Canadian game show called the "Million Dollar Word Game". I've always wanted to see that one.

"Shopper's Casino", as mentioned in another thread, is a good one too...