Most obscure game shows

[WilliamPorygon]

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.

Ah yes, I remember that show, being excited for what I thought would be more or less a local version of Illinois Instant Riches... and being disappointed at how incredibly lame it was.  Instead of contestants playing for themselves, you had lottery retailers playing for money to be split between three "cheering sections" in the audience — and only half the money went to them; the other half went to various educational charities and schools across New York.  Plus way too much of the show's time was devoted to constant segments showcasing how lottery money helps schools instead of actually playing the games.

One somewhat recent, national show I think fits into the realm of obscurity is "Zig & Zag: Alpha Dog Challenge" which ran on Animal Planet in the late 90s.  From what I remember, it was kind of like That's My Dog with teams of dogs that had specialized skills (police dogs, swimming dogs, etc.) participating in events that involved their particular skills, and then their scores translated into the leading team having a head start in an obstacle course relay race at the end.  I think many if not all of the dogs on the show appeared regularly.  I wish I'd had the foresight to record some episodes because there's surprisingly little about it on the Internet — there's no video or pictures of it anywhere as far as I've found.

[Fedya]

When I was on vacation with the family in Quebec one summer in the mid-1980s, we saw a French-language game show called Le Québec à la carte which, as best I could tell, was a Q&A show about Quebec culture and history.  If I remember correctly, instead of having normal numeric scores, the contestants' scores were shown as advancing down the St. Lawrence River.  The "scoreboard" showed the entire province, though, which made for a lot of empty space.

Haven't been able to find anything about it on the Internet.

[Jay Temple]

I had seen one episode of The Greater Baltimore Baffle, airing on WJZ-TV, Baltimore, during the fall of 1979.  It was a trivia-based show asking three contestants to answer questions and identify locations relating to the city.

Sounds similar to So You Think You Know St. Louis? Local celebs tried gave their answers, and two contestants tried to chose the correct one, if it was even offered. I still laugh at the prize structure: The winner got $100; the loser, $75.

[Blanquepage]

The Battle of the Video Games was definitely an obscure 1980s entry...

[RMF]

Without having seen it, some of the things you mention (1951 date, no viewer submissions) would strongly suggest it was a pilot or some other sort of test, though no mention of such a thing appears in the book.

To end the hijack, and to bring in two points not mentioned in my 2007 posting:

Hint that it might have been a pilot/test: IIRC, you can see crew setting up under the opening title card.

Hint that there might be more to it: The program ends with a title card plugging John Mason Brown as next week's host and Cornelia Otis Skinner as next week's third panelist. This feels awfully precise for a pilot.

On that note, two unaired pilots to add (though it may be cheating):

I Predict, or, when Monty met Ron: http://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=I+Predict&p=1&item=B:59500

The Great Showdown, for those who like Robert Q. Lewis and/or mahjong: http://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=Robert+Q+Lewis&p=1&item=B:52323

[WarioBarker]

Hint that there might be more to it: The program ends with a title card plugging John Mason Brown as next week's host and Cornelia Otis Skinner as next week's third panelist. This feels awfully precise for a pilot.

The pilot for The Face Is Familiar, hosted by Jack Clark, mentioned Eydie Gormé and Alan King as the guests for "next week". Jack referenced "our maiden voyage", implying it was the premiere, but also asked "What did you do over the Summer?"...implying it was supposed to be a Fall '65 entry but got pushed to midseason.

[SuperMatch93]

There was a show in the mid-late 50s called Giant Step which had something to do with students crossing a gameboard to earn money towards a college scholarship.

[DrBear]

One of our local stations did a high-school quiz bowl for a  year in the 60s - it was on channel 5, so the name of it was:

"Five High."

Ulp.

[tomobrien]

There was a show in the mid-late 50s called Giant Step which had something to do with students crossing a gameboard to earn money towards a college scholarship.

I have one episode of Giant Step, and unless there was a format change at some point,  it's much more of a quizzer like The $64,000 Question. The students have to answer multi-part questions to move up to the next "step."  There's no gameboard, but they're standing on a platform that raises them closer to Bert Parks' eye level.

[William_S.]

If we're going with ESPN game shows, Designated Hitter is on the top of my list.  ISTR it never had a consistent time slot and that ESPN aired it at the weirdest hours.  The Dream League had a couple of seasons and a decent time slot (4:30 PM Eastern or thereabout), while Sports on Tap was on at 6 PM, back when SportsCenter was half an hour.  And it didn't feel like it was trying too hard to be cool.  And it had good personalities like Charley Steiner.

That's the One I'm thinking of. Thank you sir!

[BrandonFG]

I remembered someone once posted a contestant montage featuring a guy who was on both Designated Hitter and ESPN's Perfect Match. After doing a little digging, I found the clip. His name is Billy Baker, and he made the rounds on quite a few mid-90s cable game shows.

[brianhenke]

I remembered someone once posted a contestant montage featuring a guy who was on both Designated Hitter and ESPN's Perfect Match. After doing a little digging, I found the clip. His name is Billy Baker, and he made the rounds on quite a few mid-90s cable game shows.

What about ESPN Trivial Pursuit, which lasted a week on (you guessed it) ESPN in 2004?

Brian

[Dbacksfan12]

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.

You really don't.  This aired on "America One" here in the states; a 'packager' (for lack of a better term) to smaller, UHF-powered stations.  I wanted to punch the host, the contestants were idiots, and I rarely saw someone make it to the prize level (level 10, I believe), let alone try for the million.

A show that is somewhat obscure was one hosted by Greg Lee.  I think it was called Nitro! and aired on some station that aired two-hour chunks of various, obscure cable channels.  I remember the set featured a beat-up car on it and the bonus round was played for a TV.

[BrandonFG]

What about ESPN Trivial Pursuit, which lasted a week on (you guessed it) ESPN in 2004?

There were a couple in the 2000s as well. That one, along with Teammates, which was basically The Newlywed Game with (wait for it), professional teammates. The 2000s were kinder by allowing 2-Minute Drill and Stump the Schwab to get a couple of seasons.

MTV's had a few obscure ones as well...one that comes to mind is Kidnapped c. 2002, which was actually a pretty fun show.

[toetyper]

starrcade,anyone/