Game show memories from your childhood

[Dbacksfan12]

Earliest memories are from when I was three (first year in preschool).  Remember my dad deriding PYL as "a stupid show".

I swear I remember watching TJW reruns on USA, but the encyclopedia says they ended sometime in early 1987, IIRC...meaning I would have been two.  I doubt I remember something from that early.  Similarly, I remember being very disappointed when the TTD reruns were yanked in 1990...then being even more disappointed three years later when the Wayne reruns surfaced.

I also remember getting to watch the premiere of Scrabble '93 on a 5" screen in the kitchen because I had the chicken pox.

[chrisholland03]

I remember Dotto hosted by Jack Narz.

I remember Tic Tac Dough hosted by Jack Barry.

I remember Play Your Hunch hosted by Merv Griffin.

I remember Beat the Clock hosted by Bud Collyer.

I remember Video Village hosted by Jack Narz, then Monty Hall.

I remember Concentration hosted by Hugh Downs.

I remember The Price Is Right hosted by Bill Cullen.

I remember Say When!! hosted by Art James.

I remember G.E. College Bowl hosted by Robert Earle.

I remember Password hosted by Allen Ludden. How well I remember Allen Ludden.

That's enough for now.

And this is why I am so jealous!

[mmb5]

My first memory of anything, never mind just game shows, is watching Baffle.  Another absolute bizarre memory was watching Password All-Stars (just turned 5), and knowing that the on-screen chyron tally for the contestants was in error.

[chrisholland03]

My early game show memories --

Fascination with Tic Tac Dough's Dragon and The Joker's Wild's Devil
Pulling The Joker's Wild lever
Johnny Olson's 'Come on Down!'
The DSW Dings and Whoops on The Price is Right
Firing the Hurdles gun on TPiR and the 'Crash' when contestants would lose
Match Game's circles and triangles and the Star Wheel
The animated opening to Beat the Clock w/Monty Hall
Richard Dawson's 'Survey Says' and the big red X
Recognizing Dick Clark on $20000 Pyramid and Bandstand
The floating heads while shopping on Wheel of Fortune
The colors and lights of Bullseye
The Face the Music flippitys

[entguy1]

Moments: When Carol Burnett, Tim Conway and Vicki Lawrence crashed "Match Game." I was sick from school that day, and stayed on the neighbors' couch. They didn't see it as the cultural touchstone as I did.
Watching a game show at my grandmother's when I was 4 or 5, remembering a lot of the elements to it, and realizing decades later (thanks to the GS encyclopedia and the Interwebs) that it was "It's Your Bet."

Chills: The theme and celebrity intros on "Break the Bank" and, to a lesser extent, "Password All-Stars."

[40onTheBlue]

[font="Arial"]I was a relatively strange child growing up in the 70's. There weren't a lot of other kids in my neighbourhood to play and hang out with when I was off from school, so I stayed at home and watched daytime game shows and newscasts. My earliest memories are the vaguest, (I was about five or six at the time) but I can remember seeing Art Fleming's Jeopardy!, Three on a Match, The Who What or Where Game, The Price is Right (when it was still a half hour show) the first format of ABC's Password, (with the orange set) Split Second, Gambit and the first version of High Rollers. I have better memories of watching The Magnificent Marble Machine, the syndicated Concentration, The Money Maze, Hot Seat, The Big Showdown, Match Game, ABC's Pyramid, Woolery/Stafford Wheel of Fortune, The Better Sex and Second Chance as the 70's wore on. And like all Canadians, I of course saw homegrown fare like Definition, It's Your Move and The Mad Dash. (Who on our side of the border didn't see those shows back in the day?)

My clearest recollections are from the late 70's with Password Plus, the revivals of High Rollers and Jeopardy!, Jim Perry's Card Sharks and Richard Dawson's Family Feud. As the 80's came and I grew into a teenager, I'd pretty much lost all interest in daytime television in favour of "cooler" pursuits, but I'd occasionally tune into Press Your Luck, Super Password and Classic Concentration.

If anything, I wish I'd have seen Baffle, The Wizard of Odds and the original $ale of the [/font][font="Arial"]¢entury. I live in hope that someday, somehow, video artifacts from those shows will turn up on You Tube.[/font]

[Jamey Greek]

Game shows, run in my family.  All my life I watched J! and WOF with my dad and with my grandmother.  In fact, Vanna was my first crush! Not just my first celebrity crush, but my first crush, period.    I also remember watching TPIR with my grandmother (my dad's mother) as well as watching USA's game shows and I remember TTD came on right after PYL even at the tender age of 3!  

I remember when I was a toddler I wanted to watch Combs Feud and Dad wanted to watch J! and I remember throwing a tantrum and getting real mad when dad watched J!  

I remember watching Classic Concentration and Scrabble on NBC Daytime and I found out that CC, Feud, and TPIR were all Mark Goodson Television Productions!  

I remember when a friend kept me while my parents were at work and her son and I were watching Pictionary '89 and I was excited that it was a game show and I don't remember what I was saying and my babysitter went: "Jamey, shh!"  

I also remember when I was four I watched LMAD90, TTTT90, and Classic Concentration on NBC as well as TTD90, and Trump Card on one of the ABC affiliates that we got in the small town I lived in along with Match Game 90.  In fact, I remember getting the Wheel home game when I was 5 and I had a home video of my 5th birthday party and I kept on saying "I want to watch Match Game" not realizing it was canned!

Oh yea, I remember getting the J! home game when I was 2 from my uncle and aunt.

[dale_grass]

I don't remember what I was saying and my babysitter went: "Jamey, shh!"  

Can I have your babysitter's phone number?  She sounds like my type.

[Jamey Greek]

Some more game show memories, I remember during my first grade summer, I was staying with my Uncle and Aunt in Montgomery and I turned on their TV and there was Trivial Pursuit with Wink Martindale coming off, then $100k Name That Tune was on and I watched NTT on Family Channel.

I also remember going shopping for game show computer games at Kay-Bee Toys when I was visiting my dad in Orlando.

[DrBear]

Some more game show memories, I remember during my first grade summer, I was staying with my Uncle and Aunt in Montgomery and I turned on their TV and there was Trivial Pursuit with Wink Martindale coming off, then $100k Name That Tune was on and I watched NTT on Family Channel.

I also remember going shopping for game show computer games at Kay-Bee Toys when I was visiting my dad in Orlando.

Actually, you're starting to get up there if you can remember Kay-Bee Toys.

[Twentington]

Actually, you're starting to get up there if you can remember Kay-Bee Toys.

Not really. They only went out of business 3 years ago (although there were a lot of closures for several years prior — I think the two closest ones to me both closed in 2004).

On the other hand, if you remember Circus World...

[PYLdude]

Actually, you're starting to get up there if you can remember Kay-Bee Toys.

Not really...they didn't go out of business that long ago.

/we will miss them very much
//and we have been shopping there for 1725 years

[TLEberle]

//and we have been shopping there for 1725 years

Only that long? Lightweight.

Most of my memories hinge on wondering why a certain thing happened (cf: a woman getting the case full o'money for scoring 115 on Sale of the Century, or why somebody won $40,000 for a Scrabble Sprint) and not realizing why that was so for years later.

[J.R.]

In fact, Vanna was my first crush!

Better not let Mark Demorra hear this. He'll fight you for her honor.

[Jamey Greek]

Also, I remember watching $100k Fortune Hunt every Saturday night on WGN