Early 1985...going back in time

[The Ol' Guy]

Whether it would have worked or not, I envisioned changes to a straight quiz with a Time Machine device (not too unlike the George Pal movie of the same name). A "spin" of the device would bring up a randomized year, connected with optional categories, such as politics, fashion, sports, movies, and the like. Think Joker or Bullseye. Plenty of film, newsreel and video clips, along with stills and occasional objects and special guests. Perhaps the first of the three contestants to correctly nail a question from each of six decades 20s to 70s would win. It might not have been spectacular, but with a strong nostalgia stage design and questions written in such a way to connect the past with the present ( 1933 - Entertainment: "Still one of today's best selling board games, Parker Brothers first rejected it, claiming it had over 50 fundamental game errors. Name this depression-era hit."), it might have been more interesting. Several styles of game play come to mind. But just questions would be dull. Plenty of visuals and audio. The Generation Gap did a nice job with that.

[JasonA1]

I liked the show for what it was. For me, it was a curiosity to see pricing games transformed into knowledge exercises (however thin the veil might have been in re-formatting them). And I'm always a sucker for those noisy, big 80s game shows. I don't think any amount of tinkering could have made it last longer than a year.

For my money, I would have wanted them to ape Price even more. Have the players qualify somehow, and play their game for things they can keep. Make the Time Capsule always a play-in for the endgame, rather than the initial format where you had to match the year exactly. Had the show stuck around, I could see more clever gimmicks like As Time Goes By become their Plinko and Punch-a-Bunch. There was only so much you could do with questions anyway, so less-game-more-fun activities like that were bound to develop.

Re: Matt, Davidson's "antics" were helping an otherwise dry show. Certainly for that audience at that time, a "straight" history quiz would have been worse.

-Jason

[davemackey]

Re: Matt, Davidson's "antics" were helping an otherwise dry show. Certainly for that audience at that time, a "straight" history quiz would have been worse.

Davidson really could have lightened up the extremely sterile atmosphere of "History IQ", which was about as exciting as watching water run down the drain.

[wdm1219inpenna]

One of the drawbacks of message board communications is sometimes an individual might perceive something that was not intended, or was not the case.  I can see why you might have thought I was being sarcastic, but in all honesty, clemon's post was genuinely awesome and it really did make me laugh too.  My apologies for any misunderstandings that my reply created.

Well, my fault there. I apologize for taking your reply as a slam and responding as such.

Not a problem at all sir!