Long-running game shows

[Winkfan]

We game show fans once discussed those shows that should have ran longer than 13 or 26 weeks; but how about the other side of the coin. Which game shows do you think ran longer than they should have? Some of which kept going to the point of 'Is THAT show still on?'

I, for one, recall when the original Card Sharks was first on NBC back in '78. I thought to myself, 'I don't think it's gonna last.' Three years later, I was glad to have been proven wrong.

Cordially,
Tammy Warner--the 'Mary Anne Ellis of the Big Board!'

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Winkfan\' date=\'Dec 16 2003, 05:29 PM\'] We game show fans once discussed those shows that should have ran longer than 13 or 26 weeks; but how about the other side of the coin. Which game shows do you think ran longer than they should have? Some of which kept going to the point of 'Is THAT show still on?'

I, for one, recall when the original Card Sharks was first on NBC back in '78. I thought to myself, 'I don't think it's gonna last.' Three years later, I was glad to have been proven wrong.

Cordially,
Tammy Warner--the 'Mary Anne Ellis of the Big Board!' [/quote]
 Honestly? The current incarnation of Feud.

Taking nothing away from Karn's job as host, playing the game on a projection screen and that cramped dark Millionaire set just doesn't float my boat. It amazes me that it made it four years.

[cmjb13]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Dec 16 2003, 07:35 PM\']Honestly? The current incarnation of Feud.[/quote]
Amen.

[GPeefalt]

Cram

[gameshowguy2000]

Winning Lines most definitely should've ran longer than it had run. It was on only 2 months.

The Wonderwall contributed to the show's success, but as stated on Loogslair.com, the home-viewer sweepstakes put the brakes on the show.

And I'm thinking to myself: If the home-viewer sweepstakes isn't a success, then take that element off, and leave the show alone.

This is a CATCHY show with a Catchy element in the Wonderwall. Catchy shows are supposed to last long.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'gameshowguy2000\' date=\'Dec 16 2003, 06:26 PM\'] Winning Lines most definitely should've ran longer than it had run. It was on only 2 months.
 [/quote]
 Did you even READ the original post?

[Dbacksfan12]

[quote name=\'gameshowguy2000\' date=\'Dec 16 2003, 08:26 PM\'] Winning Lines most definitely should've ran longer than it had run. It was on only 2 months.
 [/quote]
 That wasn't the question.

Honestly, I'm surprised that The Price is Right is still on.  The format is throughly enjoyable...but I thought it would have burned out after..about season 25.

[Jimmy Owen]

Pat Sajak might even agree with me when I say WOF.  Who woulda thunk the simple but entertaining game of "Hangman" be on continously for close to 30 years?  Well, except Merv.

[J.R.]

With it's comical cheepness, I am very suprised Goen's version of "WOF" lasted for almost 3 years.

And, I am also suprised the current run of Jeopardy! has gone on for this long. Considering the format has never changed since 1984 in a place where people want nothing but. Personally, I don't think J! would be around today if it wasn't Sony's "Sister Show" to WOF.

(I don't think doubling the dollars is a "Format Change")
-Joe R.

[BrandonFG]

[quote name=\'Dsmith\' date=\'Dec 16 2003, 09:38 PM\'] [quote name=\'gameshowguy2000\' date=\'Dec 16 2003, 08:26 PM\'] Winning Lines most definitely should've ran longer than it had run. It was on only 2 months.
 [/quote]
That wasn't the question.

Honestly, I'm surprised that The Price is Right is still on.  The format is throughly enjoyable...but I thought it would have burned out after..about season 25. [/quote]
 I agree...I'm surprised it's even passed 20. I've often wondered what would've happened had it made it into the early-80s or so. Would the Kennedy version have lasted longer? (pure speculation)

Someone also noted Wheel. I also wonder what would've happened had that one been cancelled in the early-80s as planned...would we have ever gotten a nighttime version. Would it have come back with Chuck and Susan, or would Merv have gone for a new team?

NOTE: I'm saying this assuming that Wheel would have been cancelled in 80 or 81, before Chuck's contract renewal came up.

[chris319]

To Tell the Truth. Not the Paula Poundstone version, but the original Mike Wallace pilot entitled Nothing But the Truth which CBS should never have ordered in the first place.

[tommycharles]

[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Dec 16 2003, 11:14 PM\'] To Tell the Truth. Not the Paula Poundstone version, but the original Mike Wallace pilot entitled Nothing But the Truth which CBS should never have ordered in the first place. [/quote]
 Do you just not like the show as a whole, or was the pilot that bad?

Oh, and as to the main question - I agree with the Karn Feud point...(but had it made it to season five with Louie hosting I would be saying otherwise), but honestly, I can't understand how Shop 'till You Drop made it as long as it has.

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'tommycharles\' date=\'Dec 16 2003, 11:34 PM\'] I can't understand how Shop 'till You Drop made it as long as it has. [/quote]
 I guess it's being on cable and not terribly expensive to produce(made even cheaper the way PAX is doing it this season) had to help it survive as long as it has(four Lifetime years, two FAM years, and three first run PAX years). Stone-Stanley has become, in the last decade, the only successful "mom-and-pop" organization producing game shows.

[joshg]

'Feud': just kind of sits there; too much forced excitement

'Pyramid': "Is it still on?" With all the bad writing? Saving loads of tape on that one

[DrBear]

I'd list all of G-T's Big Three Panel Shows: WML, TTTT and IGAS in their original versions.

Not that they aren't great; the fact that two of them were in new versions in 2000 shows that. But the originals had looked tired by the late 1960s when CBS kicked them off.

One of the reasons for the continuing success of such shows as MASH, ER and Cheers was that just when a character started getting unbearable, there was a change and a new dynamic. Maybe it wasn't planned (death, contract walkouts) but it juggled the interaction, rather like Looney Tunes moving in Daffy Duck to play against Bugs Bunny.

You look at the syndication success of TTTT (Moore) and WML (Bruner/Blyden) and you see that a shakeup seemed to help. Getting Bill Cullen (who?) also helped TTTT's syndicated version. IGAS, on the other hand, was the weakest of the three games, and wasn't as shaken up (Steve Allen had hosted the network version for a few years) so that wasn't as successful.

I realize none of this explains Bob Barker still doing the same show at 80 that he did at 50, but that's another post.....