Author Topic: News re: The Who What or Where Game (Read 9767 times)

whoww · « **on:** December 08, 2013, 02:40:40 AM »

Greetings to all that may remember The Who What or Where Game. The show ran on NBC-TV back in 1969-74.

Recently a best selling author released his new novel entitled, Dissident Gardens. Can you imagine my surprise to find one of the characters in this compelling novel is actually found participating as a contestant on The Who What or Where Game. A complete game with all the strategies, rules, Art James hosting-the works. Believe me, I\'m not selling books here, although it is a beautifully written story-I just wanted to share the news with you that this old favorite has somehow made a comeback.

My best to those who might remember,

RG

Jimmy Owen · « **Reply #1 on:** December 08, 2013, 09:55:14 AM »

Great news Ronnie! That show was a lunchtime favorite for me. You might remember me when I was a contestant on your radio show. We gotta get WWW or Big Showdown back on the air somehow.

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #2 on:** December 08, 2013, 10:37:26 AM »

Ronnie! What a wonderful kick that must be for you! I\'ve told you often (but never enough) what a special game that was for me. So happy to see an Important Author using it in his narrative. I\'ll definitely pick up a copy.

Clay Zambo · « **Reply #3 on:** December 09, 2013, 08:58:05 AM »

What wonderful news! I look forward to reading it, too!

PYLdude · « **Reply #4 on:** December 09, 2013, 10:29:34 AM »

Heh! How do you like that? That\'s really cool, Ron.

I looked up the book and it also happens to be a political thriller from what I read- my kinda book. So double bonus. Gotta make a trip to the local B&N or library.

GameShowGuru · « **Reply #5 on:** December 12, 2013, 04:33:58 PM »

Ron, I\'m glad to see you paid us another visit because about 6 months ago, I had the strangest dream that involved the Who What or Where Game: I dreamed that my pastor was a contestant on the show, and in the final round, he made a 2:1 wager on a subject that I don\'t remember, much less the question involved. I only know that the he got the question correct, and won $2,960 - I don\'t know if that was his total score or just what he won on the wager, but what made this dream so strange was that somehow I was the one writing him the check for the prize monies won, and I was trying to find the sheet that had his original wager written down to verify his total winnings, and I couldn\'t find it, so I was scrambling around the show\'s set trying to find this information, and I woke up before I could find it.

Strange dream, but it was cool dreaming about being involved with a lesser-known game show.

weaklink75 · « **Reply #6 on:** December 13, 2013, 04:58:40 PM »

I looked up the book at the B&N- it takes a lot from the known existing episode, and the timeline is fudged a little (the setting is 1969 and it\'s implied the show had been on for a while- the show didn\'t premiere until December that year)- but it\'s very accurate..

whoww · « **Reply #7 on:** December 13, 2013, 06:19:07 PM »

Thank you all for your posts. You\'ve given me a wonderful Chanukah present. I\'m now working on the Million Dollar 3W\'s. Who knows??

calliaume · « **Reply #8 on:** December 13, 2013, 11:11:30 PM »

Jonathan Lethem, the author, is pretty well known for his SF and literary fiction (I worked on an old edition of Gun, With Occasional Music many years back), so this should be selling pretty well. I\'ll have to check it out.

Thanks for the tip, Ron - good to hear from you. I\'m an old 3Ws and Big Showdown fan as well.

Johnissoevil · « **Reply #9 on:** December 14, 2013, 05:26:02 AM »

I\'m gonna check the book out. And Ron...thank you for one of my guilty pleasures during my 8th grade year, The Challengers.

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #10 on:** December 14, 2013, 11:24:09 AM »

I\'m gonna check the book out. And Ron...thank you for one of my guilty pleasures during my 8th grade year, The Challengers.

I know you meant that as a compliment, but I would never categorize a smart, well-run quiz game as a \"guilty pleasure\".

clemon79 · « **Reply #11 on:** December 14, 2013, 01:00:45 PM »

I know you meant that as a compliment, but I would never categorize a smart, well-run quiz game as a \"guilty pleasure\".

Seriously. I would suggest it was *more* intelligent than Jeopardy! at times because it encouraged paying attention to current events.

TLEberle · « **Reply #12 on:** December 15, 2013, 10:50:42 PM »

It was certainly something that I was able to more fully enjoy as an adult than as a ten-year-old. Quite a lot of the material went over my head as a youth. Every once in a while I\'d pick up a cheap yellow question, or a current events thing, but a whole lot of the show was unplayable for me then. I could enjoy the guesswork in figuring out what question to go for, but it was like watching a football game. Being able to play along and answer more of the questions helped me to appreciate just how awesome the format is. (And me plowing through episodes of Weeds on Netflix caused me to pick up one question on the single 3Ws episode that\'s on Youtube, so that was awesome.)

Ronnie: if you read this: thank you. As a kid viewer and as an older fan of the genre in general, thank you for your huge contributions to some terrific shows.

GameShowGuru · « **Reply #13 on:** December 17, 2013, 11:53:54 PM »

I know you meant that as a compliment, but I would never categorize a smart, well-run quiz game as a \"guilty pleasure\".

Seriously. I would suggest it was *more* intelligent than Jeopardy! at times because it encouraged paying attention to current events.

Speaking of comparing Jeopardy! to the 3Ws, whenever I explain the concept of the 3Ws game to a friend or anyone curious about the show, I make the following analogy:

If Jeopardy! is playing spades (card game), then the 3Ws is playing bid whist.

I never thought that one show was \"more intelligent\" than another. Both shows require a strong body of knowledge.

GameShowGuru · « **Reply #14 on:** December 17, 2013, 11:55:47 PM »

One more thing: one of the highlights of my senior year of high school was watching \"The Challengers\" while getting my homework done; it made the process a lot more tolerable.