Huffington Post: WWTBaM 15th Anniversary

[BrandonFG]

1. Who's your list? Off the top of my head, I only know of you, Chad and Christian, but I'm either not good with names or drawing a massive brain fart. I know there's people who were active on ATGS but might not be registered here (Jason Block, Leszek P. come to mind).

2. Does this count Faster Finger participants?

[Joe Mello]

And that's actually a question I've been pondering for a little while now.  Was WWTBAM really a good thing to happen to game shows in the long run?

What was the game show landscape in 1998?

[PYLdude]

1. Who's your list? Off the top of my head, I only know of you, Chad and Christian, but I'm either not good with names or drawing a massive brain fart. I know there's people who were active on ATGS but might not be registered here (Jason Block, Leszek P. come to mind).

2. Does this count Faster Finger participants?

I'll answer 2 first...I'll say no, but will ask that separately.

Leszek was registered as far as I knew. I wasn't aware he was on other than as a phone a friend (I know Dan Avila used him, largely cuz I wrote the recap for his second episode).

But my list,.other than me and Messrs. Carrion and Mosher, includes Brandon Brooks, Dr. Tim Hsieh, Ed Toutant, and Ogi Ogas. And since I omitted Tom O'Brien and Dave Mackey that's nine. (How do I know? Brandon and Tim offered insight when I was on last year and Tom and Ed answered questions I posed of them regarding appearances. I watched Dave's ep and remember it well and Ogi I know I've seen pop in at least once.)

[PYLdude]

And that's actually a question I've been pondering for a little while now.  Was WWTBAM really a good thing to happen to game shows in the long run?

What was the game show landscape in 1998?

To which you can counter what besides Millionaire had a sustained run since 1999, sustained being at least three years? Few and far between.

[BrandonFG]

1. Who's your list? Off the top of my head, I only know of you, Chad and Christian, but I'm either not good with names or drawing a massive brain fart. I know there's people who were active on ATGS but might not be registered here (Jason Block, Leszek P. come to mind).

2. Does this count Faster Finger participants?

I'll answer 2 first...I'll say no, but will ask that separately.

Leszek was registered as far as I knew. I wasn't aware he was on other than as a phone a friend (I know Dan Avila used him, largely cuz I wrote the recap for his second episode).

But my list,.other than me and Messrs. Carrion and Mosher, includes Brandon Brooks, Dr. Tim Hsieh, Ed Toutant, and Ogi Ogas. And since I omitted Tom O'Brien and Dave Mackey that's nine. (How do I know? Brandon and Tim offered insight when I was on last year and Tom and Ed answered questions I posed of them regarding appearances. I watched Dave's ep and remember it well and Ogi I know I've seen pop in at least once.)

Forgot about Dave and Ogi!

What was the game show landscape in 1998?

You had quite a few in syndication and cable, plus TPiR, although Lifetime and Family Channel canceled their shows that summer. The genre looked better than it had a few years prior, but, I'd say games were still seen as a throwaway until Millionaire turned things on its ear.

In terms of the number of shows, I think fall 1998 was pretty even with 2014. I'd have to do a list sometime.

[PYLdude]

Okay, so part two then...who got there, but didn't get past fastest finger? Other than you-know-who.

And if I omitted any other Millionaire players from the GSF feel free to fill the gaps in if you are aware.

[Clay Zambo]

Okay, so part two then...who got there, but didn't get past fastest finger? Other than you-know-who.

*raises hand*

Not my proudest moment at the time, but it was in retrospect a blast.  Wrote about it for the BMI workshop newsletter: http://www.bmi.com/brochures/theatre/newsletter0101.pdf.

[jjman920]

Reading about the phenomenon that was The $64,000 Question and how large it was made me want to be apart of something like that. It's nice to know that I ended up being apart of something like that. What memories. This was an event for my family. It was so much fun. It was great.

Don't even get me started on damn near every game show having darker sets and rave lighting nowadays. :-P

And that's actually a question I've been pondering for a little while now.  Was WWTBAM really a good thing to happen to game shows in the long run?

While certain aspects have certainly worn thin over the years, in terms of propelling them back into popularity it definitely was a good thing. Some of the primetime offerings following Millionaire weren't the greatest, but it was fun seeing them crop up so frequently. It certainly gave the community plenty to talk about.

[PYLdude]

Reading about the phenomenon that was The $64,000 Question and how large it was made me want to be apart of something like that. It's nice to know that I ended up being apart of something like that. What memories. This was an event for my family. It was so much fun. It was great.

When?

[J.R.]

Side question: What would be considered the "low point" in the number of game shows in that decade?

My guess would be 1996. I just can't seem to remember anything else besides WOF, J! and TPIR.

[BrandonFG]

I'd go a year earlier to '95. That was the year you had those three and a very small handful of other shows.

I've always considered '96 to be a bit of a comeback year, with several cable shows premiering (Debt, Family Channel's afternoon block that included The New Shop Til You Drop and Shopping Spree among others), and a few more in syndication. Granted, while the syndicated stuff was mostly relationship games, it also included revivals of Dating and Newlywed. From that point on, you had more new shows premiering each year, but still nothing significant until '99.

Then again, those aforementioned shows mostly entered in the second half of the year (I think Debt debuted in June), so yeah '96 was kinda rough too. A lot of daytime talk shows in 1995-96...ugh.

[jjman920]

Reading about the phenomenon that was The $64,000 Question and how large it was made me want to be apart of something like that. It's nice to know that I ended up being apart of something like that. What memories. This was an event for my family. It was so much fun. It was great.

When?

I didn't mean being on the actual show. I meant being apart of the viewing audience. Apart of the people who were excited to watch the show each day. It's not often you see a series get that kind of sustained attention. I was too young to recognize it when ER was on, so I didn't really know it until Millionaire premiered.

I was far too young to appear on the original series unfortunately.

[PYLdude]

Reading about the phenomenon that was The $64,000 Question and how large it was made me want to be apart of something like that. It's nice to know that I ended up being apart of something like that. What memories. This was an event for my family. It was so much fun. It was great.

When?

I didn't mean being on the actual show. I meant being apart of the viewing audience. Apart of the people who were excited to watch the show each day. It's not often you see a series get that kind of sustained attention. I was too young to recognize it when ER was on, so I didn't really know it until Millionaire premiered.

I was far too young to appear on the original series unfortunately.

But you're not now.

I will say this much, the people really get into it even to this day. I noticed this as soon as I came into the studio- I don't know how much prompting they got but as soon as I came out they stood up and gave me a big round of applause. They did it again after I got the big money question right and I got em riled up again on the question I got wrong (you guys didn't see it, but it happened).

[TLEberle]

While certain aspects have certainly worn thin over the years,

The problem with the pregnant pause is not that it happens, it's that most hosts are so bad at it, and they telegraph that one is coming. The more I watch old episodes the more I vacillate between Regis being really good at what he does and being unqualified to carry Chris Tarrant's jock strap.

[SuperMatch93]

Something to think about:

With the diffusion of the viewing audience since Millionaire was on, considering the larger prevalence of cable and Internet platforms, is it likely that there will ever be another game show that would be as popular and as far-reaching of a cultural phenomenon as Millionaire and $64,000 Question were?