Game Show Fans 50 Greatest - 2016

[Flerbert419]

I considered every show at what I perceived to be its best.

That doesn't seem to conform to the rules which specifically stated "if you vote for Pyramid, that covers all of the versions of Pyramid which have aired throughout the decades".

I punished shows accordingly for poor revivals.

[TLEberle]

I punished shows accordingly for poor revivals.

But did you then equally reward them for great ones?

[PYLdude]

So by Flerb's logic, Jeopardy should have points taken away for the 1978 series and Billy Bush should knock Let's Make a Deal down several pegs? Ditto Pat Bullard and Card Sharks or Michael Burger on Match Game?

That's not really punishing, that's just really strange form.

[BrandonFG]

I briefly thought about Flerbert's idea too, though. Case in point, I'm not a fan of Harvey's Feud, but at the same time, a massive penalty would be unfair to the legacies built by Richard Dawson and Ray Combs. I'm too tired to compare my '06 vs. '16 list, but I imagine the show didn't drop any more than one or two spots. Chris also makes a valid point -- quite a few of the big names had subpar revivals, in many people's opinions, so to drop Feud from say, #7 to 23 would be drastic.

Going with another recent discussion, do you lump Where in the World is CS? with Where in Time...?

[TLEberle]

So by Flerb's logic, Jeopardy should have points taken away for the 1978 series

If you hate fun or bonus games, sure, absolutely. I also was not as offended by LMAD '03 as much as the rest of humanity, so I didn't take that into account.

Everyone has different opinions. We're collating them in a survey. I doubt very much that someone is going to match my list letter for letter. And even if they did it's likely for different reasons.

/To answer the question posed by Lord Hyphen, my entry was listed as "Carmen Sandiego." Scott did not ask for elaboration.

[PYLdude]

If it was my call, I have to separate the two Carmen series. They're just too dissimilar to count them as one.

For the record I didn't mind the addition of the Super Jeopardy round to the 1978 series but it's still not as good to me as the original or the current series. That doesn't mean it affects the standing of Jeopardy in my eyes, just that they couldn't be on the ball all the time.

[Matt Ottinger]

If it was my call, I have to separate the two Carmen series. They're just too dissimilar to count them as one.

On any task this large, there are going to be reasonable debates.  That's a good one.  (They're two different shows to me too, but whatever.)  Lumping He Said/She Said in with Tattletales and lumping Who What and Where with Challengers was difficult.  Worst of all in my mind was Password, but I made the decision to lump them all together and stuck with it.

If you separate those examples, then you start going down the rabbit hole of separating any two (or more) distinct runs of a show that didn't have a name change, or was simply "The All-New Whatever"*.  You'd pit Concentration against Classic Concentration, Cullen Price against Barker Price, Fleming Jeopardy against Trebek Jeopardy.  While those are certainly interesting discussions to have, they are totally counterproductive to this particular exercise.  Jeopardy is Jeopardy.  Family Feud is Family Feud.  Card Sharks is Card Sharks.  As both Scott and I have said, use whatever criteria you want to rank them.  If a bad version pulls it down for you, so be it.  If you want to rank them by the best show, that's your call.

But really.  If you say you want to rank Harvey Feud differently than Dawson Feud, then the only way that works is to consider EVERY host change on EVERY show a different version.  And that's just madness.



*The All-New Whatever, this fall on ABC.

[MSTieScott]

As far as I was concerned, both versions of Carmen Sandiego would have been counted together. Although nobody tried to vote for Where in Time separately.

Since I was using Matt's rulings as to what was and wasn't the same show, most of the tough calls had already been made for me. The only difficult decision was whether I should include Catch 21 along with Gambit. Ultimately, I decided to group them together, citing the precedent that The Who, What or Where Game and The Challengers had been grouped together in 2006.

That specific ruling only came into play once -- in that instance, the voter had placed both Gambit and Catch 21 on their ballot. They removed Catch 21, which had been ranked lower, so technically, my decision did not have an impact on Gambit's final ranking.

I'm still examining the final tally, but I will say, I'm seeing a couple of interesting results in the top 50. I'm looking forward to seeing the group's reactions.

I'll give you one spoiler: Once again, nobody in the game show fandom voted for Studs.

[clemon79]

I'll give you one spoiler: Once again, nobody in the game show fandom voted for Studs.

Which only proves that people who have heard of Studs know of at least 51 game shows.

[chrisholland03]

I'll give you one spoiler: Once again, nobody in the game show fandom voted for Studs.

I've personally voted for studs many times.  It was equally unsatisfying.

[The Ol' Guy]

Great line, Mr. Lemon!

[TLEberle]

That specific ruling only came into play once -- in that instance, the voter had placed both Gambit and Catch 21 on their ballot. They removed Catch 21, which had been ranked lower, so technically, my decision did not have an impact on Gambit's final ranking.

I could see someone tossing a vote to Gambit, but Catch 21? Really? For me it's not even best of breed among the GSN shows (and closer to the bottom of the barrel but for the end game.)

[Matt Ottinger]

That specific ruling only came into play once -- in that instance, the voter had placed both Gambit and Catch 21 on their ballot. They removed Catch 21, which had been ranked lower, so technically, my decision did not have an impact on Gambit's final ranking.

I could see someone tossing a vote to Gambit, but Catch 21? Really? For me it's not even best of breed among the GSN shows (and closer to the bottom of the barrel but for the end game.)

As I recall, there were some pretty astonishing selections the first time around as well.

[Jimmy Owen]

Are PYL and Second Chance considered the same show?  I would think that most fans would vote for PYL, but the way the votes are counted should elevate SC to top 10 status.

[BrandonFG]

Are PYL and Second Chance considered the same show?  I would think that most fans would vote for PYL, but the way the votes are counted should elevate SC to top 10 status.

I imagine that falls in the same category as Gambit and Catch 21 or Who, What, Where and The Challengers. IIRC, when Matt rolled out the list in 2006, he mentioned it as Second Chance/PYL.

I could be wrong.