15. Card Sharks
1,405 points; 44 votes
2006 ranking: 13
Jason: The classic runs of Card Sharks came in two distinctive flavors, both with their fans around here. Jim Perry & the '70s run gave us all the mechanical flourishes you could ever want out of a game show, together with the swift play of the cards. The '80s runs added more ways to get a high/low toss-up question & increased the stakes with friendlier rules in the Money Cards, plus the allure of a brand new car at the back of the set. I grew to like them both over time.
Scott: What's interesting is that, as you alluded to when we discussed High Rollers, the actual turning of cards was pretty rote. You knew when the contestants were going to call higher; you knew when they were going to call lower; you knew they would probably freeze on a 7, 8, or 9. This show needed the "human nature" questions to keep the half hour compelling. Nothing but cards would have been a snooze. Merely playing yes/no questions based on polls of 100 people probably wouldn't have kept the show afloat. But combining the two games resulted in something really fun.
14. What's My Line?
1,471 points; 42 votes; 1 first place vote
2006 ranking: 14
Scott: What's My Line? overtakes To Tell the Truth to claim the title of best panel show in this decade's poll. It had the longest original run, it popularized the panel show format, and as implausible as it sounds, there's something entertaining about watching four people trying to ascertain a person's occupation while they attempt to avoid a "no" answer and make sense of the host's obfuscating clarifications.
Jason: I agree; this is a rare case for me in that I enjoy the black & white shows more than the syndicated run, which of course was always in color. There's no question that panel was playing to win & the show was better for it.
13. Scrabble
1,483 points; 43 votes; 1 first place vote
2006 ranking: 20
Scott: I'm not sure whether this ranking jump should be attributed to the average age of this year's respondents, the increase of episodes available on YouTube, or both. Regardless, there's no denying that Scrabble is a fun game.
Jason: My main criteria to determine this year's list was simply "would I sit down and watch this show?" The rankings then became an exercise in what I'd rather watch. Scrabble gets huge points in this regard. The main thing the YouTube uploads show us is just how fun it was to see day after day. You never knew if this was the day they'd build a podium for Chuck that doubled as a car, or if Chuck would empty out the NBC trash on stage, or if there was a new home viewer contest to participate in. Once they figured out the best format, the game was just as great as the extracurriculars. It had elements of risk & surprise; good players could take a chance on winning bonus money in the front game. The writing was superb. The Sprint & Bonus Sprint often gave us some nail-biting moments.
Scott: It raises an interesting what-if, though: We all acknowledge that this show has very, very little to do with Scrabble the board game. Ignoring the fact that the board game nevertheless influenced the development of this show, if this exact same format had debuted but without any of the Scrabble branding, would it have received as long of a run, or would it be viewed as just another show trying to ride the wave of Wheel of Fortune's success?
Jason: I don't know that you can divorce the two things like that. We've seen shows with clever wordplay elsewhere. Part of what made Scrabble so great to me is that they took elements of the board game & made them seem like they belonged to this TV game. Without the Scrabble branding, the picking of letters through tiles & the bonus squares in particular would feel a little less special & more tacked on. I also have to give special mention to all the aesthetics. Part of why a lot of us love game shows is wrapped up in bells & whistles. Scrabble could have been simple, and might have been simple in different hands in a different decade. But here, we've got two huge turning elements, one of the largest sound libraries ever, tactile random elements in the front game & one of the most unique lock-out devices in game shows for the Sprint. I'm not saying it would pull the wool over everybody's eyes, but I think a number of simpler games could have flourished in the decades to follow if they would have taken the same route as Scrabble by spicing up the bejeezus out of every element of the presentation.
12. Hollywood Squares
1,533 points; 46 votes
2006 ranking: 8
Jason: Squares takes a bit of a tumble going from top 10 territory to #12 with this year's list. Can we attribute this slight drop to the show being off the air for 12 years? I think the fonder memories of Hollywood Squares go back to Peter Marshall, and to a lesser extent with our group, John Davidson. With only a "Hip Hop" version since our last poll, this could be a case of less voter interaction with the format.
Scott: If so, that's too bad, because all three versions of the Hollywood format had their strengths. The Marshall version is well remembered for its one-liners, the Davidson version was willing to try anything, and the Bergeron version showed that there's nothing wrong with simply having fun. Even the Hip Hop version worked, in my opinion. Maybe Hollywood Squares' drop to #12 is just a reflection of the fact that competition for the top ten is fierce. I think we can all figure out what the remaining shows are going to be at this point, and it's difficult to argue that Hollywood Squares should definitely be ranked higher than pretty much any of them.
Jason: I'll be curious to hear your reasons for that, or if the posters have any, because I'm sure some people did vote Hollywood Squares higher, and probably have good reasons for doing so. I personally did not, but sometimes it lies in the simplicity. Squares may have never ventured too far from its roots, but they did things so well for so long, much like What's My Line? and other shows on our list.
Scott: I'll embarrass myself by attempting to make a sports analogy: Hollywood Squares is the reliable baseball player who gets overshadowed by the home run slugger. It didn't do anything badly -- there are just other shows which did things slightly better. In my case, I simply subjectively think the other eleven shows are just the tiniest bit greater. No offense to Squares.
Jason: That makes sense. I don't think either of us, or the group here, drool over every single show that has more rules than showmanship, but in Squares' case, its starkness as a game could have docked it points in a poll like this. We flat out omitted The Dating Game & other shows the general public recognizes, so this could be a result of that same type of thinking.
11. Sale of the Century
1,575 points; 41 votes; 2 first place votes
2006 ranking: 16
Scott: I'm going to say that GSN and Buzzr are at least partially responsible for Sale of the Century's five-position rise.
Jason: They have to be. In 2006, I had fuzzy memories & a handful of shows on tape to form my opinion, but still ranked it high. $ale is also notable in that we have almost no information about its true past. For other shows, like Jeopardy!, there was at least a representative episode or two for a long time where you could get a sense of the original series. Only some of us got to see Jack Kelly or Joe Garagiola in first-run.
Scott: Still, what we know about the version which does exist makes this show worthy of the ranking we've given it. I can only imagine what it was like to watch Sale of the Century during its original '80s run. It's always compelling when a likable player sticks around on a show for longer than the traditional five-day limit. And it's fascinating to see how contestants balance risk and reward under this format. I recently watched an episode in which I knew ahead of time that the champion was going to win everything, and I was still excited as the game unfolded. That's when you know the show is doing something right.
Jason: And the people working at Grundy sure knew how to present a game. Even though it may not have been to the same standard as Let's Make a Deal or Price, Sale of the Century had its own large music library, plus an array of props & sets to present instant bargains & endgame items. Jim Perry was a great fit, playing both ends of the Sale format well. His humor & charm helped the bargain segments, while his authoritative & clear delivery made the questioning, particularly those last 60 seconds, the best it could be.
Scott: For the sake of completeness, I should point out that although I of course would have combined the two shows, nobody who responded to this poll voted for Temptation.
