Game Show Fans 50 Greatest - Results

[Jimmy Owen]

Bill Cosby's stock has fallen in the last year, so it's understandable that YBYL did not get as many votes.  The Groucho version still remains excellent.  As time goes by, memories fade, so my 70's favorites (Jackpot!) probably won't get the votes.  Jackpot was one show that, after the rules are explained, could be played without a host

[Matt Ottinger]

Are Tattletales and Newlywed Game considered different shows?  I know they share the same format.

You really are adorable.

[BrandonFG]

Bill Cosby's stock has fallen in the last year, so it's understandable that YBYL did not get as many votes.

This shtick is really getting kinda old.

[Ian Wallis]

I still like Tattletales a lot, but I didn't rank it as high this time.  I guess in 10 years my overall opinions of some of these shows has changed a bit - not that I think it's worse, but just that I now think certain other shows were better overall.

Jackpot made my list but it's one of those shows that I got burned out on after a while.  I watched the '70s version almost every day while home from school at lunch (although I have no memory of the format change)  I watched the USA version almost every day for the first two years, but by the third year I just lost a lot of interest in it.   The '89 syndicated version wasn't carried in my area.

There are many factors in determining which shows to rank at the top, but the shows that lost my interest at some point generally ranked closer to the bottom of my list.

[TLEberle]

I wanted to address one thing about Weakest Link and Twenty-one before they got too far upthread. One thing about Weakest Link for me is that the voting didn't feel as emotionally powerful. On Survivor you get to see the players as they progress throughout the game, on Link it's eight people thrown together and off they go. On Survivor a contestant on the short end of an alliance can scramble, win challenges, find pocket immunities or exploit cracks in the opposition. On Weakest Link there's none of those options. The voting is a means to an end but frequently the answer to the question "So why did you vote for Jane?" is "she got her questions wrong and she's in the other alliance." Whee.

One thing Jason mentioned is that I wish the revival of Twenty-one had done some things to distinguish itself from the other game shows that had come out in that time period. Similarly to how Sale of the Century constantly asked players how far they were willing to back themselves and to walk the tightrope of risk and reward, no game quite like Twenty-one could play up the psychological element of being left in the dark except for those brief moments when Maury comes into view. If you're playing for $5,000 a point, that could have made for some great television, especially if the show had done away with strikes and second chances and just left the contestants to do battle over some difficult (but not absurdly so) questions for twenty or thirty minutes, and I think folks who were watching  the other game shows would have stood by it.

[Sodboy13]

Yeah, when I found out about the original format of Twenty-One, my reaction was, "Man, I would love to see that played for real." NBC's desires to mimic the hooks of WWTBAM and give away a million bucks to somebody as soon as possible (then drop the prize money for the first two wins by 75%) really weakened the effort. To further Travis' example, how about after a few ties, when the stake is up to $25,000 a point, and one of the contestants is definitely not playing with house money? That's fantastic drama, good television, and a good game.

I also want to know what gameplay genius found it necessary to append a bonus round that would be worth less than the front game by a player's third win.

[Chuck Sutton]

Jackpot made my list but it's one of those shows that I got burned out on after a while.  I watched the '70s version almost every day while home from school at lunch (although I have no memory of the format change)  I watched the USA version almost every day for the first two years, but by the third year I just lost a lot of interest in it.   The '89 syndicated version wasn't carried in my area.

Gee I thought we were the only school that went home for lunch and yes Jackpot was how I spent my lunch hour and often discussing it on the bus ride back to school.

Tattletales was my rush home from school game show.  At first I did not liek to the swithc to all "qiuickies" but soon realized it did work better as all couples got to contribute to every question.

As for Matt's suggestion for a revival maybe someone at ABC or freemantle is reading.   If ABC wanted to expand next summer  a night of To Tell the Truth, Tattletales, and Match Game could a lot of fun.   As a short term thing might easier to couples to agree.

[Bob Zager]

As for Matt's suggestion for a revival maybe someone at ABC or freemantle is reading.   If ABC wanted to expand next summer  a night of To Tell the Truth, Tattletales, and Match Game could a lot of fun.   As a short term thing might easier to couples to agree.

IIRC, FremantleMedia has, in recent years, been working on a remake of Tattletales, but under the title of the original format--He Said, She Said!

[The Ol' Guy]

YBYL is so identified with and crafted for Groucho that never once in my voting did the Buddy Hackett or Cosby versions even come to mind. Guidel used the idea of a quiz to sell networks on the idea of giving Groucho a place to wisecrack with contestants. YBYL was only 5% about watching an actual game being played. YBYL, Hollywood Squares, and Match Game 7X were all about one thing - waiting to hear what was going to come out of a star's mouth. In this case, Groucho's. The later title - The Groucho Show - was probably the most accurate. It always was that, but Groucho having been a flop several times on radio, Guidel had to break through network and sponsor resistance with a catchy title and a proven format. The initial game format itself might have barely passed as a radio daytimer with someone like Cullen. Or, in TV's case, 50s Strike It Rich. Even Strike It Rich depended on contestant sob stories. Asking people to simply wager on 4 or 5 questions just isn't much of a game. It was all Groucho, as the rapid failure of reboots proved.

[gromit82]

For those who may be interested, here are the years of the shows:

45. Russian Roulette (2002-2003)
44. The $64,000/$128,000 Question (1955-1958, 1976-1978)
43. You Bet Your Life (1950-1961, 1980-1981, 1992-1993)
T41. Deal or No Deal (2005-2010)
T41. Jackpot (1974-1975, 1985-1988, 1989-1990)

[JasonA1]

I'm still curious to hear from the people who voted for 64k/128k Question. Did the Darow/Trebek show have its fans?

-Jason

[PYLdude]

I'm still curious to hear from the people who voted for 64k/128k Question. Did the Darow/Trebek show have its fans?

-Jason

Count me as one. The series made my list at 39.

I don't know how much higher I might've ranked it but while I liked the tension that was present the deeper you went, I also felt there were elements that kept it from advancing higher. The gimmicks in the first season were big ones for me.

[BrandonFG]

I'm still curious to hear from the people who voted for 64k/128k Question. Did the Darow/Trebek show have its fans?

I didn't vote for either version either time, mainly because my only exposure to the show was bits and pieces. Tonight, I watched most of one Dar(r)ow and most of one Trebek episode, and thought it was okay. Of course, I got Millionaire vibes, and while I liked the presentation from Dar(r)ow's version - early questions on the typewriter, mid-level questions on a monitor - I think the chrome took away from the Big Money.

So my nod goes to Trebek for that one. He seemed to pick up right where he left off from Double Dare.

[MSTieScott]

40. Treasure Hunt
472 points; 24 votes
2006 ranking: 45

Scott: Last time, Deal or No Deal and Treasure Hunt, two shows about a blind choice from a large number of containers, ranked right next to one another at #44 and #45. This time, they rank right next to one another at #40 and #41.

Jason: Ooh, statistical anomalies. (That was probably the title of a Bob Stewart pilot.) This is not a show we've talked about much lately, but it clearly left enough of an impression on the voters to make the top 50 again. It can't be a total coincidence they've traveled together in both years, right? Did Treasure Hunt fans rank Deal or No Deal as well? In the same relative place on the list? They were near each other in the 40s on mine.

Scott: For a couple of voters, the two shows were relatively close; for a few others, they were pretty far apart. But the majority of people who voted for Treasure Hunt did not also vote for Deal or No Deal. That's interesting.

Jason: They definitely cater to different tastes. Most of the time, the Chuck Barris sense of humor is right up my alley. It would have to be to sit through all of Treasure Hunt's prize plugs. It's great looking back on the cream of the crop in excitable contestants, who go nuts with every new surprise or every extra $100 they get from Geoff.


39. The Gong Show
478 points; 27 votes
2006 ranking: 39

Jason: At #39, Chuckie Baby managed to follow himself up with The Gong Show in a same-place finish from the 2006 list! There was a bit of a debate last time, as I recall, over what constituted a game show. Do you think this show passes the test? Is there a test??

Scott: If it was introduced today, I'm sure it would be categorized as a "talent competition" along with the likes of American Idol, but those types of shows weren't as readily available in the 1970s. And The Gong Show was presented with enough of the same trappings that game shows had that I've always categorized it as a game show. People compete and the winner gets a cash prize? Sure, it's a game show, why not.

Jason: I agree. I subscribe to the "I know a game show when I see one" metric. I didn't appreciate this show until recently, when I finally sat down to a wider array of episodes. I've long put Gong Show on a shortlist of shows that were products of their time & the great chemistry they found, never to be duplicated, nor even approached with a new version. But ABC managed to do a version of Match Game in 2016 that, in my opinion, finally showed the right mix can be found again. So maybe Gong Show has hope in the future. Between pilots & short-lived series, Don Bleu, Tom Arnold, George Gray, Jeffrey Ross & Dave Attell were all at the center of their own Gong, but none of those really stuck.

Scott: It seems to me that America's Got Talent, especially during the audition episodes, is a spiritual successor to The Gong Show, although America's Got Talent takes itself a lot more seriously.


38. Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?
480 points; 21 votes
2006 ranking: 53

Scott: Now here's a generational choice. I'm not saying that only people approximately my age voted for this show -- in fact, I know that to be untrue -- but this is a show which would not be in the top fifty this year if the majority of voters weren't approximately my age. As a kid, I absolutely loved this show and all of its crazy antics and sketches. I desperately wanted to be a contestant -- I don't think it fully occurred to me that I would actually have to know things about geography if I was on the show. Still, this is the show which taught me where several countries are on the map, and that the Chief had to list all of the countries in South America every time because there were only 13 of them.

Jason: I'm about to use a term I'm not a big fan of, but this show was *produced*. I appreciate it on a different level now. Their computer graphics during the main questions were very slick. Rockapella frequently had new songs. The culprits had unique cartoons for each episode's story. And of course, the endgame was a map that took up most of the studio floor, and they were great at judging it live.

Scott: I think it's possible for a viewer to subconsciously feel the difference between when a show is trying to make it look like everybody is having fun versus when everybody on the show genuinely is having fun. And maybe they were able to fool me, but that looked like a pretty fun show to work on.


37. Remote Control
521 points; 27 votes
2006 ranking: T47

Scott: And here's another show, fondly remembered by those who were young in the 1980s, which jumps up a whole bunch of places. You know, this is one of the earliest MTV shows in which the vast majority of the focus wasn't on music or music videos. So in a way, Remote Control led the march toward the meaninglessness of the M in MTV.

Jason: Right; although, when VH1 Classic flipped to MTV Classic this year, it wasn't just our crowd that was clamoring for Remote Control to be seen again. Music was always part of the game, and I think the show's sensibility fit in with the rest of the network at the time. This was another show on my "chemistry" shortlist mentioned above. Unlike the others, though, Remote Control was trying to find its voice in the presentation department - the sense of humor & personalities were always there. Ken Ober's tossed-off hosting comes across as seasoned compared to what we got in the ensuing decades. He & Colin Quinn are just what the doctor ordered when it comes to this format. Watching back, I'm also amused by Steve Trecasse's music. He managed to drop in many obscure TV melodies from his keyboard, including several that should make a game show fan smile.


36. Lingo
561 points; 30 votes
2006 ranking: 35

Scott: Just try to watch this show without shouting at your screen. I dare you. Based on how little Lingo was discussed on the newsgroup before 2002, I suspect that the GSN version (the Woolery version) is what's kept this show on our list both times.

Jason: I think Chuck's Lingo could have been a new classic in syndication if they had decided to branch out. The GSN version got better with each season, as they put more money into the set, and freed up Chuck from a lot of business by giving him co-hosts. The return of an escalating jackpot to game shows, with continuity between episodes, was very encouraging. Just imagine if Lingo had its own app at the time. This is a show where the game play alone - the five-letter words - should manage to keep it in the top 50.

[Chelsea Thrasher]

It's always an inevitability at any job I've ever held that eventually the object of my unabashed nerdiness and geekiness is discovered, and there's always a talk about my coworkers favorite show.

At a hotel I worked at for a time, last year, most of my coworkers were somewhere between my age and 45.  And overwhelmingly the one show EVERYONE remembered, loved, and wanted to see again?  Remote Control.

I'd seen one or two lower quality "trading circuit" multi-generation dubs of the show ten years ago, but since then have sought out as much footage as I can. It's a magnificent show, and one I only now truly appreciate.