Contestants on a game show under special circumstances

[whewfan]

I was wondering if anyone could think of a game show where they had contestants on the show under special circumstances... I'm not talking about theme weeks, but they were on a game show for reasons other than that they happened to come to the show to try out.

Here's a few that come to mind.

Hollywood Squares(Davidson)- There was a show, I want to say it was the week they were in New York. They had two contestants, Pat Sajak and Van A White. Pat was female, and Van was male. John Davidson explained that they were picked because of their names.

Family Feud (Dawson)- A family sent a video tape of their family, introducing the family and explaining that they couldn't really afford to fly out to play the game but wanted to be on the show. First they showed the tape, then Richard announced that the family would be on a future show, but told the viewing audience and studio audience NOT to send video tapes as a method of trying out.

Hollywood Squares (original)- Peter said in his book that they had civilians that happened to look like people playing the game (and not part of Ron Smith lookalikes or anything like that) and amongst them were JoAnn Worley, Phylllis Diller, Wally Cox, and then President Jimmy Carter.

Whammy!- Ed, James Larson, Janie- Need I say why this was special circumstances? Classic moment when James hit "Big Bank", but unfortunately didn't claim it.

[Jimmy Owen]

The Anne Robinson look-a-like show on WL.

[JayDLewis]

Combs Feud had a team of 5 guys (pretty sure they were a family too) named Ray.

[whewfan]

Oh, and another one I thought of...

Dawson Feud- Daytime AND Nighttime- Both versions had the DAWSON family. The nighttime version also had gag Dawson credits. Also, while it could be considered a "theme week", I guess it could be said that the Hatfield/McCoy families was also special circumstances.

[The Pyramids]

I would not be surprised that these Dawsons really did qualify as worthwhile families in there own right and their last name just added extra incentive to selecting them. Howard may have rejected many Dawson hopefuls over the seasons despite the amusing irony selecting them might have provided

Also one of the 'TPIR' prime time military specials had a contetstant named Captain Barker. I wouldn't think this was the sole reason he was choosen. Rather it was just an amusing coincidence he had in his favor.

Finally didn't the current regime do an all Drew Carey named constestant show once? This I'll grant you since this was deliberate these were contestants who were there under special circumstances (and I could be comepletely wrong if there never was such a show).

[WhammyPower]

I seem to recall an episode of The Chase (perhaps last year?) where the four contestants shared first names with four of the Chasers.

There may have been at least one other episode with a theme amongst the four contestants' names as well, but I can't recall what that was.

[jage]

There was the episode of Win Ben Stein's Money with people named Ben Stein, if I'm remembering that correctly.

[BrandonFG]

With Feud, could we include the 1994 season reuniting Richard with families that appeared on the original version?

[MSTieScott]

Finally didn't the current regime do an all Drew Carey named constestant show once? This I'll grant you since this was deliberate these were contestants who were there under special circumstances (and I could be comepletely wrong if there never was such a show).

There never was such a show. There was an April Fools episode where everybody wore a "Pat" name tag regardless of what their real name was.

Some of these examples aren't exactly "special circumstances" so much as "a contestant with an unusual name auditioned for the show and was selected." They still wouldn't have been picked if they were a complete dud, but so long as they showed a tiny bit of personality, their name (rather than an interesting occupation or backstory) is what got them onto the show. Otherwise, every contestant on The Name's the Same was there under a special circumstance.

[whewfan]

With Feud, could we include the 1994 season reuniting Richard with families that appeared on the original version?

I suppose. I thought that was a nice feature, although an audience of people that don't have GSN probably wouldn't appreciate that the families had played the game years before.

[jjman920]

Finally didn't the current regime do an all Drew Carey named constestant show once? This I'll grant you since this was deliberate these were contestants who were there under special circumstances (and I could be comepletely wrong if there never was such a show).

There never was such a show. There was an April Fools episode where everybody wore a "Pat" name tag regardless of what their real name was.

But speaking of Price, I'd have have to imagine the 40th Anniversary special with an audience full of returning contestants counts. They picked some good ones to call down that episode to.

[Casey]

Finally didn't the current regime do an all Drew Carey named constestant show once? This I'll grant you since this was deliberate these were contestants who were there under special circumstances (and I could be comepletely wrong if there never was such a show).

There never was such a show. There was an April Fools episode where everybody wore a "Pat" name tag regardless of what their real name was.

I could be confusing this with a different thing, but I feel like there was a Halloween show where everyone was given Drew Carey style glasses and was called down as Drew Carey, but again, this was regardless of their actual name.  I haven't come across too many female Drew Carey's in my life thus far. 

[MSTieScott]

I could be confusing this with a different thing, but I feel like there was a Halloween show where everyone was given Drew Carey style glasses and was called down as Drew Carey, but again, this was regardless of their actual name.  I haven't come across too many female Drew Carey's in my life thus far.

Ah, you're right -- they did that in 2015. But as you pointed out, none of the contestants were actually named Drew Carey.