Underrated, but Appreciated

[BillCullen1]

I've got quite a few. To Say the Least, Blackout, Go, Wipeout and Dirty Rotten Cheater. Plus a couple of GSN originals, Russian Roulette and That's the Question.

Edit: Add Caesar's Challenge to the above list.

[Ian Wallis]

A lot of the ones I was going to mention already have been - Whew, Caesar's Challenge, etc.  I'd probably include Battlestars and Celebrity Sweepstakes on the list.  Despite close to a three-year run, I don't think too many people remember the latter today except for us.

My top choice would be the 1976 Break the Bank.  I realize it was kind of a Squares ripoff, but I always thought it was a high-quality and kind of interesting game.  I love the set!  I don't think it got a fair shake - the ratings were strong through the 15-week network run (I believe somebody posted ratings from June 1976 at one time and they were still high), but it was cancelled in favor of expanding soap operas.  Why they couldn't have changed the timeslot and held off the debut of the (strange) Hot Seat instead, we'll never know.

When the show was in the "checkerboard" syndicated slots in the '76-77 season, it was up against shows like Hollywood Squares, Match Game PM, $25,000 Pyramid and the nighttime Price is Right in many cities, all of which had established audiences.  The next fall Jack was more interested in the revival of Joker's Wild than this.

GSN only gave us a third of the run a couple of decades ago but very little of this show has popped up elsewhere in all that time.

[The Ol' Guy]

Another vote for Every Second Counts. Rafferty was perfect as host. Also liked Trivial Pursuit: America Plays. The format, anyway...

[PYLdude]

Oh god, Ultimate Fan League. I got into that way too late. Solid show.

That’s the Question should’ve gotten a better fate than being stuck (well, maybe not stuck, but I couldn’t come up with a better description) on GSN. I thought it was a good solid effort mixing Hangman, puzzle solving, and to a lesser degree trivia and it worked.

As far as coming up with one that hasn’t already been said...

I always felt among the Nickelodeon cadre of shoes, Get the Picture was always the forgotten gem. It wasn’t your stereotypical Nick show of the day, inasmuch as they didn’t need messy gimmicks to have a solid show. It was a nice simple half hour that challenged the mind in ways that most children’s shows didn’t.

[TimK2003]

Being a student of the old school, and liking good challenging quizzes, Trebek's Double Dare deserved a longer run and/or as a nighttime series.

And The Big Showdown was also a challenging concept that I'm surprised no network or syndicator has tried to revive.

The latter show would be a great fit in the ABC Fun & Games Department as it was a self-contained game.  Double Dare would be harder to fit into a 30- or 60-minute format.

[Bryce L.]

Double Dare would be harder to fit into a 30- or 60-minute format.

Not that hard, just ditch the "first to $X,000 wins" rule and replace it with "most money when time is called wins", then bring the Spoilers on for the final segment.

[Neumms]

Being a student of the old school, and liking good challenging quizzes, Trebek's Double Dare deserved a longer run and/or as a nighttime series.

I understand that it may have been too intellectual for its original time slot, but it’s a shame nobody at GSN watched the reruns they aired and saw the potential. Then again, GSN tends to go with anti-intellectual shows like America Says.

I loved Bruce Forsyth’s Hot Streak. Great play-along and Brucie was a treat. It was strange programming that ABC aired one half-hour game show and expected people to notice it, especially when on against TPIR.

[BillCullen1]

One more for the road, so to speak. The Moneymaze, a show combining mental and physical abilities of contestants. It also gave announcer Alan Kalter national exposure.

[chargeradiocom]

Being a student of the old school, and liking good challenging quizzes, Trebek's Double Dare deserved a longer run and/or as a nighttime series.

I understand that it may have been too intellectual for its original time slot, but it’s a shame nobody at GSN watched the reruns they aired and saw the potential. Then again, GSN tends to go with anti-intellectual shows like America Says.

Totally agree with you guys on Double Dare. It was a very underrated show, and it’s a darn shame it didn’t get a longer run.

While I wouldn’t personally be opposed to a revival, I think the biggest deterrent to it ever happening is the name itself. The other Double Dare is the far more well-known show at this point (and Nick likely holds the trademark). They could call it something else, perhaps, but the Dare/Double Dare is a big piece of the game, and serves a similar function to the Dare/Double Dare on Nick’s show. So I’m not sure how they’d rework it without it coming off as some kind of J!/Nick DD mashup rip-off. (I realize G-T Dare came before Nick Dare. But the mass public that doesn’t know G-T Dare wouldn’t necessarily realize that.)

I loved Bruce Forsyth’s Hot Streak. Great play-along and Brucie was a treat. It was strange programming that ABC aired one half-hour game show and expected people to notice it, especially when on against TPIR.

On a similar note… I realize I’m probably in a minority, but I actually liked Time Machine, at least the TPIR-esque single player mini game format. But yeah, it was in a timeslot (in markets where it was even cleared at that time) that was going to be tough.

[carlisle96]

Being a student of the old school, and liking good challenging quizzes, Trebek's Double Dare deserved a longer run and/or as a nighttime series.

And The Big Showdown was also a challenging concept that I'm surprised no network or syndicator has tried to revive.

The latter show would be a great fit in the ABC Fun & Games Department as it was a self-contained game.  Double Dare would be harder to fit into a 30- or 60-minute format.

I second Double Dare ... and I did like Big Showdown even if you need lots of luck to win any big money. But my nominee is Pass the Buck. Bill was clearly having the best time of his TV life post-Eye Guess and I like the think fast format. I know lots of folks don't like the arbitrary choice of answers in the bonus round, but the idea is to keep talking and you'll hit on the right ones...I also love New York theater-based shows.

[nowhammies10]

The armchair showrunner in me would revive DD76 on AMC, lean heavily on movies/TV trivia, and call it Spoiler Alert!.  Think if DD and Hollywood Showdown had a baby.

/get Tim Hortons or In-N-Out to sponsor it and rename the dare mechanic the Double Double.

[TLEberle]

4The armchair showrunner in me would revive DD76 on AMC, lean heavily on movies/TV trivia, and call it Spoiler Alert!.  Think if DD and Hollywood Showdown had a baby.

That is...not terrible. I don't love excluding a huge amount of trivial canon but we know that tough trivia is a hard sell these days.

[PYLdude]

The armchair showrunner in me would revive DD76 on AMC, lean heavily on movies/TV trivia, and call it Spoiler Alert!.  Think if DD and Hollywood Showdown had a baby.

/get Tim Hortons or In-N-Out to sponsor it and rename the dare mechanic the Double Double.

I like this too, and think you could be onto something.

If for nothing else but I think you might’ve shone a light on an element of Double Dare I haven’t seen anybody shine before: it really is a format you can make centered around one particular subject (Hollywood, sports, whatever) and it would work just as well. Especially with the writing style they used for the clues.

I’d watch.

[byrd62]

The armchair showrunner in me would revive DD76 on AMC, lean heavily on movies/TV trivia, and call it Spoiler Alert!.  Think if DD and Hollywood Showdown had a baby.

/get Tim Hortons or In-N-Out to sponsor it and rename the dare mechanic the Double Double.

I like this too, and think you could be onto something.

If for nothing else but I think you might’ve shone a light on an element of Double Dare I haven’t seen anybody shine before: it really is a format you can make centered around one particular subject (Hollywood, sports, whatever) and it would work just as well. Especially with the writing style they used for the clues.

I’d watch.

So for the bonus round, would the "Spoilers" still be PhD's?  Or would they be hardcore trivia experts?

[TLEberle]

So for the bonus round, would the "Spoilers" still be PhD's?  Or would they be hardcore trivia experts?

I bet Paul Goebel would pick up the phone.