Game Show Confidential: The Story of an American Obsession (book)

[calliaume]

From author Boze Hadleigh, coming in May.

https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781493072583/Game-Show-Confidential-The-Story-of-an-American-Obsession

[parliboy]

So, what I read about the author suggests that things in his books are divided into two types: the things everyone already knows and the things that didn't actually happen.  Can someone more in the know (maybe having read them before) tell me if the author is actually worth spending money on?

[Matt Ottinger]

So, what I read about the author suggests that things in his books are divided into two types: the things everyone already knows and the things that didn't actually happen.  Can someone more in the know (maybe having read them before) tell me if the author is actually worth spending money on?

I get the impression that it might be worth buying just for the sport of picking apart his mistakes and unverified claims.

[CarbonCpy]

"an American phenomenon whose popularity doesn’t seem to be going away."

game shows and media were hand-in-hand since the very beginning, but lines like that plus "first of several frauds endemic to the genre" really trip my switches with regard how much snobbery I am likely to find. americans certainly didn't invent the game show, but those who work in the genre are are held to a legally-mandated higher ethical standard in how they produce their content than those who work in american journalism and how they produce theirs. bad game shows get cancelled from fox syndication, bad journalists get paid at fox news.

my gut feeling is that i'm probably gonna react to this book in the same way i reacted to pat sajak complaining on the internet about tv content: poorly, with low opinions of the source, and an additional 60%-75% chance of assumptions formed re: their mother's social habits. that's probably a bit much-- hadleigh more than likely doesn't have their own production company with which they could demonstrate the kind of content they'd prefer to see but choose not to.

edit: i mean, i'll read it if it shows up on library genesis, but if i wanna pay money to be belittled for what i like i can pay a dom or a domme like every other normal person in these united states.

[thomas_meighan]

His Wikipedia entry notes two historical contradictions in his writing that refer to Madeline Kahn and Noël Coward (having them comment on circumstances that occurred after their respective deaths).

The birthdate for the author is listed as 1954, yet his books contain interviews conducted with people like William Haines, Agnes Moorehead, Marjorie Main and Sal Mineo, all of whom died in the 1973-76 period, when the author was in his late teens/early 20s. While it’s not *impossible* for a young person to have interviewed much older industry veterans, you’d think that he’d need to submit reference letters and/or clippings of previous publications before they agreed to be interviewed. As it is, newspapers.com shows no evidence of publications prior to 1983, when he was a writer for the Gannett News Service as George Hadley-Garcia (at least I presume they’re the same person).

[calliaume]

For what it's worth, Rowman & Littlefield is a legit publisher (albeit small runs); it should have a real outside copyeditor. Whether or not it goes through a legal read to remove anything that can't be verified, that's harder to say.

[RMF]

His Wikipedia entry notes two historical contradictions in his writing that refer to Madeline Kahn and Noël Coward (having them comment on circumstances that occurred after their respective deaths).

The birthdate for the author is listed as 1954, yet his books contain interviews conducted with people like William Haines, Agnes Moorehead, Marjorie Main and Sal Mineo, all of whom died in the 1973-76 period, when the author was in his late teens/early 20s. While it’s not *impossible* for a young person to have interviewed much older industry veterans, you’d think that he’d need to submit reference letters and/or clippings of previous publications before they agreed to be interviewed. As it is, newspapers.com shows no evidence of publications prior to 1983, when he was a writer for the Gannett News Service as George Hadley-Garcia (at least I presume they’re the same person).

He first published under the name George Haddad-Garcia- his first publications under that name in newspapers.com date to 1979, and I haven't found evidence via Google of much (if any) substantial work before then. A good hunk of what does appear under that name are celebrity interviews- but, as far as I can tell, more or less solely with people who don't appear in his books, which may be telling in its own right.

[Otm Shank]

For what it's worth, Rowman & Littlefield is a legit publisher (albeit small runs); it should have a real outside copyeditor.

As an author at an imprint of R & L, they do have excellent copyeditors who verified facts on their own, including that days of the week were accurate (a trap in citing the newspaper date as the event date). I did not wade into waters that required legal review, so I don't know the resources they have there, but my sense is that it wouldn't be sought for a project such as this.

[steveleb]

yall will be happy to know im getting a copy of the book pre release to review.

if this dude is the George Santos of game shows, he'll be exposed by yours truly,

[BrandonFG]

"an American phenomenon whose popularity doesn’t seem to be going away."

game shows and media were hand-in-hand since the very beginning, but lines like that plus "first of several frauds endemic to the genre" really trip my switches with regard how much snobbery I am likely to find. americans certainly didn't invent the game show, but those who work in the genre are are held to a legally-mandated higher ethical standard in how they produce their content than those who work in american journalism and how they produce theirs.

This is where I pretty much lost interest. His calling out "Professor Quiz" for being a fraud as if he's some quack doctor tells me what I should expect.

/Wait till he hears about Kay Kaiser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge

[PYLdude]

yall will be happy to know im getting a copy of the book pre release to review.

if this dude is the George Santos of game shows, he'll be exposed by yours truly,

Go get ‘em Steve.

[CarbonCpy]

/Wait till he hears about Kay Kaiser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge

It's a bit late to be raising a hue and cry about authenticity in a post-truth world, frankly. Has anybody told this anonymous clown anything about back-masking or the objectionable level of violence in video games?