Shows you really looked forward to seeing, but found underwhelming

[daveromanjr]

I'll toss GSN's 2012 revival of Pyramid into this mix.  I probably just had too-high of hopes for this one.  Lots of things about this revival seemed 9/10's of the way there.  The set, the crummy theme, the added "oh hey you gave a clue with 4 vowels in the word so you won a blender" style add-ins were all bleh.  But the core of the game was there.  It may seem more underwhelming now that we have Strahan's Pyramid which, to me, is leaps and bounds better.

[PYLdude]

Ditto on Temptation.

If I had a Mount Rushmore of disappointment, Card Sharks 01, Temptation, and Celebrity Name Game would have been the first three I would put on it. The first two were just bad copies of two treasures of my youth, and even though I did eventually warm to CNG later on I still think it could’ve been so much more than it turned out to be.

[BillCullen1]

I remember seeing MG '98 and CS '01 and thinking what letdowns they were. LMAD hosted by Billy Bush took a good show and ruined it.

[TLEberle]

I remember seeing MG '98 and CS '01 and thinking what letdowns they were. LMAD hosted by Billy Bush took a good show and ruined it.

no he didn’t. Billy Bush was a bright spot in a mishmash of ideas.

[Blanquepage]

I was eager for It's Your Chance of a Lifetime and Paranoia back in 2000. But in the end, m'eh.

[PYLdude]

I'll toss GSN's 2012 revival of Pyramid into this mix.  I probably just had too-high of hopes for this one.  Lots of things about this revival seemed 9/10's of the way there.  The set, the crummy theme, the added "oh hey you gave a clue with 4 vowels in the word so you won a blender" style add-ins were all bleh.  But the core of the game was there.  It may seem more underwhelming now that we have Strahan's Pyramid which, to me, is leaps and bounds better.

I agree. The Pyramid just felt like a game that was incomplete, like putting gold paint on a rusty screen door. The set was spartan, they didn’t do a particularly good job casting celebrities, adding $5,000 to the Winners’ Circle for a perfect round was a quirk I found to be unnecessary, and they just seemed to be phoning it in the whole time. You really can’t do that and expect people to tune in, especially to a version of a game so many of us grew up watching.

[tyshaun1]

I was eager for It's Your Chance of a Lifetime and Paranoia back in 2000. But in the end, m'eh.

I always felt that Paranoia was a good show on the absolute worst network for it to be on. Another show that qualifies for me was Wintuition. Good idea, but as interesting as watching paint dry, and apparently Marc Summers agrees.

[Dbacksfan12]

I always thought Headline Chasers was going to be a current events based show.  I was rather disappointed to find out it was Wheel of Fortune without the wheel.

[BrandonFG]

I always thought Headline Chasers was going to be a current events based show.  I was rather disappointed to find out it was Wheel of Fortune without the wheel.

1985-86 was a weird time in that you had a bunch of Hangman clones: Wheel, Scrabble, HC, $1M Chance of a Lifetime and I'm prolly forgetting at least one more.

[gamed121683]

I always thought Headline Chasers was going to be a current events based show.  I was rather disappointed to find out it was Wheel of Fortune without the wheel.

1985-86 was a weird time in that you had a bunch of Hangman clones: Wheel, Scrabble, HC, $1M Chance of a Lifetime and I'm prolly forgetting at least one more.

In fairness, that was the peak of Wheel's popularity in syndication & Vannamania, was it not? So it was more like a Hangman bandwagon.

[TimK2003]

I remember seeing MG '98 and CS '01 and thinking what letdowns they were. LMAD hosted by Billy Bush took a good show and ruined it.

MG '98 was a disappointment for sure.  I can still remember at the Cleveland GSC when we had Jay Wolpert as a phone guest when he said there will be 5 Celebrities instead of 6, those in attendance looked at each other with WTF looks all around.  That was just the tip of the iceberg.

[SamJ93]

This one admittedly doesn't quite count because I vaguely remember watching an episode in first-run, but I recently looked up an ep. of 2-Minute Drill on YouTube and was thoroughly underwhelmed. Kenny Mayne just wasn't the right kind of guy to host a game show; his dry humor too often came across as dismissive and disinterested. The question-readers would frequently stumble over their words, which put the contestants at an unfair advantage depending on who they picked.  One question-reader for the ep. I saw was Colin Mochrie; while he read the material just fine, it was a very strange decision to bring on someone who has no connection to sports and is known for improv comedy for a role with no room to be funny.

Bringing Mastermind across the pond to find the ultimate sports trivia nerd was a brilliant move...but the execution left something to be desired.

[The Ol' Guy]

Another vote for Temptation. Meanwhile, as far as an "oldie" goes - finally seeing two Barry & Enright productions from the 50s - High-Low and Dough-Re-Mi - both were bummers. High-Low was weird and sounded totally scripted, and Dough's one note at a time play was agonizingly slow. Neither was as exciting as I hoped for.

[BrandonFG]

Bringing Mastermind across the pond to find the ultimate sports trivia nerd was a brilliant move...but the execution left something to be desired.

I loved 2MD (whenever I could find it), but ESPN always seemed to treat its game shows like an afterthought. If I’m not mistaken, that was their longest-running game show, which says a lot.

[PYLdude]

Bringing Mastermind across the pond to find the ultimate sports trivia nerd was a brilliant move...but the execution left something to be desired.

I loved 2MD (whenever I could find it), but ESPN always seemed to treat its game shows like an afterthought. If I’m not mistaken, that was their longest-running game show, which says a lot.

Stump the Schwab technically ran longer, unless you don’t regard the ESPN Classic exclusive fourth season.

But as you brought up, you want an afterthought? Season three aired at SIX IN THE MORNING.