The Strange Genealogy of the Dating Show

[SplitSecond]

Here's a commentary on the modern dating show, its evolution, and the contributions more traditional game shows have made:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4193228/

What are your thoughts?

[Jimmy Owen]

What?!!?  No mention of "Blind Date '49" with Arlene or 1958's"Chance for Romance" with John Cameron Swayze??!!??

[tvrandywest]

[quote name=\'SplitSecond\' date=\'Mar 10 2004, 02:02 AM\']What are your thoughts?[/quote]
The author likes the word "snarky".

A fine recap for those of us who can't keep the shows straight, but the observations on the geneology of dating shows is clearly an outsider's. Love Connection was not about borrowing from GT audience voting (I guess the author is referring to the Super Match surveys on "Match Game" which became "Family Feud"). The motivation behind LC was the then new concept of computer matching. Involving the audience was an inspired afterthought when it became obvious that watching a computer's flashing lights was not compelling television.

Personally I think that any discussion about the genre's popularity has to include a mention of the economics. In their earlier incarnations dating shows were cheap programming. Barris' creation was more expensive than a test pattern, but less expensive than drama, talk or game show.


Randy
tvrandywest.com

[The Ol' Guy]

and we already learned computer dating on television wasn't a hit with Dick Enberg's Perfect Match. The article was interesting, but a game fanatic he isn't.

(Hmm- as long as we're merging shows - what about Blind Date + The Price Is Right / Bid 'n Buy?)

[SplitSecond]

[quote name=\'The Ol' Guy\' date=\'Mar 10 2004, 12:31 PM\'] (Hmm- as long as we're merging shows - what about Blind Date + The Price Is Right / Bid 'n Buy?) [/quote]
 I think the closest you're gonna get to that is the Hooker furniture Price already offers.

[bclark71]

I think the closest you're gonna get to that is the Hooker furniture Price already offers.

I said to the missus one night while watching Price that I wondered who made the decision to add "furniture" to the Hooker graphic.  There's nothing quite like seeing a close-up shot of a comely PiR model with a giant HOOKER on her face.

Did I just type "a giant hooker on her face"...?  

Gad.

[tvrandywest]

[quote name=\'bclark71\' date=\'Mar 10 2004, 06:17 PM\'] There's nothing quite like seeing a close-up shot of a comely PiR model with a giant HOOKER on her face.
 [/quote]
 ... And hearing the announcer intone: "A lovely gentleman's chest"!!

Randy
tvrandywest.com

[BrandonFG]

[quote name=\'bclark71\' date=\'Mar 10 2004, 09:17 PM\']

I think the closest you're gonna get to that is the Hooker furniture Price already offers.

I said to the missus one night while watching Price that I wondered who made the decision to add "furniture" to the Hooker graphic.  There's nothing quite like seeing a close-up shot of a comely PiR model with a giant HOOKER on her face.

Did I just type "a giant hooker on her face"...?  
 [/quote]
 The Price must REALLY be Right in this instance. :-P

[Don Howard]

[quote name=\'fostergray82\' date=\'Mar 10 2004, 10:06 PM\'] [quote name=\'bclark71\' date=\'Mar 10 2004, 09:17 PM\']

I think the closest you're gonna get to that is the Hooker furniture Price already offers.

I said to the missus one night while watching Price that I wondered who made the decision to add "furniture" to the Hooker graphic.  There's nothing quite like seeing a close-up shot of a comely PiR model with a giant HOOKER on her face.

Did I just type "a giant hooker on her face"...?  
 [/quote]
The Price must REALLY be Right in this instance. :-P [/quote]
 Betcha that costs more than a surfboard.

[uncamark]

Another nitpick:

Mike Douglas (or Woody Fraiser and Roger Ailes, to be more exact) had asterisks all over the set four years before "The Dating Game" (when the show started as a local Cleveland show).  When I first saw "TDG," I thought they were ripping off of Douglas (especially since I lived in beautiful Cherry Hill, New Jersey back then and watched Mike on his second flagship station, KYW in Philadelphia--I even got to see it in person at the cramped studio in the basement of their old Walnut Street HQ in Center City Philadelphia--I still remember that Bobby Rydell was the co-host).

And everyone--Chuck Barris didn't create "TNG," Nick Nicholson and Roger Muir did--Barris just perfected it.

[Craig Karlberg]

And boy did he EVER perfected it well!  There have been no other games quite like TNG since its inception in 1966 I think.  It's my favoritte of that ilk.