Great short-lived shows

[tyshaun1]

This may be an unpopular choice, but I'm going to say Give-N-Take. I like the blend of trivia and pricing, and the setting in-the-round was unique for the era. I get why it didn't last, but I feel like it should've gotten another try in the mid-80s.

Carruthers did indeed try in the mid-80's... he mounted a run-through for a show called Up N' Over. Except instead of a large arrow, he used dice.

[jage]

I keep hoping for mor of To Say the Least to pop up. It's such a fun premise that I think would have gotten better as more strategy was discovered.

[TLEberle]

I keep hoping for mor of To Say the Least to pop up. It's such a fun premise that I think would have gotten better as more strategy was discovered.

The hiccup of "if you leave just one word the guess defaults to your partner" is just interesting enough that Tom didn't have to dwell on it, but it's a sword of Damocles as the editors do their dashing.

Maybe that could be the title of a revival: Dash it All!

[The Ol' Guy]

A vote for Every Second Counts. Rafferty was a great host, obviously having fun with the material. There was the vote earlier for Rafferty's version of Blockbusters. Personally didn't care for the computer generated board and the change in player setup, but loved both the new theme and how Bill would often riff on the question material, sometimes poking fun at the network. He's like Dennis Miller, surprising us with obscure comments and connections. Gone way too soon. 

[Stackertosh]

A vote for Every Second Counts. Rafferty was a great host, obviously having fun with the material. There was the vote earlier for Rafferty's version of Blockbusters. Personally didn't care for the computer generated board and the change in player setup, but loved both the new theme and how Bill would often riff on the question material, sometimes poking fun at the network. He's like Dennis Miller, surprising us with obscure comments and connections. Gone way too soon.

I agree with you, its a shame none of his shows never took off. I thought he was great on Card Sharks, I watch him over Bob Eubanks

[BrandonFG]

A vote for Every Second Counts.

With GSN unafraid of reviving obscure but fondly-remembered shows, this is one that fits their style perfectly. You could replace the married couples with simply pairs who know each other. Much as I liked the bonus round with all the prizes, they could just as easily do the standard $10K top prize, where completing a tier simply stops the clock a la America Says. While I have better ideas, I get that GSN has a template to follow.

[tvwxman]

Money Maze (which should come back in prime time)

You know what? I had never thought about it before, but in the wake of The Wall, The Quiz With Balls and their ilk, I could see this working. The only problem is that we'd now be treated to a 5-minute video blurb about how badly the couple needs the money and a 30-second "suspenseful" pause before revealing the value of every prize column.

Somehow somewhere someone is trying to turn "Perplexus" into a game show.

(I'd watch.)

(Once.)

[tvwxman]

Another vote for "Double Dare".  Didn't someone say recently that it was retuned as "The Spoilers" for a pilot? (I think some game play cards were found?)

Blockbusters should be on somewhere. And yes, I love the Big Showdown in terms of strategy.

Here's one I haven't read yet : "Knockout" .  Great little show.

[TLEberle]

Another vote for "Double Dare".  Didn't someone say recently that it was retuned as "The Spoilers" for a pilot? (I think some game play cards were found?)

Correct, sir!

I think there are tweaks to the game that could make it work as a daily half hour, maybe to focus completely on the Spoiler Minds, but the drip-drip-drip puzzle isn't exactly a lost art anymore.

It's something of a shame that Game Show Network, via Sony, has accrued so many different rights to formats and such, and they just sit, unused, so we can get more internally developed shows that tread familiar ground. Maybe we can get a game where players are shown the top card of a Euchre pack and have to guess whether the next one off the top will be red or black.

[BrandonFG]

Blockbusters should be on somewhere. And yes, I love the Big Showdown in terms of strategy.

Here's one I haven't read yet : "Knockout" .  Great little show.

It’s interesting how many examples I’ve seen listed in this thread that came and went in the US, but went on to varying degrees of success in the UK. Blockbusters and Knockout come to mind, along with Every Second Counts.

[GameShowFan]

My pick for this topic is “Sports On Tap.” They did two 13-week tournaments. I loved the entire format, and thought the concept of using a stepladder for finding the day’s winner was genius.

[tyshaun1]

I will throw "Wipeout" into the ring. Fun, simple, relatively low stakes game that they threw a ton of chrome on to make it look big budget. Another game that was much more successful overseas too.

[Jamey Greek]

This may be an unpopular choice, but I'm going to say Give-N-Take. I like the blend of trivia and pricing, and the setting in-the-round was unique for the era. I get why it didn't last, but I feel like it should've gotten another try in the mid-80s.

That would have been a good Lifetime original game show as a companion piece to Supermarket Sweep in the early 90s.

[Jamey Greek]

1. History IQ
2. TV Land Ultimate Fan Search
3. Wipeout
4. Couch Potatoes
5. GSN Pyramid

[Jamey Greek]

My list would definitely be Talk About, Greed, and the Mike Richards-hosted Pyramid on GSN.

Aren't they bringing Talk About back? The show is a great concept, but the end game could use a little work.

Greed was a great spin on the WWTBAM trend in the 2000s and it had decent payouts versus other trivia shows like Weakest Link.

And finally, the Richards-hosted Pyramid was actually pretty good. It was true to the original format, which has always been a good one.

bot to mention Mike Richards did a good job hosting. Bring a protege of Dick Clark's he sire did him proud.  Both Dick Clark and Bob Stewart would have been proud of that version along with the current one.