You mean it didn't originate as a game show?

[Jay Temple]

Obviously, charades existed before Celebrity Charades, Show-Offs and Body Language.  But I remember (when I was very young) learning that Concentration was a card game before it was a TV show.  I even asked about wild cards.  And I think people occasionally did the answer-and-question thing before J!.  (If nothing else, Steve Allen did it on the Tonight show before Johnny Carson did it as Carnac.)

Did anyone else learn that something in a game show didn't originate there?

[catkins522]

[quote name=\'Jay Temple\' date=\'Dec 13 2005, 12:25 PM\']Obviously, charades existed before Celebrity Charades, Show-Offs and Body Language.  But I remember (when I was very young) learning that Concentration was a card game before it was a TV show.  I even asked about wild cards.  And I think people occasionally did the answer-and-question thing before J!.  (If nothing else, Steve Allen did it on the Tonight show before Johnny Carson did it as Carnac.)

Did anyone else learn that something in a game show didn't originate there?

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[/quote]

Sure....Tic Tac Toe was similar to Tic Tac Dough, but with no questions.

Charles

[dzinkin]

[quote name=\'catkins522\' date=\'Dec 13 2005, 12:30 PM\'][quote name=\'Jay Temple\' date=\'Dec 13 2005, 12:25 PM\']
Did anyone else learn that something in a game show didn't originate there?

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[/quote]
Sure....Tic Tac Toe was similar to Tic Tac Dough, but with no questions.

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You actually knew about Tic Tac Dough before you knew about tic-tac-toe?

[tvrandywest]

[quote name=\'Jay Temple\' date=\'Dec 13 2005, 09:25 AM\']Did anyone else learn that something in a game show didn't originate there?

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Live long enough and you'll see everything recycled. My humble opinion is that every basic kind of game has been played in the thousands of years since cavemen (and sexy cavewomen - I love Wilma!) sat around playing. Nothing beats a little play time after inventing the wheel or discovering fire!

The creativity lies more in the adaptation and presentation for TV.

Looking back at when I was a kid in New York it seems like Mark Goodson and my father could have grown up together, in the sense that a lot of the games I learned as a kid were adapted. I played "Acey Deucy" which was cleverly embellished to Card Sharks. And we played "Concentration" with a deck of cards spread on a table, face down. Pick two that matched and you got them; no match, and you turn them face down again where they were, trying to remember what's where. All that was missing is that my dad never said "... and the board goes back" or do peanut butter commercials.


Randy
tvrandywest.com

[Jimmy Owen]

You might say Freud created Password and Al Capone gave them the title.

[Matt Ottinger]

An honest answer to the specific question posed by the original poster:

Growing up in a fairly conservative Southern Baptist household, I wasn't familiar with dice games.  I mean, Monopoly was OK growing up, but not craps, for example.  So when High Rollers premiered back in 1974 (I was 14), I saw it as a clever, original TV game without having any idea that the basic idea of the dice game had been around long before.

[tvrandywest]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Dec 13 2005, 10:46 AM\']... Growing up in a fairly conservative Southern Baptist household...

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In which case, please accept my apologies for my potty mouth when we speak!!!

I guess your mention of craps -> High Rollers helps to reinforce my theory that most basic games (cards, dice, trading, charades, tic-tac-toe, etc) had hundreds of years of history.

Thoughts on the theory?

Randy
tvrandywest.com

[chris319]

Some people took Merv Griffin's creation, Wheel of Fortune, and turned it into a clever parlor game called "Hangman".

Just wanted to see if y'all are paying attention.

[chris319]

we played "Concentration" with a deck of cards spread on a table, face down. Pick two that matched and you got them; no match, and you turn them face down again where they were, trying to remember what's where. All that was missing is that my dad never said "... and the board goes back"

If you could get a playing card to make that neat "CLONK-CLONK-WHIIIIIRRRRRRR-CLONK" sound, then there would have been no need to adapt Concentration to television, now would there? 8-O

[BrandonFG]

[quote name=\'Jay Temple\' date=\'Dec 13 2005, 12:25 PM\']Obviously, charades existed before Celebrity Charades, Show-Offs and Body Language.  But I remember (when I was very young) learning that Concentration was a card game before it was a TV show.  I even asked about wild cards.  And I think people occasionally did the answer-and-question thing before J!.  (If nothing else, Steve Allen did it on the Tonight show before Johnny Carson did it as Carnac.)

Did anyone else learn that something in a game show didn't originate there?

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[/quote]
I didn't realize Card Sharks was loosely based on Acey-Deucy. It's not a direct translation, the way Gambit is a direct interpretation of Blackjack, but it's close.

[DrBear]

Pyramids were often used by ancient Egyptians to keep dead people. Bob Stewart's genius was in removing the dead people and substituting categories.

More seriously, the title "match game" was used long before Gene Rayburn took over to describe a bar game where you would guess how many matches the other person was holding. Loser bought the drinks.

[tvrandywest]

[quote name=\'DrBear\' date=\'Dec 13 2005, 04:01 PM\']Pyramids were often used by ancient Egyptians to keep dead people. Bob Stewart's genius was in removing the dead people and substituting categories.

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LOL!
Actually Pyramid is also based on a game played for many years, called "Whatthefreakareyoutalkingabout?"

Randy
tvrandywest.com

[byrd62]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Dec 13 2005, 01:46 PM\']An honest answer to the specific question posed by the original poster:

Growing up in a fairly conservative Southern Baptist household, I wasn't familiar with dice games.  I mean, Monopoly was OK growing up, but not craps, for example.  So when High Rollers premiered back in 1974 (I was 14), I saw it as a clever, original TV game without having any idea that the basic idea of the dice game had been around long before.

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High Rollers might have been loosely based on a dice game called Shut the Box.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'byrd62\' date=\'Dec 13 2005, 10:59 PM\'][quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Dec 13 2005, 01:46 PM\']An honest answer to the specific question posed by the original poster:

Growing up in a fairly conservative Southern Baptist household, I wasn't familiar with dice games.  I mean, Monopoly was OK growing up, but not craps, for example.  So when High Rollers premiered back in 1974 (I was 14), I saw it as a clever, original TV game without having any idea that the basic idea of the dice game had been around long before.[/quote]
High Rollers might have been loosely based on a dice game called Shut the Box.[/quote]
Can I get a whoosh from the congregation?

[TLEberle]

Sing out, Brother Ottinger!

Looking back at the "game shows derived from board games," wasn't that how most game shows started?  Someone said "If you add a picture puzzle as the third layer, Concentration could be a game show!"  A boring question bee becomes a TV sensation with graded values, the chance to risk the lot at certain points. A boring question bee becomes mildly interesting if you add a tic-tac-toe board, slot machine, or $500 a point as the grand prize.  It all still goes back to board games.