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In your family, is everyone a game show fan, or just you?
When my parents came here from England in the 1950s, they sometimes watched game shows - they remember the quiz show scandals and were fans of shows like "$64,000 Question", "Twenty One" and "What's My Line". Over the years their interest waned and now they don't usually watch any game show, although they did get caught up in the "Millionaire" craze a little bit when it first started. I recently asked my father if he watched any of the Ken Jennings run, and he stated he wasn't interested in it.
As for my three sisters and their significant others, none of them are really into game shows either. They're more into the "reality" craze, such as "Survivor". Ken Jennings streak, or big winners on "Millionaire" don't really mean much to them.
My wife does like game shows and can watch GSN with me, and certain shows like "Press Your Luck", "Millionaire" or "Jeopardy", but if she misses them it's no big deal. In the early days of GSN, if I watched it too long she'd get a little tired of it after a while and want something else.
So I'm about the only one in my family who really likes game shows - which is a little bit disappointing.
Is your family similar, or are there other big game show fans in your family?
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I'm the only game show fan in my family, too.
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Mine was an inherited trait, mainly from my older relatives. I know my great-grandmother watched them during the day while looking after me (mid-to-late 80s). Grandfather, aunt, and uncle all love TPiR, and I think I got my mom watching some of the stuff on GSN (occasionally plays along with MG7x).
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My grandmother loved them (she is now deceased), My mom liked them but enjoys other programming more, my father, after being captivated by them pre-scandal now says "they're all fixed." and my 39 year old sister absolutely hates them, she doesn't even like "The Apprentice" and others of that ilk.
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Millionaire will always hold a special place in my heart as the first game show (that I wasn't involved in, anyhow) that my entire family would gather around the TV to watch.
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When I was growing up and Family Feud with Ray Combs was airing here in the evenings, my whole family would sit together and watch it. We'd enjoy playing along with the game and yelling answers out to "help" contestants who were stumped. We'd hardly ever miss it when it was in prime time.
During the summer as a kid, my grandparents would keep me when we were out of school. We'd never miss Family Feud or The Price is Right. It was a daily ritual.
These days as a married man, my wife will watch certain shows with me but I'm the big game show fan now. And I'm watching the original Family Feud shows for the first time. I guess the fun of game shows has always stuck with me. ...and it's still stuck with my family; they're just not as much into it as I am.
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Other than Millionaire & Wheel of Fortune, my parents aren't really that much into game shows except whenever I'm in the living room watching it. Lately though, they watched J! thanks in large part to Ken Jennings. My aunt Louise is visitimg us from Austraillia the past 3 weeks & she's a rabid game show freak for a while but now she's straying away from that so she can finish her months long continental tour which wraps up at the end of this month. My siblings use to watch them with me as kids but they've shyed away from them. My niece is more into cable shows & movies. That's the game show perspective from my side of the family.
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I'm the only "fan" left in the family, as opposed to casual watcher. When my paternal grandmother was still around, she did some nursing late at night to make ends meet. So she usually got up late morning or early afternoon, and when I was there we'd watch togeter. Too late in the day for the morning network stuff, but early enough to catch the CBN / USA stuff. It also helped that basic cable in the area carried Bullseye / TTD / TJW during prime time hours.
Nowadays, it's mostly my own hobby. My mom got into Lingo, which doesn't surprise me too much, since she also does the daily Jumble. But I'm really the only one who follows TV with any seriousness.
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Not that we're up at that hour, but my wife loves to watch the B&W oldies, especially WML. She says it reminds her how polite people used to be.
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In your family, is everyone a game show fan, or just you?
Excluding me, my grandmother's a huge fan of game shows. She truly enjoyed CS78 (didn't care too much for CS86), Pyramid (any flavor save for Davidson), and any show hosted by "Uncle Bill". She still watches J! and WoF (still to this day prefers Chuck and Susan over Pat and Vanna)
The deaths of my grandfather and Bill came within weeks of each other. A tough one to take.
My brother's not as big a fan -- but preferred Greed over WWTBAM. He even watched a full half-hour of Debt with me one winter's day (he called it "Tic Tac Debt" and "Need More Dough"). These days, you'll find him watching The Amazing Race.
In the '80s during breaks from school, lunches with Mom were spent watching Scrabble or SP (she was stunned to hear Bert Convy died). Family dinners usually revolved around FF -- whether it was Richard or Ray hosting.
That's about it.
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When I was little, my sister and the two youngest of my three brothers would form a "voting bloc" against me and my other brother. Therefore, while the three got to watch The Disney Channel (back when it was THE Disney Channel - we had a big sattelite dish in the backyard) in the mornings on the bigger color TV, my brother and I had to watch our game shows on a tiny B&W set. During afternoons, if there were any on, we would all watch together, but at night I often had to watch Wheel on that tiny B&W (this was back when Wheel was GOOD) while everyone else watched reruns of M*A*S*H or The Cosby Show.
BTW, during Scrabble's run, my brother sent an opening word-and-clue to the show, and received a T-shirt.
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Ah, game shows.
I am the only one who still likes game shows in my house. My parents were bigger fans in their early days (my mom's favorites were Match Game and Tattletales, dad was a Password fan), but now they don't watch at all. To them, it's just not the same as it was.
My grandmother and I used to watch game shows when I was a little kid (Sale Of The Century, The $25,000 Pyramid, Card Sharks, Scrabble, and of course TPIR). One show she would never let me watch when she was around was, ironically enough, the show which spawned my name here...Press Your Luck! She wasn't a fan of the show (still isn't), so I pretty much had to watch it when I was at home without Grandma around. She still watches The Price Is Right every morning (I know this because when I call her house between 11 and 12 I can hear that playing in the background).
Strange note: Mom and her aunt went to see a taping of Art Fleming's Jeopardy!, and they (mom, aunt, Art) had a conversation in between games where Art asked mom's aunt if she wanted to try out for the show (she declined).
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I give my grandmother (who died when I was 3) credit for first getting me into game shows. She loved Jeopardy! and Wheel, and got me hooked on them too. From there I discoved TPIR and Family Feud (Combs). I also have vague memories of watching Classic Concentration and the original Scrabble (when the latter was revived in 1993 it was appointment TV for me). And oh yeah, Carmen Sandiego. I probably would've watched Double Dare and the other Nick shows too, but I had a childhood without cable.
Getting back to the family aspect, I recently discovered that my uncle really enjoys game shows - probably not quite as much as I do, but he watches TPIR and checks what's on GSN whenever he's watching the tube (unless there's a sports game on). My great-uncle also enjoys game shows - he's like one of those stereotypical elderly folk who shout at the TV when watching Wheel. The rest of my family isn't really too much into game shows. My mother watched GSN a lot (especially Match Game) when Cablevision first picked it up, but I guess the novelty wore off for her.
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The story I wish I had told when I appeared on Jeopardy is that during the summer, when I'd be home from school and able to watch the old Art Fleming version, it was a rule at our house that I had to remember (couldn't write it down) the Final Jeopardy clue and quiz my father on it when he got home from work.
Also, to this day, seeing a 70's era TTTT reminds me of watching the show with my grandparents. It was their favorite game show, and pretty much required viewing each weeknight at 7pm.
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Growing up, I used to watch Jeopardy! with my dad. He could get on the show if he wanted to, but he hasn't tried out for the show in almost 2 decades. We also used to watch WBSM during its first few seasons. Dad's like me, a fan of quizzers.
The first person to get me interested in Jeopardy!, however, was my 5th grade teacher. Fifth grade for me coincided with the first Trebek season. My teacher did something similar to Matt's dad, where she'd quiz us the following day about the previous night's show.
As a kid, myself, my sister, and our cousins used to watch the USA lineup after school, with PYL being the favorite of my two youngest cousins and my sister. My eldest cousin preferred TJW 90. For some reason, he got a kick out of yelling "FIFTEEN! THIRTY-FIVE! JOKER!" every time the wheels spun. Needless to say, he's the black sheep of the family. ;-)
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[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Dec 5 2004, 02:23 PM\']In your family, is everyone a game show fan, or just you?
When my parents came here from England in the 1950s, they sometimes watched game shows - they remember the quiz show scandals and were fans of shows like "$64,000 Question", "Twenty One" and "What's My Line". Over the years their interest waned and now they don't usually watch any game show, although they did get caught up in the "Millionaire" craze a little bit when it first started. I recently asked my father if he watched any of the Ken Jennings run, and he stated he wasn't interested in it.
As for my three sisters and their significant others, none of them are really into game shows either. They're more into the "reality" craze, such as "Survivor". Ken Jennings streak, or big winners on "Millionaire" don't really mean much to them.
My wife does like game shows and can watch GSN with me, and certain shows like "Press Your Luck", "Millionaire" or "Jeopardy", but if she misses them it's no big deal. In the early days of GSN, if I watched it too long she'd get a little tired of it after a while and want something else.
So I'm about the only one in my family who really likes game shows - which is a little bit disappointing.
Is your family similar, or are there other big game show fans in your family?
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My parents were the ones who got me into game shows. I vaguely remember as a little child, they and my grandmother (still miss ya, grandma!) would watch TJW, TTD, Bowling For Dollars, Dating Game, Newlywed Game, Concentration, Bullseye, Play the Percentages, and Face the Music, Match Game PM, and Family Feud at night. During the day, from childhood all the way on, when I wasn't in school and/or they were off from work, we'd be watching Wheel of Fortune, The Price is Right, Password Plus, TTD, TJW (when both moved to WCBS), $25K Pyramid, Child's Play, Press Your Luck, Family Feud (Dawson and Combs), Now You See It (Henry), Card Sharks, and others. Imagine my parent's surprise in 1995, when my aunt in Florida first got a BUD, and we were watching Child's Play again. :-)
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[quote name=\'hmtriplecrown\' date=\'Dec 6 2004, 02:15 PM\']The first person to get me interested in Jeopardy!, however, was my 5th grade teacher. Fifth grade for me coincided with the first Trebek season. My teacher did something similar to Matt's dad, where she'd quiz us the following day about the previous night's show.
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Back in high school, during my Junior year, I took Spanish I, and every now and then, we'd play J! All clues were in Spanish, and we phrased our responses in the form of a question, en espanol, of course. ;-) Anyhow, imagine how weird I felt when I'd say "Quien es Billy Joel?" :-)
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[quote name=\'Johnissoevil\' date=\'Dec 6 2004, 02:36 PM\']Back in high school, during my Junior year, I took Spanish I, and every now and then, we'd play J! All clues were in Spanish, and we phrased our responses in the form of a question, en espanol, of course. ;-) Anyhow, imagine how weird I felt when I'd say "Quien es Billy Joel?" :-)[/quote]
Was the answer to that one "Who crash-oed his car-o into my house-o?" :-P
In 7th or 8th grade French, we were given a group project--take a TV theme song and add French lyrics to it. I went one step further, by playing the J! theme on my clarinet from memory.
Oh those kooky foreign language projects.
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In what some may consider TMI, when I was a kid, only the NBC affil came in clearly in my house so, whatever was on NBC was generally what we watched. Believe me, being forced to watch "Swingin' Country" at 12:30 was the pits. Around the late '60s, we got a TV that could pick up UHF, so we were able to watch the CBS station, but it was a struggle. In the early '70's we got a color TV which seemed to have a better antenna, because we could watch the ABC station too. We used to be sent home for lunch, and I have to admit that I strayed from game show viewing then, choosing "Bewitched" reruns over "Squares." Grilled cheese sandwiches and Elizabeth Montgomery, ahh the memories. I really got back into game shows 30 years ago when school was out for xmas and TBS and MM premiered (I was 14 at the time.) I have been a devoted follower since then.
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[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Dec 6 2004, 03:09 PM\']In what some may consider TMI, when I was a kid, only the NBC affil came in clearly in my house so, whatever was on NBC was generally what we watched. Believe me, being forced to watch "Swingin' Country" at 12:30 was the pits. Around the late '60s, we got a TV that could pick up UHF, so we were able to watch the CBS station, but it was a struggle. In the early '70's we got a color TV which seemed to have a better antenna, because we could watch the ABC station too. We used to be sent home for lunch, and I have to admit that I strayed from game show viewing then, choosing "Bewitched" reruns over "Squares." Grilled cheese sandwiches and Elizabeth Montgomery, ahh the memories. I really got back into game shows 30 years ago when school was out for xmas and TBS and MM premiered (I was 14 at the time.) I have been a devoted follower since then.
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I honestly don't recall if my parents were big game show watchers, But I have mentioned before about my early game show memories..On school days off and In the summers, I would watch the morning NBC Games like Concentration (Downs) Hollywood Squares. Fleming Jeopardy and Larry Blyden's Personality!, Snap Judgment, It Takes Two (Scully) Eye Guess and 3 On a Match (Bill Cullen I vaguely remember his TPIR on ABC..We used to play TPIR Using the Sears Catalog)..After School I would watch You Don't Say! and the Original Match Game. Sometimes I would watch Newlywed/Dating Game over on ABC.. Never saw CBS A Lot because the affiliate (WJW-8 Cleveland) Had a pretty weak signal to our area. Never saw The Original Password , WML? or IGAS until I saw GSN.
I Caught the Syndie G-T shows like WML? and TTTT On WEWS channel 5 in the early 1970's.
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My late father's game show preferences could be counted on one hand. As far as I know, he only watched What's My Line? with Mom (we kids were never allowed to except during the summers beginning in 1961 or 1962), and, surprisingly, he was really into the NBC Sunday night version of LMAD in 1967 (probably because it came on after Bonanza). I say surprisingly because, if it didn't have Lawrence Welk, Jackie Gleason, Walter Brennan or Guy Lombardo in it, or it didn't come from the CBS News department, it was all "junk" to him. When he had to endure a long hospital stay in the late '60s, he had little to do during the day but watch the game shows, and upon returning home he complained about the hosts who "were all teeth and mouth".
Besides WML? and nighttime LMAD (the daily show was opposite her then-fave soap, As The World Turns) , Mom didn't watch many games on her own in the '60s (she watches TPIR and WoF today).
My younger brother never really had any favorite games; he'd watch an occasional one and "Storybook Squares" on Saturdays in '68 (I think just to have an excuse just to make me watch "George Of The Jungle" on a BW set). By the '70s, he said of big cash prizes, "They probably don't give it to ya!" and dismissed the NTT contestants as "actors".
I was the only true GS fan growing up, but the affinity I once had in 1965-66 for "My Mother The Car" on NBC Tuesdays caused my brother and sister to pidgeonhole ALL my entertainment choices from then on as "stupid" regardless of their popularity. She watch *some* games fairly regularly, but when "The Newlywed Game" was scheduled by KMBC in KC at 9:30 AM opposite Concentration, she ALWAYS had to watch NG on the only working set we had then and delighted in my repeated failure to get to watch the show I favored.
My last chance ever to watch The (NBC) Match Game in 1969, by then kicked off the KC airwaves, was during the week of the moon landing when we vacationed in Florida. It lasted about 45 seconds, during which time I heard an angry, lowered "Grumble-grumble-mutter-mutter-GEEEEM!" from Dear Old Dad, who made me switch the hotel room TV to "The Galloping Gourmet" on another channel after barely being able to stomach my one chance that week to watch "It Takes Two".
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When I was little, my grandmother, a big TPIR fan, would watch me and we would watch TPIR together. It was a religion in our house. She even tried to send away for a TPIR t-shirt for me when I was four, but to no avail.
I'm the main GS fan in my house, although my dad likes to watch GSN occassionally, mainly for shows like Match Game and Family Feud, but I've gotten him to enjoy the old B&W shows as well.
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Dave, we had the same battles in our house, "Muppet Show" usually won against Bill's "Pyramid" Friday at 7:30 and I only saw glimpses of the 76 IGAS switching the channel during commercial breaks on "Happy Days." (my sis didn't care about the commercials). Funny thing, I can get my sis the Muppets and Happy Days on DVD now, but I have my doubts on a DVD Box on "Pyramid" and IGAS'76 for me.
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My grandma will watch TPiR with me sometimes whenever I am home to watch it, and my mom will too if she is home from work when I'm home from school. I really loved Wheel when I was little and my mom and dad would watch with me all the time, and my dad was a big fan of J! so we would watch together. My mom would also watch WWTBAM with me when it was first on.
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Yes, our whole family loved to watch the old Channel 11 shows at night, when they had "Beat The Clock" and "To Tell The Truth" on in primetime. So it was a family experience. Robair and I spent our entire teenage years wanting to be various hosts, contestants on various shows, etc.
My family today watches "Jeopardy" and "Wheel" rather religiously, and we also make sure we catch "Millionaire" when I get home from school.
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Ah, yes, the good 'ol days. I have been a big time game show fan since I was little, watching show ranging from "Seven Keys" to "Video Village"; from the original "Concentration" to the original "Let's Make a Deal". I have been nuts about game shows that I had hoped each show had a home version of the game. Today, I have a lot of old TV show games that bring back good memories. I wouldn't mind updating the question material on some of them so that these home games can be played today.
It's a shame that today we are only limited to one true network game show ("The Price is Right" on CBS), a handful of syndicated successes (of course "Jeopardy!" and "Wheel of Fortune", not to leave out "Millionaire" and "Family Feud") GSN and PAX to comfort us game show lovers.
I know that most gamers today are reality based, but that seems to be a dying breed, except for "Survivor", "Amazing Race" (The best of the bunch), and "The Apprentice". It's not like the days of "Three on a Match", "Personality", "Snap Judgment", "Get the Message" and "Whew", only to name a few, having to look forward to watching those shows during the summer between school years.
Hopefully one day new game shows will pop up, but not in the near future. For now, we just enjoy the ones on the air now and have fun trying to outguess the contestants, which makes game shows fun in the first place.
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My sister and my dad had a passing interest in the genre, and my mom had none at all, so I basically got hooked on game shows all my own...some of my first favorites were Dawson FF, TJW, TTD, and Pitfall.
Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")
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Dave, we had the same battles in our house, "Muppet Show" usually won against Bill's "Pyramid" Friday at 7:30 and I only saw glimpses of the 76 IGAS switching the channel during commercial breaks on "Happy Days."
We had similar battles in our house - at least between me and my sisters. One of the most memorable occured in the early '70s. We only had one color set, and I always wanted to watch "Beat the Clock" at 5:30, but it was opposite "Get Smart" reruns that my sisters always wanted to watch. Every other day we had to switch to the black and white set!
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Growing up, it seemed to me that my Mom had more of an interest in game shows... Dad never seemed to purposely sit down and watch a show, but if it wasn't up against anything he wanted to watch, he'd watch and wouldn't say anything.
(Granted, this doesn't explain why there was a '60s 'Concentration' game at his mother's house...)
I've always thought that my Mom introduced me to the flashing lights and bright colors that are (were) most game shows. I think she sat me down in front of the TV when I was 4 to watch 'Match Game' and that's where it started. I vaguely remember watching syndie 'Newlywed Game' and 'Family Feud' shows here and there. The neighbors used to watch 'TTTT 80'. My late grandfather used to sit down at the kitchen table with his beer and cheese and watch '$1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime' and syndie 'Wheel'. Of course, sickness and summers from school let me watch all the mid to late '80s games ('Price', 'Wheel', 'Sale of The Century', 'Super Password', 'Scrabble', 'Press Your Luck', 'Body Language', '$25,000 Pyramid'), but what helped my cement my addiction was my parents first VCR purchase in 1988 and I was the only one who knew how to program it (Thank god I saved a few tapes of 'Classic Concentration').
Josh
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Mother always watched "WML?" on Sunday nights, "IGAS" and "TTTT" most weeks and (if I can remember clearly) Groucho off and on. She initially loved "Password," but eventually got tired of what she considered Ludden being over-gushy with the celebs. Otherwise, she didn't care for them--although she did start watching "Wheel" when she held a lot of Coca-Cola stock back in the 80s and liked Sajak enough to religiously tape his late-night show. She may still watch "Wheel" and "J!", but otherwise she didn't like game shows and my father didn't care much for them, either. Which made me the odd one in the family. :)