Author Topic: Earliest Game Show Memory... (Read 26832 times)

Tim L · « **Reply #30 on:** March 17, 2007, 12:21:23 PM »

My earliest memory was the PrimeTime Price Is Right. It would have been on ABC by this time (1964-65..7 or 8 years old). I would take a stand or something to use as a "podium" and I would play "Bill Cullen" as we would use the Speigel catalog to play Price Is Right. I also would try to get home from school to see You Dont Say! and Match Game. When I was off school I watched the NBC shows from 10AM-1PM.Variably..It Takes Two, Snap Judgment, Eye Guess, Personality, Concentation, Hollywood Squares and Jeopardy!, Probably Sale Of the Century..I would also occasionally catch shows on ABC like Supermarket Sweep (1967), Dream House, Newlywed Game and Dating Game..

I would love to get any examples of the above names shows at some point..

KrisW73 · « **Reply #31 on:** March 17, 2007, 02:04:32 PM »

Double Dare 1976 with Trebek is my first memory that I can vividly recall, along with BtB 76...there was some little show named TPiR that was on at the time also

High Rollers 1978 was the first show I watched regularly- I always wanted a pair of those dice!

rebelwrest · « **Reply #32 on:** March 17, 2007, 02:32:33 PM »

I think my first memory of a game show would be Classic Concentration. However because of the USA game show block, I am not sure if this would be my earliest memory. It was someone playing the Winner's Big Money Game on $OTC. It had to be USA because it was on at dark, so it must have been the west coast feed (my grandparents had one of those huge satellite dishes, now its a large bird bath/swimming pool). Can anyone give me info on when USA was airing $OTC with the WBMG?

Robert Hutchinson · « **Reply #33 on:** March 17, 2007, 04:35:58 PM »

First, very hazy game show memory: The Joker's Wild when Bill was host. The memory was basically just the spinning wheels (during the bonus game) and the smiling guy with big glasses. It was years before I found out what the show was, and years after that before I found out that I wasn't just badly misremembering what Jack Barry looked like.

After that, I became an insanely devoted Wheel of Fortune acolyte at around age 4. I took great pride in impressing adults with my ability to actually solve the puzzles earlier than they could. The show also helped me stretch my math muscles--coming up with the $$$ remaining during the shopping segments before the cue card guy could, figuring out just how many letters each contestant needed in the speed-up round to win the game, etc.

I say all that not to brag, but just to point out that I was a really, really, REALLY nerdy 4-year-old. I've managed to drop one of those "really"s in the last 21 years. (But not the all-caps one.)

BrandonFG · « **Reply #34 on:** March 17, 2007, 04:41:57 PM »

[quote name=\'rebelwrest\' post=\'148513\' date=\'Mar 17 2007, 02:32 PM\']
Can anyone give me info on when USA was airing $OTC with the WBMG?
[/quote]
It aired between fall-92 and summer-94, but they went back and forth between the shopping, match board, and the Big Money game.

tpirfan28 · « **Reply #35 on:** March 17, 2007, 04:55:14 PM »

Press Your Luck, from the USA repeats. The trick to scare a three year old (enough to give them nightmares for YEARS...)...expose them to the whammy. Gawd...I didn't get over that fear for almost ten years. No joke...used Curt King's game to get over it.

tvwxman · « **Reply #36 on:** March 17, 2007, 05:11:57 PM »

[quote name=\'tpirfan28\' post=\'148523\' date=\'Mar 17 2007, 04:55 PM\']
Press Your Luck, from the USA repeats. The trick to scare a three year old (enough to give them nightmares for YEARS...)...expose them to the whammy. Gawd...I didn't get over that fear for almost ten years. No joke...used Curt King's game to get over it.
[/quote]
It's okay. I'm man enough now to admit that the Devil and the Dragon scared the hell out of me enough to not watch Joker or Tic Tac's bonus games.

Whew scared me too much as a 5 year old. It was on the first tape trade I ever did, eleven years ago (Thanks Chris Lambert for helping me confront my fears as an adult!).

The Pyramids · « **Reply #37 on:** March 17, 2007, 05:47:31 PM »

I believe at age four I said I wanted to be called 'Gene Rayburn' at the dinner table.

I addition to 'Match Game 75' I remember seeing on tv Bob Barker's entrance, the spinning 'Wheel of Fortune', the 'Hollyood Squares' board and the 'Tattletales' monitors. Also I had two great aunts that lived together. Every night they watched what I now know to be Moore & Garigiola 'TTTT'.

A few years later I much more clearly remember 'Family Feud'. I recall pointing out to others that 'nobody ever passes' & that Richard has the Fast Money answers on his card (or so I thought). Finally I liked when the syndicated show ran the complete credits. I could hear more of the theme then.

saussage · « **Reply #38 on:** March 17, 2007, 10:27:13 PM »

I was around 7 years old when I first noticed the nighttime tpir (around 1985 with Tom Kennedy). I never had the opportunity to watch the daytime tpir other than the odd time since they used to show it at 4:00pm on my local station and I never got back home until after 5:30pm. When they first showed the nighttime version, I thought "where's Bob"? Then, didn't care since I thought "ah, he's pretty good too".

I would lay on the shag carpet on my stomach in the living room. My dad would be watching too. I would then usually nod off for a while after the mid-point of TPIR since my neck would get still after a while.

Other than that, I always loved when a rain storm would come by and make many channels over the air crystal clear for a while. I'd then be excited to turn to channel 47 which would be a Buffalo station I wish would come clear (since I'm from Ontario, Canada, was hard to accomplish but usually did come clear for brief periods of time). I would then watch Perry's Card sharks reruns or I Dream of Jeannie/Bewitched (this would be in the late 80's I think). When the rain stopped and the antenna dried up, the channel would go fuzzy again.

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #39 on:** March 17, 2007, 11:07:33 PM »

Hugh Downs' Concentration from my playpen. It's something of a family legend. I have 8mm film of opening a Concentration home game as a Christmas present at age 4 1/2.

tomobrien · « **Reply #40 on:** March 17, 2007, 11:27:57 PM »

Two early black-and-white memories (I can't figure out which was first): Bob Clayton hosting "Make a Face," Steve Dunne's "Double Exposure."
First box game: "$64,000 Question."

dougal18 · « **Reply #41 on:** March 18, 2007, 03:09:07 AM »

It's a tie between Password ( I remember the flash noise signifying it is Lightning Round time) and Bob's Full House.

Johnissoevil · « **Reply #42 on:** March 18, 2007, 03:54:35 AM »

My earliest memory is TJW back when I was like, 3 or 4. Being that young, I always wanted the contestant to spin the devil in the bonus round. Same for TTD, I liked when they got the dragon. Don't worry, I didn't wish that fate on anyone once I was 5.

aaron sica · « **Reply #43 on:** March 18, 2007, 10:25:51 AM »

[quote name=\'KrisW73\' post=\'148510\' date=\'Mar 17 2007, 02:04 PM\']
High Rollers 1978 was the first show I watched regularly- I always wanted a pair of those dice!
[/quote]

Even though MG was the first game show I remember, at around age 4, I was totally fascinated by NBC's games - the wheel and puzzleboard on WoF, the big cards on CS, and the big dice on HR. I remember telling my mom I wanted some dice, too - imagine my disappointment when she said she had some and brought out a pair of the regular dice from a board game!

Mike Tennant · « **Reply #44 on:** March 18, 2007, 12:04:43 PM »

I was born in '71, when Bob Barker was still known as the host of Truth or Consequences. I'm pretty sure TorC was the first game show I saw very much because my dad liked it and I have very vague memories of it. I also know I was a Barkerphile practically from birth, which would seem to support this. The earliest one I remember watching very much is TPIR. I remember liking the Gauntlet of Villains on Whew! even though I, too, found them a bit frightening.

As far as home games go, my first was probably Concentration, which I vaguely remember from the Narz version (and, of course, remember CC with Trebek well). After that my next ones were P+ and FF.